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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

18.

quod Noe quingentorum erat annorum, cum ei locutus est dominus, ut arcam sibi faceret, et sescentos agebat annos, cum in eam esset ingressus – unde intellegitur per centum annos arca fabricata –: quid aliud hic videntur centum anni significare nisi aetates singulas saeculi? Unde ista sexta aetas, quae completis quingentis usque ad sescentos significatur, in manifestatione evangelica ecclesiam construit; et ideo qui sibi ad vitam consulit, sit velut quadratum lignum, paratus ad omne opus bonum et intret in fabricam sanctam; quia et secundus mensis anni sescentesimi, quo intrat Noe in arcam eandem senariam aetatem significat. Duo enim menses sexagenario numero concluduntur; a senario autem numero et sexaginta cognominantur et sescenti et sex milia et sexaginta milia et sescenta milia et sescenties, et quicquid deinceps in maioribus summis per eundem articulum [numerus] in infinita incrementa consurgit; p. 347,12

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

18.

That Noah was five hundred years old when God told him to make the ark, and six hundred when he entered the ark; which shows that the ark was made during one hundred years, which seem to correspond to the years of an age of the world. So the sixth age is occupied with the construction of the Church by the preaching of the gospel. The man who avails himself of the offer of salvation is made like a square beam, fitted for every good work, and forms part of the sacred fabric. Again, it was the second month of the six hundredth year when Noah entered the ark, and in two months there are sixty days; so that here, as in every multiple of six, we have the number denoting the sixth age.