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,219    Expedita. 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,220    Susam rursus convertun. 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),221    Magistros. 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 things222    Mark iv. 34. which were obscure, telling them that “to them it was given to know those mysteries,”223    Matt. xiii. 11. 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,”224    Matt. xvi. 18. [See Kaye p. 222, also Elucidation II.] who also obtained “the keys of the kingdom of heaven,”225    Ver. 19. with the power of “loosing and binding in heaven and on earth?”226    Ver. 19. Was anything, again, concealed from John, the Lord’s most beloved disciple, who used to lean on His breast227    John xxi. 20. to whom alone the Lord pointed Judas out as the traitor,228    John xiii. 25. [N.B. loco suo.] whom He commended to Mary as a son in His own stead?229    John xix. 26. 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?230    Matt. xvii. 1–8. Not as if He thus disapproved231    Reprobans. of all the rest, but because “by three witnesses must every word be established.”232    Deut. xix. 15, and 2 Cor. xiii. 1. After the same fashion,233    Itaque, ironical. too, (I suppose,) were they ignorant to whom, after His resurrection also, He vouchsafed, as they were journeying together, “to expound all the Scriptures.”234    Luke xxiv. 27. No doubt235    Plane. 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.”236    John xvi. 12, 13. 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 Scripture237    See Tertullian’s Anti-Marcion, iv. 5, and v. 2 (Trans. pp. 187 and 377). 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 themselves238    Nec ecclesiam se dicant defendere. who positively have no means of proving when, and with what swaddling-clothes239    Incunabulis, infant nursing. 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 exposures240    Traductiones. of those things which they mendaciously devise.

CAPUT XXII.

0033CApostolos autem (quidquid in contrarium soleat dicere diversa pars) omnia et scisse et tradidisse; quibus et omnes Scripturas edisserere Christus dignatus est, et Spiritum Sanctum misit, qui eos deduceret in omnem veritatem.

Sed quoniam tam expedita probatio est, ut si 0034A statim proferatur, nihil jam sit retractandum; ac si prolata non sit a nobis, locum interim demus diversae parti, si quid putant ad infirmandam hanc praescriptionem movere se posse. Solent dicere, non omnia Apostolos scisse , eadem agitati dementia qua susum jusum convertunt , omnia quidem Apostolos scisse, sed non omnia omnibus tradidisse; in utroque Christum reprehensioni subjicientes , qui aut minus instructos, aut parum simplices Apostolos miserit. Quis igitur integrae mentis credere potest aliquid eos ignorasse, quos magistros Dominus dedit, individuos habens in comitatu, in discipulatu, in convictu; quibus obscura quaeque seorsim disserebat, illis dicens datum esse cognoscere arcana, quae populo intelligere non liceret? Latuit aliquid 0034B Petrum , aedificandae Ecclesiae petram dictum (Matth., XVI, 18, 19), claves regni coelorum consecutum, et solvendi et alligandi in coelis et in terris potestatem? Latuit et Joannem aliquid, dilectissimum Domino, pectori ejus incubantem, cui soli Dominus Judam traditorem praemonstravit, quem loco suo filium Mariae demandavit? Quid eos ignorasse voluit, quibus etiam gloriam suam exhibuit, et Moysen et Heliam, et insuper de coelo Patris vocem? non quasi caeteros reprobans, sed quoniam in tribus testibus stabit omne verbum (Matth., XVIII, 16). Ignoraverunt itaque et illi, quibus post resurrectionem quoque in itinere omnes Scripturas edisserere dignatus est? Dixerat plane aliquando: Multa habeo adhuc vobis loqui, sed non potestis modo ea sustinere (Jean, XVI, 12, 13): tamen 0034C adjiciens: Cum venerit ille Spiritus veritatis, ipse vos deducet in omnem veritatem, ostendit illos nihil ignorasse, quos omnem veritatem consecuturos per Spiritum veritatis repromiserat; et utique implevit repromissum, probantibus Actis Apostolorum descensum Spiritus Sancti. Quam Scripturam qui non recipiunt, 0035A nec Spiritus Sancti esse possunt, qui necdum Spiritum possint agnoscere discentibus missum, sed nec Ecclesiam defendere, qui, quando et quibus incunabulis institutum est hoc corpus, probare non habent. Tanti est enim illis non habere probationes eorum quae defendunt, ne pariter admittantur traductiones eorum quae mentiuntur.