Appendix to Augustine's Sermones: Sermones supposititii, Sermones 63-76

standing to meet him or to help him, he was found worthy to behold (Acts 7:55).

6. Let humility be the companion of charity. But since you must run humbly if you wish to arrive quickly, see that you are running into Him, and through Him, and towards Him Who said: Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart (Matt. 11:29). Whatever good work you wish to offer to God, whether in almsgiving, or in fasting, or in prayer, you lose it all if you refuse to be meek and humble of heart with true charity. And therefore, as I have already suggested, among the other good works strive above all to hold fast to humility and charity, so that on these two holy and spiritual feet you may run faithfully and arrive happily at eternal blessedness; through Him Who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

Sermon 68. On the same words of the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7:13-14, Wide and spacious is the way, etc.

(This admonition contains how through the sin of the first man we were cast out of paradise into the hell of this world, so that we may not deserve to come by the weight of our sins to the lower hell, but may strive with all our strength to ascend by good works, as by certain steps, to the higher and principal homeland.)

1. Two hells. Adam after the fall between paradise and the lower hell. I know, dearest brethren, that your holy Charity cannot be ignorant that Adam our father was placed amid the delights of paradise; but that, at the persuasion of the devil, despising the commandments of God, he was cast down into the miseries of this world, as from a higher place to a lower. Paradise, then, is the upper place; this world is a hell. There is another hell, into which sinners and the ungodly are plunged after death. For that there are two hells the prophet clearly shows, saying: O God, Who hast rescued my soul from the lower hell (Ps. 85:13). For he would not say the lower hell unless he knew that there is also a higher one. But our God, compassionate and merciful, patient and very merciful, when by His just judgement He set us down in Adam our father from the height of paradise into the hell of this world, in His ineffable kindness did not will that we should come by our fall to the lower hell; but He placed us, as it were, in the middle between paradise and the lower hell: so that if we were willing to do penance, we might be found worthy to ascend to the height of the principal homeland; but if we chose to remain continually in that tyranny of pride through which, at the devil's persuasion, we fell, we would be pressed down by the weight of sin to the depths of the lower hell, whence there could no longer be any return.

2. The wide way leads to the lower hell, the narrow to paradise. Considering these things, therefore, dearest brethren, not in passing but with great fear and trembling, let us understand that we have been placed in this upper hell by the mercy of God, so that we may desire rather to return by the steps of good works to Him Who created us than to descend with him who deceived us to the depths of the lower hell. And since we have been placed as it were between water and fire, as between the highest good and the highest evil, as between the ruin of the lower hell and the height of paradise, let us hear the Lord crying out in the Scriptures with wonderful kindness: I have set you, He says, between death and life; choose life, that you may live (Deut. 30:19). Of these two ways the Lord admonished us in the Gospel when He said: Wide and spacious is the way that leads to death, and many are they who enter by it; narrow and strait is the way that leads to life, and few are they who find it. And since by the narrow and strait way one returns to paradise, and by that wide one one descends into that lower hell, while we still can with God's help and it lies in our power, as we have already suggested above, let us strive rather to climb up by the narrow and strait way to paradise than by that wide and spacious one to hell's

punishments to arrive.

3. Who walk along the broad way, and who along the narrow. Brief is either the toil or the gladness of each way. But perhaps someone says: I should like to know who they are who go down the broad [way] with perilous joy, and who they are who climb up the narrow and strait [way] with toil. For all lovers of the world, the proud, the avaricious, robbers, the envious, drunkards, and those who commit adulteries, who have deceitful scales and double measures, who keep hatred in their heart, who render evil for evil, who love spectacles either bloody and frenzied or shameful, are proved to be going down the broad and spacious [way]: but the chaste and sober, the merciful, those who hold to justice, who give alms according to their strength with a ready and cheerful mind, who keep hatred in their heart against no man, ascend by the narrow and strait way to the things above. And although they may still seem to dwell here in the body on earth, yet, according to the Apostle, their conversation is in heaven (Phil. 3:20): so that when the priest says, Lift up your hearts, they may answer with assurance that they have them lifted to the Lord. Consider, I beg you, brethren; and not only with sorrow but also with fear rebuke those who are being hurled headlong along the broad and spacious way, telling them and testifying to them that after a brief joy they will have punishment without end. But rejoice together with those who strive to ascend by the narrow and strait [way], and faithfully join yourselves to them, and strive with them to attain to the height or blessedness of eternal life. Do not fear because you will have toil on the way: but rejoice, because you will find a great reward in the homeland. Wherefore again and again I beg you, dearest brethren, that we both consider the eternal joy of the just after a little toil, and fear the punishment without any end of sinners after a passing gladness; considering that not even those who are seen to ascend with toil by the narrow and strait [way] are seen to toil for a long time. For just as those who serve avarice or lust with unhappy joy will, when the journey of the broad way is finished, burn with the devil in hell: so on the contrary those who despise the false joys of the broad way or of a luxurious life will, when they have completed the course of the narrow way, deserve to attain to the fellowship of the Angels in heaven.

4. Let the sick man who desires health join himself to the physician, not to the disease. And since we have spoken of the upper paradise, the place where true blessedness is, and of the two hells, and have briefly shown, according to the capacity that God has given, what we ought to flee and what to desire, there are three other things pertaining to the same matter which we wish to make known to your Charity. For there are three things about which we both can and ought to think profitably and faithfully: and these three we frequently recognize, even with bodily eyes, taking place in human life. For there is the physician, the sick man, and the disease. If the sick man joins himself with the physician, they are two, [and] the disease is overcome. If the sick man chooses to join himself to the disease rather than to the physician, there too, because they are two, the physician is overcome: for if he consented to the physician, the disease perishing, the sick man would escape; since [the disease] could in no way overcome two fighting against it. Attend carefully to why I have set forth this comparison. The physician is God: the sick man is man; sin is the disease. If the sinner joins himself with God, Who is the true physician, at once the disease perishes. But if the unhappy sinner loves his disease, so that he would rather join himself to his sins, as to deadly diseases, than cleave to the heavenly physician, he not only does not consent to accuse his disease, that is, his sin, but even strives with most shameless brow to defend it: while he wishes to join himself to his sins, he seems as it were to overcome the heavenly physician; but through this unhappy victory he goes down to Gehenna as by the broad and spacious way. For if he had been willing to consent to the physician, sin perishing as a most cruel disease, he would have deserved to ascend by the narrow and strait way into heaven.

5. An exhortation to almsgiving, prayers and fasts. Therefore, dearest brethren, thinking faithfully on these things,

it still lies within our power, with God's help, let us shudder at the wounds of our sins as at deadly poisons, and, persevering in almsgiving, prayers and fasting, and above all in charity, which loves not only friends but even enemies themselves, let us have recourse, as through spiritual medicines, to the mercy of that heavenly Physician for the recovery of the health of our souls. For He Himself said, I do not want the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live; and again, when you have been converted and have groaned, you will be saved (Ezek. 33:11). May He in His loving-kindness lead us to that salvation, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 69. On the same passage of Matthew, chapter 7, 13, 14: on the pilgrimage of Christians and on the two ways, the one to heaven, the other to hell.

1. Those who are absent in body are together in love. Our sermon to you, dearest brethren, is about what you heard in the Gospel, Narrow and strait is the way that leads to life; and broad, that which leads to death: or rather, about the pilgrimage of Christians. If the constraint of the times permitted, dearest brethren, we would wish to visit you not only once a year, but even a second or a third time, so that we might satisfy both our own desires and yours together by seeing you face to face. But the will desires it, the constraint of the times does not permit it: yet it is no hindrance to us or to you that we see one another in the body only rather seldom, since in love and charity we are always together. For in this pilgrimage of this world, even if we could be in one city, we could not be together. For there is another city, where good Christians are never separated from one another.

2. There are two cities, the world and heaven. Let him who wishes to be a citizen of heaven be a pilgrim in this age. The homeland, city, fellow citizens, parents and king of Christians. There are two cities, dearest brethren: one is the city of the world; the other is the city of paradise. In the city of the world the good Christian is always a pilgrim; in the city of paradise he is recognized as a citizen. This is a city of toil, that one of rest; this one wretched, that one blessed: in this one there is labour, in that one there is gladness and rest: whoever lives wickedly in this one will not be able to reach that one. We ought to be pilgrims in this age, so that we may deserve to be citizens in heaven. Whoever loves the world and wishes to be a citizen in the world has no share in heaven. For by this we prove that we are pilgrims, if we long for the heavenly homeland. Let no one deceive himself, most beloved brethren: the homeland or city of Christians is not here; the true blessedness and eternal happiness of Christians is not here. Whoever seeks happiness in the world will not have it in heaven. Our homeland is paradise, our city is that heavenly Jerusalem; our fellow citizens are the Angels, our parents are the Patriarchs and Prophets, the Apostles and martyrs; our king is Christ. Let us therefore so live in this pilgrimage that, as long as we are here, we may be able to long for such a homeland. For whoever chooses to live wickedly cannot long for that homeland.

3. The joy of the saints at our good life, their sorrow at our bad one. Already the glorious army of many Patriarchs and Prophets, and also of Apostles and martyrs, has gone before us to that homeland, and many thousands of confessors and virgins, and no small number of faithful peoples: all of whom, now established in blessed rest, await us daily with the outstretched arms of charity, longing and praying alike that they may receive us as victors, with triumph and exultation, into that homeland of paradise from the arena of this world, in which we must fight against the devil. For if

we do well, if we despise diabolical sins and deadly delights in this world, we produce joys for all of them in heaven; but if we despise God and love the world, we embrace crimes and sins; we indeed sadden all of them, as we said above, the angels, apostles and martyrs in heaven, and prepare for ourselves an eternal burning.

4 Christ watches and helps those who fight for Him. The differing promises of Christ and of the devil. Behold, Christ in heaven with His angels watches us, how we fight back against the devil and his angels. Let us not fear, brethren, for Christ not only watches us, but also helps us. Do not fear, do not despair: the devil does indeed rage; but Christ will hold out consolation. He watches you as you fight, helps you as you labour, crowns you as you conquer: do not despair, do not give in. You have such a Commander over you, and are you afraid? Consider what it is that the devil promises you, and what it is that Christ is going to give you. The devil promises false sweetness, Christ true blessedness: the devil thrusts upon you the vain joys of the world, Christ the true blessedness of paradise. The devil through adultery provides the delight of one hour's lust, so as to kill the immortal soul: Christ commends to you the chastity of the few days in which you live in the world, so as to render to you the likeness of the angels in heaven. The devil by the broad and spacious way of luxury entices you into hell: Christ by the narrow and strait way of chastity and mercy invites you into heaven.

5 The freedom to choose the right-hand way or the left. The sweetness of the broad way is brief and false, but its punishment long: of the narrow way, the contrary. Behold, man, you have water and fire, life and death; you have before you good and evil, you have hell and the kingdom, you have the false sweetness of the world and the true blessedness of paradise. Power has been given to you through the grace of Christ: stretch out your hand to whichever you wish: choose life, that you may live (Deut. 30:19); leave the left-hand and spacious way, which draws to death, and keep to the right-hand and narrow one, which leads you happily to life. Let the left-hand way not hold you, not delight you. Its breadth is indeed ample and level, and adorned with various flowers: but its flowers quickly wither, and among those very flowers venomous serpents often hide themselves; so that while you run to false joys, you may be struck by deadly venom. It is wide, but not long. You pay attention to the kind of road by which you go; and you do not pay attention to the kind of homeland at which you arrive. If you do not believe me, you are drawing yourself away to death: nay, if you do not believe in Christ, you will perish in hell. For so the Lord Himself said in the Gospel: Broad and spacious is the way that leads to death, and many there are who enter by it. It delights indeed; but it deceives. On the contrary, let the right-hand way not sadden or frighten you: it is narrow indeed, but not long. Neither in that broad way does one rejoice for long, nor in this narrow one does one labour for long. That one, after a brief breadth, draws to eternal straits; this one, after brief straits, leads to eternal blessedness.

6. We must labour to win for ourselves joy in heaven by good works. So then, with God's help, let us strive to labour, brethren, and, rejecting sins, let us adorn ourselves with good works: so that our King Christ, our fellow citizens the angels, our parents the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors and virgins, who have already happily gone before us into our city, the heavenly Jerusalem, may receive us with joy and exultation. So then let us act, brethren, that through our good works there may be joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance; as the Lord Himself formerly deigned to foretell (Luke 15:7). If then we make joy in heaven when we do penance, surely we produce sadness when we run back to the pleasure of our sins.

7. Whole charity. Therefore, dearest brethren, that we may, with God's help, escape all sins, let us be eager to keep charity whole, and to love not only friends but also enemies, and to be willing to make supplication for all, to pray for all men. If