persuade me to believe the prophets, and then through the prophets to believe Christ. And to prove the truth of the prophets, other prophets would be necessary. For if the prophets bear witness to Christ, who bears witness to the prophets? You will perhaps say that Christ and the prophets mutually support each other. But a Pagan, who has nothing to do with either, would believe neither the evidence of Christ to the prophets, nor that of the prophets to Christ. If the Pagan becomes a Christian, he has to thank his own faith, and nothing else. Let us, for the sake of illustration, suppose ourselves conversing with a Gentile incjuirer. We tell him to believe in Christ, because He is God. He asks for proof. We refer him to the prophets. He asks. What prophets? We reply, The Hebrew. He smiles, and says that he does not believe them. We remind him that Christ testifies to them. He replies, laughing, that we must first make him believe in Christ. The result of such a conversation IS that we are silenced, and the inquirer del^arts, thinking us more zealous than wise. Again, I say, the Christian Ciiurch, which consists more of Gentiles than of Jews, can owe nothing to Hebrew witnesses. If, as is said, any prophecies of Christ are to be found [Book XIII.
[Book XIII.
in the Sibyl,' or in Hermes,^ called T'-ismegistus, or Orpheus, or any heathen poet, they might aid the faith of those who, like us/ are "converts from heathenism to Christianity. But the testimony of the Hebrews is useless to us before conversion, for then we cannot believe them; and superfluous after, for we believe without them.
2. AuGUSTiN replied: After the long reply of last book, a short answer may suffice here. To one who has read that reply, it must seem insanity in Faustus to persist in denymg that Christ was foretold by the Hebrew prophets, when the Hebrew nation was the only one in which the name Christ had a peculiar sacredness as applied to kings and priests; in which sense it continued to be applied till the coming of Him whom those kings and priests typified. Where did the Manichasan learn the name of Christ? If from Manichseus, it is very strange that Africans, not to speak of others, should believe the Persian Manichaeus, since Faustus finds fault with the Romans and Greeks, and other Gentiles, for believing the Hebrew prophets as belonging to another race. Accordmg to Faustus, the predictions of the Sibyl, or Orpheus, or any heathen poet, are more suitable for leading Gentiles to believe in Christ. He forgets that none of these are read in the churches, whereas the voice of the Hebrew prophets, sounding everywhere, draws swarms of people to Christianity. When it is so evident that men are everywhere led to Christ by the Hebrew prophets, it is great absurdity to say that those prophets are not suitable for the Gentiles.
3. Christ as foretold by the Hebrew prophets does not please you; but this is the Christ in whom the Gentile nations believe, with whom, according to you, Hebrew prophecy should have no weight. They receive the gospel which, as Paul says, "God I [On the Sibylline books, see article by G. H. Schodde in the Schaff-Hcrtzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knoiuledge^ and the works there referred to. The Christian writers of the first three centuries seem not to have suspected the real character of these pseudo-prophetical writings, and to have regarded them as remarkable testimonies from the heathen world to the Truth of the Chrisian religion. — A. H. N.]
= [" The IVlercurius or Hermes Trismegistus of legend was a personage, an Egyptian sage or succession of sages, who, since the time of Plato, has been identified with the Thoth (the name of the month September), of that people...He was considered to be the impersonation of the religion, art, learning and sacerdotal discipline of the Egyptian priesthood. He was by several of the Fathers, and, in modern times, by three of his earliest editors, supposed to have existed before the time of Moses, and to have obtained the appellation of ' Thrice greatest,' from his threefold learning and rank of Philosopher, Priest and King, and that of ' Hermes,' or Mercurius, as messenger and authoritative interpreter of divine things." The author of the books that go under the name of Hermes Trismegistus is thought to have lived about the beginning of the second century, and was a Christian Neo-Platonist. See J. C. Ch.^misers: The Theological and Philosophical Works of Hemes Trismegistus^ translated from the original Greek, ivith Preface, Notes and hidex, Edinbunrh, 1882.— A. H. N.]
had promised before by'His prophets in the Holy Scriptures of His Son, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh." ^ So we read in Isaiah: "There shall be a Root of Jesse, which shall rise to reign in the nations; in Him shall the Gentiles trust." '^ And again: " Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel," 5 ^vhich is, being interpreted, God with us. Nor let the Manichgean think that Christ is foretold only as a man by the Hebrew prophets; for this is what Faustus seems to insinuate when he says, "Our Christ is the Son of God," as if the Christ of the Hebrews was not the Son of God. We can prove Christ the virgin's son of Hebrew prophecy to be God. For the Lord Himself teaches the carnal Jews not to think that, because He is foretold as the son of David, He is therefore no more than that. He asks: "What think ye of Christ? Whose son is He? " They reply: " Of David." Then, to remind them of the name Emmanuel, God with us, He says: "How does David in the Spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstoQl?"^ Here, then, Christ appears as God in Hebrew prophecy. What prophecy can the Manichaeans show with the name of Christ in it?
4. Manichgeus indeed was not a prophet of Christ, but calls himself an apostle, which is a shameless falsehood; for it is well known that this heresy began not only after Tertullian, but after Cyprian. In all his letters Manichseus begins thus: " Manichseus, an apostle of Jesus Christ." Why do you believe what Manichaeus says of Christ? What evidence does he give of his apostleship? This very name of Christ is known to us only from the Jews, who, in their application of it to their kings and priests, were not individually, but nationally, prophets of Christ and Christ's kingdom. What right has he to use this name, who forbids you to believe the Hebrew prophets, that he may make you the heretical disciples of a false Christ, as he himself is a false and heretical apostle? And if Faustus quotes as evidence in his own support some prophets who, according to him, foretell Christ, how will he satisfy his supposed inquirer, who will not believe either the prophets or Faustus? Will he take our apostles as witnesses? Unless he can find some apostles in life, he must read their writings; and these are all against him. They teach our doctrine that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, that He was the Son of God, of the 4 Isa. xi. 10.
* Matt. xxii. 42-44.
i;ooK XIIL] 20I seed of David according to the flesh. He cannot pretend that the writings have been tampered with, for that would be to attack the credit of his own witnesses. Or if he produces his own manuscripts of the apostoHc writings, he must also obtain for them the authority of the churches founded by the apostles themselves, by showing that they have been preserved and transmitted with their sanction. It will be difficult for a man to make me believe him on the evidence of writings which derive all their authority from ins own word, which I do not believe.
5. But perhaps you believe the common report about Christ. Faustus makes a feeble Ingestion of this kind as a last resource, to ..scape being obliged either to produce his worthless authorities, or to come under the power of those opposed to him. Well, if report is your authority, you should consider the consequences of trusting to such evidence. There are many bad things reported of you ' which you do not wish people to believe. Is ; it reasonable to make the same evidence true about Christ and false about yourselves? In I fact, you deny the common report about Christ. For the report most widely spread, ' and which every one has heard repeated, is lat which distinctly asserts that Christ was jrn of the seed of David, according to the romise made in the Hebrew Scriptures to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob: " In thy seed shall all nations be blessed." You will -)t admit this Hebrew testimony, but you do ■A seem to have any other. The authority I our books, which is confirmed by the agreement of so many nations, supported by a succession of apostles, bishops, and counils, is against you. Your books have no authority, for it is an authority maintained liy only a few, and these the worshippers of an untruthful God and Christ. If they are not following the example of the beings they worship, their testimony must be against their wn false doctrine. And, once more, common report gives a very bad account of you, and invariably asserts, in opposition to you, that Christ was of the seed of David. You alid not hear the voice of the Father from eaven. You did not see the works by which Iirist bore witness to Himself. The books. iiich tell of these things you profess to reeive, that you may maintain a delusive api'Carance of Christianity; but when anything s quoted against you, you say that the books ave been tampered with. You quote the [passage where Christ says, " If ye believe not ine, believe the works;'' and again, "I am <ine that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me; " but you will not let us quote in reply such passages as these: "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think that ye have eternal life, and they are they that testify of me;" "If ye believed Moses, ye would believe me, for he wrote of me; " " They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them:" "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe though one rose from the dead." What have you to say for yourselves? Where is your authority? If you reject these passages of Scripture, in spite of the weighty authority in their favor, what miracles can you show? However, if you did work miracles, we should be on our guard against receiving their evidence in your case; for the Lord has forewarned us: " Many false Christs and false prophets shall arise, and shall do many signs and wonders, that they may deceive, if it were possible, the very elect: behold, I have told you before." ' This shows that the established authority of Scripture must outweigh every other; for it derives new confirmation from the progress of events which happen, as Scripture proves, in fulfillment of the predictions made so long before their occurrence.
6. Are, then, your doctrines so manifestly true, that they require no support from miracles or from any testimony? Show us these self-evident truths, if you have anything of the kind to show. Your legends, as we have already seen, are long and silly, old wives' fables for the amusement of women and children. The beginning is detached from the rest, the middle is unsound, and the end is a miserable failure. If you begin with the immortal, invisible, incorruptible God, what need was there of Ilis fighting with the race of darkness? And as for the middle of your theory, what becomes of the incorruptibility and unchangeableness of God, when His members in fruits and vegetables are purified by your mastication and digestion? And for the end, is it just that the wretched soul should be punished with lasting confinement in the mass of darkness, because its God is unable to cleanse it of the defilement contracted from evil external to itself in the fulfillment of His own commission? You are at a loss for a reply. See the worthlessness of your boasted manuscripts, numerous antl valuable as you say they are! Alas for the toils of the antiquaries! Alas for the property of the unhappy owners! Alas for the food of the deluded followers! Destitute as you are of Scripture authority, of the power of miracles, of moral excellence, and of sound doctrine, [Book XIII, depart ashamed, and return penitent, confessing that true Christ, who is the Saviour of all who believe in Him, whose name and whose Church are now displayed as they were of old foretold, not by some being issuing from subterranean darkness, but by a nation in a distinct kingdom established for this purpose, that there those things might be figuratively predicted of Christ which are now in reality fulfilled, and the prophets might foretell in writing what the apostles now exhibit in their preaching.
7. Let us suppose, then, a conversation with a heathen inquirer, in which Faustus described us as making a poor appearance, though his own appearance was much more deplorable. If we say to the heathen, Believe in Christ, for He is God, and, on his asking for evidence, produce the authority of the prophets, if he says that he does not believe the prophets, because they are Hebrew and he is a Gentile, we can prove the truth of the prophets from the actual fulfillment of their prophecies. He could scarcely be ignorant of the persecutions suffered by the early Christians from the kings of this world; or if he was ignorant, he could be informed from history and the records of imperial laws. But this is what we find foretold long ago by the prophet, saying, "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the princes take counsel together against the Lord, and against His Christ.'' The rest of the Psalm shows that this is not said of David. For what follows might convince the most stubborn unbeliever: " The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of me, and I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Thy possession." ' This never happened to the Jews, whose king David was, but is now plainly fulfilled in the subjection of all nations to the name of Christ. This and many similar prophecies, which it would take too long to quote, would surely impress the mind of the inquirer. He would see these very kings of the earth now happily subdued by Christ, and all nations serving Him; and he would hear the words of the Psalm in which this was so long before predicted: "All the kings of the earth shall bow down to Him; all nations shall serve Him. "^^ And if he were to read the whole of that Psalm, which is figuratively applied to Solomon, he would find that Christ is the true King of peace, for Solomon means peaceful; and he would find many things in the Psalm I will cause them to my might; and they applicable to Christ, which have no reference at all to the literal King Solomon. Then there is that other Psalm where God is spoken of as anointed by God, the very word anointed pointing to Christ, showing that Christ is God, for God is represented as being anointed. 3 In reading what is said in this Psalm of Christ and of the Church, he would find that what is there foretold is fulfilled in the present state of the world. He would see the idols of the nations perishing from off the earth, and he would find that this is predicted by the prophets, as in Jeremiah, " Then shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth, and from under heaven;''* and again, "O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto Thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say. Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? Therefore, behold, I will at that time cause them to know, know mine hand and shall know that I am the Lord, "s Hearing these prophecies, and seeing their actual fulfillment, I need not say that he would be affected; for we know by experience how the hearts of believers are confirmed by seeing ancient predictions now receiving their accomplishment.
8. In the same prophet the inquirer would find clear proof that Christ is not merely one of the great men that have appeared in the world. For Jeremiah goes on to say:| "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, 1 1 and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord: for he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places of the wilderness, in a salt land not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is: for he shall be as a tree beside the water, that spreadeth out its roots by the river: he shall not fear when heat cometh, but his leaf shall be green; he shall not be: careful in the year of drought, neither shalLj cease from yielding fruit." * On hearing this | curse pronounced in the figurative language] | of prophecy on him that trusts in man, and the blessing in similar style on him that trusts; in God, the inquirer might have doubts about, our doctrine, in which we teach not only thatj | Christ is God, so that our trust is not in man, ' ' but also that He is man because He took our » Ps. ii. 7, - Ps. l.\xii. 10.
3 Ps. -fXv. 7.
5 Jer. xvi. 19-21.
4 Jer. X, II. 6 Jer. xvii. 5- Book XIII.]
20' nature. So some err by denying Christ's humanity, while they allow His divinity. Others, again, assert His humanity, but deny His divinit}'-, and so either become infidels or incur the guilt of trusting in man. The inquirer, then, might say that the prophet says only that Christ is God, without any reference to His human nature; whereas, in our apostolic doctrine, Christ is not only God in whom we may safely trust, but the Mediator between God and man — the man Jesus. The prophet explains this in the words in which he seems to check himself, and to supply the omission: " His heart,'' he says " is sorrowful throughout; and He is man, and who shall know Him?"' He is man, in order that in the form of a servant He might heal the hard in heart, and that they might acknowledge as God Him who became man for their sakes, that their trust might be not in man, but in God-man. He is man taking the form of a servant. And who shall know Him? For " He was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal to God."^ He is man, for "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." And who shall know Him? For "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."^ And truly His heart was sorrowful throughout. For even as regards His own disciples His heart was sorrowful, when He said, " Have I been so long time with you, and yet have ye not known me?" "Have I been so long time with you" answers to the words "He is man,'' and "Have ye not known me?" to "Who shall know Him?" And the person is none other but He who says, " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."^ So that our trust is not in man, to be under the curse of the prophet, but in God-man, that is, in the Son of God, the Saviour Jesus Christ, the Mediator between God and man. In the form of a servant the Father is greater than He; in the form of God He is equal with the Father.
9. In Isaiah we read: " The pride of man shall be brought low; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And they shall ide the workmanship of their hands in the clefts of the rocks, and in dens and caves of the earth, from fear of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, when He shall arise to shake terribly the earth. For in that day a man shall cast away his idols of gold and silver, which they have made to worship, as useless and hurtful. "5 Perhaps the inquirer I himself, who, as Faustus supposes, would " Jer. xvii. 9. 4 John xiv. 9.
2 Phil. ii. 6. 5 Isa. ii. 17-20.
i John i. I.
laugh and say that he does not believe the Hebrew prophets, has hid idols made with hands in some cleft, or cave, or den. Or he may know a friend, or neighbor, or fellowcitizen who has done this from the fear of the Lord, who by the severe prohibition of the kings of the earth, now serving and bowing down to him, as the prophet predicted, shakes the earth, that is, breaks the stubborn heart of worldly men. The inquirer is not likely to disbelieve the Hebrew prophets, when he finds their predictions fulfilled, perhaps in his own person.
10. One might rather fear that the inquirer, in the midst of such copious evidence, would say that the Christians composed those writings when the events described had already begun to take place, in order that those occurrences might appear to be not due to a merely human purpose, but as if divinely foretold. One might fear this, were it not for the widely spread and widely known people of the Jews; that Cain, with the mark that he should not be killed by any one; that Ham, the servant of his brethren, carrying as a load the books for their instruction. From the Jewish manuscripts we prove that these things were not written by us to suit the event, but were long ago published and preserved as prophecies in the Jewish nation. These prophecies are now explamed in their accomplishment: for even what is obscure in them — because these things happened to them as an example, and were written for our benefit, on whom the ends of the world are come — is now made plain; and what was hidden in the shadows of the future is now visible in the light of actual experience.
11. The inquirer might bring forward as a difficulty the fact that those in whose books these prophecies are found are not united with us in the gospel. But v/hen convinced that this also is foretold, he would feel how strong the evidence is. The prophecies of the unbelief of the Jews no one can avoid seeing, no one can pretend to be blind to them. No one can doubt that Isaiah spoke of the Jews when he said, " The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel hath not known, and my people hath not considered;"^ or again, in the words quoted by the apostle, " I have stretched out my hands all the day to a wicked and gainsaying people;" ^ and especially where he says, " God has given them the spirit of remorse, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, and should not understand,"^ and many similar passages. If the 6 Isa. i. 3.
<> Isa. vi. 10; cf. Rom. xi.
7 Isa. Ixv. 2; cf. Rom. x. 21.
[Book XIII.
inquirer objected that it was not the fault of the Jews if God blinded them so that they did "not know Christ, we should try in the simplest manner possible to make him understand that this blindness is the just punishment of other secret sins known to God. We should prove that the apostle recognizes this principle when he says of some persons, " God gave them up to the lusts of their own hearts, and to a reprobate mind, to do things not convenient;"' and that the prophets themselves speak of this. For, to revert to the words of Jeremiah, "He is man, and who shall know Him? " lest it should be an excuse for the Jews that they did not knoiv, — for if they had known, as the apostle says, "they would not have crucified the Lord of glory," -— the prophet goes on to show that their ignorance was the result of secret criminality; for he says: "I the Lord search the heart, and try the reins, to give to every one according to his ways, and according to the fruits of his doings."
12. If the next difficulty in the mind of the inquirer arose from the divisions and heresies among those called Christians, he would learn that this too is taken notice of by the prophets. For, as if it was natural that, after being satisfied about the blindness of the Jews, this objection from the divisions among Christians should occur, Jeremiah, observing this order in his prophecy, immediately adds in the passage already quoted: " The partridge is clamorous, gathering what it has not brought forth, making riches without judgment.'' For the partridge is notoriously quarrelsome, and is often caught from its eagerness in quarreling. So the heretics discuss not to find the truth, but with a dogged determination to gain the victory one way or another, that they may gather, as the prophet says, what they have not brought forth. For those whom they lead astray are Christians already born of the gospel, whom the Christian profession of the heretics misleads. Thus they make riches not with judgment, but with inconsiderate haste. For they do not consider that the followers whom they gather as their riches are taken from the genuine original Ciiristian society, and deprived of its benefits; and as the apostle describes these heretics in the words: " As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so they also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the fajth. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest to all men, as theirs also was."^ So the prophet goes on to say of the partridge, which I Rom. i. 28.
2 I Cor. ii.
3 2 Ti gathers what it has not brought forth: "In the midst of his days they shall leave him, and m the end he shall be a fool;" that is, he who at first misled people by a promising display of superior wisdom, shall be a fool, that is, shall be seen to be a fool. He will be seen when his folly is manifest to all men, and to those to whom he was at first a wise man he will then be a fool.
13. As if anticipating that the inquirer would ask next by what plain mark a young disciple, not yet able to distinguish the truth among so many errors, might find the true Church of Christ, since the clear fulfillment of so many predictions compelled him to believe in Christ, the prophet answers this question in what follows, and teaches that the Church of Christ, which he describes prophetically, is conspicuously visible. His words are: "A glorious high throne is our sanctuary."'' This glorious throne is the Church of which the apostle says: "The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."s The Lord also, foreseeing the conspicuousness of the Church as a help to young disciples who might be misled, says, "A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid."* Since, then, a glorious high throne is our sanctuary, no attention is to be paid to those who would lead us into sectarianism, saying, " Lo, here is Christ," or." Lo there. " Lo here, lo there, speaks of division; but the true city is on a mountain, and the mountain is that which, as we read in the prophet Daniel, grew from a little stone till it filled the whole earth.'' And no attention should be paid to those who, professing some hidden mystery confined to a small number, say. Behold, He is in the chamber; behold, in the desert: for a city set on an hill cannot be hid, and a glorious high throne is our sanctuary.
14. After considering these instances of the fulfillment of prophecy about kings and people acting as persecutors, and then becoming believers, about the destruction of idols, about the blindness of the Jews, about their testimony to the writings which they have preserved, about the folly of heretics, about the dignity of the Church of true and genuine Christians, the inquirer would most reasonably receive the testimony of these prophets about the divinity of Christ. No doubt, if we were to begin by urging him to believe prophecies yet unfulfilled, he might justly answer. What have I to do with these prophets, of whose truth I have no evidence? But, in view of the manifest accomplishment of so many remarkable predictions, no candid per- Book XIII. J 20; son would despise either the things which were thought worthy of being predicted in those early times with so much solemnity, or those who made the predictions. To none can we trust more safely, as regards either events long past' or those still future, than to men whose words are supported by the evidence of so many notable predictions having been fulfilled.
15. If any truth about God or the Son of God is taught or predicted in the Sibyl or Sibyls, or in Orpheus, or in Hermes, if tkere ever was such a person, or in any other heathen poets, or theologians, or sages, or philosophers, it may be useful for the refutation of Pagan error, but cannot lead us to believe in these writers. For while they spoke, because they could not help it, of the God whom we worship, they either taught their fellow-countrymen to worship idols and demons, or allowed them to do so without daring to protest against it. But our sacred writers, with the authority and assistance of God, were the means of establishing and preserving among their people a government under which heathen customs were condemned as sacrilege. If any among this people fell into idolatry or demon-worship, they were either punished by the laws, or met by the awful denunciations of the prophets. They worshipped one God, the maker of heaven and earth. They had rites; but these rites were prophetic, or symbolical of things to come, and were to