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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

3.

Assuredly, if the Manichaeans were justified by the resurrection of the Lord,--the day of whose resurrection, the third after His passion, was the eighth day, coming after the Sabbath, that is, after the seventh day,--their carnal minds would be delivered from the darkness of earthly passions which rests on them; and rejoicing in the circumcision of the heart, they would not ridicule it as prefigured in the Old Testament by circumcision in the flesh, although they should not enforce this observance under the New Testament. But, as the apostle says, "To the pure all things are pure. But to the impure and unbelieving nothing is pure, but both their mind and conscience are defiled." ¹ So these people, who are so pure in their own eyes, that they regard, or pretend to regard, as impure these members of their bodies, are so defiled with unbelief and error, that, while they abhor the circumcision of the flesh,--which the apostle calls a seal of the righteousness of faith,--they believe that the divine members of their God are subjected to restraint and contamination in these very carnal members of theirs. For they say that flesh is unclean; and it follows that God, in the part which is detained by the flesh, is made unclean: for they declare that He must be cleansed, and that till this is done, as far as it can be done, He undergoes all the passions to which flesh is subject, not only in suffering pain and distress, but also in sensual gratification. For it is for His sake, they say, that they abstain from sexual intercourse, that He may not be bound more closely in the bondage of the flesh, nor suffer more defilement. The apostle says, "To the pure all things are pure." And if this is true of men, who may be led into evil by a perverse will, how much more must all things be pure to God, who remains for ever immutable and immaculate! In those books which you defile with your violent reproaches, it is said of the divine wisdom, that "no defiled thing falleth into it, and it goeth everywhere by reason of its pureness." ² It is mere prurient absurdity to find fault with the sign of human regeneration appointed by that God, to whom all things are pure, to be put on the organ of human generation, while you hold that your God, to whom nothing is pure, is in a part of his nature subjected to taint and corruption by the vicious actions in which impure men employ the members of their body. For if you think there is pollution in conjugal intercourse, what must there be in all the practices of the licentious? If you ask, then, as you often do, whether God could not find some other way of sealing the righteousness of faith, the answer is, Why not this way, since all things are pure to the pure, much more to God? And we have the authority of the apostle for saying that circumcision was the seal of the righteousness of the faith of Abraham. As for you, you must try not to blush when you are asked whether your God had nothing better to do than to entangle part of his nature with these members that you revile so much. These are delicate subjects to speak of, on account of the penal corruption attending the propagation of man. They are things which call into exercise the modesty of the chaste, the passions of the impure, and the justice of God.

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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

3.

Proinde si Manichaei resurrectione domini iustificarentur, cuius resurrectionis dies ex die quidem passionis tertius, post diem tamen sabbati, hoc est post septimum octauvs fuit, profecto spoliarentur carnali velamento mortalium desideriorum et cordis circumcisione gaudentes non eam in carne adumbratam figuratamque deriderent tempore veteris testamenti, quamvis iam tempore novi testamenti fieri observarique non cogerent. p. 286,22 In quo enim membro congruentius expoliatio carnalis et mortalis concupiscentiae figuratur, quam unde carnalis et mortalis fetus exoritur? Sed, sicut dicit apostolus, omnia munda mundis; immundis autem et infidelibus nihil est mundum, sed polluta sunt eorum et mens et conscientia. Itaque isti, qui nimis mundi sibi videntur, quia illa membra tamquam immunda aversantur aut aversari se fingunt, in eas infidelitatis et erroris immunditias inciderunt, ut, cum detestentur circumcisionem carnis, quam dixit apostolus signaculum iustitiae fidei, in ipsis tamen carnalibus membris divina dei sui membra credant colligata et inquinata detineri, ut, cum carnem immundam dicunt, et deum illic ex parte, qua ibi tenetur, immundum factum dicere compellantur, quippe quem mundari oportere asserunt. p. 287,7 Quod donec fiat, quantum fieri potuerit, interim nunc eum perpeti omnia, quae carnes patiuntur, non tantum in labore et dolore afflictionum sed etiam in voluptate corruptelarum. Ei namque se dicunt parcere, quod non concumbunt, ne nodis carneis artius implicetur et sordidius inquinetur. Cum ergo apostolus dicat: Omnia munda mundis, utique hominibus, qui possunt in deterius voluntatis perversitate mutari, quanto magis omnia munda sunt deo, qui semper incommutabilis et incontaminabilis permanet, de cuius sapientia divine dictum est in eis libris, quos reprehendendo vehementius inquinamini, quod nihil inquinatum in eam incurrit et attingit ubique propter suam munditiam. Quapropter, o immundissima vanitas, itane displicet tibi in membro humano, unde humana generatio propagatur, signum regenerationis humanae illum, cui munda sunt omnia, deum iussisse constitui et placet tibi etiam in flagitiis, quae illo membro ab impudicis hominibus perpetrantur, ipsum deum vestrum, cui nihil est mundum, ex parte suae naturae commaculari atque corrumpi? p. 287,25 Quid enim patitur in variis turpibus corruptelis, quem coniugali quoque concubitu creditis inquinari? Audete iam dicere, quod soletis: ‛Ergone deerat, ubi deus praefiguraret signaculum iustitiae fidei nisi in illo membro?’ Respondetur: ‛Cur enim et ibi non?’ Primo quia omnia munda mundis, quanto magis deo. Deinde quia hoc apostolus dixit signaculum datum Abrahae iustitiae fidei in tali circumcisione. Vos autem nolite erubescere, si potestis, cum uobis dicitur: ‛Ergone deerat deo vestro, quid ageret, ne suae naturae partem istis membris, quae sic despuitis, implicaret?’ p. 288,8 Pudenda quidem ista dicuntur hominibus propter nostrae mortalitatis corruptibilem poenalemque propaginem, quae inde subsistit: quibus casti adhibent verecundiam, impudici petulantiam, deus iustitiam.