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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

7.

The believer in the true doctrine of the gospel will understand that Christ is not reproached by Moses when he speaks of Him as cursed, not in His divine majesty, but as hanging on the tree as our substitute, bearing our punishment, any more than He is praised by the Manichaeans when they deny that He had a mortal body, so as to suffer real death. In the curse of the prophet there is praise of Christ's humility, while in the pretended regard of the heretics there is a charge of falsehood. If, then, you deny that Christ was cursed, you must deny that He died; and then you have to meet, not Moses, but the apostles. Confess that He died, and you may also confess that He, without taking our sin, took its punishment. Now the punishment of sin cannot be blessed, or else it would be a thing to be desired. The curse is pronounced by divine justice, and it will be well for us if we are redeemed from it. Confess then that Christ died, and you may confess that He bore the curse for us; and that when Moses said, "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree," he said in fact, To hang on a tree is to be mortal, or actually to die. He might have said, "Cursed is every one that is mortal," or "Cursed is every one dying;" but the prophet knew that Christ would suffer on the cross, and that heretics would say that He hung on the tree only in appearance, without really dying. So he exclaims, Cursed; meaning that He really died. He knew that the death of sinful man, which Christ though sinless bore, came from that curse, "If ye touch it, ye shall surely die." Thus also, the serpent hung on the pole was intended to show that Christ did not feign death, but that the real death into which the serpent by his fatal counsel cast mankind was hung on the cross of Christ's passion. The Manichaeans turn away from the view of this real death, and so they are not healed of the poison of the serpent, as we read that in the wilderness as many as looked were healed.

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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

7.

Qui autem ex veritate evangelica fidelis est, intellegit tam non esse contumeliam Christi ex ore Moysi, cum eum dixit maledictum, non ex divinitate maiestatis suae, sed ex condicione poenae nostrae, ex qua in ligno suspensus est, quam non est laus Christi ex ore Manichaeorum, cum eum negant carnem habuisse mortalem, in qua veram mortem pateretur, quia ex illo prophetico maledicto laus intellegitur humilitatis, ex isto haeretico quasi honore crimen obicitur falsitatis. p. 408,17 Si ergo negas maledictum, nega mortuum; si negas mortuum, non iam contra Moysen, sed contra apostolos dimicas. Si autem confiteris mortuum, confitere suscepisse poenam peccati nostri sine peccato nostro. Iam vero ubi audis poenam peccati, aut ex benedictione crede venientem aut ex maledictione. Si ex benedictione venit poena peccati, opta esse semper in poena peccati; si autem optas inde liberari, crede per divinae sententiae iustitiam ex maledictione venisse. p. 408,24 Confitere ergo maledictum suscepisse pro nobis, quem confiteris mortuum esse pro nobis, nec aliud significare voluisse Moysen, cum diceret: Maledictus omnis, qui in ligno pependerit, nisi mortalis omnis et moriens omnis, qui in ligno pependerit. Poterat enim dicere maledictus omnis qui mortalis, aut maledictus omnis moriens. Sed hoc est quod asserit propheta, quia sciebat Christi mortem in cruce pensuram et futuros haereticos, qui dicerent: Pependit quidem in ligno, sed specie quadam, non ut vere moreretur. Clamando ergo maledictus nihil aliud clamavit, nisi quia vere mortuus, sciens mortem hominis peccatoris, quam sine peccato ipse suscepit, de illo maledicto venientem, quo dictum est: si tetigeritis, morte moriemini. 409,7 Ad hoc pertinet et serpens ille in ligno suspensus, quo significaretur non falsam mortem Christum finxisse, sed illam veram in ligno passionis suae suspendisse, in quam serpens ille hominem male suadendo deiecit. Quam veram mortem nolunt isti conspicere et ideo non sanantur a veneno serpentis, sicut in heremo quicumque illam attenderent sanabantur.