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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

42.

Nec ideo tamen hoc factum vel ipsius Loth vel eius filiarum iustificamus, quia significavit aliquid, quod futuram quorundam perversitatem praenuntiaret. Aliud enim illae, ut hoc facerent, intenderunt, aliud deus, qui hoc fieri permisit, ut etiam inde aliquid demonstraret manente recto iudicio suo super peccatum hominum tunc praesentium et vigilante providentia sua pro significatione futurorum. Proinde illud factum cum in sancta scriptura narratur, prophetia est, cum vero in illorum vita, qui hoc commiserunt, consideratur, flagitium est.

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

42.

It is no excuse for this action of Lot or of his daughters that it represented the perversity which was afterwards in certain cases to be displayed. The purpose of Lot's daughters is one thing, and the purpose of God is another, in allowing this to happen that He might make some truth manifest; for God both pronounces judgment on the actions of the people of those times, and arranges in His providence for the prefigurement of the future. As a part of Scripture, this action is a prophecy; as part of the history of those concerned, it is a crime.