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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

8.

The true bride of Christ, whom thou hast the audacity to taunt with the stone tablets, knows the difference between the letter and the spirit, or in other words, between law and grace; and serving God no longer in the oldness of the letter, but in newness of spirit, she is not under the law, but under grace. She is not blinded by a spirit of controversy, but learns meekly from the apostle what is this law which we are not to be under; for "it was given," he says, "on account of transgression, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made." ¹ And again: "It entered, that the offence might abound; but where sin abounded, grace has much more abounded." ² Not that the law is sin, though it cannot give life without grace, but rather increases the guilt; for "where there is no law, there is no transgression." ³ The letter without the spirit, the law without grace, can only condemn. So the apostle explains his meaning, in case any should not understand: "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. For I had not known sin but by the law. For I had not known lust unless the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, wrought death in me by that which is good." ⁴ She at whom thou scoffest knows what this means; for she asks earnestly, and seeks humbly, and knocks meekly. She sees that no fault is found with the law, when it is said, "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life," any more than with knowledge, when it is said, "Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth." ⁵ The passage runs thus: "We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth." The apostle certainly had no desire to be puffed up; but he had knowledge, because knowledge joined with love not only does not puff up, but strengthens. So the letter when joined with the spirit, and the law when joined with grace, is no longer the letter and the law in the same sense as when by itself it kills by abounding sin. In this sense the law is even called the strength of sin, because its strict prohibitions increase the fatal pleasure of sin. Even thus, however, the law is not evil; but "sin, that it may appear sin, works death by that which is good." So things that are not evil may often be hurtful to certain people. The Manichaeans, when they have sore eyes, will shut out their god the sun. The bride of Christ, then, is dead to the law, that is, to sin, which abounds more from the prohibition of the law; for the law apart from grace commands, but does not enable. Being dead to the law in this sense, that she may be married to another who rose from the dead, she makes this distinction without any reproach to the law, which would be blasphemy against its author. This is thy crime; for though the apostle tells thee that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good, thou dost not acknowledge it as the production of a good being. Its author thou makest to be one of the princes of darkness. Here the truth confronts thee. They are the words of the Apostle Paul: "The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." Such is the law given by Him who appointed for a great symbolical use the tablets which thou foolishly deridest. The same law which was given by Moses becomes through Jesus Christ grace and truth; for the spirit is joined to the letter, that the righteousness of the law might begin to be fulfilled, which when unfulfilled only added the guilt of transgression. The law which is holy, and just, and good, is the same law by which sin works death, and to which we must die, that we may be married to another who rose from the dead. Hear what the apostle adds: "But sin, that it might appear sin, wrought death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." Deaf and blind, dost thou not now hear and see? "Sin wrought death in me," he says, "by that which is good." The law is always good: whether it hurts those who are destitute of grace, or benefits those who are filled with grace, itself is always good; as the sun is always good, for every creature of God is good, whether it hurts weak eyes or gladdens the sight of the healthy. Grace fits the mind for keeping the law, as health fits the eyes for seeing the sun. And as healthy eyes die not to the pleasure of seeing the sun, but to that painful effect of the rays which beat upon the eye so as to increase the darkness; so the mind, healed by the love of the spirit, dies not to the justice of the law, but to the guilt and transgression which followed on the law in the absence of grace. So it is said "The law is good, if used lawfully;" and immediately after of the same law, "Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man." The man who delights in righteousness itself, does not require the restraint of the letter.

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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

8.

At ista vera sponsa Christi, cui de diptychio lapideo fronte impudentissima insultas, intellegit, quid distet inter litteram et spiritum, quae duo dicuntur alio modo lex et gratia, et non iam in vetustate litterae, sed in novitate spiritus deo serviens non est iam sub lege, sed sub gratia. Neque enim litigiosa caecatur, sed mitis intendit verbis apostoli, ut intellegat, quid appellet legem, sub qua nos iam non vult esse quia transgressionis gratia posita est, donec veniret semen, cui promissum est, et quia ideo subintravit, ut abundaret delictum; ubi autem abundavit delictum, superabundavit gratia. Nec ideo tamen eandem legem peccatum vocat, quia sine gratia non vivificat, - p. 432,18 auget enim potius reatum praevaricatione addita: Ubi enim lex non est, nec praevaricatio; et ideo per se ipsam, cum sola littera est sine spiritu, id est lex sine gratia, tantummodo reos facit - sed proponit sibi, quod putare minus intellegentes possent, et aperit, quid dicat, cum ait: Quid ergo dicemus? Lex peccatum est? Absit, sed peccatum non cognovi nisi per legem. Nam concupiscentiam nesciebam, nisi lex diceret:‛ Non concupisces’. Occasione itaque accepta peccatum per mandatum fefellit me et per illud occidit. Itaque lex quidem sancta et mandatum sanctum et iustum et bonum. Quod ergo bonum est, factum est mihi mors? Absit. Sed peccatum ut appareat peccatum, per bonum mihi operatum est mortem. p. 433,8 Haec ista, cui insultas, intellegit, quia gemens petit, quia humilis quaerit, quia mitis pulsat; et sic videt non reprehendi legem, cum dicitur: Littera occidit, spiritus autem vivificat, sicut non reprehenditur scientia, cum dicitur: Scientia inflat, caritas vero aedificat. Nam utique ipse dixerat: Scimus, quia omnes scientiam habemus, et tunc adiungit: Scientia inflat, caritas vero aedificat. Ut quid ergo habebat ipse, quo inflaretur, nisi quia cum caritate non solum non inflat scientia, sed etiam firmat? Ita littera cum spiritu et lex cum gratia iam non eo modo littera et lex appellatur, sicut per se ipsam cum occidit abundante delicto. Ita enim lex et virtus peccati dicta est, cum auget eius noxiam delectationem per severam prohibitionem. p. 433,21 Nec tamen etiam sic mala est, sed peccatum ut appareat peccatum, per bonum operatum est mortem. Ita multa quibusdam sunt noxia, quamvis non sint mala. Nam et vos cum oculos doletis, etiam contra deum vestrum solem fenestras clauditis. Haec igitur sponsa Christi, iam mortua legi, id est peccato, quod legis prohibitione fit abundantius, cum lex sine gratia iubet, non iuvat, tali ergo legi mortua, ut sit alterius, qui ex mortuis resurrexit, discernit ista sine legis iniuria, ne sacrilegium committat in eius auctorem. Quod tu facis in eum, quem non intellegis auctorem boni, cum audias apostolum dicentem: Itaque lex quidem sancta et mandatum sanctum et iustum et bonum. Ecce auctor boni est, qui tibi videtur unus ex principibus tenebrarum. Attende veritatem, ferit tibi oculos. p. 434,6 Ecce Paulus apostolus dicit: Lex quidem sancta et mandatum sanctum et iustum et bonum. Ecce, cuius auctor est, qui diptychium illud, quod stulta irrides, in magni sacramenti dispensatione praemisit. Eadem quippe lex, quae per Moysen data est, gratia et veritas per Iesum Christum facta est, cum accessit litterae spiritus, ut inciperet impleri iustitia legis, quae non impleta reos etiam praevaricatione faciebat. Neque enim alia lex est sancta et iusta et bona, et alia, per quam peccatum mortem operatur, cui mori nos oportet, ut simus alterius, qui ex mortuis resurrexit, sed eadem ipsa est. Ecce sequere, lege: sed peccatum inquit ut appareat peccatum , per bonum mihi est operatum mortem, ut fiat supra modum peccator aut peccatum per mandatum. p. 434,20 Surda, caeca, audi, vide. Per bonum inquit mihi operatum est mortem. Ergo lex semper bona est, sive obsit inanibus gratia, sive prosit plenis gratia. Semper est bona, sicut sol semper est bonus, quia omnis creatura dei bona est, sive dolentibus oculis noceat, siue sanos mulceat. Proinde quod est oculis sanitas ad videndum solem, hoc est gratia mentibus ad implendam legem. Et sicut oculi sani non solis delectationi moriuntur, sed illis ictibus asperis radiorum, quibus reverberati in densiores tenebras pellebantur, sic anima, quae per caritatem spiritus salva facta est, non iustitiae legis mortua dicitur, sed illi reatui et praevaricationi, quam lex per litteram, cum gratia defuit, faciebat. p. 435,4 Itaque de illa utrumque dicitur et: Bona est lex, si quis ea legitime utatur et quod sequitur: Sciens hoc, quia iusto lex non est posita, quia non opus habet terrente littera, quem delectat ipsa iustitia.