3. It is amazingly bold in the impious and impure sect of the Manichaeans to boast of being the chaste bride of Christ. All the effect of such a boast on the really chaste members of the holy Church is to remind them of the apostle's warning against deceivers: " I have joined you to one husband, to pre- sent you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest, as the serpent deceived Eve by his guile, so your minds also should be cor- rupted from the purity which is in Christ." s What else do those preachers of another gos- pel than that which we have received try to do, but to corrupt us from the purity which we preserve for Christ, when they stigmatize the law of God as old, and praise their own false- hoods as new, as if all that is new must be good, and all that is old bad? The Apostle John, however, praises the old command- ment, and the Apostle Paul bids us avoid novelties in doctrine. As an unworthy son and servant of the Catholic Church, the true bride of the true Christ, I too, as appointed to give out food to my fellow-servanis, would speak to her a word of counsel. Continue ever to shun the profane errors of the Mani- chseans, which have been tried by the experi- ence of thine own children, and condemned by their recovery. By that heresy I was onc6 separated from thy fellowship, and after run' ning into danger which ought to have been avoided, I escaped. Restored to thy ser- vice, my experience may perhaps be profita- ble to thee. Unless thy true and truthful Bridegroom, from whose side thou wert made, had obtained the remission of sins through His own real blood, the gulf of error would have swallowed me up; I should have become dust, and been devoured by the serpent. Be not misled by the name of truth. The truth is in thine own milk, and in thine own bread. They have the name only, and not the thing. Thy full-grown children, indeed, are secure; but I speak to thy babes, my brothers, and sons, and masters, whom thou, the virgin mother, fertile as pure, dost cherish into life under thine anxious wings, or dost nourish with the milk of infancy. I call upon these, thy tender offspring, not to be seduced by noisy vanities, but rather to pronounce ac- cursed any one that preaches to them another gospel than that which they have received in thee. I call upon these not to leave the true and truthful Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; not to forsake the abundance of His goodness which He has laid up for them that fear Him, and has wrought for them that trust in Him.^ How can they expect to find truthful words in one who preaches an untruthful Christ? Scorn the reproaches cast on thee, for thou knowest well that the gift which thou desirest from thy Bridegroom is eternal life, for He Himself is eternal life.
4. It is a silly falsehood that thou hast been seduced.to another God, who promises abundance of food and the land of Canaan, For thou canst perceive how the saints of old, who were also thy children, were enlightened by these figures which were prophecies of thee. Thou needest not regard the poor jest against the stone tablets, for the stony heart of which they were in old times a figure is not in thee. For thou art an epistle of the apostles, " writ- ten not with ink, but with the Spirit of the liv- ing God; not on tables of stone, but on the fleshy tables of the heart." ^ Our opponents ignorantly think that these words are in their favor, and that the apostle finds fault with the dispensation of the Old Testament, where- * Ps. xxxi. 19.
7 2 Cor. iii. 2, 3.
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[Book XV.
as they are the words of the prophet. This utterance of the apostles was a fulfiUment of the long anterior utterances of the prophet whom the Manichaians reject, for they believe the apostles without understanding them. The prophet says: "I will take away from them the stony heart, and I will give them a heart of flesh. "^ What is this but "Not on tables of stone, but on the fleshy tables of the heart"? For by the heart of flesh and the fleshy tables is not meant a carnal under- standing: but as flesh feels, whereas a stone cannot, the insensibility of stone signifies an unintelligent heart, and the sensibility of flesh signifies an intelligexit heart. Instead, then, of scofifing at thee, they deserve to be ridiculed who say that earth, and wood, and stones have sense, and that their life is more intelligent than animal life. So, not to speak of the truth, even their own fiction obliges them to confess that the law written on tables of stone was purer than their sacred parch- ments. Or perhaps they prefer sheepskin to stone, because their legends make stones the bones of princes. In any case, the ark of the Old Testament was a cleaner covering for the tables of stone than the goatskin of their manuscripts. Laugh at these things, while pitying them, to show their falsehood and ab- surdity. With a heart no longer stony, thou canst see in these stone tablets a suitableness to that hard-hearted people; and at the same time thou canst find even there the stone, thy Bridegroom, described by Peter as " a living stone, rejected by men. but chosen of God, and precious." To them He was "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence; " but to thee, "the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner." ^ This is all explained by Peter, and is quoted from the prophets, with whom these heretics have nothing to do. Fear not, then, to read these tablets — they are from thy Husband; to others the stone was a sign of insensibility, but to thee of strength and stability. With the finger of God these tablets were written; with the finger of God thy Lord cast out devils; with the finger of God drive thou away the doc- trines of lying devils which sear the con- science. With these tablets thou canst con- found the seducer who calls himself the Paraclete, that he may impose upon thee by a sacred name. For on the fiftieth day after the passover the tables were given; and on the fiftieth day after the passion of thy Bride- groom— of whom the passover was a type — the finger of God, the Holy Spirit, the prom- ised Paraclete, was given. Fear not the tablets which convey to thee ancient writings now made plain. Only be not under the law, lest fear prevent thy fulfilling it; but be under grace, that love, which is the fulfilling of the law, may be in thee. For it was in a review of these very tablets that the friend of thy Bridegroom said: " For thou shalt not com- mit adultery, Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is contained in this word, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; there- fore love is the fulfilling of the law." ^ One table contains the precept of love to God, and the other of love to man. And He who first sent these tablets Himself came to enjoin those precepts on which hang the law and the prophets. '^ In the first precept is the chastity of thy espousals; in the second is the unity of thy members. In the one thou art united to divinity; in the other thou dost gather a society. And these two precepts are identi- cal with the ten, of which three relate to God, and seven to our neighbor. Such is the chaste tablet in which thy Lover and thy Be- loved of old prefigured to thee the new song on a psaltery of ten strings; Himself to be extended on the cross for thee, that by sin He might condemn sin in the flesh, and that the righteouness of the law might be fulfilled in thee. Such is the conjugal tablet, which may well be hated by the unfaithful wife.
5. I turn now to thee, thou deluded and deluding congregation of iManichaeus, —;j wedded to so many elements, or rather pros- il tituted to so many devils, and impregnated with blasphemous falsehoods, — dost thou dare to slander as unchaste the marriage of the Catholic Church with thy Lord? Behold thy lovers, one balancing creation, and the other bearing it up like Atlas. For one, by thy account, holds the sources of the elements, and hangs the world in space; while the other keeps him up by kneeling down and carrying; the weight on his shoulders. Where are those beings? And if they are so occupied, how can they come to visit thee, to spend an idle hour in getting their shoulders or their fingers relieved by thy soft, soothing touch? But thou art deceived by evil spirits which com- mit adultery with thee, that thou mayest con- ceive falsehoods and bring forth vanities. Well mayest thou reject the message of the true God, as opposed to thy parchments, where in the vain imaginations of a wanton mind thou hast gone after so many false gods. The fictions of the poets are more re- | spectable than thine, in this at least, that they I Ezek. xi. 19.
4 Matt. xxii. 37-40.
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REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICH^AN.
215 deceive no one; while the fables in thy books, by assuming an appearance of truth, mislead the childish, both young and old, and pervert their minds. As the apostle says, they have itching ears, and turn away from hearing the truth to listen to fables.' How shouldest thou bear the sound doctrine of these tables, where the first commandment is, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord,"- when thy corrupt affections find shameful delight in so many false deities? Dost thou not remember th}'- love-song, where thou de- scribest the chief ruler in perennial majesty, crowned with flowers, and of fiery counte- nance? To have even one such lover is shameful; for a chaste wife seeks not a hus- band crowned with flowers. And thou canst not say that this description or representation has a typical meaning, for thou art wont to praise Manichceus for nothing more than for speaking to thee the simple naked truth with- out the disguise of figures. So the God of thy song is a real king, bearing a sceptre and crowned with flowers. When he wears a crown of flowers, he ought to put aside his sceptre; for effeminacy and majesty are in- congruous. And then he is not thy only lover; for the song goes on to tell of twelve seasons clothed in flowers, and filled with song, throwing their flowers at their father's face. These are twelve great gods of thine, three in each of the four regions surrounding the first deity. How this deity can be infinite, when he is thus circumscribed, no one can say. Besides, there are countless principali- ties, and hosts of gods, and troops of angels, which thou sayest were not created by God, but produced from His substance.
6. Thou art thus convicted of worshipping gods without number; for thou canst not bear the sound doctrine which teaches that there is one Son of one God, and one Spirit of both. And these, instead of being without number, are not three Gods; for not only is their sub- stance one and the same, but their operation by means of this substance is also one and the same, while they have a separate manifes- tation in the material creation. These things thou dost not understand, and canst not re- ceive. Thou art full, as thou sayest, for thou art steeped in blasphemous absurdities. Wilt thou continue burying thyself under such crudities? Sing on, then, and open thine eyes, if thou canst, to thine own shame. In this doctrine of lying devils thou art invited to fabulous dwellings of angels in a happy clime, and to fragrant fields where nectar flows for ever from trees and hills, in seas I = Ti - Deut. vi. 4.
and rivers. These are the fictions of thy foolish heart, which revels in such idle fancies. Such expressions are sometimes used as figu- rative descriptions of the abundance of spirit- ual enjoyments; and they lead the mind of the student to inquire into their hidden meaning. Sometimes there is a material rep- resentation to the bodily senses, as the fire in the bush, the rod becoming a serpent, and the serpent a rod, the garment of the Lord not divided by His persecutors, the anointing of His feet or of His head by a devout woman, the branches of the multitude preceding and following Him when riding on the ass. Some- times, either in sleep or in a trance, the spirit is informed by means of figures taken from material things, as Jacob's ladder, and the stone in Daniel cut out without hands and growing into a mountain, and Peter's vessel, and all that John saw. Sometimes the figures are only in the language; as in the Song of Songs, and in the parable of a householder making a marriage for his son, or that of the prodigal son, or that of the man who planted a vineyard and let it out to husbandmen. Thou boastest of Manichaeus as having come last, not to use figures, but to explain them. His expositions throw light on ancient types, and leave no problem unsolved. This idea is supported by the assertion that the ancient types, in vision or in action or in words, had in view the coming of Manichfeus, by whom they were all to be explained; while he, know- ing that no one is to follow him, makes use of a style free from all figurative expressions. What, then, are those fields, and shady hills, and crowns of flowers, and fragrant odors, in which the desires of thy fleshly mind take pleasure? If they are not significant figures, they are either idle fancies or delirious dreams. If they are figures, away with the impostor who seduces thee with the promise of naked truth, and then mocks thee with idle tales. His ministers and his wretched deluded fol- lowers are wont to bait their hook with that saying of the apostle, " Now we see through a glass in a figure, but then face to face. '*^ As if, forsooth, the Apostle Paul knew in part, and prophesied in part, and saw through a glass in a figure; whereas all this is removed at the coming of Manichceus, who brings that which is perfect, and reveals the truth face to face. O fallen and shameless! still to con- tinue uttering such folly, still feeding on the wind, still embracing the idols of thine own heart. Hast thou, then, seen face to face the king with the sceptre, and the crown of flowers, and the hosts of gods, and the great world- 3 I Cor. xiii. 9.
2l6 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book XV..
holder with six faces and radiant with hght, and that other exalted ruler surrounded with troops of angels, and the invincible warrior with a spear in his right hand and a shield in his left, and the famous sovereign who moves the three wheels of fire, water, and wind, and Atlas, chief of all, bearing the world on his shoulders, and supporting himself on his arms? These, and a thousand other marvels, hast thou seen face to face, or are thy songs doctrines learned from lying devils, though thou knowest it not? Alas! miserable prosti- tute to these dreams, such are the vanities which thou drinkest up instead of the truth; and, drunk with this deadly poison, thou darest with this jest of the tablets to affront the matronly purity of the spouse of the only Son of God; because no longer under the tutorship of the law, but under the control of grace, neither proud in activity nor crouch- ing in fear, she lives by faith, and hope, and love, the Israel in whom there is no guile, who hears what is written: "The Lord thy God is one God." This thou hearest not, and art gone a whoring after a multitude of false gods.
7. Of necessity these tables are against thee, for the second commandment is, " Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain;" whereas thou dost attribute the van- ity of falsehood to Christ Himself, who, to remove the vanity of the fleshly mind, rose in a true body, visible to the bodily eye. So also the third commandment about the rest of the Sabbath is against thee, for thou art tossed about by a multitude of restless fancies. How these three commandments relate to the love of God, thou hast neither the power nor the will to understand. Shamefully head- strong and turbulent, thou hast reached the height of folly, vanity, and worthlessness; thy beauty is spoiled, and thine order perished. I know thee, for I was once the same. How shall I now teach thee that these three pre- cepts relate to the love of God, of whom, and by whom, and in whom are all things? How canst thou understand this, when thy perni- cious doctrines prevent thee from understand- ing and from obeying the seven precepts re- lating to the love of our neighbor, which is the bond of human society? The first of these precepts is, " Honor thy father and mother;" which Paul quotes as the first commandment with promise, and himself repeats the injunction. But thou art taught by thy doctrine of devils to regard thy parents as thine enemies, because their union brought thee into the bonds of flesh, and laid impure fetters even on thy god. The doctrine that the produc- tion of children is an evil, directly opposes the next precept, "Thou shalt not commit adultery;" for those who believe this doc- trine, in order that their wives may not con- ceive, are led to commit adultery even in mar- riage. They take wives, as the law declares, for the procreation of children; but from this erroneous fear of polluting the sul)stance of the deity, their intercourse with their wives is not of a lawful character; and the production of children, which is the proper end of mar- riage, they seek to avoid. As the apostle long ago predicted of thee, thou dost indeed forbid to marry, for thou seekest to destroy the purpose of marriage. Thy doctrine turns marriage into an adulterous connection, and the bed-chamber into a brothel. This false doctrine leads in a similar way to the trans- gression of the commandment, " Thou shalt not kill." For thou dost not give bread to the hungry, from fear of imprisoning in flesh the member of thy God. From fear of fan- cied murder, thou dost actually commit mur- der. For if thou wast to meet a beggar starv- ing for want of food, by the law of God to refuse him food would be murder; while to give food would be murder by the law of Manichceus. Not one commandment in the decalogue dost thou observe. If thou wert to abstain from theft, thou wouldst be guilty of allowing bread or food, whatever it might be, to undergo the misery of being devoured by a man of no merit, instead of running off with it to the laboratory of the stomach of thine elect; and so by theft saving thy god from the imprisonment with which he is threatened, and also from that from which he already suffers. Then, if thou art caught in the theft, wilt thou not swear by this god that thou art not guiltv? For what will he do to thee when thou sayest to him, I swore by thee falsely, but it was for thy benefit; a regard for thine honor would have been fatal to thee? So the precept. Thou shalt not bear false witness, will be broken, not only in thy testimony, but in thine oath, for the sake of the liberation of the members of thy god. The commandment, " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife," is the only one which thy false doctrine does not oblige thee to break. But if it is unlawful to covet our neigh- bor's wife, what must it be to excite covetousness in others? Remember thy beautiful gods and goddesses presenting themselves with the purpose of exciting desire in the male and female leaders of darkness, in order that the gratification of this passion might effect the liberation of this god, who is in confinement everywhere, and who requires the assistance of such self-degradation. The last command- ment, " Thou shalt not covet the possessions Book XV.]
REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICH^AN.
17 17 I of thy neighbor, '" it is wholly impossible fori thee to obey. Does not this god of thnie j delude thee with the promise of making new : worlds in a region belonging to another, to be tiie scene of thine imaginary triumph after I thine imaginary conquest? In the desire for I the accomplishment of these wild fancies, while at the same time thou believest that this I land of darkness is in the closest neighbor- hood with tliine own substance, thou certainly covetest the possessions of thy neighbor. Well indeed mayest thou dislike the tables which contain such good precepts in opposi- tion to thy false doctrine. The three relating to the love of God thou dost entirely set aside. The seven by which human society is jireserved thou keepest only from a regard 1) the opinion of men, or from fear of human iaws; or good customs make thee averse to some crimes; or thou art restrained by the natural principle of not doing to another what thou wouldst not have done to thyself. But whether thou doest what thou wouldst not have done to thyself, or refrainest from doing what thou wouldst not have done to thyself, thou scest the opposition of the heresy to the law, whether thou actest according to it or not.
8. The true bride of Christ, whom thou hast the audacity to taunt with the stone tablets, knows the difference between the letter and the spirit, or in other words, between law and grace; and serving God no longer in the uldness of the letter, but in newness of spirit, she is not under the law, but under grace. She is not blinded by a spirit of controversy, but learns meekly from the apostle what is this law which we are not to be under; for ■' it was given, " he says, "on account of trans- ression, till the seed should come to whom liie promise was made.''' And again: "It entered, that the offence might abound; but where sin abounded, grace has much more j abounded."- Not that the law is sin, though I it cannot give life without grace, but rather increases the guilt; for '" where there is no law, there is no transgression." ^ The letter without the spirit, the law without grace, can ')nly condemn. So the apostle explains his meaning, in case any should not understand: 'What shall we say then? Is the law sin.'' uod forbid. For I had not known sin but by the law. For I had not known lust un- less the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. There- lore the law is holy, and the commandment liioly. and just, and good. Was then that Which is good made death unto me? God ' C.al. ill. 19 - Rom. V. 20 -m. w. 15.
forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, wrought death in me by that which is good."'* She at whom thou scoffest knows what this means; for she asks earnestly, and seeks humbly, and knocks meekly. She sees that no fault is found with the law, when it is said, " The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life," any more than with knowledge, wnen it is said, '* Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifi- eth."5 The passage runs thus: " We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth." The apostle certainly had no desire to be puffed up; but he had knowledge, because knowledge joined with love not only does not puff up, but strengthens. So the letter when joined with the spirit, and the law when joined with grace, is no longer the letter and the law in the same sense as when by itself it kills by abounding sin. In this sense the law is even called the strength of sin, because its strict prohibitions increase the fatal pleasure of sin. Even thus, however, the la\v is not evil; but " sin, that it may appear sin, works death by that which is good.'' So things that are not evil may often be hurtful to certain people. The Manichseans, when they have sore eyes, will shut out their god the sun. The bride of Christ, then, is dead to the law, that is, to sin, which abounds more from the prohibition of the law; for the law apart from grace com- mands, but does not enable. Being dead to the law in this sense, that slie may be married to another who rose from the dead, she makes this distinction without any reproach to the law, which would be blasphemy against its author. This is thy crime; for though the apostle tells thee that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good, thou dost not acknowledge it as the production of a good being. Its author thou makest to be one of the princes of darkness. Here the truth confronts thee. They are the words of the Apostle Paul: " The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." Such is the law given by Him who appointed for a great symbolical use the tablets which thou foolishly deridest. The same law whicu was given by Moses becomes through Jesus Christ grace and truth; for the spirit is joined to tlie letter, that the righteousness of the law