The dying man's testament to the Church of Scotland, or, A treatise concerning scandal…

and he was for that sharply reproved, even by Iraeneus, who was of that same judgment with him: And many such instances are in History. 4. It is, when in the¹ prosecution of such things, men leave the matter, and fall on personal reflections, and become bitter in these respects, as to cast-up pride and arrogancy hypocrisy, ignorance, heresy, or erroneousness▪ or some other personal fault, if any be known or imputed to them or one way or other to sleight them and make them despicable: So Aaron and Miriam murmur against Moses, Numb. 12. that he had married an Ethiopian woman, that he seemed to sleight them, as if God had only spoken by him, and not by them also; Epiphaneus also did upbraid Chrysostom with hypocrisy; Jerome hugely revileth Vigilantius, whose tenets seem to be as near truth as his are; so it was between Demetrius and Theophilus, when in the matter of fact, each giveth to other the lie. 5. It is, when the manner of carrying on a thing, is factious, as endeavouring, to make sides and parties under hand, and indirect dealing to engage others in their² differences, and to stir up men by such means against others: It is like it was so in Corinth, even amongst the people who adhered not to false teachers; It is marked also in that vehement bitter contention that was between Jerome and Ruffinus, that he did endeavour by all means, to waken hatred against Jeromes person, and to defame his writings more than in any convincing way to make out his point; and yet all this arose from Jerome his alleging the other to be a favourer of Origens heresy, because he had translated some books of Origens, which was indeed condemned by others as being dangerous; yet seeing Ruffinus did disclaim these errors, and deny that he approved them▪ there was no such ground to press him with i• ▪ and this became the occasion of that irreconcilable ⟨p. 288⟩hatred, which was never removed; in which also it is marked, that Jerome doth object to the other, obscurity, and harshness of stile, adding withal many other slighting expressions.