Traduction Masquer
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

5.

Accordingly, to say, if God is almighty, let Him make what has been done to be undone, is in fact to say, if God is almighty, let Him make a thing to be in the same sense both true and false. God can put an end to the existence of anything, when the thing to be put an end to has a present existence; as when He puts an end by death to the existence of any one who has been brought into existence in birth; for in this case there is an actual existence which may be put a stop to. But when a thing does not exist, the existence cannot be put a stop to. Now, what is past no longer exists and whatever has an existence which can be put an end to cannot be past. What is truly past is no longer present; and the truth of its past existence is in our judgment, not in the thing itself which no longer exists. The proposition asserting anything to be past is true when the thing no longer exists. God cannot make such a proposition false, because He cannot contradict the truth. The truth in this case, or the true judgment, is first of all in our own mind, when we know and give expression to it. But should it disappear from our minds by our forgetting it, it would still remain as truth. It will always be true that the past thing which is no longer present had an existence; and the truth of its past existence after it has stopped is the same as the truth of its future existence before it began to be. This truth cannot be contradicted by God, in whom abides the supreme and unchangeable truth, and whose illumination is the source of all the truth to be found in any mind or understanding. Now God is not omnipotent in the sense of being able to die; nor does this inability prevent His being omnipotent. True omnipotence belongs to Him who truly exists, and who alone is the source of all existence, both spiritual and corporeal. The Creator makes what use He pleases of all His creatures; and His pleasure is in harmony with true and unchangeable justice, by which, as by His own nature, He, Himself unchangeable, brings to pass the changes of all changeable things according to the desert of their natures or of their actions. No one, therefore, would be so foolish as to deny that Elias being a creature of God could be changed either for the worse or for the better; or that by the will of the omnipotent God he could be changed in a manner unusual among men. So we can have no reason for doubting what on the high authority of Scripture is related of him, unless we limit the power of God to things which we are familiar with.

Edition Masquer
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

5.

Quisquis itaque dicit: si omnipotens est deus, faciat, ut quae facta sunt, facta non fuerint, non videt hoc se dicere: si omnipotens est, faciat, ut ea, quae vera sunt, eo ipso, quo vera sunt, falsa sint. p. 732,25 Potest enim facere, ut aliquid non sit, quod erat; tunc enim facit, ut non sit, quando id esse invenerit, de quo fiat, velut cum aliquem, qui coepit esse nascendo, faciat non esse moriendo; hoc enim factum invenit, de quo fieret. Quis autem dicat, ut id, quod iam non est, faciat non esse? Quicquid enim praeteritum est, iam non est, quod et si de ipso fieri aliquid potest, adhuc est, de quo fiat, et si est, quomodo praeteritum est? Non ergo est, quod vere dicimus fuisse, sed ideo verum est illud fuisse, quia in nostra sententia verum est, non in ea re, quae iam non est. Sententia quippe, qua dicimus aliquid fuisse, ideo vera est, quia illud, de quo dicimus, iam non est. Hanc sententiam deus falsam facere on potest, quia non est contrarius veritati. Quodsi quaeras, ubi sit haec vera sententia, prius invenitur in animo nostro, cum id verum scimus et dicimus, sed si et de animo nostro ablata fuerit, cum id, quod scimus, obliti fuerimus, manebit ipsa veritate. p. 733,11 Semper enim verum erit fuisse illud, quod erat et non est; et ibi verum erit iam fuisse, quod erat, ubi verum erat, antequam fieret futurum esse, quod non erat. Huic veritati deus non potest adversari, in quo est ipsa summa et incommutabilis veritas, quo illustratur, ut sit, quicquid in quorumque animis et mentibus verum est. Omnipotentem autem deum non ita dicimus, ac si eum etiam mori posse credamus, et quia hoc non potest, ideo non sit dicendus omnipotens. Ille plane omnipotens vere solus dicitur, quia vere est et a quo solo est, quicquid aliquo modo est vel spiritale vel corporale, quia universa creatura sua utitur, ut ei placet; placet autem illi secundum veram incommutabilemque iustitiam, quod ipse sibi est, omnia mutabilia, cum ipse sit incommutabilis, mutans pro meritis sive naturarum sive factorum. p. 733,25 Numquid ergo dicturi sumus, quod Helias, cum esset creatura, mutari non posset vel in deterius vel in melius, aut eo modo non posset, qui esset humano generi insolitus, secundum dei omnipotentis voluntatem? Quis hoc stultissimus dixerit? Cur ergo quod de illo in scriptura veracissima positum est, non credamus? Nisi putemus hoc solum posse facere deum, quod videre consuevimus.