any other moments of the same kind with which my life has been
sprinkled. James, the brother of the Lord, sent up agents to Antioch
with letters signed by himself. They had come to tell the people that I
had not authority to teach, and could not be considered by anybody as a
true apostle, for I had not known the Christ, it was said: and when I
answered them that my authority came straight from him, they began to
make little of my revelation, saying: even if thou didst hear the Christ
on the road to Damascus, as thou sayest, it was but for a few minutes,
and he couldn't teach thee all his doctrine in a few minutes. A year or
more would be required. Thou wast deceived. No vision can be taken as of
equal evidence to the senses. Those that we see in a vision may be but
the evil spirits that, if it were possible, would deceive the very
elect. If we question an apparition it answers anything that we wish.
The spectre shines for an instant and disappears quickly before one has
time to put further questions; the thoughts of the dreamer are not under
his control. To see the Son of God outside of the natural flesh is
impossible. Even an angel wishing to be seen has to clothe himself in
flesh. Nor were they satisfied with such sayings as these, but mentioned
the vision of infidels and evil livers, and to support their argument
thus quoted Scripture, proving that God sent visions when he was
irritated. As in Numbers, murmured Eleazar. And likewise in Exodus, said
Manahem, and he turned over the quires before him. These emissaries and
agents asked me how it was that even if Jesus had appeared to me he
could not have instructed me wrongly. If I wished to prove the truth of
my vision it were better for me to accept the teaching of the apostles,
who had received it directly from him; to which I made answer: my
revelation was not from Jesus when he lived in the flesh, but from the
spiritual Jesus; the spirit descended out of heaven to instruct me, and
if God has created us, which none will deny, he has created our souls
wherewith to know him, and he needs not the authority of other apostles
who speak as men, falling into the errors that men must fall into when
they speak, for every man's truth is made known unto him by God.

One day we came out of a house heated with argument, and as we loitered
by the pavement's edge regretting we had not said certain things whereby
we might have confuted each other, we came upon Peter in a public inn,