Herm. Then you must jump out of your skin, when in the second chapter of the Acts of the apostles (verse 22), you read that Peter calls him but a man of God, saying: “Jesus of Nazareth, a man[310] approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him.” Again, in the same chapter (verse 32): “This Jesus hath God raised up.” Again, in the third chapter (verse 15): “Whom God hath raised from the dead.” Again, in Acts 4:10: “Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead.” Again, Paul (Acts 17:31) says: “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”
Fr. Corn. Yes, yes, tush, tush, tush, bah! these are the same arguments which this damned Erasmus prefers, in his book, de modo orandi, and in Apologia ad Episcopum Hispalensem, Alphonsum Mauricum. But you Trinitarian, if you will call Christ only the Son of God, you do not esteem him better than Adam; for Luke says in his third chapter, that Adam also was the son of God. Bah! see once, with what we are tormented.
Herm. That be far from us, that we should not esteem Christ better than Adam; for because we believe, that the body of Christ is not earthy of the earth, as was Adam the first man, but that he is a heavenly man, as Paul writes in the fifteenth chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians; therefore we are put to death by you; hence you yourselves do not esteem him better than Adam.
Fr. Corn. O you accursed Trinitarian, how the devil does wag your tongue. Bah, if you will not believe, that Christ is truly man, and if you will also not believe, that he is the true God, what * * * is he then?
Herm. Do not talk so unbecomingly; for Christ is no devil; but he is the true Son of God, as John writes in the fifth chapter of his first epistle; and he is also a true man, as Paul writes in the fifth chapter of his epistle to the Romans.
Fr. Corn. Bah, but does not St. John in the same chapter say of the Son: “This is the true God;” eh?
Herm. No, for John says: We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know the true God, and that we should be in his true Son. This is the true God, and eternal life. Hereby John means this true God whom the Son taught us to know.
Fr. Corn. Bah, you Trinitarian; now it occurs to me that St. John says in the same chapter: There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. Bah, here you are soundly cornered, poor Trinitarian that you are.
Herm. I have often heard it said, that Erasmus in his Annotations charges you papists with having interpolated these words, and that they are not contained in the Greek text, even as you people have taken out and added many other things in the holy Scriptures.
Fr. Corn. Bah, may the fire of hell forever burn and torment you with your devilish, damned, accursed heretic Erasmus. Bah, I could tear my cap for anger, that I could.