Latin original · 37 verses · some words can be tapped for a gloss · long chapter, split into parts; this part covers 15:343–15:379 (1391 verses in all)
which no one doubts was fulfilled—since it was not granted to the Jewish nation over which David reigned, whereas the name of Christ occupies all nations far and wide—he would, I believe, be moved, when hence he heard also many other things from the prophets, which now it would be long to pursue. He would also see the very kings of the earth already wholesomely subjected to the empire of Christ, and all nations serving him, and there would be read to him from the psalm what was foretold so long before:
'All kings shall adore him, all nations shall serve him'; and if he were willing to read that whole psalm, which is figuratively spoken as though of Solomon, he would find Christ to be truly the peaceful king—for this is what the name Solomon interprets—in whom he would recognize all the things there said to be fulfilled, things far most remote from that man Solomon, king of Israel.
Likewise that psalm where God is said to be anointed by God—and Christ is of course declared by that very anointing, and the same Christ is most plainly shown to be God when he is intimated as God anointed—if he were willing to consider what things are there said of Christ, what of the Church itself, which things he would read there indeed as foretold, but would behold as fulfilled throughout the globe of the earth, he would also see the very idols of the nations perishing from the globe of the earth through the name of Christ, and would learn that this very thing was foretold by the prophets, and would hear Jeremiah saying: 'Thus shall you say to them: The gods who made not heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth and from under this heaven.' Likewise in another place, when he would hear the same prophet saying:
'O Lord, my strength and my help and my refuge in the day of evils, to you the nations shall come from the ends of the earth and shall say: How false are the idols our fathers possessed, and there is no profit in them! Shall a man make gods for himself, and yet these are no gods? Therefore behold, I will show them at that time; I will show them my hand, and they shall know my power, for I am the Lord.' When one hears these words from prophetic Scripture and beholds in the whole earth the very thing I speak of, how could he not be moved to faith, when we prove this by the facts themselves, seeing how the hearts of the faithful are thus made firm through a prophecy written down before the ages and fulfilled in these times?
But now, lest he should suppose Christ to be merely a man, as certain great men have been, the same prophet would strike this thought from his mind. For there it follows and says: 'Cursed is the man who has hope in man and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord: he shall be like the tamarisk that is in the desert; he shall not see when good things come, and he shall dwell among the wicked in a desert land, in a salt land that shall not be inhabited.' And: 'Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his hope; and he shall be as a fruitful tree beside the water, and in the moisture he shall send out his roots; he shall not fear when the heat comes. And upon him shall be leafy shoots; in the year of drought he shall not fear, nor shall he cease to bear fruit.'
Here indeed, when he had called cursed the man who places his hope in man, and had unfolded that curse in prophetic similitudes, and had called blessed the man who trusts in the Lord, and had likewise woven that blessing with fitting similitudes: perhaps that man would be troubled as to how, when we proclaim to him Christ as God so that he might not place his hope in a mere man, we nonetheless call him man—not from his own nature, but from our mortality which he assumed. For thus some, by believing Christ to be God and denying him to be man, have erred; and again some, by supposing him only a man and denying him to be God, have either despised him, or, placing their hope in a man, have fallen into that curse. So then, if this Gentile were troubled,
and were to say that this prophet had spoken against our faith—because we, following apostolic doctrine, not only call Christ God, that hope may most securely be placed in him, but also call the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, whereas this prophet called him only God and made no mention of his human nature—then in the very same place he would hear the voice of the same prophet admonishing and correcting him: 'A heavy heart in all things, and he is a man; and who shall recognize him?' For he is indeed man, that those heavy of heart might be healed by faith through the form of a servant, and might recognize as God him who for their sakes was made man, so that their hope might not be in a man, but in a man who is God. And yet, 'a heavy heart in all things, and he is a man,' taking the form of a servant.
'And who shall recognize him?' He who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. And he is man, because 'the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.' And who shall recognize him? Because 'in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' And truly a heavy heart in all things; for even in his own disciples that heaviness of heart existed, when he said to them: 'Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known me?' For what is 'I have been so long a time with you' but what is said here: 'and he is a man'? And what else is 'and you have not known me' but what is said here: 'and who shall recognize him?' Whom, if not him who says: 'He who has seen me has seen the Father also'?
—so that our hope may not be in man, on account of that curse proclaimed through the prophet, but may be in a man who is God, that is, in the Son of God, the Saviour Jesus Christ, the Mediator of God and men; than whom the Father is greater on account of the form of a servant, and who is equal to the Father on account of the form of God. Isaiah too says: 'Man shall be humbled and shall fall by the reproach of men, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day; and they shall hide all things made by hands in the caves and in the clefts of the rocks and in the caverns of the earth, from before the fear of the Lord and from the majesty of his power, when he shall arise to shatter the earth. For in that day man shall cast away his abominations of gold and silver, which they made to worship vain and hurtful things.'
And perhaps this Gentile whom we are catechizing—the one whom Faustus said would speak with a laugh, saying, 'I do not believe the Hebrew prophets'—has himself hidden some hand-made idols in a cave or in a cleft of the rock or in a cavern of the earth, or knows some friend of his to have done this, or knows it to have been done in a city or on his own estate, from before the fear of the Lord, who, through the kings of the earth now serving him and worshipping him according to that same prophecy, shatters the earth with the most severe laws—that is, breaks the boldness of the earthly heart. How then could he say 'I do not believe the Hebrew prophets,' when he might perhaps recognize fulfilled even in himself what was long ago foretold by the Hebrew prophets?
Rather it was to be feared that, surrounded by such great evidence of these things, he might perhaps say that, after these things began to happen throughout the world, Christians composed these writings so that they might be thought to have been foretold divinely beforehand, lest they be despised as things done merely by human agency at random. This would be to be feared, were it not for the people of the Jews scattered far and known far—that Cain who received a sign that no one should slay him, and that Ham, the servant of his brothers, who is himself burdened by carrying the books by which those others are instructed. For by their very codices we prove that these things were not written down by us as if forewarned by the outcome of events, but were long ago foretold and preserved in that kingdom, and are now made manifest and fulfilled:
in which even those things that are there less clear, because 'they happened to them in a figure, but were written for our sakes, upon whom the end of the ages has come,' are now at last illumined and unlocked; and the things that were still shadowed by the darkness of things to come are now made manifest by the light of things accomplished. Perhaps he might also say that he is moved by this: that those in whose books these things are found foretold, which are now seen fulfilled, do not hold with us the fellowship of the same Gospel. But when he is taught that this too was foretold by those same prophets, how greatly would he be moved to faith! Who is so mad that he does not see it? Who so shameless as to pretend not to see it? For who would doubt that this was prophesied concerning the Jews, when Isaiah says:
'The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master's crib; but Israel has not known me, and my people has not understood me'; or that which the Apostle recalls: 'All day long I have stretched out my hands to a people that does not believe and contradicts me'; and above all this: 'God gave them a spirit of compunction, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear'—and that they should not understand; and many things of this kind? But if he should say: What then have the Jews sinned, if God blinded them so that they should not recognize Christ? then, as far as we could, in instructing this untutored man, we would show that from other hidden sins known to God comes the just penalty of this blindness; and that the Apostle not only said of certain persons:
'Because of this God gave them up to the lusts of their heart' or 'to a reprobate mind, to do the things that are not fitting'—wishing to show that certain manifest sins come as a penalty for certain hidden ones—but we would also demonstrate that the prophets themselves did not pass this over in silence. For, not to go on at length, that same Jeremiah, in the very place where he says, 'and he is a man, and who shall recognize him?'—lest the Jews should as it were be excused by this very thing, that they did not recognize him (for if they had recognized him, as the Apostle says, 'they would never have crucified the Lord of glory')—goes on and shows that it was owing to their hidden desert that they did not recognize him. For he says:
'I the Lord search the hearts and test the reins, to give to everyone according to his way and according to the fruit of his pursuits.' Furthermore, if this Gentile were troubled as to why even those who are called Christians break off into many heresies and diverse sects, we would show that this too was not passed over by the Hebrew prophets. For as if it were fitting that, when the Jews had been shown in their blindness, this should come to his mind—that many also under the Christian name deviate from that very Christian society—Jeremiah himself, as it were suggesting to us the order of catechizing, immediately added: 'The partridge cried out, it gathered what it did not bring forth, making its riches, but not with judgement.'
For the partridge, an exceedingly contentious creature, is known for the great eagerness with which, out of its very contentiousness, it runs into the snare. For heretics do not love to dispute, but by whatever means to conquer with the most shameless obstinacy, so that they gather, as he here said, 'what they did not bring forth.' For Christians—whom they especially seduce by the name of Christ—they find already born through the Gospel of Christ himself, and they make them their riches, indeed not with judgement, but with inconsiderate rashness. For they do not understand that there is the true and wholesome and, in a manner, genuine and radical Christian society, from which they have separated those whom they have gathered to their own riches. And because the Apostle says of such: 'As Jannes and Mambres withstood Moses,'
'so these also resist the truth, men of corrupt mind, reprobate concerning the faith: but they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest to all, as theirs also was'—this prophet too goes on and says of the partridge that gathered what it did not bring forth: 'In the midst of his days they shall forsake him, and at his last he shall be a fool.' That is, he who at first, as it were by the promise and display of surpassing wisdom, seduced men, shall be a fool—that is, shall appear a fool. For to those to whom he was at first wise, he shall then be a fool, when he shall appear such, because his folly shall be known to all. And as if the one whom we are catechizing were to ask and say:
'By what manifest sign, then, while I am still a little one and not yet able to distinguish clearly the truth from so many errors, by what manifest token shall I hold the Church of Christ, in whom I am now compelled to believe by so great a manifestation of things foretold beforehand?'—the same prophet goes on, and, receiving in most orderly fashion as it were the movement of his mind, teaches him that the Church of Christ herself was the very thing foretold, which stands out and appears above all. For she herself is the seat of glory, of which the Apostle says: 'The temple of God is holy, which you are.' Whence this one says: 'But the seat of glory has been exalted, our sanctification.' For on account of these movements of the little ones, who can be seduced by men, the Lord too, foreseeing the manifestation of the Church's brightness, said:
'A city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden,' because indeed the seat of glory has been exalted, our sanctification, so that those may not be heard who draw men off to the schisms of the religions, saying, 'Behold, here is Christ; behold, there.' For they point to parts, saying, 'Behold here, behold there,' whereas that city is upon the mountain—which mountain, if not him who, according to the prophecy of Daniel, grew from a little stone and became a great mountain, so that it filled the whole earth? Nor let those be heard who, in the name as it were of a secret and apocryphal truth belonging to a handful of men, say, 'Behold, in the chambers, behold, in the desert,' because a city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden.
—because the seat of glory has been exalted, our sanctification. When therefore this Gentile beholds, in these and other testimonies of this kind from the prophets, the things foretold beforehand and now fulfilled—concerning the persecution of kings and peoples, the faith of kings and peoples, the abolition of idols, the blindness of the Jews, the proof drawn from the codices guarded by the Jews themselves, the madness of heretics, the excellence of the holy Church of the true and genuine Christians—what could he find more worthy of faith than those prophets, in preference to whom he should choose to believe concerning the divinity of Christ? For indeed, if before these things came to pass I were to press the Hebrew prophets upon a Gentile, that he might believe those things future which he did not yet see done, perhaps he might rightly say:
'What have I to do with these prophets, since it is not shown me from what source I should prove them truthful?' But when things so great and so many, which they foretold, have now been brought to effect and manifestation, then plainly, unless he chose to be perverse, he would in no way despise those things which so long before and with so great preparation deserved to be commended as things to be foreseen and foretold, nor those men by whom they could be foreseen and foretold. For we believe none more prudently, whether concerning things past that were long ago done, or concerning things future that are not yet done, than those who have proved to us the trustworthiness of their words by so many and so great things which, foretold by them, have already come to pass.
Now the Sibyl, or the Sibyls, and Orpheus, and some Hermes or other, and any other seers or theologians or sages or philosophers of the Gentiles who are reported to have foretold or spoken true things about the Son of God or about God the Father, do indeed have some value for refuting the vanity of the pagans; not, however, for embracing their authority, since we show that we worship that God about whom even those men could not keep silence—men who partly dared to teach their own fellow-countrymen to worship idols and demons, and partly did not dare to forbid it. But those holy authors of ours propagated and ruled such a people, such a commonwealth, such a kingdom, under God commanding and helping, where that would be sacrilege which for these was religion. And so, if any there lapsed into
the cult of idols and demons, they were either punished by the very laws of their own commonwealth or restrained with the most unfettered thunder by prophetic voices. For by them one God was worshipped, who made heaven and earth, though indeed by a prophetic rite—that is, a rite significant of things to come, a rite which was to be abolished when those things had come which were signified by it as about to come; seeing that that kingdom itself was in a manner a great prophet, wherein king and priest were anointed with a mystical signification:
which was not taken away—even from the Jews themselves, who were ignorant of it and therefore unwilling—except when that God had come who was anointed with the spiritual anointing above his fellows, that Holy of Holies, at once the true King in taking counsel for us and the true Priest in offering himself for us. Wherefore, as great as is the distance between the preaching of the angels and the confession of the demons concerning the coming of Christ, so great is the distance between the authority of the prophets and the curiosity of the sacrilegious. When these things and such as these—which we now touch upon briefly—had then perhaps been discussed somewhat more amply, as the necessity of driving out sluggish error required, and asserted with the strength of a richer proof, that Gentile whom Faustus proposed to us for catechizing,
if he preferred his own salvation to his sins, would assuredly be moved to faith: and being imbued with it and placed to be cherished in the bosom of the Catholic Church, he would consequently also be admonished what manner of conduct he ought to hold. Nor would he be disturbed by the multitude of those in whom he would not find the things he was commanded to observe, although they were gathered bodily with him into the church and received the same sacraments. He would know that the inheritance of God is shared with few, but its seals with many: with few, to share holiness of life and the gift of charity poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us, to which inner fount no stranger draws near;
but with many the holiness of the sacrament, which he who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgement to himself; while he who scorns to eat will not have life in himself, and therefore will not attain to life eternal. And that same few are said to be few in comparison with the multitude of the wicked; but considered in themselves they are in a great number, spread throughout the whole world, growing among the tares and with the chaff until the day of harvest and winnowing. This is said in the Gospel; this was foretold beforehand by the prophets. For it was foretold beforehand: 'As the lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters'; it was foretold beforehand: 'I have dwelt with the tents of Kedar; with those who hated peace I was peaceable';
it was foretold beforehand: 'Set a mark on the foreheads of those who groan and lament over the iniquities of my people that are done in their midst.' And so this Gentile, whom we would strengthen with such discourse, having now been made a fellow-citizen of the saints and a member of God's household, and now no longer a stranger from Israel but a true Israelite in whom there is no guile, would learn also to say from a simple heart these words which the same Jeremiah weaves in immediately after: 'The patience of Israel, O Lord; all who have forsaken you shall be put to shame.' For when he had spoken of the partridge which cries out and gathers what it did not bring forth, he commended the excellence of the city set upon the mountain, which cannot be hidden, in order not to separate the heretical man from the Catholic Church, saying:
'But the seat of glory has been exalted, our sanctification.' Then, as if it came to mind: What then do we make of so many wicked, who are the more widely mingled in everywhere, the more excellent is the glory of Christ in the unity of all nations?—he immediately added: 'The patience of Israel, O Lord.' For patiently must be borne what he says: 'Let both grow until the harvest,' lest the good, who properly are the body of Christ, be abandoned through impatience at tolerating the wicked. And therefore, when they themselves are abandoned, he is abandoned. Whence he subjoined and added: 'All who forsake you shall be terrified; let those be confounded who have withdrawn into the earth.' For man is 'earth' who presumes upon himself and others,
and induces others to presume upon him, that man is 'earth'; and therefore it follows: 'They shall be overthrown, because they have forsaken the fountain of life, the Lord.' For what else does the partridge cry out, but that the fountain of life is with it and is given by it, to which those who are gathered withdraw from Christ, deceived by a promise of Christ, with whose name they were already held imbued? For it does not gather those whom it brought forth, but in order to gather those whom it did not bring forth, it says: 'The salvation which Christ promised is with me; I will give it.' But see what this man says: 'Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved.' Whence the Apostle says: 'Let no one glory in man,' and this man subjoins: 'because you are my glorying.'
By these methods we instruct a man out of apostolic and prophetic doctrine, that he may be built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. But how would Faustus persuade of the divinity of Christ a Gentile man whom he set up as saying, 'I believe neither the prophets about Christ nor Christ about the prophets'? Would he believe Christ speaking about himself, whom he would not believe testifying about others? Truly it is ridiculous to think this. For one whom he did not once deem worthy of faith, he would either believe in nothing at all, or rather believe as testifying about others than about himself. Here perhaps Faustus, having been mocked, would read the Sibyls to the man, and Orpheus, and others of that sort—if he could find any other of the Gentiles to have foretold anything about Christ? But he would not do it;
for he has confessed these to be unknown to him, saying: 'Truly, if there are any presages about Christ from the Sibyl, as rumour has it, or from Hermes, whom they call Trismegistus, or from Orpheus and other seers among the Gentiles.' Therefore this man, not knowing the writings of these—since he supposes by rumour that there are some such—would certainly not read them to one who says, 'I believe neither the prophets nor Christ.' What then would he do? Would he bring forward Mani and from him commend Christ? They have never done this, but rather have always tried to commend Mani by means of Christ, whose name is now everywhere sweetly renowned—so that with this honey, forsooth, they might smear the rim of their poisoned cup.
For since Christ promised that he would send to his own the Paraclete—that is, the Comforter or Advocate, the Spirit of truth—by seizing on the occasion of this promise, saying that this Paraclete is Mani or is in Mani, they steal into the minds of men who do not know when that Paraclete promised by Christ was sent. But those who have read the canonical book which is entitled the Acts of the Apostles see that promise of Christ there again recalled and there most manifestly fulfilled. But at present we are asking how one might produce faith about Christ in that Gentile. For I think there is no one so blind as to be willing to say, 'I believe Mani,' when he says, 'I do not believe Christ.' Then, if not laughing, at least in vexation he might say:
'Do you thus bid me believe Persian books, you who told me not to believe the Hebrew ones?' How then are you going to capture this man, O heretic, unless you find him already in some way made subject to the name of Christ, so that, because he does not now doubt that Christ is to be believed, he may, deceived, acquiesce in Mani as though preaching Christ better? Behold, that is the partridge gathering what it did not bring forth. Do those whom it gathers not yet forsake you, and does he who says that the testimonies of the Hebrews are for us, even if they are true, useless before faith and superfluous after faith, not yet appear to you a fool? Let those, then, who have believed cast away all the books through which it came about that they believed.
For if this is true, I do not see why even the Gospel of Christ itself should be read by the faithful. For before faith it is useless, because that Gentile, whom the laughable—or rather to be wept over—Faustus brings in laughing, does not believe Christ; but after faith it is superfluous, if belief is now given superfluously even to true proclamations about Christ, when he has been believed in. Here perhaps you will say: But the Gospel ought to be read by one already faithful, lest he forget what he has believed. So then, you madmen, the true testimonies of the prophets also ought to be read, lest one forget why he believed; and if he has forgotten, that which he believed cannot be firm in him.
Or else now cast away the books of Mani, on whose testimony you believed that light fought with darkness—which light was God himself—and that, in order that light might be able to bind the darkness, the light was first devoured by the darkness and bound and defiled and torn to pieces; which light you, by eating, restore and loose and purify and heal, so that a reward may be repaid to you, lest you be damned in the eternal clod together with that portion which could not be set free. This little fable you chant daily both in your ways and in your voices. Why do you still seek in it testimonies of books, so that in superfluous matters, and in the copying out of your codices, the substance of others is consumed and your god is held bound?
Burn all those parchments and their elegant coverings adorned with fine skins, so that neither may a superfluous thing burden you, and your god may be released from them—that god who, as though by a servile penalty, is held bound even in the codex. For if you could eat your books, even boiled, how great a benefit would you confer upon the members of your god! Or, even if it could be done, would the uncleanness of the flesh keep the pages from your feasts? Let, then, the cleanness of the ink, which has clung to the lambskin, impute it to itself. But this too you have done, who, as in your first war, have fastened by writing that which was clean in the reed onto the uncleanness of the parchments—except that the colours convict you by a contrary testimony.
For you rather have come to the light of the white pages with the darkness of the ink. Ought you to be angry with us who say such things, or with yourselves who believe such things—so that, willing or unwilling, you make these things follow upon us? But we read the prophetic and apostolic books both for the commemoration of our faith and for the consolation of our hope and for the exhortation of our charity, hearing them sound in harmony with one another with alternating voices, and by that harmony, as by a heavenly trumpet, rousing us from the torpor of mortal life and stretching us out toward the palm of the heavenly calling. For when the Apostle had recalled something from the prophetic books, as it is written: 'The reproaches of those who reproached you fell upon me,' he immediately subjoins the usefulness of the divine reading: