describere? Quo factum est, ut priscis
aedificiis jam non contenti, in singulis urbibus spatiosas ab ipsis
fundamentis exstruerent ecclesias. Atque haec progressii temporis
increscentia, & quotidie in majus & melius proficiscentia, nec livor ullus
atterere, nec malignitas daemonis fascinare, nec hominum insidiae prohibere
unquam potuerunt, quamdiu omnipotentis Dei dextra populum suum, utpote tali
dignum praesidio, texit atque custodiit. Sed cum ex nimia libertate in
negligentiam ac desidiam prolapsi essemus; cum alter alteri invidere atque
obtrectare caepisset; cum inter nos quasi bella intestina gereremus, verbis,
tanquam armis quibusdam hastisque, nos mutuo vulnerantes; cum Antistites
adversus Antistites, populi in populos collisi, jurgia ac tumultus
agitarent; denique cum fraus & simulatio ad summum malitiae culmen
adolevisset: tum divina ultio, levi brachio ut solet, integro adhuc
ecclesiae statu, & fidelium turbis libere convenientibus, sensim ac moderate
in nos caepit animadvertere; orsa primum persecutione ab iis qui militabant.
Cum vero sensu omni destituti de placando Dei numine ne cogitaremus quidem;
quin potius instar impiorum quorundam res humanas nulla providentia
gubernari rati, alia quotidie crimina aliis adjiceremus: cum Pastores
nostri spreta religionis regula, mutuis inter se contentionibus
decertarent, nihil aliud quam jurgia, minas, aemulationem, odia, ac mutuas
inimicitias amplificare studentes; principatum quasi tyrannidem quandam
contentissime sibi vindicantes: tunc demum juxta dictum Hieremiae,
_obscuravit Dominus in ira sua filiam Sion, & dejecit de caelo gloriam
Israel_,--per Ecclesiarum scilicet subversionem_, &c. This was the state of
the Church just before the subversion of the Churches in the beginning of
_Dioclesian_'s persecution: and to this state of the Church agrees the
first of the seven Epistles to the Angel of the seven Churches, [1] that to
the Church in _Ephesus_. _I have something against thee_, saith _Christ_ to
the Angel of that Church, _because thou hast left thy first love. Remember
therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works;
or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out
of its place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the
deeds of the _Nicolaitans_, which I also hate_. The _Nicolaitans_ are the
_Continentes_ above described, who placed religion in abstinence from
marriage, abandoning their wives i