And to the same effect he says elsewhere, " They which are in the flesh cannot please God;" and then, to show that he does not mean those not yet dead, he adds, " But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit."-* The meaning is, those who are in the hope of fleshly good cannot please God; but you are not in the hope of fleshly things, but in thej hope of spiritual things, that is, of the kingdom of heaven, where the body itself, which! now is natural, will, by the change in the! resurrection, be, according to the capacity of' ks nature, a spiritual body. For "it is sown a natural body, it will be raised a^ spiritual: body." If, then, the apostle knew no onei after the flesh of those who were said to be| not in the flesh, because they were not in the hope of fleshly things, although they stilll were burdened with corruptible and mortal™ flesh; how much more significantly could hC' say of Christ that he no longer knew Him after the flesh, seeing that in the body of|J Christ what they hoped for had already been| accomplished! Surely it is better and more I 2 Cor. V. 14- iS.
2 Eph. ii. 4-7.
3 Rom. vii. 5.
4 Rom. viii. S, 9.
Book XII.]
I reverential to examine the passages of sacred • Scripture so as to discover tlieir agreement ' with one another, than to accept some as true, and condemn others as false, whenever any difficulty occurs beyond the power of our weak intellect to solve. As to the apostle in his childhood understanding as a child, this is said merely as an illustration.' And when he was a child he was not a spiritual man, as he was when he produced for the edification of the'churches those writings which are not, as other books, merely a profitable study, but which authoritatively claim our belief as part of the ecclesiastical canon.
' I Cor. xiii. II.
■ BOOK XII.
FAUSTUS DENIES THAT THE PROPHETS PREDICTED CHRIST, AUGUSTIN PROVES SUCH PREDICTION FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT, AND EXPOUNDS AT LENGTH THE PRINCIPAL TYPES OF CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.
I. Faustus said: Why do I not believe the prophets? Rather why do you believe them? On account, you will reply, of their prophecies about Christ. For my part, I have read the prophets with the most eager attention, and have found no such prophecies. And surely it shows a weak faith not to believe in Christ without proofs and testimonies. Indeed, you yourselves are accustomed to teach that Christian faith is so simple and absolute as not to admit of laborious investigations. Why, then, should 3'ou destroy the simplicity of faith by buttressing it with evidences, and Jewish evidences too? Or if you are changing your opinion about evidences, what more trustworthy witness could you have than God Himself testifying to His own Son when He sent Him on earth, — not by a prophet or an interpreter,- — by a voice immediately from heaven: " This is my beloved Son, believe Him?" ' And again He testifies of Himself: " I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; "^ and in many similar passages. When the Jews quarrelled with this 'testimony, saying "Thou bearest witness of thyself, thy witness is not true," He replied: "Although I bear witness of myself, my witness is true. It is written in your law, The witness of two men is true. I am ae that bear witness of myself, and the lather who sent me beareth witness of me." ^ He doe£ not mention the prophets. Again He appeals to the testimony of His own works, saying, " If ye believe not me, believe the jworks; " ■* not, " If ye believe not me, believe jthe prophets." Accordingly we require no tes-Itimonies concerning our Saviour. All we look I for in the prophets is prudence and virtue, 'and a good example, which, you are well! aware, are not to be found in the Jewish Iprophets. This, no doubt, explains your rejferring me at once to their predictions as a ■ Matt. iii. 17. 3 John viii. 13-18.
reason for believing them, without a word about their actions. This may be good policy, but it is not in harmony with the declaration of Scripture, that it is impossible to gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles. This may serve meanwhile as a brief and sufficient reply to the question, why we do not believe the prophets. The fact that they did not prophesy of Christ is abundantly proved in the writings of our fathers. I shall only add this, that if the Hebrew prophets knew and preached Christ, and yet lived such vicious lives, what Paul says of the wise men among the Gentiles might be applied to them: " Though they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, nor were thankful; but they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." ^ You see the knowledge of great things is worth little, unless the life corresponds.
2. AuGUSTiN replied: The meaning of all this is, that the Hebrew prophets foretold nothing of Christ, and that, if they did, their predictions are of no use to us, and they themselves did not live suitably to the dignity of such prophecies. We must therefore prove the fact of the prophecies; and their use for the truth and steadfastness of our faith; and that the lives of the prophets were in harmony with their words. In this threefold discussion, it would take a long time under the first head to quote from all the books the passages in which Christ may be shown to have been predicted. Faustus' frivolity may be met effectually by the weight of one great authority. Although Faustus does not believe the prophets, he professes to believe the apostles. A.bove, as if to satisfy the doubts of some opponent, he declares that he assuredly believes the Apostle Paul.^ Let us then hear what Paul says of the prophets. His words are: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, 5 Rom. i. 21.
6 Lib.
1 84 [Book Xll.
called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which He had promised before by His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh." ' What more does Faustus wish? Will he maintain that the apostle is speaking of some other prophets, and not of the Hebrew prophets > In any case, the gospel spoken of as promised was concerning the Son of God, who was made for Him of the seed of David according to the flesii; and to this gospel the apostle says that he was separated. So that the Manichsean heresy is opposed to faith in the gospel, which teaches that tlie Son of God was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. Besides, there are many passages where the apostle plainly testifies in behalf of the Hebrew prophets, with an authority by which the necks of these proud Manichaeans are broken.
3. "I speak the truth in Christ/' says the apostle, "I lie not, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever."- Here is the most abundant and express testimony and the most solemn commendation. The adoption here spoken of is evidently through the Son of God; as the apostle says to the Galatians: " In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the lav/, that He might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." 3 And the glory spoken of is chiefly that of which he says in the same Epistle to the Romans: "What advantage hath the Jew? or what profit is there in circumcision? Much every way: chiefly > because unto them were committed the oracles of God."'* Can the JNIanichjEans tell us of any oracles of God committed to the Jews besides those of the Hebrew prophets? And why are the covenants said to belong especially to the Israelites, but because not only was the Old Testament given to them, but also the New was prefigured in the Old? Our opponents often display much ignorant ferocity in attacking the dispensation of the law given to the Israelites, not understanding that God wishes us to be not under the law, but under grace. They are here answered by the apostle himself, who, in speaking of the advantages of the Jfews, mentions this as one, that they had the giving of the law. If the law had been bad, the apostle would not have referred to it in praise of the J ews. A nd if Christ had not been preached by the law, the Lord Himself would not have said, "If ye believe Moses, yai would have believed me, for he wrote of me; "5 nor would He have borne the testimony He did after His resurrection, saying, "All things must needs be fulfilled that were written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me."* 4. But because the Manichseans preach another Christ, and not Him whom the apostles preached, but a false Christ of their own false contrivance, in imitation of whose falsehood they themselves speak lies, though they may perhaps be believed whqn they are not ashamed to profess to be the followers of a deceiver, that has befallen them which the apostle asserts of the unbelieving Jews: "When Moses is read, a veil is upon their heart." Neither will this veil which keeps them from understanding Moses be taken away from them till they turn to Christ; not a Christ of their own making, but the Christ of the Hebrew prophets. For, as the apostle says, " When thou shalt turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away." ^ We cannot wonder that they do not believe in the Christ who rose from the dead, and who said, "All things must needs be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me;'' for this Christ has Himself told us what Abraham said to a hard-hearted rich man when he was in torment in -hell, and asked Abraham to send some one to his brothers to teach them, that they might not come too into that place of torment. Abraham's reply was: " They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them." And when the rich man said that they would not believe unless some one rose from the dead, he received this most truthful answer: " If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe even though one rose from the dead."^ Wherefore, the Manichseans will not hear Moses and the prophets, and so they do not believe Christ, though He rose from the dead. Indeed, they do not even believe that Christ rose from the dead. For how can they believe that He rose, when they do not believe that He died? For, again, how S John V. 46.
6 Luke xxiv. 44. 8 Luke xvi. 27-^1 Book XII.]
can they believe that He died, when they deny that He had a mortal body?
5. But we reject those false teachers whose Christ is false, or rather, whose Christ never existed. For we have a Christ true and truthful, foretold by the prophets, preached l)y the apostles, who in innumerable places refer to the testimonies of the law and the prophets in support of their preaching. Paul, in one short sentence, gives the right view of this subject. "Now," he says, "the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. ' ' ' What prophets, if not of Israel, to whom, as he expressly says, pertain the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the promises? And what promises, but about Christ? Elsewhere, speaking of Christ, he says concisely: "All the promises of God are in Him yea. ' ' - Paul tells me that the giving of the law pertained to the Israelites. He also tells me that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. He also tells me that all the promises of God are in Christ yea. And you tell me that the prophets of Israel foretold nothing of Christ. Shall I believe the absurdities of Manichsus relating a vain and long fable in opposition to Paul? or shall I believe Paul when he forewarns us: "If any man preach to you another gospel than that which we have preached, let him be accursed? " 6. Our opponents may perhaps ask us to point out passages where Christ is predicted by the prophets of Israel. One would think they might be satisfied with the authority of the apostles, who declare that what we read in the writings of the Hebrew prophets was fulfilled in Christ, or with that of Christ Himself, who says that these things were written of Him. Whoever is unable to point out the passages should lay the blame on his own ignorance; for the apostles and Christ and the sacred Scriptures are not chargeable with falsehood. However, one instance out of many may be adduced. The apostle, in the verses following the passage quoted above, says: " The word of God cannot fail. For they are not all Israel which are of Israel; neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but. In Isaac shall thy seed be called: that is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the diildren of God; but the children of promise are counted for the seed."^ What can our opponent says against this, in view of the declaration made to Abraham: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed?"
' Rom. iii. 21.
2 Cor. i. 20.
3 Rom. ix. 6-S, At the time when the apostle gave the following exposition of this promise, " To Abraham and to his seed were the promises made. He saith not. To seed, as of many, but as of one, To thy seed, which is Christ,"* a doubt on this point might then have been less inexcusable, for at that time all nations had not yet believed on Christ, who is preached as of the seed of Abraham. But now that we see the fulfillment of what we read in the ancient prophecy,— now that all nations are actually iDlessed in the seed of Abraham, to whom it was said thousands of years ago, "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed," — it is mere obstinate folly to try to bring in another Christ, not of the seed of Abraham, or to hold that there are no predictions of Christ in the prophetical books of the children of Abraham.
7, To enumerate all the passages in the Hebrew prophets referring to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, would exceed the limits of a volume, not to speak of the brief replies of which this treatise consists. The whole contents of these Scriptures are either directly or indirectly about Christ. Often the reference is allegorical or enigmatical, perhaps in a verbal allusion, or in a historical narrative, requiring diligence in the student, and rewarding him with the pleasure of discovery. Other passages, again, are plain; for, without the help of what is clear, we could not understand what is obscure. And even the figurative passages, when brought together, will be found so harmonious in their testimony to Christ as to put to shame the obtuseness of the sceptic.
8. In the creation God finished His works in six days, and rested on the seventh. The history of the world contains six periods marked by the dealings of God with men. The first period is from Adam to Noah; the second, from Noah to Abraham; the third, from Abraham to David; the fourth, from David to the captivity in Babylon; the fifth, from the captivity to the advent of lowliness of our Lord Jesus Christ; the sixth is now in progress, and will end in the coming of the exalted Saviour to judgment. What answers to the seventh day is the rest of the saints, — not in this life, but in another, where the rich man saw Lazarus at rest while he was tormented in hell; where there is no evening, because there is no decay. On the sixth day, in Genesis, man is formed after the image of God; in the sixth period of the \vorld there is the clear discovery of our transformation in the renewing of our mind, according to the 4 Gal. iii. 16.
1 86 [Book XII.
ima-je of Him who created us, as the apostle saybV As a wife was made for Adam from his side while he slept, the Church becomes the property of her dying Saviour, by the sacrament of the blood which flowed from His side after His death. The woman made out of her husband's side is called Eve, or Life, and the mother of living beings; and the Lord says in the Gospel: " Except a man eat my flesh and drink my blood, he has no life in him." - The whole narrative of Genesis, in the most minute details, is a prophecy of Christ and of the Church with reference either to the good Christians or to the bad. There is a significance in the words of the apostle when he calls Adam " the figure of Him that was to come; " ^ and when he says, " A man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. "'^ This points most obviously to the way in which Christ left His Father; for "though He was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, He emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant." ^ And so, too, He left His mother, the synagogue of the Jews which cleaved to the carnality of the Old Testament, and was united to the Church His holy bride, that in the peace of the New Testament they two might be one flesh. For though with the Father He was God, by whom we were made, He became in the flesh partaker of our nature, that we might become the body of which He is the head.
9. As Cain's sacrifice of the fruit of the ground is rejected, while AbeFs sacrifice of his sheep and the fat thereof is accepted, so the faith of the New Testament praising God in the harmless service of grace is preferred to the earthly observances of the Old Testament. For though the Jews were right in practising these things, they were guilty of unbelief in not distinguishing the time of the New Testament when Christ came, from the time of the Old Testament. God said to Cain, " If thou offerest well, yet if thou dividest not well, thou hast sinned."^ If Cain had obeyed God when He said, " Be content, for to thee shall be its reference, and thou shalt rule over it," he would have referred his sin to himself, by taking the blame of it, and confessing it to God; and so assisted by supplies of grace, he would have ruled over his sin, instead of acting as the servant of sin in killing his innocent brother. So also the Jews, of whom all these things are a figure.
if they had been content, instead of being turbulent, and had acknowledged the time of salvation through the pardon of sins by grace, and heard Christ saying, "They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance; '' ^ and, "Every one that committeth sin is the servant of sin;'' and, " If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed,"^ — they would in confession have referred their sin to themselves, saying to the Physician, as it is written in the Psalm, ''I said, Lord, be merciful to me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee."^ And being made free by the hope of grace, they would have ruled over sin as long as it con- But now, being tinned in their mortal body, ignorant of God's righteousness, and wishing to establish a righteousness of their own, proud of the works of the law, instead of being humbled on account of their sins, they have not been content; and in subjection to sin reigning in their mortal body, so as to make them obey it in the lusts thereof, they have stumbled on the stone of stumbling, and have been inflamed with hatred ao:ainst him whose works they grieved to see accepted by God. The man who was born blind, and had been made to see, said to them, "We know that God heareth not sinners; but if any man serve Him, and do His will, him He heareth;"'" as if he had said, God regardeth not the sacrifice of Cain, but he regards the sacrifice of Abel. Abel, the younger brother, is killed by the elder brother; Christ, the head of the younger people, is killed by the elder people of the Jews. Abel dies in the field; Christ dies on Calvary.
10. God asks Cain where his brother is, not as if He did not know, but as a judge asks a guilty criminal. Cain replies that he knows not, and that he is not his brother's keeper. And what answer can the Jews give at this day, when we ask them with the voice of God, that is, of the sacred Scriptures, about Christ, except that they do not know the Christ that we speak of? Cain's ignorance was pretended, and the Jews are deceived in their refusal of Christ. Moreover, they would have been in a sense keepers of Christ, if they had been willing to receive and keep the Christian faith. For the man who keeps Christ in his heart does not ask, like Cain, Am I my brother's keeper? Then God says to Cain, "What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground." So the voice of God in the Holy Scriptures accuses the Jews. For the blood 3 Rom. V. 14, 6 Vulg.
Book XII.]
REPLY TO FAUSTIJS THE MANICH^AN.
of Christ has a loud voice on the earth, when the responsive Amen of those who beheve in Him comes from all nations. This is the voice of Christ's blood, because the clear voice of the faithful redeemed by His blood is the voice of the blood itself.
II. Then God says to Cain: "Thou art cursed from the earth, which hath opened its mouth to receive thy brother's blood at thy hand. For thou shalt till the earth, and it shall no longer yield unto thee its strength. A mourner and an abject shalt thou be on the earth." It is not, Cursed is the earth, but, Cursed art thou from the earth, which hath opened its mouth to receive thy brother's blood at thy hand. So the unbelieving people of the Jews is cursed from the earth, that is, from the Church, which in the confession of sins has opened its mouth to receive the blood shed for the remission of sins by the hand of the people that would not be under grace, but under the law. And this murderer is cursed by the Church; that is, the Church admits and avows the curse pronounced by the apostle: " Whoever are of the works of the law are under the curse of the law.'' ' Then, after saying, Cursed art thou from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive thy brother's blood at thy hand, what follows is not, For thou shalt till it, but. Thou shalt till the earth, and it shall not yield to thee its strength. The earth he is to till is not necessarily the same as that which opened its mouth to receive his brother's blood at his hand. From this earth he is cursed, and so he tills an earth which shall no longer yield to him its strength. That is, the Church admits and avows the Jewish people to be cursed, because after killing Christ they continue to till the ground of an earthly circumcision, an earthly Sabbath, an earthly passover, while the hidden strength or virtue of making known Christ, which this tilling contains, is not yielded to the Jews while they continue in impiety and unbelief, for it is revealed in the New Testament. While they will not turn to God, the veil which is on their minds in reading the Old Testament is not taken away. This veil is taken away only liy Christ, who does not do away with the reading of the Old Testament, but with the covering which hides its virtue. So, at the crucifixion of Christ, the veil was rent in twain, that by the passion of Christ hidden mysteries might be revealed to believers who turn, to Him with a mouth opened in confession to drink His blood. In this way the Jewish people, like Cain, continue tilling the ground, in the carnal obser- ' Gal. iii. 10.
vance of the law, which does not yield to them its strength, because they do not perceive in it the grace of Christ. So. too, the flesh of Christ was the ground from which by crucifying Him the Jews produced our salvation, for He died for our offences. But this ground did not yield to them its strength, for they were not justified by the virtue of His resurrection, for He arose again for our justification. As the apostle says: " He was crucified in weakness, but He liveth by the power of God.'"" This is the power of that ground which is unknown to the ungodly and unbelieving. When Christ rose. He did not appear to those who had crucified Him. So Cain was not allowed to see the streno-th of the ground which he tilled to sow his seed in it; as God said, " Thou shalt till the ground, and it shall no longer yield unto thee its strength."
12. " Groaning and trembling shalt thou be on the earth." Here no one can fail to see that in every land where the Jews are scattered they mourn for the loss of their kingdom, and are in terrified subjection to the immensely superior number of Christians. So Cain answered, and said: " My case is worse, if Thou drivest me out this day from the face of the earth, and from Thy face shall I be hid, and I shall be a mourner and an outcast on the earth; and it shall be that every one that findeth me shall slay me.'' Here he groans indeed in terror, lest after losing his earthly possession he should suffer the death of the body. Tliis he calls a worse case than that of the ground not yielding to him its strength, or than- that of spiritual death.
For his mind is carnal; for he thinks little of being hid from the face of God, that is, of being under the anger of God, were it not that he may be found and slain. This is the carnal mind that tills the ground, but does not obtain its strength. To be carnally minded is death; but he, in ignorance of this, mourns for the loss of his earthly possession, and is in terror of bodily death. But what does God reply? " Not so," He says; " but whosoever shall kill Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." That is. It is not as thou sayest; not by bodily death shall the ungodly race of carnal Jews perish. For whoever destroys them in this way shall suffer sevenfold vengeance, that is, shall bring upon himself the sevenfold penalty under which the Jews lie for the crucifixion of Christ. So to the end of the seven days of time, the continued preservation of the Jews will be a proof to believing Christinns of the subjection merited * 2 Cor.
xiii. 4.
iSS [Book XII.
by those who, in the pride of tiieir kingdom, l)ut the Lord to death.
13. "And the Lord God set a mark upon Cain, lest any one finding him should slay him." It is a most notable fact, that all the nations subjugated by Rome adopted the heathenish ceremonies of the Roman worship; while the Jewish nation, whether under Pagan or Christian monarchs, has never lost the sign of their law, by which they are distinguished from all other nations and peoples. No emperor or monarch who finds under his government the people with this mark kills them, that is, makes them cease to be Jews, and as Jews to be separate in their observances, and unlike the rest of the world. Only when a Jew comes over to Christ, he is no longer Cain, nor goes out from the presence of God, nor dwells in the land of Nod, which is said to mean commotion. Against this evil of commotion the Psalmist prays, " Suffer not my feet to be moved;" ' and again, " Let not the hands of the wicked remove me;"'' and, " Those that trouble me will rejoice when I am moved:" ^ and, " The Lord is at my right hand, that I should not be moved;"'* and so in innumerable places. This evil comes upon those who leave the presence of God, that is, His loving-kindness. Thus the Psalmist says, "I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved." But observe what follows, "Lord, by Thy favor Thou hast given strength to my honor; Thou didst hide Thy face, and I was troubled;'"= which teaches us that not in itself, but by participation in the light of God, can any soul possess beauty, or honor, or strength.