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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

32.

Certe iam manifestata fallacia convicta discedit; certe iam clarum est non aliud de hac re turbas, aliud secreto discipulos dominum docuisse; certe sine dubitatione perspicitur Manichaeos potius esse mendaces atque fallaces, non Moysen, non Christum, non testamenti utriusque doctrinam ibi figuratam, hic revelatam, ibi prophetatam, hic praesentatam. 481,8 Quomodo ergo nihil eorum catholicos servare putant, quae Moyses scripsit, cum omnia prorsus observent, non iam in figuris, sed in eis rebus, quas illae figurae significando praenuntiarunt? Neque enim, si aliud tempus esset scribendi, aliud legendi, recte diceremus scripturam illam non observare lectorem, quia et ipse characteres illos non faceret, cum illae fuissent figurae sonorum, ille autem iam sonos ipsos expromeret, illarum tamen figurarum non formatione occupatus, sed inspectione commonitus. Ideo autem Iudaei Christo non credebant, quia nec illa, quae Moyses non figurate, sed aperte praeceperat, observabant. p. 481,19 Unde illis dicit: Decimatis mentam et cyminum et relinquitis graviora legis, misericordiam et iudicium, liquantes culicem, camelum autem gluttientes; haec oportebat facere, illa autem non omittere. Unde est et illud, quod traditionibus docebant, quomodo infirmaretur praeceptum dei, quo deferri honorem parentibus iusserat; propter quam superbiam et iniquitatem excaecari meruerunt, ut cetera non intellegerent, quia ea, quae intellegebant, impie contemnebant.

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

32.

Here we have a complete exposure of the falsehood of the Manichaeans: for it is plain that the Lord did not in this matter teach one thing to the multitude, and another in private to His disciples. Here is abundant evidence that the error and deceit are in the Manichaeans, and not in Moses, nor in Christ, nor in the doctrine taught figuratively in one Testament and plainly in the other,--prophesied in one, and fulfilled in the other. How can the Manichaeans say that the Catholics regard none of the things that Moses wrote, when in fact they observe them all, not now in the figures, but in what the figures were intended to foretell? No one would say that one who reads the Scripture subsequently to its being written does not observe it because he does not form the letters which he reads. The letters are the figures of the sounds which he utters; and though he does not form the letters, he cannot read without examining them. The reason why the Jews did not believe in Christ, was because they did not observe even the plain literal precepts of Moses. So Christ says to them: "Ye pay tithe of mint and cummin, and omit the weightier matters of the law, mercy and judgment. Ye strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." ¹ So also He told them that by their traditions they made of none effect the commandment of God to give honor to parents. On account of this pride and perversity in neglecting what they understood, they were justly blinded, so that they could not understand the other things.