PRAEFATIO.

conscience of our weakness—lest we grow cold and eventually fail—compels us to turn to our own use those aids which are provided to us by God, namely, the word of God and the Sacraments. For just as hirelings are to be endured, so wolves are to be fled. Finally, whatever crime is laid to our charge, it happens for this reason: that we take care not to be infected by the errors and impostures with which all the temples resound. To be fortified against these, we use the remedy offered by God, so that, gathered as if in His fold, we may be kept in obedience through the word of the Lord. Now, as to what certain scoffers object, it is too frivolous: namely, that since Bishops and Curates are the successors of the Apostles, it is not lawful to establish a new order,