The response of the Muslims to the aforementioned,
Chapter 17

(3) To this some curious and stubborn Saracens try to respond, saying: "We do not say that the gospel is not from God, since the Koran clearly testifies to this, nor that it is not so perfect, since it is from God, but the gospel contains such difficult and perfect things that the world was not sufficient to complete them. | 217v | For who can love God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself? Who can pray for those who persecute and slander and do good from his heart to evildoers and other most perfect things that the gospel precipitates ^[1] ? And therefore because there was no law to be commonly observed, God provided for the world with the law of salvation and tempered the precepts and gave the world the Koran which does not contain these difficult things but is easy for salvation."

(13) Hence they say that the Quran is more common and very sufficient for the salvation of the world. And therefore they call the Quran the law of salvation antonomastically ^[2] . They say, therefore, that the Quran succeeds, as it were, in the place of the Gospel, and that whatever good was in the Gospel is so completely in the Quran that there is no longer any need for the Gospel ^[3] .

(18) Evacuation of position ^[4] .

But these contain a manifest falsehood. For it cannot be said that the Gospel was given for a time, for example until the Quran, and that later the Quran succeeded it for salvation, since the Quran clearly testifies that in the Gospel there is "salvation and guidance."

(22) Furthermore, it cannot be said that, after God gave the Gospel, He realized that the world could not keep it and corrected the style and tempered the commandment, so that God thinks that the deeds should be noted from the event. For God knew from the beginning both what the Gospel contained and what men could do. And furthermore, even the Koran itself says that the Saracens are nothing unless they fulfill the Gospel and the Law of Moses and the Koran ^[5] , as was said above ^[6] . But Christians are bound to fulfill only the Gospel ^[7] .

(30) Furthermore, how could the gospel be called perfect if it was not proportionate to the powers of man and could not be observed in common?

(32) Furthermore, if the gospel is perfect, it contains what is necessary for salvation. But what harm is there if it later contains some other counsels of great perfection which it does not say are necessary for salvation ^[8] ?

(35) Furthermore, the more generous a law is, the less meritorious it is in itself. If, therefore, the Koran is lighter than the Gospel, it is therefore not as effective for salvation; for God would not have given a law of lesser effectiveness and more strictness. But it is clear that in the Koran it is said that even demons could be saved by the Koran, as was clear above ; however, they could not be saved by the Gospel. | 218r | ^[9] Therefore, the Koran is a law of greater effectiveness than the Gospel, therefore more difficult and more strict.

(42) Furthermore, if the Koran is an easier law ^[10] , it will be more dangerous and more blameworthy not to observe it; but the Saracens do not observe it, therefore they sin more dangerously. But that they do not observe it is clear: for they drink wine, get drunk on herbs, eat unlawful things, do not observe fasting or prayer, do not spend according to their means, and many other things which he who has approved their conversation knows better ^[11] . Therefore whether they call it easy or difficult, they do not escape danger.

(48) But in truth Maccometto tried to give an easy law. Yet he was not permitted by God to temper the pen in such a way that he did not mix many difficult things; for that law contains a difficulty in understanding, because it says in it what is understood by God alone. But how unreasonable this is is clear above in the eighth chapter ^[12] .

(53) It also contains a difficulty in belief. For it says that the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus by a virgin, and that God has the Word and the Holy Spirit; which are difficult even for our faith, which is nevertheless confirmed by miracles . ^[13] It also contains a difficulty in the work to be performed, as concerning circumcision, and not drinking wine, and avoiding drunkenness, and fasting and prayer, and spending according to the ability given to them by God, ^[14] and many other things which very few Saracens observe.

(61) Therefore, just as it was necessary for the world that the precepts of the Gospel be made light and a lighter Koran be given, so it would be necessary that another lighter law be given which could be more easily observed by men, and that both the Gospel and the Koran be completely abolished.

Or if few were saved it would be God's fault, who gave such a law that men cannot keep.

(66) But if this is inconvenient, we must stand on the first point, namely, that the gospel is a law from God, most holy and observable to the world ^[15] .