Acts 2:15

Touching the time , however, the extrinsic observance of certain hours will not be unprofitable, those common hours, I mean, which mark the intervals of the day, the third, the sixth, the ninth, which we may find in the Scriptures to have been more solemn than the rest. The first infusion of the Holy Spirit into the congregated disciples took place at “the third hour.” Peter, on the day on which he experienced the vision of Universal Community, (exhibited) in that small vessel, had ascended into the more lofty parts of the house , for prayer’s sake “at the sixth hour.” The same (apostle) was going into the temple, with John, “at the ninth hour ,” when he restored the paralytic to his health. …

In like manner they censure on the count of novelty our Stations as being enjoined ; some, moreover, (censure them) too as being prolonged habitually too late, saying that this duty also ought to be observed of free choice, and not continued beyond the ninth hour, (deriving their rule), of course, from their own practice. Well: as to that which pertains to the question of injunction , I will once for all give a reply to suit all causes. Now, (turning) to the point which is proper to this particular cause, concerning the limit of time, I mean, I must first demand from themselves whence they derive this prescriptive law for concluding Stations at the ninth hour. …

[“ Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem,”] whom the writer above described as strangers. Here he directs his discourse to those others, the mockers, and while he seems to reason with those, he sets these right. For indeed it was divinely ordered that “some mocked,” that he might have a starting-point for his defence, and by means of that defence, might teach. [“And all ye that dwell in Jerusalem.”] It seems they accounted it a high encomium to dwell in Jerusalem too. “Be this,” says he, “known unto you, and hearken unto my words.” In the first instance he made them more disposed to attend to him. “For not as ye suppose,” says he, “are these drunken.” Do you observe the mildness of his defence? ( v. 15 .) Although having the greater part of the people on his side, he reasons with those others gently; first he removes the evil surmise, and then he establishes his apology. …

One may well be much at a loss here to understand how it is that, whereas in the Epistle to the Galatians Paul says, “I went not to Jerusalem,” but “into Arabia” and “to Damascus,” and, “After three years I went up to Jerusalem,” and “to see Peter” ( Gal. i. 17 ), ( ἱστορἥσαι Cat.) here the writer says the contrary. (There, Paul says) “And none of the Apostles saw I; but here, it is said (Barnabas), brought him to the Apostles.”, Well, then, either (Paul) means, “I went not up with intent to refer or attach myself to them ( ἀναθέσθαι ), for what saith he? “I referred not myself, neither went I to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me:” or else, that the laying await for him in Damascus was after his return from Arabia; or else, again, that the visit to Jerusalem was after he came from Arabia. …

1. As regards the passages brought together from the gospel of John with which a certain votary of Montanus has assailed you, passages in which our Saviour promises that He will go to the Father, and that He will send the Paraclete, as regards these, the Acts of the Apostles inform us both for what time the promises were made, and at what time they were actually fulfilled. Ten days had elapsed, we are told, from the Lord’s ascension and fifty from His resurrection, when the Holy Spirit came down, and the tongues of the believers were cloven, so that each spoke every language. …

19. But Peter who had the Holy Ghost, and who knew what he possessed, says, “ Men of Israel , ye who preach Joel, but know not the things which are written, these men are not drunken as ye suppose . Drunken they are, not however as ye suppose, but according to that which is written, They shall be drunken with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the torrents of thy pleasure . They are drunken, with a sober drunkenness, deadly to sin and life-giving to the heart, a drunkenness contrary to that of the body; for this last causes forgetfulness even of what was known, but that bestows the knowledge even of what was not known. They are drunken, for they have drunk the wine of the spiritual vine, which says, I am the vine and ye are the branches . …

And so in the monasteries of Palestine and Mesopotamia and all the East the services of the above-mentioned hours are ended each day with three Psalms apiece, so that constant prayers may be offered to God at the appointed times, and yet, the spiritual duties being completed with due moderation, the necessary offices of work may not be in any way interfered with: for at these three seasons we know that Daniel the prophet also poured forth his prayers to God day by day in his chamber with the windows open. Nor is it without good reasons that these times are more particularly assigned to religious offices, since at them what completed the promises and summed up our salvation was fulfilled. For we can show that at the third hour the Holy Spirit, who had been of old promised by the prophets, descended in the first instance on the Apostles assembled together for prayer. …