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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

9.

Horum ergo membrorum _ [et?]corporis nostri, quae sic commendat, sic laudat apostolus, quisquis artificem deum negat, videtis, cui contradicat adnuntians nobis praeter id, quod accepimus. Quid igitur opus est, ut a me redarguatur potius quam ab omnibus christianis anathemetur? Dicit apostolus: Deus temperavit corpus, et dicit iste: Hyle, non deus. Quid apertius his inimicitiis ante anathemandis quam refellendis? Numquid et hic apostolus, cum diceret deus, addidit huius saeculi, ubi etiam si quis diabolum intellexerit excaecare mentes infidelium, non negamus, malis suasionibus, quibus qui consentiunt, iustitiae lumen amittunt deo retribuente quod iustum est. p. 578,23 Haec omnia legimus in scripturis sanctis. Nam et illud dictum est de seductione extrinsecus veniente: Timeo, ne, sicut serpens Evam seduxit in versutia sua, ita corrumpantur mentes vestrae a simplicitate et castitate, quae est in Christo, cui simile est: Corrumpunt mores bonos colloquia mala, et illud, quod et sibi quisque seductor sit: Qui autem putat se esse aliquid, cum nihil sit, se ipsum seducit, et illud de dei vindicta, quod supra commemoravi: Tradidit illos deus in reprobum sensum, ut faciant, quae non conveniunt. Ita et in veteribus libris, cum praedixisset: Deus mortem non fecit nec laetatur in perditione vivorum, paulo post, invidia inquit diaboli mors introivit in orbem terrarum, et rursus de ipsa morte, ne se homines extra culpam ponerent, impii autem manibus et verbis inquit arcessiverunt illam et existimantes illam amicam defluxerunt; p. 579,12 alibi autem: Bona et mala, vita et mors, divitiae et paupertas a domino deo sunt. Hic perturbati homines non intellegunt in uno eodemque opere malo non postea consequente alia, quae manifesta erit, sed quadam continuo comitante vindicta aliud venire de astutia suadentis, aliud de nequitia volentis, aliud de iustitia punientis, cum diabolus suggerit, homo consentit, deus deserit. Quocirca in opere malo, id est excaecatione infidelium, si intellegatur et diabolus propter suadendi malignitatem, ut sic distinguatur: Deus huius saeculi, non mihi videtur absurdum. Neque enim sine additamento dicitur deus, cum adiungitur huius saeculi, id est hominum impiorum non nisi in hoc saeculo florere volentium; p. 579,24 secundum quod dicitur et malum saeculum, sicut scriptum est: Ut eximeret nos de praesenti saeculo maligno. Tale est enim et illud: Quorum deus venter. Nisi esset ibi quorum, nullo modo diceret: Deus venter. Nec in psalmo daemonia possent dii appellari, nisi adderetur gentium; sic enim scriptum est: Quoniam dii gentium daemonia. Hic autem nec deus huius saeculi nec quorum deus venter nec dii gentium daemonia, sed simpliciter positum est: Deus temperavit corpus, qui non potest intellegi nisi deus verus omnium creator. Illa enim cum vituperatione dicuntur, hoc autem cum laude dictum est. Nisi forte deum temperasse corpus non dispositione membrorum, hoc est fabricando et construendo, sed admixtione lucis suae Faustus intellegit, p. 580,7 ut scilicet haec membra ita distincta et locata suis sedibus alter ‹dis ?› _posuerit, qui hoc fabricavit, deus autem miscendo bonitatem suam huius fabricae malitiam temperaverit. Talibus enim fabulis pueriles animas hebetant. Sed neque hoc eos posse dicere permisit subveniens deus parvulis per ora sanctorum. Habes enim et paulo superius: Deus posuit membra singula, unum quodque eorum in corpore prout voluit. Quis iam non intellegat secundum hoc deum dictum temperatorem corporis, quod ex multis membris corpus fabricavit officia diversorum operum in unitatis compage servantibus?

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

9.

Whoever, then, denies that our body and its members, which the apostle so approves and extols, are the handiwork of God, you see whom he contradicts, preaching contrary to what you have received. So, instead of refuting his opinions, I may leave him to be accursed of all Christians. The apostle says, God tempered the body. Faustus says, Not God, but Hyle. Anathemas are more suitable than arguments to such contradictions. You cannot say that God is here called the God of this world. And if any one understands the passage where this expression does occur to mean that the devil blinds the minds of unbelievers, we grant that he does so by his evil suggestions, from yielding to which, men lose the light of righteousness in God's righteous retribution. This is all in accordance with sacred Scripture. The apostle himself speaks of temptation from without: "I fear lest, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and purity that is in Christ." ¹ To the same purpose are the words, "Evil communications corrupt good manners;" ² and when he speaks of a man deceiving himself, "Whoever thinketh himself to be anything, when he is nothing, deceiveth himself;" ³ or again, in the passage already quoted of the judgment of God, "God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient." ⁴ Similarly, in the Old Testament, after the words, "God did not create death, nor hath He pleasure in the destruction of the living," we read, "By the envy of the devil death entered into the world." ⁵ And again of death, that men may not put the blame from themselves, "The wicked invite her with hands and voice; and thinking her a friend, they are drawn down." ⁶ Elsewhere, however, it is said, "Good and evil, life and death, riches and poverty, are from the Lord God." ⁷ This seems perplexing to people who do not understand that, apart from the manifest judgment to follow hereafter upon every evil work, there is an actual judgment at the time; so that in one action, besides the craft of the deceiver and the wickedness of the voluntary agent, there is also the just penalty of the judge: for while the devil suggests, and man consents, God abandons. So, if you join the words, God of this world, and understand that the devil blinds unbelievers by his mischievous delusions, the meaning is not a bad one. For the word God is not used by itself, but with the qualification of this world, that is, of wicked men, who seek to prosper only in this age. In this sense the world is also called evil, where it is written, "that He might deliver us from this present evil age." ⁸ In the same way, in the expression, "whose god is their belly," it is only in connection with the word whose that the belly is called god. So also, in the Psalms, the devils would not be called gods without adding "of the nations." ⁹ But in the passage we are now considering it is not said, The god of this world, or, Whose god is their belly, or, The gods of the nations are devils; but simply, God has tempered the body, which can be understood only of the true God, the Creator of all. There is no disparaging addition here, as in the other cases. But perhaps Faustus will say that God tempered the body, not as the maker of it, in the arrangement of its members, but by mixing His light with it. Thus Faustus would attribute to some other being than God the construction of the body, and the arrangement of its members, while God tempered the evil of the construction by the mixture of His goodness. Such are the inventions with which the Manichaeans cram feeble minds. But God, in aid of the feeble, by the mouth of the sacred writers rebukes this opinion. For we read a few verses before: "God has placed the members every one of them in the body, as it has pleased Him." Evidently, God is said to have tempered the body, because He has constructed it of many members, which in their union preserve the variety of their respective functions.