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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

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Non autem, sicut illi desipiunt, ad alienum deum seducta es, promittentem saturitatem ventris et terram Chananaeorum. Intellegis quippe in ipsis etiam promissionibus te iam tunc figuratam et prophetatam praescientiam parturisse sanctorum. Nec lapideo diptychio miserabili dicacitate reprehenso movearis, quia non habes lapideum cor, quod illae tabulae in populo priore significabant. Es enim epistula apostolorum scripta non atramento, sed spiritu dei vivi, non in tabulis lapideis, sed in tabulis cordis carnalibus. Ad quae verba illi vani gaudent putantes apostolum reprehendisse dispensationem illi tempori congruam veteris testamenti, non intellegentes hoc eum ex propheta dixisse. Haec enim verba, quae imperite amplectuntur, longe antequam per apostolos dicerentur et implerentur, a prophetis, quos respuunt, praenuntiata sunt. p. 421,20 Propheta enim dixerat: Auferam eis cor lapideum et dabo eis cor carneum. Videant, si non hoc est: Non in tabulis lapideis, sed in tabulis cordis carnalibus. Nam neque ibi quod dictum est cor carneum, neque hic tabulae carnales hoc volunt, ut carnaliter sapiamus, sed quia in comparatione lapidis, qui sine sensu est, caro sentit, per lapidis insensualitatem significatum est cor non intellegens, et per carnis sensualitatem significatum est cor intellegens. Tu potius istos irride, qui dicunt et terram et ligna et lapides habere sensum et intellegentiore vita vivere, carnes autem stolidiore et obtunsiore. p. 422,5 Unde non a veritate, sed a sua vanitate coguntur fateri mundius esse legem conscriptam in tabulis lapideis quam suum thesaurum in pellibus morticinis. An forte quia in fabella sua etiam lapides dicunt ossa esse principum, non eis dubitant coria praeponere agnorum? Nempe ergo illa testamenti arca mundius tegebat lapideas tabulas quam caprina pellis codicem istorum. Haec tu misericorditer irride, ut eis irridenda et fugienda commendes! Nam in illo diptychio lapideo, iam tu non corde lapideo intellegis, quid duro illi populo congruebat et in eo tamen agnoscis petram, ipsum sponsum tuum, illum, quem Petrus loquitur: Lapidem vivum ab hominibus reprobatum, a deo autem electum et honorificatum. Illis ergo erat lapis offensionis et petra scandali; tibi autem lapis, quem reprobaverunt aedificantes, factus est in capite anguli. p. 422,20 Quod totum idem Petrus apostolus explicat et totum a prophetis, a quibus isti damnati alienantur, praedictum esse commemorat. Lege sane etiam illud diptychium; ne timeas, plane sponsi tui est. Aliis lapis ille significavit duram stoliditatem, tibi autem firmam stabilitatem. Digito dei scriptae sunt tabulae illae; digito dei sponsus tuus eiecit daemonia; digito dei expelle tu doctrinas daemoniorum mendaciloquorum cauteriantium conscientiam. Ex hoc diptychio repellis adulterum, qui se paracletum dicit, ut sancto nomine te seducat. Quinquagesimo enim die post pascha datae sunt illae tabulae; et quinquagesimo die post passionem sponsi tui, quam pascha illud praefigurabat, datus est digitus dei, spiritus sanctus, promissus paracletus. p. 423,5 Noli ergo formidare diptychium, quo tibi scripta olim, quae nunc agnosceres, mittebantur; tantum noli esse sub lege, ne illam timore non impleas, sed sub gratia, ut sit in te plenitudo legis caritas. Non enim aliud diptychium recensebat sponsi tui amicus, cum diceret: Nam‛ non adulterabis, non homicidium facies, non concupisces’ et si quod est aliud mandatum, in hoc sermone recapitulatur:‛ diliges proximum tuum tamquam te ipsum’. Dilectio proximi malum non operatur. Plenitudo autem legis est caritas. Ibi enim sunt duo illa praecepta, dilectionis dei et dilectionis proximi, singulis tabulis explicata. Hoc ergo diptychium ille praemisit, qui tibi haec duo praecepta veniens commendavit, in quibus tota lex pendet et prophetae. p. 423,18 In primo praecepto est castitas nuptiarum tuarum, in secundo unitas membrorum tuorum: illo amplecteris divinitatem, isto congregas societatem. Quae duo praecepta ipsa sunt decem: tria pertinent ad deum et septem ad proximum. O pudicum diptychium, in quo vetere figura ille dilector et dilectus tuus praenuntiabat tibi canticum novum, in decachordo psalterio, tamquam pro te etiam nervos suos extensurus in ligno, ut de peccato damnaret peccatum in carne et iustitia legis inpleretur in te. O diptychium coniugale, quod non sine causa odit adultera!

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

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It is a silly falsehood that thou hast been seduced to another God, who promises abundance of food and the land of Canaan. For thou canst perceive how the saints of old, who were also thy children, were enlightened by these figures which were prophecies of thee. Thou needest not regard the poor jest against the stone tablets, for the stony heart of which they were in old times a figure is not in thee. For thou art an epistle of the apostles, "written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tables of stone, but on the fleshy tables of the heart." ¹ Our opponents ignorantly think that these words are in their favor, and that the apostle finds fault with the dispensation of the Old Testament, whereas they are the words of the prophet. This utterance of the apostles was a fulfillment of the long anterior utterances of the prophet whom the Manichaeans reject, for they believe the apostles without understanding them. The prophet says: "I will take away from them the stony heart, and I will give them a heart of flesh." ² What is this but "Not on tables of stones but on the fleshy tables of the heart"? For by the heart of flesh and the fleshy tables is not meant a carnal understanding: but as flesh feels, whereas a stone cannot, the insensibility of stone signifies an unintelligent heart, and the sensibility of flesh signifies an intelligent heart. Instead, then, of scoffing at thee, they deserve to be ridiculed who say that earth, and wood, and stones have sense, and that their life is more intelligent than animal life. So, not to speak of the truth, even their own fiction obliges them to confess that the law written on tables of stone was purer than their sacred parchments. Or perhaps they prefer sheepskin to stone, because their legends make stones the bones of princes. In any case, the ark of the Old Testament was a cleaner covering for the tables of stone than the goatskin of their manuscripts. Laugh at these things, while pitying them, to show their falsehood and absurdity. With a heart no longer stony, thou canst see in these stone tablets a suitableness to that hard-hearted people; and at the same time thou canst find even there the stone, thy Bridegroom, described by Peter as "a living stone, rejected by men, but chosen of God, and precious." To them He was "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence;" but to thee, "the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner." ³ This is all explained by Peter, and is quoted from the prophets, with whom these heretics have nothing to do. Fear not, then, to read these tablets--they are from thy Husband; to others the stone was a sign of insensibility, but to thee of strength and stability. With the finger of God these tablets were written; with the finger of God thy Lord cast out devils; with the finger of God drive thou away the doctrines of lying devils which sear the conscience. With these tablets thou canst confound the seducer who calls himself the Paraclete, that he may impose upon thee by a sacred name. For on the fiftieth day after the passover the tables were given; and on the fiftieth day after the passion of thy Bride-groom--of whom the passover was a type--the finger of God, the Holy Spirit, the promised Paraclete, was given. Fear not the tablets which convey to thee ancient writings now made plain. Only be not under the law, lest fear prevent thy fulfilling it; but be under grace, that love, which is the fulfilling of the law, may be in thee. For it was in a review of these very tablets that the friend of thy Bridegroom said: "For thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not murder, Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is contained in this word, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." ⁴ One table contains the precept of love to God, and the other of love to man. And He who first sent these tablets Himself came to enjoin those precepts on which hang the law and the prophets. ⁵ In the first precept is the chastity of thy espousals; in the second is the unity of thy members. In the one thou art united to divinity; in the other thou dost gather a society. And these two precepts are identical with the ten, of which three relate to God, and seven to our neighbor. Such is the chaste tablet in which thy Lover and thy Beloved of old prefigured to thee the new song on a psaltery of ten strings; Himself to be extended on the cross for thee, that by sin He might condemn sin in the flesh, and that the righteouness of the law might be fulfilled in thee. Such is the conjugal tablet, which may well be hated by the unfaithful wife.