1. The earlier
books of this treatise, written some time ago, contain, I think, an
invincible proof that we hold and profess the faith in Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, which is taught by the Evangelists and Apostles, and that
no commerce is possible between us and the heretics, inasmuch as they
deny unconditionally, irrationally, and recklessly, the Divinity of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Yet certain points remained which I have felt
myself bound to include in this and the following books, in order to
make our assurance of the faith even more certain by exposure of every
one of their falsehoods and blasphemies. Accordingly, we will
enquire first what are the dangers of their teaching, the risks
involved by such irreverence; next, what principles they hold, and what
arguments they advance against the apostolic faith to which we adhere,
and by what sleight of language they impose upon the candour of their
hearers; and lastly, by what method of comment they disarm the words of
Scripture of their force and meaning.