Augustine, Sermones 146-153 (Classis I, de Scripturis)

makes for Himself a house, He makes for Himself a temple, in which He may deign to dwell: and assuredly He wills His temple to remain holy. So to a consecrated virgin who marries it can be said, as Peter said concerning the money: Your virginity, while it remained, did it not remain yours, and before you vowed it, was it not in your power? But whatever women have done this, have vowed such things and not rendered them, let them not suppose that they are punished with temporal deaths, but that they are condemned to eternal fire.

Sermon 149. In which questions proposed from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 10, and from the Gospel are resolved; or, on four questions: the first, on the vision of Peter. The second, on the words of the Gospel, Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds, etc. And a little after, Take care not to do your righteousness before men, in order to be seen by them, etc. The third, on the words of the Gospel, Let your left hand not know what your right hand is doing. The fourth, on the love of an enemy. (Matt. 5:16; 6:1–4; and 5:43–48.)

Chapter I. — 1. The questions to be resolved: the first question, on the vision of Peter. Before the last Lord's day, I remember, I became a debtor to Your Holiness for certain questions proposed from the Scriptures. Now, so far as the Lord deigns to grant, it is the time for paying, so that we may owe no longer, except charity alone, which is always paid and always owed. Concerning the vision of Peter we had said that it must be asked what that vessel means, like a linen sheet let down from heaven by four cords, in which were all the four-footed creatures of the earth, and creeping things, and the birds of heaven; and what was said to Peter by the divine voice, Kill and eat; and that it was done three times and taken up.

Chapter II. — 2. Gluttony was not commanded to Peter. Against those, indeed, who think that gluttony was commanded to Peter by the Lord God, it is easy to argue. First, because even if we choose to take literally what was said, Kill and eat: it is not killing and eating that is sin, but using immoderately the gifts of God which He has granted for the uses of man.

3. The Jews' abstinence from unclean animals was figurative. For the Jews had received certain animals which they were to eat, and certain from which they were to abstain: that they received this as a sign of things to come, the apostle Paul makes plain, saying: Let no one therefore judge you in food, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbaths, which is a shadow of things to come (Col. 2:16–17). Accordingly, now in the times of the Church, he says in another

passage: All things are clean to the clean, but it is evil for the man who eats with offence (Titus 1:15, and Rom. 14:20). For there were those who, at the time when the Apostle was writing these things, ate meats to the offence of certain weak ones. For the sacrificial flesh of the cattle which the soothsayers sacrificed was then sold in the market, and many brethren kept themselves from eating meats, lest even unknowingly they should come upon those meats of which a sacrifice had been made to idols. Hence in another place the same apostle, so that conscience should not tremble with fear, says: Whatever is sold in the market, eat, asking nothing for the sake of conscience. For the earth is the Lord's, and its fullness. And again: But if any of the unbelievers invites you, and you wish to go, eat all things that are set before you, judging nothing for the sake of conscience. But if anyone says to you, This is sacrificial, do not eat, for the sake of him who pointed it out, and for the sake of conscience (1 Cor. 10:25–28). Everything therefore in these matters, whether clean or unclean, is established not in the touching of flesh, but in the purity or in the stain of conscience.

Chapter III. — 4. The animals forbidden to the Jews are signs. The cloven hoof. Rumination. Hence a licence has been given to Christians which has not been given to the Jews. For all the animals which the Jews are forbidden to eat are signs of things and, as has been said, shadows of things to come. Just as that circumcision, which they bore in the flesh and repudiated in the heart, signifies the circumcision of the heart, so too those foods are precepts of mysteries and signs of things to come. As, for instance, what is written for them, that they should eat those animals which chew the cud and have a cloven hoof, but those which lack either both or one of these they should not eat (Deut. 14): certain men are signified who do not belong to the fellowship of the saints. For the cloven hoof pertains to morals, but rumination to wisdom. Why does the cloven hoof pertain to morals? Because it slips with difficulty. For slipping is a sign of sin. And how does rumination pertain to the teaching of wisdom? Because Scripture has said, A desirable treasure rests in the mouth of the wise, but the foolish man gulps it down (Prov. 21:20, according to the Septuagint). Whoever therefore hears and through negligence becomes forgetful, as it were gulps down what he has heard, so that it no longer has any savour in his mouth, burying the hearing itself in forgetfulness. But whoever meditates on the law of the Lord day and night, as it were chews the cud, and on a kind of palate of the heart, so to speak, delights in the savour of the word. This, therefore, which was commanded to the Jews signifies that those do not belong to the Church, that is, to the body of Christ, to the grace and fellowship of the saints, who either are negligent hearers, or have bad morals, or are reproached for both faults.

Chapter IV. — 5. Why the precepts of Jewish observances are read by Christians. So the other precepts that were given to the Jews in this manner are shadowy significations of things to come. Since the light of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ, has come, they are read only in order to be understood, not also in order to be observed. A licence has therefore been given to Christians not to act according to this empty custom, but to eat what they wish,

with moderation, with blessing, with thanksgiving. Perhaps, then, it was said to Peter too in this way, Kill, and eat; so that he would no longer keep the observances of the Jews: yet a gulf of a belly, as it were, and foul voracity were not commanded him.

Chapter V. — 6. Peter's vision figurative. The vessel. The four cords. But yet, so that you may understand that this was shown in a figure, there were creeping things in that vessel. Could he possibly eat serpents? What then does this signification mean? That vessel signifies the Church: the four cords by which it hung down, the four parts of the world, through which the Catholic Church is extended, which is spread abroad everywhere. Whoever, therefore, chooses to go off into a part, and to be cut away from the whole, does not belong to the mystery of the four cords. And if he does not belong to the vision of Peter, neither does he belong to the keys which were given to Peter. For God says that His saints are gathered from the four winds at the end (Matt. 24:31): because now through all these four quarters the faith of the Gospel is spread wide. Those animals, then, are the Gentiles. For all the Gentiles, which were unclean in their errors and superstitions and lusts before Christ came, were made clean at His coming, their sins being forgiven them. Hence now, after the remission of sins, why should they not be received into the body of Christ, which is the Church of God, whose person Peter bore?

Chapter VI. — 7. Peter bears the person of the Church. For in many places of the Scriptures it appears that Peter bears the person of the Church; above all in that place where it is said, To you I hand over the keys of the kingdom of the heavens. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven (Matt. 16:19). Did Peter receive these keys, and Paul not receive them? Did Peter receive them, and John and James not receive them, and the other Apostles? Or are these keys not in the Church, where sins are forgiven daily? But since in signification Peter bore the person of the Church, what was given to him alone was given to the Church. Therefore Peter bore the figure of the Church; the Church is the body of Christ. Let it therefore now receive the cleansed Gentiles, whose sins have been forgiven; for this reason Cornelius, a Gentile man, had sent to him, and those who were Gentiles with him. This man's alms, having been accepted, had cleansed him in a certain measure: it remained that, like clean food, he should be incorporated into the Church, that is, into the body of the Lord. But Peter was afraid to hand on the Gospel to the Gentiles: because those who had believed from the circumcision forbade the Apostles to hand on the Christian faith to the uncircumcised; and they said that these ought not to come to a share in the Gospel unless they had received circumcision, which had been handed down to their fathers.

Chapter VII. — 8. The reception of the Gentiles within the Church. That vessel, therefore, removed this hesitation: and so after that vision he was admonished by the Holy Spirit to go down and go with those who had come from Cornelius, and he set out. For Cornelius and those who were with him were regarded as being, so to speak, of those animals which had been shown in the vessel: whom, however, God had already cleansed,

because He had accepted their alms from that source. They were therefore to be killed and eaten, that is, so that the former life in them, in which they had not known Christ, should be slain, and that they should pass into His body, as into the new life of the fellowship of the Church. For Peter himself too, when he had come to them, briefly recounted what had been shown to him in that vision. For he says: You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to join himself to a foreigner or to approach him; but God has shown me that I should call no man common or unclean. This God certainly showed then, when that voice sounded: What God has cleansed, do not call unclean. And afterwards, coming to the brethren at Jerusalem, when certain men were in an uproar because the Gospel was being delivered to the Gentiles, in checking their agitation he recounted that very vision as well (Acts 11): which would not have needed to be recounted unless it pertained to the same understanding.

Chapter VIII. — 9. The linen cloth. Perhaps this too may be asked: why it was a linen cloth in which those animals were. Certainly not without reason. For we know that the moth does not consume linen, though it spoils other garments. Let each one shut out from his heart the corruptions of evil desires, and so be established incorruptibly in faith, that he may not be penetrated by depraved thoughts as by moths, if he wishes to belong to the mystery of that linen cloth by which the Church is figured.

Chapter IX. — 10. The threefold letting down. Why was it let down from heaven three times? Because all the Gentiles themselves, which belong to the four parts of the world, throughout which the Church is spread abroad, which the four cords by which that vessel was held together signified, are baptized in the name of the Trinity. Believers are renewed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, so that they may belong to the fellowship and communion of the saints. The four cords, then, and the threefold letting down also show the twelvefold number of the Apostles: as though three were assigned to each of the four. For four times three makes twelve. Enough, I think, has been said about that vision.

Chapter X. — 11. The second question, from the Gospel. Another question had been put off by us: why the Lord, in the very sermon which He held on the mount, said to His disciples: Let your works shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father, Who is in heaven. And a little later in that same sermon He says: Beware of doing your righteousness before men, in order to be seen by them; and: Let your alms be in secret, and your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you. The one who does good works often wavers between these two precepts and does not know which to obey, since he certainly wishes to obey the Lord, Who commanded both. How shall our works shine before men, that they may see our good deeds; and how, again, shall our alms be in secret? If I choose to observe this, I stumble against that; if I observe that, I sin on this side. Therefore each passage of Scripture must be so balanced that the divine precepts may be shown to be incapable of being contrary to one another. For this conflict which appears in the words seeks the peace of the one who understands.

Let each one have concord with the word of God in his heart, and there is no discord in Scripture.

Chapter XI. — 12. Discord through the wrong interpretation of passages. The virgins not carrying oil. Picture, then, a man giving alms in such a way that no one at all knows of it, if that can be done, not even the one to whom it is given; so that, avoiding even his eyes, he rather sets down something for him to find than holds out something for him to take. What more can he do to hide his alms? This man certainly runs foul of that saying, and does not do what the Lord says: Let your works shine before men, that they may see your good deeds [Matt. 5:16]. No one sees his good deeds; he invites no one to imitate them. The rest will be barren, as far as it lies with him, while they think that what God has commanded is done by no one, if men act in such a way that their good works are not seen; whereas greater mercy is shown to the one before whom an example for good imitation is set than to the one to whom food for refreshing the body is held out. Picture another man fanning and flaunting his alms before the people, wanting nothing else in them but to be praised: his works shine before men. You see that he does not run foul of that precept; but he runs foul of the other, in which the Lord says: Let your alms be in secret [Matt. 6:4]. Whoever is such a man even grows sluggish if there appear some ungodly people who perhaps find fault with what he does. He hangs on the tongue of those who praise him: but he is like the virgins who do not carry oil with them. For you know of the five foolish virgins, who did not carry oil with them; and the others, the wise, who carried oil with them. The lamps of all were shining; but the one group did not have with them that by which to feed the light, and they were distinguished from those who did have it in such a way that the former were called foolish, the latter wise (Matt. 25:1–13). What, then, is it to carry oil with oneself, if not to have the consciousness of pleasing God by good works, and not to set the end of one's joy in this, that men praise, who cannot see the conscience? For that he does it, a man can see; but with what mind he does it, God sees.

Chapter XII. — 13. Passages contrary in appearance are reconciled. Let us, then, picture someone keeping both precepts, obedient to both. He holds out bread to the hungry, and he holds it out in the presence of those whom he wishes to make his imitators; imitating also the Apostle, who says: Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ (1 Cor. 4:16 and 11:1). He holds out bread to the poor man, then, open in the work, devout in the heart. Whether he seeks his own praise there or the glory of God, no man sees, no man judges; but yet those who are ready with goodwill to imitate believe that what they see done well is also done with a devout mind; and they praise God, by Whose precept and gift they see such things done. His work, then, appears, so that men may see and glorify the Father Who is in heaven; but its disposition itself is in the heart, so that his alms may be in secret, and the Father Who sees in secret may repay him. This man has kept the measure that he ought, a despiser of neither precept, but the fulfiller of both. For he took care that his righteousness should not be done before men, that is, that he should not have his end in this, that he be praised by men, since not himself,

but he wanted God to be praised in his good work. And because that will is within, in the conscience itself, that almsgiving has been done in secret, so that He to Whom nothing is hidden may repay. For who can show his heart to men when he acts, so as to display with what intention of mind he acts?

Chapter XIII. — 14. The true sense of each passage is drawn out of Christ's own words. For the words themselves too, brethren, were spoken by the Lord with careful deliberation. Attend to how He speaks: Beware of doing your righteousness before men, in order to be seen, He says, by them. If He set the end there, where He said, in order to be seen by them, that end is reprehensible and blameworthy: to want to do good only as far as the praise of men, and to seek nothing further from it. Whoever, then, acts only so that he may be seen by men is reproved by the Lord in this saying. But there, where He commands our good deeds to be seen, He did not set the end at this, that men should merely see a man and praise a man: rather He passes on to the glory of God, so that the intention of the one who acts may be carried right through to that. Let your works shine, He says, before men, that they may see your good deeds: but this is not what you ought to seek. What then? He adds and says: and may glorify, He says, your Father Who is in heaven. If you seek this, that God be glorified, do not fear being seen by men. Even so your almsgiving is within, in secret, where He alone Whose glory you seek sees you seeking this. Hence the apostle Paul, after he was cast down as a persecutor of the Gospel and raised up as a preacher, says: "But I was unknown by face to the churches of Judaea which were in Christ. They had only heard that he who once persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once laid waste; and in me, he says, they magnified God." He did not rejoice because the man who had received was recognized, but because God, Who had given, was praised. For he himself said: If I were still pleasing men, I would not be the servant of Christ (Gal. 1:22, 23, 24, 10). And yet in another place he says: Just as I too please all men in all things. And this is a similar question. But what does he add? Not seeking, he says, what profits me, but what profits the many, that they may be saved (1 Cor. 10:33). This is what he says in that place, And in me they magnified God; which the Lord also says, That they may glorify your Father Who is in heaven. For they are saved when, in the works which they see done through men, they glorify Him from Whom men have received these things.

Chapter XIV. — 15. The third question, from the Gospel: that the left hand should not know the work of the right. Two questions remain: but I fear I may be a burden to those already weary, and likewise I fear I may defraud those still hungry. Yet I remember what I have paid and what I owe. For it remains to see what is meant by, Let not your left hand know what your right hand does; and, concerning love of an enemy, why licence seemed to have been given to the ancients to hate their enemies, whom we are commanded to love. But what am I to do? If I discuss these matters briefly, perhaps I shall not be understood as I ought; if at greater length, I fear I may weigh you down more with the burden of the sermon than relieve you with the fruit of the exposition. But certainly, if you have understood less than is enough, still hold me as a debtor,

so that these things may be discussed more fully at another time. Yet now they ought not to be left in such a way that nothing at all is said about them. The left hand is the carnal desire of the mind, the right hand is the spiritual charity of the mind. If therefore, when anyone gives alms, he mixes in a desire for temporal advantages, so as to acquire something of that kind by that work, he mixes the knowledge of the left hand into the works of the right. But if he helps a man with simple charity and a pure conscience before God, looking to nothing else than to please Him Who commands these things, the left hand does not know what the right hand does.

Chapter XV. — 16. The fourth question, on the love and hatred of an enemy. But concerning the love of an enemy the question is more difficult, and it cannot be solved with such brevity. But when you hear, pray for us; and perhaps the Lord God will soon give what we think to be difficult. For we live from one granary, since we are in one household. What therefore we think to be very far within, in a hidden place, perhaps He Himself Who promises places on the threshold, so that it can most easily be given to those who ask. The Lord Christ Himself loved His enemies: for hanging on the cross He said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34). Stephen followed His example when stones were being thrown at him; and he said: Lord, do not lay this sin against them (Acts 7:59). The servant imitated the Lord, so that none of the servants may be sluggish and think that this was done which could be done by the Lord alone. If therefore it is a great thing for us to imitate the Lord, let us imitate our fellow servant. For we have all been called to the same grace. Why then was it said to those of old, You shall love your neighbour, and you shall hate your enemy? Because perhaps it was said truly to them too; but to us more openly, according to the dispensation of the times, through the presence of Him Who saw what was to be either covered or opened to whom. For if we have an enemy whom we are never commanded to love, and he is the devil: You shall love your neighbour, that is man; and you shall hate your enemy, that is the devil. But since enmities often arise in men themselves, in the minds of those who through unbelief give place to the devil and become his vessels, so that he works in the children of unbelief; yet it can happen that a man abandons his malice and is converted to the Lord; and while he still rages, while he still persecutes, he is to be loved, and prayed for, and done good to: thus you will fulfil both the first precept, that you love your neighbour, man, and hate your enemy, the devil; and the second, that you love your enemies, men, and pray for those who persecute you.

Chapter XVI. — 17. One must pray for persecutors. Unless perhaps you think that the Christians did not pray at that time for Saul, the persecutor of the Christians. Perhaps it was for his conversion that that voice of the martyr Stephen was heard. For he was in that number of his persecutors, and he kept the garments of those who stoned him (Acts 7:57). The same man, too, writing to Timothy, says: "I beseech first of all that there be made supplications, adorations, intercessions, thanksgivings, for all men, for kings and all who are in high station, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life" (1 Tim. 2,