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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

23.

Faustus says also, without knowing what he says, that we have retained the manners of the Gentiles. But seeing that the just lives by faith, and that the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned, and that these three, faith, hope, and love, abide to form the life of believers, it is impossible that there should be similarity in the manners of those who differ in these three things. Those who believe differently, and hope differently, and love differently, must also live differently. And if we resemble the Gentiles in our use of such things as food and drink, and houses and clothes and baths, and those of us who marry, in taking and keeping wives, and in begetting and bringing up children as our heirs, there is still a great difference between the man who uses these things for some end of his own, and the man who, in using them, gives thanks to God, having no unworthy or erroneous ideas about God. For as you, according to your own heresy, though you eat the same bread as other men, and live upon the produce of the same plants and the water of the same fountain, and are clothed like others in wool and linen, yet lead a different life, not because you eat or drink, or dress differently, but because you differ from others in your ideas and in your faith, and in all these things have in view an end of your own--the end, namely, set forth in your false doctrines; in the same way we, though we resemble the Gentiles in the use of this and other things, do not resemble them in our life; for while the things are the same, the end is different: for the end we have in view is, according to the just commandment of God, love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned; from which some having erred, are turned to vain jangling. In this vain jangling you bear the palm, for you do not attend to the fact that so great is the difference of life produced by a different faith, even when the things in possession and use are the same, that though your followers have wives, and in spite of themselves get children, for whom they gather and store up wealth; though they eat flesh, drink wine, bathe, reap harvests, gather vintages, engage in trade, and occupy high official positions, you nevertheless reckon them as belonging to you, and not to the Gentiles, though in their actions they approach nearer to the Gentiles than to you. And though some of the Gentiles in some things resemble you more than your own followers,--those, for instance, who in superstitious devotion abstain from flesh, and wine, and marriage,--you still count your own followers, even though they use all these things, and so are unlike you, as belonging to the flock of Manichaeus rather than those who resemble you in their practices. You consider as belonging to you a woman that believes in Manichaeus, though she is a mother, rather than a Sibyl, though she never marries. But you will say that many who are called Catholic Christians are adulterers, robbers, misers, drunkards, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine. I ask if none such are to be found in your company, which is almost too small to be called a company. And because there are some among the Pagans who are not of this character, do you consider them as better than yourselves? And yet, in fact, your heresy is so blasphemous, that even your followers who are not of such a character are worse than the Pagans who are. It is therefore no impeachment to sound doctrine, which alone is Catholic, that many wish to take its name, who will not yield to its beneficial influence. We must bear in mind the true meaning of the contrast which the Lord makes between the little company and the mass of mankind, as spread over all the world; for the company of saints and believers is small, as the amount of grain is small when compared with the heap of chaff; and yet the good grain is quite sufficient far to outnumber you, good and bad together, for good and bad are both strangers to the truth. In a word, we are not a schism of the Gentiles, for we differ from them greatly for the better; nor are you, for you differ from them greatly for the worse. ¹

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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

23.

Qui etiam dicit nihil nos mutasse de moribus gentium nesciens, quid loquatur. Cum enim iustus ex fide vivat finisque praecepti sit caritas de corde puro et conscientia bona et fide non ficta maneantque ad formandam vitam fidelium tria haec: fides, spes, caritas, unde fieri potest, ut pares cum aliquo mores habeat, qui haec tria cum illo paria non habet? Qui enim aliud credit, aliud sperat, aliud amat, necesse est, ut aliter vivat. Etsi usus quarundam rerum similis videtur nobis esse cum gentibus, sicut cibi et potus, tectorum, vestimentorum, lavacrorum, et qui ex nostris coniugalem vitam gerunt, uxorum ducendarum et habendarum, filiorum gignendorum, nutriendorum, hereditandorum, longe tamen aliter his rebus utitur, qui ad alium finem usum earum refert, et aliter, qui ex his deo gratias agit, de quo prava et falsa non credit. p. 566,19 Sicut enim in ipso errore vestro cum eo pane vescamini, quo ceteri homines, et fructibus vivatis et fontibus, lana et lino similiter texto amiciamini, nec in his tamen parem ducitis vitam, non aliud edendo aut bibendo aut induendo, sed aliud sentiendo et credendo et ad alium finem ista omnia referendo, finem scilicet vestri erroris atque vanitatis, ita nos et in his et in aliis, quae similiter sumimus, non similiter cum gentibus vivimus easdem res non ad eundem finem referendo, sed ad finem legitimi divinique praecepti, caritatem de corde puro et conscientia bona et fide non ficta, a quibus quidam aberrantes conversi sunt in vaniloquium, in quo sane principatum tenetis p. 567,1 non intuentes, non considerantes in eisdem habendis agendisque rebus tantum ad diversam vitam valere, si diversa sit fides, ut cum auditores vestri et uxores habeant et filios quamvis inviti suscipiant eisque patrimonia congerant vel custodiant, carne vescantur, vinum bibant, lavent, metant, vindemient, negotientur, honores publicos administrent, vobiscum eos tamen, non cum gentibus computetis, cum facta eorum gentibus videantur similiora quam vobis. Nam et quorumdam facta gentilium cum magis vobis propinquent quam quibusdam auditoribus vestris – nonnulli quippe in sacrilegis sacris suis et a vino et a carnibus et a concubitu temperant – potius auditores vestros his omnibus utentes et in eo vobis dissimiles in Manichaei grege numeratis, quam istos eadem, quae facitis, facientes, p. 567,14 potiusque feminam, quae in Manichaeum crediderit, vestram dicitis etiam parientem quam Sibyllam nec saltem nubentem. At enim multi christiani catholici vocantur et sunt adulteri, raptores, avari, ebriosi et quicquid aliud sanae doctrinae adversatur. Quid autem? Inter vos, in tam exiguo ac paene nullo numero vestro, nonne plerique sunt tales, et quidam in paganis non sunt tales? Num ideo paganos, qui tales non sunt, dicitis meliores vobis, cum tamen propter sacrilegam vanitatem sectae vestrae etiam qui in vobis tales non sunt, paganis etiam talibus deteriores sint? Unde manifestum est non ideo derogari sanae doctrinae, quae sola catholica est, quia multi eius nomine censeri volunt et per illam sanari nolunt. Agnoscenda est enim paucitas illa, quam dominus praecipue commendat in ingenti atque innumerabili multitudine toto orbe diffusa, p. 567,29 quae tamen paucitas sanctorum atque fidelium, quod saepe commendandum est, tamquam granorum in comparatione multitudinis palearum paucitas dicitur, per se autem ipsam tantam massam frumenti facit, ut omnes probos et reprobos vestros, quos pariter veritas reprobat, incomparabili multitudine superet. Ecce non sumus gentium schisma, a quibus plurimum distamus in melius, sed nec vos hoc estis, quia plurimum ab eis distatis in peius.