Appendix to Augustine's Sermones: Sermones supposititii, Sermones 2-15

The withered breasts, which the loss of their drawn-off moisture had slackened into empty bags, are swollen with the abundance of a milky spring. She becomes a mother in her breast, she becomes a mother in childbirth: she becomes, I say, a mother who by her age had been a grandmother. Faith gave new fires to aged vitals. Thus Isaac is born of believing, so that their faith may be recounted in their offspring for ever. Amen.

Sermon IV. On the cow, the ram or the she-goat of three years, and also the turtle-dove and the dove. Gen. 15:9-17.

1. The carnal and the spiritual signified in Abraham's sacrifice. We have heard, dearest brothers, the Scripture saying: "The Lord spoke to Abram, saying, Take for Me a cow of three years, and a she-goat of three years, and a ram of three years, also a turtle-dove and a dove. And he, taking all these, divided them through the middle, and placed both parts facing each other on either side; but the birds he did not divide. And birds came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. And when the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and a great and dark horror came upon him. When therefore the sun had set, there came a dark mist, and there appeared a smoking furnace, and a lamp of fire passing between those divided parts. What these things signify, then, brothers, we desire to convey briefly to the ears of Your Charity, so far as the Lord shall grant. Blessed Abraham was called by the Lord the father of many nations. For all the nations who believe and will believe in Christ are sons of Abraham by imitating his faith, not by being born according to the flesh. For just as the Jews, having become degenerate through unbelief, have been called in the Gospel, instead of sons of Abraham, sons of the devil and a brood of vipers; so on the contrary all the nations who faithfully believe in Christ have merited to be made sons of Abraham. The cow of three years, then, and the ram of three years, and the she-goat of three years, and the turtle-dove or the dove, displayed a figure of all the nations. And they are said to be of three years because all the nations were to believe in the mystery of the Trinity. And because the whole Catholic Church has not only the spiritual but has also the carnal: although some say that they believe in the Trinity, yet they are carnal, because they neglect to avoid crimes and sins: since therefore together with the carnal there are also the spiritual, for this reason the turtle-dove and the dove were added. In the turtle-dove and the dove the spiritual can be signified, as in those three animals the carnal [can] be understood.

2. In the Catholic Church the carnal are set against one another, not the spiritual. Pay careful attention, then, for Abraham is said to have divided those three animals into two parts and to have set them facing one another. The birds, Scripture says, he did not divide. Why is this, brothers? Because in the Catholic Church the carnal are divided; the spiritual are not divided at all, and, as Scripture says, they are set out facing one another. Why are the carnal both divided and set against one another? Because all the dissolute and the lovers of the world do not cease to have divisions and scandals against one another. These, then, are divided, because they oppose one another: but the birds, that is, the spiritual, are not divided. Why are the spiritual not divided? Because they have one heart and one soul towards God; in them there is one willing and not willing. For they are like those birds of which we spoke above, namely the turtle-dove or the dove. In the turtle-dove chastity is designated, in the dove simplicity. For all in the Catholic Church who fear God are marked out as being both chaste and simple, and they can say with the Psalmist, Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest (Ps. 54:7)? And again, The turtle-dove has found herself a nest, where she may lay her young (Ps. 83:4). And when the carnal, who can be divided, are weighed down in the world by the heavy fetters of vices, the spiritual are lifted up by the wings of various virtues into

the heights, and by two wings, as it were, namely by the two commandments, by loving God and neighbour, they are lifted up into heaven, and with the Apostle they can say, But our conversation is in heaven (Phil. 3:20); and as often as the priest says, Lift up your hearts, they say securely and faithfully that they hold them up to God; which very few and rare people in the Church can say confidently and with truth. For this reason, then, Abraham did not divide the birds, because the spiritual, who, as I have said, have one heart and one soul, cannot be divided and separated from the love of God or of neighbour; but with the Apostle they cry out, Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution? And the rest that follows, up to what is said, Nor shall any other creature be able to separate us from the charity of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:35–39)? The spiritual, therefore, are not separated from Christ even by torments; but the carnal are sometimes separated even by idle tales. The former not even the cruel sword separates; the latter carnal affection separates. Not even hard things break the spiritual; even soft things corrupt the carnal. Abraham therefore divided those animals into two parts; but the birds he did not divide.

3. A figure of the Last Judgement.—But when the sun had set, a deep sleep, it says, fell upon Abraham, and a great and exceedingly dark horror: and there appeared a burning and smoking furnace, and a lamp of fire passing between those divisions. See, brethren, that this fire is said to pass between those divisions, but it is not read that it also touched the turtle-dove and the dove. That evening signified the end of the world: those animals, as we have already said, displayed a type of all the nations believing in Christ. These nations, however, as has already been said, because they have within them not only carnal but also spiritual people, that is, not only bad but also good ones, therefore those animals were divided, and the fire passed through them, according to what the Apostle says, For the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire (1 Cor. 3:13). That burning and smoking furnace and the lamp of fire prefigured the day of judgement, and therefore fear and dark horror fell upon blessed Abraham. Whence we understand that if on the day of judgement the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the sinner and the ungodly appear (1 Pet. 4:18)? The burning and smoking furnace therefore signified the day of judgement: the day, I say, of judgement, on which there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, on which there will be wailing, and lamentation, and belated repentance; when the foundations of the mountains will be moved, and the earth will burn down to the lower regions beneath: when, as blessed Peter says, The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, the elements shall melt with the heat of fire (2 Pet. 3:12): when, as the Lord Himself says in the Gospel, even the Powers of the heavens shall be shaken: when the sun shall be darkened, when the moon also shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven (Matt. 24:29). Where will the ungodly then see themselves? Where will the adulterers, where the drunkards, where the slanderers recognize themselves? Where will the lovers of luxury, where the robbers, where the proud and envious appear? What will the unhappy ones say in their own defence, whom that day will have found so often warned and yet unprepared? When at that trumpet of the Archangel, clearer than every horn, the whole world together begins to bellow, when, as the prophet says, the Lord comes to make the world a desert (Isa. 14:17), and to destroy the sinners out of it: when, as Scripture says, the sinners and the ungodly shall be cast into the pool of fire, and the smoke of their torments shall ascend for ever and ever (Rev. 14:10–11). What trembling, what gloom, what darkness will then seize all the guilty, the negligent and the lukewarm? Lest, then, we too come into that torment of the soul, let us wake up while there is time for amendment, and let us seek the will of our Lord as good and useful servants: so that when that day of judgement, which that burning and smoking furnace signified, fearful and greatly to be dreaded even by the good, shall have come, we may not be tormented in hell with avenging flames together with the mortals whom those animals prefigured, who can be divided by the various strivings of pleasures; but the simplicity of the dove

and the chastity of the turtle-dove displaying, may be raised up to heaven on the spiritual wings of the virtues, according to that which the Apostle says: Together, he says, we shall be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:16): by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom is honour and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 5. On the three men who appeared to blessed Abraham. Gen. 18.

1. In the reading of Scripture one must not attend to the letter alone. I have often admonished your Charity, most beloved brothers, that in these readings which are recited in the Church in these days we ought not to attend only to what we recognize the letter to sound, but, with the veil of the letter removed, we should faithfully seek the life-giving Spirit. For thus the Apostle says: The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Cor. 3:6). Indeed the unhappy Jews, and the more unhappy heretics, while they look only at the sound of the letter, have remained dead without the life-giving Spirit, like a body without a soul. Let us listen to the Apostle saying that all these things happened to them in figure; but they were written for our sake (1 Cor. 10:11). Let us see, then, what it is that we heard just now when the divine reading was being read.

2. Lot far inferior to Abraham.—God appeared, it says, to Abraham, as he was sitting at the door of his tent, by the holm-oak of Mamre. Behold, it says, three men stood over him, and he went out to meet him. Attend, brothers, and see how God appeared to Abraham, and how He appeared to Lot. To Abraham three come, and they stand over him; to Lot two come, and they sit in the street (Gen. 19:1–2). See, brothers, whether things are not done according to merits by the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. For Lot was far inferior to Abraham. For had he not been inferior, he would not have deserved to be separated from blessed Abraham, nor would dwelling among the Sodomites have pleased him. So three men come to Abraham at midday; two came to Lot, and they come in the evening: for Lot could not bear the greatness of the midday light; but Abraham was able to receive the full brightness of the light.

3. A commendation of hospitality. Now let us see how Abraham, and how Lot, received those who came. Abraham went ahead and ran to meet them. And when he had run to meet them, he hastens to the tent and says to his wife: Make haste, he says, and knead three measures of fine flour, and make loaves baked under the ashes, which in Greek is called enkryphias, signifying, that is, hidden and concealed loaves. And Abraham himself ran to the herd and took a calf. What kind of calf? Perhaps whichever could be the first to come his way? It is not so; but a good and tender calf. So he took the calf and gave it to the servant: Servant, he says, make haste to prepare it. See, brothers, attend with what fervent spirit you ought to receive guests. Behold, Abraham himself runs, his wife hastens, the servant hurries. No one is idle in the house of the wise man. Behold, the duties of hospitality of Abraham and Sarah are equal. Lot indeed received them; but only two, and not the whole Trinity, nor at midday, but towards evening. And what did he set before them? He baked, it says, unleavened bread, and they ate. And because he was in merits much inferior to Abraham, he neither had a fatted calf, nor recognized the mystery of the Trinity in three measures of fine flour: yet because he offered with a kindly spirit at least what he could, he deserved to be delivered from the destruction of the Sodomites. Attend, brothers, that Lot too, in not driving away guests, deserved to receive Angels. Behold, Angels enter the hospitable house; the houses closed to guests are burnt up with sulphurous flames.

4. Abraham recognized the mystery of the Trinity. The washing of feet. So three men came to Abraham, and stood over him. See what this very thing means, that they come over him, not against him. He had subjected himself to the will of God; and therefore God is said to stand over him. They stood, it says, over him; not against him to repel him, but over him to protect him. He received three men, he sets before them loaves from three measures. Why this, brothers, unless because he understands the mystery of the Trinity? He sets before them also a calf, a calf which is not tough, but good and tender. And what is so tender, what so good, as He who humbled Himself for us even unto death? He is that fatted calf which the father slaughters for the penitent son received back. For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son (John 3:16). So Abraham runs to meet three, and worships one. Now in that he saw three, as has already been said, he understood the mystery of the Trinity; but in that he worshipped as if one, he recognized that there is one God in three persons. He speaks to one, saying, Turn aside to Thy servant. He adds also, as if speaking to men, I will take, he says, water, and let your feet be washed. Learn, brothers, from blessed Abraham to receive guests gladly, to wash their feet with humility and devotion. Wash, I say, the feet of holy pilgrims, lest perhaps there remain on them dust which they could shake off their feet unto your judgement. For thus He said in the Gospel: Whoever does not receive you, going out shake off the dust from your feet. Amen I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of the Sodomites on the day of judgement than for that city (Matt. 10:14–15). This therefore Abraham foresaw in spirit; and therefore he wished to anticipate it and wash their feet, lest perhaps some dust should remain which, shaken off as a testimony of unbelief, could be kept for the day of judgement. That is why the wise Abraham says, I will take water, and let your feet be washed. Listen carefully to this, brothers, you who are unwilling to practise hospitality, who receive a guest as though an enemy. Behold, blessed Abraham, while he eagerly received men, merited by the consideration of hospitality to receive God Himself. This too Christ confirmed in the Gospel, saying: I was a stranger, and you received Me (Matt. 25:35). Do not therefore neglect pilgrims, lest perhaps he whom you have not received be Christ Himself.

5. It continues on the same subject. Where, however, did this take place? At the holm-oak of Mamre, which in the Latin tongue is interpreted vision, or perspicacity. Do you see what kind of place it is in which the Lord can hold a banquet? For the vision and perspicacity of Abraham delighted Him. For he was pure in heart, so that he could see God. In such a place, therefore, and in such a heart the Lord can hold a banquet. Of this vision the Lord spoke in the Gospel to the Jews, saying: Abraham rejoiced to see My day; he saw it and was glad (John 8:56). My day, He says, he saw; because he recognized the mystery of the Trinity. He saw the Father as day, the Son as day, the Holy Spirit as day, and in these three one day: just as the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and these three are one God. For each of the persons singly is full God, and all three together are one God. For by those three measures of fine flour too, on account of the unity of substance, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are not unfittingly understood. This, however, can also be taken in another way, so that we understand Sarah as the Church, and the three measures of fine flour as faith, hope and charity. For in these three virtues all the fruits of the Church are contained. Whoever has merited to have these three in himself can securely receive the whole Trinity to the banquet of his heart.

6. How God's descending is to be understood. After this the Lord said to Abraham, The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah has gone up to Me: I have come down therefore to see whether the report which has come to Me is fulfilled in deed; or whether it is not so, that I may know. These are the words of Scripture; let us see what in them is worthy to be understood. I have come down, He says, to see. When answers are given to Abraham, God is not said to come down, but to stand over him: but now, because the cause of sinners is being dealt with, to descend