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 if they had any.
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