Appendix to Augustine's Sermones: Sermones supposititii, Sermones 45-62

of the world is tortured in one man, while he tortures, and the punishment returns upon its author. "Behold," says the Lord, "I will deliver him to you: only guard his soul" (Job 1 and 2). He fights securely who is preserved while the enemy is afraid. The enemy raged in such a way as to be afraid: cruelty inflicts pain, and fails in its own strength. When the punishment is put to flight, health returns, and the healing is made happier by the scars. The Lord heals more swiftly than the enemy wounds. Groans passed over into joys, and in the furrows of the wounds the monuments of victory were counted. For Job's sake the queen, for whose sake also the hired woman. He returns with double interest, so that they could receive back twofold what had been lost.

Sermon 51. On blessed Job, 2.

1. Job victor in prosperity and in adversity. The treasure of the just man is faith. In the reading which was read to us, dearest brothers, we heard how the most glorious athlete of God fought admirably against a most cunning enemy; and, according to what the Apostle says, "a spectacle to God and to His angels and to men" (1 Cor. 4:9), we were found worthy to hear it, not without great wonder, and in a certain manner to see it with the eyes of faith. We saw blessed Job struggling bravely and successfully not only against the prosperity of the world, but also against poverty and the harshest pains, and against the bereavement of his children. When he was rich, he held no one in contempt; when he suffered want, he blasphemed no one, nor did he presume to murmur against the dispensation of God; but when wealthy he said, "My house lay open to all travellers, and the shoulders of the sick were warmed with the fleeces of my sheep" (Job 31:19–20). Afterwards, however, when he was oppressed by poverty, he said in his straits, "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has been done" (ibid. 1 and 2). The devil wrestled mightily, but he could not overcome the athlete of God. He stirred up monstrous waves, and he was not able to shake the firmest rock. He applied his siege engines, and he did not throw down the strongest tower. He shook the tree, and he was not able to strike down the fruit: he did indeed break the branches, but he did no harm to the root. He dug through the wall, but he could not carry off the treasure: and by treasure I mean not of gold and silver, but the faith of the just man. For it was this treasure of his that the devil was hastening to plunder when he tormented him, stripped of all his wealth, with an unbearable blow. You saw the waves increase, you saw the firmest rock, you saw the impregnable tower, you saw God glorified and the devil broken: and by what name I should call this just man I do not know. Shall I call him an athlete? But he excels by the abundance of so many crowns. Shall I call him a rock? But I see him to be firmer. Shall I call him a soldier? But I perceive him to be stronger in constancy. Shall I name him a tower? But he stands out in wisdom. Shall I call him a tree? But he is found more comely. Shall I call him fruit? But he is shown to be more precious. Shall I name him a treasure? But he is recognized to be more abundant. And by what word I should call that holy man, I do not find.

2. Both the rich man can be good and the poor man blessed. How much contempt of the poor is to be avoided. Let the rich hear this, let the poor hear this: how this blessed man in his riches and prosperity was a kindly dispenser of his riches, and in the trial of poverty endured patiently and bravely. You see, therefore, that it is not impossible for a rich man to be in good works, and for a poor man to be able to be blessed through patience in want. I do not want you to say to me that you fear poverty. You fear poverty, and you do not dread sin? I do not want you to fear poverty: but fear iniquity, which is the mother of torments. The Lord asks wages of you, and you are unwilling to give to Him. For when you hear Him saying, "As long as you did it to one of these least," surely, if you give to a poor man, you lend at interest to Christ. If you draw back your hand from the poor man,

how and with what confidence will you too on that day ask mercy of the Lord? Will He not reprove you, saying: You saw Me naked, and did not cover Me; hungry, and did not feed Me (Matt. 25:40, 43)? What will you answer to this, and what pardon will you plead for? Will not your conscience make you guilty, and will you not be struck dumb? And you indeed are sated with many and costly or exquisite delicacies, sometimes even to the point of surfeit; and you neglect to give the poor man even simple food with which to drive off his hunger. You also go about clad in exceedingly costly garments; and to the naked poor man you give not even the cheapest garment. You strive to furnish or adorn your house with every pomp; perhaps you do not receive a stranger or a poor man even in a corner of it. But whoever is such, when the irrevocable end comes upon him, unless penance comes to his aid, will go down to the underworld naked of good works, while his house remains with all its adornment as a testimony to his avarice. For each of the passers-by will say: This house belonged to that robber, that plunderer, that miser. How many widows he afflicted, how many orphans he stripped bare, how many he made wretched, so that he might raise this house with such great expenditures gained from iniquity!

3. Not the rank of nobles is to be blamed, but their pride. How dear man is to God. But someone says: I am noble, and set in a position of honour. No one finds fault with nobility, no one disputes about these dignities, which are rightly granted to men by God. No one, therefore, ought to find fault with the rich who are set in honours, if they live justly and chastely and mercifully. But those are to be grieved over and mourned who, puffed up with the pride of their dignities, think that they will be immortal together with that very dignity; and they do not consider their condition, that they are from earth and will be reduced to dust, and that in return for the small gladness of this life (if indeed it is to be called gladness or life) they will endure everlasting torments. You look at the poor man, and you despise him, and you do not reflect that he is a man, just as you are too: man, the dear and beloved possession of God, man for whose sake the heaven was made firm, and the sea was spread out, the earth was founded; for whom the sun rises and sets, the moon waxes and wanes, the twinkling stars rise. Do you then despise the poor man, for whom God established things so great and of such a kind; finally, to say still more, for whom the Son of God took on human flesh, endured reproaches and scourges, bore the cross, and felt the bitterness of the scourge, tasted death, descended to the underworld, and by the price of His blood set free those who were held liable by the devil? Behold how great and what kind of things the divine goodness has granted to the human race. See then whether it is just that any poor man should be despised by us, on whom the divine goodness bestows so many benefits.

4. God's favour towards the poor. Let us love, then, dearest brothers, and let us not despise the poor or strangers; lest He despise us Who for our sake became poor, though He was rich (2 Cor. 8:9). Consider, brothers, and attend diligently, that from the beginning God willed to despise no poor man. For as you have often and attentively heard in the divine Scriptures, in order to repress the pride and vanity of the world, God did not choose rhetoricians, not eloquent men, not consuls, not the rich, not the powerful, to whom to entrust the secrets of His word: but either shepherds, such as the Patriarchs and blessed David; or fishermen, such as blessed Peter and the rest of the Apostles; so that through the weak He might destroy the strong, and through the lowly cast down the lofty and proud. Let us love the poor, then, so that we may have a share with Him Who said, Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart (Matt. 11:29). For because the human race had received a mortal wound through pride, Christ applied the remedy of humility. Do not, then, despise the humble poor man: who, though he is poor for himself, can make you rich. For let those who are rich imitate blessed Job, who humbly gave generous alms. Let them not be lifted up in prosperity: and if they suffer anything untoward, by the Lord's permission, let them not be cast down by adversity; and murmuring in nothing against the judgements of God, but with a humble and pious conscience, with blessed

Job let them say, 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: to Whom be honour and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto all ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 52. On blessed Job, 3; and on the words of Psalm 97:5-6, Sing psalms to the Lord on the cithara, etc.

1. Who sings psalms on the psaltery and the cithara. Job a beaten trumpet. Job afflicted for the purging of light sins. Blessed Job, dearest brethren, about whom yesterday's reading was recited to us, was so holy that in him was fulfilled that which the Holy Spirit said in the Psalm, Sing psalms to the Lord on the cithara and with the voice of a psalm. Take up not the voice alone, but works, so that we may not only sing but also work with our hands. He who sings and works sings psalms on the psaltery and the cithara; he who sings psalms on the psaltery sings divine words from heaven, but he who works with his hands accomplishes human works. Stretch out your hands and give to the poor man, clothe the naked, receive the stranger in hospitality. But when you do it, do it devoutly and cheerfully: recall that you are doing it to Him Who is going to say, I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat (Matt. 25:35). See what kinds of instruments are joined in the likenesses. With beaten trumpets, it says. Blessed Job, dearest brethren, was so full of the Spirit of God that like a beaten trumpet he sang the praises of the Lord sweetly. For thus is the sound concerning such men: With beaten trumpets and with the voice of the trumpet of horn. Beaten trumpets are of bronze, and they are drawn out by hammering. When, then, are they drawn out? When we suffer the persecution of wicked men, if we bear all things patiently and never murmur against the dispensation of the Lord, then by being beaten we shall be beaten trumpets drawn out for the praise of the Lord, if we make progress with tribulation. Tribulation is the hammering, progress is the drawing out. Blessed Job was a beaten trumpet when, struck by the devil with such great losses, afflicted even with the bereavement of his sons, he murmured against the Lord in nothing. By that hammering of so great a tribulation he was made a beaten trumpet. Let us therefore hear whether that trumpet sounded well. Hear: 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. See, brethren, how and how carefully it sounded, what a sweet sound it gave. Nor is this alone enough, unless it is hammered further. He was then given into the power of Satan, that his flesh might be struck. He was struck, he began to rot, so that swarming clusters of worms ploughed him up. Yet blessed Job himself, however just he was, was nevertheless not without sins. For he was not better than holy John the evangelist, who says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves (1 John 1:8). For by that most cruel punishment his small sins were being purged. Understanding this himself too, he gave thanks to God; and, as a most true judge of his own negligences, he scraped away the flowing pus not with soft linen but with a potsherd.

2. Job sick better than Adam whole. Yet of all his goods, the woman alone is kept back for him by the devil. Eve was set in place as his wife, as if for seduction. It was necessary that the wife should be kept back for him: not indeed for the comfort of her husband, but for the service of the devil. The woman suggested blasphemy: Job does not obey, but refuses. Adam did not repel Eve in paradise; Job repelled Eve on the dunghill. Job sat in dung, while he ran with worms and was rotting; but Job full of wounds in dung was better than Adam whole in paradise. Indeed his wife was still Eve; but he was no longer that Adam. What then did the woman say? Blaspheme God, and die.

3. The devil the hammer of the whole earth. Behold, we have heard how that trumpet is hammered. The devil struck him

from head to feet with a grievous wound, and, putrefying with worms, he sat on the dunghill. We have heard how he was beaten: let us hear, if you please, the sweet voice of this beaten trumpet. For he answered his wife: 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 strong sound! O sweet sound! Whom that is sleeping would this sound not awaken? Whom would confidence in the Lord not arouse, so that he may go forth secure into battle against the devil, not about to cover himself with his own strength, but to be protected by the help of God? For He gave the help Who permitted him to be tempted. For the devil would not beat of himself: for he will be able to do nothing except what the divine dispensation has permitted. For the prophet, recalling the future punishment of that devil, says, The hammer of the whole earth is broken (Jer. 50:23). By the hammer of the whole earth he wished the devil to be understood. With this hammer, placed in the hand of the Lord, that is, in the power of God, beaten trumpets are beaten, that is, holy souls, so that they may resound with the praises of God.

4. The just and the unjust are beaten by the devil. With this hammer both the just man and the sinner are beaten: the one that he may be proved; the other that he may be punished: or certainly that the just man may be increased in good things, and the sinner corrected from evil things. For under this hammer, placed in the hand, that is, in the power of the Lord, not only the humble but also the proud are beaten: but the humble are drawn out, the proud are shattered like glass. One and the same beating draws out the good to glory, reduces the wicked to ashes: so that there may be fulfilled in them that which is written, And it shall be like the dust which the wind casts from the face of the earth (Ps. 1:4). For as often as holy souls are beaten with this hammer, God dispensing or permitting it, they murmur in nothing, in nothing at all do they contradict; rather, humbly, like a beaten trumpet, they proclaim, Just art Thou, O Lord, and just are Thy judgements (Ps. 118:137); we still suffer less than we deserve. And this indeed is what holy souls say. But souls that are proud and liable to sins, as often as they are struck by some adversity, rebelliously presume to murmur against the Lord, saying: God, what have I done to Thee? Why do I suffer such great evils? To them divine justice replies in their conscience: You say well, O God, what have I done to Thee? It is true that you have done nothing to Me, but everything to yourself: for if you had done anything good, you would have done it for Me. But when you committed sins and crimes, you did everything to yourself, not to Me. And because whatsoever a man sows, that also shall he reap, it is not unjust that he who sowed wickedness should gather the thorns and thistles of sins. But let us, dearest brethren, hear the Apostle saying, Let us sow what is good towards all, especially towards those of the household of faith. Let us fear lest perhaps, if we sow in the flesh, according to the Apostle we should reap corruption from the flesh: but, as he himself attests, let us sow in the spirit, so that from the spirit we may reap life eternal (Gal. 6:8–10); to which may the Lord lead us under His protection, to Whom is honour and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 53. On the words of Psalm 49:20-23, Sitting against your brother you were disparaging, etc.

1. Almsgiving without zeal for justice. Frequently, dearest brethren, we sing with the Psalmist that little verse by which detractors are struck with a spiritual sword. For thus he says: Sitting against your brother you were disparaging, and against the son of your mother you were laying a stumbling-block.

Now as to his saying, Sitting, he wished to show by this that he disparaged not in passing, nor that it stole upon him unawares to speak ill of his neighbour. Sitting, that is, at leisure: as though free for this very purpose, that you might disparage the neighbour

of yours. These things you have done, and I was silent. Let no one, dearest brethren, deceive himself with a false security and think that he will not come before the judgement seat of Christ, nor render an account of his own deeds. For the Lord our God will come, and will not be silent. For now He is said to be silent, because He seems still to hold back vengeance. ] These things you have done, and I was silent. What is "I was silent", except: I have not taken vengeance, I have put off My severity, I have prolonged My patience towards you, I have long awaited your repentance? These things you have done, and I was silent. But while I was still waiting for you to repent, you both despised Me and refused to listen to the Apostle; but according to the hardness of your heart and your impenitent heart you have stored up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgement of God (Rom. 2:4–5).

2. The same argument is treated. You have wickedly supposed that I shall be like you. It is not enough that your evil deeds please you; you think they please Me as well. Because you do not at once suffer God as avenger, you want to hold Him as an accomplice, and you want to have Him as a corrupt judge, a partner in your plunder. [ Making small alms out of the many things you have seized, and still not forsaking your sins, you think you can buy Him off like a corrupt judge: whereas, even if you gave everything, and did not forsake those sins, you would deceive yourself, losing your money and not redeeming your sins. ] You have wickedly supposed that I shall be like you. I will rebuke you. For when the Lord our God comes, He will not be silent. I will rebuke you. And what shall I do by rebuking you? what shall I do to you? Now you do not see yourself: I make you see yourself; for if you saw yourself, and were displeasing to yourself, you would be pleasing to Me: but because, not seeing yourself, you have pleased yourself, you will be displeasing both to Me and to yourself; to Me, when you are judged; to yourself, when you burn. For what shall I do to you, He says?

3. Good things are to be set behind one's back, evil things before one's face.—I will set you before your face. For why do you wish to hide from yourself? You are behind your own back, you do not see yourself: I make you see yourself; what you have put behind your back, I shall put before your face. You will see your foulness, not so that you may correct it, but so that you may blush. [ For now, dearest brethren, all lovers of luxury, and those who commit iniquity with delight, cast their sins behind their back: but if by some chance or on any occasion whatever they have done something good, they set it before themselves; and they constantly boast of it, and say: I set that man free, I did good to that man, I gave that man so much. And while they ascribe to themselves the good things which God has done through them, through vanity they lose what they seem to acquire through almsgiving. And so before the judgement seat of Christ, having lost the good things which they had held before them, the sins which they had cast behind their back are called back before their face: and those who, while they lived, would not provide a remedy for themselves will endure punishment without any end. And these things indeed are done by those who love present things more than future ones. But those who think more attentively about the salvation of their soul do the contrary; whatever good things they have done, they cast behind their back; but whatever evil things have crept in upon them, they set before their eyes: and while they blush for them in the present age, they strive with the whole devotion of faith both to heal what is wounded, and to raise what is dead, and to wash away what is filthy: so that when they come before the judgement seat of Christ on the day of judgement, the evil things which they had set before their face, and which have been redeemed by good works, may be taken away; the good things which on account of vanity they had cast behind their back may be placed before their eyes, and they may deserve to hear, Come, blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom (Matt. 25:34). And although these things are so, yet we must not despair of those who not only still refuse to correct their evil deeds, but do not even blush to defend them: just as that city was not despaired of either, of which it was said, ] Three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown (Jonah 3:4). Yet in those very three days it was fit to be converted, to pray, to lament, and to merit mercy concerning the punishment that threatened. Let those, therefore, who are such hear, while

it is allowed to hear Him keeping silent [that is, not avenging in the present]. For He will come, and will not keep silent, and then He will rebuke, when there will be no place for correction. I will set you, He says, before your face. Now therefore, as has already been said above, you, whoever you are that are such, do what the Lord threatens to do to you: take yourself from behind your back, where you do not wish to see yourself, turning a blind eye to your deeds; and set yourself before yourself. Mount the tribunal of your mind, be judge to yourself, let fear torment you, let confession burst forth, say to your God: For I acknowledge my iniquity, and my offence is ever before me (Ps. 50:5). What was behind you, let it come before you; and when it has come before you, let it be punished by you: lest you yourself afterwards, by God as judge, be set before yourself, and there be nowhere for you to flee from yourself.

4. The wicked do not praise God, nor do the proud just. But understand these things, you who forget the Lord. — You were not thinking about your evil life: understand yourself, you who have forgotten the Lord. Lest at some time He seize you like a lion, and there be none to rescue. What is "like a lion"? As one mighty, as one strong, as He Whom no one can resist. [For those of whom we spoke above, that is, the lovers of the world, seem to praise God with their mouth; but they are shown to practise something far different in their works: according to what the prophet says, This people honours me with their lips; but their heart is far from me (Isa. 29:13). But the Holy Spirit cries out to them:] But to the sinner God said, Why do you declare my righteous deeds, and take up my covenant in your mouth? As if He were saying to him, It profits you nothing that you praise God. For to those who live well, it profits that they praise; but you, if you praise [and do not forsake your sins], it profits you nothing. Why do you praise me? [Hear the Scripture saying,] Praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner (Ecclus. 15:9). For if you live badly and say good things, you do not yet praise: but again, if, when you have begun to live well, you attribute it to your own merits, you do not yet praise. I do not want you to be the robber mocking the cross of the Lord: but neither do I want you to be that man in the temple boasting of his merits and hiding his wounds. If you are wicked, and persevering in that wickedness, I do not say to you, Your praise will not profit you; rather, you do not praise me, I do not reckon that to be praise. Again, if you are as it were righteous, that is, humble and devout, and yet go about puffed up with your righteousness, and despise others in comparison with yourself, or exalt yourself above them, as though glorying in your own merits, you do not praise me. Neither does he praise me who lives badly; nor does he praise me who lives well as if of his own. But was that Pharisee such as if of his own, when he said, I give Thee thanks, that I am not like the rest of men? He gave thanks to God for the good he had in himself. Although therefore there is something good in you, confess that what is good is not from you, but that you have received it from God. Yet if in that very thing you exalt yourself above another who does not have it, you will be held fast as proud, you will not yet be one who praises me. First therefore be corrected from your most wicked way, begin to live well, understand that you are not corrected except by the gift of God: For by the Lord the steps of a man will be directed (Ps. 36:23). When you have understood this, show goodwill to others too, that they may be what you also are: for you too were once what they are. Show goodwill as much as you can, and do not despair: for God is not rich only as far as you. [For what He has given to you, believe that He both wills and is able to give to others also.] So he does not praise who, when he has already begun to live well, thinks that his living well is of his own, not received from God: nor does he praise who, though he knows that he has received his living well from God, yet wants God to be rich only as far as himself [and does not want God to be merciful to others also]. So that man who said, I give Thee thanks, O God, that I am not like the rest of men, unjust, robbers, adulterers, as is this Publican too; could he not there also have said, Lord, give to this Publican too what Thou hast given to me, supply to me also what Thou hast not yet given? But already, as if sated, he was belching. But that poor man, that is, the Publican, what was he saying? Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.