7. And further, analogy,
whereby the agreement of both Testaments is plainly seen, why shall
I say that all have made use of, to whose authority they yield;
whereas it is in their power to consider with themselves, how many
things they are wont to say have been inserted in the divine
Scriptures by certain, I know not who, corrupters of truth? Which
speech of theirs I always thought to be most weak, even at the time
that I was their hearer: nor I alone, but you also, (for I well
remember,) and all of us, who essayed to exercise a little more
care in forming a judgment than the crowd of hearers. But now,
after that many things have been expounded and made clear to me,
which used chiefly to move me: those I mean, wherein their
discourse for the most part boasts itself, and expatiates the more
freely, the more safely it can do so as having no opponent; it
seems to me that there is no assertion of theirs more shameless, or
(to use a milder phrase) more careless and weak than that the
divine Scriptures have been corrupted; whereas there are no copies
in existence, in a matter of so recent date, whereby they can prove
it. For were they to assert, that they thought not that they ought
thoroughly to receive them, because they had been written by
persons, who they thought had not written the truth; any how their
refusal1703
would be
more right, or their error more
natural.
1704
For this is what they have done in
the case of the Book which is inscribed the Acts of the
Apostles.
And this
device of theirs, when I consider with myself, I cannot
enough wonder at. For it is not the want of
wisdom in the men that
I complain of in this matter, but the want of ordinary
understanding.
1705
For that
book hath so great matters, which are like what they receive, that
it seems to me great
folly to refuse to receive this book also, and
if any thing offend them there to call it false and inserted. Or,
if such
language is shameless, as it is why in the
Epistles of
Paul, why in the four books of the
Gospel, do they think that
they
1706
are of any
avail, in which I am not sure but that there are in proportion many
more things, than could be in that book, which they will have
believed to have been interpolated by falsifiers. But forsooth this
is what I believe to be the case, and I ask of you to consider it
with me with as calm and serene a
judgment as possible. For you
know that, essaying to bring the person of their founder Manichæus
into the number of the
Apostles, they say that the
Holy Spirit,
Whom the
Lord promised His
disciples that He would send, hath come
to us through him. Therefore, were they to receive those Acts of
the
Apostles, in which the coming of the
Holy Spirit is plainly set
forth,
1707
they could
not find how to say that it was interpolated. For they will have it
that there were some, I know not who, falsifiers of the
divine
Books before the times of Manichæus himself; and that they were
falsified by persons who wished to combine the
Law of the
Jews with
the Gospel. But this they cannot say concerning the Holy Spirit,
unless haply they assert that those persons divined, and set in
their books what should be brought forward against Manichæus, who
should at some future time arise, and say that the Holy Spirit had
been sent through him. But concerning the Holy Spirit we will speak
somewhat more plainly in another place. Now let us return to my
purpose.
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