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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

4.

Ac per hoc quid de Helia factum sit, nescimus; hoc de illo tamen credimus, quod verax scriptura testatur. Illud sane scimus hoc de illo factum, quod dei voluntas habet; quod autem dei voluntas non habet, fieri de quoquam omnino non posse. Proinde si mihi dicatur posse fieri, ut caro verbi gratia huius vel illius hominis in corpus caeleste mutetur, concedo fieri posse, sed utrum futurum sit nescio et ideo nescio, quia quid habeat de hac re dei voluntas, me latet; illud me tamen non latet sine dubio futurum, si hoc dei voluntas habet. Porro si audiam, quod aliquid futurum erat, sed deus fecit, ne fieret, fidissime respondebo: illud potius futurum erat, quod deus fecit, non illud, quod si futurum esset, hoc fecisset. p. 732,13 Nam deus, quod facturus erat, utique sciebat et ideo simul sciebat illud futurum non fuisse, quod ne fieret facturus erat; et procul dubio potius verum est, quod scit deus quam quod opinatur homo. Unde tam non possunt futura non fieri quam non fuisse facta praeterita, quoniam non est in dei voluntate, ut eo sit aliquid falsum, quo verum est. Quapropter omnia, quae vere futura sunt, sine dubio fient; si autem facta non fuerint, futura non erant. Ita omnia, quae vere praeterita sunt, sine dubio praeterierunt.

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

4.

Thus of what happened to Elias we are ignorant; but still we believe the truthful declarations of Scripture regarding him. Of one thing we are certain, that what God willed happened, and that except by God's will nothing can happen to any one. So, if I am told that it is possible that the flesh of a certain man shall be changed into a celestial body, I allow the possibility, but I cannot tell whether it will be done; and the reason of my ignorance is, that I am not acquainted with the will of God in the matter. That it will be done if it is God's will, is perfectly clear and indubitable. Again, if I am told that something would happen if God did not prevent it from happening, I reply confidently that what is to happen is the action of God, not the event which might otherwise have happened. For God knows His own future action, and therefore He knows also the effect of that action in preventing the happening of what would otherwise have happened; and, beyond all question, what God knows is more certain than what man thinks. Hence it is as impossible for what is future not to happen, as for what is past not to have happened; for it can never be God's will that anything should, in the same sense, be both true and false. Therefore all that is properly future cannot but happen; what does not happen never was future; even as all things which are properly in the past did indubitably take place.