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

he were saying, Walk so swiftly that you do not presume to be taken up or delayed by any talk on the way. So the servant went, and laid the staff upon the face of the boy; and he did not rise at all. This servant bore the type of blessed Moses. For God sent him with a staff into Egypt: but the staff without Christ was able to scourge Egypt; yet from original or actual sin it was not able to free or to raise up. For, as the Apostle says, The Law brought nothing to perfection (Heb. 7:19). It was needful that He who had sent the staff should Himself come down. The staff without Elisha availed nothing; because the cross without Christ could do nothing.

8. Elisha by bowing himself down, Christ by humbling Himself, raised up the boy and the world. So blessed Elisha came, and went up into the upper room; because Christ was to come, and to ascend the gibbet of the cross. Elisha bowed himself down, that he might raise the boy; Christ humbled Himself, that He might lift up the world lying in sins. Elisha put eyes upon eyes, hands upon hands. See, brothers, how much that man of full age contracted himself, that he might fit the little one lying dead. For what Elisha prefigured in the boy, this Christ fulfilled in the whole human race. Hear the Apostle saying, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death (Phil. 2:8). Because we were little ones, He made Himself a little one; because we lay dead, the kindly Physician bowed Himself down: because indeed, brothers, no one can lift up one who is lying down, if he will not bow himself down. And that the boy yawned seven times shows the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit, which is bestowed on the human race at the coming of Christ, that it may be raised up again. Of this Spirit the Apostle says, If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His (Rom. 8:9). This same Spirit the Lord gave to the disciples, when He breathed upon them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22). For in a certain manner He put mouth upon mouth, when by breathing upon them He gave the Spirit. Let us therefore give thanks to our most kind Redeemer, Who raised us up with no preceding merits; and not only snatched us from everlasting death, but also, with His grace helping, if we act well, has promised eternal rewards in return, which may He deign to grant, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, for ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 43. On Naaman the Syrian.

1. When Naaman, the chief man of the king of Syria, had been overspread with leprosy, and, being afflicted by the spotted contagion of a horrible plague, was by now abhorrent both to himself and to all, the king of Syria grieved to be deprived of the help of such a man, through whom he had waged very many wars, subdued nations, achieved victories, and freed the people of the Syrians from the hand of their enemies. Then Naaman hears that among the people of Israel Elisha is a most holy prophet, endowed with wonderful powers and renowned for astonishing works, through whom he might both be freed from the danger of his condition and be cleansed of the pernicious discolouration. At once he goes to his king, and asks to be commended by letter to the king of the Israelites. Immediately the king sends a letter to the king in this manner. I have sent to you, he says, Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.

2. When the king had received and read this letter sent by the king, he tore his garments, saying: See, he said, see that this man is seeking mischief: for he has sent a man to me, that I may cure him of his leprosy. Am I God, that I can put to death or make alive? O the faith of Naaman the chief! O the faithlessness of this king! Naaman the Syrian hastens faithfully to God; and the faithless king tears his garment. Those who knew distrust; and those who did not know believe. Those of the household resist; and outsiders hasten. The king of Syria believes that what he had heard can be done; and the king of Israel does not believe that what he knew can be done. Strangers run for help; and their own refuse the heavenly gift. He who ought to have proclaimed destroys;

and he who was able to destroy hastened [to do so]: so that he might be the more powerful in glory among foreigners, the more the faithlessness of the king had become known.

3. Then, when the agitation of the king had reached Elisha, he said: Send, send Naaman the Syrian to me: that he may know that there is a God in Israel. And so Naaman the Syrian is brought to the door of the man of God with chariots and horsemen and magnificent power. The man of God came out to him, saying: Go, and be baptized in the Jordan seven times; and you will be cleansed. On hearing this, Naaman, provoked, rushed off, saying: I was saying that the man of God would come out to me, and would lay his hand upon me, and would call upon the Lord his God; and would cure me of my leprosy. For if I must be cleansed by waters, are not the waters among us better? Then one of his own men said to him: Is it a hard word that the Prophet has spoken to you? Why do you not do what he said? Then Naaman turned back and went down into the Jordan; and having been baptized seven times, he came up from there cleansed: and his flesh became like the flesh of an infant boy. Then Naaman marvels, then he is astonished, then he looks upon the Prophet, then he gazes towards heaven. He marvels that power was present at a single command, he marvels that God has wrought it, he marvels that the affliction of so long a time has been wiped away, he marvels that he himself has been changed in body and in mind. The pernicious contagion is driven from him, and the longed-for health is restored. The whole man is given back to his nature; because perfect power works in the most holy Prophet. Naaman rejoices, the Prophet is glad; by both the Lord is praised together. Naaman rejoices that he has received what he had longed for, and has found what he had lost. The Prophet rejoices in the work; and the people are glad in the power. Judaea rejoices that she offers help to those who come to her: and the Gentiles say that there is in Israel what they cannot find among themselves. The glory of God is sown among the Gentiles. He who has been cured proclaims it; he who has experienced it announces it: nor is what is said any longer held in doubt, when Syria bears witness to what it beholds in Naaman.

4. Then the joyful Naaman offers gifts to Elisha, then he begs him, as a vow for his health, to accept the presents. Take, he says, take the gifts which I offer you: what I give, I bestow willingly; accept it. For what I bestow is not the price of the cure; nor do I buy back with this gift the health I have received: since the health which I have obtained could neither be bought back at a price, nor be found by any gift. I, said Elisha, do not accept what you offer; what you press upon me I refuse as belonging to another. For I did not myself grant you the health in which you rejoice; nor did I myself correct the pernicious affliction in you, nor restore you to your nature, as you suppose: but God is mighty in the heavens, Whose command I serve, Whose office I obey, in Whose service I persevere, to Whom alone your mind must be dedicated, your understanding prepared, your service rendered. For if you serve Him alone, or if you devote to Him the obedience owed Him, consider how much you will merit, since before you served Him you merited so great a health.

5. At once Naaman enjoins upon himself divine worship and cuts off the superstitious [rites]. At once he testifies that he worships God, and professes that he detests the idol. At once he declares that he worships the Lord Whom he has come to know, and abhors the fabrications which he had worshipped. Now, he says, I have learned that the Lord alone is to be worshipped. Now for the first time I have learned that one God is to be venerated: for the other gods of the Gentiles can neither save nor harm; seeing that they, needing human help, cannot themselves give help. For those who are themselves kept cannot keep [others], nor can those who do not live give life, nor can they make any of their worshippers healthy who cannot avenge themselves on those who do not worship them. Then Naaman sets out for Syria joyful, then he hastens to his own people healthy. All who had come with him sorrowful are glad, all who shrank in horror from his sickness rejoice, all speak among themselves of the mighty works of God, all together tell one another of His powers.

6. Immediately Giezi, the Prophet's servant, says to himself: Since my master was unwilling from Naaman the Syrian

to accept anything, I will go; so that what he would not have, I may take. He goes quickly, runs up in haste: and when the servants of the Syrian saw him hastening after them and reported it to their lord, Naaman at once halts the chariots of his men, draws back the vehicles, turns the animals, himself hurrying and hastening comes back to meet him, inquires the causes, demands the reasons for his hastening towards him. That dissembler and deceiver fits together a lie, composes a falsehood: he says that he has been instructed by the Prophet, as if he were to send some silver, which he might give to the sons of the prophets who had come to him. Insistently Naaman gave the servant double what he had asked, which he himself, as a suppliant and entreating, had not been able to give to the Prophet. Having received this and put it in safekeeping, he appeared before Elisaeus, and stands in his sight in the usual manner. Where, says the Prophet, have you been, or what matter and business have you been about? Nowhere, he says; I have not gone away from here; nowhere have I been absent from your sight. Then the most holy Prophet bursts into speech: Was not my heart, he says, with you? I know how Naaman hastened to meet you, from whom you received silver: and you will possess from it fields, and vineyards, and olive groves, menservants and maidservants; and the leprosy of Naaman the Syrian will cleave to you and to your seed for ever. And at once he went out from him leprous as snow (2 Kgs. 5). O admirable power of God! O sublime merit of Elisaeus! At one time a twofold power is shown, and a double authority demonstrates the most holy Prophet. Naaman the Syrian is cured; and Giezi the servant is covered with leprosy. Faith brought glory to the Syrian; and treachery brought punishment upon the servant: the one, coming from Syria, received what he desired; the other, going out from the Prophet's house, acquired for himself a plague from his treachery. Naaman is cured and rejoices: Giezi is wounded and weeps. The one is restored sound to his own people; the other is shown to all as stained: the one is shown as an example of virtue; the other is displayed as the wages of deceit. He who had been stained is cured by faith; and he who had been sound is stained by treachery. Naaman invites to God; Giezi is set forth as an example to each one. Through Naaman the Lord is praised; through Giezi the heavenly judgement is feared. From the one salvation is born, from the other fear: from the one glory is sought, from the other the hurt of fraud is dreaded: so that by these examples both the reward of faith and the punishment of treachery might be shown to all nations.

Sermon 44. On Elisaeus and the servant Giezi.

1. Elisaeus prefigured the Lord, Giezi Judas or the Jews. The avaricious are lepers. We have often suggested to your Charity, dearest brethren, that blessed Elisaeus bore the type of the Lord Saviour: but Giezi his disciple is understood, not unfittingly, to have prefigured Judas the traitor, or the people of the Jews. For just as Giezi served blessed Elisaeus for this reason, that he might be able to acquire money; so also Judas had attached himself to the Lord Saviour for this reason, that he might commit fraud and gather earthly riches. Indeed thus it is written of him in the Gospel: For he was a thief, and had the purse, and carried what was put into it (John 12:6). For Giezi, who could have merited the grace of his master, just as his lord too had obtained that of blessed Elias, was overcome by cupidity and deserved to be covered for ever with cruel leprosy. Judas, for his part, for love of money both lost the grace of the apostolate and ended his life with a noose. And thus we understand that all the avaricious and covetous are inwardly, in the soul, covered with the leprosy of sin.

2. Naaman [heeding] the girl, the people of the Gentiles assenting to prophecy. Now Naaman, the commander of the army, who was a leper and, at the suggestion of a maidservant, to blessed Elisaeus to be healed

came, prefigured the people of the Gentiles. That girl who had been led captive out of Judaea, and had suggested to her mistress that if her master went to the blessed Elisaeus he would recover his health; that girl, I say, bore the image of prophecy: for although at that time the grace of prophecy flourished in Judaea alone, yet it could not be that that blessed knowledge should not also reach the neighbouring nations. So Naaman heard the girl, and came to Elisaeus: the people of the Gentiles heard the prophecy, and came to Christ. Naaman, coming to Elisaeus, is healed of leprosy: and the people of the Gentiles, coming to Christ, is cleansed of all the leprosy of sins.

3. The Jews were struck with leprosy at the time when the Gentiles were freed from it. Giezi, however, as I have already said, can also prefigure the people of the Jews, which is struck with the leprosy of sin at the very time when the people of the Gentiles is freed from it. Indeed, thus did the unhappy Jews cry out at the passion of the Lord: His blood be upon us and upon our children (Matt. 27:25). For then they deserved to be covered with the leprosy of sin, when with sacrilegious mouth they cried out against the heavenly Physician, Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him (John 19:15). Therefore the leprosy remained in them at the very time when grace passed over to us. Indeed, thus also the apostle Paul spoke to them, saying: To you, he says, it was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken; but since you have judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46). When the teaching of the apostles passed over to the Gentiles, then the leprosy of sin remained in the wretched Jews.

4. A figure of the calling of the Gentiles to the faith through Baptism. Let us see, however, what the blessed Elisha commanded Naaman the Syrian. Go, he says, and wash seven times in the Jordan. Now, that Naaman, on hearing that he was to wash seven times in the Jordan, was indignant and was unwilling to assent, and then, having taken advice from his friends, consented to wash, and was cleansed: this signifies that the people of the Gentiles, before Christ was crucified, did not of itself believe Christ when He spoke; but afterwards, when the Apostles preached, came faithfully to the sacrament of Baptism. Elisha told Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan. See, brethren, Elisha sends Naaman to the river Jordan; because Christ was going to send the people of the Gentiles to Baptism. And that Elisha did not himself touch or baptize Naaman: this signified that Christ did not come in His own person to the people of the Gentiles, but through His Apostles, to whom He said: Go, baptize all the Gentiles in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). And mark this too: Naaman, who prefigured the people of the Gentiles, received health in that river which Christ afterwards consecrated by His baptism. And that Naaman, on hearing that he was to wash seven times in the Jordan, was indignant, saying: Are not the rivers of my country better, the rivers of Damascus, Albana and Pharphar, that I may wash in them and be cleansed? While he was saying this, his servants gave him counsel to comply with the Prophet's counsel. Now mark carefully, brethren, what this signifies. Saint Elisha, as we have said, bore the type of the Lord the Saviour: Naaman prefigured the people of the Gentiles. And what of his believing that he would receive health from his own rivers? This showed that the human race presumed upon free will and upon its own merits. But one's own merits without the grace of Christ can have leprosy; they cannot have health. Hence, unless the human race, after the example of Naaman, had listened to the counsel of Elisha, and through the grace of Christ had humbly received the gift of Baptism, it could not have been freed from original and actual leprosy. Wash, he says, seven times: he said this on account of the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit, which rested upon Christ the Lord. Indeed, when the Lord was baptized in that river, the Holy Spirit came upon Him in the form of a dove (John 1:32).

5. Those who are baptized begin to be born. When, therefore, Naaman had gone down into the river as a figure of Baptism, His flesh, it says, became like that of a little child

(2 Kgs. 5). See, dearest brothers, this likeness fulfilled in the Christian people. For you know that all who are baptized, whether they are old or young, are nevertheless all born as infants. The first generation leads to death; the second generation leads to life. The first begets children of wrath; the second begets vessels of mercy: as the Apostle says, In Adam all die, in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor. 15:22). As, then, Naaman, though he was an older man, was cleansed by washing seven times like a little child, so he who has grown old in old sins, and is covered with many stains of iniquities as with leprosy, is so renewed by the grace of Baptism that in him neither original nor actual leprosy of sin remains: and he who had always been bowed down by the weights of crimes is renewed by the saving washing like a little child, after the example of Naaman; so that in him is fulfilled what the Apostle says of Christ with regard to the Church, That He might present to Himself a Church not having spot or wrinkle (Eph. 5:27).

6. Let the Lord's great gifts bring forth for us not judgement but progress. Now the fact that, after Naaman had been cleansed, he offered gifts to blessed Elisaeus, and Elisaeus was unwilling to accept them: in this the grace of Christ was prefigured, which is called grace for this reason, that it is given gratis. For thus the Lord said to the disciples in the Gospel, Heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons: freely you have received, freely give (Matt. 10:8). And since we see fulfilled in us all the sacraments and mysteries of our Lord which were prefigured among the Jews, even if we cannot give God as many thanks as we owe, let us give Him as many as we can, Who deigned to bestow such great goods upon us with no good merits going before; and for our salvation not only sent His disciples but also came down Himself in His own person, and for us patiently endured scourges and reproaches and the other injuries of which we read. He was wounded, that He might heal our wounds; He died, that He might free us from everlasting death; He descended to the lower regions, that He might snatch us from the jaws of the most cruel dragon; He rose again, that He might grant us the hope of resurrection; He ascended into heaven, that He might show us where we ought to follow Him. What, then, shall we render to the Lord for these gifts, which we are not able to conceive, much less able to explain to you, except that, as I have already said, continually giving as many thanks as we can, we should strive with His help that His gifts or benefits may bring forth for us not judgement but progress? Let us also labour to fulfil His precepts: so that, when the day of judgement comes, being delivered from the evil hearing, that longed-for voice may be directed to us, Come, you blessed, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world (Matt. 25:34): to which may the Lord bring us under His protection. Amen.