force the book upon him if he resisted, “Hold it, mark, read, it is the Gospel you have in your hands.” But why, I ask thee, why dost thou so rudely accost3981 this feeble one? Do not be so eager; speak more composedly, more tranquilly. See, it is the Gospel I have in my hands; and what is there in it? He answers: “The Gospel declares that Christ said what thou deniest.” And wilt thou believe that Christ said it, because the Gospel declares it? “Decidedly for that reason,” says he. I marvel exceedingly how thou shouldest say that Christ lieth, and the Gospel doth not lie. But lest haply when I speak of the Gospel, thou shouldest think of the book itself, and imagine the parchment and ink to be the Gospel, see what the Greek word means; Gospel is “a good messenger,” or “a good message.” The messenger then doth not lie, and doth He who sent him, lie? This messenger, the Evangelist to wit, to give his name also, this John who wrote this, did he lie concerning Christ, or say the truth? Choose which you will, I am ready to hear you on either side. If he spake falsely, you have no means of proving that Christ spake those words. If he said the truth, truth cannot flow from the fountain of falsehood. Who is the Fountain? Christ: let John be the stream. The stream comes to me, and you say to me, “Drink securely;” yea, whereas you alarm me as to the Fountain Himself, whereas you tell me there is falsehood in the Fountain, you say to me, “Drink securely.” What do I drink? What said John, that Christ spake falsely? Whence came John? From Christ. Is he who came from Him, to tell me truth, when He from whom he came lied? I have read in the Gospel plainly, “John lay on the Lord’s Breast;”3982 but I con- clude that he drank in truth. What saw he as he lay on the Lord’s Breast? What drank he in? what, but that which he poured forth? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made. That which was made in Him was life, and the Life was the Light of men; And the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended It not;” 3983 nevertheless It shineth, and though I chance to have some ob- scurity, and cannot thoroughly comprehend It, still It shineth. “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John; he came to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not the Light:” who? John: who? John the Baptist. For of him saith John the Evangelist, “He was not the Light;” of whom the Lord saith, “He was a burning, and a shining lamp.”3984 But a lamp can be lighted, and extinguished. What then? whence drawest thou the distinction? of what place art thou enquiring? He to whom the lamp bare witness, “was the True Light.”3985 Where John added, “the True,” there art thou looking 3981 Conturbas. 3982 John xiii. 23. 3983 John i. 1, etc. 3984 John v. 35. 3985 John i. 9. 1052 On the words of the Gospel of John vii. 6, etc., where Jesus said that He…