Augustine, Sermones 359-363 (Classis IV, de Diversis)

there will be stillness. But when will there be supreme stillness, unless when the toilsome times have passed, the times of necessities by which we are now bound, as long as the earth brings forth thorns and thistles for sinful man, so that in the sweat of his face he may eat his bread? So when the times of the earthly man have been completed in every respect, and the day of the heavenly man has been perfected in every respect, we shall see supremely, because we shall be supremely still. For when corruption and need have been ended in the resurrection of the faithful, there will be nothing for which to toil. For just as if it were said, Recline and eat, so it has been said, Be still and see. So we shall be still and we shall see God as He is; and seeing, we shall praise God. And this will be the life of the saints, this the activity of those at rest, that we shall praise without failing. We shall not praise for one day; but just as that day has no limit of time, so our praise will have no limit of ceasing; and therefore we shall praise for ages of ages. Hear also the Scripture saying this to God, which we desire: Blessed are those who dwell in Thy house; for ages of ages they will praise Thee (Ps. 83:5). Turning to the Lord, let us beseech Him for ourselves and for all His people standing with us in the courts of His house, which may He deign to guard and protect; through Jesus Christ His Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Him for ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon 363. On the Canticle of Exodus. Chapter 15, verses 1-21.

1. In considering the holy Scriptures, the authority of those same Scriptures ought to guide us. Our understanding, dearest brethren, in considering and treating the holy Scriptures, ought to be guided by the most evident authority of those same Scriptures; so that, from the things which have been said openly for our nourishment, the things which have been said more obscurely for our exercise may be faithfully expounded. For who would dare to expound the divine mysteries otherwise than has been proclaimed and prescribed by the apostolic heart and mouth? Now the apostle Paul says: I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized in Moses, in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ. But in most of them God was not well pleased. For they were laid low in the desert. Now these things were made figures of us, so that we may not be desirers of evil things, as they also desired. And a little

after: "All these things," he says, "happened to them in figure; but they were written for our correction, upon whom the end of the ages has come" (1 Cor. 10:1–11).

2. The crossing of the Red Sea a figure of Baptism. Hence, therefore, dearly beloved, let none of the faithful doubt that the crossing of that people through the Red Sea was a figure of our Baptism: so that, set free through Baptism, under the leadership of our Lord Jesus Christ, Whose figure Moses then bore, from the devil and his angels, who like Pharaoh and the Egyptians were wearing us down, subject to the mud of the flesh, as if with the labours of bricks, [we may say,] "Let us sing to the Lord, for He has been gloriously magnified; horse and rider He has thrown into the sea." For they are dead to us, who can no longer lord it over us: since our very offences, which had made us subject to them, have been, as it were, submerged and blotted out in the sea, once we were set free by the washing of holy grace. Let us therefore sing to the Lord, for He has been gloriously magnified; horse and rider He has thrown into the sea: pride and the proud man He has blotted out in Baptism. For now it is the humble man, subject to God, who sings this song. For to the proud man, seeking his own glory and magnifying himself, the Lord has not been gloriously magnified. But the ungodly man justified, by believing in Him Who justifies the ungodly, so that his faith may be reckoned as righteousness (Rom. 4:5), so that the just man may live by faith (Rom. 1:17); lest, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and wishing to establish his own, he should not be subject to the righteousness of God (Rom. 10:3); most truly sings that the Lord is his helper and protector unto salvation, his God, Whom he honours. For he is not one of those exalted men who, knowing God, did not honour Him as God (Rom. 1:21). He says therefore, "The God of my father." For He is the God of father Abraham, who believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (Rom. 4:3). And therefore we little ones, presuming not on our own righteousness but on His grace, magnify the Lord, since He crushes battles, He Who is our peace. And therefore "The Lord is His name": to Whom we say in Isaiah, "Possess us" (Isa. 26:13). "The Lord is His name." We were not, and He made us; we had perished, and He found us; we had sold ourselves, and He bought us. "The Lord is His name." "Pharaoh's chariots and his army He has thrown into the sea." Both the exaltations of the world and the hosts of innumerable sins, which were fighting in us for the devil, He blotted out in Baptism. He had set riders in threes upon the chariots, who terrified us by pursuing us with the fear of pain, the fear of humiliation, the fear of death. All these were submerged in the Red Sea, because we have been buried together through Baptism into death (Rom. 6:4) with Him Who for us was scourged, dishonoured, and slain. Thus He covered all the enemies with the Red Sea, He Who by a bloody death, by which our sins might be consumed, consecrated Baptism. But if our enemies have gone down into the deep like a stone, it possesses them alone, and the hardness of the devil is with them alone, of whom it is written, "The sinner, when he has come into the depth of evils, shows contempt" (Prov.

18:3). For they do not believe that what they have done can be forgiven them: and by that despair they are plunged more heavily and more deeply. But, Thy right hand, O Lord, has been glorified in strength; Thy right hand, O Lord, has shattered the enemies; and in the multitude of Thy majesty, O Lord, Thou hast crushed the adversaries. For Thou didst send forth Thy wrath, and it devoured them like stubble. For we feared Thee being born, and we believed in Thee, and all our offences were consumed. For why was the water divided by the spirit of the wrath of the Lord, and they congealed like a wall of water, the waves congealed in the midst of the sea; when in that division of the water, the waves congealing, a way lay open for the people set free? Why then was the water not rather divided by the spirit of the mercy of the Lord; unless because the terror of the wrath of God, which that sinner who has come into the depth of evils despises, itself drives [him] to Baptism, so that through water that does not choke [us], but passing over by a way, we may be set free? The enemy said, I will pursue, and I will overtake; I will divide the spoils, and I will fill my soul; I will slay with my sword, my hand shall have dominion. And the enemy does not understand the power of the Lord's Sacrament, which is in saving Baptism, for those who believe and hope in Him: and he still thinks that sins can even have dominion over the baptized, because they are tempted by the frailty of the flesh, not knowing where, and when, and how the full renewal of the whole man is perfected, which in Baptism is begun, and foreshadowed, and is already held in most certain hope. For then both this mortal shall put on immortality, and, every principality and power having been utterly done away, God will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:53, 54, 24, 28). But now, as long as the body, which is corrupted, weighs down the soul (Wis. 9:15), the enemy says, I will pursue, and I will overtake. But Thou didst send forth Thy spirit, and the sea covered them. Now it is not called the spirit of the wrath of God, when the sea covered the enemies: and a little before it was said, by the spirit of Thy wrath the water was divided; although by this rather the people of God, passing through, was set free. But doubtless God seems not to be angry to the one whose sins go unpunished, and he grows the heavier. Hence, compared to lead, he goes down into the depths, so much the more, the more he sees those who have been justified by faith, and for the hope of the future life endure present evils, living in toils, in the bearing of which the Spirit of God strengthens them. God therefore sent His Spirit to console and exercise the righteous in toils; and the sea covered the ungodly, who not only thought there was no difference between themselves and those others, but rather reckoned that God was angry with those, since they were afflicted with such great tribulations, but propitious to themselves, since they rejoiced in such great prosperity. Thus they went down like lead into the most mighty water. Who is like Thee among the gods, O Lord? who is like Thee? glorious in the saints, who do not glory in themselves: wonderful in majesties, Thou Who workest wonders. For these things which were done then foretold something to come, since they were figures of us. Thou didst stretch out Thy right hand, the earth swallowed them up. Certainly no gaping of the earth swallowed up any of the Egyptians at that time; they were covered with water, they perished in the sea. What is

then, Thou didst stretch out Thy right hand, the earth swallowed them up? Or do we rightly understand as the right hand of God Him of Whom Isaiah says, And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed (Isa. 53:1)? For He is the only Son, Whom the Father did not spare, but delivered Him up for us all (Rom. 8:32). And so on the cross He stretched out His right hand, and the earth swallowed up the ungodly, when they thought themselves victors and Him contemptible. For the earth was given into the hands of the ungodly, and it covered the face of its judges (Job 9:24), that is, His divinity. Thus the Lord steered His people, as if carried by that wood, where the earth, that is, the flesh of the Lord stretched out, swallowed up the ungodly. For the people did not cross the sea by ship, so that "Thou didst steer" might be said in the proper sense. But Thou didst steer Thy people by Thy righteousness, a people not presuming on its own righteousness, but living by faith under Thy grace: this Thy people, whom Thou didst set free. For the Lord knows those who are His (2 Tim. 2:19).

3. The passage through the desert a figure of our pilgrimage in this life, in which we overcome our adversaries by the help of Christ. — Thou hast exhorted [them] in Thy strength, that is, in Thy Christ. Because what is weak of God is stronger than men (1 Cor. 1:25). And though He was crucified out of weakness, yet He lives by the power of God (2 Cor. 13:4). Thou hast exhorted [them] in Thy strength, and in Thy holy refreshment. For in this, that the mortality of the flesh was restored in Him through the resurrection, and that in Him this corruptible has already put on incorruption, we have been exhorted, hoping for what is to come, and on account of these things bearing all present things. For after Baptism there remains the passage through the desert, through the life that is lived in hope, until we come to the land of promise, the land of the living where the Lord is our portion, into the eternal Jerusalem; and until we come there, this whole life is a desert for us, and wholly a temptation. But in Him Who overcame the world, the people of God overcomes all things. For just as in Baptism past sins are blotted out, like enemies pursuing from behind: so after Baptism, on the journey of this life, when we eat spiritual food and drink spiritual drink, we overcome all that opposes us. For the name of our Commander terrified the enemies of our life. For first the wrath of the nations arose to destroy the Christian name; but when wrath could do nothing, it was turned into grief, and as faith grew more and more and took possession of everything, grief was turned into fear; so that even the proud of this world, like the birds of the sky, seek refuge and protection under the shade of that herb which grew great from the tiniest grain of mustard seed (Matt. 13:31–32). So too in this canticle, where the things are recalled which then happened among them in figure, the order of the wrath, the grief, and the fear of the nations has been kept. The nations heard, it says, and were angered; pains seized the inhabitants of Philistiim. Then the chiefs of Edom hastened, that is, they were thrown into confusion, and the princes of the Moabites: trembling seized them: all the inhabitants of Canaan wasted away. Let trembling fall upon them, and fear of the greatness of Thy arm. Let them become as

stones, until Thy people pass over, O Lord, until this Thy people pass over, whom Thou hast acquired. So it was done, so it is done. Stunned with amazement, the enemies of the Church become as stones, until we pass over to the homeland. But those too who attempt to resist, just as Amalek was then by the outstretched hands of Moses (Exod. 17), so now are overcome in the sign of the Lord's cross. And so we are brought in, and planted on the mountain of the Lord's inheritance, which from the small stone that Daniel saw grew and filled the whole earth (Dan. 2:34–35). This is the prepared dwelling of the Lord. For the temple of God is holy, and the sanctification of His house is that which is from Him. For the temple of God is holy, says the Apostle, which you are (1 Cor. 3:17). And lest anyone should look back to the earthly Jerusalem, where that temple bore a certain figure for a time, as was fitting, he signified that he was speaking of the eternal kingdom, which is the eternal inheritance of God, the eternal Jerusalem. For he went on to say: Which Thy hands have prepared, O Lord, Who reignest always, and for ever, and still more. Is there anything beyond "for ever"? Who would say so? Why then did he add "and still more"? Perhaps because "for ever" is accustomed to be understood also of an exceedingly long time, "and still more" was added for this purpose, so that the true "for ever", which is without end, might be understood. Or is it because God reigns "always" in the heavenly things, which He established for ever and ever, He laid down a precept and it shall not pass away (Ps. 148:6); and "for ever" in those to whom, having afterwards been converted from the transgression of the precept, He forgave their sins, and acquired them in time, and gave them blessedness without end; He reigns "and still more" over those whom He has set beneath the feet of His people in most just punishments? For no one is withdrawn from His kingdom, by Whose eternal law all creatures are held in check, in the dispensing of giving and repaying, in the deserts of rewards and punishments, and in a most just ordering. For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Jas. 4:6). For the cavalry of Pharaoh went into the sea with chariots and riders; and the Lord brought the waters of the sea upon them. But the children of Israel walked on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

4. What Miriam, singing along with the timbrel taken up, signifies. This Moses and the children of Israel sang, this Miriam the prophetess and the daughters of Israel with her, this we too now, whether men and women, or our spirit and flesh. For those who are Jesus Christ's, says the Apostle, have crucified their flesh with its passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24). This is fittingly understood to be signified by the timbrel, which Miriam took up so that she might sound in harmony with this song. For on wood the flesh is stretched, so that a timbrel may be made: and from the cross they learn to confess the sweet sound of grace. Made humble, therefore, through Baptism by the kindness of grace, and our pride having been extinguished there, through which the proud enemy was lording it over us, so that now he who glories may glory in the Lord (1 Cor. 1:31), let us sing to the Lord: for He has been gloriously magnified; horse and rider He has cast into the sea.