might begin to be fulfilled, which when un- fulfilled only added the guilt of transgression. The law which is holy, and just, and good, is the same law by which sin works death, and to which we must die, that we may be mar- ried to another who rose from the dead. Hear what the apostle adds: " But sin, that it 4 Rom. vii. 7-13.
5 I Cor. viii. 1.
2l8 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book XV.
might appear sin, wrought death in me by that which is good, that sin by the command- ment might become exceeding sinful." Deaf and bUnd, dost thou not now hear and see? " Sin wrought death in me," he says, " by that which is good. ' ' The law is always good: whether it hurts those who are destitute of grace, or benefits those who are filled with grace, itself is always good; as the sun is always good, for every creature of God is good, whether it hurts weak eyes or gladdens the sight of the healthy. Grace fits the mind for keeping the law, as health fits the eyes for seeing the sun. And as healthy eyes die not to the pleasure of seeing the sun, but to that painful effect of the rays which beat upon the eye so as to increase the darkness; so the mind, healed by the love of the spirit, dies not to the justice of the law, but to the guilt and transgression which followed on the law in the absence of grace. So it is said, "The law is good, if used lawfully;" and immediately after of the same law, "Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man." The man who delights in righteous- ness itself, does not require the restraint of the letter.
9. The bride of Christ rejoices in the hope of full salvation, and desires for thee a happy conversion from fables to truth. She desires that the fear of Adoneus, as if he were a strange lover, may not prevent thy escape from the seductions of the wily serpent. Adonai is a Hebrew word, meaning Lord, as applied only to God. In the same way the Greek word /atria means service, in the sense of the service of God; and Amen means true, in a special sacred sense. This is to be learned only from the Hebrew Scriptures, or from a translation. The Church of Christ under- stands and loves these names, without regard- ing the evils of those who scoff because they are ignorant. What she does not yet under- stand, she believes maybe explained, as simi- lar things have already been explained to her. If she is charged with loving Emmanuel, she laughs at the ignorance of the accuser, and holds fast by the truth of this name. If she is charged with loving Messiah, she scorns her powerless adversary, and clings to her anointed Master. Her prayer for thee is, that thou also mayest be cured of thy errors, and be built upon the foundation of the apos- tles and prophets. The monstrosity with which thou ignorantly chargest the true doctrine, is really to be found in the world which, according to thy fanciful stories, is made partly of thy god and partly of the world of darkness. Tnis world, half savage and half divine, is worse than monstrous. The view of such follies should make thee humble and penitent, and should lead thee to shun the serpent, who seduces thee into such errors. If thou dost not bel'ieve what Moses says of the guile of the serpent, thou mayest be warned by Paul, who, when speaking of pre- senting the Church as a chaste virgin to Christ, says, "I fear lest, as the serpent be- guiled Eve through his craftiness, your minds also should be corrupted from the simplicity and purity which is in Christ."' In spite of this warning, thou hast been so misled, so infatuated by the serpent's fatal enchant- ments, that while he has persuaded other heretics to believe various falsehoods, he has persuaded thee to believe that he is Christ. Others, though fallen into the maze of mani- fold error, still admit the truth of the apostle's warning. But thou art so far gone in corrup- tion, and so lost to shame, that thou boldest as Christ the very being by whom the apos- tle declares that Eve was beguiled, and against whom he thus seeks to put the virgin bride of Christ on her guard. Thy heart is darkened by the deceiver, who intoxicates thee with dreams of glittering groves. What are these promises but dreams? What reason is there to believe them true? O drunken, but not with wine!
10. Thou hast the impious audacity to accuse the God of the prophets of not fulfill- ing His promises even to His servants the Jews. Thou dost not mention, however, any promise that is unfulfilled; otherwise it might be shown, either that the promise has been fulfilled, and so that thou dost not under- stand it, or that it is yet to be fulfilled, and so that thou dost not believe it. What prom- ise has been fulfilled to thee, to make it prob- able that thou wilt obtain new worlds gained from the region of darkness? If there are prophets who predict the Manichaeans with praise, and if it is said that the existence of the sect is a fulfillment of this prediction, it must first be proved that these predictions were not forged by Manich^us in order to gain followers. He does not consider false- hood sinful. If he declares in praise of Christ that He showed false marks of wounds in His body, he can have no scruple about showing false predictions in his sheepskin volumes. Assuredly there are predictions of the Man- ichgeans, less clear in the prophets, and most explicit in the apostle. For example: "The Spirit," he says, " speaketh expressly, that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and to doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, Cor.
XI. 2, 3.
Book XVI.]
REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICHtEAN.
219 having their conscience seared, forbidding to marry, abstaining from meats, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving by beUevers, and those who know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiv- ing." ' The fulfiHment of this in the Mani- chteans is as clear as day to all that know them, and has already been proved as fully as time permits.
II. She whom the apostle warns against the guile of the serpent by which thou hast been corrupted, that he may present her as a chaste virgin to Christ, her only husband, ac- knowledges the God of the prophets as the true God, and her own God. So many of His promises have already been fulfilled to her, tnat she looks confidently for the fultillment of the rest. Nor can any one say that these prophecies have been forged to suit the pres- ent time, for they are found in the books of the Jews. What could be more unlikely than that all nation^ should be blessed in Abra- ham's seed, as it was promised? And yet how plainly is this promise now fulfilled! The last promise is made in the following short prophecy: " Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house: they shall ever praise Thee." " When trial is past, and death, the last enemy, is destroyed, there will be rest in the constant occupation of praising God, where there shall be no arrivals and no departures. So the prophet says elsewhere: '* Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; celebrate thy God, O Zion: for He hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; He hath blessed thy children within thee."^ The gates are shut, so that none can go in or out. The Bridegroom Himself says in the (iospel, that He will not open to the foolish virgins though they knock. This Jerusalem, tie holy Church, the bride of Christ, is de- scribed fully in the Revelation of John. And L im. IV. 1-4.
2 Ps. Ixxxiv. 4.
3 Ps. cxlviii. I.
that which commends the promises of future bliss to the belief of this chaste virgin is, that now she is in possession of what was foretolil of her by the same prophets. For she is thus described: "Hearken, O daughter, and re- gard, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house. For the King hath greatly desired thy beauty; and He is thy God. The daughters of Tyre shall worship Him with gifts; the rich among the people shall entreat thy favor. The daughter of tne King is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold. The virgins following her shall be brought unto the King: her com- panions shall be brought unto thee; with glad- ness and rejoicing shall they be brought into the temple of the King. Instead of thy fathers, children shall be born to thee, whom thou shalt make princes over all the earth. Thy name shall be remembered to all gener- ations: therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever." ■* Unhappy victim of the serpent's guile, the inward beauty of the daughter of the King is not for thee even to think of. For this purity of mind is that which thou hast lost in opening thine eyes to love and worship the sun and moon. And so by the just judgment of God thou art estranged from tne tree of life, which is eternal and internal wisdom; and with thee nothino- IS called or accounted truth or wisdom but that light which enters the eyes opened to evil, and which in thy impure mind expands and shapes itself into fanciful images. These are thy abominable whoredoms. Still the truth calls on thee to reflect and return. Re- turn to me, and thou shalt be cleansed and restored, if thy shame leads thee to repent- ance. Hear these words of the true Truth, who neither with feigned shapes fought against the race of darkness, nor with feigned blood redeemed thee.
4 Ps. xlv. 10-17.
BOOK XVI.
lAUSTUS WILLING TO BELIEVE NOT ONLY THAT THK JEWISH BUT THAT ALL OF.NTTLE PROPHETS j WROTE OF CHRIST, IF IT SHOULD BE PROVED; BUT HE WOULD NONE THE LESS INSIST UPON I REJECTING THEIR SUPERSTITIONS. AUGUSTIN MAINTAINS THAT ALL MOSES WROTE IS OF j CHRIST, AND THAT HIS WRITINGS MUST BE EITHER ACCEPTED OR REJECTED AS A WHOLE.
I I. FAUSTUSsaid: You ask why we do not ' no hindrance, but a help to our faith, if we ibelieve Moses, when Christ says, " Moses Ivvrote of me; and if ye believed Moses, ye A'ould also believe me." I should be glad if lot only Moses, but all prophets, Jew and jentile, had written of Christ. It would be could cull testimonies from all hands agreeing in favor of our God. You could extract the prophecies of Christ out of the superstition which we should hate as much as ever. I am quite willing to believe that Moses, though so 220 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book XVI.
niuc'a tiie opposite of C.irist, may seem to have written of Him. No one but would gladly find a flower in every thorn, and food in every plant, and honey in every insect, although we would not feed on insects or on grass, nor wear thorns as a crown. No one but would wish pearls to be found in every deep, and gems in every land, and fruit on every tree. We may eat fish from the sea witnout drinking the water. We may take the useful, and reject what is hurtful. And why may we not take the prophecies of Christ from a religion the rites of which we condemn as useless? This need not make us liable to be led into the bondage of the errors; for we do not hate the unclean spirits less because they confessed plainly and openly that Jesus was the Son of God. If any similar testimony is found in Moses, I will accept it. But I will not on this account be brought into sub- jection to his law, which to my mind is pure Paganism. There is no reason whatever for thinking that I can have any objections to re- ceiving prophecies of Christ from every spirit. 2. Since you have proved that Christ de- clared that Moses wrote of him, I should be very grateful if you would show me what he has written. I have searched the Scriptures, as we are told to do, and have found no pro- phecies of Christ, either because there are none, or because I could not understand them. The only escape from this perplexity was in one or other of two conclusions. Either this verse must be spurious^ or Jesus a liar. As it is not consistent with piety to sup- pose God a liar, I preferred to attribute false- hood to the writers, rather than to the Author of truth. Moreover, He Himself tells that those who came before him were thieves and robbers, which applies first of all to Moses. And when, on the occasion of His speaking of His own majesty, and calling Himself the light of the world, the Jews angrily rejoined, " Thou bearest witness of thyself, thy witness is not true,'' I do not find that He appealed to the prophecies of Moses, as might have been expected. Instead of this, as having no connection with the Jews, and receiving no testimony from their fathers, He replied: "It is written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one who bear witness of myself, and the Father who sent me beareth witness of me." ' He referred to the voice from heaven which all had heard: " This is my beloved Son, believe Him.'' I think it likely that if Christ had said that Moses wrote of Him, the ingenious hostility of the Jews would have led them at once to ask what He supposed Moses to have written. The silence of the Jews is a proof that Jesus never made such a statement.
3. My chief reason, however, for suspecting the genuineness of this verse is what I said before, that in all my search of the writings of Moses I have found no prophecy of Christ. But now that I have found in you a reader of superior intelligence, I hope to learn some- thing; and I promise to be grateful if no feel- ing of ill-will prevents you from giving me the benefit of your higher attainments, as your lofty style of reproof entitles me to expect from you. I ask for instruction in whatever the writings of Moses contain about our God and Lord which has escaped me in reading. I beseech you not to use the ignorant argu- ment that Christ affirms Moses to have written of Him. For suppose you had not to deal with me, as in my case there is an obligation to be- lieve Him whom I profess to follow, but with a Jew or a Gentile, in reply to the statement that Moses wrote of Christ, they will ask fo: proofs. What shall we say to them? W' cannot quote Christ's authority, for they do not believe in Him. We must point out what Moses wrote.
4. What, then, shall we point to? Shall it be that passage which you often quote where the God of Moses says to him: " I will raise up unto them from among their brethren a prophet like unto thee?"- But the Jew can see that this does not refer to Christ, a,nd there is every reason against our thinki that it does. Christ was not a prophet, nor was He like Moses: for Moses was a man, and Christ was God; Moses was a sinner, and Christ sinless; Moses was born by ordinary generation, and Christ of a virgin according to you, or, as I hold, not born at all: Moses, for offending his God, was put to death on the mountain; and Christ suffered voluntarily, and the Father was well pleased in Him. If we were to assert that Christ was a prophet like Moses, the Jew would either deride us as ignorant or pronounce us untruthful.
5. Or shall we take another favorite pas- sage of yours: " They shall see their life hang ing, and shall not believe their life? " ^ You insert the words " on a tree," which are not in the original. Nothing can be easier than to show that this has no reference to Christ. Moses is uttering dire threatenings in case the people should depart from his law, and says among other things that they would be j taken captive by their enemies, and would be expecting death day and night, having no confidence in the life allowed them by their ' Deut. xviii. 15.
" Deut. xxviii. 66.
OOK XVI. J REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICH^AN.
221 ( onquerors, so that their life would hang in uncertainty from fear of impending danger. This passage will not do, we must try others. I cannot admit that the words, "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree," refer to Christ, or when it is said that the prince or prophet must be killed who should try to turn away the people from their God, or should break any of the commandments." Tiiat Christ did this I am obliged to grant. But if you assert that these things were written of Christ, it may be asked in reply. What spirit dictated these prophecies in which Moses curses Christ and orders him to be killed? If he had the Spirit of God, these things are not written of Christ; if they are written of Christ, he had not tiie Spirit of God. The Spirit of God would not curse Christ, or order Him to be killed. To vindicate Moses, you must confess that these passages too have no reference to Christ. So, if you have no others to show, there are none. If there are none, Christ could not have said that there were; and if Christ did not say so, that verse is spurious.
6. The next verse too is suspicious, " If ye believed Moses, ye would also believe me;" for the religion of Moses is so entirely differ- ent from that of Christ, that if the Jews be- lieved one. they could not believe the other. Moses strictly forbids any work to be done on Sabbath, and gives as a reason for this prohi- bition that God made the world and all that is therein in six days, and rested on the seventh day, which is Sabbath; and therefore blessed or sanctified it as His haven of repose after toil, and commanded that breaking the Sabbath should be punished with death. The Jews, in obedience to Moses, insisted strongly on this, and so would not even listen to Christ when He told them that God always works, and that no day is appointed for the inter- mission of His pure and unwearied energy, and that accordingly He Himself had to work incessantly even on Sabbath. " My Father," he says, " worketh always, and I too must work.'' = Again, Moses places circumcision among the rites pleasing to God, and com- mands every male to be circumcised in the foreskin of his flesh, and declares that this is a necessary sign of the covenant which God made with Aliraham, and that every male not circumcised would be cut off from his tribe, and from his part in the inheritance promised to Abraham and to his seed.^ In this obser- vance, too, the Jews were very zealous, and consequently could not believe in Christ, who made light of these things, and declared that ' r)eut. xiii.
' John V. 17.
3 Gen. xvii. 9-14.
a man when circumcised became twofold a child of hell.-* Again, Moses is very particu- lar about the distinction in animal foods, and discourses like an epicure on the merits of fish, and birds, and quadrupeds, and orders some to be eaten as clean, and others which are unclean not to be touched. Among the un- clean he reckons the swine and the hare, and fish without scales, and quadrupeds that neither divide the hoof nor chew the cud. In this also the Jews carefully obeyed Moses, and so could not believe in Christ, who taught that all food is alike, and though he allowed no animal food to his own disciples, gave full liberty to the laity to eat whatever they pleased, and taught that men are polluted not by w^hat goes into the mouth, but by the evil things which come out of it. In these and many other things the doctrine of Jesus, as everybody knows, contradicts that of Moses.
7. Not to enumerate all the points of dif- ference, it is enough to mention this one fact, that most Christian sects, and, as is well known, the Catholics, pay no regard to what is prescribed in the writings of Moses. If this does not originate in some error, but in the doctrine correctly transmitted from Christ and His disciples, you surely must acknowl- edge that the teaching of Jesus is opposed to that of Moses, and that the Jews did not be- lieve in Christ on account of their attachment to Moses. How can it be otherwise than false that Jesus said to the Jews, " If ye be- lieved Moses, ye would believe me also," when it is perfectly clear that their belief in Moses prevented them from believing in Jesus, which they might have done if they had left off believing in Moses? Again I ask you to show me anything that Moses wrote of Christ.
8. Elsewhere Faustus says: When you find no passage to point to, you use this weak and inappropriate argument, that a Christian is bound to believe Christ when he says that Moses wrote of Him, and that whoever does not believe this is not a Christian. It would be far better to confess at once that you can- not find Jiny passage. This argument might be used with me, because my reverence for Christ compels me to believe what He says. Still it may be a question whether this is Christ's own declaration, requiring absolute belief, or only the writer's, to be carefully examined. And disbelief in falsehood is no offence to Christ, but to impostors. But of whatever use this argument may be with Christians, it is wholly inapplicable in the case of the Jew or Gentile, with whom we are 4 Matt. x.\iii. I- 222 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book XVI.
supposed to be discussing. And even with Christians the argument is objectionable. When the Apostle 'J'homas was in doubt, Christ did not spurn him from Him. Instead of saying, "Believe, if thou art a disciple; whoever does not believe is not a disciple," Christ sought to lieal the wounds of his mind by showing him the marks of the wounds in His own body. Does it become you then to tell me that I am not a Christian because I am in doubt, not about Christ, but about the genuineness of a remark attributed to Christ? But, you say, He calls those especially blessed who have not seen, and yet have believed. If you think that this refers to believing with- out the use of judgment and reason, you are welcome to this blind blessedness. I shall be content with rational blessedness.
9. AuGUSTiN replied: Your idea of taking any prophecies of Christ to be found in Moses, as a fish out of the sea, while you throw away the water from which the fish is taken, is a clever one. But since all that Moses wrote is of Christ, or relates to Christ, either as predicting Him by words and actions, or as illustrating His grace and glory, you, with your faith in the untrue and untruthful Christ from the writings of Manichaeus, and your un- belief in Moses, will not even eat the fish. Moreover, though you are sincere in your hostility to Moses, you are hypocritical in your praise of fish. For how can you say that there is no harm in eating a fish taken out of the sea, when your doctrine is that such food is so hurtful, that you would rather starve than make use of it? If all flesh is unclean, as you say it is, and if the wretched life of your god is confined in all water or plants, from which it is liberated by your us- ing them for food, according to your own vile superstition, you must throw away the fish you have praised, and drink the water and eat the thistles you speak of as useless. As for your comparison of the servant of God to devils, as if his prophecies of Christ resem- bled their confession, the servant does not refuse to bear the reproach of his master. If the Master of the house was called Beelze- bub, how much more they of His household! • You have learned this reproach from Christ's enemies; and you are worse than they were. They did not believe that Jesus was Christ, and therefore thought Him an impostor. But the only doctrine you believe in is that which dares to make Christ a liar.
10. What reason have you for saying that the law of Moses is pure Paganism? Is it because it speaks of a temple, and an altar of I Matt. X. 25.