only as means to an end, and seeks for the sake of something else things which ought to be loved for themselves. For thus, as far as he can, he disturbs in himself the natural order which the eternal law requires us to ob- serve. Again, a man is just when he seeks to use things only for the end for which God appointed them, and to enjoy God as the end of all, while he enjoys himself and his friend in God and for God. For to love in a friend the love of God is to love the friend for God. Now both justice and injustice, to be acts at all, must be voluntary; otherwise, there can be no just rewards or punishments; which no man in his senses will assert. The ignorance and infirmity which prevent a man from know- ing his duty, or from doing all he wishes to do, belong to God's secret penal arrangement, and to His unfathomable judgments, for with Him there is no iniquity. Thus we are in- formed by the sure word of God of Adam's sin; and Scripture truly declares that in him all die, and that by him sin entered into the world, and death by sin.- And our experi- ence gives abundant evidence, that in punish- ment for this sin our body is corrupted, and weighs down the soul, and the clay tabernacle clogs the mind in its manifold activity; ^ and we l.now that we can be freed from this pun- ishment only by gracious interposition. So the apostle cries out in distress, " O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord."-* So much we know; but the reasons for the dis- tribution of divine judgment and mercy, why one is in this condition, and another in that, though just, are unknown. Still, we are sure that all these things are due either to the mercy or the judgment of God, while the measures and numbers and weights by which the Creator of all natural productions arranges all things are concealed from our view. For God is not the author, but He is the con- troller of sin; so that sinful actions, which are sinful because they are against nature, are judged and controlled, and assigned to their proper place and condition, in order that they may not bring discord and disgrace on universal nature. This being the case, and as the judgments of God and the movements of man's will contain the hidden reason why the same prosperous circumstances which some make a right use of are the ruin of others, and the same afflictions under which some give way are profitable to others, and since the whole mortal life of man upon earth is a trial, 5 who can tell whether it may be good or bad in any particular case — in time of peace, to reign or to serve, or to be at ease or to die — or in time of war, to command or to fight, or to conquer or to be killed? At the same time, it remains true, that whatever is good is so by the divine blessing, and whatever is bad is so by the divine judgment. 79. Let no one, then, be so daring as to make rash charges against men, not to say against God. If the service of the ministers of the Old Testament, who were also heralds of the New, consisted in putting sinners to death, and that of the ministers of the New Testament, who are also interpreters of the Old, in being put to death by sinners, the service in both cases is rendered to one God, who, varying the lesson to suit the times, teaches both that tem[)oral blessings are to be sought from Him, and that they are to be forsaken for Him, and that temporal distress is both sent by Him and should be endured for Him. There was, therefore, no cruelty in the command, or in the action of Moses, 3 Wisd. ix. 15.
5 Job vii. 4.
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when, in his holy jealousy for his people, whom he wished to be subject to the one true God, on learning that they had fallen away to the worship of an idol made by their own hands, he impressed their minds at the time with a wholesome fear, and gave them a warn- ing for the future, by using the sword in the punishment of a few, whose just punishment God, against whom they had sinned, ap- pointed in the depth of His secret judgment to be immediately inflicted. That Moses acted as he did, not in cruelty, but in great love, may be seen from the words in which he prayed for the sins of the people: "If Thou wilt forgive their sin, forgive it; and if not, blot me out of Thy book."' The pious inquirer who compares the slaughter with the prayer will find in this the clearest evidence of the awful nature of the injury done to the soul by prostitution to the images of devils, smce such love is roused to such anger. We see the same in the apostle, who, not in cruelty, but in love, delivered a man up to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.^ Others, too, he delivered up, that they might learn not to blaspheme. ^ In the apocryphal books of the Manichseans tliere is a collection of fables, published by some un- known authors under the name of the apos- tles. The books would no doubt have been sanctioned by the Church at the time of their publication, if holy and learned men then in life, and competent to determine the matter, had thought the contents to be true. One of the stories is, that the Apostle Thomas was once at a marriage feast in a country where he was unknown, when one of the servants struck him, and that he forthwith by his curse brought a terrible punishment on this man. For when he went out to the fountain to pro- vide water for the guests, a lion fell on him and killed him, and the hand with which he had given a slight blow to the apostle was torn off, in fulfillment of the imprecation, and brought by a dog to the table at which the apostle was reclining. What could be more cruel than this? And yet, if I mistake not, the story goes on to say, that the apostle made up for the cruelty by obtaining for the man the blessing of pardon in the next world; so that, while the people of this strange coun- try iearned to fear the apostle as being so dear to God, the man's eternal welfare was secured in exchange for the loss of this mor- tal life. It matters not whether the story is true or false. At any rate, the Manichseans, who regard as genuine and authentic books '■ Ex. xxxii.
32- 2 I Cor. V. 5.
3 I Tim. i. 2.:, which the canon of the Church rejects, must allow, as shown in the story, that the virtue of patience, which the Lord enjoins when He says, " If any one smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him thy left also," may be inl the inward disposition, though it is not ex-| hibited in bodily action or in words. Fori when the apostle was struck, instead of turn- ing his other side to the man, or telling himi to repeat the blow, he prayed to God to par- don his assailant in the next world, but not] to leave the injury unpunished at the time. Inwardly he preserved a kindly feeling, while! outwardly he wished the man to be punished as an example. As the Manichseans believe this, rightly or wrongly, they may also believe that such was the intention of Moses, the ser- vant of God, when he cut down with the I sword the makers and worshippers of the] idol; for his own words show that he so en- treated for pardon for their sin of idolatry as I to ask to be blotted out of God's book if his I prayer was not heard. There is no compari- } son between a stranger being struck with the| hand, and the dishonor done to God by for- saking Him for an idol, when He had brought j the people out of the bondage of Egypt, had j led them through the sea, and had covered with the waters the enemy pursuing them. Nor, as regards the punishment, is there any I comparison between being killed with the! sword and being torn in pieces by wild beasts. For judges in administering the law condemn 1 to exposure to wild beasts worse criminals 1 than are condemned to be put to death by ' the sword.
80. Another of Faustus' malicious and im- pious charges which has to be answered, is I about the Lord's saying to the prophet Hosea, "Take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and 1 children of whoredoms,"'' As regards this| passage, the impure mind of our adversaries is so blinded that they do not understand the plain words of the Lord in His gospel, when He says to the Jews, "The publicans! and harlots shall go into the kingdom of| heaven before you."5 There is nothing con- trary to the mercifulness of truth, or incon- sistent with Christian faith, in a harlot leav-| ing fornication, and becoming a chaste wife. Indeed, nothing could be more unbecoming! in one professing to be a prophet than not to believe that all the sins of the fallen woman! were pardoned when she changed for the| better. So when the prophet took the harlot as his wife, it was both good for the woman to have her life amended, and. the action symbolized a truth of which we shall speak 4 Hos. i, 2, 5 Matt. xxi. 31.
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305 presently. But it is plain what offends the ManichEcans in this case; for their great anx- iety is to prevent harlots from being with child. It would have pleased them better that the woman should continue a prostitute, so as not to bring their god into confinement, than that she should become the wife of one man, and have children.
81. As regards Solomon, it need only be said that the condemnation of his conduct in the faithful narrative of holy Scripture is much more serious than the childish vehe- mence of Faustus' attacks. The Scripture tells us with faithful accuracy both the good that Solomon had at first, and the evil actions by which he lost the good he began with; while Faustus, in his attacks, like a man closing his eyes, or with no eyes at all, seeks no guidance from the light, but is prompted only by violent animosity. To pious and discerning readers of the sacred Scriptures evidence of the chastity of the holy m.en who are said to have had several wives is found in this, that Solomon, who by his polygamy gratified his passions, instead of seeking for olTspring, is expressly noted as chargeable v.ith being a lover of women. This, as we are informed by the truth which accepts no man's person, led him down into the abyss of idolatry.
82. Having now gone over all the cases in which Faustus finds fault with the Old Testa- ment, and having attended to the merit of each, either defending men of God against the calumnies of carnal heretics, or, where the men were at fault, showing the excellence and the majesty of Scripture, let us again take the cases in the order of Faustus' accusa- tions, and see the meaning of the actions re- corded, what they typify, and what they fore- tell. This we have already done in the case of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of whom God said that He was their God, as if the God of universal nature were the God of none besides them; not honoring them with an unmeaning title, but because He, who could alone have a full and perfect knowledge, knew the sincere and remarkable charity of these men; and l)ecause these three patriarchs united formed a notable type of the future people of God, in not only having free children by free women, as by Sarah, and Rebecca, and Leah, and Rachel, but also bond children, as of this same Rebecca was born Esau, to whom it was isaid, "Thou shalt serve thy brother; " ' and in having by bond women not only bond children, as by Hagar, but also free children, as by Bilhah and Zilphah. Thus also in the » Gen. x.wii. 40.
people of God, those spiritually free not only have children born into the enjoyment of lib- erty, like those to whom it is said, " Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ," - but they have also children born into guilty bond- age, as Simon was born of Philip.^ Again, from carnal bondmen are born not only chil- dren of guilty bondage, who imitate them, but also children of happy liberty, to whom it is said, "What they say, do; but do not after their works. " •* Whoever rightly observes the fulfillment of this type in the people of God, keeps the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, by continuing to the end in union with some, and in patient endurance of others. Of Lot, also, we have already spoken, and have shown what the Scripture mentions as praiseworthy in him, and what as blameworthy and the meaning of the whole narrative.
83. We have next to consider the prophetic significance of the action of Judah in lying with his daughter-in-law. But, for the sake of those whose understanding is feeble, we shall begin with observing, that in sacred Scripture evil actions are sometimes prophetic not of evil, but of good. Divine providence preserves throughout its essential goodness, so that, as in the example given above, from adulterous intercourse a man-child is born, a good work of God from the evil of man, by the power of nature, and not due to the mis- conduct of the parents; so in the prophetic Scriptures, where both good and evil actions are recorded, the narrative being itself pro- phetic, foretells something good even by the record of what is evil, the credit being due not to the evil-doer, but to the writer. Judah, when, to gratify his sinful passion, he went in to Tamar, had no intention by his licentious conduct to typify anything connected with the salvation of men, any more than Judas, who betrayed the Lord, intended to produce any result connected with the salvation of men. So then if from the evil deed of Judas the Lord brought the good work of our redemp- tion by His own passion, why should not His prophet, of whom He Himself says " He wrote of me," for the sake of instructing us make the evil action of Judah significant of some- thing good? Under the guidance and inspira- tion of the Holy Spirit, the prophet has com- piled a narrative of actions so as to make a continuous prophecy of the things he designed to foretell. In foretelling good, it is of no consequence whether the typical actions are good or bad. If it is written in red ink that the Ethiopians are black, or in black ink that the Gauls are white, this circumstance does 2 I Cor. iv. 16.
3 Acts viii. 13.
4 Matt, x.xiii. 3.
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not affect the information which the writini^ conveys. No doubt, if it was a paintin;;- in- stead of a writing, the wrong color woulil he a fault; so when human actions are repre- sented for example or for warning much de- jiends on whether they are good or bad. Uut when actions are related or recorded as types, the merit or demerit of the agents is a matter of no importance, as long as there is a true typical relation between the action and the thing signified. So in the case of Caiaphas in the Gospel as regards his iniquitous and mis- chievous intention, and even as regards his words in the sense in which he used them, that a just man should be put to death unjustly, assuredly they were bad; and yet there was a iiood meaning in his words which he did not know of when he said, " It is expedient that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation perish not." So it is written of Him. " This he spake not of himself; but being the high priest, he projihesietl that Jesus should die for the people." " In the same Avay the action of Judah was bad as regards his sinful passion, but it typified a great good he knew nothing of. Of himself he did evil, while it was not of himself that he typified good. These introductory remarks apply not only to Judah, but also to all the other cases where in the narrative of bad actions is con- tained a prophecy of good.
84. In Tamar, then, the daughter-in-law of Judah, we see the people of the kingdom of Judah, whose kings, answering to Tamar's husbands, were taken from this tribe. Tamar means bitterness; and the meaning is suita- ble, for this people gave the cu[) of gall to the Lord.- The two sons of Judah represent two classes of kings who governed ill — those who did harm and those who did no good. One of these sons was evil or cruel before the Lord," the other spilled the seed on the ground that Tamar might not become a mother. Tliere are only those two kinds of useless ])eopIe in the world — the injurious and those who will not give the good they have but lose it or spill it on the ground. And as injury is worse than not doing good, the evil-doer is called the elder and the other the younger. Er, the name of the elder, means a preparer of skins, which were the coats given to our first parents when they were punished with expul- sion from paradise.^ Onan, the name of the younger, means, their grief; that is, the grief of those to whom he does no good, wasting the good he' has on the earth. The loss of life implied in the name of the elder is a greater evil than the want of help implied in Tohn xi. 50, 51.
- Matt, xxvii. 34.
Gen.
the name of the younger. Both being killed by God typifies the removal of the kingdom from men of this character. The meaning of tlie third son of Judah not being joined to the woman, is that for a time the kings of Judah were not of that tribe. So this third son did not become the husband of Tamar; as Tamar represents the tribe of Judah, which con- tinued to exist, although the people received no king from it. Hence the name of this son, Selom, means, his dismission. None of those types apply to the holy and righteous men who, like David, though they lived in those times, belong properly to the New Testament, which the}'' served by their en- lightened predictions. Again, in the time when Judah ceased to have a king of its own tribe, the elder Herod does not count as one of the kings typified by the husbands of Tamar; for he was a foreigner, and his union with the people was never consecrated with the holy oil. His was the power of a stranger, given him by the Romans and by Caisar. And it was the same with his sons, the tetrarchs, one of whom, called Herod, like his father, agreed with Pilate at the time of the Lord's passion.* So plainly were these foreigners considered as distinct from the sacred mon- archy of Judah, that the Jews themselves, when raging against Cln'ist, exclaimed openly, "We have no king but Cossar. "^ Nor was Cresar properly their king, except in the sense tliat all the world was subject to Rome. The Jews tlius condemned themselves, only to ex press their rejection of Christ, and to flatter C^sar.
85. The time when the kingdom was re moved from the tribe of Judah was the time appointed for the coming of Christ our Lord, the true Saviour, who should come not for harm, but for great good. Thus was it pro- phesied, "A prince shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, till He come lor whom it is reserved: He is the desire of na- tions."* Not only the kingdom, but all gov- ernment, of the Jews had ceased, and also, as prophesied by Daniel, the sacred anointing from which the name Christ or Anointed is derived. Then came He for whom it was re. served, the desire of nations; and the holy of holies was anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows.^ Christ was born in the time of the elder Herod, and suffered in the time of Herod the tetrarch. He who thus came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel was typified by Judah when he went to shear his sheep in Thamna, which means, failing. For then the prince had failed from Judah, 4 Luke xxiii. 12. * Gen. xlix. 10.
5 John xix. 15.
7 Dan. ix. 24, and Ps. xlv. 7.
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307 th all the government and anointing of the also glorified." ' This was while she was still (,\vs, that He might come for whom it was reserved. Judah, we are told, came with his Adullamite shepherd, whose name was Iras; id Adullamite means, a testimony in water.
n it was with this testimony that the Lord I came, having indeed greater testimony than jliiat of John;' but for the sake of his feeble sheep he made use of the testimony in water.
The name Iras, too, means, vision of my lirother. So John saw his brother, a brother ;;i the family of Abraham, and from the rei.iiionship of Mary and Elisabeth; and the same person he recognised as his Lord and A (}od, for, as he himself says, he received His fullness.- On account of this vision, iiong those born of woman, there has arisen ;io greater than he;^ because, of all who fore- told Christ, he alone saw what many righteous men and prophets desired to see and saw not. He saluted Christ from the womb;'' he knew Him more certainly from seeing the dove; and therefore, as the Adullamite, he gave testimony by water. The Lord came to shear His sheep, in releasing them from painful burdens, as it is said in praise of the Church in the Song of Songs, that her teeth are like a flock of sheep after shearing.?
86. Next, we have Tamar changing her dress; for Tamar also means changing. Still, the name of bitterness must be retained — not that bitterness in which gall was given to the Lord, but that in which Peter wept bitterly.^' For Judah means confession; and bitterness is mingled with confession as a type of true repentance. It is this repentance which gives ruitfulness to the Church established among all nations. For " it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead, and that repent- ance and the remission of sins be preached among all nations in His name, beginning at Jerusalem."'' In the dress Tamar put on here is a confession of sins; and Tamar sit- ing in this dress at the gate of yl-^nan or /Enaim, which means fountain, is a type of ;he Church called from among the nations. She ran as a hart to the springs of water, to meet with the seed of Abraham; and there she is made fruitful by one who knows her lot, as it is foretold, "A people whom I have [lot known shall serve me."* Tamar received under her disguise a ring, a bracelet, a staff; she is sealed in her calling, adorned in her ustification, raised in her glorification. For 'whom He predestinated, them He also Jailed: and whom He called, them He also ustified: and whom He justified, them He