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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

94.

Si ergo haec quoque loca scripturarum, de quibus eisdem scripturis calumniantur haeretici, perscrutata et quodam modo interrogata, quanto videntur obscuriora, tanto mirabiliores in se mysteriorum thesauros latere respondent, quanto magis impiorum blasphema ora obmutescere omnino debent, cum oppilantur apertissima veritate, contra quam praefocato spiritu quid mussitent non inveniunt et malunt miseri manifestatione eius suas fauces obturari quam suavitate pectus impleri! p. 701,2 Christum igitur sonant haec omnia; caput illud, quod iam ascendit in caelum, et hoc corpus eius, quod usque in finem laborat in terra, scribentium litteras vere sacras omnis parturivit intentio, nec esse quicquam credendum est librorum propheticorum contextione narratum, quod non significet aliquid futurorum, nisi quae ideo posita sunt, ut ex eis quodam modo religentur ea, quae illum regem populumque eius sive propriis sive figuratis locutionibus rebusve praenuntient. Sicut enim in citharis et huiuscemodi organis musicis non quidem omnia, quae tanguntur, canorum aliquid resonant, sed tantum chordae, cetera tamen in toto citharae corpore ideo fabricata sunt, ut esset, ubi vincirentur, unde et quo tenderentur illae, quas ad cantilenae suavitatem modulaturus et percussurus est artifex, ita in his propheticis narrationibus, quae de rebus gestis hominum prophetico spiritu deliguntur, aut aliquid iam sonant significatione futurorum aut, si nihil tale significant, ad hoc interponuntur, ut sit, unde illa significantia tamquam sonantia conectantur. 701,20

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

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 blasphemers are completely stopped, and the evidence 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 into 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, except 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 instrument, but from the strings, and the rest is only for fastening and stretching the strings so as to tune them, that when they are struck by the musician they may give a pleasant sound; so in these prophetical narratives the circumstances selected by the prophetic spirit either predict some future event, or if they have no voice of their own, they serve to connect together other significant utterances.