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

27). And the Lord in the Gospel [says] to His disciples: I, He says, [am] in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you (John 14:11).

8. The striking of the spiritual Goliath on the forehead. That he was struck not in another member but in the forehead signifies what is now carried out among our Competents: for when the catechumen is signed on the forehead, the spiritual Goliath is struck and the devil is put to flight. And since we both recognize and feel alike that the devil has been put to flight from our hearts through the grace of Christ, let us labour as much as we can, with His help, that we may not wish to invite him into us again by our evil works and by impious or lustful thoughts; lest perhaps (which God forbid) there be fulfilled in us that which is written: When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest, and does not find it; after this, returning to the house from which he had gone out, he finds it swept clean with brooms; and he brings with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and the last [state] of that man is worse than the first (Matt. 12:43–45). Since, therefore, with no preceding merits, we have been emptied of all evils through the grace of Baptism, let us with God's help strive to be filled with spiritual goods, so that whenever the devil wishes to tempt us, he may always find us full of the Spirit of God and occupied with good works; so that there may be fulfilled in us that which is written: He who perseveres to the end, he shall be saved (Ibid. 10:22). May He deign to grant this, Who lives and reigns for ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 38. On the plague of the people on account of David, and on the building of the altar on the threshing-floor of Areuna the Jebusite.

1. A figure of the rejection of the Jews and of the election of the Gentiles. Just now, when the reading from Kings was read, we heard that when the plague of God was raging among the people of the Jews, the angel of the Lord who was striking [them] stood beside the threshing-floor of Areuna the Jebusite; and the Lord said to the angel striking the people: It is enough, now restrain your hand; and the plague ceased from the people. Areuna, dearest brothers, was king of the Jebusites, and seemed to possess some part in Jerusalem: for although all the nations round about had been made subject to King David, God nevertheless did not permit the Jebusites to be destroyed entirely; as He Himself also says elsewhere: And I will not destroy all the nations, that through them I may test whether they fear Me (Judg. 2:21–22). The prophet therefore says to David: Go up, and set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing-floor of Areuna the Jebusite. Now that pagan king prefigured the people of the Gentiles. Observe, brothers, that in the land of the Jews no worthy place was found where the altar of the Lord might be set; but in the land of the Gentiles a place is chosen, where both the angel is seen and the altar of the Lord is built, and so the wrath of the almighty Lord is appeased. Already then it was being prefigured that in the hearts of the Jews no worthy place could be found for offering spiritual sacrifices; but the land of the Gentiles, that is, the conscience of Christians, is chosen, where the temple of the Lord may be placed. This the Apostle shows clearly when he rebukes the Jews, saying: To you, he says, it was necessary that the word of God be spoken first; but because you have judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46). That is to say: Because you have rejected Christ and have not prepared a worthy place in which the altar of the Lord might be set, we place the altar of the Lord in the land of the Gentiles, that is, in the hearts of all peoples. And hence it is that the same apostle cries out to us: The temple of God is holy, which you are (1 Cor. 3:17). And therefore take heed, dearest brothers, that the land of the gentile king is chosen at the time when the people of the Jews is struck by the plague of God: which in the passion of the Lord

we see fulfilled. For when the people of the Jews, crucifying the Lord, is rejected, then in the threshing-floor of the Gentiles, that is, in the whole earth, an altar is consecrated to the Lord. The angel of the Lord, therefore, stood in the threshing-floor of a gentile king; and the true angel, that is, Christ, visited the people of the Gentiles.

2. The same argument is treated. The king himself, then, offered blessed David the threshing-floor and the oxen for a burnt offering; but King David was unwilling to accept, unless he first gave the price: and this was fulfilled at the coming of the Lord the Saviour. For since grace is given freely, with no merits going before, He was unwilling to take to Himself the hearts of the Gentiles unless He first gave His blood as the price for them. What, then, did he give? Fifty, it says, shekels of silver (2 Sam. 24). In the number fifty both the grace of the Holy Spirit is understood and the remission of sins is signified. For on the fiftieth day the Holy Spirit is sent to the Apostles; and in the Old Testament the fiftieth year is consecrated to remission and pardon. That David indeed gave him silver; but our David, whose type he bore, poured out His precious blood. So, in order to buy the threshing-floor of the pagan king, David offered fifty shekels; and the true David, Christ, in order to establish for Himself an altar in the threshing-floor of the Gentiles, on the fiftieth day gave the grace of the Holy Spirit and the pardon of sins. And therefore, brethren, since He has deigned to make Himself a temple in us and out of us, let Him not suffer injury in His own house: for if He has borne injury from our sins, He quickly departs; and woe to the wretched soul from which He departs! For without doubt he who is deserted by the light is seized by darkness. Let us therefore strive so to act with His help that we may deserve not only to receive so loving a Lord as a guest, but also to have Him as a perpetual dweller: by the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns for ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 39. On the judgement of Solomon between the two harlots: against the Arian heresy.

1. The Catholic Church and the Arian heresy in the two harlots. The equality of the Son is demonstrated from the omnipotence and goodness of the Father. Concerning the two harlots, dearly beloved brethren, who came to the judgement of Solomon, of which the reading is to be recited to us at evening; of whom one, who was not only wanton but also cruel and impious, cried out to the king that he should order the infant to be divided: now, if you receive it willingly, we desire to impart to the ears of Your Charity what our holy Fathers have expounded concerning them. For she who cried out that the boy should be kept whole bore the type of the Catholic Church: that other, cruel and impious, who cried out that the boy should be divided, signified the Arian heresy. For the Catholic Church, as a most loving mother, cried out to all heretics: Do not make Christ less than the Father, do not divide the unity, do not, by dividing the one God into diverse degrees, fashion idols of the Gentiles, as it were, in your hearts; possess the whole together with us: if you wish to have peace, do not rend the unity. For it is not so that, if you hold the whole, nothing remains to us. So great is His omnipotence that all possess Him whole, and each one possesses Him whole. But the impious and cruel heresy cries out: No, but let him be divided. What is "Let him be divided", except "Let the Son not be equal to the Father"? For while it takes equality away from the Son, it has also denied that the Father is good and omnipotent. For if God the Father was able to beget a Son like Himself, and was unwilling, He is not good: if He was willing, and was not able, He is not omnipotent. Be certain, my brethren, that none of the Arians will ever be able to answer this statement; but whenever they have been bound fast by most true reasoning, like a slippery snake they flee away to any other questions whatever, crafty and tortuous.

2. The inheritance left by Christ's testament. So, dearest brothers, I bring forward the testament and repeat the words of the testator. If it contains something to be divided, I find it there; if it contains nothing to be divided, I resist them from the testament itself. O unhappy heretic, what does the testament contain? Hear: My peace I give to you, peace I leave to you (John 14:27). This is the inheritance of Christians. And who is the Testator Himself? Read the testament, and you will find out. When the prophet was speaking of the Lord, he says: He shall be magnified to the ends of the earth, and this One shall be peace (Mic. 5:4–5). Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Luke 2:14): not to the dividers of holy unity, but to men of good will. He Himself is the inheritance, He Himself the Testator; do you seek to divide Him? Why do you portion out what is one? If you divide the one, you have nothing whole.

3. The division of God. O Arian heresy, cruel and impious, blush! When Solomon was judging, the harlot, so as not to give up one living child, one conceived from whatever source yet born, did not allow her son to be divided; and do you divide your God? She, though a harlot, was nevertheless loving, because she was a mother; you, heresy, are impious, because you are not a mother. What you give birth to, you smother; what you do not bear, you gather together. Your bowels have grown hard; hers trembled. What does she say, she who bore the type of the catholic mother? Give the child to her, and do not divide him (1 Kgs. 3). He is my son: but better that the child pass over to her, pass over whole; yet let a mother's affection remain with me. Give the child to her; let my hopes not be taken away, let the wholeness of his limbs not be divided, lest my love be taken from me. As she says, Give the child to her, and do not divide; behold, I too say, Possess the whole, and do not divide God. No, he says; but if you want to have peace, divide the inheritance. I say it without prejudice. And how am I to divide? Hear: The Father is greater than I, the Son lesser, the Spirit a creature. O shares! O justice! O equity! I make a share, because I divide peace. For if peace has been broken, it is no longer peace. But how is peace unimpaired with you, with whom faith is not whole? Why then, since you want to possess together with me and want to divide peace, do you not want to divide the inheritance?

4. Unity to be preserved in the Lord. Finally, if after your custom you are zealous not for peace but for faithlessness, go, appeal to Christ the judge; let us see what He will say to you. Say to Him what is said in the Gospel: Lord, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Without doubt He answers you: Friend, who appointed Me judge or divider (Luke 12:13–14)? You want to divide peace, and you seek to have peace as your judge; I do not want to be your judge. I am peace; I sit beside those who agree, I flee those who quarrel. For if I grant all My Christians to have one heart through one will, how am I to divide the unity between Me and the Father, I Who bestow on all My faithful one heart and one charity? What does the Lord say to Philip? Have I been with you so long a time, and you have not known Me? Philip, I came to join you to My Father; do not separate Me. Why do you seek, as it were, another besides Me? He who sees Me sees the Father also (John 14:9). So great is the likeness in Us, so great the unity, so great the charity, that I am in the Father and the Father in Me. Through this unity may the Lord deign to join you to Himself and keep you: by the gift of the same our Lord Jesus Christ, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 40. On Elijah.

1. Elijah a type of the Saviour. The Gentiles figured in the ravens. The Church black and beautiful. In the readings which are recited to us in these days, dearest brothers, I have often admonished that we should not follow the letter that kills, and

leave behind the life-giving Spirit. For thus the Apostle says: For the letter kills, the Spirit gives life (2 Cor. 3:6). For if we wish to understand only what sounds in the letter, we shall gain either little or almost no edification from the divine readings. For all those things which are read out were a type and image of things to come. For in the Jews they were prefigured, in us they have been fulfilled by the gift of God's grace. For blessed Elijah bore the type of the Lord the Saviour. For just as Elijah suffered persecution from the Jews, so also the true Elijah, our Lord, was rejected and despised by those same Jews. Elijah left his nation; and Christ forsook the Synagogue. Elijah went away into the desert; and Christ came into the world. Elijah in the desert was fed by ravens ministering to him; and Christ in the desert of this world is refreshed by the faith of the Gentiles. For those ravens which, at the Lord's command, ministered to blessed Elijah prefigured the people of the Gentiles. Therefore it is also said of the Church of the Gentiles, I am black and beautiful, daughter of Jerusalem (Song 1:4). Whence is the Church black and beautiful? Black by nature, beautiful by grace. Whence black? Behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins my mother bore me. Whence beautiful? Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed; Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow (Ps. 50:7, 9) Whence black? The Apostle says, I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin. Whence beautiful? Who will deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 7:23–25). Truly the Church of the Gentiles was like the ravens when it despised the living Lord, and before it received grace served idols as if they were the carcasses of dead beasts.

2. God speaks to everyone who does good. The widow who received Elijah, a figure of the Church. After this Elijah is ordered to set out for Zarephath of the Sidonians, so that he might be fed there by a widow. For thus the Lord said to him: Go to Zarephath of Sidon; I have commanded a widow to feed you there. How and through whom did God give command to the widow, since there was then scarcely any other prophet with whom God spoke more openly, except blessed Elijah? Because, although there were at that time some of the sons of the Prophets, they so feared the persecution of Jezebel that they could scarcely escape even in hiding. I, says the Lord, have commanded a widow. How does the Lord command, except by inspiring what is good inwardly in the soul through His grace? And so, for every man who does anything good, God speaks to him inwardly. Let no one therefore glory of himself, but in the Lord. Were there not then many widows in Judaea? And why was it that no widow of the Jews deserved to minister food to blessed Elijah, but he is sent to a Gentile widow, so as to be fed by her? For that widow to whom the Prophet is sent bore the type of the Church; just as those ravens too, which had ministered to Elijah, bore the figure of the Gentiles. Elijah therefore came to the widow; because Christ was to come to the Church.

3. Spiritual death is necessary for the believer. But let us see, dearly beloved brethren, where blessed Elijah found that widow. For she had gone out to wash herself with water and to gather sticks of wood. For let us see what the water and what the wood signify. For we know well enough that these two things are both dear and necessary to the Church, that is, wood and water. Accordingly it is written thus: And he shall be like a tree which is planted beside the running waters (Ps. 1:3). For in the wood the mystery of the cross, in the water the sacrament of Baptism is shown. She had gone out, then, to gather two sticks. For thus she answered blessed Elijah when he asked food of her. For she said: As the Lord lives, I have nothing but a handful of meal and a little oil in a vessel: and behold, I am going out to gather two sticks, and make food for myself and my son; and we shall eat, and we shall die (1 Kgs. 17). As I said above, then, that widow bore the type of the Church, the widow's son bore the figure of the Christian people. When Elijah came, then, the widow went out to gather two sticks. See, brethren, that she did not say three, nor four, nor only one stick; but she wished to gather two sticks. She gathered two sticks for this reason, because in the type of Elijah she was receiving Christ. Two sticks she wished

to gather, because she desired to recognize the mystery of the cross. For the cross of the Lord Saviour was fitted together from two pieces of wood. Therefore that widow was gathering two pieces of wood, because the Church was going to believe in Him Who hung on two pieces of wood. So that widow said, I am gathering two pieces of wood, that I may make food for myself and for my son; and we shall eat, and die. It is true, most beloved brothers: no one will be found worthy to believe in Christ crucified unless he dies to this world. For whoever wishes to eat the body of Christ worthily must die to the things that are past, and live for the things to come.

4. A figure of the raising of the Gentiles. This is done by the whole Trinity. That widow, then, as we have said, prefigured the Church; the widow's son bore the type of the Gentile people. The widow's son lay dead; because the son of the Church too, that is, the people of the Gentiles, was dead through many sins and crimes. At Elijah's prayer the widow's son is raised: at Christ's coming the son of the Church, that is, the Christian people, is led back from the prison of death. Elijah bows down in prayer, and the widow's son is brought to life; and Christ falls prostrate in His passion, and the Christian people is raised up. And as for blessed Elijah's having bent himself down three times to revive the boy, I believe that even before I say it, the understanding of your Charity has anticipated it. For in his bowing down three times the mystery of the Trinity is shown. For the widow's son, that is, the people of the Gentiles, was raised neither by the Father alone without the Son, nor by the Father and the Son without the Holy Spirit, but by the whole Trinity. Finally, this is also shown in the sacrament of Baptism, when the old man is immersed a third time, so that he may be found worthy to rise new.

5. A figure of the grace to be conferred through the coming of Christ. Christ preached for three years and six months. After this blessed Elijah showed himself to the king, and went up onto Mount Carmel, and put his head between his knees, and prayed that the Lord would give rain upon the earth. And he said to his servant: Look towards the sea. And the servant reported back that he had seen nothing at all. And he said to him: Go, and look seven times. And the seventh time he reported back and said: I see a very small little cloud, like the footprint of a man, rising from the sea (1 Kgs. 18). And suddenly the heavens grew dark, and there was a great rain. Elijah, then, as we have said, bore the figure of the Lord Saviour. Elijah prayed, and offered sacrifice; and Christ gave Himself up as a spotless sacrifice for the whole world. Elijah prayed on Mount Carmel; and Christ on the Mount of Olives. Elijah prayed that rain might come upon the earth; and Christ, that divine grace might come down into human hearts. And as for Elijah's saying to his servant, Go, and look seven times; this signified the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit, which was to be given to the Church. And as for his saying that he had seen a very small little cloud rising from the sea; this prefigured the flesh of Christ, which was to be born in the sea of this world. Therefore, lest anyone perhaps doubt that that cloud had the footprint of a man, he said it: of that man, to be sure, Who said, Whom do men say that the Son of man is (Matt. 16:13)? So, just as at Elijah's prayer the rain came down from heaven after three years and six months; so also at the coming of the Saviour, in the three years and six months in which He deigned to preach, the rain of the word of God happily watered the whole world. And just as then, at the coming of Elijah, all the priests of the idols were killed and destroyed; so at the coming of the true Elijah, that is, of our Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrilegious observance of the pagans was destroyed.

6. Recapitulation. Briefly conveying these things to the minds of your Charity, we set them before the eyes of your faith as a few headings, as some small pointers, so to speak, by which your holy desires may be wholesomely stirred to search out the divine mysteries: and so that by wholesome counsel we may provide spiritual fodder for your holy souls to ruminate on continually, lest perhaps it slip from memory, let us, if you so bid, make a recapitulation of what has been said. As we said above, then, understand that holy Elijah bore the type of the Lord Saviour. Finally, just as the Lord, after He had many mighty works