it was not through human strength that these things took place. They do not, indeed, come from nature at all, but that which was accomplished was above nature. Whenever something takes place which is above nature, and very much above it, and is also opportune and good, it is evident that it happens by a certain divine power and co-operation. For, consider—a fisherman, a tent-maker, a publican, an unlearned man, and an untaught man, coming from their outlandish province of Palestine, drove out from their own stronghold philosophers, and orators, and rhetoricians, and overcame them in a short time in the midst of many dangers, peoples and kings resisting them, nature itself being adverse: inveterate custom, force of habit, fighting them to the teeth: evil spirits armed against them: the devil in agitation setting all things in motion—monarchies, and rulers, and democracies, and nations, and cities, barbarians, heathens, philosophers, orators, sophists, lawmakers, laws, tribunals, every sort of chastisement, and manifold deaths. And yet all these things were overcome, and gave way at the voice of fishermen, just as a little dust which is unable to resist the force of strong winds. Let us learn, therefore, so to speak with the heathens as not to be like a herd of sheep or cattle, but let us be prepared to prove the hope which is in us. And, meanwhile, let us insist on the chief point, which is no small one, and say to them, How was it that the weak circumvented the strong, that twelve men conquered the world, not in the strength of their own weapons, but in their nakedness fighting armed men? For, say, if twelve men, inexperienced in war, breaking in upon a huge array of armed warriors, not only weaponless themselves, but feeble in body, were to suffer nothing at their hands, and were to escape scatheless from a thousand missiles, and, standing in their midst with unprotected bodies, were to put them all to flight, not using weapons, but fighting with their hands, slaying some and taking others into captivity, and not receiving a scratch themselves, nor reached by a thousand blows aimed at them—who would ascribe this to man alone? Yet the victory of the Apostles was far more wonderful than this. For it is much more stupendous that an unlearned man, an untaught man, and a fisherman should circumvent so much cleverness, than that an unarmed man should come scatheless out of the fight: that they should be held back neither by their small numbers nor their poverty, nor by dangers, nor by force of habit, nor by the difficulty of the enterprise which they had undertaken, nor by death looking them daily in the face, nor by the multitude of those deceived, nor by the fame of deceivers.