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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

32.

He will see the times of the judges precede those of the kings, as the judgment will precede the kingdom. And under both the judges and the kings he will see Christ and the Church repeatedly prefigured in many and various ways. Who was in Samson, when he killed the lion that met him as he went to get a wife among strangers, but He who, when going to call His Church from among the Gentiles, said, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world?" ¹ What means the hive in the mouth of the slain lion, but that, as we see, the very laws of the earthly kingdom which once raged against Christ have now lost their fierceness, and have become a protection for the preaching of gospel sweetness? What is that woman boldly piercing the temples of the enemy with a wooden nail, but the faith of the Church casting down the kingdom of the devil by the cross of Christ? What is the fleece wet while the ground was dry, and again the fleece dry while the ground was wet, but the Hebrew nation at first possessing alone in its typical institution Christ the mystery of God, while the whole world was in ignorance? And now the whole world has this mystery revealed, while the Jews are destitute of it.

Edition Hide
Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

32.

Videat tempora primo iudicum postea regum, sicut erit primo iudicium, deinde postea regnum, inque ipsis temporibus iudicum et regum iterum atque iterum multis et variis modis Christum et ecclesiam figurari: Quis erat in Samson obvium leonem necans, cum petendae uxoris causa ad alienigenas tenderet, nisi qui ecclesiam vocaturus ex gentibus dixit: Gaudete, quia ego vici saeculum? Quid sibi vult in ore ipsius leonis occisi favus exstructus, nisi quia ecce conspicimus leges ipsas regni terreni, quae adversus Christum ante fremuerant, nunc iam perempta feritate dulcedini evangelicae praedicandae etiam munimenta praebere? p. 360,17 Quid est illa mulier plena fiduciae hostis tempora ligno transfigens nisi fides ecclesiae cruce Christi regna diaboli perimens? Quid vellus complutum area sicca et postea compluta area sicco vellere nisi primo una gens Hebraeorum habens occulte in sanctis mysterium dei, quod est Christus, quo mysterio totus orbis vacuus erat, nunc autem in manifestatione totus orbis id habet, illa vacuata est?