Appendix to Augustine's Sermones: Sermones supposititii, Sermones 30-44

Sermon 30. On the censers.

1. The censers, the Scriptures. The bronze censers, the heretics'

sayings. The usefulness of heresies. The ambition of clerics is cut back. Just now, most beloved brethren, when the divine reading was being read, we heard that the Lord said to Moses that he should melt down the censers in which those proud and rebellious men had offered incense, and, when they had been drawn out into plates, fix them to the altar: so that they might be for a testimony of the rebellious and the proud. The censers, says the Lord, which have been sanctified in the deaths of sinners, make them into ductile plates, and surround the altar with them: because they were offered before the Lord, and they have been sanctified (Num. 16:37–38). By this figure, then, it seems to be shown that these censers, which Scripture calls bronze, hold the image of divine Scripture: and heretics, placing strange fire upon this Scripture, that is, introducing a perverse sense and an understanding foreign to God and contrary to the truth, offer to the Lord incense not sweet but accursed. If, then, we bring these bronze censers, that is, the utterances of heretics, to the altar of God, where the divine fire is, where the true preaching of the faith is, the truth itself will shine the better from comparison with falsehoods. For if, to give an example, I set out the sayings of the Arians or of the Manichaeans, or of any other heretics whatever, and refute them with the words of truth and the testimonies of the divine Scriptures, as with the fire of the divine altar, will not their impiety appear more evident from the very comparison? For if the doctrine of the Church were simple, and were not surrounded from outside by any assertions of heretical dogmas, our faith could not appear so clear and so well tested. But the attack of those who contradict besieges the catholic doctrine precisely so that our faith may not grow sluggish in idleness, but may be polished by many exercises. For this reason, indeed, the Apostle also said, But there must also be heresies, so that those who are approved may become manifest among you (1 Cor. 11:19). That is to say, the altar must be surrounded with the censers of heretics, so that the difference between the faithful and the unfaithful may become certain and manifest to all. For when the faith of the Church has begun to shine like gold, and its preaching has gleamed before those who behold it like silver tried in the fire, then the utterances of heretics will be soiled, with greater baseness and disgrace, by the cheapness of dull brass. We have said this about the censers of those who were condemned, which are ordered to be fixed to the altar, so that by comparison with the impious the just may appear more illustrious: and at the same time so that an example might be given to posterity, lest anyone, by the presumption of a proud spirit, should seize the office of the priesthood not given to him by God; but that he should give way to the one whom no human ambition, no corrupt favour has called in, nor a profane offering of gifts has put in place, but whom the consciousness of merits and the will of God has taken up. [What, then, those proud Levites suffered, who claimed the priesthood for themselves without the Lord commanding it, this is suffered by all who shamelessly try to thrust themselves into the office of the episcopate, or of the presbyterate, or of the diaconate, either by gifts or by flatteries. Just as those were burnt in the body, so these are burnt up in the heart.]

2. Aaron a type of Christ the Mediator. What the destroying Angel feared. Moses therefore urges the high priest to offer incense in the camp and to pray for the people. For already, he says, the people has begun to be laid waste. In the spirit Moses saw what was being done. [So Aaron went to offer incense for the people, and he stood between the living and the dead; and the fury of God was appeased] (Num. 16:46–48). If you have understood the order of the narrative, and have been able to see with your eyes, so to speak, the priest standing in the middle between the living and the dead, rise now

to the loftier summits of this word, and see how the true High Priest Jesus Christ, having taken up the censer of human flesh, and having placed upon it the fire of the altar, without doubt that magnificent soul with which He was born in the flesh, and having added also the incense, which is the immaculate spirit, stood between the living and the dead, and did not permit death to rage any further: but, as the Apostle says, He destroyed him who had the dominion of death, that is, the devil (Heb. 2:14); and whoever believes in this High Priest Christ, let him no longer die, but live for ever. This, then, was the mystery, which was to come afterwards, that the angel who was laying waste the people dreaded even then. For he recognized the figure of the censer, and of the fire, and of the incense; and he foresaw what sort of victim was to be offered to God by Him who was to be established between the dead and the living: and those people, indeed, the prefiguring image saved at that time, but to us the very truth of salvation has come. For that destroying angel would not have been abashed at the vestments of the high priest woven of purple and wool and fine linen: but he understood these things that were to be the vestments of our Lord and Saviour, the singular and great High Priest; and he yielded to them, to which indeed the whole creation was inferior.

3. Who are the living and who the dead on the day of judgement. But I think that this very pattern was fulfilled not only at the first coming of our Lord and Saviour, but that the same will perhaps be kept at the second as well. For the Son of Man will come again; and when He comes, He will without doubt find some dead and others living. In this place those are not unfittingly understood as dead who, through the excess of their crimes, are shown to be dead in their sins, and as living those who have persevered in the works of life. Nevertheless, in whichever sense it is taken, this great High Priest and our Saviour will stand in the future also between the living and the dead. But then too He may perhaps be said to stand between the living and the dead, when He sets the sheep on the right and the goats on the left, and says to those who are on the right: Come, blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the origin of the world. But to those who are on the left He will say, Go into the eternal fire, workers of iniquity, which My Father has prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:34, 41), because I do not know you. And indeed those are dead who are sent into the eternal fire, while those are living who are sent to the kingdom. To which kingdom may the gracious Lord deign in His kindness to lead you, to Whom be honour and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 31. On the rod of Aaron.

1. The rod belongs to princes. Every prince of a tribe of the people has a rod. For no one can rule a people unless he has a rod. Hence also Paul the apostle, because he was a prince of the people, therefore said: What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in charity and the spirit of meekness (1 Cor. 4:21)? So all the princes of the tribes must have their rods. But there is one alone, as Scripture says (that true High Priest whose figure the priest Aaron bore. His rod, therefore, budded. For as the rod of Aaron budded among the people of the Jews, so the cross of Christ flowered among the people of the Gentiles). But since, as we have often shown, Christ is the true High Priest, He alone is the one whose rod of the cross not only budded but also flowered, and displayed the fruits of all the believing peoples.

2. An allegorical comparison of the nut with the Law. But what is this fruit which it bore? Almonds, it says: almonds, brethren, are nuts. This fruit is bitter in its first covering; by the next it is fortified and protected; by the third it feeds and nourishes the one who takes it. Such, therefore,

is in the Church of Christ, the teaching of the Law and the Prophets. The first face of the letter is bitter enough, which commands circumcision of the flesh, which gives instructions about sacrifices, and the other things that are signified by the letter that kills. All these, like the bitter rind of the nut, cast away. In the second place you will come to the protective coverings, in which either moral teaching or the principle of continence is signified: these are indeed necessary for guarding the things that are kept within; yet without doubt they must at some time be broken and dissolved. As if, for example, we were to say that abstinence from foods and chastisement of the body is without doubt necessary as long as we are in this corruptible and passible body; but when, death supervening, it has been broken and dissolved, and at the time of the resurrection has been rendered incorruptible from corruptible, and spiritual from animal, then no longer by the labour of affliction, nor by the chastisement of abstinence, but by its own quality, no corruption will any longer have dominion over the body. So therefore now too [as the harder shell of the nut] the principle of abstinence seems necessary, and afterwards not to be sought. But in the third place you will find, hidden [as in the nut], the secret sense of the mysteries of the wisdom and knowledge of God, by which holy souls are nourished and fed, not only in the present life but also in the future. For this is the pontifical fruit, of which promise is made to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, that they shall be filled (Matt. 5:6). In this way therefore the principle of this threefold mystery runs through all the Scriptures. So too Wisdom admonishes that we describe it to ourselves threefold in the heart: To answer, it says, the word of truth to those who have put questions to us (Prov. 22:20–21). For since the priestly mystery is the rod of the nut-tree, I think that for this reason Jeremiah too, who was one of the priests from Anathoth, saw a nut rod and prophesied concerning it the things which are written, whether about the nut rod or about the kettle or pot set on fire (Jer. 1:1, 11–13): as if he were showing by these things that in the nut rod there is life, and in the kindled kettle there is death. For life and death are set before our face: and life indeed is Christ in the mystery of the nut, while death is the devil in the figure of the kindled kettle. If therefore you sin, you will place your portion with the kindled pot; but if you act justly, your portion will be made in the nut rod with the great high priest. Moreover in the Song of Songs too the bride is said to go down into the garden of nuts (Song 6:10), where likewise, together with the nuts, she is described as having found in a certain manner an abundance of priestly fruits.

3. The liberality of God. Attend carefully, brethren, how God promised one thing that would come about in the rod, and gave many. It is true, brethren: our Lord did a thing according to His custom. For He always grants greater things than He promises. And it shall be, He says, that whatever man I choose, his rod shall sprout. This alone is what God promised, that the rod of him whom He should choose would sprout. But when it comes to the event, so that what was promised is shown to be fulfilled, it is not said that only that one thing which had been promised was brought about; but see how many things are added. For Scripture says, Behold, the rod of Aaron has sprouted in the house of Levi. This without doubt is that one thing which had been promised. But other things too are added, and it is said, And it put forth leaves, and brought forth flowers, and produced nuts (Num. 17:5, 8). Since therefore the promise had concerned only the sprouting, see how much God bestows: that it produced not only a sprout but also leaves; and not only leaves but also flowers; and not only flowers but also fruit.

4. A figure of the resurrection, and four prerogatives. Let us see, then, what it is that we can gather and contemplate from these things. First of all, we plainly recognize in them the mystery of the resurrection from the dead. For the dry rod sprouts when the extinguished body begins to revive. But what are these four things which will be bestowed on the body that rises again? That what is sown