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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean
1.
Faustus said: Another reason for not receiving the Old Testament is, that I am provided with the New; and Scripture says that old and new do not agree. For "no one putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, otherwise the rent is made worse." 1 To avoid making a worse rent, as you have done, I do not mix Christian newness with Hebrew oldness. Every one accounts it mean, when a man has got a new dress, not to give the old one to his inferiors. So, even if I were a Jew by birth, as the apostles were, it would be proper for me, on receiving the New Testament, to discard the Old, as the apostles did. And having the advantage of being born free from the yoke of bondage, and being early introduced into the full liberty of Christ, what a foolish and ungrateful wretch I should be to put myself again under the yoke! This is what Paul blames the Galatians for; because, going back to circumcision, they turned again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto they desired again to be in bondage. 2 Why should I do what I see another blamed for doing? My going into bondage would be worse than their returning to it.
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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres
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Faustus dixit: _Quare non accipis testamentum vetus?_Quia iam praeventus sum novo. p. 305,15 Veteri autem et novo non convenit, ut scriptura testatur. Nam pannum inquit novum nemo adsuit vestimento veteri, alioquin maior scissura fiet. Quia ergo maiorem sicuti vos scissuram facere caveo, christianam novitatem Hebraicae vetustati non misceo. Quis enim non etiam sordidum iudicet novis vestibus indutis non donare inferioribus veteres? Quapropter, ego etiamsi natus essem Iudaeus, ut fuerunt apostoli, dignum tamen erat me novo accepto testamento vetus repudiare, ut fecerunt ipsi. Nunc vero et naturae beneficio consecutus, ut sub servitutis iugo non nascerer, et Christo mihi protinus occurrente cum pleno munere libertatis, quam miser et stultus et insuper ingratus ero, si me ultro addixero servituti? p. 306,1 Quippe Paulus inde Galatas arguit, quod in circumcisionem relabentes ad infirma repedarent et egena elementa, quibus denuo servire vellent. Quomodo ergo id ego admittam, in quo alium videam reprehendi? Turpe est redire in servitutem, sed turpius ire.