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

in corruption, may rise in incorruption; and what was sown in weakness, may rise in power; and what was sown in dishonour, may rise in glory; and what was sown an animal body, may rise again a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:42–44). These are the four things which the dry rod of our body will put forth in the resurrection. But let us return to what we had begun to say about the rod.

5. Four stages of the spiritual life are foreshadowed. We can further understand in this way the differences among the things that had budded on the rod. Everyone who believes in Christ first dies, and after this is reborn. And there is a figure of this too, in that the dry rod afterwards buds. So the first bud is a man's first confession in Christ. Secondly it puts forth leaves, when the one reborn has received the gift of grace from the sanctification of the Spirit of God. Then it brings forth flowers, when he has begun to make progress, and to be adorned with sweetness of conduct, and to pour out the fragrance of mercy and kindness. Lastly it also brings forth fruits of righteousness, by which not only may he himself live, but may also furnish life to others. And when he has come to perfection, and has brought forth from himself the word of faith, the word of the knowledge of God, and has gained others [by his teaching], this is to have borne fruits by which others are nourished. Thus, then, each and every one of the believers buds from the rod of Aaron, which is Christ. These four differences of theirs are designated in other places of Scripture as it were four ages, which John the apostle comprised in his Epistle by a mystical distinction. For he says: I have written to you, children; and, I have written to you, adolescents; and, I have written to you, young men; and, I have written to you, fathers (1 John 2:12–14). In these he certainly sets forth not bodily ages but differences of spiritual progress, as we observed to be signified also in this budding of the priestly rod.

6. The one Christ is flower and rod, different to different people. All these things, then, are found not so much in the rod of Aaron as in that rod which came forth from the root of Jesse, and in the flower which rose up from his root, upon which the Spirit of God rested (Isa. 11:1–2). In this not even this detail seems idle, that the rod is said to come forth and the flower to rise up. For though Christ is one in substance, yet He becomes different to each, according as the one who is at work has need. So for him who is more sluggish and more negligent, Christ becomes a rod for discipline; and as a rod He is said not to rise up but to come forth. For he who is useless and slothful must come forth from that state in which he does not stand rightly, and pass over to another state as if by the compulsion of a rod, that is, by severity, by the admonition of a stricter teaching. But he who is righteous, since the righteous flourishes like the palm (Ps. 91:13), in him Christ is said to rise up. So then to him who needs blows, He comes forth as a rod; but for him who advances towards righteousness, He rises up into a flower. And He rises up until he bears the fruits of the Spirit, which are charity, joy, peace, patience and the remaining virtues (Gal. 5:22–23), in Christ Jesus our Lord, Who lives and reigns for all ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 32. On the bronze serpent and on the rod of Moses.

1. The bronze serpent a figure of the Incarnation. Death from biting. The devil raged against Adam as if justly, against Christ unjustly. Christ paid off Adam's debt. In the reading which has been recited to us, dearest brethren, we heard that at that time when, because of the pride of the Jews and their murmuring against the Lord, the people were being laid waste in the desert by serpents called kinglets, that is, basilisks, the Lord commanded Moses that a serpent

of bronze he should make, and hang it upon a wooden pole, so that those who had been struck, by looking at it, might be healed from destruction (Num. 21:4–9). This serpent, dearly beloved brethren, although this may seem quite astonishing, nevertheless prefigured the incarnation of the Lord. This signification might perhaps have seemed harsh to someone, had not the Lord Himself said this in His Gospel. For thus He says: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up (John 3:14). The bronze serpent, then, was hung at that time upon a pole, because Christ was to be hung upon the wood. For then whoever had been struck by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent and was healed; but now the human race, which had been struck by the spiritual serpent, the devil, looks at Christ by believing, and is healed. Whoever had been struck and had not seen that bronze serpent died; so it is, brethren: unless each one believes in Christ crucified, he is destroyed by the venom of the devil. For then each one looked at a dead serpent, so that he might escape alive; but now whoever wishes to avoid the venom of the devil, let him look at Christ crucified. And since death (mors) took its name from bite (morsus), and had befallen the human race through the bite of the ancient serpent, and death could not be overcome except by death, therefore Christ underwent death, so that an unjust death might overcome a just death, and might justly set free the guilty, while He was unjustly slain for them. For whatever the devil had exercised against Adam, he seemed to have done as if justly against a man who had sold himself for the delight of a single tree. In Adam, therefore, as in his own slave, he claimed by right lordship for himself as master; but in the passion of Christ, in Whom he found no stain of sin, he committed all evils unjustly. So also the Lord Himself said in the Gospel: Behold, the prince of this world comes, and in Me he finds nothing (John 14:30). What is "he finds nothing"? No sin at all. And in the Psalms: What I did not seize, He says, I then paid back (Ps. 68:5). What Adam therefore owed justly, Christ paid in full by unjustly undergoing death. The one stretched out his hand to the sweetness of the fruits; the Other, to the bitterness of the cross: the one showed the tree of death; the Other, that of salvation: the one raised himself up against God, and fell; Christ humbled Himself, that He might raise up all: Adam brought death upon all, and Christ restored life to all. Each one, then, looked towards the bronze serpent, and was healed from the venomous serpents. The bronze serpent, placed upon the wood, overcame the venoms of the living serpents; and Christ, hung upon the cross and dead, restrained the ancient venoms of the devil, and set free all who had been struck by him.

2. Why the serpent was of bronze, not of gold or silver. Let us see, however, why that serpent was made not of gold, not of silver, but of bronze. It seems to me that this can have two significations: one on account of durability, because bronze vessels are wont to last longer; the other on account of clarity of sound, for among all metals bronze vessels are wont to give a greater ring and to sound farther. The doctrine was able not only to become known in the one nation of the Jews, but to reach through the whole world by the clear sound of saving preaching: therefore that serpent is made of bronze, so that the doctrine of Christ may be preached more clearly in the whole world; according to what is written of the Apostles: Their sound went forth into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Ps. 18:5).

3. Let those who have been struck by the venoms of the Devil look faithfully to Christ. And yet, brethren, even according to the teaching of bodily physicians, by whom wholesome antidotes against the venoms of living serpents are prepared from the death of a serpent, it is not unfitting that he who desires to be freed from the venoms of living serpents should look upon a dead serpent. All these things, therefore, we have said for this purpose: that whomever the venoms of the serpent, that is, of the devil and his angels, have struck, they may look faithfully to Christ, Who in the likeness of that bronze [serpent] was hung upon the wood, so that with the blessed apostle Paul to say

they may be able: But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal. 6:14).

4. The mysteries of the cross in the rod of Moses. And since it is both sweet and wholesome to speak at greater length about the mystery of the blessed cross, we shall briefly, if you so bid, convey its remaining significations to the ears of Your Charity. For what can be thought or said that is sweeter, what more pleasant, than the mystery of the holy cross, through which we have merited not only to be called back from the underworld, but also to be raised up into the heavens? For we are confident that where we believe without any doubt that Christ our head has ascended, His members will follow. The shadow, too, or the figures of the wood of the cross were of very great power in the Old Testament as well. Moses performed no sign without the sacrament of the wood. For in order to work signs and wonders in Egypt, he received a rod from the Lord, and for whatever signs he heard from God, it was said to him: Raise up your rod (Exod. 7:9). God certainly did not need the help of a rod; but it was lifted up so that we might know how great was that mystery of the wood to come, of which the sacrament of that rod had been a figure in shadow. For instance, if the Red Sea is to be divided, Moses is ordered to raise up the rod; and the sea, recognizing the figure of the wood to come, at once opens an unaccustomed path to the people (Exod. 14:16–22). If they come to the bitter water of Marah, it does not grow sweet unless it has received wood into itself (Exod. 15:25). This was a sign that the bitterness of the Gentiles was at some time to be turned to the use of sweetness through the wood of the cross. And if the people have no water to drink, the rock is struck with wood, and it gives through grace what it had not had by nature. If Amalek, a savage enemy, comes against them, Jesus [Joshua] son of Nave is ordered to hold the rod in his hand, and Moses to stretch out his arms in the form of a cross; and thus through the figure of the cross the unconquerable enemy is conquered (Exod. 17). Nor was Elisha entirely ignorant of the power of this mystical wood, who, when an axe-head had slipped from its handle into the deep water, called it up from the depth by casting wood into the river (4 Kgs. 6:5–7); signifying, surely, that the hard hearts and iron necks of men, brought up out of the depth of error, were thereafter to be subdued by the wood of the cross. O cross, from which so great and such fruit is plucked! Now the fruit of the cross is the resurrection of glory. This fruit of this tree has truly been planted beside the running waters; for Baptism is always joined to the cross. This tree has given fruit in its season; it has given fruit meanwhile in the resurrection of the Lord; and it will give it also when He appears from the heavens Who was seen upon the earth, when, with the very sign of the cross now shining going before Him, He comes from on high: then the bodies of the buried will rise again, then the saints will exult in glory, then they will rejoice in their beds who now are not put to shame by the cross of their King and Lord, but rather glory in it.

Sermon 33. On Balaam and Balak.

1. Introduction. The reading which has been recited to us today, dearest brethren, says that the sons of Israel set out and pitched camp to the west of Moab beside the Jordan opposite Jericho, and Balak son of Zippor saw, and all the rest which the narrative, full of business, writes about Balaam and the ass (Num. 22). But the inner understanding is much more laborious; and I do not know whether it is easy even to explain the historical statements alone: yet, God granting, we shall briefly touch on what we can.

2. Balaam a magician rather than a prophet. This Balaam was most famous in the magic art, and very powerful in harmful incantations. For he did not have the power or art of words for blessing, but he had it for cursing. For demons are invited to curse, not to bless. And therefore, as one experienced in such things, he was in repute among all who were in

the East. For unless very many proofs of his [power] had gone before, in that he had often turned back an armed enemy by curses, the king would surely not have presumed that this could be accomplished by words which could scarcely be achieved by sword and battle line. Balak, then, being certain of this and having often tested it, set aside all the instruments and aids of war and sends envoys to him, saying: Come now, curse for me this people, for it is stronger than we: perhaps we may be able to strike some of them and cast them out of the land. And he added: I know, he says, that those whom you bless will be blessed, and those whom you curse will be cursed. I do not believe that the king knew that those whom he blessed would be blessed; but it seems to me that he says these things for the sake of flattery, so that by praising and extolling his art he might make him readier for the crime. But at length the envoys come to Balaam. For there came, it says, the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian, and the instruments of divination in their hands. Balaam, therefore, having received the instruments of divination, when the demons were accustomed to come to him, saw, the demons indeed having been put to flight, that the Lord was present. He came, then, to Balaam: not because he was worthy that God should come to him, but so that those might be put to flight who had been accustomed to be present with him for cursing and doing harm. And God said to Balaam: Do not go with them, nor curse the people; for it is blessed. God forbids Balaam to go and to invoke demons for cursing: if only he had ceased from greed. But because he persists in the desire for money, God, indulging the freedom of his will, permitted him to go again. Balaam therefore mounts the she-ass: there meets him the angel who kept watch on behalf of Israel, of whom it is written, the Lord saying to Moses: My angel will go with you (Exod. 32:34). To him, then, as he insists on going, it is granted: on the way he is crushed by the she-ass. But the magician sees demons, he does not see the angel; yet the she-ass sees: not because she was worthy to see the angel, just as she was not worthy to speak either; but so that Balaam might be refuted and, as Scripture says in a certain place, the dumb animal answering with a human voice might rebuke the prophet's madness (2 Pet. 2:16). This she-ass, that is, the Church, formerly carried Balaam, but now Christ, ever since she was loosed by the disciples and released from the bonds by which she had been tied, so that the Son of God might sit upon her and with her enter the holy city of Jerusalem; and that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says, Rejoice, daughter of Zion: behold, your king comes to you, meek, sitting upon a beast of burden (Matt. 21:5), that is, a she-ass. By the she-ass he doubtless means believers from among the Jews; and by the young colt, surely those who are from among the Gentiles, believing in Christ.

3. Of what Balaam and Balak are figures. This Balaam, whose name is interpreted Vain People, seems to me to bear the person of the scribes and Pharisees of the Jewish people. Balak, on the other hand, whose name is interpreted Exclusion or Devouring, is himself also to be understood as bearing the person of some one hostile power of this world, which desires to exclude and devour Israel. First of all, then, let us inquire concerning Balaam himself why in the Scriptures he is at one time blameworthy, at another set forth as praiseworthy. For he is blameworthy when he builds altars and places victims upon them for demons, and with magical apparatus demands divine counsels; he is culpable when he gives the most wicked counsel, that the people be led astray through the Midianite women and the worship of idols. Again he is shown to be praiseworthy when the word of the Lord is placed in his mouth, when the Spirit of God comes upon him, when he prophesies of Christ, when he proclaims to Jews and Gentiles the future mysteries of the coming of Christ, when instead of curses he bestows blessings on the people, and with mystical utterances exalts the name of Israel above visible glory.

4. Peroration. Let these few things out of very many, dearest brethren, spoken to you as time allows, suffice; but retain them all most diligently in your heart, and turn your hearts always to the recognition of spiritual things: so that, since the Lord has now revealed all prophecy to us through the Gospel, we may be found worthy to attain to that joy which