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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

17.

quod post septem dies, ex quo ingressus est Noe in arcam, factum est diluvium: quia spe futurae quietis, quae septimo die significata est, baptizamur; quod praeter arcam omnis caro, quam terra sustentabat, diluvio consumpta est: quia praeter ecclesiae societatem aqua baptismi quamvis eadem sit, non solum non valet ad salutem, sed valet potius ad perniciem; quod quadraginta diebus et quadraginta noctibus pluit: quia omnis reatus peccatorum, qui in decem praeceptis legis admittitur, per uniuersum orbem terrarum, qui quattuor partibus continetur – decem quippe quater ducta quadraginta fiunt – sive ille reatus, quod ad dies pertinet, ex rerum prosperitate sive, quod ad noctes, ex rerum adversitate contractus sit, sacramento baptismi caelestis abluitur; p. 246,24

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

17.

That the flood came seven days after Noah entered the ark; as we are baptized in the hope of the future rest, which was denoted by the seventh day. That all flesh on the face of the earth, outside the ark, was destroyed by the flood; as, beyond the communion of the Church, though the water of baptism is the same, it is efficacious only for destruction, and not for salvation. That it rained for forty days and forty nights; as the sacrament of heavenly baptism washes away all the guilt of the sins against the ten commandments throughout all the four quarters of the world (four times ten is forty), whether that guilt has been contracted in the day of prosperity or in the night of adversity.