Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily XVII/Chapter 19

Chapter XIX.&#8212;Opposition to Peter Unreasonable.

&#8220;If, then, our Jesus appeared to you in a vision, made Himself known to you, and spoke to you, it was as one who is enraged with an adversary; and this is the reason why it was through visions and dreams, or through revelations that were from without, that He spoke to you.&#160; But can any one be rendered fit for instruction through apparitions?&#160; And if you will say, &#8216;It is possible,&#8217; then I ask, &#8216;Why did our teacher abide and discourse a whole year to those who were awake?&#8217;&#160; And how are we to believe your word, when you tell us that He appeared to you?&#160; And how did He appear to you, when you entertain opinions contrary to His teaching?&#160; But if you were seen and taught by Him, and became His apostle for a single hour, proclaim His utterances, interpret His sayings, love His apostles, contend not with me who companied with Him.&#160; For in direct opposition to me, who am a firm rock, the foundation of the Church, you now stand.&#160; If you were not opposed to me, you would not accuse me, and revile the truth proclaimed by me, in order that I may not be believed when I state what I myself have heard with my own ears from the Lord, as if I were evidently a person that was condemned and in bad repute. &#160; But if you say that I am condemned, you bring an accusation against God, who revealed the Christ to me, and you inveigh against Him who pronounced me blessed on account of the revelation.&#160; But if, indeed, you really wish to work in the cause of truth, learn first of all from us what we have learned from Him, and, becoming a disciple of the truth, become a fellow-worker with us.&#8221;