32 OF CHURCH CONTROVERSIES. 



peace is best built upon a repetition of wrongs ; 

 and in example, that the speeches which have been 

 made by the wisest men, &quot; de concordia ordinum,&quot; 

 have not abstained from reducing to memory the 

 extremities used on both parts ; so as it is true 

 which is said, &quot; Qui pacem tractat non repetitis 

 conditionibus dissidii, is magis animos hominum dul- 

 cedine pacis fallit, quam asquitate componit.&quot; 



And first of all, it is more than time that there 

 were an end and surcease made of this immodest and 

 deformed manner of writing lately entertained, 

 whereby matter of religion is handled in the stile 

 of the stage. Indeed, bitter and earnest writing 

 must not hastily be condemned ; for men cannot 

 contend coldly, and without affection, about things 

 which they hold dear and precious. A politic man 

 may write from his brain without touch and sense of 

 his heart ; as in a speculation that appertaineth not 

 unto him ; but a feeling Christian will express in 

 his words a character of zeal or love. The latter of 

 which, as 1 could wish rather embraced, being more 

 proper for these times, yet is the former warranted 

 also by great examples. 



But to leave all reverent and religious com 

 passion towards evils, or indignation towards faults, 

 and to turn religion into a comedy or satire ; to 

 search and rip up wounds with a laughing counte 

 nance, to intermix Scripture and scurrility sometimes 

 in one sentence, is a thing far from the devout reve 

 rence of a Christian, and scant beseeming the honest 

 regard of a sober man. &quot; Non est major confusio, 



