In short, every restless or undisciplined person frequently meets with this: that he injures the members of his body, which assuredly cannot receive the medicine of healing without pain. So too sinners cannot redeem their sins unless the soul that has sinned feels pain. For this is just: that, because it has rejoiced against reason, it should according to reason suffer grief. And there follows: 'Do good, O Lord, in Thy good pleasure unto Zion.'
By saying 'Zion' he signifies the Church, so that our assertion may not seem improbable; to her he suggests that, in order that God may fulfill His promise, He knows He will then receive full remission when He shall have fulfilled in Christ what God decreed—that is, that those who hope in the promised salvation may be freed from all sin; since they will be freed through Christ not only from their own sins, but also from Adam's sin, which through propagation passed unto all. And he added: 'And let the walls of Jerusalem be built up.' What is it that he says, 'And let the walls of Jerusalem be built up'? Had they perchance been destroyed?
But by saying 'the walls of Jerusalem' he signifies the Church, which through faith was appointed in Christ to be built; whose walls are understood to be holy men, as the Apocalypse of the Apostle John teaches us, since both the city of Jerusalem and its walls are to be understood as the servants of God. Knowing therefore through Christ the promise which was to come for the deliverance of God's servants, King David prays that it may be fulfilled—that is, that through faith the Church may be built up, and that those who hope for salvation from this faith may be set free. And there follows: 'Then shalt Thou accept the sacrifice of righteousness, oblations and burnt offerings.'
He says this because oblations and burnt offerings would then be such as to be brought as acceptable, when the Church had been built—and not indiscriminately or according to custom, but, he says, 'Thou shalt accept the sacrifice of righteousness.' A sacrifice is righteous when a worthy gift is offered; moreover, nothing is so righteous and worthy as that we offer our very selves to God. For since God is spirit, spiritual sacrifices are to be offered to Him, so that a living victim may be offered to the living. For since he had said that, in the matter of sin, God is by no means delighted with fleshly sacrifices, he shows what was to come: that an offering was to be made to God spiritually and that He would accept it, because these are sacrifices worthy of God—that is, in time past they were lesser, as being fleshly; now they are greater, because spiritual.
And he added: 'Then shall they lay calves upon Thine altar.' If, when the former sacrifices cease, he signified that spiritual sacrifices would succeed them, what does it mean that he should say, 'Then shall they lay calves upon Thine altar,' except that by these bodily things he signifies spiritual ones—seeing that he had said that God is not delighted with fleshly things? By 'calves,' therefore, he signified the new people, reborn by faith in Christ, whose devotion is daily consecrated upon the Lord's altar. For he who is understood to have spoken concerning the Church must be understood to have signified her sacrifices also as spiritual. CXIII. WHY THE SON OF GOD WAS SENT AND NOT ANOTHER.
Although everything that God does is to be believed to have been done reasonably and providently, yet I think it better if, after faith, the cause of the deed can also be discerned, so that what is believed may not be unknown. Whence the Lord says: 'But this is eternal life, that they may know Thee the only and true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.' For first one ought to believe, as was said by the prophet, then to know what is believed, since the Holy Spirit aids one who is already faithful and diligent in this matter, so that, coming to knowledge, he may understand the reason of his faith. For then he has full joy of his belief, if he understands what he believes. For this is the strength of faith, this its immovable foundation: to learn thoroughly the sacrament of belief.
For where there is faith alone, the devotion is not so pure, and deception can find an entrance. Whence the chosen vessel labors that believers may learn thoroughly the reason of their faith. For when they have come to know how great is He in whom they have believed, and what is His power, by no agreement, by no reasoning will they suffer themselves to be drawn away from hope in Him. Whence we read it said: 'Taste and see how sweet is the Lord,' so that by deliberate effort they may come to know the savor of His divinity, understanding that nothing is wiser than to believe in Christ. Wherefore the teacher of the nations himself says, among other things: 'In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' and again: 'For I know,' he says, 'whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep my deposit.'
Therefore he knows the reason of his faith and does not doubt concerning His power, who understands that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in the sacrament of Christ's nativity and passion and resurrection. With faith therefore abiding, I long pondered with myself, that I might know why our Lord came from His sacred and heavenly seat to earth to be incarnate, and not another from among those whom the Lord Himself calls holy angels. For it seems unfitting to His person to have undergone this work, unless the cause of the deed be known. Indeed, this is what moves many.
For the foresight of God the Father could have carried out this business through another person, so as both to show the truth to men established in error, and to crush and despoil the devil—that presumptuous usurper and envier of salvation—conquered together with his satellites, since the obstinacy and irreverence of those most wicked servants ought to have been restrained by servant-ministers, and the Lord of all ought not to undergo a thing unworthy of Himself. For the force and power of Satan is not so great that he could not by any means be overcome through another power of the same condition, since it is established that, by the help of God, he is conquered even by men. For although he is unequal—if we take examples from earthly things—yet in some part they will accord with reason.
For Joab, a fellow-servant, was sent to pursue and slay the servant who rebelled against King David; and against Absalom, impious toward his father, the task was enjoined upon servants: how much more would the efficacy of one holy angel out of many have sufficed for conquering the tyranny of the devil—seeing that we read that, fighting against the angel Michael, he could not hold out, but was cast down to earth! Often reckoning these things with myself, therefore, I knew only this: that He was sent by the Father for this reason, lest it should pertain to His injury, if He should restore through another the work that was made through Him. But to know this was very little; for it did not suffice for so great and wondrous a cause, unless something else also were comprehended which might avail for the hidden understanding.
Thus it came about that I perceived the cause to have demanded this: that He who came should come. For reason itself touched upon this very point: that He should come to crush him who had usurped His dignity and merit. For after God the Father, the devil wished to be called god—which even now to this day he contends for—although surely the matter did not pertain to him, but this belonged to the Son of God, who after the Father is the second God, not by nature but by order.
To carry out this cause, therefore, it behooved none other to come but Christ our Lord, since He came not only to crush the devil, but also to manifest Himself to every creature, so that, the person of the devil being reprobated, they might recognize this to be He whose princedom and majesty Satan had presumed upon; and that henceforth, the truth being known, they might forsake error, holding for certain that Christ is the Son of God, who alone is God from God and the head or beginning of all those things which are in heaven or on earth; since by the virtue and power with which He overcame the tyrant Satan, He was manifested to be the very One whose dominion the impious devil—who is Satan—had presumed upon.
For while he wickedly wishes to be called god, that he might lord it over the spiritual powers—whence he is rebuked by the prophet who says: 'For thou,' he says, 'hast said in thy heart: I will set my dwelling in the clouds, and I will be like the Most High'—he deceived many, by whose conspiracy he was made the prince of error; and these are admonished in a psalm to cast off the lie and receive the truth. For it is said to them: 'Lift up the gates of your prince, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall enter in.' For unless error be lifted away from the minds of the unbelieving, they will not be able to receive the faith of the one God in Christ.
For they are taught this: that, the gates being lifted away—through which one goes to the second death, which are the perfidy begun by the devil—they may receive the sacraments of faith, through which one goes to life. For these are the things which he signifies by 'the everlasting gates,' because the truth of faith is eternity, but perfidy is temporal, since a lie is the invention of the devil. For the devil sowed on earth the transgression begun in heaven, persuading the cult of many gods, among whom he might hold the princedom. For he wished to be the head and beginning of the rest, which was not owed to him but to the Savior. Whence the Savior pursues him even to earth, that, crushing him, He may show the transgression of his error, the truth being manifested in Himself. Whence it is said:
'Truth is sprung out of the earth.' For being cast down from heaven, he fled to the earth, that he might fulfill in the lower regions the deity he had devised in the heights. Whence the Apostle says: 'So that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God.' For in whatever way he wishes to fulfill his desire—even to be condemned; for being full of fury, he counts it less to be condemned than not to fulfill the greed of his error. CXIV. AGAINST THE PAGANS. By what reasoning the pagans dare to contend against us, or suppose they may assail our faith, I do not see to be settled, seeing that they have no documents of their assertions—of their superstition, I should say, rather than their religion. For they bring forward what they have not safeguarded, so that they themselves rather may be held the authors and defenders of novelties.
For in the first place they assert that they worship gods of whom they give no marks, no testimonies. For they call those gods who themselves dared not to call themselves by this name, so that men should be held the authors of gods—whereas God ought to be the author of men; and on this account their assertion is empty and vain. For whatever is without God cannot be stable. For their own books prove that what I say is manifest, in which nothing divine, nothing established at God's command, is read; but they assert that individual men, for certain reasons, instituted various sacrifices to the deities, and these men of no merit, in order that what they had ordained might be proved to have been worthily ordained.
When therefore those whom they call gods are nowhere read to have commanded any of these things, by what authority do these men do, or suppose to be brought as acceptable, that which they do not prove to have been commanded?—since, even if the command were proved, it would first have to be examined whether it were worthy or due to obey those for whom no signs or prodigies existed in their deeds for the commendation of divinity. But, excluded by these arguments, they are wont to flee to the elements, saying that they worship these, by whose governance human life is ruled. From whom, as above, we require: whether it is commanded or enjoined by God—whom they themselves also confess to be great and supreme, and yet neglect Him. For if it ought to be done, it ought to have been commanded by Him who is said to be their author.
But if it was not commanded by Him, it is presumption and will avail unto punishment, not unto reward, since it pertains to the dishonor of the Creator that, the Lord being despised, the servants are worshipped, and the Emperor being spurned, His companions are adored. How shall this go unpunished, which we may see avenged—and indeed more bitterly—even in this life? But perhaps they may say that the command came from these very elements. Let them show the precept somewhere; let them at some time read that those elements spoke anything. But if they do not show it, of what punishment are they worthy who are detected as authors of a presumed and fabricated religion? The elements are free from this impiety. For the very luminaries of the world shall accuse them before God the Judge, since in this vanity of counsel they by no means show themselves to be the authors.
Likewise also those whom—although it is established that they were men—they call gods, when they shall have begun to be tormented for their sins, will in this respect by no means defend that they are guilty, hurling back this charge upon those who, when they had given no command, began to worship them as gods. Therefore, with what shame do they think that our faith is to be reprehended or laughed at—they who see that our law is supported by the testimonies of mighty works, and who also read aloud the very voice of our Lord and God saying: 'I am God, and there is none other beside Me'? But if He said this in bare words, He would not have to be believed, lest we should seem like the pagans, who, seeing no signs of majesty of their gods, began to worship them—and, what is worse, dishonorably.
For there are done there foul things which it is a matter of shame to disclose; and they call themselves prudent, because by their own law, like by a charlatan, they are deluded. But our God commanded Himself to be worshipped with mighty works as witness, and, that He might leave no room for suspicion, He delivered the law itself as honorable and holy and, as is worthy of God. But we who are called foolish by the pagans, did not believe our God until He had satisfied us with the testimonies of mighty works, nor would we have received His law had we not recognized it as pure and befitting His very profession. Hence it is that nothing among us is done in darkness, nothing in secret. For everything that is known to be honorable is not afraid to be made public; but that which is foul and dishonorable, shame forbidding it, cannot be made public.
Wherefore the pagans celebrate their mysteries in darkness—prudent even in this. For they are ashamed to be openly mocked; for the foul things which are there done in the place of law, they do not wish to be made manifest, lest those who call themselves prudent should seem dull to those whom they call foolish. But perhaps for this reason we seem foolish to them: because our law preaches chastity, mercy, continence. For among them these things are foolish, since every good man is bad to the wicked, and a prudent man senseless to the foolish. For so far do they execrate chastity that they even take delight in catamites, being subject to their teaching—men who, unless they were such, would be unfit, if it must be said, for their religion.
For this reason they are castrated and change their attire, so that from men they become as it were women, and contrary to nature, made subject, may suffer womanish things, that then at last they may be fit and worthy ministers of their superstition. Can anyone of this sort be accused, whom the law makes such? For he is therefore transformed into a woman, having lost both the act and the dress of a man, that he may with license suffer womanish things. What, then, are thought to be mysteries, where from the honorable the dishonorable is made, and from the incorrupt the corrupt—whereas here is the true cult of religion: that it makes honorable men from foul ones, and modest men from undisciplined ones? How can the worshippers of that religion be emulators of a good life, when the mysteries of their law cannot be celebrated without catamites?
If, then, their law delights in these things, whoever shall not have been of this sort will be a sinner and a fool. And therefore they call us fools. For those who worship these foul things are judged prudent by them, but those who avoid and flee them, foolish. This indeed seems craftily and cunningly fitted by them. For they therefore apply to their own law the name of prudence, that they may cover its reprehensible things, since where there is prudence, there is no reprehension. But our law they call foolish, that they may keep men from it. But, the names of prudence and folly being removed, and all envy being set aside—the envy which the defense of both parties begets—let the laws themselves contend between themselves, so that it may appear where prudence is and where folly.
But in the presence of the sign of the cross paganism falls dumb, and if that which they call foolish be present, that prudence of theirs, their sacred rites dare not respond; for their entrails are repressed, and their reverence is hidden before the majesty of Christian greatness. A great thing it is, that what they call prudence should fear what they call folly! Let us now compare the tenor of the laws. The pagans profess even in writing that they worship gods and goddesses; and what they say is true, since they worship both males and females. For Janus and Saturn, Jove and Mercury and Apollo and the rest, likewise Minerva and Isis and that Fruit-goddess and Venus and Flora the harlot, with the rest, are gods and goddesses, as the histories of both Greeks and Romans testify.
But the Christians, poor as they are—whom they call fools—worship one God in mystery, from whom are all things, and venerate nothing of what has been created by Him. For they know that He alone suffices for them and abounds unto salvation, not being ignorant that, if they should assign His glory and name to others, they will offend Him, since no emperor permits that tribunes and companions be adored in his name. Let the laws now be compared, that it may be seen where prudence is: he who worships the Creator, or he who worships the creature; he who worships the Lord, or he who worships the servants? Can it be that in any household another, besides one, should be called master—as the pagans, instructed in forensic letters, who seem prudent to themselves, in one world made by one God venerate many gods and goddesses?
For they have called the procurators and administrators of the world by the name of 'lord' and 'god,' though they are exposed as improvident. But to assert that which begets ruin is the mark of the improvident and the foolish, since it is necessary that God should avenge the injury done to himself upon those who have shared out the name and glory of the Lord God among their fellow-servants. Next, let the precepts be considered. Our law commands that those whom they call fools, namely the prelates and ministers, be ordained holy and blameless, without crime; whereas, on the contrary, the tradition of the pagans holds that prelates and ministers cannot be fit for them unless they transform themselves from men into women, so that licentiously and publicly they may suffer the things of women, and, having shaken out their hair shamefully in water, may send forth a soft and quavering and base voice.
But if they did these things publicly, they would be stoned by the whole people. And there is that Cynocephalus, who wanders staggering through all places, seeking the limbs of the adulterer Osiris, the husband of Isis: behold with what ministers, and without masters, the pagans claim for themselves the name of prudence, when this is not only a matter of imprudence but also of crime! For to delight in obscene and shameful things is deadly. But what sort of thing is it, that in a cave they are mocked with their eyes veiled? For lest they should shudder at being basely dishonored, their eyes are covered. Others, moreover, like a bird, beat their wings, imitating the cry of the raven; others again roar after the manner of lions;
others again, with their hands bound, are thrown amid chickens' entrails over pits full of water, while someone approaches with a sword and bursts through the aforesaid entrails, calling himself a liberator. And there are other things still more shameful. Behold by how many means those who call themselves wise are basely mocked! But because they suffer these things in darkness, they think that they can remain unknown. For all those things which were devised and ordained in secret by wicked and shameful men, the holy Christian faith has brought forth and uncovered. For when, the faith having been proclaimed, those who heard considered what good and what holiness was publicly promised, they betook themselves to the faith, abandoning those secret, base, and shameful things, and confessing how they had been deluded through ignorance.
For at that time nearly all men had long been turned about in this error, and therefore they seemed wise to themselves, because there was no one to rebuke them. For although all erred under one name of deception, namely idolatry, yet each one ordained his cult according to his own customs and manner of life, so that the one error possessed diversity arising from the baseness and conduct of its authors. In short, the rites which they call those of Liber are shameful and utterly empty and full of frenzy; for it is difficult for an impure man not to be wrathful. And so he is everywhere depicted together with Priapus, with whom he lived shamefully. In this manner are their other rites also; but, that later generations might be ensnared by these inventions, it was done by the subtlety and cunning of Satan.
Although these things were not devised without his counsel, yet upon each thing devised he sprinkled certain illusions, by which he might allure men into error, and thus it came to pass that, through the transmission of antiquity, the deception was commended and the base invention excused. For through habit that which was base began not to seem base. For when certain men are dishonored, at first they blush; but afterward, as habit flatters them, their shame departs with a changed countenance, especially if one sees many such men. For there is gain in baseness then, when those who are called noble are seen to be dishonored; for dishonored nobility easily finds imitators.
If therefore long ago they seemed wise to themselves on this account, namely because there was no one to whom this foul invention was displeasing, now, since by God's mercy the human race has been enlightened and it has been declared that what passed for law was a crime, and that what was thought to have been prudently invented was foolish, they ought at least to cease from this title, if they wish to remain in a crime now uncovered, recognizing that the name of wisdom is foreign to them. But, to add to the heap of their confession, being caught in folly they call those fools by whom they are refuted. Yet they accuse our faith and our posterity, while as to the precepts they do not deny that nothing can be censured.
Those who accuse our faith take up arms not so much against us as against our author; for they declare us to be fools, as having given our faith as it were to a senseless thing, but him to be a liar and a deceiver, and moreover malicious, for handing down a faith by which believers would be deceived. Therefore let us first prove that we have not believed foolishly, and then we shall plead the cause of our author.
When we were living in error, in which the pagans now remain, drawn by no signs of mighty works, but having received only the bare words which they call sacred rites, thinking them to be of profit—not because the divine power had commended them, but because ancient custom had handed them down—in which (a thing which is no secret) we, deluded by various vanities, recognized no hope of salvation; for what could a thing invented by men profit? But that we might draw near to faith in God and believe that his Son had become incarnate and was crucified, we were persuaded not by words but by deeds. For we saw the dead raised, lepers cleansed, sight restored to the man born blind, demons cast out, and at the same time all infirmities healed. Now let it be judged when we were foolish: when we believed bare words, or when we believed deeds?
For without doubt deeds come before words, since words were invented for the very purpose of signifying things. If therefore we gave our faith to a human tradition with no power persuading us—a tradition devised to delude the minds of men—how much more should we give it to this faith, which all the signs that invoke God attest to be divine and deifying! Would we not deservedly be judged fools, if we did not believe mighty works, we who had believed mere discourses? Would we not reasonably be branded as improvident and ill-advised, if we did not follow the hope that calls us, we who had been subject to despair? 'But,' they say on the contrary, 'what is believed is foolish; for it does not stand to reason that God should have a Son, nor that bodies once dead and dissolved should be restored again to life.'
All the philosophers and founders of sects, by their various disputations, transfixed one another in turn, none passing over to another, because each one remained in that with which he had been imbued; for since words are subject to contradiction, no one overcame another; for there was no means by which any could show himself the victor, but, wearying one another in turn with contradictions, the one persuaded the other not in the least. Hence it came about that the providence of God, whose mind cannot be searched out, joined power to his own preaching, so that the truth of the preaching might be proved by the testimony of power, in order that those who were ready to contradict with words, seeing the power, might not dare to contradict.
For what greater attestation of truth could there be than the working of power? But if anyone should deny the works of mighty deeds by impugning the Scriptures, how will he be able to call our faith foolish while denying the Scriptures? For wherever it is written of Christ that he is to be believed the Son of God, in that same place power is found as a witness. And if to anyone reading that Christ the Son of God was crucified it seems absurd, let him read on and he will find that he rose from the dead, and let him understand that he who was able to rise did not die idly nor unwillingly, but that there is a mystery. Whoever then he be, either he will keep silence about the cross—because, if he calls the cross foolish, he will not be able to call the resurrection foolish;
for the resurrection excuses the cross—or, if he has spoken about the cross, he will not be able to deny that there is providence in it, which he sees confirmed by the testimony of the resurrection; for either both are accepted or both are refuted, so that he who will not defend it may not dare to accuse it either. But why he permitted himself to be crucified by his kinsmen is a mystery to be reserved. Yet this death he commended to such a degree that he testified that he was glorified through it. For he also says: 'I have power to lay down my life,' and: 'I have power to take it up again.' Therefore he was not compelled to die, who had power both to die and to rise. He who denies this will not be able to say that death was violently inflicted upon him.
For if he denies this, he will not even be able to affirm that he died, because these things are contained there where he is read to have been delivered to death. For no one condemns the latter parts by the former, nor the former by the latter, since what belongs to one body is not contradictory. But concerning the dead, that they should rise again, they deceitfully say it is foolish to believe. Yet they see examples by which it may be judged credible. For all seeds necessary for use, unless they have been dissolved, cannot be born again anew. If for the sake of men's needs God has decreed this in the world, why, if he is believed about to grant this very thing to those men's own bodies, do they think it foolish—unless because they themselves are fools, who do not grant to God more than the world can do? Yet a shadow of the mighty works once performed still appears even now.