Prescription against Heretics 22

But since the proof is so ready to hand that, if it is brought forward at once, nothing further needs discussion, let us for the moment give place to the other side, as if we had not brought it forward, in case they think they can do anything to weaken this prescription. They are accustomed to say that the apostles did not know everything; and, driven by the same madness, they turn the matter upside down again and say that the apostles did know everything, but did not hand everything on to everyone. In either case they expose Christ to reproach, for having sent apostles either too little instructed or too little straightforward. Who of sound mind, then, can believe that those were ignorant of anything whom the Lord gave as teachers, keeping them inseparable in his company, his discipleship, and his daily life, to whom he explained privately whatever was obscure, telling them that it had been given to them to know the secrets which the people were not permitted to understand? Was anything hidden from Peter, who was called the rock on which the church was to be built, who received the keys of the kingdom of heaven and the power of loosing and binding in heaven and on earth? Was anything hidden from John, most beloved of the Lord, who leaned on his breast, to whom alone the Lord pointed out Judas the betrayer beforehand, whom he entrusted to Mary as a son in his own place? What did he mean them not to know, to whom he even displayed his glory, and Moses and Elijah, and besides that the Father's voice from heaven? Not that he rejected the others, but because “every word shall stand on three witnesses.” So, then, those were ignorant too, to whom after the resurrection he deigned, on the road, to expound all the Scriptures! He had indeed once said, “I have many things still to say to you, but you cannot bear them now”; yet he added, “When that Spirit of truth has come, he will lead you into all truth.” He shows that those were ignorant of nothing whom he had promised would attain all truth through the Spirit of truth. And he certainly fulfilled the promise, as the Acts of the Apostles prove by the descent of the Holy Spirit. Those who do not accept this Scripture can neither belong to the Holy Spirit, since they cannot yet acknowledge that the Holy Spirit was sent to the disciples, nor claim to defend the church, since they have no means of proving when and in what cradle this body was founded. So important is it to them to have no proofs of what they defend, lest proofs be admitted too that expose what they falsely assert.