Epistles

But I beseech you to do nothing in factiousness, but after the teaching of Christ. For I heard some men saying, if I find it not in the charters in the Gospel I do not believe,[*](The Greek, without punctuation, is as ambiguous as the English: If I find it not in the charters,—in the Gospel I do not believe, or If I find it not in the charters, in the Gospel, I do not believe. Probably the former should be preferred on the ground that the charters probably means the Old Testament.) and when I said to them that it is in the Scripture, they answered me, that is exactly the question. But to me the charters are Jesus Christ, the inviolable charter is his cross, and death, and resurrection, and the faith which is through him;—in these I desire to be justified by your prayers.

The priests likewise are noble, but the High[*](The old and new Dispensations) Priest who has been entrusted with the Holy of Holies is greater, and only to him have the secret things of God been entrusted. He is the door of the Father, through which enter Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the Prophets and the Apostles and the Church. All these things are joined in the unity of God.

But the Gospel has somewhat of preeminence, the coming of the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, his passion, and the resurrection. For the beloved prophets had a message pointing to him, but the Gospel is the perfection of incorruption. All things together are good if you hold the faith in love.