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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

4.

Absit autem, ut sit in membris sanctorum, etiam genitalibus, aliqua turpitudo! Dicuntur quidem inhonesta, quia non habent eam speciem decoris, quam membra, quae in promptu locata sunt. Sed videte, quid dicat apostolus, cum ex ipsa membrorum corporis nostri unitate atque compage caritatem persuadet ecclesiae. Multo magis inquit quae videntur membra corporis infirmiora esse, necessaria sunt; et quae videntur viliora esse corporis, his abundantiorem honorem circumponimus; et quae inhonesta sunt nostra, abundantiorem honestatem habent; quae autem honesta sunt nostra, non opus habent; sed deus temperavit corpus ei, cui deerat, maiorem honorem dans, ut non essent scissurae in corpore. p. 746,26 Illicitus itaque et temperantiae legibus non subiectus membrorum illorum usus est turpis, non ipsa membra, quae non solum in excellenti integritate caelibes et virgines servant, sed ipsi coniugati sancti patres ac matres sic eis generationi tantummodo consulentes utebantur, ut ille naturalis motus nullo modo turpis esset, qui non libidini, sed rationi serviret. Quanto magis ergo in sancta virgine Maria, quae Christi carnem fide concepit, nihil habuerunt turpitudinis membra, quae nec humano licitoque conceptui, sed divino tantum partui servierunt, merito plane sic honestata, ut nobis Christum, quem cordibus integris credendo conciperemus et confitendo quodammodo pareremus, etiam corporaliter servata integritate transfunderet. p. 747,10 Nullo modo enim Christus matrem nascendo faceret deteriorem, ut cui munus fecunditatis attulerat, decus virginitatis auferret. Haec veraciter, non fallaciter facta sunt; sed nova sunt, sed insolita sunt, sed contra naturae cursum notissimum sunt, quia magna, quia mira, quia divina et eo magis vera, certa, firmata. Et angeli inquit visi et locuti sunt, quamvis nati non fuerint, quasi nos dicamus Christum, nisi nasceretur ex femina, nec videri nec loqui potuisse. Potuit, sed noluit; et hoc melius est, quod voluit. Hoc autem eum voluisse ideo certum est, quia hoc fecit, qui nihil necessitate sicut deus vester faceret, sed omnia voluntate. Hoc vero eum fecisse ideo non dubitamus, quia non cuiquam haeretico, sed eius evangelio credimus.

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

4.

We deny that there is anything disgraceful in the bodies of saints. Some members, indeed, are called uncomely, because they have not so pleasing an appearance as those constantly in view. ¹ But attend to what the apostle says, when from the unity and harmony of the body he enjoins charity on the Church: "Much more those members of the body, which seem to be feeble, are necessary: and those members of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked: that there should be no schism in the body." ² The licentious and intemperate use of those members is disgraceful, but not the members themselves; for they are preserved in purity not only by the unmarried, but also by wedded fathers and mothers of holy life, in whose case the natural appetite, as serving not lust, but an intelligent purpose in the production of children, is in no way disgraceful. Still more, in the holy Virgin Mary, who by faith conceived the body of Christ, there was nothing disgraceful in the members which served not for a common natural conception, but for a miraculous birth. In order that we might conceive Christ in sincere hearts, and, as it were, produce Him in confession, it was meet that His body should come from the substance of His mother without injury to her bodily purity. We cannot suppose that the mother of Christ suffered loss by His birth, or that the gift of productiveness displaced the grace of virginity. If these occurrences, which were real and no illusion, are new and strange, and contrary to the common course of nature, the reason is, that they are great, and amazing, and divine; and all the more on this account are they true, and firm, and sure. Angels, says Faustus, appeared and spoke without having been born. As if we held that Christ could not have appeared or spoken without having been born of a woman! He could, but He chose not; and what He chose was best. And that He chose to do what He did is plain, because He acted, not like your god, from necessity, but voluntarily. That He was born we know, because we put faith not in a heretic, but in Christ's gospel.