Letters & Polemics (CSEL) 15 part 17/37

you who condemn reason, nature's benefit, out of the number of men — you for whom to judge between the true and the false is a scruple, and for whom to separate good from its contrary is no less a terror than the bogey to infants — what will you do when necessity shall force you into the strait of this chapter? I mean, when a Jew, or another not unacquainted with this saying, shall interrupt you: Why do you not observe the precepts of the Law and the Prophets, since Christ says he came not to abolish them but to fulfil them? Surely you will be compelled either to succumb to a vain superstition, or to profess the chapter false, or to deny yourself a disciple of Christ. AUGUSTINE replied: Since you repeat things so often exploded and refuted, we too, by whom they were refuted, shall not be loath to repeat them.

Christians do not do those things out of the Law and the Prophets by which were signified these things which they do do. For those were figures of things to come, which, when the realities themselves were revealed and made present through Christ, had to be taken away — so that by this very fact, that these were taken away, the Law and the Prophets might be fulfilled. For there too this is written, that God would give a New Testament, not such as I gave, he says, to their fathers. For that people, on account of its stony heart, had received many precepts more suited to it than good, by which nevertheless things to come were figured and prophesied; but they were celebrated by those who did not understand. But when the things came and were laid open which were signified to them, those things are no longer commanded to be done, but are read to be understood.

Whence there also, concerning this very future matter, it is said: I will take away from them the heart of stone and will give them a heart of flesh — that is, not a heart without sense, but a heart with sense. Whence the Apostle drew when he said: not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of the heart that are of flesh. For what else did he say than a heart of flesh? Since therefore this too had been foretold, all the more, if these things were not taken away from our observance, would the Law and the Prophets not be fulfilled, because what they had foretold would not come to pass; but when this too comes to pass, thence rather they are understood to be fulfilled — whence to you they seem not to be fulfilled. Nor does your insult frighten us, that you call the idleness of the Sabbaths 'Saturn's chains.' For it is vain and foolish;

nor would it have come into your mind to say this, save that on the day they call the Sun's, you worship the sun. But just as we call that same day the Lord's, and on it venerate not this sun but the resurrection of the Lord, so the idleness of the Sabbaths was observed by the fathers without the veneration of Saturn, when it was fitting that it be so observed; for it was a shadow of things to come, as the Apostle testifies. Indeed, upon these days, whose number of seven returns in a cycle, the nations imposed the names of their gods; of whom the Apostle says that they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator. In this respect you too imitate them, save that you do not worship, along with them, the two brighter lights, but not, along with them, the rest of the stars.

But they imposed the names of their gods upon the months also. For, on account of the honour of Romulus, because they believed him the son of Mars, they dedicated the first month to Mars and called it March. And thence the second, April, from no name of a god of theirs, but from the thing itself, as it were 'aperilis,' because then a great deal of the bud opens (aperiatur) into flower. Thence the third month May, because they worship Maia, mother of Mercury, as a goddess. Thence the fourth June, from Juno; thence the rest they named up to December from numbers. But of these, Quintilis and Sextilis were named Julius and Augustus, from the names of the men to whom they had decreed divine honours. For the seventh, September, and the rest, as I said, up to December, are denoted by names from the order of numbers.

Further, January was named from Janus, February from the februa, the rites of the Luperci. Do you wish, then, that you too be said to worship Mars in the month of March? For in that month you celebrate your Bema with great festivity. But if in the month of March you think it lawful for yourselves to consider something else — not Mars — why, from the seventh day, which is called Sabbath from 'rest,' do you try to import Saturn into the divine Scriptures, because the nations called that day Saturn's? Surely you now see with how great impiety you rave. But concerning the sacrifices of animals, which of us does not know that they were imposed upon a perverse people as being suited to it, rather than offered to a God desiring them?

But nevertheless, even in these there were figures of us, because our cleansing and God's propitiation is for us none without blood; yet the truth of those figures is Christ, by whose blood we have been redeemed and cleansed. For in the figures of the divine oracles he was called both a bull, on account of the power of the cross, with whose horns he tossed the impious; and a ram, on account of the primacy of innocence; and a he-goat, on account of the likeness of sinful flesh, that from sin he might condemn sin. And if you should mention any other kind of sacrifice more expressly, in that too I will show you that Christ was prophesied. Wherefore, whether circumcision or Sabbath or difference of foods or the immolation of sacrifices:

all these were figures of us and prophecies, which Christ came not to abolish but to fulfil, when he fulfilled those things which were foretold by them. Consider whom you contradict: it is with the Apostle, out of the Apostle, that I speak: all these were figures of us. For just as Manichaeus taught you an impious perversity, that from the Gospel you should accept what does not hinder your heresy, but not accept what does hinder it, so the Apostle taught us a pious foresight, that whoever shall announce to us anything beyond that which we have received, let him be anathema. Whence Catholic Christians count you too among the tares, because the Lord expounded what the tares are — not some falsehoods inserted into the true Scriptures,

as you interpret it, but men who are sons of the evil one — that is, imitators of diabolical falsehood. Nor do they believe all things rashly; and therefore they do not indeed believe Manichaeus and the other heretics. Nor do they condemn reason out of the number of men; but what you call reason, they convict of being error. Nor do they think it impious to judge between true and false; therefore they judge your sect most false, but the Catholic faith most true. Nor do they fear to separate good from its contrary, but they understand that evil is not a nature, because it is against nature; not some race of darkness or other, sprung and rebelling from its own beginning against the divine realms, which truly brought a greater terror upon your god than the bogey brings to infants;

for you say that he, lest he behold his own members seized and laid waste by that one's assault, set up a veil against himself. Accordingly, they suffer no straits from this chapter, as though they did not observe the precepts of the Law and the Prophets, since also out of the grace of Christ they have the lawful love of God and of neighbour, on which two precepts hang the whole Law and the Prophets; and whatever things there — whether by deeds done, or by celebrations of sacraments, or by modes of speech — were figuratively prophesied, they recognize to be fulfilled in Christ and the Church.

Whence we neither succumb to a vain superstition, nor say that that chapter of the Gospel is false, nor deny ourselves to be disciples of Christ, since by that reasoning of truth which I have so often set forth according to my strength, he came not to abolish, but to fulfil, no other law and no other prophets than those which Catholic authority holds. BOOK NINETEEN. FAUSTUS said: 'I have not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil them.' Behold, I now agree it was said. Yet it must be asked why Jesus said this — whether to soothe the fury of the Jews,

because, seeing their own most sacred things trodden underfoot by that same man, they were indignant and reckoned him, as impious and mad, not even to be heard, much less followed; or in order that he might instruct and form us, who believed in him from among the Gentiles, to submit patiently and obediently to the yoke of the commandments which the Jews' Law and the Prophets would impose upon our necks? But this indeed I do not believe you yourself think — that Jesus uttered this word in order to bind us over to the Law of the Hebrews or to the Prophets. And on this account, if this was not the reason for saying it, that other must be, which I have said. For no one is ignorant that the Jews always violently plotted, by words and by deeds, against Christ.

Since from these things they gathered that their Law and their Prophets were being abolished by that same man, they must needs be indignant; and on this account, for the sake of restraining their fury, it would not have been beside the point to have said, lest they should think that he had come to abolish the Law, but to fulfil it. Nor did he in this very thing lie, nor did he deceive: for he named the Law indifferently and absolutely. Now there are three kinds of laws: one indeed of the Hebrews, which Paul calls the law of sin and death; another of the Gentiles, which he calls natural — for the Gentiles, he says, do by nature the things of the Law; and such, not having the Law, are a law unto themselves, who show the work of the Law written in their hearts; but the third kind of law is truth, which the Apostle, signifying likewise, says:

For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin and death. Since therefore there are three laws in existence, and Jesus asserts to us that he came not to abolish the Law but to fulfil it, no small care and diligence is needed to understand of which of them he spoke. Likewise there are prophets: some of the Jews, others of the Gentiles, others of truth. But concerning those of the Jews, no one would inquire, for it is well known. But concerning those of the Gentiles, if anyone is in doubt, let him hear Paul, who, writing to Titus about the Cretans, says: One of their own, a prophet of their own, said: The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy bellies. And on this account it is not to be doubted that the Gentiles also have their own prophets.

Moreover, that truth also has its own prophets, both the same Paul signifies and Jesus too. And Jesus indeed where he says: Behold, I send to you wise men and prophets, and of them you will kill in various places; but Paul when he says: The Lord himself appointed first apostles, then prophets. Since therefore the law is threefold and the prophets threefold, of which of them Jesus spoke is not sufficiently clear; yet it may be conjectured from what follows. For indeed, if he had at once named circumcision and Sabbaths and sacrifices and the Hebrew observances, and had brought forward something into them by way of fulfilment, there would have been no doubt that he had spoken of the Jews' Law and Prophets — that he came not to abolish them but to fulfil them.

But where he mentions none of these, and reviews only the more ancient precepts — that is: You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not swear falsely — but these were of old among the nations, as is ready to prove, promulgated long ago through Enoch and Seth and the rest of the just like them, to whom illustrious angels delivered these same precepts for the tempering of savagery among men — to whom would it not seem that he said this of the law of truth and its prophets? Then too his fulfilment is proved with respect to these same precepts, which he promised. For what does he say? You have heard that it was said to the ancients: You shall not kill; but I say to you, do not even be angry: this is fulfilment. You have heard that it was said: You shall not commit adultery;

but I say to you, do not even covet: this is fulfilment. It was said: You shall not swear falsely; but I say to you, do not even swear at all: this likewise is fulfilment. For in these he both strengthens the former precepts and adds what was lacking. But where he seemed to name certain things of the Jews, those indeed he not only did not fulfil, but even utterly rooted out by the injunction of the contrary. For what follows? You have heard that it was said: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; but I say to you: whoever shall strike you on the cheek, offer him the other also: this now is destruction. It was said, he says, You shall love your friend and hate your enemy; but I say to you: love your enemies and pray for your persecutors: this likewise is destruction. It was said:

Whoever wishes to put away his wife, let him give her a bill of divorce; but I say: whoever shall put away his wife, save for the cause of fornication, shall make her also to commit adultery, and he shall be an adulterer, if he afterward marries another. These, therefore, are precepts manifestly of Moses, and therefore destroyed; those others are of the ancient just, and on that account fulfilled. And if it pleases you too to understand it thus, it will not be beside the point that Jesus said this too — that he came not to abolish the Law but to fulfil it. But if this exposition of ours displeases you, seek another: only take care that you are not compelled to call Jesus a liar, or that you find it necessary to become a Jew, lest even now you persist in abolishing the Law which he himself did not abolish.

And yet, if any of the Nazaraeans (whom others call Symmachians) were to raise this objection against me — namely, that Jesus said he had not come to abolish the Law — I should for a while have hesitated in uncertainty what to answer him. And not without reason; for such a man came to me covered over, in body and in soul alike, with the Law and the Prophets. For men of this sort, of whom I speak, both bear circumcision and observe the Sabbath and abstain from pork and from other such things which the Law prescribed, being themselves also deceived — as one may perceive — under the profession of the Christian name, however much they hold it; and by this very passage they too, like you, are led to say that Christ declared he had come not to abolish the Law, but to fulfil it.

Wherefore, since I had no small contest with such men, as I said, until I could demolish for myself the trouble of this passage, yet with you I shall by no means fear to grapple, since you rely on no real strength but rather provoke by impudence — so that I think it easier for me to be tempted by you than to be compelled to believe that Christ said what I do not see that even you have believed. For you bring forward none of those things by which the Law and the Prophets are seen not to be abolished but fulfilled, yet you upbraid me as a sluggard and a transgressor on the ground of this passage's objection. Or do you too now glory in that obscene seal of mutilated loins, like a Jew or a Nazaraean? Or do you raise your eyebrow over the observance of Sabbaths? Or do you rejoice, conscious of your abstinence from pork?

Or do you, in short, exult that you have glutted God with the blood of victims and the reek of the Jews' burnt offerings? But if you have done none of these things, why then do you contend that Christ came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfil it? Wherefore I unceasingly render thanks to my teacher, who held me back when I was likewise slipping, so that I might be a Christian today. For I too, when I read this passage without discernment, had almost gone, as you have, into the resolve of becoming a Jew. And not without reason; for if Christ came not to abolish the Law but to fulfil it, and fulfilment is never said to take place in an empty vessel, but in one half-filled, it seemed to me that only an Israelite could become a Christian — one who, being for the most part already filled with the Law and the Prophets, would come to Christ to be filled up with him.

Of this filling he would seem to be all the more capable, provided that he too did not first abolish his prior contents; otherwise this would not be a filling in his case, but an emptying. But I, coming from the Gentiles, thought I had approached Christ in vain, since I brought nothing of the kind which he could fill up in me with his own additions. Seeking, therefore, what that prior measure might be, I find the Sabbaths, circumcision, sacrifices, new moons and washings, the eating of unleavened bread, distinctions of foods and of drinks and of garments, and other things which it would be tedious to run through. I supposed, then, that this and nothing else was what Christ said he had come not to abolish but to fulfil. And not without reason; for what is the Law without commandments? What are the Prophets without their prophecies?

Besides these, I also find set down there a bitter curse against those who do not abide in all things which are written in the book of that Law, to do them. Fearing on the one hand the curse as though it were God's, and hearing on the other hand Christ, as though he were his Son, saying that he had come not to abolish these things but to fulfil them — see whether anything could then have hindered me from becoming a Jew. But from this peril the venerable faith of the Manichaeans rescued me. Yet with what confidence do you raise these objections, I ask, or why do you think this makes only against me, when it seems no less contrary to you? If it is not Christ's part to abolish the Law and the Prophets, then surely it is not the Christians' part either. Why then do you yourselves abolish these same things?

Or do you gradually confess that you are not Christians? That most sacred day of Sabbaths, honoured by the Law and all the Prophets, on which they testify that God himself, the Maker of the world, rested — you profane it with every kind of work, neither dreading the penalty of death which he appointed against its violators, nor the disgrace of the curse. And why do you defend your own loins from that dishonouring seal of circumcision, which is honoured by the Law and all the Prophets, and above all by Abraham after his renowned faith? — especially since the God of the Jews declares that everyone from among his people shall perish, whoever has not been marked beforehand with this shameful sign. And why the ordinances of the sacrifices—

— which neither Moses and the Prophets under the Law, nor Abraham under his own faith, held in second place — do you despise? And why indeed do you defile your souls with an indifference toward foods, if, as you believe, Christ came not to abolish but to fulfil all these things? Why do you profane the yearly ordinance of unleavened bread and the sacred rite of the slaughtered lamb, which the Law and the Prophets command to be kept for ever? Why, in fine, do you fail to shun breaking in upon the new moons and the washings and the Feast of Tabernacles and the other such carnal sacraments of the Law and the Prophets, if Christ in no way destroyed these same things? Wherefore I should say, and not without reason, that if you wish—

— that your reasoning for this contempt may stand firm, it behoves you either to deny that you are Christ's disciples, or at last to confess that he himself destroyed all these things as prior. And when you have confessed this, then also that which follows: that either you falsely confess it to be written, as though he said he had come not to abolish the Law but to fulfil it, or that this signified something far other than you suppose. Augustine replied: Since you now agree that Christ said, 'I came not to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfil them' — for it seems hard to you to go against the Gospel's authority — let it also seem hard to you to go against the Apostle who says, 'All these things were figures of us'; and again who says of Christ:

'that in him there was not Yea and Nay, but in him it was Yea; for as many as are the promises of God, in him they are Yea' — that is, exhibited in him, fulfilled in him. And you will see without mist both what Law he came to fulfil and in what manner he fulfilled it. Nor will you press on to be stretched through the three kinds of Law and the three kinds of Prophets, seeking a way out and not finding one. For it is manifest, and clearer than light, and the Scripture of the New Testament also often testifies to this, which Law and which Prophets Christ came not to abolish but to fulfil. For that very Law which was given through Moses — grace and truth were made through the Law of Christ — that same, I say, is the Law given through Moses, of whom Christ says, 'For he wrote of me.'

For it is certainly that very Law which entered in, that the offence might abound — a saying which, understanding nothing, you are wont to have on your lips as a reproach against it. Read there, then, and see that it is that very Law of which it is said, 'And so the Law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Was then that which is good made death to me? God forbid! But sin, that it might appear sin, wrought death in me through that which is good.' For the Law did not command the offence, so that by its entering in the offence should abound; but the addition of the holy and just and good commandment made the proud, who attributed much to themselves, guilty even of transgression, so that, being humbled in this way, they might learn that it belongs to grace through faith no longer to be subject to the Law through guilt—

— but to be joined to the Law through righteousness. For the same Apostle says that 'before faith came, we were kept under the Law, shut up unto that faith which was afterward revealed. So then,' he says, 'the Law was our schoolmaster in Christ Jesus; but after faith came, we are no longer under a schoolmaster' — because the guilt of the Law no longer binds us, being now set free through grace. For before we, humbled, received spiritual grace, the letter, commanding what we could not fulfil, did nothing but put us to death. Whence the same Apostle says, 'The letter kills, but the spirit gives life.' Again the words of the same Apostle are these: 'For if a Law had been given which could give life, righteousness would truly have been by the Law;'

'but the Scripture shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.' Likewise his words are these: 'For what was impossible to the Law, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.' Behold what it is: 'I came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfil it.' For that Law which even bound the proud in the guilt of transgression by increasing sin, when it commands what they cannot fulfil, that Law's righteousness is fulfilled by the grace of the spirit in those who learn of Christ to be meek and humble in heart — of him who came not to abolish the Law,

— but to fulfil it. Then, because even for those placed under grace it is in this mortal life hard to fulfil in every way what is written in the Law, 'Thou shalt not covet,' he, made a priest through the sacrifice of his own flesh, obtains for us pardon, in this way too fulfilling the Law, so that what we can do less through our own weakness may be repaired through his perfection, of whose head we have been made the members. Whence John says, 'My little children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not; and if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins.' The prophecies, moreover, he thus fulfilled, since in him God's promise was made truth — as I recalled a little before from the Apostle, who says:

'For as many as are the promises of God, in him they are Yea.' The same again says, 'For I say that Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.' Therefore what in the Prophets, whether openly or through figures of words or of deeds, was promised, was fulfilled in him who came not to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil them. But this you do not understand; for if certain deeds and celebrations, which were figures foretelling things to come, were still to be performed by Christians, nothing would be signified except that those things which were then foretold by those figures had not yet come. For what is still foretold as to come has either not yet come, or, if it has already come, is superfluously or falsely foretold.

Wherefore, whereas it seems to you that Christ did not fulfil the Prophets, because certain things are not done by Christians which through the Prophets were appointed to be done by the Hebrews — from this rather it is proved that he did fulfil them. For to such a degree has whatever was prophesied through figures of this kind been fulfilled, that it is now no longer prophesied through them. To this pertains also what the Lord himself says, 'The Law and the Prophets were until John.' For the Law, which shut up transgressors in abounding guilt unto that faith which was afterward revealed, became grace through Jesus Christ, through whom grace superabounded; and thereby it was fulfilled through liberating grace, which was not being fulfilled through the commanding letter. Likewise in the Law itself was all prophecy—

— which promised the Saviour's advent, not only by words but also by figures of certain actions. Truth was made through the Law of Christ; for the Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth were made through the Law of Christ. From his advent the kingdom of God now began to be announced, for both the Law and the Prophets were until John: the Law, that it might make guilty those who longed for salvation; the Prophets, that they might promise the Saviour. Yet who does not know that other prophets arose within the Church after Christ's ascension? Of whom Paul says, 'And he set some in the Church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers,' and the rest. It was not therefore of these that it was said, 'The Law and the Prophets were until John,' but of those—

— who prophesied Christ's first advent; which advent, being now fulfilled, could certainly no longer be prophesied. Accordingly, when you ask why a Christian is now no longer circumcised in the flesh, if Christ came not to abolish the Law but to fulfil it, I answer: nay rather, the Christian is now no longer circumcised precisely because that which was prophesied by that same circumcision Christ has now fulfilled. For the stripping-off of carnal generation, which was figured in that deed, has now been fulfilled by Christ's resurrection; and what shall be in our resurrection is commended by the sacrament of baptism. For the sacrament of the new life ought not to have been utterly taken away, because the future resurrection of the dead still remains for us.

And yet the same ought to have been changed for the better, baptism taking its place, because there has now been done what had never been done before — namely, that in Christ's resurrection an example of the future eternal life should be furnished to us. When you ask why a Christian does not observe the rest of the Sabbath, if Christ came not to abolish the Law but to fulfil it, I answer: nay rather, the Christian does not observe it, precisely because what was prophesied by that figure Christ has now fulfilled. For in him indeed we have the Sabbath, who said, 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you; take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and ye shall find rest for your souls.' When you ask—