contradictory, may be harmonized by one rule of sound faith. The pious inquirer wil find all perplexity removed by a careful eX' amination.
7. That the Son of God was made man of th( seed of David, is not only said in other place " by Paul, but is taught elsewhere in sacrec Scripture. As regards the words, " Thougl we have known Christ after the flesh, yet nov henceforth know we Him no more," the con; text shows what is the apostle's meaningl Here, or elsewhere, he views with an assurecT hope, as if it were already present and iij actual possession, our future life, whicii i| now fulfilled in our risen Head and Mediatorl the man Christ Jesus. This life will certainlj| not be after the flesh, even as Christ's life ij now not after the flesh. For by flesh thi apostle here means not the substance of ou bodies, in which sense the Lord used th| 4 [This is an excellent statement of the doctrine of Scripturaj authoi-ity, that has been held to by Protestants with far more coif sistency than by Catholics. — A. H. N.]
Book XL] REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICH.-EAN.
l8l word when, after His resurrection, He said, " Handle me, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have,"' but the corruption and mortaUty of flesh, which will then not be in us, as now it is not in Christ. The apostle uses the word flesh in the sense of corruption in the passage about tlie resurrection quoted before: *' P'^lesh and l)lood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither shall corruption inherit incorruption." So, after the event described in the next verse, '' Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall all rise, but we shall not all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at liie last trump (for the trumpet shall sound); and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptic must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality," - — then flesh, in the sense of the substance of the body, will, after this change, no longer have flesh, in the sense of the corruption of mortality; and yet, as regards its own nature, it will be the same flesh, the same which rises and which is langed. What the Lord said after His resurrection is true, " Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have; " and what the apostle says is true, " Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." The first is said of the bodily substance, which exists as the subject of the change: the second is said of the cor- ruption of the flesh, which will cease to exist, for. after its change, flesh will not be cor- rupted. So, "we have known Christ after • '• flesh," that is, after the mortality of flesh, ocfore His resurrection; " now henceforth 'we know Him no more,'' because, as the same npostle says, "Christ being risen from the dead, dieth no more, and death hath no more dominion over Him.''^ The words, "we have known Christ after the flesh," strictly speaking, imply that Christ was after the flesh, for what never was cannot be known. And it is not " we have supposed," but " we ve known." But not to insist on a word, i case some one should say that ktiown is sed in the sense of supposed, it is astonishg, if one could be surprised at want of sight M a blind man, that these blind people do it perceive that if what the apostle says -out not knowing Christ after the flesh M'oves that Christ had not flesh, then what le says in the same place of not knowing any 5ne henceforth after the flesh proves that all hose here referred to had not flesh. For vhen he speaks of not knowing any one, he innot intend to speak only of Christ; but in ' Luke xxiv. 39.
3 Rom. vi. 9.
his realization of the future life with those who are to be changed at the resurrection, he says, " Henceforth we know no man after the flesh; " that is, we have such an assured hope of our future incorruption and immortality, that the thought of it makes us rejoice even now. So he says elsewhere: " If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things that are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affections upon things above, and not on things on the earth." '^ It is true we have not yet risen as Christ has, but we are said to have risen with Him on account of the hope which we have in Him. So again he says: "According to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regenera- tion. "^ Evidently what we obtain in the washing of regeneration is not the salvation itself, but the hope of it. And yet, loecause this hope is certain, we are said to be saved, as if the salvation were already bestowed. Elsewhere it is said explicitly: "We groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, even the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope. But hope which is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for what we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."^ The apostle says not, "we are to be saved," but, "we are now saved," that is. in hope, though not yet in reality. And in the same way it is in hope, though not 3'et in reality, that we now know no man after the flesh. This hope is in Christ, in whom what we hope for as promised to us has already been ful- filled. He is risen, and death has no more dominion over Him. Though we have known Him after the flesh, before His death, when there was in His body that mortality which the apostle properly calls flesh, now hence- forth know we Him no more; for that mortal of His has now put on immortality, and His flesh, in the sense of mortality, no longer exists.
8. The context of the passage containing this clause of which our adversaries make such a bad use, brings out its real meaning. " The love of Christ,'' we read, " constrains us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but to Him who died for them, and rose again. Therefore hence- forth know we no man after the flesh; and though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more." The words, " that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto 4 Col. ill. I, 2.
5 Tit. iii. 5.
l82 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book XI.
Him who died for them, and rose again," show plainly that the resurrection of Christ is the ground of the apostle's statement. To live not to themselves, but to Him, must mean to live not after the flesh, in the hope of earthly and perishable goods, but after the spirit, in the hope of resurrection, — a resur- rection already accomplished in Christ. Of those, then, for whom Christ died and rose again, and who live henceforth not to them- selves, but to Him, the Apostle says that he knows no one after the flesh, on account of the hope of future immortality to which they were looking forward, — a hope which in Christ was already a reality. So, though he has known Christ after the flesh, before His death, now he knows Him no more; for he knows that He has risen, and that death has no more dominion over Him. And because in Christ we all are even now in hope, though not in reality, what Christ is, he adds: " Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself by Christ.''' What the new creature — that is, the people renewed by faith — hopes for regarding itself, it has already in Christ; and the hope will also hereafter be actually realized. And, as regards this hope, old things have passed away, because we are no longer in the times of the Old Testament, expecting a temporal and carnal kingdom of God; and all things are become new, making the promise of the kingdom of heaven, where there shall be no death or corruption, the ground of our confidence. But in the resur- rection of the dead it will not be as a matter of hope, but in reality, that old things shall pass away, when the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed; and all things shall become new when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality. This has already taken place in Christ, whom Paul accordingly, in reality, knew no longer after the flesh. But not yet in reality, but only in hope, did he know no one after the flesh of those for whom Christ died and rose again. For, as he says to the Ephesians, we are al- ready saved by grace. The whole passage is to the purpose: " But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by whose grace we have been saved." The words, " hath quickened us together with Christ," correspond to what he said to the Corinthians, " that they which live should no longer live to themselves, but to Him that died for them and rose again." And in the words, " by whose grace we have been saved," he speaks of the thing hoped for 3s already accomplished. So, in the passage quoted above, he says explicitly, "We have been saved by hope.'' And here he proceeds to specify future events as if al- ready accomplished. "And has raised us up together," he says, "and has made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," Christ is certainly already seated in heavenly places, but we not yet. But as in an assured hope we already possess the future, he says that we sit in heavenly places, not in our- selves, but in Him, And to show that it is still future, in case it should be thought that what is spoken of as accomplished in hope has been accomplished in reality, he adds, " that He might show in the ages to come the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus." ^ So also we must understand the following passage: " For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our mem- bers to bring forth fruit unto death." ^ He says, " when we were in the flesh," as if they were no longer in the flesh. He means to say, when we were in the hope of fleshly things, referring to the time when the law, which can be fulfilled only by spiritual love, was in force, in order that by transgression the offence might abound, that after the revelation of the New Testament, grace and the gift by grace might much more abound. And to the same effect he says elsewhere, " They which are in the flesh cannot please God;" and then, to show that he does not mean those not yet dead, he adds, " But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit."-* The meaning is, those who are in the hope of fleshly good cannot please God; but you are not in the hope of fleshly things, but in thej hope of spiritual things, that is, of the king- dom of heaven, where the body itself, which! now is natural, will, by the change in the! resurrection, be, according to the capacity of' ks nature, a spiritual body. For "it is sown a natural body, it will be raised a^ spiritual: body." If, then, the apostle knew no onei after the flesh of those who were said to be| not in the flesh, because they were not in the hope of fleshly things, although they stilll were burdened with corruptible and mortal™ flesh; how much more significantly could hC' say of Christ that he no longer knew Him after the flesh, seeing that in the body of|J Christ what they hoped for had already been| accomplished! Surely it is better and more I 2 Cor. V. 14- iS.
2 Eph. ii. 4-7.
3 Rom. vii. 5.
4 Rom. viii. S, 9.
Book XII.]
REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICH^AN.
183 I reverential to examine the passages of sacred • Scripture so as to discover tlieir agreement ' with one another, than to accept some as true, and condemn others as false, whenever any difficulty occurs beyond the power of our weak intellect to solve. As to the apostle in his childhood understanding as a child, this is said merely as an illustration.' And when he was a child he was not a spiritual man, as he was when he produced for the edification of the'churches those writings which are not, as other books, merely a profitable study, but which authoritatively claim our belief as part of the ecclesiastical canon.
' I Cor. xiii. II.
■ BOOK XII.
FAUSTUS DENIES THAT THE PROPHETS PREDICTED CHRIST, AUGUSTIN PROVES SUCH PREDICTION FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT, AND EXPOUNDS AT LENGTH THE PRINCIPAL TYPES OF CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.
I. Faustus said: Why do I not believe the prophets? Rather why do you believe them? On account, you will reply, of their prophecies about Christ. For my part, I have read the prophets with the most eager attention, and have found no such prophecies. And surely it shows a weak faith not to be- lieve in Christ without proofs and testimonies. Indeed, you yourselves are accustomed to teach that Christian faith is so simple and absolute as not to admit of laborious investi- gations. Why, then, should 3'ou destroy the simplicity of faith by buttressing it with evi- dences, and Jewish evidences too? Or if you are changing your opinion about evidences, what more trustworthy witness could you have than God Himself testifying to His own Son when He sent Him on earth, — not by a prophet or an interpreter,- — by a voice im- mediately from heaven: " This is my beloved Son, believe Him?" ' And again He testifies of Himself: " I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; "^ and in many similar passages. When the Jews quarrelled with this 'testimony, saying "Thou bearest witness of thyself, thy witness is not true," He replied: "Although I bear witness of myself, my witness is true. It is written in your law, The witness of two men is true. I am ae that bear witness of myself, and the lather who sent me beareth witness of me." ^ He doe£ not mention the prophets. Again He appeals to the testimony of His own works, saying, " If ye believe not me, believe the jworks; " ■* not, " If ye believe not me, believe jthe prophets." Accordingly we require no tes- Itimonies concerning our Saviour. All we look I for in the prophets is prudence and virtue, 'and a good example, which, you are well aware, are not to be found in the Jewish Iprophets. This, no doubt, explains your re- jferring me at once to their predictions as a ■ Matt. iii. 17. 3 John viii. 13-18.
reason for believing them, without a word about their actions. This may be good policy, but it is not in harmony with the declaration of Scripture, that it is impossible to gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles. This may serve meanwhile as a brief and suffi- cient reply to the question, why we do not believe the prophets. The fact that they did not prophesy of Christ is abundantly proved in the writings of our fathers. I shall only add this, that if the Hebrew prophets knew and preached Christ, and yet lived such vicious lives, what Paul says of the wise men among the Gentiles might be applied to them: " Though they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, nor were thankful; but they be- came vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." ^ You see the knowledge of great things is worth little, un- less the life corresponds.
2. AuGUSTiN replied: The meaning of all this is, that the Hebrew prophets foretold no- thing of Christ, and that, if they did, their predictions are of no use to us, and they themselves did not live suitably to the dignity of such prophecies. We must therefore prove the fact of the prophecies; and their use for the truth and steadfastness of our faith; and that the lives of the prophets were in har- mony with their words. In this threefold dis- cussion, it would take a long time under the first head to quote from all the books the passages in which Christ may be shown to have been predicted. Faustus' frivolity may be met effectually by the weight of one great authority. Although Faustus does not be- lieve the prophets, he professes to believe the apostles. A.bove, as if to satisfy the doubts of some opponent, he declares that he assur- edly believes the Apostle Paul.^ Let us then hear what Paul says of the prophets. His words are: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, 5 Rom. i. 21.
6 Lib.
1 84 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book Xll.
called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which He had promised before by His prophets in the holy Scriptures, con- cerning His Son, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh." ' What more does Faustus wish? Will he maintain that the apostle is speaking of some other prophets, and not of the Hebrew prophets > In any case, the gospel spoken of as promised was concerning the Son of God, who was made for Him of the seed of David according to the flesii; and to this gospel the apostle says that he was separated. So that the Manichsean heresy is opposed to faith in the gospel, which teaches that tlie Son of God was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. Be- sides, there are many passages where the apostle plainly testifies in behalf of the Hebrew prophets, with an authority by which the necks of these proud Manichaeans are broken.
3. "I speak the truth in Christ/' says the apostle, "I lie not, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever."- Here is the most abun- dant and express testimony and the most solemn commendation. The adoption here spoken of is evidently through the Son of God; as the apostle says to the Galatians: " In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the lav/, that He might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." 3 And the glory spoken of is chiefly that of which he says in the same Epistle to the Romans: "What advantage hath the Jew? or what profit is there in circumcision? Much every way: chiefly > because unto them were committed the oracles of God."'* Can the JNIanichjEans tell us of any oracles of God committed to the Jews besides those of the Hebrew prophets? And why are the cov- enants said to belong especially to the Israel- ites, but because not only was the Old Testa- ment given to them, but also the New was prefigured in the Old? Our opponents often display much ignorant ferocity in attacking the dispensation of the law given to the Israelites, not understanding that God wishes us to be not under the law, but under grace. They are here answered by the apostle him- self, who, in speaking of the advantages of the Jfews, mentions this as one, that they had the giving of the law. If the law had been bad, the apostle would not have referred to it in praise of the J ews. A nd if Christ had not been preached by the law, the Lord Himself would not have said, "If ye believe Moses, yai would have believed me, for he wrote of me; "5 nor would He have borne the testi- mony He did after His resurrection, saying, "All things must needs be fulfilled that were written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me."* 4. But because the Manichseans preach another Christ, and not Him whom the apos- tles preached, but a false Christ of their own false contrivance, in imitation of whose false- hood they themselves speak lies, though they may perhaps be believed whqn they are not ashamed to profess to be the followers of a deceiver, that has befallen them which the apostle asserts of the unbelieving Jews: "When Moses is read, a veil is upon their heart." Neither will this veil which keeps them from understanding Moses be taken away from them till they turn to Christ; not a Christ of their own making, but the Christ of the Hebrew prophets. For, as the apostle says, " When thou shalt turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away." ^ We cannot won- der that they do not believe in the Christ who rose from the dead, and who said, "All things must needs be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me;'' for this Christ has Himself told us what Abraham said to a hard-hearted rich man when he was in torment in -hell, and asked Abraham to send some one to his brothers to teach them, that they might not come too into that place of torment. Abra- ham's reply was: " They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them." And when the rich man said that they would not believe unless some one rose from the dead, he re- ceived this most truthful answer: " If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe even though one rose from the dead."^ Wherefore, the Manichseans will not hear Moses and the prophets, and so they do not believe Christ, though He rose from the dead. Indeed, they do not even believe that Christ rose from the dead. For how can they believe that He rose, when they do not believe that He died? For, again, how S John V. 46.
6 Luke xxiv. 44. 8 Luke xvi. 27-^1 Book XII.]
REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICH^AN.
185 can they believe that He died, when they deny that He had a mortal body?
5. But we reject those false teachers whose Christ is false, or rather, whose Christ never existed. For we have a Christ true and truth- ful, foretold by the prophets, preached l)y the apostles, who in innumerable places refer to the testimonies of the law and the prophets in support of their preaching. Paul, in one short sentence, gives the right view of this subject. "Now," he says, "the righteous- ness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. ' ' ' What prophets, if not of Israel, to whom, as he expressly says, pertain the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the promises? And what promises, but about Christ? Elsewhere, speaking of Christ, he says concisely: "All the promises of God are in Him yea. ' ' - Paul tells me that the giving of the law pertained to the Israelites. He also tells me that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. He also tells me that all the promises of God are in Christ yea. And you tell me that the prophets of Israel foretold nothing of Christ. Shall I believe the absurdities of Manichsus relating a vain and long fable in opposition to Paul? or shall I believe Paul when he forewarns us: "If any man preach to you another gospel than that which we have preached, let him be accursed? " 6. Our opponents may perhaps ask us to point out passages where Christ is predicted by the prophets of Israel. One would think they might be satisfied with the authority of the apostles, who declare that what we read in the writings of the Hebrew prophets was fulfilled in Christ, or with that of Christ Him- self, who says that these things were written of Him. Whoever is unable to point out the passages should lay the blame on his own ig- norance; for the apostles and Christ and the sacred Scriptures are not chargeable with falsehood. However, one instance out of many may be adduced. The apostle, in the verses following the passage quoted above, says: " The word of God cannot fail. For they are not all Israel which are of Israel; neither, because they are the seed of Abra- ham, are they all children: but. In Isaac shall thy seed be called: that is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the diildren of God; but the children of promise are counted for the seed."^ What can our opponent says against this, in view of the declaration made to Abraham: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed?"
' Rom. iii. 21.
2 Cor. i. 20.
3 Rom. ix. 6-S,