Preface.

Honored Reader!

It has now been quite a long time since—upon perceiving my own corruption and that of all Christendom—the doctrines of faith of our churches began to seem suspicious to me. (For it happens that the unbelief which lurks within us only becomes truly manifest when, in the midst of spiritual trial Anfechtung: a specifically Lutheran concept describing a deep state of spiritual crisis, doubt, or temptation where one's faith feels under attack, one wishes to pay heed to the Word; for otherwise, one does not concern oneself much with it.) Among these doctrines, the article of the Holy Trinity caused me all manner of doubt, although I hardly knew why myself.

In particular, however, my thoughts tended toward Arianism Arianism: an early Christian belief—deemed heretical by the mainstream church—that Jesus Christ was a created being and subordinate to God the Father, rather than being of the same substance or co-eternal.; for Socinianism Socinianism: a rationalist theological system that denied the pre-existence of Christ and His divinity, viewing Him instead as a human prophet who was later granted divine status. caused me no difficulty, because I recognized all too clearly that Christ had existed before His birth from Mary. Now, I did indeed strongly support myself with the name of the Son—