Chapter 12

§ 1.

Peter therefore, the Apostle, after the Lord’s Resurrection and assumption into the Heavens, desiring to fill up the number of the twelve Apostles,¹ and to choose a fresh one instead of Judas, whichsoever of those present might be chosen of God,² he said, Men and brethren, need was that this Scripture be fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost spake before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, which became guide to them that took Jesus, because he was numbered among us:³ ‘Let his habitation be desolate, and let there be none to dwell therein,’ and, ‘His Bishoprick let another take,’—ordering the fulfilment of the number of the Apostles according to the words which were spoken by David.

Again, the Holy Spirit having descended on the Disciples, so that all prophesied, and spake with tongues, and some mocking them, as though drunk with new wine; Peter said, that instead of their being drunken (it being the third hour of the day) this is what was spoken of by the Prophet,⁴ It shall be in the last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh, and they shall prophesy. Thus God, Who had promised by the Prophet to send His Spirit upon mankind, even He did actually send Him: and God is announced by Peter as having accomplished His own promise.

§ 2.

For, saith Peter,⁵ Ye men of Israel, hear my words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves know:—Him being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have crucified and slain by the hands of wicked men: Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of hell, because it was not possible that He should be holden of it. For David saith of Him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is on my right hand, that I be not moved. Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced, moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope. Because Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. Next he speaks to them confidently of the Patriarch David,⁶ that he is dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with them unto this day. But being, saith he,⁷ a Prophet, and knowing that God had sworn to him with an oath, that of the fruit of his body one should sit on his throne; he foreseeing spake of the Resurrection of Christ, that He was not left in hell, neither did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus, saith he, God hath raised up, Whose witnesses we all are: Who being by the right hand of God exalted, receiving from the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, hath poured out this gift, which ye now see and hear. For David ascended not into the Heavens; but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. Therefore let the whole house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, even this Jesus Whom ye have crucified.⁸ When therefore the multitudes had said, What then shall we do, Peter said unto them, Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the Name of Jesus, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Thus no other God, nor any other Pleroma did the Apostles proclaim, nor one Christ to have suffered and risen again, while another raised him up and remained impassive; but one and the same God and Saviour and Christ Jesus, Who was raised from the dead: and the Faith which is in Him they used to preach to those who believed not in the Son of God, and to instruct them out of the Prophets, that the Christ Whom God promised He would send, He hath sent, even Jesus, Whom they crucified, and God raised up.

§ 3.

Again, when Peter together with John had seen him who was lame from his birth sitting before the gate of the Temple which is called Beautiful,⁹ and asking an alms,¹⁰ he said unto him, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, that give I thee;¹¹ In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.¹² And immediately his feet and ancle bones were strengthened, and he walked, and entered with them into the Temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. And the whole multitude being gathered unto them because of the unexpected deed, Peter saith unto them,¹³ Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? and why look ye upon us, as though by our own power we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob, The God of our Fathers, hath glorified His Son, Whom ye for your part gave up to judgment, and denied Him before Pilate, when he wished to let Him go. But ye oppressed the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you: and killed the Prince of Life; Whom God raised from the dead: whereof we are witnesses. And His Name, by faith in His Name, hath strengthened this man whom ye see and know, and the faith which is by Him, hath given him soundness before you all. And now, brethren, I know that through ignorance ye did amiss. But what things God foretold by the mouth of all the Prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He hath fulfilled. Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, and times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord, and He send Jesus Christ Who is prepared for you; Whom the Heaven must receive until the time of the dispensation of all things, which God spake by His holy Prophets. As to Moses, he saith unto our Fathers, That a Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up to you of your brethren, even as me; Him shall ye hear in all things whatever He shall have spoken unto you. And it shall be that every soul which will not hear that Prophet, shall perish from among the people. And all from Samuel and onwards, as many as have spoken, have also announced these days. Ye are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God ordered with our fathers, saying to Abraham, And in thy seed shall all tribes of the earth be blessed. To you first, God raising up His Son, sent Him blessing you, that every one may convert himself from his iniquities.

Very plain is the preaching, which Peter with John was preaching unto them, declaring the good tidings of the promise which God made unto the Fathers, how it was fulfilled by Jesus; not announcing another God, but the Son of God, Who was also made Man and suffered; bringing Israel to better knowledge, and preaching in Jesus the Resurrection of the dead,¹⁴ and pointing out, that whatever things the Prophets announced concerning the sufferings of Christ, those God hath fulfilled.

§ 4.

Wherefore, when the chief Priests had again assembled,¹⁵ Peter said boldly to them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, if we are to-day called to account by you of the benefit done to the impotent man, whereby this man was saved: be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Whom ye crucified, Whom God raised from the dead—by Him doth this man stand before you whole. This is the stone despised by you builders, which is made the head of the corner. And there is no other Name under Heaven which is given unto men whereby we must be saved.

Thus the Apostles instead of changing their God, were announcing to the people that the Christ is Jesus Who was crucified, Whom God raised up, He Who sent the Prophets (being Himself God) and by Him gave salvation unto men.

§ 5.

Being therefore confounded both by the healing,¹⁶ (for, saith the Scripture, the man was above forty years old, on whom the miracle of healing was shewed) and by the doctrine of the Apostles and exposition of the Prophets, the High Priests released Peter and John, and they having returned to the rest their fellow-apostles and disciples of the Lord, i.e., to the Church, and having related what had happened, and how they had dealt boldly in the Name of Jesus: The whole Church, it saith, on hearing it,¹⁷ lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, Thou art God Who madest Heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is, Who by the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of David our father, Thy servant, hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The Kings of the earth stood by, and the Princes were gathered in one against the Lord and against His Christ. For of a truth in this city came together against Thy Holy Son Jesus Whom Thou anointedst, Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatsoever Thy Hand and Thy Counsel had determined before to be done.

These are the voices of that Church,¹⁸ from which the whole Church had its beginning: these are the words of the Mother City, of the citizens of the New Testament: these are the voices of the Apostles, these are the voices of the disciples of the Lord, of the truly perfect, made such by the Spirit after the assumption of the Lord, both calling upon God, Who made Heaven and Earth and Sea, Who was proclaimed by the Prophets; and His Son too, Whom God anointed, and not knowing any other. For no Valentinus was there at that time, nor Marcion, nor the other subverters both of themselves and of such as regard¹⁹ them. Wherefore also they were heard by the Maker of all, even God.²⁰ For the place, it saith, was shaken where they were assembled, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and spake the word of God with boldness to every one that was willing to believe.²¹ For with great power, saith he, gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, saying unto them,²² The God of our Fathers hath raised up Jesus whom you took and killed by hanging Him on a tree. Him hath God raised up to be a Prince and a Saviour, by His glory, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins: and we in Him are witnesses of these sayings, and [so is] the Holy Ghost, Which God hath given to them that believe Him.²³ Also in every day, saith he, in the Temple and in the house, they ceased not teaching and preaching the good tidings of Christ Jesus, the Son of God. For this was the acknowledgment of salvation, which makes those perfect towards God, who recognize the coming of His Son.

§ 6.

But since some of them shamelessly say,²⁴ The Apostles acting as heralds among the Jews could not announce to them another God, besides Him Whom they had believed in: we say to them, that if the Apostles used to speak according to the opinion before ingrafted into men, no person knew the truth from them; nay, nor from the Lord, long before: for they say that He too spake in the same way. Neither do these therefore themselves know the truth, but their notion concerning God being such as it was, they had received the doctrine, according as they could hear it. By this way of talking, then, there will be no rule of truth with any one, but all learners will impute it to their teachers, that according to each one’s own opinion and capacity, such was the discourse addressed to him. And the coming of the Lord will appear superfluous and useless, at least if He came to allow and to maintain each man’s notion of God as it was before implanted in him.

And moreover it was a harsher thing, and that by a great deal, for that Person whom the Jews had seen as a man, and had nailed Him to the cross, to be announced as Christ the Son of God, their own King for ever. You see that they could not be speaking to them according to their old opinion. For they who to their face said that they were slayers of the Lord, much more would they confidently announce to them as to others, that Father who is above the Creator; not suiting each man’s thought: and the sin was much less, since they could not have nailed to the Cross the superior Saviour, to whom they ought to ascend, He being incapable of suffering. Yea, as to the Gentiles they used to speak not according to their views, saying rather with confidence, that their Gods were not Gods, but idols of Dæmons: in like manner they would have also told the Jews, if they had known of another Father, greater and more perfect: not adding nourishment nor growth to their untrue opinion concerning God. And whilst they were doing away with the error of the Gentiles, and withdrawing them from their Gods, they did not of course bring on them another error, but removing those which were no Gods, they pointed to Him Who was the only God and the true Father.

§ 7.

From the words therefore of Peter,²⁵ which he spake in Cæsarea to the Centurion Cornelius, and to the Gentiles who were with him, to whom the Word of God was first set forth, we must form our notion of what the Apostles announced, and of the mode of their preaching, and of their opinion concerning God. For this Cornelius,²⁶ it saith, was devout, and fearing God with all his house, and doing many almsdeeds among the people, and praying to God always. He saw therefore, about the ninth hour of the day, an Angel of God coming in to him, and saying,²⁷ Thine alms have come up for a memorial before God: wherefore send to Simon, who is called Peter: Peter having seen the revelation where the heavenly Voice said unto him,²⁸ What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common: i.e., That God, Who by the Law distinguished between things clean and unclean, He hath cleansed the Nations by the blood of His Son: Whom Cornelius also worshipped.²⁹ To whom Peter coming said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him. Evidently signifying that the God Whom Cornelius used to fear before, concerning Whom he was instructed by the Law and the Prophets, for Whose sake also he used to do his alms, He is God of a truth. But the knowledge of the Son was wanting unto him.

Wherefore he added,³⁰ You know what word took place throughout all Judea, how beginning from Galilee after the Baptism which John preached;—concerning Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost and with power: He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things which He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem: Whom they slew, hanging Him on a tree. Him God raised up the third day, and gave Him to be made manifest, not to all the people, but to us witnesses chosen before of God, who did both eat and drink with Him after His rising from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify, that it is He which was predestined of God to be Judge of quick and dead. To Him all the Prophets give witness, that every one believing in Him receiveth remission of sins by His Name. The Son of God, then, Whom men knew not, the Apostles were announcing, to such as were before instructed concerning God: they were not introducing another God. For had Peter been aware of anything of that kind, he would have freely preached to the Gentiles, that the God of the Jews is one, of the Christians another. And they of course, in alarm at the vision of the Angel, would have believed whatever he had told them. But from Peter’s words it is evident, that while he maintained the God Whom they before knew, he did also testify unto them that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Judge of quick and dead, into Whom also he commanded them to be baptized for the remission of sins. And not only so, but he testified also that Jesus Himself is the Son of God, the same Who being anointed with the Holy Ghost, is called Jesus Christ. And this same is born of Mary, as the testimony of Peter imports. Could it be, that Peter had not yet perfect knowledge at that time, but that afterwards it was discovered by these men? Peter then according to these was imperfect, imperfect too were the rest of the Apostles: and they had need live again and go to school to these people, that they too may be made perfect. But this surely is ridiculous: and these are convicted of being scholars, not of the Apostles, but of their own evil way of thinking. And for this cause their opinions are various, each of them receiving the error as he was capable of it. Whereas the Church through the whole world having its beginning firm from the Apostles, perseveres in one and the same view concerning God and His Son.

§ 8.

And Philip again to the Eunuch of the Queen of the Ethiopians,³¹ returning from Jerusalem and reading Esaias the Prophet, no other person being by,—whom did he announce? was it not He, of Whom the Prophet said, As a sheep for a victim He was led;³² as a Lamb without voice before its shearer, so opened He not His Mouth. But His Birth who shall declare?³³ for His Life shall be taken from the Earth:—that He is Jesus, and that in Him the Scripture is accomplished, as the Eunuch himself being persuaded, and forthwith begging to be baptized, said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.³⁴ And he had a mission to the regions of Ethiopia, to preach that which he believed: first that there is one God, He Whom the Prophets proclaim: next that His Son has already realized His human presence, and was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and the rest, whatsoever the Prophets say of Him.

§ 9.

Paul too for his part after the Lord had spoken to him from Heaven, and had signified, that he was persecuting his own Master in persecuting His Disciples: after He had sent Ananias to him, and that he had recovered his sight,³⁵ and was baptized; in the synagogues, we read, at Damascus, preached Jesus with all freedom, that This is the Christ the Son of God.³⁶ This is the mystery, which he saith was made known to him by revelation, That He Who suffered under Pontius Pilate, He is Lord of all, and King, and God, and Judge, receiving power from Him Who is God of all, because He was made subject unto death, even the death of the Cross.³⁷

And to shew that this is true,³⁸ he preaching the Gospel to the Athenians in Areopagus (where, no Jews being at hand, he might have preached the true God with confidence) said unto them,³⁹ God Who made the world and all things that are therein, He being Lord of Heaven and Earth dwelleth not in temples made with hands, nor is tended⁴⁰6by men’s hands, as though needing anything, whereas it was He Who gave all things life and breath, and made all things: Who made of one blood the whole race of man to dwell upon the face of the whole earth, assigning before the times according to the settlement of their habitation; to seek that which is divine, if in any way they may be able to handle it or to find it, though in fact it be not far from every one of us, for in Him we live and move and are, even as certain among you have said, For we are also His offspring. Forasmuch then as we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, fashioned by art or fancy of men. God therefore looking down upon the times of ignorance, now hath commanded all men every where to repent towards Him, because He hath appointed a day for the world to be judged in righteousness, by the man Jesus, in Whom He hath established faith by raising Him from the dead.

Now in this place he not only announces to them God as the Maker of the world, no Jews being present, but also that He made one only race of man to dwell on all the earth,⁴¹ as Moses also saith, When the most High divided the nations, when He dispersed the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the Angels of God: but the people which believe God, he says, are no longer under the power of Angels,⁴² but under the Lord. For His people Jacob is made the Lord’s portion, Israel the line of His inheritance.

And again, Paul being with Barnabas at Lystra in Lycia,⁴³ and having caused one lame from the birth in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ to walk, and the multitude wanting to honour them as Gods, for the wonderful deed,⁴⁴ he saith to them, We are men like unto you, preaching unto you God, that ye may turn from these vain idols to the living God, Who made Heaven and Earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, Who in times past permitted all nations to depart along their own ways; although He left not Himself without witness, doing good, giving you rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.

Now that with these announcements of his all the epistles are in harmony, we will shew in a suitable place from the epistles themselves, when we are expounding the Apostle. But whilst we too join our labours to those proofs which are drawn from the Scriptures: and whilst we announce shortly and summarily, what is expressed in many ways; do thou also with patience attend to it, and not account it too long a story; considering this, that proofs which consist in Scriptures cannot be made out, but by the very words of Scripture.

§ 10.

There is Stephen too, again, who was chosen by the Apostles first Deacon,⁴⁵ who also first of all men followed in the track of our Lord’s martyrdom, being first slain for confessing Christ, speaking confidently among the people, and teaching them, as follows;⁴⁶ The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham,⁴⁷ and said unto him, Go out from thy Land, and from thy kindred, and come into a land which I will shew unto thee;⁴⁸ and He removed him into this land which ye also now inhabit, and gave him not a foot’s breadth of inheritance in it; but promised to give it him for a possession, and to his seed after him. And God spake to him thus; that his seed should be sojourning in a strange land, and should be brought into slavery, and vexed 400 years; and the nation which they shall serve will I judge, saith the Lord; and afterwards they shall go out, and shall serve Me in this place. And He gave him the Covenant of Circumcision, and so he begat Isaac. And the rest of his words too proclaim the same God, Who was with Joseph and with the Patriarchs, Who also discoursed with Moses.

§ 11.

And that the whole doctrine of the Apostles set forth one and the same God,⁴⁹ Who removed Abraham, Who made him the promise of inheritance, Who gave him in due time the testament of Circumcision, Who called out of Egypt his seed, preserved evidently by means of circumcision, (for He gave it for a sign, that they might be unlike the Egyptians);—Him to be the Maker of all, Him the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Him the God of glory;—such as will, may learn from the very discourses and Acts of the Apostles, and may perceive, that this is the Only God, over Whom is no other. Yea, and if there were another God over this, we should say in addition to all the rest, that on comparison this is better than that other. For by His works,⁵⁰ He appears better, as indeed we have stated before; and while they have no work of their Father to shew, this other is proved to be the only God.

But if any one,⁵¹ doting about questions, thinks that one ought to allegorize what the Apostles have said of God, let him throughly examine the aforesaid discourses of ours, wherein we have shewn that there is one God, the Ordainer and Maker of all, and have overthrown and laid bare their statements; and he will find them in harmony with the doctrine of the Apostles, and the fact to be such as they used to teach, and were persuaded, That there is One only God, the Framer of all. And when he shall have rejected from his own view so great an error, and such blasphemy against God, he will even of himself discover what is reasonable, acknowledging both the Law of Moses, and the grace of the New Testament, both of them as suited to their times, and vouchsafed for good to the human race by one and the same God.

§ 12.

For concerning all who are of unsound opinions, disturbed by the Law so given as they find it in Moses, and deeming it unlike and contrary to the doctrine of the Gospel, we shall find that they have not betaken themselves to searching out the causes of the difference of the two Testaments. Abandoned therefore by the Father’s Love, and puffed up by Satan, and having become converts to the teaching of Simon Magus, they have fallen away in their views from Him Who is God, and have imagined themselves to have discovered more than the Apostles, while they are devising another God. And the Apostles, they say, while they preached the Gospel, had yet the same ideas with the Jews; but they are more genuine and wiser than the Apostles.⁵² And hence Marcion and his party have set themselves to mutilate the Scriptures; some portions of them they refuse altogether to acknowledge, and the Gospel according to Luke, and Paul’s Epistles, they curtail, and say that those portions only, which they have themselves abridged, are genuine. But we, by God’s permission, will refute them in another treatise, even from those which are still retained among them.

But all the rest of those who are puffed up with the false name of knowledge, although they confess the Scriptures, change their interpretations, in the manner which we have explained in the first book. And the Marcionites indeed in the first instance blaspheme the Creator, calling Him the maker of evils; yet their theory concerning the first principle is more tolerable, in so far as they say that there are naturally two Gods, far apart from each other, the one good and the other bad;⁵³ whereas these Valentinians, though they manage their terms more creditably, styling Him Who is the Maker both Father and Lord and God, yet is their theory or school of a more blasphemous kind, not so much as saying that He emanated from any one of those Æons who are within the Pleroma, but from that Decay, which is driven out of the Pleroma.

Now all this was brought on them by their ignorance of the Scriptures, and of God’s Œconomy. We, in what is to come next in order, will state both the cause of the difference of the Testaments, and again their unity and agreement.

§ 13.

But to shew that both the Apostles and their disciples did so teach,⁵⁴ as the Church sets forth, and so teaching were perfected, on account of which also they were summoned to Him That is perfect;—Stephen also, teaching these things, while he was yet upon earth, saw the glory of God, and Jesus at His right Hand, and said, Behold,⁵⁵ I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. He did both so speak, and was stoned, and so fulfilled the perfect teaching, in all things imitating the Teacher of Martyrdom, and supplicating for those who were putting him to death, and saying,⁵⁶ Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.

Thus were they made perfect,⁵⁷ who knew but one and the same God, present with mankind in various dispensations from the beginning to the end: as saith the Prophet Hosea;⁵⁸ I fulfilled visions and by means of the Prophets I have been likened.

Those then who gave up their souls even to death for Christ’s Gospel, how could they speak according to men’s ingrafted opinion? Nay, had they so done, they would not have suffered: but their using to preach the contrary to such as dissented from the truth, was the very reason of their suffering. It is clear then they were not forsaking the truth, but were preaching it with all boldness to Jews and Greeks: to the Jews, that that Jesus, Whom they crucified is Son of God, that as Judge of quick and dead, He has received from the Father an Eternal Kingdom over Israel, as we have set forth; to the Greeks again announcing one only God, Who made all things, and His Son Jesus Christ.

§ 14.

But this is shewn more clearly by the Letter of the Apostles,⁵⁹ which they sent neither to the Jews nor to the Greeks, but to those of the Gentiles which believed in Christ, confirming their faith. For when certain had come down from Judea to Antioch,—in which town also first of all the disciples of the Lord were called Christians,⁶⁰ according to the faith which they had in Christ, and were persuading those who had believed in the Lord to be circumcised, and to practise whatever else pertained to the keeping of the Law;—and when Paul and Barnabas had gone up to Jerusalem to the other Apostles on account of this question, and the whole Church had assembled together,⁶¹ Peter said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know that of ancient days God made choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the Gospel and believe; and God Who seeth the heart bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, as also to us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we believe that we may be saved,⁶² even as they. After whom James said, Men and brethren, Simon hath related, how God hath devised to receive from among the Gentiles a people unto His Own Name. And so the discourses of the Prophets agree, as it is written, After this I will return and build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen and will build his shattered places, and raise it up; that the residue of men may seek the Lord, and all the nations, upon whom My Name is called, saith the Lord doing these things. Known from everlasting unto God is His work: wherefore I for my part judge that those be not disturbed, who from the Gentiles turn themselves unto God: but they must be instructed to abstain from vanities of idols, and from fornication and from blood: and that whatsoever they like not done to themselves, let them not do to others.

And after these sayings, and a general agreement, they wrote to them as follows;⁶³ The Apostles and brethren who are Elders, to the brethren of the Gentiles who are in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, health: Inasmuch as we have heard, that certain going out from us have troubled you with words, destroying your souls; whom we commanded not:—saying, Be ye circumcised and keep the Law:—it seemed good to us, assembling together, to send chosen men unto you with our very beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have given up their own life for the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, telling them also by word of mouth our sentence. For it hath pleased the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no further burthen than these things, which are necessary, that ye abstain from meats offered to idols and from blood, and fornication: and what ye would not have done to you, do ye not to others: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well, walking in the Holy Ghost.

From all these places then it is evident, that they were not teaching the being of another Father, but were giving the New Testament of liberty to such as in a new way believed in God by the Holy Ghost. Themselves also by their inquiry, whether the disciples ought still to be circumcised or no? proved clearly that they had not had any other God in their minds.

§ 15.

Moreover they would not have had such fear concerning the first Testament,⁶⁴ as to be unwilling even to eat with the Gentiles. For even Peter, though sent to instruct them, and terrified by such a vision, yet spake to them with much fear,⁶⁵ saying, Ye yourselves know that it is not dutiful for a man that is a Jew to join himself, or to keep company with a stranger. But to me God hath shewed, not to call any man common or unclean; wherefore I came without gainsaying. By these words signifying, that he should not have gone to them, had he not been commanded; for perhaps, as it was, he would not easily have given them Baptism, if he had not heard them prophesying while the Holy Ghost rested upon them.⁶⁶ And therefore he said, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? Whereby while he satisfies his companions, he also signifies, that had not the Holy Spirit rested upon them, there wanted not one to keep them back from Baptism.

James too and the Apostles which were with him,⁶⁷ while they permitted the Gentiles to act freely, giving us over to the Spirit of God, did themselves persist in the old observances, acknowledging the same God. So that even Peter with others, fearing lest he should be blamed by them, though before he ate with the Gentiles, because of the Vision, and of the Spirit which had rested on them:—yet on certain coming from James,⁶⁸ he separated himself, and did not eat with them. And the very same thing,⁶⁹ Paul saith, was also done by Barnabas.

Thus those Apostles, whom our Lord made witnesses of all His doing and all His teaching,⁷⁰ (for every where are found present with Him Peter and James and John) had reverence for the tenor of the Law which was given by Moses; implying that it comes of one and the same God. Which surely (as we before said) they would not have done, had they learned from our Lord of another Father, besides Him Who framed the Economy of the Law.