Fathers

A Candid Inquiry into the Controversies among Evangelicals · §1

Nazianzen's cry for peace and the apostolic charge to cherish Protestant church peace

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Preface — Peaceful and Apologetic. In the name of the Lord.

Preface to the Kind Reader.

With what sighs Gregory Nazianzen — most eloquent of the Greek Fathers after Chrysostom — once panted for Peace, pouring out these words in the tenth of his Orations (which is the third On Peace): O dear Peace, you who are a good praised by all, yet kept by few! Why, I ask, have you deserted us for so long already? When will you return to us?

By the same vows and complaints — or ones like them — the Ecclesiastical Peace of the Evangelicals, long and deeply desired by all who profess the Truth in Charity, comes to be pursued by me as well in this present season, and with even greater right. For a huge throng that boasts rashly enough of the Gospel of Peace we daily find not only despising and utterly neglecting that peace (a charge that, to our heavy grief, fits even some among the Reformed), but moreover harassing certain Lutherans — who with proud and dictatorial brow claim plain Universal Orthodoxy for themselves alone and their like — with futile and sometimes infamous scenes and with the scrapings of scurrilous satires and infamous pamphlets, and ignominiously spitting even on the bare name of this Peace, as if the sound itself struck fear, with quips and sarcasms.

So much so that if ever, now especially — though many nonetheless are wiser — all who love God in Christ, the supreme Prince of Christian Peace, must set themselves with steadfast mind to the promotion and defense of that Peace, and must repeat again and again, and commend again and again to each and every Evangelical of both parties, that apostolic charge: If therefore there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or from empty glory, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others (Philippians 2:1-4).

Latin

PRAEFATIO Pacifico-Apologetica. I. N. D. PRAEFATIO ad Lectorem Benevolum. Quibus olim suspiriis Patrum Graecorum post Chrysostomum disertissimus, Gregorius Nazianzenus, Pacem anhelavit, Orationum suarum decima (quae, de Pace, tertia est) haecce verba fundens: O cara Pax, quae bonum es ab omnibus laudatum, sed quod pauci custodiunt! qui quaeso tanto jam tempore nos deseruisti? quando ad nos reditura es? iisdem, aut similibus votis atque querelis, mihi etiam, hac cumprimis tempestate, sed majori jure, Pax Evangelicorum Ecclesiastica, cunctis Veritatem in Charitate professis longe diuque desideratissima, prosequenda venit, postquam ingens de Pacis Evangelio sat temere gloriantium caterva, non despicere duntaxat istam prorsusque negligere, (id quod vel in Reformatorum quoque quosdam competere gravissime dolendum) sed insuper futilibus, quandoque infamibus scenis ac scurrilium satyrarum famosorumque libellorum quisquiliis, nonnullos Lutheranorum, sibi solis suisque similibus Orthodoxiam plane Universalem, superbo dictatorióque supercilio vindicantes, agitare, et vel nudum Pacis hujus nomen, ipso quasi sono metum incutiens, cavillis et sarcasmis ignominiose conspuere indies experimur. Adeo, ut si unquam, nunc imprimis, ubi nihilominus etiam multi rectius sapiunt, obfirmato animo in Pacis dictae Promotionem defensionemque, omnibus, DEUM in Christo, summo Pacis Christianae Principe, amantibus, quam enixissime incumbendum sit, identidemque ingeminandum, Evangelicisque Utriusque Partis omnibus et singulis, iterum iterumque commendandum illud Apostolicum: Si qua ergo Consolatio in Christo, si quod solatium Charitatis, si qua Societas Spiritus, si qua viscera miserationes, Implete gaudium illud meum ut idem sapiatis eandem Charitatem habentes, unanimes et sententiis uni. Nihil gerentes per Contentionem aut per inanem gloriam, sed ex animi submissione alii alios existimantes sibi praecellere. Ne sua quisque spectate, sed unusquisque etiam quae sunt aliorum.

About this text

Samuel Strimesius — Prefatio through Controversiae Post Lutherum Controv. III-XIII + XV Tolerantia, Hexades Annotationum Prooemium and Annotatio I through Decem Theses / Francus plus Annotatio II §.I-§.VI and Annotatio III §.I–§.VII (through Cassellanum 1661) from Ingenua in Controversias Evangelicorum (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1708). Honest partial; Prefatio silence reasons, Annotatio III §.VIII+ fruits / §.IX+, Hexades theses body, deeper Controversiae / Part II remain.

English follows the locked 1708 Francofurti ad Viadrum Latin of Prefatio §I–II, Crimina defenses through III, Part I Protheoria through Controversiae Obices/Historia/Varii gradus, Formula Discord/Disparitas, Ulterius confirmatur / Classes / Formula protest / triplex differentia, Coena Domini Controversiae Priores through Precariae Hypotheses (Controv. print pp. 34–40), Controversiae Post Lutherum Natae Controv. III–XV tip (providence through De Tolerantia mutua; Controv. print pp. 40–78), Hexades Annotationum Prooemium H.I–§.III (Hexades print pp. 1–4 / PDF ~182–185), and Annotatio I De Augustana Confessione §.I–§.VIII tip (Hexades print pp. 5–24+ / PDF ~186–205+), reconstructed from Google Books PDF page images (ONB copy, id 3epYAAAAcAAJ) with pdftotext as check. No modern English was copied. Sister Halle digitization of Ingenua in Arminianismum (DOI 10.25673/65287) remains Anubis-blocked — skipped; Controversias only. Prefatio silence reasons, Annotatio I §.IX+, Hexades theses body beyond §.VIII, and remainder of Controversiae / folio remain.

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