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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

30.

Since, then, all these excellent precepts of the Lord, which Faustus tries to prove to be contrary to the old books of the Hebrews, are found in these very books, the only sense in which the Lord came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it, is this, that besides the fulfillment of the prophetic types, which are set aside by their actual accomplishment, the precepts also, in which the law is holy, and just, and good, are fulfilled in us, not by the oldness of the letter which commands, and increases the offence of the proud by the additional guilt of transgression, but by the newness of the Spirit, who aids us, and by the obedience of the humble, through the saving grace which sets us free. For, while all these sublime precepts are found in the ancient books, still the end to which they point is not there revealed; although the holy men who foresaw the revelation lived in accordance with it, either veiling it in prophecy as suited the time, or themselves discovering the truth thus veiled.

Edition Hide
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

30.

Quapropter cum omnia illa excellentia praecepta domini, quae veteribus Hebraeorum libris contraria Faustus volebat ostendere, in eisdem quoque libris inveniantur, unde venit dominus legem non solvere sed adimplere, nisi ut exceptis promissorum figuris, quae reddita veritate adimpletae atque sublatae sunt, ipsa quoque praecepta, per quae lex illa sancta et iusta et bona est, non per vetustatem litterae iubentis et delicta superborum reatu etiam praevaricationis augentis, sed per novitatem spiritus adiuvantis et humilium confessionem salutis gratia liberantis implerentur in nobis? Quia revera, sicut omnia ista praecepta sublimia nec illis libris veteribus desunt, ita illic finis, quo referantur, occultus est, quamvis secundum eum viverent sancti, qui futuram eius revelationem videbant et pro temporum proprietate vel prophetice tegebant vel prophetice tectum sapienter intellegebant. p. 534,4