Edition Masquer
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

68.

Quid aliud in evangelio discimus, cum eadem vox Petri auditur confitens Christum filium dei, quae etiam daemoniorum paria verba, sed longe impari corde emittentium? Proinde in simili voce fides Petri laudatur, daemoniorum immunditia cohibetur. A quo, nisi ab illo, qui non aure humana, sed divina mente radices internas vocum illarum nosset inspicere et sine ulla falsitate discernere? Quam multi enim et alii homines dicunt Christum filium dei vivi nec tamen Petri meritis comparantur, non solum illi, qui dicturi sunt in illo die: Domine, domine! et audituri: Discedite a me, sed etiam illi, qui segregabuntur ad dexteram, in quibus plurimi nec umquam Christum vel semel negaverunt nec eius pro nostra salute passionem improbaverunt nec gentes iudaizare coegerunt, p. 665,3 et tamen Petro, qui haec fecit, sedenti in duodecim sedibus et non solum duodecim tribus, verum et angelos iudicanti impares apparebunt? Ita etiam multi nullius appetentes uxorem, nullum maritum appetitae usque ad mortem persequentes tamen Davidicum meritum, cum iste illa fecisset, apud deum habere non possunt. Tantum interest, quid cuique in se ipso quantumque displiceat, ut penitus exstirpetur, et quid pro eo fructiferum et opulentum ingenti feracitate consurgat, p. 665,11 quia et agricolae plus placent agri, qui spinis etiam magnis eradicatis centenum proferunt, quam qui nullas umquam spinas habuerunt et vix ad tricenum perveniunt.

Traduction Masquer
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

68.

We see the same thing in the Gospel, where the devils confess that Christ is the Son of God in the words used by Peter, but with a very different heart. So, though the words were the same, Peter is praised for his faith, while the impiety of the devils is checked. For Christ, not by human sense, but by divine knowledge, could inspect and infallibly discriminate the sources from which the words came. Besides, there are multitudes who confess that Christ is the Son of the living God, without meriting the same approval as Peter--not only of those who shall say in that day, "Lord, Lord," and shall receive the sentence, "Depart from me," but also of those who shall be placed on the right hand. They may probably never have denied Christ even once; they may never have opposed His suffering for our salvation; they may never have forced the Gentiles to do as the Jews; ¹ and yet they shall not be honored equally with Peter, who, though he did all these things, will sit on one of the twelve thrones, and judge not only the twelve tribes, but the angels. So, again, many who have never desired another man's wife, or procured the death of the husband, as David did, will never reach the place which David nevertheless held in the divine favor. There is a vast difference between what is in itself so undesirable that it must be utterly rejected, and the rich and plenteous harvest which may afterwards appear. For farmers are best pleased with the fields from which, after weeding them, it may be, of great thistles, they receive an hundred-fold; not with fields which have never had any thistles, and hardly bear thirty-fold.