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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

14.

And if the righteous men of old, who saw in the sacraments of their time the promise of a future revelation of faith, which even then their piety enabled them to discern in the dim light of prophecy, and by which they lived, for the just can live only by faith; ¹ if, then, these righteous men of old were ready to suffer, as many actually did suffer, all trials and tortures for the sake of those typical sacraments which prefigured things in the future; if we praise the three children and Daniel, because they refused to be defiled by meat from the king's table, from their regard for the sacrament of their day; if we feel the strongest admiration for the Maccabees, who refused to touch food which Christians lawfully use; ² how much more should a Christian in our day be ready to suffer all things for Christ's baptism, for Christ's Eucharist, for Christ's sacred sign, since these are proofs of the accomplishment of what the former sacraments only pointed forward to in the future! For what is still promised to the Church, the body of Christ, is both clearly made known, and in the Saviour Himself, the Head of the body, the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, has already been accomplished. Is not the promise of eternal life by resurrection from the dead? This we see fulfilled in the flesh of Him of whom it is said, that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. ³ In former days faith was dim, for the saints and righteous men of those times all believed and hoped for the same things, and all these sacraments and ceremonies pointed to the future; but now we have the revelation of the faith to which the people were shut up under the law; ⁴ and what is now promised to believers in the judgment is already accomplished in the example of Him who came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them.

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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

14.

Verumtamen si antiqui iusti, qui sacramentis illis intellegebant venturam praenuntiari revelationem fidei, ex qua, licet adhuc operta et abscondita, munere tamen pietatis intellecta, etiam tunc ipsi vivebant, quia in hac vita nemo esse potest iustus, nisi qui ex fide vivit: si ergo antiqui iusti pro illis praenuntiativis sacramentis et rerum nondum impletarum figuris omnia dura et horrenda perpeti parati fuerunt et plerique perpessi sunt; si tres pueros Danihelemque praedicamus, quia de mensa regis contaminari noluerunt, quod erat contra illius temporis sacramentum; p. 511,12 si Machabaeos cum ingenti admiratione praeferimus, quia escas, quibus nunc christiani licite utuntur, attingere noluerunt, quia tunc pro tempore prophetico non licebat: quanto magis nunc pro baptismo Christi, pro eucharistia Christi, pro signo Christi ad omnia perferenda paratior debet esse christianus, cum illae fuerint promissiones rerum complendarum, haec sint indicia completarum? Quod enim adhuc promittitur ecclesiae, id est corpori Christi, et in manifestatione praedicatur et in ipso capite corporis salvatore, id est in ipso mediatore dei et hominum homine Christo Iesu, iam utique completum est. Quid enim promittitur nisi vita aeterna ex resurrectione a mortuis? Hoc iam completum est in illa carne, quod verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis. Tunc ergo _et _occulta erat fides; nam eadem credebant eademque sperabant omnes iusti et sancti etiam temporum illorum p. 511,27 et promissiva erant illa omnia sacramenta omnisque ritus ille sacrorum. Nunc autem revelata est fides, in quam conclusus erat populus, quando sub lege custodiebatur, et quod fidelibus promittitur in iudicio, iam completum est in exemplo per eum, qui legem et prophetas non venit solvere, sed adimplere.