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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

14.

Cum ergo iste gentilis his atque huiusmodi aliis testimoniis prophetarum de persecutione regum et populorum, de fide regum et populorum, de abolitione idolorum, de caecitate Iudaeorum, de probatione codicum ab ipsis custoditorum, de amentia haereticorum, de excellentia sanctae ecclesiae verorum et germanorum christianorum ante praedicta nunc impleta conspiceret, quid inveniret fide dignius quam illos prophetas, quibus de divinitate Christi eligeret credere? Etenim si antequam ista fierent, ingererem gentili prophetas Hebraeos, quibus ea futura crederet, quae facta nondum videret, merito fortasse diceret: Quid mihi est cum istis prophetis, quos unde veraces probem, non mihi ostenditur? p. 394,7 Cum vero tam magna et tam multa, quae praedixerunt, iam ad effectum manifestationemque perducta sunt, plane ille, si perversus esse nollet, nec ista ullo modo contemneret, quae tanto ante et tanto apparatu praevidenda et praenuntianda commendari meruerunt, nec illos, a quibus praevideri et praenuntiari potuerunt. Nullis enim prudentius credimus vel de praeteritis, quae olim facta sunt, uel de futuris, quae nondum facta sunt, quam eis, qui nobis fidem verborum suorum tam multis tamque magnis, quae ab eis praedicta iam facta sunt, probaverunt.

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

14.

After considering these instances of the fulfillment of prophecy about kings and people acting as persecutors, and then becoming believers, about the destruction of idols, about the blindness of the Jews, about their testimony to the writings which they have preserved, about the folly of heretics, about the dignity of the Church of true and genuine Christians, the inquirer would most reasonably receive the testimony of these prophets about the divinity of Christ. No doubt, if we were to begin by urging him to believe prophecies yet unfulfilled, he might justly answer, What have I to do with these prophets, of whose truth I have no evidence? But, in view of the manifest accomplishment of so many remarkable predictions, no candid person would despise either the things which were thought worthy of being predicted in those early times with so much solemnity, or those who made the predictions. To none can we trust more safely, as regards either events long past or those still future, than to men whose words are supported by the evidence of so many notable predictions having been fulfilled.