Schlussolburgius, in his wonted respect and fiivour unto the Calvinists, tells us that from them and their doctrine was the occasion administered unto this new abomination ; also, that never any turned Arian but he was first a Calvinist: which he seems to make good by a letter of Adam Neu-
THE PREFACE TO THE READER. 43
serus, who, as lie saith, from a Sacramentarian turned Arian, and after- ward a jNIoiiammedan, and was circumcised at Constantinople. " This man," says he, " in a letter from Constantinople to Doctor Gerlachius, tells him that none turned Arians but those that were Calvinists first ; and therefore he that would take heed of Arianism had best beware of Calvinism.'"^ I am very unwilling to call any man's credit into question who relates a matter of fact, unless undeniable evidence enforce me, because it cannot be done without an imputation of the foulest crime ; I shall therefore take leave to ask, —
1. What credit is to be given to the testimony of this man, who, upon Conradus' own report, was circumcised, turned Mohammedan, and had wholly renounced the truth which he once professed ? For my part, I should expect from such a person nothing but what was maliciously con- trived for the prejudice of the truth; and therefore suppose he might raise this on purpose to strengthen and harden the Lutherans against the Cal- vinists, whom he hated most, because that they professed the truth which he had renounced, and that true knowledge of Christ and his will which now he hated ; and this lie of his he looked on as an expedient for the hardening of the Lutherans in their error, and helping them with a stone to cast at the Calvinists.
2. Out of what kindness was it that this man bare to Gerlachius and his companions, that he gives them this courteous admonition to beware of Calvinism ? Is it any honour to Gerlachius, Conradus himself, or any other Lutheran, that an apostate, an abjurer of Christian religion, loved them better than he did the Calvinists ? What person this Adam Neu- serus was, and what the end of him was, we have an account given by Maresius from a manuscript history of Altingius. From Heidelberg, be- ing suspected of a conspu-acy with one Sylvanus, who for it was put to death, he fled into Poland, thence to Constantinople, where he turned Mohammedan, and was circiuiicised, and after a while fell into such miser- able horror and despair, that with dreadful yellings and clamours he died ; so that the Turks themselves confess that they never heard of a more horrid, detestable, and tragical end of any man ; whereupon they commonly called him Satan Ogli, or the son of the devil. And so, much good may it do Conradus, with his witness.
3. But what occasion, I pray, does Calvinism give to Arianism, that the one should be taken heed of if we intend to avoid the other ? What of- fence does it give to men inquiring after the truth, to make them stumble on their abominations ? Wliat doctrine doth it maintain that should pre- pare them for it ? But no man is bound to burden himself with more than he can carry, and therefore all such inquu-ies Schlusselburgius took no notice of.
The truth is, many of the persons usually instanced in as apostates from Calvinism to Arianism were such as, leaving Italy and other parts of the pope's dominion, came to shelter themselves where they expected liberty and opportunity of venting their abomination among the reformed
» " Notatu vero dignissimum est hiscc novis Arianis ad apostasiam seu Arianismum oc- casionem fuisse, doctrinam Calvinistarum, id quod ipsi Ariani baud obscui-e professi sunt. Recitabo hiijus rei exemplum memorabile de Adamo Neusero ante paucos annos Ec- clesife Heidelbergensis ad S. S. primario pastore nobilissimo sacramcntario. Hie ex Zving- lianisimo per Arianismum ad Mahoinetismum usque, cum aliis non paucis Calvinistis Constantinopolin circumcisionem judaicam recipiens et yeritatem agnitam abnegans progressus est. Hie Adamus sequentia verba dedit Constantinopol. D. Gerlachio, anno 1574, ' nuUus nostro tempore mihi notus factus est Arianus qui non antea fuerit Cal- Tinista. Servetus, etc., igitur qui sibi timet ne incidat in Arianismum, caveat Cal- vinismum.' ''
4ii ' THE PREFACE TO THE READER.
churches, and joined themselves with them in outward profession, most of them, as afterward appeared, being thoroughly infected with the errors against the Trinity and about the Godhead before they left the Papacy, where they stumbled and fell.
In the practice of the " church," as it is called, wherein they were bred, they nextly saw the horrible idolatry that was countenanced in abomin- able pictures of the Trinity, and the worship yielded to them ; which strengthened and fortified their minds against such gross conceptions of the nature of God as by those pictures were exhibited.
-Hence, when they had left the Papacy and set up their opposition to the blessed Trinity, in all their books they still made mention of those idols and pictures, speaking of them as the gods of those that worshipjied the Trinity. This instance makes up a good part of their book, " De Falsa et Vera Cognitione Unius Dei, Patris, Filii, et Spiritus Sancti," written in the name of the ministers of the churches in Sarmatia and Transylvania ; a book full of reproach and blasphemies. But this, I say, was another oc- casion of stumbling to those miserable wretches. They knew what thoughts the men of their communication had of God, by the pictures made of him, and the worship they yielded to tbem, — they knew how abhorrent to the very principles of reason it was that God should be such as by them re- jiresented ; and therefore set themselves at liberty (or rather gave up them- selves to the service of Satan) to find out another god whom they might worship.