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Truly Jesus Himself shall extinguish by His presence that last
persecution which is to be made by Antichrist. For so it is written,
that "He shall slay him with the breath of His mouth, and empty him
with the brightness of His presence." It is customary to ask, When
shall that be? But this is quite unreasonable. For had it been
profitable for us to know this, by whom could it better have been told
than by God Himself, the Master, when the disciples questioned
Him? For they were not silent when with Him, but inquired of Him,
saying, "Lord, wilt Thou at this time present the kingdom to
Israel, or when?" But He said, "It is not for you to know the
times, which the Father hath put in His own power." When they got
that answer, they had not at all questioned Him about the hour, or
day, or year, but about the time. In vain, then, do we attempt to
compute definitely the years that may remain to this world, when we may
hear from the mouth of the Truth that it is not for us to know this.
Yet some have said that four hundred, some five hundred, others a
thousand years, may be completed from the ascension of the Lord up to
His final coming. But to point out how each of them supports his own
opinion would take too long, and is not necessary; for indeed they use
human conjectures, and bring forward nothing certain from the authority
of the canonical Scriptures. But on this subject He puts aside the
figures of the calculators, and orders silence, who says, "It is
not for you to know the times, which the Father hath put in His own
power."
But because this sentence is in the Gospel, it is no wonder that the
worshippers of the many and false gods have been none the less
restrained from feigning that by the responses of the demons, whom they
worship as gods, it has been fixed how long the Christian religion is
to last. For when they saw that it could not be consumed by so many
and great persecutions, but rather drew from them wonderful
enlargements, they invented I know not what Greek verses, as if
poured forth by a divine oracle to some one consulting it, in which,
indeed, they make Christ innocent of this, as it were, sacrilegious
crime, but add that Peter by enchantments brought it about that the
name of Christ should be worshipped for three hundred and sixty-five
years, and, after the completion of that number of years, should at
once take end. Oh the hearts of learned men! Oh, learned wits,
meet to believe such things about Christ as you are not willing to
believe in Christ, that His disciple Peter did not learn magic arts
from Him, yet that, although He was innocent, His disciple was an
enchanter, and chose that His name rather than his own should be
worshipped through his magic arts, his great labors and perils, and at
last even the shedding of his blood! If Peter the enchanter made the
world so love Christ, what did Christ the innocent do to make Peter
so love Him? Let them answer themselves then, and, if they can,
let them understand that the world, for the sake of eternal life, was
made to love Christ by that same supernal grace which made Peter also
love Christ for the sake of the eternal life to be received from Him,
and that even to the extent of suffering temporal death for Him. And
then, what kind of gods are these who are able to predict such things,
yet are not able to avert them, succumbing in such a way to a single
enchanter and wicked magician (who, as they say, having slain a
yearling boy and torn him to pieces, buried him with nefarious
rites), that they permitted the sect hostile to themselves to gain
strength for so great a time, and to surmount the horrid cruelties of
so many great persecutions, not by resisting but by suffering, and to
procure the overthrow of their own images, temples, rituals, and
oracles? Finally, what god was it, not ours, certainly, but one of
their own, who was either enticed or compelled by so great wickedness
to perform these things? For those verses say that Peter bound, not
any demon, but a god to do these things. Such a god have they who
have not Christ.
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