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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

69.

Sic et Moysen famulum dei fidelissimum in tota domo eius, ministrum legis sanctae et mandati sancti, iusti et boni, cui apostolus attestatur – nam eius haec verba sunt, quae commemoravi – ministrum etiam sacramentorum, non iam praestantium salutem, sed adhuc promittentium salvatorem, quod et salvator ipse confirmat dicens: Si crederetis Moysi, crederetis et mihi; de me enim ille scripsit – unde suo loco, quantum satis visum est, contra impudentes Manichaeorum calumnias disseruimus – hunc ergo Moysen famulum dei vivi, dei veri, dei summi, fabricatoris caeli et terrae, non de alieno, sed de nihilo, non premente necessitate, sed affluente bonitate, non per sui membri poenam, sed per sui verbi potentiam, p. 665,26 hunc, inquam, Moysen, humilem in recusando tam magnum ministerium, subditum in suscipiendo, fidelem in servando, strenuum in exsequendo, in regendo populo vigilantem, in corrigendo vehementem, in amando ardentem, in sustinendo patientem, qui pro eis, quibus praefuit, deo se interposuit consulenti, opposuit irascenti, hunc itaque talem ac tantum virum, absit a nobis, ut ex maledico Fausti ore pensemus, sed ex ore plane veredici dei, qui veraciter hominem, quem fecerat, noverat, quandoquidem etiam peccata hominum, quae ipse non facit, et in diffitentibus ut iudex agnoscit et in confitentibus ut pater ignoscit. Ex ore omnino eius Moysen servum eius et amamus et admiramur et quantum possumus imitamur, p. 666, cum simus longe illius meritis inferiores, etiam nullo Aegyptio vel occiso vel exspoliato, nullo bello gesto, quorum ille aliud futuri indole defensoris, alia imposito imperio dei fecit.

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

69.

So Moses, too, who was so faithful a servant of God in all his house; the minister of the holy, just, and good law; of whose character the apostle speaks in the words here quoted; ¹ the minister also of the symbols which, though not conferring salvation, promised the Saviour, as the Saviour Himself shows, when He says, "If ye believed Moses, ye would also believe me, for he wrote of me,"--from which passage we have already sufficiently answered the presumptuous cavils of the Manichaeans;--this Moses, the servant of the living, the true, the most high God, that made heaven and earth, not of a foreign substance, but of nothing--not from the pressure of necessity, but from plenitude of goodness--not by the suffering of His members, but by the power of His word;--this Moses, who humbly put from him this high ministry, but obediently accepted it, and faithfully kept it, and diligently fulfilled it; who ruled the people with vigilance, reproved them with vehemence, loved them with fervor, and bore with them in patience, standing for his subjects before God to receive His counsel, and to appease His wrath;--this great and good man is not to be judged of from Faustus' malicious representations, but from what is said by God, whose word is a true expression of His true opinion of this man, whom He knew because He made him. For the sins of men are also known to God, though He is not their author; but He takes notice of them as a judge in those who refuse to own them, and pardons them as a father in those who make confession. His servant Moses, as thus described, we love and admire and to the best of our power imitate, coming indeed far short of his merits, though we have killed no Egyptian, nor plundered any one, nor carried on any war; which actions of Moses were in one case prompted by the zeal of the future champion of his people, and in the other cases commanded by God.