Commentarii in sacram Actuum Apostolicorum historiam, facili et perspicua methodo conscripti a Benedicto Aretio bernensi theologo. Cum indice rerum et verborum memorabilium quae in hisce continentur.

Rom. 1. They have truly been judged by Cicero to lie and deceive: nor do they fear the judgment of the remaining centuries that will be passed upon them. Therefore, since these things are so, it must be confessed that those same uses pertain primarily to sacred history. For this truly is the history which hands down to us an undoubted testimony of the times, and a most certain chronology study of time/dating from the foundation of the world. It is this which, having put to flight the darkness of our minds, shines upon us with the eternal light of truth. It is this which brings to memory both the memorabilia of this life, and also the documents of eternal life and our salvation. It is the best Mistress of life, omitting nothing of those things which pertain to the mastership of both lives. It is the only messenger of ancient Antiquity, bringing us a most certain and useful message about the structure of the world, about the fall of man and his redemption, about the flood, and about other monuments of things that were done in those ancient centuries. But besides these praises, which are extraordinary, many others and more excellent ones belong to divine history: which acknowledges God alone as its author, who through the prophets, evangelists, and other pious men moved by divine inspiration, handed it down to the Church along with the doctrine of piety, and sealed it with various oracles and miracles. This is what lifts our minds high onto a certain lofty watchtower, from which we can securely contemplate the universality of this world (I mean past, present, and future). Indeed, this alone is what finally raises us even higher above all the heavens: where we contemplate eternity itself, and the providence of God, which moderates all things with a certain balance, but especially human affairs, and even the Church, shaken on all sides by innumerable enemies in various storms, but which sees with the eyes of faith the safest harbor and eternal happiness.

Happy are the souls! whose care it was
To know these things first, and to climb to the heavenly homes.

None, therefore, are all the histories of the heathens compared to this one of ours. And so, with Augustine, we can piously and rightly conclude that its authority is not only to be preferred to all others, but even opposed to them. We (he says) supported by divine authority in the history of our religion, do not doubt that whatever resists it is most false, however the other things in secular literature may be: whether they are true or false, they bring no moment to how we may live rightly and blessedly. And a little earlier, he had rendered the cause in these words: For the very dissonance of the historians among themselves provides us with the opportunity that we should rather believe those who do not conflict with the divine history which we hold. Irenaeus in book 2, chapter 2, feels the same. Likewise, St. Ambrose, Basil the Great, and St. Chrysostom in the prefaces of their Hexaemeron work on the six days of creation. But because it is not our intent to recite all the praises of divine Scripture to your Greatness, as you know very well how great its majesty is: now it would have to be seen what our Luke treats in his Apostolic history. But it does not seem to be necessary to touch upon this for the sake of brevity, as the individual points are diligently exposed in the Prolegomena of these commentaries.