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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

80.

Another of Faustus' malicious and impious charges which has to be answered, is about the Lord's saying to the prophet Hosea, "Take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms." ¹ As regards this passage, the impure mind of our adversaries is so blinded that they do not understand the plain words of the Lord in His gospel, when He says to the Jews, "The publicans and harlots shall go into the kingdom of heaven before you." ² There is nothing contrary to the mercifulness of truth, or inconsistent with Christian faith, in a harlot leaving fornication, and becoming a chaste wife. Indeed, nothing could be more unbecoming in one professing to be a prophet than not to believe that all the sins of the fallen woman were pardoned when she changed for the better. So when the prophet took the harlot as his wife, it was both good for the woman to have her life amended, and the action symbolized a truth of which we shall speak presently. But it is plain what offends the Manichaeans in this case; for their great anxiety is to prevent harlots from being with child. It would have pleased them better that the woman should continue a prostitute, so as not to bring their god into confinement, than that she should become the wife of one man, and have children.

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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

80.

Restat in maledicis et sacrilegis reprehensionibus Fausti, quibus nunc respondeo, quod locutus dominus ad Osee prophetam dixit: Accipe tibi uxorem fornicariam et fac filios de fornicaria. In qua scriptura sic excaecatum est immundum cor eorum, ut nec apertissima verba evangelica intellegant domini dicentis ad Iudaeos: Meretrices et publicani praecedent vos in regno caelorum. Quid enim adversum clementiae veritatis, quid inimicum fidei christianae, si meretrix relicta fornicatione in castum coniugium commutetur? p. 683,3 Et quid tam incongruum et alienum a fide prophetae, quam si non crederet omnia peccata impudicae dimissa esse in melius commutatae? Itaque cum meretricem propheta fecit uxorem, et ad vitam corrigendam mulieri consultum est et figurae sacramentum, de quo mox loquemur, expressum. Sed quis non videat, in hoc facto quid potius Manichaeorum offendat errorem? Scilicet, quia solent dare operam meretrices, ne gravidae fiant. Proinde istis fornicaria magis permanens placebat, ut deum ipsorum non ligaret, quam unius viri facta uxor ut pareret.