33. Conf. 13.28.43–32.47 (CCL 27:267–70); trans. Bourke, FOTC 21:447–52.
Against the Manichees 225
(32.47) Thanks be to You, O Lord! We see heaven and earth, either the higher and lower corporeal parts, or spiritual and corporeal creation. And for the adornment of these parts, by which either the whole bulk of the world or the entire created universe is constituted, we see light made and separated from darkness. We see the firmament of heaven, the original body of the world, . . . or this stretch of atmosphere (for it is also called heaven, through which the birds of the heavens fly about aimlessly between the waters which are carried above them in vapor and which even fall in dew on calm nights), and those waters which are heavy and flow upon the earth.
We behold the beautiful form of the waters gathered upon the plains of the sea and the dry land, either bare [of vegetation] or formed so as to be visible and ordered, the mother of plants and trees. We see the luminous bodies shining on high: the sun is adequate for the day, the moon and stars console the night—and periods of time are marked and indicated by all these. We see the moist part of nature, teeming in every portion with fish and animals and birds, because the density of the atmosphere which supports the flight of birds thickens by means of the evaporation of the waters. We see that the face of the earth is adorned by earthly animals and that the human person, in Your image and likeness, is placed above all irrational living things by this image and likeness of Yours, namely, the power of reason and of understanding. And just as there is one thing in his soul which rules by virtue of the act of deliberation and there is another which is made subject so that it may obey, so also there was also made for man, corporeally, woman—who had, indeed, a nature equal in mental capacity of rational intelligence but made subject, by virtue of the sex of her body, to the male sex in the same way that the appetite for action is made subject in order to conceive by the rational mind the skill of acting rightly. We see these things, and they are individually good; but all together, they are very good.33
The Unity of the Testaments
In debating the Manichees, Augustine had to work out principles for the unity of the Testaments. He eventually encapsulated his view in a favorite one-liner: "In the Old Testament the New is concealed, and in the New the Old is revealed."34 Here is an earlier account. From On the Advantage of Believing:
(3.9) These wicked [Manichees], while they try to render the Law null and void, . . . note the saying that those who are under the Law are in servitude,
33. Conf. 13.28.43–32.47 (CCL 27:267–70); trans. Bourke, FOTC 21:447–52. 34. De catechizandis rudibus 4.8 (CCL 46:128); my trans.