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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

2.

Augustinus dixit: Non vobis dicitur magiam esse, ut qui natus non fuerit, moriatur; nam hoc in Adam factum esse iam supra commemoravimus. Sed et si numquam factum fuisset, et dominus Christus ita venire voluisset, ut non ex virgine assumpta, sed tamen in vera carne apparens nos vera morte redimeret, quis eum non potuisse dicere auderet? 744,15 Sed illud melius erat, quod fecit, ut etiam de virgine nasceretur et utrumque sexum, pro quo liberando moriturus (Maur., mortuus mss. ) erat, dignaretur etiam commendare nascendo, masculino suo corpore ex femina procreato, contra vos ipsos maxime facto ipso loquens vosque subuertens, qui masculum et feminam non dei, sed diaboli opus esse praedicatis. Sed illud est, quod magiae simile dicimini asserere, quod passionem mortemque eius specie tenus factam et fallaciter dicitis adumbratam, ut mori videretur, qui non moriebatur. Ex quo fit, ut eius quoque resurrectionem umbraticam, imaginariam fallacemque dicatis; neque enim eius, qui non vere mortuus est, vera esse resurrectio potest. p. 744,26 Ita fit, ut et cicatrices discipulis dubitantibus falsas ostenderet nec Thomas veritate confirmatus, sed fallacia deceptus clamaret: Dominus meus et deus meus. Et tamen persuadere conamini lingua vos loqui verum, cum Christum dicatis toto corpore fuisse mentitum. Haec sunt, quae vobis obiciuntur, qui talem Christum vobis finxistis, cuius discipuli veri non sitis, nisi mendaces vos quoque fueritis. Non autem ideo magia videri potest nata ex virgine hominis caro, quia caro Christi sola ita nata est, sicut nec illa magia est, quia sola Christi caro die tertio resurrexit, numquam ulterius moritura. Alioquin omnia miracula dei magica erunt, quia singulariter facta sunt; sed vere facta sunt verumque ostenderunt, non oculos hominum praestigiis fallacibus illuserunt. p. 745,11 Quae quidem contra naturam plerumque appellantur, non quod naturae adversentur, sed quod naturae modum, qui nobis est usitatus, excedant. Repellat ergo dominus a parvulorum suorum mentibus, quod quasi admonendo Faustus persuadere conatus est, ut etiam nos imaginariam, non veram nativitatem Christi profiteamur atque ita inter nos omnis contentio finiatur. Immo vero maneat nobis adversus illos potius pro veritate certamen quam cum illis in falsitate concordia.

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

2.

Augustin replied: We do not say that to die without having been born is sorcery; for, as we have said already, this happened in the case of Adam. But, though it had never happened, who will venture to say that Christ could not, if He had so pleased, have come without taking His body from a virgin, and yet appearing in a true body to redeem us by a true death? However, it was better that He should be, as He actually was, born of a virgin, and, by His condescension, do honor to both sexes, for whose deliverance He was to die, by taking a man's body born of a woman. In this He testifies emphatically against you, and refutes your doctrine, which makes the sexes the work of the devil. What we call sorcery in your doctrine is your making Christ's passion and death to have been only in appearance, so that, by a spectral illusion, He seemed to die when He did not. Hence you must also make His resurrection spectral and illusory and false; for if there was no true death, there could not be a real resurrection. Hence also the marks which He showed to His doubting disciples must have been false; and Thomas was not assured by truth, but cheated by a lie, when he exclaimed, "My Lord, and my God." ¹ And yet you would have us believe that your tongue utters truth, though Christ's whole body was a falsehood. Our argument against you is, that the Christ you make is such that you cannot be His true disciples unless you too practise deceit. The fact that Christ's body was the only one born of a virgin does not prove that there was sorcery in His birth, any more than there is sorcery in its being the only body to rise again on the third day, never to die any more. Will you say that there was sorcery in all the Lord's miracles because they were unusual? They really happened, and their appearance, as seen by men, was true, and not an illusion; and when they are said to be contrary to nature, it is not that they oppose nature, but that they transcend the method of nature to which we are accustomed. May God keep the minds of His people who are still babes in Christ from being influenced by Faustus, when he recommends as a duty that we should acknowledge Christ's birth to have been illusory and not real, that so we may end our dispute! Nay, verily, rather let us continue to contend for the truth against them, than agree with them in falsehood.