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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

21.

Nimis longum est, ut vel tam breviter quam haec cucurri, cuncta contingam: Cur sescentesimo et uno anno vitae Noe, id est peractis sescentis annis, aperitur arcae tectum et tamquam revelatur, quod erat absconditum sacramentum? Cur vicesima septima die secundi mensis dicitur siccasse terra, tamquam finita esset iam baptizandi necessitas in numero dierum quinquagesimo et septimo. Ipse est enim dies secundi mensis vicesimus septimus, qui numerus ex illa coniunctione spiritus et corporis septies octonos habet uno addito propter unitatis vinculum? Cur de arca coniuncti exeant, qui disiuncti intraverant? Sic enim dictum erat, quod intraverit in arcam Noe et filii eius et uxor eius et uxores filiorum eius; seorsum viri, seorsum feminae commemoratae sunt. p. 349,25 In hoc enim tempore huius sacramenti caro concupiscit adversus spiritum et spiritus adversus carnem. Exeunt autem Noe et uxor eius et filii eius et uxores filiorum eius, nunc coniuncte commemorati masculi et feminae, quia in fine saeculi atque in resurrectione iustorum omnimoda et perfecta pace spiritui corpus adhaerebit nulla mortalitatis indigentia vel concupiscentia resistente. Cur animalia, quamvis et munda et immunda in arca fuerint, tamen post egressum de arca non offeruntur deo in sacrificio nisi munda?

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

21.

There are many other points which we cannot take notice of even in this cursory manner. Why in the six hundred and first year of Noah's life--that is, after six hundred years were completed--the covering of the ark is removed, and the hidden mystery, as it were, disclosed. Why the earth is said to have dried on the twenty-seventh day of the second month; as if the number fifty-seven denoted the completion of the rite of baptism. For the twenty-seventh day of the second month is the fifty-seventh day of the year; and the number fifty-seven is seven times eight, which are the numbers of the spirit and the body, with one over, to denote the bond of unity. Why they leave the ark together, though they entered separately. For it is said: "Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark;" the men and the women being spoken of separately; which denotes the time when the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. But they go forth, Noah and his wife, and his sons and their wives,--the men and women together. For in the end of the world, and in the resurrection of the just, the body will be united to the spirit in perfect harmony, undisturbed by the wants and the passions of mortality. Why, after leaving the ark, only clean animals are offered in sacrifice to God, though both clean and unclean were in the ark.