The Gospel of Barnabas

90.

When the prayer was done, his disciples again drew near to Jesus, and he opened his mouth and said: 'Draw near, John, for to-day will I speak unto thee of all that thou hast asked. Faith is a seal whereby God sealeth his elect: which seal he gave to his messenger, at whose hands every one that is elect hath received faith. For even as God is one, so is the faith one. Wherefore God, having created before all things his messenger, gave to him before aught else the faith which is as it were a likeness of God and of all that God hath done and said. And so the faithful by faith seeth all things, better than one seeth with his eyes; because the eyes can err; nay they do almost always err; but faith erreth never, for it hath for foundation God and his word. Believe me that by faith are saved all the elect of God. And it is certain that without faith it is impossible for anyone to please God. Wherefore Satan seeketh not to bring to naught fasting and prayer, alms and pilgrimages, nay rather he inciteth unbelievers thereto, for he taketh pleasure in seeing man work without receiving pay. But he taketh pains with all diligence to bring faith to nought, wherefore faith ought especially to be guarded with diligence, and the safest course will be to abandon the "Wherefore," seeing that the "Wherefore" drove men out of Paradise and changed Satan from a most beautiful angel into a horrible devil.'

Then said John: 'Now, how shall we abandon the "Wherefore" seeing that it is the gate of knowledge?'

Jesus answered: 'Nay, rather the "Wherefore" is the gate of hell.'

Thereupon John kept silence, when Jesus added: 'When thou knowest that God hath said a thing, who art thou, O man, that thou shouldst say, forsooth, "Wherefore hath thou so said, O God: wherefore hast thou so done?" Shall the earthen vessel, perchance say to its maker: "Wherefore hast thou made me to hold water and not to contain balsam?" Verily I say unto you, it is necessary against every temptation to strengthen yourself with this word, saying "God hath so said": "So hath God done": "God so willeth"; for so doing thou shalt live safely.'