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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

6.

But how can you venture to quote this verse against me? Or why should it be against me only, when it is as much against yourself? If Christ does not destroy the law and the prophets, neither must Christians do so. Why then do you destroy them? Do you begin to perceive that you are no Christian? How can you profane with all kinds of work the day pronounced sacred in the law and in all the prophets, on which they say that God, the maker of the world, himself rested, without dreading the penalty of death pronounced against Sabbath-breakers, or the curse on the transgressor? How can you refuse to receive in your person the unseemly mark of circumcision, which the law and all the prophets declare to be honorable, especially in the case of Abraham, after what was thought to be his faith; for does not the God of the Jews proclaim that whosoever is without this mark of infamy shall perish from his people? How can you neglect the appointed sacrifices, which were made so much of both by Moses and the prophets under the law, and by Abraham in his faith? And how can you defile your souls by making no distinction in foods, if you believe that Christ came not to destroy these things, but to fulfill them? Why do you discard the annual feast of unleavened bread, and the appointed sacrifice of the lamb, which, according to the law and the prophets, is to be observed for ever? Why, in a word, do you treat so lightly the new moons, the baptisms, and the feast of tabernacles, and all the other carnal ordinances of the law and the prophets, if Christ did not destroy them? I have therefore good reason for saying that, in order to justify your neglect of these things, you must either abandon your profession of being Christ's disciple, or acknowledge that Christ himself has already destroyed them; and from this acknowledgment it must follow, either that this text is spurious in which Christ is made to say that he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it, or that the words have an entirely different meaning from what you suppose.

Edition Hide
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

6.

Tu tamen quid fiduciae gerens haec obicias quaero, aut quare contra me id esse putes solum, quod tibi non minus videatur esse contrarium. Si Christi non est legem solvere et prophetas, utique nec christianorum. Cur ergo vos eadem solvitis? An sensim fatemini vos non esse christianos? p. 502,7 Quid legi et prophetis omnibus sacrosanctum illum sabbatorum diem, in quo et mundi ipsum opificem deum requievisse testantur, vos omni opere profanatis nec poenam mortis, quam adversum violatores eius statuit, nec maledicti pertimescentes infamiam? Quid et a circumcisionis dedecoroso illo signaculo legi ac prophetis omnibus honorato et maxime Abrahae post opinatam suam fidem sinus defenditis vestros, praesertim cum et periturum omnem de plebe sua perhibeat Iudaeorum deus, quicumque non hac fuerit ignominia praesignatus? Cur et sacrificiorum legitima, quae nec Moyses ac prophetae sub lege nec sub fide sua in secundis habuit Abraham, vos spernitis? Cur vero et ciborum indifferentia animas polluitis vestras, si haec, ut creditis, omnia Christus non venit solvere, sed adimplere? p. 502,21 Cur et azymorum anniversale ius et mactationis agninae sacrum, quod in aeternum servare lex et prophetae praecipiunt, vos impiatis? Cur denique neomenias et baptismata et scenopegiam ac reliqua huiusmodi legis atque prophetarum sacramenta carnalia parum devitatis irrumpere, si eadem Christus minime destruxit? Quare non immerito dixerim, quia, si vultis, ut ratio vobis contemptus istius constet, oportet aut vos negare Christi esse discipulos aut tandem fateri ipsum omnia haec destruxisse priorem. Quod cum fueritis confessi, tunc et illud, quod sequitur, ut aut falso fateamini scriptum esse, tamquam idem dixerit non se venisse solvere legem, sed adimplere, aut nescio quid hoc longe aliud quam vos putatis significasse. p. 503,10