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of the things written, or to introduce things not written, our Lord Jesus Christ having said: My sheep hear my voice; and before this having said: but they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him; for they do not know the voice of strangers; and of the Apostle, in a human example, more forcefully forbidding to add or take anything away from the divinely-inspired Scriptures, through which he says: Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.

Therefore, we have always and now resolved to avoid every voice and notion foreign to the Lord's teaching, and of the purpose, as I said before, now set before us and you, being vastly different from those assumptions, by which at other times we were led to write or say something in a different way. For then the refutation of heresy and the overthrow of the devil's method was the earnest pursuit, but now a simple confession and manifestation of the sound faith is set forth. Therefore, not even the same character of discourse is fitting for us now. For just as a man would not take in his hands the same tools for warring and farming (for different are the tools of those at leisure working for their own living, and different are the full suits of armor of those arrayed in war), so he who exhorts in sound doctrine would not say the same things as he who refutes those who contradict. For one is the kind of refutative discourse, and another is the kind of exhortatory discourse. One is the simplicity of those confessing piety in peace, and different are the labors of those who stand against the oppositions of knowledge falsely so called. So that if we, too, in this manner, managing our words with judgment, should everywhere use them in accordance with the guarding or building up of the faith, at one time more contentiously resisting those who in the devil's method try to destroy it, and at another time more simply and familiarly explaining it to those wishing to be built up in it, we are doing nothing other than that which was said by the Apostle: To know how you ought to answer every man. But before coming to the confession of 31.681 faith itself, it is worthwhile to point this out as well: that the majesty and glory of God, being both incomprehensible in word and incomprehensible to the mind, could be neither declared nor understood by a single utterance or thought; but through many things that revolve in our usage, the divinely-inspired Scripture has with difficulty hinted, as through a glass, to the pure in heart.

For face to face, and the perfect knowledge, is promised to be given to the worthy in the age to come; but now, even if one is Paul, or if Peter, he sees truly what he sees, and is not deceived, nor does he imagine, yet he sees through a glass, and in a riddle, and thankfully receiving now that which is in part, he joyfully awaits that which is perfect in the future. This the apostle Paul confirms, constructing his argument in some such way as this, that just as, When I was a child, just learning the first principles of the oracles of God, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, and hasten to arrive at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, I put away childish things. And I have had so much progress and improvement in the comprehension of divine things, that the knowledge in the Judaic worship resembles the movements of an infant's mind, but the knowledge through the Gospel is fitting for a man already perfect in all things. So, in comparison with the knowledge to be revealed to the worthy in the age to come, even what now seems perfect in knowledge is something so small and dim, so as to be left far behind by that in the future

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γραμμένων, ἢ ἐπεισάγειν τῶν μὴ γεγραμμένων, τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰπόντος· Τὰ ἐμὰ πρόβατα τῆς ἐμῆς φωνῆς ἀκούει· καὶ πρὸ τούτου δὲ εἰρηκότος· Ἀλλοτρίῳ δὲ οὐ μὴ ἀκολουθήσωσιν, ἀλλὰ φεύξονται ἀπ' αὐτοῦ· ὅτι οὐκ οἴδασι τῶν ἀλ λοτρίων τὴν φωνήν· καὶ τοῦ Ἀποστόλου ἐν ὑπο δείγματι ἀνθρωπίνῳ σφοδρότερον ἀπαγορεύοντος τὸ προσθεῖναι ἢ ὑφελεῖν τι ἐν ταῖς θεοπνεύστοις Γρα φαῖς, δι' ὧν φησιν· Ὅμως ἀνθρώπου κεκυρωμένην διαθήκην οὐδεὶς ἀθετεῖ, ἢ ἐπιδιατάσσεται.

Πᾶσαν μὲν οὖν ἀλλοτρίαν τῆς τοῦ Κυρίου διδα σκαλίας φωνὴν καὶ ἔννοιαν οὕτως ἡμεῖς πάντοτε καὶ νῦν ἀποφεύγειν ἐγνώκαμεν, καὶ τοῦ σκοποῦ δὲ, ὡς προεῖπον, τοῦ νῦν ἡμῖν τε καὶ ὑμῖν προκειμένου, καταπολὺ διαφέροντος τῶν ὑποθέσεων ἐκείνων, ὑφ' ὧν ἄλλοτε ἄλλως ἐπὶ τὸ γράψαι τι ἢ εἰπεῖν προήχθη μεν. ∆ιότι τότε μὲν αἱρέσεως ἔλεγχος καὶ ἀνατροπὴ τῆς τοῦ διαβόλου μεθοδείας ἐσπουδάζετο, νῦν δὲ τῆς ὑγιαινούσης πίστεως ὁμολογία τε καὶ φανέρωσις ἁπλῆ πρόκειται. Οὐκοῦν οὔτε τοῦ λόγου χαρακτὴρ ὁ αὐτὸς ἡμῖν καὶ νῦν ἁρμόζει. Ὡς γὰρ οὐκ ἂν λάβοι μετὰ χεῖρας ἄνθρωπος σκεύη τὰ αὐτὰ πολεμῶν καὶ γεωργῶν (ἄλλα γὰρ σκεύη τῶν ἐν ἀδείᾳ τὰ πρὸς τὸ ζῇν ἑαυτοῖς ἐκπονούντων, ἄλλαι δὲ πανοπλίαι τῶν ἐν πολέμῳ παρατασσομένων), οὕτως οὐκ ἂν εἴποι τὰ αὐτὰ ὁ παρακαλῶν ἐν τῇ ὑγιαινούσῃ διδασκαλίᾳ. καὶ ὁ τοὺς ἀντιλέγοντας ἐλέγχων. Ἄλλο γὰρ εἶδος λόγου ἐλεγκτικοῦ, καὶ ἄλλο εἶδος λόγου παρακλητικοῦ. Ἄλλη ἁπλότης τῶν ἐν εἰρήνῃ τὴν εὐσέβειαν ὁμολο γούντων, καὶ ἄλλοι ἱδρῶτες τῶν πρὸς τὰς ἀντιθέ σεις τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως ἱσταμένων. Ὥστε ἂν τούτῳ τῷ τρόπῳ καὶ ἡμεῖς οἰκονομοῦντες τοὺς λόγους ἡμῶν ἐν κρίσει, πανταχοῦ τοῖς πρὸς τὴν φυλακὴν ἢ οἰκοδομὴν τῆς πίστεως ἀκολούθως χρησαίμεθα, ποτὲ μὲν τοῖς ἐν μεθοδείᾳ τοῦ διαβόλου καταλύειν πειρω μένοις αὐτὴν ἀγωνιστικώτερον ἀνθιστάμενοι, ποτὲ δὲ τοῖς οἰκοδομεῖσθαι βουλομένοις ἐν αὐτῇ ἁπλοϊ κώτερον καὶ οἰκειότερον αὐτὴν ἐξηγούμενοι, καὶ οὐδὲν ἄλλο ποιοῦντες ἢ ἐκεῖνο τὸ παρὰ τοῦ Ἀποστό λου εἰρημένον· Εἰδέναι πῶς δεῖ ὑμᾶς ἑνὶ ἑκά στῳ ἀποκριθῆναι. Πρὶν δὲ ἐλθεῖν ἐπ' αὐτὴν τὴν τῆς 31.681 πίστεως ὁμολογίαν, κἀκεῖνο ἐπισημήνασθαι ἄξιον· ὅτι τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ μεγαλειότητα καὶ δόξαν, καὶ λόγῳ ἀπερίληπτον οὖσαν, καὶ νῷ ἀκατάληπτον, ἑνὶ μὲν ῥήματι ἢ νοήματι οὔτε δηλωθῆναι, οὔτε νοηθῆναι οἷόν τε ἦν· διὰ πλειόνων δὲ τῶν ἐνστρεφομένων τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ χρήσει ἡ θεόπνευστος Γραφὴ μόλις τοῖς καθαροῖς τῇ καρδίᾳ, ὡς δι' ἐσόπτρου, ᾐνίξατο.

Τὸ μὲν γὰρ πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον, καὶ ἡ τελεία ἐπίγνω σις ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι αἰῶνι τοῖς ἀξίοις ἀποδοθῆναι ἐπήγγελται· νῦν δὲ, κἂν Παῦλός τις ᾖ, κἂν Πέτρος, βλέπει μὲν ἀληθῶς ἃ βλέπει, καὶ οὐ πλανᾶται, οὐδὲ φαντάζεται, δι' ἐσόπτρου δὲ ὅμως βλέπει, καὶ ἐν αἰνίγματι, καὶ τὸ ἐκ μέρους νῦν εὐχαρίστως δε χόμενος, τὸ τέλειον εἰς τὸ μέλλον περιχαρῶς ἀπεκδέ χεται. Ὅπερ πιστοῦται μὲν ὁ ἀπόστολος Παῦλος, τῷ τοιούτῳ τινὶ τρόπῳ κατασκευάζων τὸν λόγον, ὅτι Ὥσπερ, Ὅτε μὲν ἤμην νήπιος, ἄρτι τὰ στοιχεῖα τῆς ἀρχῆς τῶν λογίων τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐκμανθάνων, ὡς νήπιος ἐλάλουν, ὡς νήπιος ἐφρόνουν, ὡς νή πιος ἐλογιζόμην· ὅτε δὲ γέγονα ἀνὴρ, καὶ εἰς μέτρον ἡλικίας τοῦ πληρώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐπεί γομαι φθάσαι, τὰ τοῦ νηπίου κατήργηκα. Καὶ τοσαύτην ἔσχον ἐν τῇ τῶν θείων καταλήψει τὴν προ κοπὴν καὶ βελτίωσιν, ὥστε τὴν μὲν ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαϊκῇ λατρείᾳ ἐπίγνωσιν νηπίας φρενὸς ἐοικέναι κινήμασιν, ἀνδρὶ δὲ ἤδη τὰ πάντα τελείῳ προσήκουσαν τὴν διὰ τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου γνῶσιν. Οὕτως ἐν συγκρίσει τῆς ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι αἰῶνι τοῖς ἀξίοις ἀποκαλυφθησομένης γνώσεως, καὶ τὸ δοκοῦν νῦν ἐν τῇ γνώσει τέλειον βραχύ τι καὶ ἀμυδρότερον τοσοῦτον, ὡς πλέον ἀπολιμ πάνεσθαι τῆς ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι