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¹ Other things too have been said by one of the older sages, none of which I have drawn on for the present argument, holding in this to Paul’s principle: not to build on another’s foundation, boasting in what is ready-made, but rather to take pride in the whole as in something of my own—if indeed our weakness has any good of its own, and the whole is not of grace. I hear, too, that some in our own day have composed no small books on this doctrine, and have perhaps brought gold, precious stones, and purple to God’s tabernacle; but accept, for your part, the skins of my own coarse hide—which have, if nothing else, at least the red dye taken from the Word who took on our coarseness for my sake, and who poured out his blood, that he might initiate me into his mysteries, both the others and those concerning the Spirit, and might show me to be royal and anointed, sealing and anointing me with his blood and his Spirit.