Plangite verò mecum, Fratres, vices illius Ecclesiæ, quæ tempori didicit accommodare Fidem; remediorumque suorum solet esse quàm malorum impatientior. Dum nos illi acerrimè persequuntur, nos illorum piè misereamur. Exoptemusque ipsis, quam nobis ipsi necquicquam invident ac pernegant, Salutem: Pater, dimitte iis, nesciunt enim quæ faciunt.

Preces, lacrimæque nostræ non desint: non desint monita. Revertimini ad vos aliquando, Animæ Christianæ; revertimini, unde sensim declinastis. Ambite τὴν πρώτην ἀγάπην, τὰ ἔργα tà ¤pya πρώτα. Nolite sinere diutiùs fucum vobis factum glorioso Ecclesiæ titulo. Componite vos ad sanctam, quam tantopere aspernati estis, Unitatem: quod O si fiat, apud nos quidem, uti Lege Duodecim Tabularum olim sancitum, sanatibus idem juris erit quod fortibus. Ecce nos, quod pacificus noster Rex Jacobus piè susceperat, obviam reducibus ire paratissimos.

Quòd, si illi Unitatis spem omnem obfirmatè usque refugiant; pacisque odio flagrantes, uno Sacræ quam appellant Tubæ clangore delectentur; quin nos, mei Fratres, unitatem inter nos, religiosissimè intimèque, colimus universi. Alloquor omnes correctioris Ecclesiæ filios, quaquà sparsos.

Reformatam nos Dei gratiâ Ecclesiam profitemur: reformatam, nempè; non, quod invidiosissimè calumniantur æmuli, novam. Ego verò (ut cum Xenophonte loquar, Kaтà TŶs vûs καταδυόμαι ὑπὸ τῆς αἰσχύνης, ubi illud audio tritissimum e plaustro convicium, "Ubi vestra fuit ante Lutheri ævum Religio? Ubi Ecclesia?" Audite, Scioli; audite, Invidi: reformari nos veterem religionem discupivimus, non formari novam. Reformata scilicet, non recens edita Ecclesia. Eadem ergo est, quæ priùs fuit; nisi quòd ab errorum quorundam superfluis perniciosisque adjectamentis repurgata est. Novane facies est, quæ lota est nuperrimè? nova vestis, quæ resarcitur? nova, quæ reparatur, domus? Erubescite, si quis pudor, qui ista nobis tam petulanter insipienterque suggeritis.

Agite jam, Fratres; nos Divinâ virtute reformati sumus: ne committamus, ut, mutuis interim dissidiis, deformemur. Illud illud est, quod nos planè mutilat et enervat, quodque hostium nos exponit insulturis triumphisque.

Quanquam, ne nimiùm cessisse videamur probrosæ maledicentiæ, non tanta sunt litigia nostra, quanta vel cupiunt adversarii vel vociferantur.

But lament ye with me, my Brethren, the woeful case of that Church, that hath learned to fit her Faith to the times; and is more impatient of a remedy than of the disease. Whilst they so eagerly persecute us, let us heartily pity them. And let us still wish to them, that which they envy and deny to us, Salvation Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Our prayers, our tears, our admonitions must not be wanting. Return to yourselves now at last, O ye Christian Souls; return, from whence you have sensibly declined. Recover your first love, your first works. Suffer not yourselves any longer to be mocked with the glorious title of a Church. Frame yourselves to that holy Unity, which hitherto you have so stiffly resisted which if once we might live to see effected, you should well find, as it runs in the Law of the Twelve Tables, that the recovered should with us have the same privileges with the healthful. Behold, we are ready, as our gracious and peaceable king James piously undertook, to meet you half way.

But, if they shall still obstinately cast off all hope of Unity; and, being set on fire with the hatred of peace, shall go on to delight themselves only, in the alarum of their Sacred Trumpet, as they call it; why should not we, religiously and entirely, keep peace among ourselves? I speak to all the sons of the purer Church, wheresoever dispersed.

We profess this Church of ours by God's grace reformed: reformed, I say; not new made, as some emulous spirits spitefully slander us. For me, I am ready to sink to the very ground', when I hear that hedge-row reproach, "Where was your Religion before Luther? Where was your Church?" Hear, O ye Ignorant; hear, O ye Envious Cavillers: we desired the reformation of an old religion, not the formation of a new. The Church accordingly was reformed, not new wrought. It remains, therefore, the same Church it was before; but only purged from some superfluous and pernicious additaments of error. Is it a new face, that was lately washed? a new garment, that is but mended? a new house, that is repaired? Blush, if ye have any shame, who thus ignorantly and maliciously cast this in our teeth.

Go to now, my Brethren; we are by God's grace reformed : let us take heed, lest we be deformed again, by mutual dissensions. This is that, which weakens and lames us, and which lays us open to the insulting triumphs of our adversaries.

Yet, lest we should seem to give too much way to a spiteful slander, these jars of ours are not so great, as our enemies either desire or clamour.

To use the words of Xenophon," is added in the original.-PRATT. "In shame," are part of the words of Xenophon, not noticed by the Translator.-PRATT.

Certè, quicquid est quod nos hucusque cruciat discordiarum, non aliis, quàm iis ipsis, qui nobis ista exprobant, germanis hostibus, acceptum referri debet: nam, si illi dextram opportunè porrexissent; communemque operam reformandæ, quod tum factum oportuit, Ecclesiæ contulissent; placidè cessissent omnia: nullæ hîc lites fuissent, nullæ simultates, nulla partium studia Detrectarunt illi obstinatè; effeceruntque, suâ et supinitate et pervicacià, ut hoc, quantum est, pensi in paucos quosdam imbelles, pusillosque, ac tantæ provinciæ impares, conjiceretur. Fieri igitur aliter non potuit, quin ut singularium hominum, parùm sibi collatæ, sententiæ, in tanto negotio, aliquantulum à se discreparent. Gratias verò tibi, Summe Deus, Pacis Auctor, qui Spiritu tuo humanam intemperiem compescere dignatus es, ne in atrociora jurgia litesque graviores motæ, discordium mentes ebullirent.

Quantula verò sunt hæc demum dissidia, et creperi certamina belli, quæ tantopere clamitant adversarii?

Nempe, fingunt illi sibi sectarum nomina, ne non satis sit: et, ubi tantillam in autorculi cujuspiam chartis opinionis discrepantiam animadvertunt, Novum illico Schisma reboant, Sectam Novam. Quis hic livor! Quæ serendi odii lubido! Si sic olim factum fuisset, non tam exiguis pellibus arctata fuissent Augustini, Epiphanii, Philastrii volumina: tot certè fuissent schismata, quot unquam a noto Evangelio Ecclesiæ doctores extiterunt.

Mittamus numerum, de pondere videamus. Obstrepant quantum volunt Malevoli, inter hos, non de solidis Christianæ Fidei membris, sed de cute, lis est: inter illos, non de cute quidem, sed de veste; at neque de veste ipsâ, sed de fimbriis. Dogmata sunt quædam scholastica, classis medioxumæ, Corollaria Theologica, de quibus dissentimus, aut Ritus fortè Externi: Fidei Christianæ Principia non sunt.

Sed et ejusmodi sunt hæ controversiæ, quæ, ubi semel deferbuerit, sive zeli sive iracundiæ, æstus, seque mutuè probè intellexit pars utraque, facilè possunt reconciliationem admittere.

Neque minùs profectò ab ipsis inter se Pontificiis dimicatum est. Magis tegunt illi suas inimicitias; non exercent minùs. Magis sapiunt; non magis concordant. Nec quod est, ausim dicere, religionis caput, in quo unà et nobis dissonent, et consonent omnes sibi.

Neque denique, graviùs istic inter nos disconvenit, quàm olim, inter sanctissimos Ecclesiæ Patres; quorum, tamen, lites non tanto posterorum clamore excipi ubique solent. Mitto privata

Certainly, what discords soever hitherto have troubled us, we are beholding to none other for them, but to these our kind enemies, who upbraid us with them: for, if they had but reached forth unto us a helping hand in due time; and jointly conferred their endeavours, which then behoved them, for the reforming of the Church; all had run squarely on there had been no jars, no grudgings, no parts' taking: But they stiffly refused; and, by their frowardness and pertinacy, caused this, so weighty a task, to be cast upon some few; and those both weak, unable, and altogether unfit for such a charge. It could not therefore be otherwise, but that the opinions of some single men, not conferred together, in such a business, must needs somewhat differ. But, thanks be to thee, O Blessed God, the Author of Peace, that hast vouchsafed by thy Spirit so to bridle the distemperate affections of men, that their busy spirits being stirred up, have not boiled forth into more fearful divisions.

But what are these so great dissensions, and blows of bloody war, which our adversaries so cry out upon?

Forsooth, rather than want, they can feign names of sects to themselves and, where they can find the least difference in the paper of any obscure author of ours, presently they cry out, New Schisms, New Sects. What malice is this! What eager desire of multiplying quarrels! If it had been so of old, so small hides had not served to contain the volumes of Augustin, Epiphanius, Philastrius: there had not been fewer sects, than teachers, since the publishing of the Gospel.

But let us pass over the number, and come to the weight. Let the Malicious prattle what they will, with some of ours, the controversy is not about any solid limbs of Christian Faith, but only of the very skin: with some others, not about the skin, but the garment rather; not about the garment itself neither, but of the very hem. There are certain scholastical opinions, of a middle rank, mere Theological Corollaries, or perhaps some Outward Ceremonies, wherein we dissent: Principles of Christian Religion there are not.

And withal these controversies are but such, as that, when the heat, whether of zeal or anger, shall abate, and either part shall well understand each other, they will easily admit of a reconciliation.

Neither have these very Romanists lesser quarrels amongst themselves. They can more hide their enmities; not exercise them less. If they be more wise; they are not more accordant. Neither is there, I dare say, any head of Religion, wherein they do at once differ from us, and agree all with one another. Finally, our differences are no greater, than were those of old, among the holy Fathers of the Church; whose quarrels, notwithstanding, are not so odiously blazoned by posterity. I

tantorum virorum ávτiλoidopýμata, plena insuavis cujusdam, et penè dixissem indecoræ, acrimoniæ. Malo ponere vobis ante oculos, boni ominis causâ, publicas illas Patrum Ecclesiarumque ȧvτηppýσeis, quæ in gratam deinceps concordiam desierunt. In Synodo Ephesinâ quantæ lites exortæ, inter Cyrillum Alexandrinum et Joannem Antiochenum! Utrique pastorum subjectæ Ecclesiæ non verentur anathematis sibi mutuo ἀντιβροντᾷν. Exinde in messem Joannis falcem suam parùm fœliciter immisit Theodoretus: in quem, Euoptio instigante, graviter invehitur Cyrillus. Apollinarismi incusat Cyrillum Theodoretus: Theodoretus Cyrillum Nestorianismi: exarsit subinde hic furor, Orbemque ferè Christianum traxit in partes; ita ut, postmodò, Chalcedonensem Synodum ingredi volenti Theodoreto, reclamârint Egyptii aliique Reverendi Episcopi, "Cyrillum ejicimus, si Theodoretum acceperimus: Canones istum ejiciant: hunc Deus aversatus est." Idemque demum Actione octavâ factitatum; Episcopis palam vociferantibus "Hæreticus est, Nestorianus est: Hæreticum mitte foras." Re tamen plenè cognitâ, compertoque denique ipsum et Symbolis Orthodoxis et Leonis Epistolis libenter subscripsisse, unanimiter acclamatum à Synodo, "Theodoretus dignus est Sede Ecclesiæ: Orthodoxum Ecclesia Pastorem recipiat."

Immortalitate dignum est illud, quod de sanctissimo Athanasio memoravit Gregorius Nazianzenus. Romani Orientalibus Sabellii errorem sequi visi sunt, negando tres Hypostases: Orientales Romanis Arium sapere visi sunt, negando tres Personas: fervet lis: accedit magnus ille animarum dispensator; et, utrâque parte leniter benignèque accitâ, ita negotium transigit, ut, nominum usum concedens, rebus eos constringeret; lumenque profert, quo se mutuò contuerentur: nec mora: conscii suæ demum orthodoxias, ruunt illico in mutuos amplexus. Neque aliter profectò, uti piè crediderim, cederet nobis fratribus, si quis è coelo dextras jungeret Athanasius.

O, si clausis semel belli intestini ac nefandi portis: Reformatarum Ecclesiarum Nutricii Principes, auctoritate suâ, Synodum indici juberent, quantum fieri potest, Generalem; in quâ, liberè modestèque, sententiam suam dicerent pars utraque litigantium, statuerenturque communes quidam termini, in quibus utraque tutò posset absque omni sui præjudicio acquiescere! Quàm facilè, fœliciterque, sopirentur hæ tam funestæ lites! Precemur nos hæc, mei Fratres; precemur devotissimè.