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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

23.

So also the patriarchs and prophets whom you cry out against are not the men whom we honor, but men whose characters are drawn from your fancy, prompted by ill-will. And yet even thus as you paint them, I will not be content with showing them to be superior to your elect, who keep all the precepts of Manichaeus, but will prove their superiority to your god himself. Before proving this, however, I must, with the help of God, defend our holy fathers the patriarchs and prophets against your accusations, by a clear exposition of the truth as opposed to the carnality of your hearts. As for you Manichaeans, it would be enough to say that the faults you impute to our fathers are preferable to what you praise in your own, and to complete your shame by adding that your god can be proved far inferior to our fathers as you describe them. This would be a sufficient reply for you. But as, even apart from your perversities, some minds are of themselves disturbed when comparing the life of the prophets in the Old Testament with that of the apostles in the New,--not discerning between the manner of the time when the promise was under a veil, and that of the time when the promise is revealed,--I must first of all reply to those who either have the boldness to pride themselves as superior in temperance to the prophets, or quote the prophets in defence of their own bad conduct.

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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

23.

Sic et patriarchas et prophetas non tales vituperatis, quales honorantur a nobis, sed quales libris nostris non intellectis malevola vanitate finxistis; p. 618,8 quos tamen etiam ipsos quales fuisse suspicamini parum est, si dicam vestris electis omnia Manichaei mandata servantibus, nisi etiam ostendam ipso deo vestro esse meliores. Quod non aggrediar demonstrare, nisi prius sanctos patres nostros patriarchas et prophetas a criminationibus vestris adiuvante me domino adversum corda carnalia perspicua ratione defendero. Et vobis quidem, Manichaei, sic respondere sufficeret, ut etiam vitia, quae putatis, nostrorum laudibus vestrorum praeponenda doceremus, addentes ad cumulum confusionis vestrae, ut etiam deus vester longe peior inveniretur hominibus, quales nostros patres fuisse iactatis. p. 618,19 Sic ergo, ut dixi, vobis respondere sufficeret. Sed quoniam nonnulli etiam praeter vestra vaniloquia sua sponte commoventur vitam prophetarum in vetere testamento comparantes vitae apostolorum in novo testamento nec valentes discernere consuetudinem temporis illius, quo promissio velabatur, a consuetudine temporis istius, quo promissio revelatur, eis magis respondere compellor, qui vel temperantiam suam audent praeferre prophetis vel nequitiae suae quaerunt patrocinia de prophetis.