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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

12.

In all this I know I am singing to deaf ears; but the Lord, from whom is the truth which we speak, can open some ears to catch the strain. But what shall we say of those critics of the Holy Scriptures who object to God's being pleased with His own works, and find fault with the words, "God saw the light that it was good," as if this meant that God admired the light as something new? God's seeing His works that they were good, means that the Creator approved of His own works as pleasing to Himself. For God cannot be forced to do anything against His will, so that He should not be pleased with His own work; nor can He do anything by mistake, so that He should regret having done it. Why should the Manichaeans object to our God seeing His work that it was good, when their god placed a covering before himself when he mingled his own members with the darkness? For instead of seeing his work that it is good, he refuses to look at it because it is evil.

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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

12.

Scio quidem istis quam surdis haec cantem; nec tamen despero, quod cantici mei veritas inventura sit aurem suam, quam dominus aperuerit, a quo sunt vera, quae dicimus. Istos autem quales divinarum scripturarum iudices patimur, quibus etiam displicet, quod deo placuerint opera sua, quem tamquam insolitam lucem miratum esse reprehendunt, quia scriptum est: Et vidit deus lucem, quia bona est! Approbat enim opera sua, quia placent ei, quae fecit, et hoc est videre, quia bona sunt. Neque enim aliquid invitus facere cogitur, ut quod ei non placet faciat, aut in aliquid faciendum imprudens labitur, ut factum esse displiceat. Cur autem istis non displiceat, quod deus noster opus suum vidit, quia bonum est, quandoquidem deus eorum cum membra sua mersit in tenebras, velum contra se posuit? Non enim quod fecit, vidit, quia bonum est, sed noluit videre, quia malum est. p. 600,4