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ground for our opinion, that the birth of the body should be ascribed to nature, and the second birth to the Supernal Majesty. So the same apostle says again to the Corinthians, "I have begotten you in Christ Jesus by the gospel; and, speaking of himself, to the Galatians, When it pleased Him, who separated me from my mother's womb, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." It is plain that everywhere he speaks of the second or spiritual birth as that in which we are made by God, as distinct from the indecency of the first birth, in which we are on a level with other animals as regards dignity and purity, as we are conceived in the maternal womb, and are formed, and brought forth. You may observe that in this matter the dispute between us is not so much about a question of doctrine as of interpretation. For you think that it is the old or outer or earthy man that is said to have been made by God; while we apply this to the heavenly man, giving the superiority to the inner or new man. And our opinion is not rash or groundless, for we have learned it from Christ and His apostles, who are proved to have been the first in the world who thus taught.

Faustus take only what he thinks to be in his own favor, while he leaves out or rejects what upsets the follies of the Manichæans? Moreover, in treating of the earthy and the heavenly man, and making the distinction between the mortal and the immortal, between that which we are in Adam and that which we shall be in Christ, the apostle quotes the declaration of the law regarding the earthy or natural body, referring to the very book and the very passage where it is written that God made the earthy man too. Speaking of the manner in which the dead shall rise again, and of the body with which they shall come, after using the similitude of the seeds of corn, that they are sown bare grain, and that God gives them a body as it pleases Him, and to every seed his own body,-thus, by the way, overthrowing the error of the Manichæans, who say that grains and plants, and all roots and shoots, are created by the race of darkness, and not by God, who, according to them, instead of exerting power in the production of these objects, is Himself subject to confinement in them, he goes on, after this refutation of Manichæan impieties, to describe the different kinds of flesh. "All flesh," he says, "is not the same flesh." Then he speaks of celestial and terrestrial bodies, and then of 2. AUGUSTIN replied: The Apostle Paul cer- the change of our body by which it will betainly uses the expression the inner man for come spiritual and heavenly. "It is sown," the spirit of the mind, and the outer man for he says, "in dishonor, it shall rise in glory; the body and for this mortal life; but we it is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power; nowhere find him making these two different it is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spirmen, but one, which is all made by God, both the inner and the outer. However, it is made in the image of God only as regards the inner, which, besides being immaterial, is rational, and is not possessed by the lower animals. God, then, did not make one man after His own image, and another man not after that image; but the one man, which includes both the inner and the outer, He made after His own image, not as regards the possession of a body and of mortal life, but as regards the rational mind with the power of knowing God, and with the superiority as compared with all irrational creatures which the possession of reason implies. Faustus allows that the inner man is made by God, when, as he says, it is renewed in the knowledge of God after the image of Him that created him. I readily admit this on the apostle's authority. Why does not Faustus admit on the same authority that God has placed the members every one in the body, as it has pleased Him"?3 Here we learn from the same apostle that God is the framer of the outer man too. Why does

itual body." Then, in order to show the origin of the animal body, he says, "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body; as it is written, The first man, Adam, was made a living soul." Now this is written in Genesis,5 where it is related how God made man, and animated the body which He had formed of the earth. By the old man the apostle simply means the old life, which is a life in sin, and is after the manner of Adam, of whom it is said, "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, in that all have sinned." Thus the whole of this man, both the inner and the outer part, has become old because of sin, and liable to the punishment of mortality. There is, however, a restoration of the inner man, when it is renewed after the image of its Creator, in the putting off of unrighteousness-that is, the old man, and putting on righteousness-that is, the new man. But when that which is sown a natural body shall rise a spiritual body, the outer man too shall attain the dignity of a

celestial character; so that all that has been created may be created anew, and all that has been made be remade by the Creator and Maker Himself. This is briefly explained in the words: "The body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead will also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit dwelling in you. No one instructed in the Catholic doctrine but knows that it is in the body that some are male and some female, not in the spirit of the mind, in which we are renewed after the image of God. But elsewhere the apostle teaches that God is the Maker of both; for he says, "Neither is the woman without the man, nor the man without the woman, in the Lord; for as the woman is of the man, so is the man by the woman; but all things are of God." The only reply given to this, by the perverse stupidity of those who are alienated from the life of God by the ignorance which is in them, on account of the blindness of their heart, is, that whatever pleases them in the apostolic writings is true, and whatever displeases them is false. This

is the insanity of the Manichæans, who will be wise if they cease to be Manichæans. As it is, if they are asked whether it is He that remakes and renews the inner man (which they acknowledge to be renewed after the image of God, and they themselves quote the passage in support of this; and, according to Faustus, God makes man when the inner man is renewed in the image of God), they will answer, yes. And if we then go on to ask when God made what He now renews, they must devise some subterfuge to prevent the exposure of their absurdities. For, according to them, the inner man is not formed or created or originated by God, but is part of His own substance sent against His enemies; and instead of becoming old by sin, it is through necessity captured and damaged by the enemy. Not to repeat all the nonsense they talk, the first man they speak of is not the man of the earth earthy that the apostle speaks of,3 but an invention proceeding from their own magazine of untruths. Faustus, though he chooses man as a subject for discussion, says not a word of this first man; for he is afraid that his opponents in the discussion might come to know something about him.

31 Cor. xv. 47.

BOOK XXV.

FAUSTUS SEEKS TO BRING INTO RIDICULE THE ORTHODOX CLAIM TO BELIEVE IN THE INFINITY OF GOD BY CARICATURING THE ANTHROPOMORPHIC REPRESENTATIONS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. AUGUSTIN EXPRESSES HIS DESPAIR OF BEING ABLE TO INDUCE THE MANICHEANS TO ADOPT RIGHT VIEWS OF THE INFINITUDE OF GOD SO LONG AS THEY CONTINUE TO REGARD THE SOUL AND GOD AS EXTENDED IN SPACE.

ly, and Isaac's and Jacob's; as if Abraham were a landmark to steer by in your invocation, to escape shipwreck among a shoal of deities?

1. FAUSTUS said: Is God finite or infinite? | such careful particularity in addressing Him, He must be finite unless you are mistaken as if it was not enough to name God, without in addressing Him as the God of Abraham adding whose God He is-Abraham's, nameand Isaac and Jacob; unless, indeed, the being thus addressed is different from the God you call infinite. In the case of the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the mark of circumcision, which separated these men from fellowship with other people, marked also the limit of God's power as extending only to them. And a being whose power is finite cannot himself be infinite. Moreover, in this address, you do not mention even the ancients before Abraham, such as Enoch, Noah, and Shem, and others like them, whom you allow to have been righteous though in uncircumcision; but because they lacked this distinguishing mark, you will not call God their God, but only of Abraham and his seed. Now, if God is one and infinite, what need of

The Jews, who are circumcised, may very properly address this deity, as having a reason for it, because they call God the God of circumcision, in contrast to the gods of uncircumcision. But why you should do the same, it is difficult to understand; for you do not pretend to have Abraham's sign, though you invoke his God. If we understand the matter rightly, the Jews and their God seem to have set marks upon one another for the purpose of recognition, that they might not lose each other. So God gave them the disgusting mark of circumcision, that, in whatever land or among whatever people they

For

might be, they might by being circumcised As long as this is the case, it will be better be known to be His. They again marked for you to leave this matter alone; for you God by calling Him the God of their fathers, can teach no truth regarding it, any more than that, wherever He might be, though among a in other matters; and in this you are unfit crowd of gods, He might, on hearing the name for learning, as you might do in other things, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, if you were not proud and quarrelsome. know at once that He was addressed. So in such questions as how God can be finite, we often see, in a number of people of the when no space can contain Him; how He same name, that no one answers till called by can be infinite, when the Son knows Him perhis surname. In the same way the shepherd fectly; how He can be finite, and yet unor herdsman makes use of a brand to prevent bounded; how He can be infinite, and yet his property being taken by others. In thus perfect; how He can be finite, who is without marking God by calling Him the God of measure; how He can be infinite, who is the Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, you show measure of all things—all carnal ideas go for not only that He is finite, but also that nothing; and if the carnality is to be removed, you have no connection with Him, because you have not the mark of circumcision by which He recognizes His own. Therefore, if this is the God you worship, there can be no doubt of His being finite. But if you say that God is infinite, you must first of all give up this finite deity, and by altering your in-ham and Isaac and Jacob we have already vocation, show your penitence for your past said enough to show why He who is the true errors. We have thus proved God to be God of all creatures wished to be familiarly finite, taking you on your own ground. But known by His people under this name. On to determine whether the supreme and true circumcision, too, we have already spoken in God is infinite or not, we need only refer to several places in answer to ignorant rethe opposition between good and evil. If proaches. The Manichæans would find nothevil does not exist, then certainly God is infi-ing to ridicule in this sign if they would view nite; otherwise He must be finite. Evil, it as appointed by God, to be an appropriate however, undoubtedly exists; therefore God symbol of the putting off of the flesh. They is not infinite. It is where good stops that evil begins.

it must first become ashamed of itself. Accordingly, your best way of ending the matter you have brought forward of God as finite or infinite, is to say no more about it till you cease going so far astray from Christ, who is the end of the law. Of the God of Abra

ought thus to consider the rite with a Christian instead of a heretical mind; as it is written, 2. AUGUSTIN replied: No one that knows "To the pure all things are pure." But, you would dream of asking you about the in- considering the truth of the following words, finitude of God, or of discussing the matter "To the unclean and unbelieving nothing is with you. For, before there can be any pure, but even their mind and conscience are degree of spirituality in any of your concep- defiled," we must remind our witty opponents, tions, you must first have your minds cleared that if circumcision is indecent, as they say by simple faith, and by some elementary it is, they should rather weep than laugh at knowledge, from the illusions of carnal and it; for their god is exposed to restraint and material ideas. This your heresy prevents contamination in conjunction both with the you from doing, for it invariably represents skin which is cut and with the blood which is the body and the soul and God as extended shed. in space, either finite or infinite, while the idea of space is applicable only to the body.

1 Tit. i. 15.

BOOK XXVI.

FAUSTUS INSISTS THAT JESUS MIGHT HAVE DIED THOUGH NOT BORN, BY THE EXERCISE OF DIVINE POWER, YET HE REJECTS BIRTH AND DEATH ALIKE. AUGUSTIN MAINTAINS THAT THERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT EVEN GOD CANNOT DO, ONE OF WHICH IS TO DIE. HE REFUTES THE DOCETISM OF THE MANICHEANS.

1. FAUSTUS said: You ask, If Jesus was not | tion by examples taken from what you generborn, how did He die? Well this is a proba-ally believe. If they are true, they will prove bility, such as one makes use of in want of our case; if they are false, they will help you proofs. We will, however, answer the ques- no more than, they will us. You say then,

restoring animation to the dead, with the recovery of their bodily frame after dissolution had begun, produce a feeling of amazement, and must seem utterly incredible in view of what is naturally possible and impossible. And yet, as Christians, we believe all the things to have been done by the same person; for we regard not the law of nature, but the powerful operation of God. There is a story, too, of Jesus having been cast from the brow of a hill, and having escaped unhurt. If, then, when thrown down from a height He did not die, simply because He chose not to die, why should He not have had the power to die when He pleased? We take this way of answering you, because you have a fancy for discussion, and affect to use logical weapons not properly belonging to you. As regards our own belief, it is no more true that Jesus died than that Elias is immortal.

How could Jesus die, if He were not man? In return, I ask you, How did Elias not die, though he was a man? Could a mortal encroach upon the limits of immortality, and could not Christ add to His immortality whatever experience of death was required? If Elias, contrary to nature, lives for ever, why not allow that Jesus, with no greater contrariety to nature, could remain in death for three days? Besides that, it is not only Elias, but Moses and Enoch you believe to be immortal, and to have been taken up with their bodies to heaven. Accordingly, if it is a good argument that Jesus was a man because He died, it is an equally good argument that Elias was not a man because he did not die. But as it is false that Elias was not a man, notwithstanding his supposed immortality, so it is false that Jesus was a man, though He is considered to have died. The truth is, if you will believe it, that the Hebrews were in 3. AUGUSTIN replied: As to Enoch and a mistake regarding both the death of Jesus Elias and Moses, our belief is determined not and the immortality of Elias. For it is by Faustus' suppositions, but by the declaraequally untrue that Jesus died and that Elias tions of Scripture, resting as they do on did not die. But you believe whatever you foundations of the strongest and surest eviplease; and for the rest, you appeal to nature. dence. People in error, as you are, are unfit And, allowing this appeal, nature is against to decide what is natural, and what contrary both the death of the immortal and the im- to nature. We admit that what is contrary mortality of the mortal. And if we refer to the power of effecting their purpose as possessed by God and by man, it seems more possible for Jesus to die than for Elias not to die; for the power of Jesus is greater than that of Elias. But if you exalt the weaker to heaven, though nature is against it, and, forgetting his condition as a mortal, endow him with eternal felicity, why should I not admit that Jesus could die if He pleased, even though I were to grant His death to have been real, and not a mere semblance? For, as from the outset of His taking the likeness of man He underwent in appearance all the experiences of humanity, it was quite consistent that He should complete the system by appearing to die.

Con

to the ordinary course of human experience is commonly spoken of as contrary to nature. Thus the apostle uses the words, "If thou art cut out of the wild olive, and engrafted contrary to nature in the good olive." trary to nature is here used in the sense of contrary to human experience of the course of nature; as that a wild olive engrafted in a good olive should bring forth the fatness of the olive instead of wild berries. But God, the Author and Creator of all natures, does nothing contrary to nature; for whatever is done by Him who appoints all natural order and measure and proportion must be natural in every case. And man himself acts contrary to nature only when he sins; and then by punishment he is brought back to nature 2. Moreover, it is to be remembered that again. The natural order of justice requires this reference to what nature grants as possi- either that sin should not be committed or ble, should be made in connection with all the that it should not go unpunished. In either history of Jesus, and not only with His death. case, the natural order is preserved, if not by According to nature, it is impossible that a the soul, at least by God. For sin pains the man blind from his birth should see the light; conscience, and brings grief on the mind of and yet Jesus appears to have performed a the sinner, by the loss of the light of justice, miracle of this kind, so that the Jews them- even should no physical sufferings follow, selves exclaimed that from the beginning of which are inflicted for correction, or are rethe world it was not seen that one opened the served for the incorrigible. There is, howeyes of a man born blind. So also healing ever, no impropriety in saying that God does a withered hand, giving the power of utter- a thing contrary to nature, when it is conance and expression to those born dumb, trary to what we know of nature. For we

give the name nature to the usual common cannot be put a stop to. Now, what is past course of nature; and whatever God does no longer exists. and whatever. has an existcontrary to this, we call a prodigy, or a mira- ence which can be put an end to cannot be cle. But against the supreme law of nature, past. What is truly past is no longer present; which is beyond the knowledge both of the and the truth of its past existence is in our ungodly and of weak believers, God never judgment, not in the thing itself which no acts, any more than He acts against Himself. longer exists. The proposition asserting As regards spiritual and rational beings, to anything to be past is true when the thing no which class the human soul belongs, the more longer exists. God cannot make such a they partake of this unchangeable law and proposition false, because He cannot contralight, the more clearly they see what is possi-dict the truth. The truth in this case, or the ble, and what impossible; and again, the true judgment, is first of all in our own mind, greater their distance from it, the less their perception of the future, and the more frequent their surprise at strange occurrences.

when we know and give expression to it. But should it disappear from our minds by our forgetting it, it would still remain as truth. 4. Thus of what happened to Elias we are It will always be true that the past thing ignorant; but still we believe the truthful which is no longer present had an existence; declarations of Scripture regarding him. Of and the truth of its past existence after it has one thing we are certain, that what God willed stopped is the same as the truth of its future happened, and that except by God's will existence before it began to be. This truth nothing can happen to any one. So, if I am cannot be contradicted by God, in whom abides told that it is possible that the flesh of a cer- the supreme and unchangeable truth, and tain man shall be changed into a celestial whose illumination is the source of all the body, I allow the possibility, but I cannot tell truth to be found in any mind or understandwhether it will be done; and the reason of my ing. Now God is not omnipotent in the sense ignorance is, that I am not acquainted with of being able to die; nor does this inability the will of God in the matter. That it will be done if it is God's will, is perfectly clear and indubitable. Again, if I am told that something would happen if God did not prevent it from happening, I reply confidently that what is to happen is the action of God, not the event which might otherwise have happened. For God knows His own future action, and therefore He knows also the effect of that action in preventing the happening of what would otherwise have happened; and, beyond all question, what God knows is more certain than what man thinks. Hence it is as impossible for what is future not to happen, as for what is past not to have happened; for omnipotent God he could be changed in a it can never be God's will that anything should, in the same sense, be both true and false. Therefore all that is properly future cannot but happen; what does not happen never was future; even as all things which are properly in the past did indubitably take place.

5. Accordingly, to say, if God is almighty, let Him make what has been done to be undone, is in fact to say, if God is almighty, let Him make a thing to be in the same sense both true and false. God can put an end to the existence of anything, when the thing to be put an end to has a present existence; as when He puts an end by death to the existence of any one who has been brought into existence in birth; for in this case there is an actual existence which may be put a stop to. But when a thing does not exist, the existence

prevent His being omnipotent. True omnipotence belongs to Him who truly exists, and who alone is the source of all existence, both spiritual and corporeal. The Creator makes what use He pleases of all His creatures; and His pleasure is in harmony with true and unchangeable justice, by which, as by His own nature, He, Himself unchangeable, brings to pass the changes of all changeable things according to the desert of their natures or of their actions. No one, therefore, would be so foolish as to deny that, Elias being a creature of God could be changed either for the worse or for the better; or that by the will of the

manner unusual among men. So we can have no reason for doubting what on the high authority of Scripture is related of him, unless we limit the power of God to things which we are familiar with.

6. Faustus' argument is, If Elias who was a man could escape death, why might not Christ have the power of dying, since He was more than man? This is the same as to say, If human nature can be changed for the better, why should not the divine nature be changed for the worse?—a weak argument, seeing that human nature is changeable, while the divine nature is not. Such a method of inference would lead to the glaring absurdity, that if God can bestow eternal glory on man, He must also have the power of consigning Himself to eternal misery. Faustus will reply that his argument refers only to three days