possit describere?  Quo factum est, ut priscis aedificiis jam non contenti, in singulis urbibus spatiosas ab ipsis fundamentis exstruerent ecclesias.  Atque haec progressii temporis increscentia, & quotidie in majus & melius proficiscentia, nec livor ullus atterere, nec malignitas daemonis fascinare, nec hominum insidiae prohibere unquam potuerunt, quamdiu omnipotentis Dei dextra populum suum, utpote tali dignum praesidio, texit atque custodiit.  Sed cum ex nimia libertate in negligentiam ac desidiam prolapsi essemus; cum alter alteri invidere atque obtrectare caepisset; cum inter nos quasi bella intestina gereremus, verbis, tanquam armis quibusdam hastisque, nos mutuo vulnerantes; cum Antistites adversus Antistites, populi in populos collisi, jurgia ac tumultus agitarent; denique cum fraus & simulatio ad summum malitiae culmen adolevisset:  tum divina ultio, levi brachio ut solet, integro adhuc ecclesiae statu, & fidelium turbis libere convenientibus, sensim ac moderate in nos caepit animadvertere; orsa primum persecutione ab iis qui militabant.  Cum vero sensu omni destituti de placando Dei numine ne cogitaremus quidem; quin potius instar impiorum quorundam res humanas nulla providentia gubernari rati, alia quotidie crimina aliis adjiceremus:  cum Pastores nostri spreta religionis regula, mutuis inter se contentionibus decertarent, nihil aliud quam jurgia, minas, aemulationem, odia, ac mutuas inimicitias amplificare studentes; principatum quasi tyrannidem quandam contentissime sibi vindicantes:  tunc demum juxta dictum Hieremiae, obscuravit Dominus in ira sua filiam Sion, & dejecit de caelo gloriam Israel_,—­per Ecclesiarum scilicet subversionem_, &c.  This was the state of the Church just before the subversion of the Churches in the beginning of Dioclesian’s persecution:  and to this state of the Church agrees the first of the seven Epistles to the Angel of the seven Churches, [1] that to the Church in Ephesus. I have something against thee, saith Christ to the Angel of that Church, because thou hast left thy first love.  Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent.  But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans_, which I also hate_.  The Nicolaitans are the Continentes above described, who placed religion in abstinence from marriage, abandoning their wives if they had any.  They are here called Nicolaitans, from Nicolas one of the seven deacons of the primitive Church of Jerusalem; who having a beautiful wife, and being taxed with uxoriousness, abandoned her, and permitted her to marry whom she pleased, saying that we must disuse the flesh; and thenceforward lived a single life in continency, as his children also.  The Continentes afterwards embraced the doctrine of AEons and Ghosts male and female, and were avoided by the Churches till the fourth century; and the Church of Ephesus is here commended for hating their deeds.