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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

10.

If the Manichaeans disapprove of Moses on this account, let them confess that they are worshippers of idols and devils. This, indeed, may be the case without their being aware of it. The apostle tells us that "in the last days some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and to doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy." ¹ Whence but from devils, who are fond of falsehood, could the idea have come that Christ's sufferings and death were unreal, and that the marks which He showed of His wounds were unreal? Are these not the doctrines of lying devils, which teach that Christ, the Truth itself, was a deceiver? Besides, the Manichaeans openly teach the worship, if not of devils, still of created things, which the apostle condemns in the words, "They worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator." ²

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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

10.

Quod si istis displicet, aperte se fateantur idolorum vel daemoniorum esse cultores, quod quidem ignoranter essent eo ipso solo, quod essent haeretici. De talibus enim dixit apostolus: Quia in novissimis temporibus recedent quidam a fide, intendentes spiritibus seductoribus, doctrinis daemoniorum in hypocrisi mendaciloquorum. Qui enim nisi daemones, quibus est amica fallacia, istis persuaderent, quod Christus fallaciter passus, fallaciter mortuus sit, fallaciter cicatrices ostenderit, id est non vere passus nec vere mortuus sit nec illae verae fuerint ex veris vulneribus cicatrices? p. 411,4 Quae sunt evidentiores doctrinae mendaciloquorum daemoniorum quam istae, quibus persuadetur filium dei, id est ipsam veritatem esse mendacem? Sed isti in doctrina sua habent et apertam non quidem daemoniorum, sed tamen creaturae culturam, quam damnat apostolus dicens: Et coluerunt et servierunt creaturae potius quam creatori.