15:1
Ac ne o cuipiam meus sermo praesumptuosus appireat, si quales non esse vel esse debeant omnes sacerdotes p ostendat; non generaliter, sed de uno mihi video esse dicendum, et de te potissimum qu hoc mihi q ( pace tua dixerim) temere dclegasti periculosi sermonis officium. Nec incognita vobis, sed usitata debeo comprehendere, quæ solemus inter nos mutua confabulatione conferre. Quibus breviter declaratis, non puto quod relationem meam, r magis quam disputationem quiquam juste pissit alicujus temeritatis arguere; quasi patres meos audeam docere, a quibus normam vivendi accipere sum paratus et discere.
And lest my discourse appear presumptuous to anyone, if it shows what all priests ought or ought not to be; I see that I must speak not in general, but about one man, and chiefly about you, who (let me say it with your leave) have rashly delegated to me this office of a perilous discourse. Nor ought I to set forth things unknown to you, but customary, which we are wont to confer with one another in mutual conversation. These being briefly declared, I do not think that anyone can justly accuse my report, rather than disputation, of any rashness; as though I dared to teach my fathers, from whom I am ready to receive and to learn the rule of living.
免得我的講論對人顯為自負，若它指明一切祭司當是或不當是怎樣的人；我看出我所當說的不是泛論，乃是論到一個人，並且主要是論到你，就是你（容我蒙你恩准而說）冒昧地把這危險講論的職分託付給我。我也不當陳述你們所不知道的事，乃是那慣常的事，就是我們素來在彼此交談中互相切磋的。這些既已簡略地說明，我想沒有人能公正地指控我的陳述—而非辯論—有任何冒昧；好像我膽敢教導我的諸父，就是我所預備從他們領受並學習生活準則的人。