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The Prescription Against Heretics

Chapter XXII.--Attempt to Invalidate This Rule of Faith Rebutted. The Apostles Safe Transmitters of the Truth. Sufficiently Taught at First, and Faithful in the Transmission.

But inasmuch as the proof is so near at hand, ¹ that if it were at once produced there would be nothing left to be dealt with, let us give way for a while to the opposite side, if they think that they can find some means of invalidating this rule, just as if no proof were forthcoming from us. They usually tell us that the apostles did not know all things: (but herein) they are impelled by the same madness, whereby they turn round to the very opposite point, ² and declare that the apostles certainly knew all things, but did not deliver all things to all persons,--in either case exposing Christ to blame for having sent forth apostles who had either too much ignorance, or too little simplicity. What man, then, of sound mind can possibly suppose that they were ignorant of anything, whom the Lord ordained to be masters (or teachers), ³ keeping them, as He did, inseparable (from Himself) in their attendance, in their discipleship, in their society, to whom, "when they were alone, He used to expound" all things ⁴ which were obscure, telling them that "to them it was given to know those mysteries," ⁵ which it was not permitted the people to understand? Was anything withheld from the knowledge of Peter, who is called "the rock on which the church should be built," ⁶ who also obtained "the keys of the kingdom of heaven," ⁷ with the power of "loosing and binding in heaven and on earth?" ⁸ Was anything, again, concealed from John, the Lord's most beloved disciple, who used to lean on His breast ⁹ to whom alone the Lord pointed Judas out as the traitor, ¹⁰ whom He commended to Mary as a son in His own stead? ¹¹ Of what could He have meant those to be ignorant, to whom He even exhibited His own glory with Moses and Elias, and the Father's voice moreover, from heaven? ¹² Not as if He thus disapproved ¹³ of all the rest, but because "by three witnesses must every word be established." ¹⁴ After the same fashion, ¹⁵ too, (I suppose,) were they ignorant to whom, after His resurrection also, He vouchsafed, as they were journeying together, "to expound all the Scriptures." ¹⁶ No doubt ¹⁷ He had once said, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot hear them now;" but even then He added, "When He, the Spirit of truth, shall come, He will lead you into all truth." ¹⁸ He (thus) shows that there was nothing of which they were ignorant, to whom He had promised the future attainment of all truth by help of the Spirit of truth. And assuredly He fulfilled His promise, since it is proved in the Acts of the Apostles that the Holy Ghost did come down. Now they who reject that Scripture ¹⁹ can neither belong to the Holy Spirit, seeing that they cannot acknowledge that the Holy Ghost has been sent as yet to the disciples, nor can they presume to claim to be a church themselves ²⁰ who positively have no means of proving when, and with what swaddling-clothes ²¹ this body was established. Of so much importance is it to them not to have any proofs for the things which they maintain, lest along with them there be introduced damaging exposures ²² of those things which they mendaciously devise.

Edition Hide
De Praescriptione Haereticorum

XXII.

[1] Sed quoniam tam expedita probatio est ut si statim proferatur, nihil iam sit retractandum, ac si prolata non sit a nobis, locum interim demus diuersae parti, si quid putant ad infirmandam hanc praescriptionem mouere se posse. [2] Solent dicere non omnia apostolos scisse, eadem agitati dementia qua susum rursus conuertunt, omnia quidem apostolos scisse sed non omnia omnibus tradidisse, in utroque Christum reprehensioni inicientes qui aut minus instructos aut parum simplices apostolos miserit. [3] Quis igitur integrae mentis credere potest aliquid eos ignorasse quos magistros Dominus dedit, indiuiduos habens in comitatu in discipulatu in conuictu, quibus obscura quaeque seorsum disserebat, illis dicens datum esse cognoscere arcana quae populo intelligere non liceret? [4] Latuit aliquid Petrum, aedificandae ecclesiae petram dictum, claues regni caelorum consecutum et soluendi et alligandi in caelis et in terris potestatem? [5] Latuit et Ioannem aliquid, dilectissimum Domino, pectori eius incubantem cui soli Dominus Iudam traditorem praemonstrauit, quem loco suo filium Mariae demandauit? [6] Quid eos ignorasse uoluit quibus etiam gloriam suam exhibuit, et Moysen et Heliam et insuper de caelo patris uocem? non quasi ceteros reprobans sed quoniam in tribus testibus stabit omne uerbum. [7] Ignorauerunt itaque et illi quibus post resurrectionem quoque in itinere omnes scripturas disserere dignatus est. [8] Dixerat plane aliquando: Multa habeo adhuc loqui uobis, sed non potestis modo ea sustinere, [9] tamen adiiciens: Cum uenerit ille spiritus ueritatis, ipse uos deducet in omnem ueritatem, ostendit illos nihil ignorasse quos omnem ueritatem consecuturos per spiritum ueritatis repromiserat. [10] Et utique impleuit repromissum, probantibus actis apostolorum descensum spiritus sancti. [11] Quam scripturam qui non recipiunt nec spiritus sancti esse possunt, qui necdum spiritum sanctum possunt agnoscere discentibus missum. Sed nec ecclesiam se defendere qui, quando et quibus incunabulis institutum est hoc corpus, probare non habent. [12] Tanti est enim illis non habere probationes eorum quae defendunt, ne pariter admittantur traductiones eorum quae mentiuntur.