Concise Church History of the Old and New Testaments

Notice to the Reader.

In the future, many will come across these and other histories who might wish to provide a more precise report on this or that point. The author will presumably not make excuses or defend himself at length through much disputing disputing: original "disputirens," referring to the formal, often aggressive academic debates common in 17th-century theology; rather, he will embrace with both hands whatever is suggested with honest intentions and based on the ground of truth, without mockery or a spirit of fault-finding. For in such a case, he considers himself duty-bound only to accept the suggestions of others. To any other quarreling he will, as he has done until now, contribute nothing, and he will not increase the number of polemical writings polemical writings: original "Streit-Schrifften," printed pamphlets or books written specifically to attack the theological positions of others by even a single page. There are other means anyway to uphold the truth.

Furthermore, if anyone happens to be displeased by the reports on the origin of certain church customs Arnold often argued that many "sacred" church traditions were actually later human inventions rather than divine mandates. or other histories, their own opinion remains unoffended. This is especially so since brevity has prevented the laying out of further evidence. For this brevity was so strongly recommended to the author that he could neither include citations from the authorities original: "locum der autorum," referring to specific passages or proof-texts from historical and theological authors. nor execute the final chapters of the last two centuries original: "seculis," Latin for centuries. as properly as he wished. Therefore, he has had to postpone everything to another occasion, as these and other such matters certainly require further investigation.