Edition Hide
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

2.

Augustinus respondit: Iam quidem satis superius ostendimus, quare et quomodo teneamus auctoritatem veteris testamenti non ad Iudaicae servitutis imitationem, sed ad christianae libertatis testificationem. Neque enim mea, sed apostoli vox est, quia omnia haec in figura contingebant illis; scripta autem sunt propter nos, in quos finis saeculorum obvenit. Quapropter non in servitute facimus, quae iussa sunt ad nos praenuntiandos, sed in libertate legimus, quae scripta sunt ad nos confirmandos. p. 306,14 Quis itaque iam non intellegat, unde Galatas revocat apostolus, non religiose scripturam circumcisionis legentes, sed iam superstitiose circumcidi volentes! Unde non pannum novum vestimento veteri adsuimus, sed erudimur in regno caelorum ad similitudinem illius patris familias, quem commemorat dominus proferentem de thesauro suo nova et vetera. Ille autem adsuit pannum novum vestimento veteri, qui continentiam vult habere spiritalem et nondum deposuit spem carnalem. Nam legite diligenter et videte de ieiunio dominum interrogatum respondisse: Nemo adsuit pannum novum vestimento veteri. Adhuc enim discipuli dominum carnaliter diligebant, quandoquidem etiam, ne occisum amitterent, formidabant. Unde Petrum revocantem se a passione satanan appellat, quod non saperet, quae dei sunt, sed quae hominum. p. 307,2 Proinde attendite in illa phantasia vestra de regno dei, unde istam lucem solis carni conspicuam tamquam ad exemplum vobis propositam diligitis et adoratis, quam carnalem spem geratis, et invenietis ieiunia vestra quomodo prudentiae carnis tamquam vestimento veteri adsuantur. Verumtamen cum pannus novus vestimento veteri non conveniat, unde potuerunt principibus tenebrarum membra dei vestri non adiuncta atque consuta, sed, quod est vehementius, commixta et concreta cohaerere? An utrumque vetus est, quia utrumque falsum, et utrumque de prudentia carnis est? Nisi forte inde vultis probare unum fuisse novum, alterum vetus, quia maior scissura facta est, ut miserabilis pannus de regno lucis abscinderetur et globo tenebrarum aeterna poena configeretur. Et tamen argute sibi videtur velut acu linguae divinarum scripturarum firmamenta compungere talium fabularum sordidus sartor aut mendicus indutor.

Translation Hide
Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

2.

Augustin replied: We have already shown sufficiently why and how we maintain the authority of the Old Testament, not for the imitation of Jewish bondage, but for the confirmation of Christian liberty. It is not I, but the apostle, who says, "All these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the world are come." ¹ We do not therefore, as bondmen, observe what was enjoined as predictive of us; but as free, we read what was written to confirm us. So any one may see that the apostle remonstrates with the Galatians not for devoutly reading what Scripture says of circumcision, but for superstitiously desiring to be circumcised. We do not put a new cloth to an old garment, but we are instructed in the kingdom of heaven, like the householder, whom the Lord describes as bringing out of his treasure things new and old. ² He who puts a new cloth to an old garment is the man who attempts spiritual self-denial before he has renounced fleshly hope. Examine the passage, and you will see that, when the Lord was asked about fasting, He replied, "No man putteth a new cloth to an old garment." The disciples had still a carnal affection for the Lord; for they were afraid that, if He died, they would lose Him. So He calls Peter Satan for dissuading Him from suffering, because he understood not the things of God, but the things of men. ³ The fleshly character of your hope is evident from your fancies about the kingdom of God, and from your paying homage and devotion to the light of the sun, which the carnal eye perceives, as if it were an image of heaven. So your carnal mind is the old garment to which you join your fasts. Moreover, if a new cloth and an old garment do not agree, how do the members of your God come to be not only joined or fastened, but to be united far more intimately by mixture and coherence to the principles of darkness? Perhaps both are old, because both are false, and both of the carnal mind. Or perhaps you wish to prove that one was new and the other old, by the rent being made worse, in tearing away the unhappy piece of the kingdom of light, to be doomed to eternal imprisonment in the mass of darkness. So this pretended artist in the fashions of the sacred Scriptures is found stitching together absurdities, and dressing himself in the rags of his own invention.