{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/008/0081100.htm","path":"chr/ecf/008/0081100.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/008/0081100.htm","text":"Chapter V.\u2014Peter Doubts Simon\u2019s Honesty.\nWhen Simon had made these statements, Peter said to him: \u201cCan you call to witness that these are your beliefs that being Himself,\u2014I do not mean Him whom you speak of now as being unrevealed, but Him in whom you believe, though you do not confess Him? For you are talking nonsense when you define one thing in stead of another. Wherefore, if you call Him to witness that you believe what you say, I shall answer you. But if you continue discussing with me what you do not believe, you compel me to strike the empty air.\u201d And Simon said: \u201cIt is from some of your own disciples that I have heard that this is the truth.\u201d 1377 And Peter said: \u201cDo not bear false witness?\u201d And Simon said: \u201cDo not rebuke me, most insolent man.\u201d And Peter said: \u201cSo long as you do not tell who it was who said so, I affirm that you are a liar.\u201d And Simon said: \u201cSuppose that I myself have got up these doctrines, or that I heard them from some other, give me your answer to them. For if they cannot be overturned, then I have learned that this is the truth.\u201d And Peter said: \u201cIf it is a human invention, I will not reply to p. 326 it; but if you are held fast by the supposition that it is the truth, acknowledge to me that this is the case, and I can then myself say something in regard to the matter.\u201d And Simon said: \u201cOnce for all, then, these doctrines seem to me to be true. Give me your reply, if you have aught to say against them.\u201d\nThe words in italics are inserted to fill up a lacuna which occurs here in the Vaticanms.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol VIII: Pseudo-Clementine Literatu...","type":"page"}