Fathers

A Candid Inquiry into the Controversies among Evangelicals · §18

Part I Protheoria: Sacred majesty, royal power, and private blemishes made into church marks

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I will add also that dispute concerning the Power of Majesty about Sacred things — more restricted by some, turned by others into an Architectonic power; or even concerning the limits of Royal Power and of passive obedience. On that argument a recent Theologian of Copenhagen has, with little modesty, branded the whole Reformed Church — twisting certain sayings or assertions of a few into whatever sense he wished — as adverse and hostile to the rights of Kings and Princes, and even to their divine origin, and indeed to their security: and with no other design than that he might shut out the French Exiles, fled into the bosom of the Most Powerful King, if not from a roof, at least from the Temple and from the liberty of Sacred things. Far be all your fury from my House! So there are sometimes brother Men who, with little Christian spirit, most eagerly snatch sayings — often spoken in the heat of disputation, often hesitatingly or as opinion, often sound in sense but awkward in wording, such as fell in countless numbers from the Writers and Fathers of the early Church — into matter for contention and for battles about words (λογομαχίαι)! There are those who abound in certain private thoughts of their own, or in their own sense, to the prejudice of Ecclesiastical tranquillity and against the laws of Christian prudence! There are those who transform the blemishes of private men into public marks of the Churches: thus taking certain sayings, for example of Zwingli, Calvin, Martyr, Beza, and others, as the judgment of the Reformed Church, and understood in a harsher sense!

Latin

Addam et in illa de Potestate Majestatis circa Sacra, ab his magis restricta, ab aliis in Architectonicam versa: Vel etiam de limitibus Regiae Potestatis, et passivae obedientiae; Quo in argumento Theologus Hafniensis nuperus toti Reformatorum Ecclesiae, ex nonnullorum forte dictis vel assertis, in sensum quemcunque voluit, inflexis, hanc notam inussit parum verecunde, esse illam adversam et infestam Regum ac Principum juribus, vel etiam divinae istorum origini, imo et securitati: Nec alio instituto, quam ut Exules Gallos, in gremium Potentissimi Regis profugos, si non tecto, certe Templo, et libertate Sacrorum prohiberet. Procul a mea tuus sit furor omnis Domo! Ita sint nonnunquam Viri fratres, qui dicta saepe in disputationis aestu, saepe titubanter vel opinative, saepe sensu commodo, sed locutione incommoda, qualia primaevae Ecclesiae Scriptoribus et Patribus innumera exciderunt, parum Christiane in contentionis argumentum et λογομαχιῶν, avidissime rapiant! Sint qui in cogitatis quibusdam suis, aut sensu suo abundent, in praejudicium Ecclesiasticae tranquillitatis, et contra prudentiae Christianae leges! Sint qui privatorum naevos in publicos Ecclesiarum transformant: sic dicta quaedam, v. gr. Zwinglii, Calvini, Martyris, Bezae, &c. in sententiam Eccl. Reformatae, et duriore quidem sensu intellecta!

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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