5. [If the fault be a point of faith, let
the document be pointed out to me. Again, let a fair and
impartial inquiry be appointed. Let the accusation be read; let
it be brought to the test, whether it does not arise from ignorance in
the accuser, not from blame in the matter of the writing. For
right things often do not seem such to those who are deficient in
accurate judgment. Equal weights seem unequal when the arms of
the balance are of different sizes.] Men whose sense of taste is
destroyed by sickness, sometimes think honey sour. A diseased eye
does not see many things which do exist, and notes many things which do
not exist. The same thing frequently takes place with regard to
the force of words, when the critic is inferior to the writer.
The critic ought really to set out with much the same training and
equipment as the author. A man ignorant of agriculture is quite
incapable of criticising husbandry, and the distinctions between
harmony and discord can only be adequately judged by a trained
musician. But any one who chooses will set up for a literary
critic, though he cannot tell us where he went to school, or how much
time was spent in his education, and knows nothing about letters at
all. I see clearly that, even in the case of the
words τοῖς
λόγοις
πνεύματος
ἁγίου, the reading of the
mss. Bas. Sec. and Paris. The
commoner reading is λογίοις. of the Holy
Spirit, the investigation of the terms is to be attempted not by
every one, but by him who has the spirit of discernment, as the
Apostle has taught us, in the differences of gifts;—“For
to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the
word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same
Spirit; to another the gift of healing by the same Spirit; to
another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another
discerning of spirits.”
1 Cor. xii.
8–10. If,
therefore, my gifts are spiritual, he who wishes to judge them must
shew proof of his own possession of the gift of “discerning of
spirits.” If, on the contrary, as he calumniously
contends, my gifts are of the wisdom of this world, let him shew
that he is an adept in this world’s wisdom, and I will submit
myself to his verdict. And [let no one suppose that I am
making excuses to evade
the charge. I put it into your hands, dearest brethren, to
investigate for yourselves the points alleged against me. Are
you so slow of intelligence as to be wholly dependent upon advocates
for the discovery of the truth? If the points in question seem
to you to be quite plain of themselves, persuade the jesters to drop
the dispute. [If there be anything you do not understand, put
questions to me, through appointed persons who will do justice to
me; or ask of me explanations in writing. And take all kinds
of pains that nothing may be left unsifted.