Edition
Hide
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres
10.
Unde autem tibi uidetur legem Moysi nihil a paganismo distare? An quia templum, sacrificium, altare sacerdotemque commendat? p. 448,11 At haec omnia nomina et in novo testamento reperiuntur. Solvite inquit templum hoc, et in triduo resuscitabo illud et: Cum offers munus tuum ad altare et: Vade, ostende te sacerdoti et offer pro te sacrificium, quod praecepit Moyses, in testimonium illis. Quorum autem figurae fuerint istae, partim dominus ipse demonstrat, cum templum corporis sui templo illi comparat, partim apostolica doctrina cognoscimus; templum enim dei sanctum est ait apostolus, quod estis vos et: Obsecro itaque vos per misericordiam dei, ut exhibeatis corpora vestra hostiam vivam, sanctam, deo placentem et cetera huiusmodi. Proinde illa omnia figurae nostrae fuerunt, sicut idem dicit et saepe commemorandum est, quia non daemoniis exhibebantur, sed uni vero deo, qui fecit caelum et terram, p. 448,25 non tamquam indigenti talibus, sed tempora distinguenti et iubenti praesentia, per quae significaret futura. Vos autem, qui ut seducatis et decipiatis idiotas imperfectosque christianos, paganismum vos fingitis detestari, edite nobis auctoritatem christianorum librorum, in quibus vobis solem ac lunam colere atque adorare praeceptum sit. Vester ergo potius error paganismo similis est, quandoquidem nec Christum colitis, sed Christi nomine nescio quid, quod vobis mentiendo finxistis, et deos vel in isto conspicuo caelo visibiles uel alios innumerabiles commenticios adoratis. Quibus phantasmatis quasi vanis atque inanibus simulacris non aediculas fabricastis, sed corda vestra templa fecistis.
Translation
Hide
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean
10.
What reason have you for saying that the law of Moses is pure Paganism? Is it because it speaks of a temple, and an altar of sacrifices, and priests? But all these names are found also in the New Testament. "Destroy," Christ says, "this temple, and in three days I will raise it up;" 1 and again, "When thou offerest thy gift at the altar;" 2 and again, "Go, show thyself to the priest, and offer for thyself a sacrifice as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them." 3 What these things prefigured the Lord Himself partly tells us, when He calls His own body the temple; and we learn also from the apostle, who says, "The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are;" 4 and again, "I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God;" 5 and in similar passages. As the same apostle says, in words which cannot be too often quoted, these things were our examples, for they were not the work of devils, but of the one true God who made heaven and earth, and who, though not needing such things, yet, suiting His requirements to the time, made ancient observances significant of future realities. Since you pretend to abhor Paganism, though it is only that you may lead astray by your deception unlearned Christians or those not established in the faith, show us any authority in Christian books for your worship and service of the sun and moon. Your heresy is liker Paganism than the law of Moses is. For you do not worship Christ, but only something that you call Christ, a fiction of your own fancy; and the gods you serve are either the bodies visible in the heavens, or hosts of your own contrivance. If you do not build shrines for these worthless idols, the creatures of the imagination, you make your hearts their temple.