might be the father of all that believe in un- circumcision; that he might be the father of circumcision not only to those who are of the circumcision, but also to those who follow the 4 Gal. iii. 6, 8.
I Book XIII.]
REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICH^AN.
199 footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham in uncircumcision." ' Since the righteous- ness of Abraham's faith is thus set forth as an example to us, that we too, being justified by faith, may have peace with God, we ought to understand his manner of life, without finding fault with it; lest, by a premature separation from mother-Church, we prove abortions, instead of being brought forth in due time, when the conception has arrived at completeness.
48. This is a brief reply to Faustus in be- half of the character of the patriarchs and prophets. It is the reply of the babes of our faith, among whom I would reckon myself, inasmuch as I would not find fault with the life of the ancient saints, even if I did not understand its mystical character. Their life ' Rom. iv. II, 12.
' Rom. iv. II, 12.
is proclaimed to us with approval by the apos- tles in their Gospel, as they themselves in their prophecy foretold the future apostles, that the two Testaments, like the seraphim, might cry to one another, " Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts." ^ When Faustus, instead of the vague general accusation which he makes here, condemns particular actions in the lives of the patriarchs and the prophets, the Lord their God, and ours also, will assist me to reply suitably and appropriately to the separate charges. For the present, the reader must choose whether to believe the commenda- tion of the Apostle Paul or the accusations of Faustus the Manichsean.^ - Isa. vi. 3.
3 [It is unnecessary to point out in detail the vicious elements in Auijustin's allegorizing and typologizing. It should be said that his exegetical fancies were not original, but were derived from Philo, Ctrigen, and their followers. — A, H. N.]
BOOK XIII.
FAUSTUS ASSERTS THAT EVEN IF THE OLD TESTAMENT COULD BE SHOWN TO CONTAIN PREDIC- TIONS, IT WOULD BE OF INTEREST ONLY TO THE JEWS, PAGAN LITERATURE SUBSERVING THE SAME PURPOSE FOR GENTILES. AUGUSTIN SHOWS THE VALUE OF PROPHESY FOR GENTILES AND JEWS ALIKE.
I. F.A.USTUS said: We are asked how we worship Christ when we reject the prophets, who declared the promise of His advent. It is doubtful whether, on examination, it can 1)6 shown that the Hebrew prophets foretold our Christ, that is, the Son of God. But were it so, what does it matter to us? If these testimonies of the prophets that you speak of were the means of converting any one from Judaism to Christianity, and if he should afterwards neglect these prophets, he \vould certainly be in the wrong, and would be chargeable with ingratitude. But we are by nature Gentiles, of the uncircumcision; as Paul says, born under another law. Those whom the Gentiles call poets were our first religious teachers, and from them we were afterwards converted to Christianity. We did not first become Jews, so as to reach Chris- tianity through faith in their prophets; but were attracted solely by the fame, and the virtues, and the wisdom of our liberator Jesus Christ. If I were still in the religion of my fatliers, and a preacher were to come using the prophets as evidence in favor of Chris- tianity, I should think him mad for attempt- ing to support what is doubtful by what is still more doubtful to a Gentile of another re- ligion altogether. He would require first to persuade me to believe the prophets, and then through the prophets to believe Christ. And to prove the truth of the prophets, other prophets would be necessary. For if the prophets bear witness to Christ, who bears witness to the prophets? You will perhaps say that Christ and the prophets mutually support each other. But a Pagan, who has nothing to do with either, would believe neither the evidence of Christ to the prophets, nor that of the prophets to Christ. If the Pagan becomes a Christian, he has to thank his own faith, and nothing else. Let us, for the sake of illustration, suppose ourselves conversing with a Gentile incjuirer. We tell him to believe in Christ, because He is God. He asks for proof. We refer him to the prophets. He asks. What prophets? We re- ply, The Hebrew. He smiles, and says that he does not believe them. We remind him that Christ testifies to them. He replies, laughing, that we must first make him believe in Christ. The result of such a conversation IS that we are silenced, and the inquirer de- l^arts, thinking us more zealous than wise. Again, I say, the Christian Ciiurch, which consists more of Gentiles than of Jews, can owe nothing to Hebrew witnesses. If, as is said, any prophecies of Christ are to be found 200 200 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book XIII.
in the Sibyl,' or in Hermes,^ called T'-is- megistus, or Orpheus, or any heathen poet, they might aid the faith of those who, like us/ are "converts from heathenism to Chris- tianity. But the testimony of the Hebrews is useless to us before conversion, for then we cannot believe them; and superfluous after, for we believe without them.
2. AuGUSTiN replied: After the long reply of last book, a short answer may suffice here. To one who has read that reply, it must seem insanity in Faustus to persist in denymg that Christ was foretold by the Hebrew prophets, when the Hebrew nation was the only one in which the name Christ had a peculiar sacred- ness as applied to kings and priests; in which sense it continued to be applied till the com- ing of Him whom those kings and priests typified. Where did the Manichasan learn the name of Christ? If from Manichseus, it is very strange that Africans, not to speak of others, should believe the Persian Manichaeus, since Faustus finds fault with the Romans and Greeks, and other Gentiles, for believing the Hebrew prophets as belonging to another race. Accordmg to Faustus, the predictions of the Sibyl, or Orpheus, or any heathen poet, are more suitable for leading Gentiles to be- lieve in Christ. He forgets that none of these are read in the churches, whereas the voice of the Hebrew prophets, sounding everywhere, draws swarms of people to Chris- tianity. When it is so evident that men are everywhere led to Christ by the Hebrew prophets, it is great absurdity to say that those prophets are not suitable for the Gen- tiles.
3. Christ as foretold by the Hebrew prophets does not please you; but this is the Christ in whom the Gentile nations believe, with whom, according to you, Hebrew prophecy should have no weight. They re- ceive the gospel which, as Paul says, "God I [On the Sibylline books, see article by G. H. Schodde in the Schaff-Hcrtzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knoiuledge^ and the works there referred to. The Christian writers of the first three centuries seem not to have suspected the real character of these pseudo-prophetical writings, and to have regarded them as remark- able testimonies from the heathen world to the Truth of the Chris- ian religion. — A. H. N.]
= [" The IVlercurius or Hermes Trismegistus of legend was a personage, an Egyptian sage or succession of sages, who, since the time of Plato, has been identified with the Thoth (the name of the month September), of that people...He was considered to be the impersonation of the religion, art, learning and sacerdotal discipline of the Egyptian priesthood. He was by several of the Fathers, and, in modern times, by three of his earliest editors, supposed to have existed before the time of Moses, and to have obtained the appellation of ' Thrice greatest,' from his threefold learning and rank of Philosopher, Priest and King, and that of ' Hermes,' or Mercurius, as messenger and authoritative interpre- ter of divine things." The author of the books that go under the name of Hermes Trismegistus is thought to have lived about the beginning of the second century, and was a Christian Neo-Platon- ist. See J. C. Ch.^misers: The Theological and Philosophical Works of Hemes Trismegistus^ translated from the original Greek, ivith Preface, Notes and hidex, Edinbunrh, 1882.— A. H. N.]
had promised before by'His prophets in the Holy Scriptures of His Son, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh." ^ So we read in Isaiah: "There shall be a Root of Jesse, which shall rise to reign in the nations; in Him shall the Gentiles trust." '^ And again: " Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel," 5 ^vhich is, being interpreted, God with us. Nor let the Manichgean think that Christ is foretold only as a man by the Hebrew prophets; for this is what Faustus seems to insinuate when he says, "Our Christ is the Son of God," as if the Christ of the Hebrews was not the Son of God. We can prove Christ the virgin's son of Hebrew prophecy to be God. For the Lord Himself teaches the carnal Jews not to think that, be- cause He is foretold as the son of David, He is therefore no more than that. He asks: "What think ye of Christ? Whose son is He? " They reply: " Of David." Then, to remind them of the name Emmanuel, God with us, He says: "How does David in the Spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstoQl?"^ Here, then, Christ appears as God in Hebrew prophecy. What prophecy can the Manichaeans show with the name of Christ in it?
4. Manichgeus indeed was not a prophet of Christ, but calls himself an apostle, which is a shameless falsehood; for it is well known that this heresy began not only after Tertul- lian, but after Cyprian. In all his letters Manichseus begins thus: " Manichseus, an apostle of Jesus Christ." Why do you be- lieve what Manichaeus says of Christ? What evidence does he give of his apostleship? This very name of Christ is known to us only from the Jews, who, in their application of it to their kings and priests, were not indi- vidually, but nationally, prophets of Christ and Christ's kingdom. What right has he to use this name, who forbids you to believe the Hebrew prophets, that he may make you the heretical disciples of a false Christ, as he himself is a false and heretical apostle? And if Faustus quotes as evidence in his own sup- port some prophets who, according to him, foretell Christ, how will he satisfy his sup- posed inquirer, who will not believe either the prophets or Faustus? Will he take our apos- tles as witnesses? Unless he can find some apostles in life, he must read their writings; and these are all against him. They teach our doctrine that Christ was born of the Vir- gin Mary, that He was the Son of God, of the 4 Isa. xi. 10.
* Matt. xxii. 42-44.
i;ooK XIIL] REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICH^AN.
20I seed of David according to the flesh. He cannot pretend that the writings have been tampered with, for that would be to attack the credit of his own witnesses. Or if he produces his own manuscripts of the apostoHc writings, he must also obtain for them the authority of the churches founded by the apostles themselves, by showing that they have been preserved and transmitted with their sanction. It will be difficult for a man to make me believe him on the evidence of writings which derive all their authority from ins own word, which I do not believe.
5. But perhaps you believe the common report about Christ. Faustus makes a feeble Ingestion of this kind as a last resource, to ..scape being obliged either to produce his worthless authorities, or to come under the power of those opposed to him. Well, if re- port is your authority, you should consider the consequences of trusting to such evidence. There are many bad things reported of you ' which you do not wish people to believe. Is ; it reasonable to make the same evidence true about Christ and false about yourselves? In I fact, you deny the common report about Christ. For the report most widely spread, ' and which every one has heard repeated, is lat which distinctly asserts that Christ was jrn of the seed of David, according to the romise made in the Hebrew Scriptures to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob: " In thy seed shall all nations be blessed." You will -)t admit this Hebrew testimony, but you do ■A seem to have any other. The authority I our books, which is confirmed by the agreement of so many nations, supported by a succession of apostles, bishops, and coun- ils, is against you. Your books have no authority, for it is an authority maintained liy only a few, and these the worshippers of an untruthful God and Christ. If they are not following the example of the beings they worship, their testimony must be against their wn false doctrine. And, once more, com- mon report gives a very bad account of you, and invariably asserts, in opposition to you, that Christ was of the seed of David. You alid not hear the voice of the Father from eaven. You did not see the works by which Iirist bore witness to Himself. The books . iiich tell of these things you profess to re- eive, that you may maintain a delusive ap- i'Carance of Christianity; but when anything s quoted against you, you say that the books ave been tampered with. You quote the [passage where Christ says, " If ye believe not ine, believe the works;'' and again, "I am <ine that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me; " but you will not let us quote in reply such passages as these: "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think that ye have eternal life, and they are they that testify of me;" "If ye believed Moses, ye would believe me, for he wrote of me; " " They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them:" "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe though one rose from the dead." What have you to say for yourselves? Where is your authority? If you reject these pas- sages of Scripture, in spite of the weighty au- thority in their favor, what miracles can you show? However, if you did work miracles, we should be on our guard against receiving their evidence in your case; for the Lord has forewarned us: " Many false Christs and false prophets shall arise, and shall do many signs and wonders, that they may deceive, if it were possible, the very elect: behold, I have told you before." ' This shows that the es- tablished authority of Scripture must out- weigh every other; for it derives new con- firmation from the progress of events which happen, as Scripture proves, in fulfillment of the predictions made so long before their occurrence.
6. Are, then, your doctrines so manifestly true, that they require no support from mira- cles or from any testimony? Show us these self-evident truths, if you have anything of the kind to show. Your legends, as we have already seen, are long and silly, old wives' fables for the amusement of women and chil- dren. The beginning is detached from the rest, the middle is unsound, and the end is a miserable failure. If you begin with the immortal, invisible, incorruptible God, what need was there of Ilis fighting with the race of darkness? And as for the middle of your theory, what becomes of the incorruptibility and unchangeableness of God, when His mem- bers in fruits and vegetables are purified by your mastication and digestion? And for the end, is it just that the wretched soul should be punished with lasting confinement in the mass of darkness, because its God is unable to cleanse it of the defilement contracted from evil external to itself in the fulfillment of His own commission? You are at a loss for a reply. See the worthlessness of your boasted manuscripts, numerous antl valuable as you say they are! Alas for the toils of the an- tiquaries! Alas for the property of the un- happy owners! Alas for the food of the deluded followers! Destitute as you are of Scripture authority, of the power of miracles, of moral excellence, and of sound doctrine, 202 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book XIII, depart ashamed, and return penitent, confess- ing that true Christ, who is the Saviour of all who believe in Him, whose name and whose Church are now displayed as they were of old foretold, not by some being issuing from sub- terranean darkness, but by a nation in a dis- tinct kingdom established for this purpose, that there those things might be figuratively predicted of Christ which are now in reality fulfilled, and the prophets might foretell in writing what the apostles now exhibit in their preaching.
7. Let us suppose, then, a conversation with a heathen inquirer, in which Faustus de- scribed us as making a poor appearance, though his own appearance was much more deplorable. If we say to the heathen, Believe in Christ, for He is God, and, on his asking for evidence, produce the authority of the prophets, if he says that he does not believe the prophets, because they are Hebrew and he is a Gentile, we can prove the truth of the prophets from the actual fulfillment of their prophecies. He could scarcely be ignorant of the persecutions suffered by the early Christians from the kings of this world; or if he was ignorant, he could be informed from history and the records of imperial laws. But this is what we find foretold long ago by the prophet, saying, "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the princes take counsel together against the Lord, and against His Christ.'' The rest of the Psalm shows that this is not said of David. For what follows might convince the most stubborn unbeliever: " The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of me, and I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Thy possession." ' This never happened to the Jews, whose king David was, but is now plainly fulfilled in the subjection of all nations to the name of Christ. This and many similar prophecies, which it would take too long to quote, would surely impress the mind of the inquirer. He would see these very kings of the earth now happily subdued by Christ, and all nations serving Him; and he would hear the words of the Psalm in which this was so long before predicted: "All the kings of the earth shall bow down to Him; all nations shall serve Him. "^^ And if he were to read the whole of that Psalm, which is figuratively applied to Solomon, he would find that Christ is the true King of peace, for Solomon means peaceful; and he would find many things in the Psalm I will cause them to my might; and they applicable to Christ, which have no reference at all to the literal King Solomon. Then there is that other Psalm where God is spoken of as anointed by God, the very word anointed pointing to Christ, showing that Christ is God, for God is represented as being anointed. 3 In reading what is said in this Psalm of Christ and of the Church, he would find that what is there foretold is fulfilled in the present state of the world. He would see the idols of the nations perishing from off the earth, and he would find that this is predicted by the prophets, as in Jeremiah, " Then shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth, and from under heaven;''* and again, "O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of afflic- tion, the Gentiles shall come unto Thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say. Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? Therefore, behold, I will at that time cause them to know, know mine hand and shall know that I am the Lord, "s Hearing these prophecies, and seeing their actual ful- fillment, I need not say that he would be af- fected; for we know by experience how the hearts of believers are confirmed by seeing ancient predictions now receiving their ac- complishment.
8. In the same prophet the inquirer would find clear proof that Christ is not merely one of the great men that have appeared in the world. For Jeremiah goes on to say:| "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, 1 1 and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord: for he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places of the wilderness, in a salt land not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is: for he shall be as a tree beside the water, that spreadeth out its roots by the river: he shall not fear when heat cometh, but his leaf shall be green; he shall not be: careful in the year of drought, neither shalLj cease from yielding fruit." * On hearing this | curse pronounced in the figurative language] | of prophecy on him that trusts in man, and the blessing in similar style on him that trusts; in God, the inquirer might have doubts about, our doctrine, in which we teach not only thatj | Christ is God, so that our trust is not in man, ' ' but also that He is man because He took our » Ps. ii. 7, - Ps. l.\xii. 10.
3 Ps. -fXv. 7.
5 Jer. xvi. 19-21.
4 Jer. X, II. 6 Jer. xvii. 5- Book XIII.]
REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICH^AN.
20' nature. So some err by denying Christ's humanity, while they allow His divinity. Others, again, assert His humanity, but deny His divinit}'-, and so either become infidels or incur the guilt of trusting in man. The inquirer, then, might say that the prophet says only that Christ is God, without any reference to His human nature; whereas, in our apostolic doctrine, Christ is not only God in whom we may safely trust, but the Media- tor between God and man — the man Jesus. The prophet explains this in the words in which he seems to check himself, and to sup- ply the omission: " His heart,'' he says " is sorrowful throughout; and He is man, and who shall know Him?"' He is man, in order that in the form of a servant He might heal the hard in heart, and that they might acknowledge as God Him who became man for their sakes, that their trust might be not in man, but in God-man. He is man taking the form of a servant. And who shall know Him? For " He was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal to God."^ He is man, for "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." And who shall know Him? For "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."^ And truly His heart was sorrowful throughout. For even as regards His own disciples His heart was sor- rowful, when He said, " Have I been so long time with you, and yet have ye not known me?" "Have I been so long time with you" answers to the words "He is man,'' and "Have ye not known me?" to "Who shall know Him?" And the person is none other but He who says, " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."^ So that our trust is not in man, to be under the curse of the prophet, but in God-man, that is, in the Son of God, the Saviour Jesus Christ, the Mediator between God and man. In the form of a servant the Father is greater than He; in the form of God He is equal with the Father.
9. In Isaiah we read: " The pride of man shall be brought low; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And they shall ide the workmanship of their hands in the clefts of the rocks, and in dens and caves of the earth, from fear of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, when He shall arise to shake terribly the earth. For in that day a man shall cast away his idols of gold and silver, which they have made to worship, as useless and hurtful. "5 Perhaps the inquirer I himself, who, as Faustus supposes, would " Jer. xvii. 9. 4 John xiv. 9.
2 Phil. ii. 6. 5 Isa. ii. 17-20.
i John i. I.
laugh and say that he does not believe the Hebrew prophets, has hid idols made with hands in some cleft, or cave, or den. Or he may know a friend, or neighbor, or fellow- citizen who has done this from the fear of the Lord, who by the severe prohibition of the kings of the earth, now serving and bowing down to him, as the prophet predicted, shakes the earth, that is, breaks the stubborn heart of worldly men. The inquirer is not likely to disbelieve the Hebrew prophets, when he finds their predictions fulfilled, perhaps in his own person.
10. One might rather fear that the inquirer, in the midst of such copious evidence, would say that the Christians composed those writ- ings when the events described had already begun to take place, in order that those oc- currences might appear to be not due to a merely human purpose, but as if divinely foretold. One might fear this, were it not for the widely spread and widely known people of the Jews; that Cain, with the mark that he should not be killed by any one; that Ham, the servant of his brethren, carrying as a load the books for their instruction. From the Jewish manuscripts we prove that these things were not written by us to suit the event, but were long ago published and pre- served as prophecies in the Jewish nation. These prophecies are now explamed in their accomplishment: for even what is obscure in them — because these things happened to them as an example, and were written for our benefit, on whom the ends of the world are come — is now made plain; and what was hidden in the shadows of the future is now visible in the light of actual experience.
11. The inquirer might bring forward as a difficulty the fact that those in whose books these prophecies are found are not united with us in the gospel. But v/hen convinced that this also is foretold, he would feel how strong the evidence is. The prophecies of the un- belief of the Jews no one can avoid seeing, no one can pretend to be blind to them. No one can doubt that Isaiah spoke of the Jews when he said, " The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel hath not known, and my people hath not con- sidered;"^ or again, in the words quoted by the apostle, " I have stretched out my hands all the day to a wicked and gainsaying people;" ^ and especially where he says, " God has given them the spirit of remorse, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, and should not under- stand,"^ and many similar passages. If the 6 Isa. i. 3.
<> Isa. vi. 10; cf. Rom. xi.
7 Isa. Ixv. 2; cf. Rom. x. 21.
204 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book XIII.