chides the ungodly of his time, "Wherefore, say you we are masters, and the
law of the Lord is with us? (26) Surely it has been given in vain, it is in
vain that the pen of the scribes " (has been made) - that is, you say
falsely that the Scripture is in your power, and that you possess the law of
God; for ye have made it of none effect.

(27) So also, when Moses broke the first tables of the law, he did not by
any means cast the Word of God from his hands in anger and shatter it - such
an action would be inconceivable, either of Moses or of God's Word - he only
broke the tables of stone, which, though they had before been holy from
containing the covenant wherewith the Jews had bound themselves in
obedience to God, had entirely lost their sanctity when the covenant had
been violated by the worship of the calf, and were, therefore, as liable to
perish as the ark of the covenant. (28) It is thus scarcely to be wondered
at, that the original documents of Moses are no longer extant, nor that the
books we possess met with the fate we have described, when we consider that
the true original of the Divine covenant, the most sacred object of all, has
totally perished.

(29) Let them cease, therefore, who accuse us of impiety, inasmuch as we
have said nothing against the Word of God, neither have we corrupted it, but
let them keep their anger, if they would wreak it justly, for the ancients
whose malice desecrated the Ark, the Temple, and the Law of God, and all
that was held sacred, subjecting them to corruption. (30) Furthermore,
if, according to the saying of the Apostle in 2 Cor. iii:3, they possessed
"the Epistle of Christ, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the
living God, not in tables of stone, but in the fleshy tables of the heart,"
let them cease to worship the letter, and be so anxious concerning it.

(31) I think I have now sufficiently shown in what respect Scripture should