1. There are those who think that the Christian religion is something to be laughed at rather than held, on the grounds that in it people are not shown a thing that can be seen but are commanded to have faith in things that are not seen. To refute these people, then, who consider themselves prudent in their refusal to believe what they cannot see, although we are not able to display to human sight the divine things we believe, we nonetheless show to human minds that even those things which are not seen are to be believed.

And first, these people, whom folly has made so subject to their fleshly eyes that they suppose nothing should be believed by them which they do not perceive through those eyes, must be reminded how many things they not only believe but even know which cannot be seen by such eyes.

Since these things are innumerable in our very mind, whose nature is invisible—to say nothing of other examples—what is so bare, so clear, what is so certain to the inner sight of our minds as faith itself, by which we believe, or the very thought by which we know that we either believe something or do not believe it, since it lies entirely beyond the gaze of these bodily eyes?

How then is what we do not see with our bodily eyes not to be believed, when, where we cannot bring our bodily eyes to bear, we nonetheless see without any doubt that we either believe or do not believe?

2. But, they say, those things which are in the mind, since we can perceive them by the mind itself, we have no need to know through the eyes of the body; whereas the things you tell us to believe you neither display outwardly, so that we might know them through the eyes of the body, nor are they within our mind, so that we might see them by thinking.

They say this as though anyone would be commanded to believe a thing if he could already see it set before him. We surely ought, for this reason, to believe certain temporal things as well, which we do not see, so that we may also deserve to see the eternal things which we believe.

But whoever you are who refuse to believe except what you see: behold, you see present bodies with your bodily eyes, and you see your own present acts of will and thoughts, because they are in your mind, by the mind itself. Tell me, I beg you, with what eyes do you see your friend's good will toward you? For no act of will can be seen with bodily eyes.

Or do you indeed see in your own mind what goes on in another's mind? And if you do not see it, how do you repay friendly good will in kind, if you do not believe what you cannot see?

Or will you perhaps say that you see another's will through his deeds? Then you will see what is done and hear what is said, but of your friend's will you will believe that which can neither be seen nor heard.

For that will is not a color or a shape, that it might present itself to the eyes; nor a sound or a melody, that it might slip into the ears; nor indeed is it your own, that it might be felt by the affection of your own heart.

It remains, then, that it be believed though neither seen, nor heard, nor beheld within you—lest your life be left deserted, without any friendship, or the love bestowed on you not be repaid by you in turn.

Where, then, is what you were saying—that you ought not to believe except what you saw either outwardly with the body or inwardly with the heart? Behold, out of your own heart you believe a heart not your own; and to that toward which you direct neither the gaze of the flesh nor of the mind, you grant your faith.

You perceive your friend's face with your body; you perceive your own faith with your mind. But your friend's faith is not loved by you unless there is in you in turn that faith by which you believe what you do not see in him—even though a person can also deceive by feigning good will and concealing malice, or, if he does not intend to harm, yet, in expectation of some advantage from you, pretends, because he has no love.

3. But you say that you believe a friend, whose heart you cannot see, because you have proven him in your trials, and have come to know what sort of mind he had toward you in your dangers, where he did not abandon you. Surely, then, in order that the love of friends toward us may be proven, our calamity does not seem to you something to be wished for?

Nor will anyone be happy in having the most certain friends unless he has been unhappy in adversity—so that, plainly, he cannot enjoy the proven love of another unless he is tortured by his own grief or fear.

And how, in the having of true friends, can that good fortune be wished for rather than feared, which only misfortune can prove? And yet it is true that a friend can be had even in prosperity, but is proven more surely in adversity.

3. But surely, in order to prove him, you would not even commit yourself to your dangers unless you believed; and thus, when you commit yourself in order to prove him, you believe before you prove.

For surely, if we ought not to believe things not seen, since we believe the hearts of friends even before they have been more surely proven—and even when we have proven their good things through our own ills, we still believe their good will toward us rather than see it—it can only be that faith is so great a thing that not inappropriately we judge ourselves to see, with certain eyes of its own, what we believe; though we ought to believe precisely because we cannot see.

4. If this faith were taken away from human affairs, who would not notice how great a disturbance of them, and how dreadful a confusion, would follow? For who will be loved by anyone with mutual love, when love itself is invisible, if I ought not to believe what I do not see? All friendship, then, will perish, since it consists only in mutual love. For what of it will anyone be able to receive from another, if nothing of it is believed to be offered?

Furthermore, once friendship perishes, neither the bonds of marriage, nor of kinship and ties by marriage, will be preserved in the mind; for in these too there is surely a friendly agreement. A husband, then, will not be able to love his wife in turn, when, since he cannot see love itself, he does not believe that he is loved.

Nor will they desire to have children, whom they do not believe will repay them in turn. And if children are born and grow up, they will love their own parents far less, since they will not see in their hearts the love toward them, because it is invisible—if things that are not seen are believed not by praiseworthy faith but by blameworthy rashness.

What now shall I say of the other ties—of brothers, sisters, sons-in-law, and fathers-in-law, and of those joined by any blood relationship or marriage tie—if love is uncertain and the will suspect, both for the children toward their parents and the parents toward their children, while the good will owed is not repaid, because it is not even thought to be owed, since what is not seen in another is not believed to exist? Furthermore, if this caution is not clever but hateful—when we do not believe ourselves loved, because we do not see the love of those who love us, and do not repay in kind those to whom we do not think we owe such mutual love—then human affairs are so disturbed, if we do not believe what we do not see, that they are utterly overthrown from the foundations, if we believe none of the human wills which we surely cannot see.

I forbear to say how many things those who reproach us because we believe what we do not see themselves believe on report and history, or about places where they have never been; and they do not say, "We do not believe, because we have not seen."

For if they were to say this, they are forced to admit that their own parents are uncertain to them; because here too they have believed others who told them, and who yet, since it is now past, cannot show it, retaining no perception of that time, and yet, without any doubt, giving their assent to others who speak of it—and unless this is done, there is necessarily incurred against one's parents an unbelieving impiety, while, as it were, the rashness of believing is avoided in those things which we cannot see.

4. If, then, because we do not believe the things we cannot see, human society itself will not stand once concord perishes, how much more is faith—although in things that are not seen—to be brought to bear on things divine; and if it is not brought to bear, it is not the friendship of any human beings, but religion itself at its highest, that is violated, so that the highest misery follows?

5. But, you will say, although I cannot see a human friend's good will toward me, I can yet track it out by many signs; whereas you can display by no signs the things you want us to believe though unseen. Meanwhile it is no small matter that you admit that, by the clearness of certain signs, some things, even those not seen, ought to be believed; for thus too it is established that not all things which are not seen are not to be believed, and that saying lies cast down and refuted, that we ought not to believe the things we do not see. But they are much mistaken who think that we believe in Christ without any signs concerning Christ.

For what signs are clearer than those which we now see foretold and fulfilled? Therefore you who think there are no signs why you ought to believe the things you have not seen concerning Christ, attend to the things you do see.

The Church herself addresses you with the voice of a mother's love: I, whom you marvel at as bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world, was not always such as you behold me. But, in your offspring shall all the nations be blessed (Gen 22:18). When God blessed Abraham, he was promising me; for through all the nations I am spread abroad in the blessing of Christ. That Christ is the offspring of Abraham, the order of the succeeding generations bears witness. To gather it up briefly: Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot twelve sons, from whom arose the people of Israel; for Jacob himself was called Israel. Among these twelve sons he begot Judah, whence comes the name of the Jews, from whom was born the Virgin Mary, who bore Christ. And behold, in Christ—that is, in the offspring of Abraham—you see all the nations being blessed, and you are amazed; and still you are afraid to believe in him, in whom you rather ought to have been afraid not to believe!

Or do you doubt or refuse to believe the Virgin's childbearing, when you rather ought to believe that it was fitting for the man who is God to be born thus? Receive this too: that it was foretold through the prophet, behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us (Isa 7:14). You will not, then, doubt the Virgin giving birth, if you are willing to believe God being born—not leaving the governance of the world, and coming to humankind in the flesh; bringing fruitfulness to his mother, not taking away her integrity.

Thus it was fitting for the man to be born, though he was ever God, that by his being born he might become God for us. Hence the prophet again says of him: your throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows (Ps 45:6–7 (44)). This anointing is spiritual, by which God anointed God, that is, the Father the Son; whence we know that he is called Christ from the chrism, that is, from the anointing.

I am the Church, of whom it is said to him in the same psalm, and it is announced beforehand as a thing already done which was to be: the queen stood at your right hand, in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety (Ps 45:9 (44))—that is, decorated, in the sacrament of Wisdom, with the variety of tongues. There it is said to me: hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house: for the king has desired your beauty; for he is the Lord your God, and the daughters of Tyre shall adore him with gifts, all the rich among the people shall entreat your countenance. All the glory of the king's daughter is within, in golden fringes, surrounded with variety. After her shall virgins be brought to the king, her companions shall be brought to you: they shall be brought in gladness and rejoicing, they shall be brought into the temple of the king. Instead of your fathers, sons are born to you; you shall make them princes over all the earth. They shall be mindful of your name throughout every generation and generation. Therefore shall the peoples praise you for ever, and for ever and ever (Ps 45:10–17 (44)).

6. If you do not see this queen, now fruitful too with royal offspring. If she does not see fulfilled what she heard was promised, she to whom it was said, hear, O daughter, and see (Ps 45:10 (44)). If she has not left behind the former rites of the world, she to whom it was said, forget your people and your father's house (Ps 45:10 (44)). If she does not everywhere confess Christ the Lord, she to whom it was said, the king has desired your beauty, for he is the Lord your God (Ps 45:11 (44)). If she does not see the cities of the nations pouring out prayers to Christ and offering gifts, she of whom it was said, the daughters of Tyre shall adore him with gifts (Ps 45:12 (44)). If even the pride of the rich is not laid aside, and they do not beg help from the Church, she to whom it was said, all the rich among the people shall entreat your countenance (Ps 45:12 (44)). If she does not acknowledge herself the king's daughter, she who has been bidden to say, Our Father, who art in heaven (Matt 6:9), and in her saints is renewed in the inner man from day to day, she of whom it was said, all the glory of the king's daughter is within (Ps 45:13 (44))—although she also dazzles the eyes of outsiders by the renown of her preachers in the diversity of tongues, as it were in golden fringes and in the variety of clothing. If, after she is made known by the good odor of her in every place, virgins too are brought to Christ to be consecrated, he of whom it is said, and she to whom it is said, after her shall virgins be brought to the king, her companions shall be brought to you (Ps 45:15 (44)). And lest they should seem to be brought, as captives, into some kind of prison, they shall be brought, he says, in gladness and rejoicing, they shall be brought into the temple of the king (Ps 45:16 (44)). If she does not bear sons, from whom she may have, as it were, fathers whom she may appoint everywhere as rulers for herself, she to whom it is said, instead of your fathers, sons are born to you; you shall make them princes over all the earth (Ps 45:17 (44))—to whose prayers the mother, both set over them and subject to them, commends herself; whence is added, they shall be mindful of your name throughout every generation and generation (Ps 45:18 (44)). If, on account of the preaching of these same fathers, in which they remembered her name without ceasing, such great multitudes are not gathered in her, and do not confess to her the praise of grace without end of time, she to whom it is said, therefore shall the peoples confess to you for ever, and for ever and ever (Ps 45:18 (44)).

6. If these things are not shown to be so plain that the eyes of enemies cannot find any direction to turn in which they are not struck by the same plainness, so that from it they are clearly forced to confess—then perhaps you say with reason that no signs are shown you by which, once seen, you may believe even those things you do not see. But if these things which you see were both foretold long beforehand and are fulfilled with such great manifestation; if truth itself declares itself by effects that both go before you and follow after you, then, O remnants of unbelief, that you may believe the things you do not see, blush at the things you do see!

7. Attend to me, the Church says to you; attend to me, whom you see, even if you are unwilling to see. For those who in those times were faithful in the land of Judea learned, themselves present, the present things—the wondrous birth from the Virgin, the Passion, the Resurrection, the ascension of Christ, and all his divine words and deeds. These things you did not see, and therefore you refuse to believe. Therefore look upon these things, fix your attention on these, consider these things which you perceive, which are not told to you as past, nor announced beforehand as future, but shown to you as present.

Or does it seem to you empty or trifling, and do you think it no miracle, or but a small divine miracle, that in the name of one crucified the whole human race runs together? You did not see what was foretold concerning the human birth of Christ, behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb, and shall bear a son (Isa 7:14): but you see what the word of God foretold to Abraham, and which has been fulfilled, in your offspring shall all the nations be blessed (Gen 22:18).

You did not see what was foretold concerning the wonders of Christ, come and see the works of the Lord, what prodigies he has set upon the earth (Ps 46:8 (45)): but you see what was foretold, the Lord said to me: You are my Son, today I have begotten you; ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession (Ps 2:7–8).

You did not see what was foretold and fulfilled concerning the Passion of Christ, they have pierced my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones; they have indeed looked upon and beheld me; they have divided my garments among them, and upon my clothing they have cast lots (Ps 22:16–18 (21)): but you see what was foretold in the same psalm, and now appears fulfilled, all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship in his sight; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he shall have dominion over the nations (Ps 22:27–28 (21)).

You did not see what was foretold and accomplished concerning the Resurrection of Christ, when the psalm speaks in his person, first of the traitor and his persecutors: they went forth, and they spoke together as one; all my enemies whispered against me, against me they devised evils for me; they laid an unjust word against me (Ps 41:6–8 (40)). Here, to show that they availed nothing by killing one who would rise again, he added and said, shall not he who sleeps add that he may rise again? (Ps 41:8 (40)). And a little after, when through the same prophecy he had foretold concerning his own traitor what is written in the Gospel too, he who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me (Ps 41:9 (40))—that is, has trodden me down—he straightway added, but you, O Lord, have mercy on me, and raise me up, and I will requite them (Ps 41:10 (40)). This was fulfilled: Christ slept and woke, that is, rose again; he who through the same prophecy says in another psalm, I slept and took my rest; and I rose up, because the Lord will sustain me (Ps 3:5 (3)).

This indeed you did not see, but you see his Church, of which likewise it was said and fulfilled: O Lord my God, the nations shall come to you from the ends of the earth, and shall say: Truly our fathers worshiped lies, idols, and there is no profit in them (Jer 16:19). This certainly, whether you will or not, you behold: so that, even if you still think there is or was some profit in idols, you have nonetheless heard countless peoples of the nations, having left or cast away or shattered vanities of this kind, say, truly our fathers worshiped lies, idols, and there is no profit in them: shall a man make gods, and behold, they are not gods? (Jer 16:19–20).

But do not think that the nations were foretold as going to come to some one place of God, because it was said, the nations shall come to you from the ends of the earth (Jer 16:19). Understand, if you can, that the peoples of the nations come to the God of the Christians, who is the highest and true God, not by walking but by believing. For the same thing was foretold by another prophet thus: the Lord, he says, shall prevail against them, and shall destroy all the gods of the nations of the earth; and they shall worship him, every one from his own place, all the islands of the nations (Zeph 2:11). What the one said, all the nations shall come to you (Jer 16:19), this the other said, they shall worship him, every one from his own place (Zeph 2:11). Therefore they shall come to him without departing from their own place, because, believing in him, they will find him in their own heart.

You did not see what was foretold and fulfilled concerning the ascension of Christ, be exalted above the heavens, O God (Ps 57:5 (56)): but you see what straightway follows, and your glory above all the earth (Ps 57:5 (56)).

All those things concerning Christ, now done and past, you did not see; but these present things in his Church you do not deny that you see. We show you both as foretold to you; but both, now fulfilled, we cannot, for that reason, show you to be seen, because we cannot call back the past into view.

8. But just as the wills of friends, which are not seen, are believed through signs that are seen, so the Church, which is now seen, is both the index of things past and the herald of things future—of all the things which are not seen, but are shown in those writings in which she herself was also foretold. For both the past things, which can no longer be seen, and the present things, which cannot all be seen—when they were foretold, none of them could then be seen.

When, therefore, the things foretold began to come to pass, from those that have been done down to those that are being done, the things foretold concerning Christ and the Church have run on in an ordered series; to which series belong the things concerning the day of judgment, the resurrection of the dead, the eternal damnation of the wicked with the devil, and the eternal reward of the godly with Christ, which were likewise foretold as things to come.

Why, then, should we not believe the first and last things, which we do not see, when we have, as witnesses of both, the middle things, which we do see, and when in the prophetic books we either hear the first, the middle, and the last foretold before they came to pass, or read them? Unless perhaps unbelieving people suppose that those things were written down by Christians, so that the things they already believed might have greater weight of authority, if they were thought to have been promised before they came.

9. But if they suspect this, let them search through the books of our enemies, the Jews.

There let them read these things which we have recalled, foretold concerning the Christ in whom we believe, and the Church which we behold, from the toilsome beginning of faith to the everlasting blessedness of the kingdom.

But when they read, let them not be surprised that those whose books they are do not understand these things, because of the darkness of their enmity.

For that they would not understand was foretold by the same prophets: that this, like the rest, had to be fulfilled, and that by the hidden and just judgment of God the due penalty had to be repaid to their deserts. For he indeed whom they crucified, and to whom they gave gall and vinegar, although hanging on the tree, on account of those whom he was to lead out of darkness into light, said to the Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34);

yet on account of the rest, whom for more hidden reasons he was to forsake, he foretold so long beforehand through the prophet: they gave gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink: let their table become before them a snare, and a recompense, and a stumbling block; let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back forever (Ps 69:21–23 (68)). Since, therefore, the most illustrious testimonies of our cause walk about everywhere with darkened eyes, so that through them these things may be proven, in which they themselves are also reproved.

For this reason it came about that they were not so wiped out that the sect itself should be wholly none; but it has been scattered over the lands, so that, carrying the prophecies of the grace conferred upon us, in order to convince unbelievers more firmly, it might everywhere profit us. And this very thing that I say, hear how it was prophesied: slay them not, he says, lest at any time they forget your law; scatter them by your power (Ps 59:11 (58)).

They have not, then, been slain, in that they have not forgotten the things which were read and heard among them. For if they were utterly to forget the Holy Scriptures, although they do not understand them, they would be slain in the Jewish rite itself; because, since the Jews would know nothing of the Law and the Prophets, they could be of no profit. Therefore they have not been slain, but scattered: so that, although they do not have the faith by which they might be saved, they might yet retain in memory that by which we are helped—supporters in their books, our enemies in their hearts, witnesses in their codices.

10. And yet, even if no testimonies concerning Christ and the Church had gone before, whom ought it not to move to believe that the divine brightness has suddenly shone forth upon the human race, when we see that, the false gods having been left behind, and their idols shattered everywhere, their temples overthrown or turned to other uses, and so many vain rites uprooted from the most inveterate human custom, the one true God is called upon by all? And that this came about through one man—mocked by men, seized, bound, scourged, struck on the cheek, reviled, crucified, slain:

while his disciples, whom he chose as uneducated and unskilled, fishermen and tax collectors, through whom his teaching might be commended, announced his Resurrection and ascension, which they said they had seen, and, filled with the Holy Spirit, sounded forth this Gospel in all tongues, which they had not learned. Of those who heard them, some believed, while others, not believing, fiercely resisted the preachers. And so, while the faithful contended for the truth even unto death, not repaying evils but enduring them through, and conquering not by killing but by dying;

thus was the world changed into this religion, thus were the hearts of mortals turned to this Gospel—of males and females, of small and great, of the learned and unlearned, of the wise and the foolish, of the powerful and the weak, of the noble and the base, of the lofty and the lowly—and the Church, spread through all the nations, so grew that even against the Catholic faith itself no perverse sect, no kind of error, arises which is found to oppose Christian truth in such a way as not to aim and strive to glory in the name of Christ: which indeed would not be allowed to sprout up over the earth, unless even this very contradiction were exercising sound discipline.

How could that crucified one have availed so much, had not God taken up man, even if he had foretold no such things to come through the prophets? But since so great a sacrament of godliness had its preceding seers and heralds, by whose divine voices it was foretold, and since he came just as it was foretold, who is so mad as to say that the apostles lied concerning Christ, whom they preached to have come just as the prophets had foretold beforehand that he would come—prophets who did not pass over in silence even the true things to come concerning the apostles themselves? For of these they had said: there are no speeches nor languages whose voices are not heard; their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Ps 19:3–4 (18)).

This we certainly see fulfilled in the world, even if we have not yet seen Christ in the flesh. Who, then, unless blinded by a wondrous madness, or hard and iron-hearted with a wondrous obstinacy, would refuse to have faith in the Sacred Writings, which foretold the faith of the whole world?

11. But you, dearly beloved, who have this faith, or who have now begun to have it anew, let it be nourished and grow in you. For just as the temporal things came that were foretold so long before, so too will the eternal things that are promised come. And do not let the empty pagans, or the false Jews, or the deceitful heretics deceive you, nor even, within the Catholic Church herself, wicked Christians, who are the more harmful the more they are enemies within.

For on this point too, lest the weak be disturbed, the divine prophecy was not silent, where the bridegroom speaks to the bride in the Song of Songs—that is, Christ the Lord to the Church: as the lily, he says, among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters (Song 2:2). He did not say, "among strangers," but, among the daughters.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Matt 11:15); and while the net which has been cast into the sea, and gathers together all kinds of fish, as the holy Gospel says, is drawn to the shore—that is, to the end of the age—let each one separate himself from the wicked fish, in heart, not in body; by changing evil ways, not by breaking the holy nets: lest those who now seem to the reprobate to be mingled with them should find not life, but eternal punishment, when they begin to be separated on the shore.