PREFACE

...interpretations of Holy Scripture, and by the novelty of doctrine in the Church—which, according to the Apostle's warning, must be avoided—they lead astray and scandalize the souls of the weak. Their end is certainly none other than to expose the most holy mysteries of our religion and faith to neglect, contempt, and even mockery. And thus, having removed the due reverence for this matter and shaken off the salutary restraint, they open the door to every liberty of living and perversity of morals, to the irreparable ruin of souls. For what else do the corrupt morals of our century and the unbridled license of living in every age indicate? If ever we could cry out with truth, we surely can now with that Tullius Cicero: O the times! O the morals! For the Gospel and the Christian doctrine of morals have become so vile to some that, once despised and considered merely as a rule for simple men, their only care is now to compose their morals to the depraved genius of the modern age. I wish that such men did not pour out and scatter the poison of malice, which they carry in their bosom, onto others as well. For this cunning of living and these morals, depraved by the pretense of a pseudo-politia false civic order, are now proposed to the Youth to be imitated and learned at a great price. And if any reverence and honor for the Gospel or the mysteries of Holy Scripture is still found in some, their speech spreads like a cancer 2 Timothy 2:17. They labor to distort and bend these things into a perverse sense that is to be execrated even by the devil himself, and this, indeed, even among the simple and less qualified judges, with the more certain ruin of such souls. The present question, which I here strive to treat according to my meager ability, serves as an example.