4. What does Faustus find strange in the curse pronounced on sin, on death, and on human mortality, which Christ had on account of man's sin, though He Himself was sinless? Christ's body was derived from Adam., for His mother the Virgin Mary was a child of Adam. But God said in Paradise, " On the day that ye eat, ye shall surely die." This is the curse which hung on the tree. A man may deny that Christ was cursed who denies that He died. But the man who believes that Christ died, and acknowledges that death, is the fruit of sin, and is itself called sin, will understand who it is that is cursed by Moses, when he hears the apostle saying " For ourl old man is crucified with Him." ^ The apos- tle boldly says of Christ, " He was made aj curse for us;" for he could also venture to say, "He died for all." "He died," and' " He was cursed," are the same. Death is the effect of the curse; and all sin is cursed, whether it means the action which merits punishment, or the punishment which follows. Christ, though guiltless, took our punishment, that He might cancel our guilt, and do away with our punishment.
5. These things are not my conjectures, but are affirmed constantly by the apostle, with an emphasis sufficient to rouse the care- less and to silence the gainsayers. "God," he says, " sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, that by sin He might condemn sin in the flesh." '• Christ's flesh was not sin- 3 Rom. vi. 6.
4 Rom. viii. 3.
Book XIV.]
REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICHyEAN.
209 fill, because it was not born of Mary by ordi- nary generation; but because death is tlie ef- fect of sin, this flesh, in being mortal, had the likeness of sinful flesh. This is called sin in the following words, "that by sin He might condemn sin in the flesh.'' Again he says: " He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."' Wliy should not Moses call accursed what Paul calls sin? In this prediction the prophet claims a share with tlie apostle in the reproach of the heretics. For whoever finds fault with the word cursed in the prophet, must find fault with the word sin in the apostle; for curse and sin go together. 6. If we read, "Cursed of God is every ■ iiie that hangeth on a tree,'' the addition of Ae words " of God " creates no difficulty. For had not God hated sin and our death. He would not have sent His Son to bear and to .ibolisii it. And there is nothing strange in Cod's cursing what He hates. For His readiness to give us the immortality which will be had at the coming of Christ, is in pro- portion to the compassion with which He hated our death when it hung on the cross at the death of Christ. And if Moses curses everv one that hangeth on a tree, it is cer- tainly not because he did not foresee that righteous men would be crucified, but rather tiecause He foresaw that heretics would deny :ie death of the Lord to be real, and would try to disprove the application of this curse to ''hrist, in order that they might disprove the reality of His death. For if Christ's death was not real, nothing cursed hung on the cross when He was crucified, for the crucifixion cannot have been real. Moses cries from the distant past to these heretics: Your evasion in denying the reality of the death of Christ is useless. Cursed is every one that hangeth fin a tree; not this one or that, but absolutely every one. What! the Son of God? Yes, assuredly. This is the very thing you object to, and that you are so anxious to evade. Vou will not allow that He was cursed for us, because you will not allow that He died for us. Exemption from Adam's curse implies I exemption from his death. But as Christ endured death as man, and for man; so also. Son of God as He was, ever living in His own rigliteousness, but dying for on r oflences. He submitted as man, and for man, to bear the jcurse which accompanies death. And as He 'died in the flesh which He took in bearing iiiir punishment, so also, while ever blessed in His own righteousness. He was cursed for jOur offences, in the death which He suffered ' 2 Cor. V. 21.
14 in bearing our punishment. And these words "everyone" are intended to check the ig- norant officiousness which would deny the reference of the curse to Christ, and so, be- cause the curse goes along with death, would lead to the denial of the true death of Christ.
7. The believer in the true doctrine of the gospel will understand that Christ is not re- proached by Moses when he speaks of Him as cursed, not in His divine majesty, but as hanging on the tree as our substitute, bearing our punishment, any more than He is praised by the Manichaeans when they deny that He had a mortal body, so as to suffer real death. In the curse of the prophet there is praise of Christ's humility, while in the pretended regard of the heretics there is a charge of falsehood. If, then, you deny that Christ was cursed, you must deny that He died; and then you have to meet, not Moses, but the apostles. Confess that He died, and you may also confess that He, without taking our sin, took its punishment. Now the punish- ment of sin cannot be blessed, or else it would be a thing to be desired. The curse is pro- nounced by divine justice, and it will be well for us if we are redeemed from it. Confess then that Christ died, and you may confess that He bore the curse for us; and that when Moses said, " Cursed is every one that hang- eth on a tree," he said in fact. To hang on a tree is to be mortal, or actually to die. He might have said, " Cursed is every one that is mortal," or " Cursed is every one dying;" but the prophet knew that Christ would suffer on the cross, and that heretics would say that He hung on the tree only in appearance, with- ' out really dying. So he exclaims. Cursed; meaning that He really died. He knew that the death of sinful man, which Christ though sinless bore, came from that curse, " If ye touch it, ye shall surely die." Thus also, the serpent hung on the pole was intended to show that Christ did not feign death, but that the real deatli into which the serpent by his fatal counsel cast mankind was huuir on the cross of Christ's passion. The Mani- chaeans turn away from the view of this real death, and so they are not healed of the poison of the serpent, as we read that in the wilderness as many as looked were b.ealed.
8. It is true, some ignorantly distinguisli between hanging on a tree and being crucified. So some explain this passage as referring to Judas. But how do they know whether he hung himself from wood or from stone? Faustus is right in saying that the apostle obliges us to refer tlie words to Christ, Such ignorant Catholics are the prey of the Mani- chieans. Such they get hold of and entangle 2IO THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book XIV.
in their sopiiistry. Such were we when we fell into this heresy, and adhered to it. Such were we, when, not by our own strength, but by the mercy of God, we were rescued.
9. What attacks on divine things does Faustus speak of when he charges Moses with sparing nothing human or divine? He makes the charge without stopping to prove it. We know, on the contrary, that Moses gave due praise to everything really divine, and in human affairs was a just ruler, con- sidering his times and the grace of his dis- pensation. It will be time to prove this when we see any proof of Faustus' charges. It may be clever to make such charges cau- tiously, but there is great incaution in the cleverness which ruins its possessor. It is good to be clever on the side of truth, but it is a poor thing to be clever in opposition to the truth. Faustus says that Moses spared nothing human or divine; not that he spared no god or man. If he said that Moses did not spare God, it cauld easily be shown in reply that Moses everywhere does honof to the true God, whom he declares to be the ]\Iaker of heaven and earth. Again, if he said that INIoses spared none of the gods, he would betray himself to Christians as a wor- shipper of the false gods that Moses de- nounces; and so he would be prevented from gathering what he has not brought forth, by the brood taking refuge under the wings of the Mother Church. Faustus tries to ensnare the babes, by saying that Moses spared nothing divine, wishing not to frighten Christians with a profession of belief in the gods, which would be plainly opposed to Christianity, and at the same time appearing to take the side of the Pagans against us; for they know that Moses has said many plain and pointed things against the idols and gods of the heathen, vrhich are devils.
10. If the Manichseans disapprove of Moses on this account, let them confess that they are worshippers of idols and devils. This, indeed, may be the case without their being aware of it. The apostle tells us that " in the last days some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and to doc- trines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy. ''' Whence but from devils, who are fond of falsehood, could the idea have come that Christ's sufferings and death were unreal, and that the marks which He showed of His wounds were unreal? Are these not the doc- trines of lying devils, which teach that Christ, the Truth itself, was a deceiver? Besides, the Manichceans openly teach the worship, if ' I Tim. iv. I, 2.
not of devils, still of created things, which the apostle condemns in the words, " They wor- shipped and served the creature rather than the Creator."'
11. As there is an unconscious worship of idols and devils in the fanciful legends of the Manichjeans, so they knowingly serve the creature in their worship of the sun and moon. And in what they call their service of the Creator they really serve their own fancy, and not the Creator at all. For they deny that God created those things which the apostle plainly declares to be the creatures of God, when he says of food, " Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it is received with thanksgiving." 3 This is sound doctrine, which you cannot bear, and so turn to fables. The apostle praises the creature of God, but forbids the worship of it; and in the same way Moses gives due praise to the sun and moon, while at the same time he states the fact of their having been made by God, and placed by Him in their courses, — the sun to rule the day, and the moon to rule the nitjht. Probably you think Moses spared nothing divine, simply because he for- bade the worship of the sun and moon, whereas you turn towards them in all direc- tions in your worship. But the sun and moon take no pleasure in your false praises. It is the devil, the transgressor, that delights in false praises. The powers of heaven, who have not fallen by sin, wish their Creator to be praised in them; and their true praise is that which does no wrong to their Creator. He is wronged when they are said to be His members, or parts of His substance. For He is perfect and independent, underived, not divided or scattered in space, but un- changeably self-existent, self-sufficient, and blessed in Himself, In the abundance of His goodness. He by His word spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created. And if earthly bodies are good, of which the apostle spoke when he said that no food is unclean, because every creature of God is good, much more the heavenly bodies, of which the sun and moon are the chief; for the apostle says again, " The glory of the terrestrial is one, and the glory of the celes- tial is another.'' " 12. Moses, then, casts no reproach on the sun and moon when he prohibits their wor- ship. He praises them as heavenly bodies; while he also praises God as the Creator of both heavenly and earthly, and will not allow of His being insulted by giving the worship due to Him to those who are praised only as <om. 1. 25.
3 I Tim. iv. 4.
4 I Cor. XV. 40.
I Book XIV.]
REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICH^AN.
2ir dependent upon Him. Faustus prides him- self on tlie ingenuity of his objection to the curse pronounced by Moses on the worship of the sun and moon. He says, " If under a heathen monarch I am forced to worship the sun, and if from fear of this curse I refuse, shall I incur this other curse by suffering the punishment of crucifixion?" No heathen monarch is forcing you to worship the sun; nor would the sun itself force you, if it were reigning on the earth, as neither does it now wish to be worshipped. As the Creator bears with blasphemers till the judgment, so these celestial bodies bear with their deluded wor- shippers till the judgment of the Creator. It should be obser\'ed that no Christian monarch could enforce the worship of the sun. Faus- tus instances a heathen monarch, for he knows that their worship of the sun is a heathen cus- tom. Yet, in spite of this opposition to Christianity, the partridge takes the name of Christ, that it may gather what it has not brought forth. The answer to this objection is easy, and the force of truth will soon break the horns of this dilemma. Suppose, then, a Christian threatened by royal authority with being hung on a tree if he will not worship the sun. If I avoid, you say, the curse pronounced by the law on the worshipper of the sun, I incur the curse pronounced by the same law on him that hangs on a tree. So you will be in a difficulty; only that you wor- ship the sun without being forced by anybody. But a true Christian, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, distinguishes the curses, and the reasons of them. He sees that one refers to the mortal body which is hung on the tree, and the other to the mind which worships the sun. For though the body bows in worship, — which also is a heinous offence, — the belief or imagination of the ob- ject worshipped is an act of the mind. The death implied in both curses is in one case the death of the body, and in the other the death of the soul. It is better to have the curse in bodily death, — which will be removed in the resurrection, — than the curse in the death of the soul, condemning it along with the body to eternal fire. The Lord solves this difficulty in the words: " Fear not them that kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but fear him who has power to cast both soul and body into hell-fire."' In other words, ' Matt. X. 28.
fear not the curse of bodily death, which in time is removed; but fear the curse of spirit- ual death, which leads to the eternal torment of both soul and body. Be assured. Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree is no old wife's railing, but a prophetical utterance. Christ, by the curse, takes the curse away, as He takes away death by death, and sin by sin. In the words, " Cursed is every one that hang- eth on a tree," there is no more blasphemy than in the words of the apostle, " He died," or, "Our old man was crucified along with Him," -or, " By sin He condemned sin," ^or^ " He made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin,"'* and in many similar passages. Con- fess, then, that when you exclaim against the curse of Christ, you exclaim against His death. If this is not an old wife's railing on your part, it is devilish delusion, which makes you deny the death of Christ because your own souls are dead. You teach people that Christ's death was feigned, making Christ your leader in the falsehood with which you use the name of Christian to mislead men.
13. If Faustus thinks Moses an enemy of continence or virginity because he says, " Cursed is every one that raiseth not up seed in Israel," let them hear the words of Isaiah: " Thus saith the Lord to all eunuchs; To them who keep my precepts, and choose the things that please me, and regard my cove- nant, will I give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an ever- lasting name, that shall not be cut off. "^ Though our adversaries disagree with Moses, if they agree with Isaiah it is something gained. It is enough for us to know that the same God spoke by both Moses and Isaiah, and that every one is cursed who raiseth not up seed in Israel, both then when beget- ting children in marriage (for the continuation of the people was a civil duty), and now be- cause no one spiritually born should rest con- tent without seeking spiritual increase in the production of Christians by preaching Christ, each one according to his ability. So that the times of both Testaments are briefly de- scribed in the words, " Cursed is every one that raiseth not up seed in Israel."*^ 2 Rom. vi. 6. 3 Rom. viii. 3.
6 [In scarcely any other Manichaean record do we find the Manichajan hostility to Judaism expressed with so much ardorand with so much precision as in the blasphemous statements of Kaustus m this treatise. — A. H. N.]
212 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Rook XV.
BOOK XV.
FAUSTUS REJECTS THE OLD TESTAMENT BECAUSE IT LEAVES NO ROOM FOR CHRIST. CHRIST THE ONE BRIDEGROOM SUFFICES FOR HIS BRIDE THE CHURCH. AUGUSTIN ANSWERS AS WELL AS HE CAN, AND REPROVES THE MANICH^ANS WITH PRESUMPTION IN CLAIMING TO BE THE BRIDE OF CHRIST.
has made us able ministers of the New Tes- tament."' In the God of the Hebrews we have no interest whatever; for neither can he perform his promises, nor do we desire that he should. The liberality of Christ has made us indifferent to the flatteries of this stranger. This figure of the relation of the wife to her husband is sanctioned by Paul, who says: " The woman that has a husband is bound to her husband as long as he liveth: but if her husband die, she is freed from the law of her husband. So, then, if while her husband liveth she be joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband be dead, she is not an adulteress, though she be married to another man."^ Here he shows that there is a spiritual adul- tery in being united to Christ before repudi- ating the author of the law, and counting him, as it were, as dead. This applies chiefly to the Jews who believe in Christ, and who ought to forget their former superstition. We who have been converted to Christ from heathen- ism, look upon the God of the Hebrews not merely as dead, but as never having existed, and do not need to be told to forget him. A Jew, when he believes, should regard Adonai as dead; a Gentile should regard his idol as dead; and so with everything that has been held sacred before conversion. One who, after giving up idolatry, worships both the God of the Hebrews and Christ, is like an abandoned woman, who after the death of one husband marries two others.
2. AuGUSTiN replied: Let all who have given their hearts to Christ say whether they can listen patiently to these things, unless Christ Himself enable them. Faustus, full of the new honey, rejects the old vinegar; and Paul, full of the old vinegar, has poured out half that the new honey may be poured in, not to be kept, but to be corrupted. When the apostle calls himself a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, this is the new honey. But when he adds, " which He promised be- fore by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures of His Son, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh," 3 this is the old vinegar. Who could bear to hear this, unless I. Faustus said: Why do we not receive the Old Testament? Because when a vessel is full, what is poured on it is not received, but allowed to run over; and a full stomach rejects what it cannot hold. So the Jews, satisfied with the Old Testament, reject the New; and we who have received the New Tes- tament from Christ, reject the Old. You re- ceive both because you are only half filled with each, and the one is not completed, but corrupted by the other. For vessels half filled should not be filled up with anything of a difterent nature from what they already contain. If it contains wine, it should be filled up with wine, honey with honey, vinegar with vinegar. For to pour gall on honey, or water on wine, or alkalies on vinegar, is not addition, but adulteration. This is why we do not receive the Old Testament. Our Church, the bride of Christ, the poor bride of a rich bridegroom, is content with the pos- session of her husband, and scorns the wealth of inferior lovers, and despises the gifts of the Old Testament and of its author, and from regard to her own character, receives only the letters of her husband. We leave the Old Testament to your Church, that, like a bride faithless to her spouse, delights in the letters and gifts of another. This lover who cor- rupts your chastity, the God of the Hebrews in his stone tablets promises you gold and silver, and abundance of food, and the land of Canaan. Such low rewards have tempted you to be unfaithful to Christ, after all the rich dowry bestowed by him. By such attrac- tions the God of the Hebrews gains over the bride of Christ. You must know that you are cheated, and that these promises are false. This God is in poverty and beggary, and can- not do what he promises. For if he cannot give these things to the synagogue, his proper wife, who obeys him in all things like a serv- ant, how can he bestow them on you who are strangers, and who proudly throw off his yoke from your necks? Go on, then, as you have begun, join the new cloth to the old garment, put the new wine in old bottles, serve two masters without pleasing either, make Chris- tianity a monster, half horse and half man; but allow us to serve only Christ, content.vith his immortal dower, and imitating the apostle who says, " Our sufficiency is of God, who I 2 Cor. iii. 5, 6.
■r I Book XV.]
REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICH^EAN.
213 the apostle himself consoled us b}- saying: " There must be heresies, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you? " ' Why should we repeat what we said already? - — that the new cloth and the old gar- ment, the new wine and the old bottles, mean not two Testaments, but two lives and two hopes, — that the relation of the two Testa- ments is figuratively described by the Lord when He says: " Therefore every scribe in- structed in the kingdom of God is like an householder bringing out of his treasure things new and old/' 3 The reader may remember this as said before, or he may find it on look- ing back. For if any one tries to serve God with two hopes, one of earthly felicity, and the other of the kingdom of heaven, the two hopes cannot agree; and when the latter is shaken by some affliction, the former will be lost too. Thus it is said. No man can serve two masters; which Christ explains thus: "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. " -* But to those who rightly understand it, the Old Testament is a prophecy of the New. Even in that ancient people, the holy patriarchs and prophets, who understood the part they per- formed, or which they were instrumental in performing, had this hope of eternal life in the New Testament. They belonged to the New Testament, because they understood and loved it, though revealed only in figure. Those belonging to the Old Testament were the people who cared for nothing else but the temporal promises, without understanding them as significant of eternal things. But all this has already been more than enough in- sisted on.