Chapter XLI.--"Status Quaestionis."

Then said Simon: "You are manifestly avoiding the hearing of the charge from the Scriptures against your God." Then Peter: "You yourself appear to me to be doing this; for he who avoids the order of inquiry, does not wish a true investigation to be made. Hence I, who proceed in an orderly manner, and wish that the writer should first be considered, am manifestly desirous to walk in a straight path." Then Simon: "First confess that if the things written against the Creator are true, he is not above all, since, according to the Scriptures, he is subject to all evil; then afterwards we shall inquire as to the writer." Then said Peter: "That I may not seem to speak against your want of order through unwillingness to enter upon the investigation, ¹ I answer you. I say that if the things written against God are true, they do not show that God is wicked." Then said Simon: "How can you maintain that?"