disguised, as I have said; and in the same state she conceives, and becomes fruitful in holiness. Also the kid promised is sent to her as to a harlot. The kid rejjresents rebuke for sin, and it is sent by the Adullamite al- ready mentioned, who, as it were, uses the reproachful words, "O generation of vi- pers!""' liut this rebuke for sin does aot reach her, for she has been changed by the bitterness of confession. Afterwards, by ex- hibiting the pledges of the ring and l^racelet and staff, she prevails over the Jews, in their hasty judgment of her, who are now repre- sented by Judah himself; as at this day we hear the Jews saying that we are not tlie people of Christ, and have not the seed of Abraham. But when we exhibit the sure tokens of our calling and justification and glorification, they will immediately be con- founded, and will acknowledge that we are justified rather than they. I should enter into this more particularly, taking, as it were, each limb and joint separately, as the Lord might enable me, were it not that such minute inquiry is prevented by the necessity of bringing this work to a close, for it is already longer than is desirable.
87. As regards the prophetic significance of David's sin, a single word must suffice. The names occurring in the narrative show what it typifies. David means, strong of hand, or desirable; and what can be stronger than the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who has conquered the world, or more desirable than He of whom the prophet says, "The desire of all nations shall come? " " Bersabee means, well of satisfaction, or seventh well: either of these interpretations will suit our purpose. So, in the Song of Songs, the spouse, who is the Church, is called a well of living water;" or again, the number seven represents the Holy Spirit, as in the number of days_ in Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came from heaven. We learn also from the book of Tobit, that Pentecost was the feast of seven weeks.'' To forty-nine, which is seven times seven, one is added to denote unity. To this effect is the saying of the apostle: " Bear- ing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." '* The Church becomes a well of sat- isfaction by this gift of the Spirit, the number seven denoting its spirituality; for it is in her a fountain of living water springing up unto everlasting life, and he who has it shall never thirst. '5 Uriah, Bersabee's husband, must, 8 Ps. xviii. 43.
3 Matt. xi. II. 6 Matt. XXVI. 75.
"i Matt. iii. 7. '3 Tob. ii. I.
io8 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book XXII.
from the meaning of his name, be understood as representing the devil. It is in union to the devil that all are bound whom the grace of God sets free, that the Church without spot or wrinkle may be married to her true Saviour. Uriah means, my light of God; and Hittite means, cut off, referrmg either to his not abiding in the truth, when he was cut off on account of his pride from the celestial light which he had of God, or to his transforming himself into an angel of light, because, after losing his real strength by his fall, he still dares to say. My light is of God. The literal David, then, was guilty of a heinous crime, which God by the prophet condemned in the rebuke addressed to David, and which David atoned for by his repentance. On the other hand, He who is the desire of all nations lov^ed the Church when washing herself on the roof, that is, when cleansing herself from the pol- lution of the world, and in spiritual contem- plation mounting above her house of clay, and trampling upon it; and after commencing an acquaintance, He puts to death the devil, whom He first entirely removes from her, and joins her to Himself in perpetual union. While we hate the sin, we must not overlook the prophetical significance; and while we love, as is His due, that David who in His mercy has freed us from the devil, we may also love the David who by the humility of his repent- ance healed the wound made by his trans- gression.
88. Little need be said of Solomon, who is spoken of in Holy Scripture in terms of the strongest disapproval and condemnation, while nothing is said of his repentance and restora- tion to the divine favor. Nor can I find in his lamentable fall even a svmbolical connec- tion with anything good, women he lusted after represent the churches the Gentiles. This idea might have been ad- missible, if the women had left their gods for Solomon's sake to worship his God. But as he for their sakes offended his God and wor- shipped their gods, it seems impossible to think of any good meaning. Doubtless, something is typified, but it is something bad, as in the case already explained of Lot's wife and daughters. We see in Solomon a notable pre-eminence and a notable fall. Now, this good and evil which we see in him at different periods, first good and then evil, are in our day found together in the Church. What is good in Solomon represents, I think, the good members of the Church; and what was bad in him represents the bad members. Both are in one man, as the bad and the good are in the chaff and grain of one floor, Perhaps the strange may be thought to chosen from among or in the tares and wheat of one field. A closer inquiry into what is said of Solomon in Scripture might disclose, either to me or to others of greater learning and greater worth, some more probable interpretation. But as we are now engaged on a different subject, we must not allow this matter to break the con- nection of our discourse.
89. As regards the prophet Hosea, it is unnecessary for me to explain the meaning of the command, or of the prophet's conduct, when God said to him, "Go and take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and produce chil- dren of whoredoms," for the Scripture itself informs us of the origin and purpose of this direction. It proceeds thus: " For the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord. So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son. And the Lord said unto him. Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Judah, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. And she conceived again, and bare a daugh- ter. And God said unto him, Call her name No-mercy: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away. But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen. Now when she had weaned No-mercy, she conceived, and bare a son Then said God, Call his name Not-my-people: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured for multitude; and it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them. Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them. Ye are the sons of the living God. Then shall the chil dren of Israel and the children of Judah be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel Say ye unto your brethrert, My people; and to your sister. She hath found mercy.' Since the typical meaning of the commanc and of the prophet's conduct is thus explained in the same book by the Lord Himself, anc since the writings of the apostles declare the, fulfillment of this prophecy in the preaching of the New Testament, every one must accepi the explanation thus given of the command I H OS. 1. 2 — 11. I.
Book XXII.]
REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICHyEAN.
309 and of the action of the prophet as the true explanation. Thus it is said by the Apostle Paul, " That He might make known the riciies of His glory en the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, l)Ut also of the Gentiles. As He saith also in Rosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them. Ye are not my people, there shall they be called the children of the living God." ' Here Paul applies the prophecy to the Gentiles. So also I'eter, writing to the Gentiles, witnout naming the prophet, borrows his expressions when he says, " But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye might show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light; which in time jiast were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." - From this it is plain that the words of the prophet, "And the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured j for multitude," and the words immediately following, "And it shall be that in the place where it was said unto them. Ye are not my people, there they shall be called the children of the living God,'" do not apply to that Israel which is after the flesh, but to that of which the apostle says to the Gentiles, " Ye there- fore are the seed of Abraham, and heirs ac- cording to the promise." 3 But, as many Jews who were of the Israel after the flesh have believed, and will yet believe; for of these were the apostles, and all the thousands in Jerusalem of the company of the apostles, as also the churches of which Paul speaks, when he says to tlie Galatians, " I was un- known by face to the churches of Judsea which were in Christ;''* and again, he ex- plains the passage in the Psalms, where the ' Lord is called the cornerstone, ^ as referring • to His uniting in Himself the two walls of circumcision and uncircumcision, "that He might make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, hav- ing slain the enmity thereby: and that He might come and preach peace to them that are far oft", and to them that are nigh," 'that is, to the Gentiles and to the Jews; '' for He is our peace, who hath made of both one;''^ to the same purjwse we find the prophet speaking of the Jews as the chil- 23-26.
3 Gal. tii. 29. * Kph. ii. 11-22.
dren of Judah, and of the Gentiles as children of Israel, where he says, " The children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and shall make to them- selves one head, and shall go up from the land." Therefore, to speak against a prophecy thus confirmed by actual events, is to speak against the writings of the apostles as well as those of the prophets; and not only to speak against writings, but to impugn in the most reckless manner the evidence clear as noon- day of established facts. In the case of the narrative of Judah, it is per naps not so easy to recognize, under the disguise of the woman called Tamar, the harlot representing the Church gathered from among the corruption of Gentile superstition; but here, where Script- ure explains itself, and where the explana- tion is confirmed by the writings of the apos-- ties, instead of dwelling longer on this, we may proceed at once to inquire into the mean- ing of the very things to which Faustus objects in Moses the servant of God.
90. Moses killing the Egyptian in defend- ing one of his brethren reminds us naturally of the destruction of the devil, our assailant in this land of strangers, by our defender the Lord Christ. And as Moses hid the dead body in the sand, even so the devil, though slain, remains concealed in those who are not firmly settled. The Lord, we know, builds the Church on a rock; and those who hear His word and do it. He compares to a wise man who builds his house upon a rock, and who does not yield or give way before temp- tation; and those who hear and do not. He compares to a foolish man who builds on the sand, and when his house is tried its ruin is great. ^ 91. Of the prophetic significance of the spoiling of the Egyptians, which was done by Moses at the command of the Lord his God, who commands nothing but what is most just, I remember to have set down what occurred to me at the time in my book entitled On Christian Doctrine;^ to the effect that the gold and silver and garments of the Egyptians typified certain branches of learning which may be profitably learned.or taught among the Gentiles. This may be the true explana- tion; or we may suppose that the vessels of gold and silver represent the precious souls, and the garments the bodies, of those from among the Gentiles who join themselves to the people of God, that along with them they may be freed from the Egypt of this world. Whatever the true interpretation may be, the pious student of the Scriptures will feel certain 7 Matt. vii. 24-27.
8 ii. sec. 40.
3IO THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book XXIL that in the command, in the action, and in the narrative there is a purpose and a symbolic meaning.
92. It would take too long to go through all the wars of Moses. It is enough to refer to what has already been said, as sufficient for the purpose in this reply to Faustus of the prophetic and symbolic character of the war with Amalek." There is also the charge of cruelty made against Moses by the enemies of Scriptures^ or by those who have never read anything. Faustus does not make any specific charge, but speaks of Moses as com- manding and doing many cruel things. But, knowing the things they are in the habit of bringing forward and of misrepresenting, I have already taken a particular case and have defended it, so that any Manichseans who are willing to be corrected, and all other ignorant and irreligious people, may see that there is no ground for their accusations. We must now inquire into the prophetic significance of the command, that many of those who, while Moses was absent, made an idol for them- selves should be slain without regard to rela- tionship. It is easy to see that the slaughter of these men represents the warfare against the evil principles which led the people into the same idolatry. Against such evil we are com- manded to wage war in the words of the psalm, " Be ye angry and sin not.^ And a similar command is given by the apostle, when he says, " Mortify your members which are on earth; fornication, uncleanness, luxury, evil concu- piscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. "3 93. It requires closer examination to see the meaning of the first action of Moses in burning the calf in fire, and grinding it to pow- der, and sprinkling it in the water for the people to drink. The tables given to him, written with the finger of God, that is, by the agency of the Holy Spirit, he may have broken, because he judged the people unworthy of having them read to them; and he may have burned the calf, and ground it, and scattered it so as to be carried away by the water, in order to let no- thing of it remain among the people. But why should he have made them drink it? Every one must feel anxious to discover the typical significance of this action. Pursuing the in- quiry, we may find that in the calf there was an embodiment of the devil, as there is in men of all nations who have the devil as their head or leader in their impious rites. The calf is gold, because there is a semblance of wisdom in the institution of idolatrous wor- ship. Of this the apostle says, " Knowing God, they glorified Him not as God, nor were I L. xii. sec. 30.
= Ps. iv. 4.
3 Col.
111. 5.
thankful; but they became vain in their im- aginations, and their foolish heart was dark- ened. Professing themselves to be wise they became foolish, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of corrup- tible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things."'* From this. so-called wisdom came the golden calf, which was one of the forms of idolatry among the chief men and professed sages of Egypt. The calf, then, represents every body or society of Gentile idolaters. This impious society the Lord Christ burns with that fire of which He says in the Gospel, *' I am come tO' send fire on the earth;" ^ for, as there is nothing hid from His heat,^ when the Gen- tiles believe in Him they lose the form of the devil in the fire of divine influence. Then all the body is ground, that is, after the dis- solution of the combination in the member- ship of iniquity comes humiliation under the word of truth. Then the dust is sprinkled in the water, that the Israelites, that is, the preachers of the gospel, may in baptism ad- mit those formerly idolaters into their own body, that is, the body of Christ. To Peter, who was one of those Israelites, it was said of the Gentiles, "Kill, and eat."' To kill and eat is much the same as to grind and drink. So this calf, by the fire of zeal, and the keen penetration of the word, and the water of baptism, was swallowed up by the people, instead of their being swallowed up by it.
94. Thus, when the very passages on which the heretics found their objections to the Scriptures are studied and examined, the more obscure they are the more wonderful are the secrets which we discover in reply to our questions; so that the mouths of blas- phemers are completely stopped, and the evi- dence of the truth so stifles them that they cannot even utter a sound. The unhappy men who will not receive into their hearts the sweetness of the truth must feel its force as a gag in their mouths. All those passages speak of Christ. The head now ascended in- to heaven along with the body still suffering on earth is the full development of the whole purpose of the authors of Scripture, which is well called Sacred Scripture. Every part of the narrative in the prophetical books should be viewed as having a figurative meaning, ex- cept what serves merely as a framework for the literal or figurative predictions of this king and of his people. For as in harps and other musical instruments the musical sound does not come from all parts of the instru- ment, but from the strings, and the rest is I Book XXII.]
REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICH.^ilAN.
311 Illy for fastening and stretching the strings so as to tune them, that when they are struck l.y the musician they may give a pleasant ^ound; so in these prophetical narratives the circumstances selected by the prophetic spirit cither predict some future event, or if they .ave no voice of their own, they serve to con- nect together other significant utterances.
95. Should the heretics reject our exposi- tion of those allegorical narratives, or even insist on understanding them only in a literal sense, to dispute about such a difference of understanding would be as useless as to dis- pute about a difference of taste. Only, the fact that the divine precepts have either a moral and religious character or a prophetic mean- ing must be believed, whether intelligently or not. Moreover, the figurative interpretations must all be in the interest of morality and religion. So, if the Manichaeans or any others disagree with our interpretation, or differ from us in method or in any particular opinion, suffice it that the character of the fathers whom God commends for their con- duct and obedience to His precepts is vindi- caced on a principle which all but those in- veterate in their hostility will acknowledge to be true; and that the purity and dignity of the Scriptures are maintained in reference to those passages which the enemies of the truth find fault with, where certain actions are either praised or blamed, or merely narrated for us to form a judgment of them.
96. In fact, nothing could have been de- vised more likely to instruct and benefit the pious reader of sacred Scripture than that, besides describing praiseworthy characters as examples, and blameworthy characters as warnings, it should also narrate cases where good men have gone back and fallen into evil, whether they are restored to the right path or continue irreclaimable; and also where bad men have changed, and have attained to goodness, whether they persevere in it or re- lapse into evil; in order that the righteous may be not lifted up in the pride of security, nor the wicked hardened in despair of cure. And even those passages in Scripture which contain no examples or warnings are either required for connection, so as to pass on to essential matters, or, from their very appear- ance of superfluity, indicate the presence of some secret symbolical meaning. For in the books we speak of, so far from there being a want or a scarcity of prophetical announcements, such announcements are numerous and distinct; and now that the fulfillment has actually taken place, the tes- timony thus borne to the divine author- ity of the books is irresistibly strong, so that it is mere madness to suppose that there can be any useless or unmeaning passages in books to which all classes of men and of minds do homage, and which themselves pre- dict what we see thus actually coming to pass, 97. If, then, any one reading of the action of David, of which he repented when the Lord rebuked and threatened him, find in the nar- rative an encouragement to sin, is Scripture to be blamed for this? Is not the man's own guilt in proportion to tne abuse which he makes for his own injury or destruction of what was written for his recovery and release? David is set forth as a great example of re- pentance, because men who fall into sin either proudly disregard the cure of repentance, or lose themselves in despair of obtaining salva- tion or of meriting pardon. The example is for the benefit of the sick, not for the injury of those in health. If madmen destroy them- selves, or if evil-doers destroy others, with sur- gical instruments, it is not the fault of surgery.
98. Even supposing that our fathers the patriarchs and prophets, of whose devout and religious habits so good a report is given in that Scripture which every one who knows it, and has not lost entirely the use of his rea- son, must admit to have been provided by God for the salvation of men, were as lustful and cruel as the Manichaeans falsely and fanatically allege, they might still be shown to be superior not only to those whom the Mani- chseans call the Elect, but also to their god him- self. Is there in the licentious intercourse of man with woman anything so bad as the self- abasement of unclouded light by mixture with darkness? Here, is a man prompted by avarice and greed to pass off his wife as his sister and sell her to her lover; but worse still and more shocking, that one should disguise his own nature to gratify criminal passion, and submit gratuitously to pollution and de- gradation. Why, even one who knowingly lies with his own daughters is not equally criminal with one who lets his members share in the defilement of all sensuality as gross as this, or grosser. And is not the Manich- aean god a partaker in the contamination of the most atrocious acts of uncleanness? Again, if it were true, as Faustus says, that Jacob went from one to another of his four wives, net desiring offspring, but resembling a he -goat in licentiousness, he would still not be sunk so low as your god, who must not only have shared in this degradation, from his being confined in the bodies of Jacob and his wives so as to be mixed up with all their move- ments, but also, in union with this very he- goat of Faustus' coarse comparison, must have endured all the pains of animal apjietite, 312 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book XXIT.