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

the Lord has promised to those who live piously and justly; with the help of Him Who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 34. That by the just judgement of God the children of Israel received the land of promise, the Canaanites having been driven out.

1. The Canaanites justly driven from their lands. In the readings which have been recited to us, dearest brethren, we have heard that, Moses having died, Jesus [i.e. Joshua] took up the leadership, and, the Jordan having been crossed and the Canaanites driven out or slain, handed over their lands to the children of Israel to be possessed (Josh. 1, etc.). Whenever these readings from the Old Testament are recited, dearest brethren, the pagans, and above all the most unclean Manichaeans, are accustomed to blaspheme with sacrilegious mouth and to say: What justice of God was it, that He should take the children of Israel by violence out of the land of Egypt, and afterwards, the nations of the Canaanites having been driven out, should hand over their lands to them to be possessed? Therefore, lest perhaps this profane muttering deceive any of the simple or unlearned, I desire, as far as I can, briefly, with God's help, to show to your Holiness the most true reason handed down by the ancient Fathers; and to show that our God is not only merciful but also just, and that His judgements are for the most part hidden, yet never unjust.

2. The first reason, an unjust possession. The second reason, grave guilt. Our forebears hand down that, when the sons of Noah divided the whole earth among themselves, this land which is called that of the Canaanites fell, in the division of the world, into the possession of the elder son of Noah, that is, Shem, and he possessed it for no short time; but afterwards the peoples of the Canaanites, growing in number (descended, of course, from that son of Noah, Ham, who had been cursed by his father), came to those places; and, having by violence driven out their brethren, that is, the sons of Shem, they possessed their land in barbarous fashion. And since blessed Abraham is read to have been of the race of Shem, his sons, that is, the peoples of the Israelites, did not overrun a land belonging to others when the Lord handed it over, but received back their own, which their fathers had lost through violence. And since the Canaanites, besides that sin, that they had seized a possession belonging to others, were committing many wicked and unheard-of crimes; so much so that when the Lord was about to overthrow Sodom and Gomorrah, He is read to have said, For the iniquities of the Amorites are not yet complete (Gen. 15:16): and the Lord was waiting either for them to be converted and do penance; or at least, if they would not be converted, heaping crimes upon crimes and filling up the measure of sinning, that they should undergo the most just sentence of God. Since, then, the divine judgement found them guilty on two counts, in that they had both seized lands belonging to others and afterwards had committed wicked deeds and unheard-of crimes, they are punished by a just judgement, and the possession of their ancient fathers is restored to the Israelite people. And these things indeed according to the letter, as we find in the books of the saints, we have thought should be conveyed to your Charity in a rustic and simple discourse, which all could understand; so that you may have something to answer to the most unclean and sacrilegious Manichaeans. Since, then, as has already been said, the children of Israel receive back the land of their ancient parents, they do not, as it were, take away by injustice a land belonging to others.

3 The land of promise, men before sin. To the virtues belongs the native possession of the heart. And these things indeed, according to the letter, are related to have been done by the just judgement of God. But since, as the Apostle says, All things happened to them in figure; but they were written for our sake, upon whom the ends of the ages have come (1 Cor. 10:11): what these things also signify spiritually, if diligently, as with God

inspiring you have been accustomed to do, you pay attention, you will recognize by most evident reasoning. We were the land of promise, which God so often calls flowing with milk and honey, before Adam sinned, when there was nothing else in us than what the mercy of the Creator had bestowed. But after we all sinned in Adam, concerning whom the Apostle says, All die in Adam (1 Cor. 15:22); and again, From one, all unto condemnation (Rom. 5:16, 18), through the transgression of the first man the Canaanites had begun to possess the land of promise. For the will of the Lord had by nature assigned the possession of our heart not to vices but to virtues. But after the transgression of Adam, as the vices grew insolent, the holy virtues were driven out, like the Canaanite peoples, from their own region, that is, from the understanding or rational mind, and the vices remained. But when by the grace of God the possession of our soul has been restored to the virtues again, we shall seem not so much to have occupied the lands of others as to have recovered our own. For when, with the Lord's help, the vices have been overcome by the people of virtues fighting against them, the place which the spirit of concupiscence or fornication held for itself in our heart chastity will thenceforth occupy; that which fury seized, wisdom will possess; that which sadness working death had invaded, a saving joy full of gladness will hold; that which the lukewarmness of sloth or of negligence laid waste, humility will make honourable; that which covetousness had darkened, mercy will call back to its former brightness; that which envy had struck with its poison, kindly simplicity will adorn. Thus, each of the vices having been expelled, the virtues on the contrary will possess their places, that is, the affections. Yet these virtues are not undeservedly called the sons of Israel, that is, of the soul that sees God; and when, with God's help, they have expelled all the passions of their heart, they are to be believed not so much to have seized the possessions of others as to have recovered their own lands.

4. It is recovered only through Jesus, and after the crossing of the Jordan, that is, Baptism. And notice this too, brethren, which is recognized as pertaining especially to the gift of grace. For [it is] not through the good of nature, nor through the Law of the letter: because not through Moses, that is, through the Law of the Old Testament, but through Jesus [i.e. Joshua], the successor of Moses, the land of promise is restored to the Israelite people. For so the Apostle too says: The Law, he says, brought nothing to perfection (Heb. 7:19). Not through the letter of the Law, but through evangelical grace, the cruel and most wicked nations, that is, original sins or actual crimes, could be put to flight from the land of promise, that is, from the hearts of Christians, with Jesus leading; as He Himself says in the Gospel, No one can enter the house of the strong man and plunder his vessels unless he first binds the strong man (Matt. 12:29); and again, Have confidence, I have conquered the world (John 16:33). For just as the old Adam by consenting to the devil shut us out from the land of promise, so on the contrary the new Adam, Christ, by resisting the devil, has called us back to our ancient homeland.

5. The same argument is treated. And attend to this, brethren: that the land of promise is not received unless first, with Jesus [i.e. Joshua] reigning, the river Jordan is crossed. So it is, brethren: for one comes to the spiritual land of promise, that is, to a pure conscience, only through the sacrament of Baptism. For through that very river Jesus [i.e. Joshua] made the Israelite people cross, [the river] which afterwards the true Jesus consecrated by His Baptism.

6. Adversity is to be borne with equanimity. These things, then, which we have suggested to you, dearest brethren, ruminate spiritually like clean animals. It is written, therefore, Those whom God loves He rebukes and chastises (Rev. 3:19); and, The furnace tests the potter's vessels, and the trial of tribulation just men (Ecclus. 27:6). As often as, with the Lord dispensing,

we are allowed to be afflicted, or endure some adversities contrary to justice, let us bear them patiently and with equanimity, with the Lord's help, on account of what the Apostle says: The sufferings of this time are not worthy [to be compared] with the future glory which will be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18). When we are afflicted, we are corrected by the Lord, so that we may not be condemned with this world (1 Cor. 11:32). We ought rather to be afraid if we suffer either no tribulations or small ones in this world: for if God scourges every son whom He receives, without doubt the one whom He does not scourge He does not receive. If men endure with an even mind such great labours and such grave dangers for earthly goods, why are we sluggish for the faith, an eternal treasure? Why are we fearful for those riches which not even shipwrecks can take from us? For the just man, though shipwrecked, comes away rich and naked. Holy Job was full of these riches. Nothing had remained in his house; all the things by which a little before he had seemed wealthy perished at one stroke: suddenly a beggar, he sits on the dunghill, swarming with worms from head to feet. What is more miserable than this misery? What is happier than the inner happiness? He had lost all those things which God had given; but he had Him who had given all things, God. Naked, he says, I came out of my mother's womb, naked I shall return to the earth. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has been done: blessed be the name of the Lord for ever. Certainly he is poor, certainly he has nothing. If nothing remained, from what treasure are these gems of the praise of God brought forth? Afterwards the tempter approached the flesh: having taken everything away, he left the tempting wife. He left Eve, but that man was not Adam. And how was he found there? How did he answer his wife when she suggested blasphemy? You have spoken, he says, like one of the foolish women. If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, why should we not endure evil things (Job 1 and 2)? O man rotten and whole! O foul and beautiful! O wounded and sound! O sitting on the dunghill, and reigning in heaven! If we love [him], let us imitate [him]: that we may imitate [him], let us labour. He who proclaimed the contest helps the one who contends. God does not watch you contending in the contest as the people watch a charioteer. For the people know how to shout; they do not know how to help: they can prepare a crown of hay; they cannot supply strength. For it is man, not God. And perhaps while it watches, it labours more by sitting than he does by wrestling. When God watches His contestants, He helps them when they call upon Him. For the voice of that very athlete is in the Psalm: If I said, My foot is moved, Thy mercy, O Lord, helped me (Ps. 93:18). Let us not therefore be sluggish, my brothers; let us seek, let us ask and let us knock. He who seeks finds; he who asks receives, and to him who knocks it will be opened (Luke 11:10); by the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom is honour and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

Sermon 35. On the fact that Jesus [i.e. Joshua] commanded the people to be ready to cross the Jordan; and on the overthrow of the walls of Jericho.

1. Moses a figure of the Law. Jesus [i.e. Joshua] a figure of the true Jesus. Faith in the Trinity for Baptism. As we have often suggested to your Charity, dearest brothers, Moses is understood to have borne not only the type of Christ but also the figure of the Law. Indeed, on the mountain where the Lord was transfigured, Moses and Elijah were speaking with Him (Matt. 17:3): and in those two the Law and Prophecy were signified. So when Moses had died, Jesus took up the command; and when the Law ceased, our Lord, the true Jesus, obtained the sovereignty of the whole world. That Jesus, then, who bore the type of the Lord, coming to the Jordan, said to the people, Prepare food for yourselves for the third day (Josh. 1:11). The third day, dearest brothers, we recognize to be the mystery of the Trinity. What food, therefore, ought we to prepare, so that on the third day

we may come? It seems to me that this food ought to be understood as faith: for to Christians it is faith, through which one believes in the Trinity and arrives at the sacrament of Baptism. What, therefore, that Jesus [i.e. Joshua] then said to his people, this the true Jesus now says through His ministers to the Christian people. For what else is it to say, Prepare food for yourselves for the third day, but: Receive the sacrament of the Trinity? After this, the Jordan having been crossed, as though the mystery of Baptism had been completed, the people of Israel enters the land of promise. It is true, most dear brothers: unless someone has passed through the sacrament of Baptism, he will not see the land of the true promise, that is, eternal blessedness.

2. The two spies, the two commandments. Jesus, moreover, sends two spies to the city of Jericho, and they are received by a harlot (Josh. 2). In these two who were sent are understood the two commandments of twofold love. For indeed, what else do those whom the true Jesus sends announce to us, but that we should love God and love our neighbour too? Jesus therefore said, Prepare food for yourselves, and be ready for the third day. For just as then, the food having been prepared, they came on the third day to the river Jordan; so too now in the Catholic Church, the spiritual food of faith, hope and charity having been taken, one arrives at the mystery of the Trinity and the sacrament of Baptism.

3. The stones in the Jordan, the Patriarchs; those set in the camp, the Apostles. And Jesus took twelve stones and placed them in the Jordan: and out of the Jordan itself he took another twelve and set them in the place of the camp (Josh. 5). Those twelve which were sent into the Jordan seem to me to have borne the type of the Patriarchs: but those which were raised from the Jordan to have borne the figure of the Apostles. For after the death of Moses, the Patriarchs having been buried, the Apostles arose. So also in the Psalm we read: Instead of your fathers, it says, sons have been born to you: you will make them princes over all the earth (Ps. 44:17). So, the Patriarchs having been buried, the Apostles arose. Jesus sends two spies: because the true Jesus was to teach how, the elder people having been buried in the desert, the younger people, with Jesus as leader, is led into the land of promise.

4. The figure of the Jews and of the Gentiles. For that elder people bore the type of the Jews; but the younger people bore the figure of the Gentiles. That elder people, having crossed the Red Sea, is buried in the wilderness: but the younger people, to this end, crosses the river Jordan, that it may receive the kingdom. It is true, brothers: no one receives the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom unless he has first passed through the sacraments of Baptism. For of that elder people no more than two were found worthy to enter the land of promise: and in those two very men we recognize that something was prefigured. For as was said above, there are two commandments of love, which invite the Christian people to obtain eternal life. So there were those two who gave counsel to the people of the Jews, that if they believed in God, they would happily enter the land of promise.

5. Jericho a type of the world. The priestly trumpet. The sound of the trumpet is one of terror, not of delight. After this they came to the city of Jericho, and its walls were thrown down to their foundations by the shout of the people and the sound of the trumpets (Josh. 6). Jericho, brothers, bore the type of this world. For just as then, the trumpets sounding, the walls of that city fell; so too now it is fitting that the city of the world, that is, pride, with its towers, namely avarice, envy and luxury, and together with its peoples, that is, all evil desires, should be destroyed and perish by the unceasing preaching of priests. It is not fitting, therefore, that priests should be silent in the church; but let them hear the Lord saying, Cry out, cease not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to My people their crimes (Isa. 58:1). We are commanded, therefore, to cry out; and to cry out vehemently and not to spare the voice, that we may spare salvation. Do not spare, it says, that is, the iniquity of the sinner: lest by keeping silent you perish, and while to the sense of shame

of the man you pay regard, you pay no regard to his health, lest by keeping silent you nourish into something worse the wounds of that man which you could have cut away by crying out. We are therefore commanded to cry out; and, lest anyone should say that he has not heard, or the voice of the priest escape anyone, to cry out vehemently. And lest perhaps this very thing should not suffice, he added, saying: Like a trumpet lift up your voice. You know that the sound of a trumpet is usually a matter not so much of delight as of terror; and that it does not so much offer delight as inspire dread. A trumpet is therefore necessary for sinners, one that may not only penetrate their ears but also shake their hearts; that may not delight with its song but chastise with its hearing: so that it may exhort all the zealous in good things, and terrify the slack on account of their offences. For just as in battle the trumpet casts down the mind of the fearful soldier and kindles the spirit of the brave man, so also the priestly trumpet humbles the mind of the sinner and strengthens the mind of the just: and with one and the same sound this exhortation, just as, if it is stronger, it strikes terror into the one so that he may conquer, so, if it is more sluggish, it loosens him for sinning. For this is the custom of the trumpet, that it scatters the works of wrongdoers and confirms the deeds of the saints.

6. Through trumpets the walls of Jericho fall, through preaching iniquity. Thus it was through the priestly trumpets that the walls of Jericho, which held within themselves a sinful people, collapsed. No ram battered them, no siege engine stormed them; but, what is marvellous, the sound of the priests and the terror of the trumpet overthrew them. Walls which had stood impregnable against iron were shattered by the sacred voice of the trumpets. For who would not be astounded that at that sound the stones were burst apart, that the foundations of irrational things were shaken by a blast, and that everything so collapsed that, although the victors harmed nothing with their hand, nothing stable remained among the adversaries? But although no one touched those walls, they were nevertheless stormed from without by the sound of the just, from within by that of the sinners. For thus by the just judgement of God they both opened a way to the just and denied a defence to the faithless. But that all these things were done in figure is not in doubt. For what else do we believe the priestly trumpets of that time prefigured than the preachings of the priests of this time, which do not cease to announce to sinners with a terrible sound a stern judgement, to proclaim the grim destruction of Gehenna, and to beat upon the ears of wrongdoers with a kind of din of threatening? For just as then the blast of the trumpets, the walls of masonry having been destroyed, reached the interior of the people, so now the preaching of the priests, wicked thoughts having been destroyed, passes through to the naked parts of the soul. And just as the sound of the sacred voice destroyed and took captive a stubborn people, so also now priestly preaching subjugates and takes captive a sinful people: as the blessed apostle Paul says, The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty to God for the destruction of fortifications, destroying counsels, and every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every understanding into the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:4–5). See, then, whether the tongues of priests, according to the saying of the Apostle, are not certain weapons of words, by which vain thought is destroyed and puffed-up pride is taken captive. For seven days, then, as Scripture says, the walls of Jericho, encircled by the priestly trumpets, fell. Hence we, comparing spiritual things with spiritual (1 Cor. 2:13), say that by this sevenfold number now, through the priests of God, it is not so much one city that is destroyed as the iniquity of the whole world that is scattered. For just as in the naming of a single city the condition of the whole world is figured, so by the cycle of seven days the spaces of the whole world are marked out, through which the trumpets of priestly preachings announce destruction to the world itself and threaten judgement: as it is written, For the world will perish, and all things that are in the world. But he who does the will of God abides for ever (1 John 2:16–17): by the gift of Him Who lives and reigns through the ages.