A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;
Ver. 10. A man that is a heretic] All heresies are found to flow (saith Chemnitius) either from the supercilious pride of Samosatenus, or from the sophistry of Arius, or from the ignorance of Aetius. (Loc. Com., i. 2.) These men's wits will better serve them to devise a thousand shifts to elude the truth, than their pride will suffer them once to yield and acknowledge it. And here this rule of St Paul takes place. Nestorius was an unlearned and proud man, but very bold and well spoken; insomuch as thereby he often carried it, and so seduced the emperor Theodosius, as that Cyril, a very good bishop, was thrown out of his place. Howbeit he was afterwards restored again with honour, when the emperor had better bethought himself, and the heretic Nestorius was condemned and cast out. (Zanch. Misc. Epist. Dedicat.)
After the first and second admonition reject] Or, avoid, devita, which some Popish dolts interpreted de vita tolle, kill them (as Erasmus reporteth), so to justify their bloody practice of putting Protestants to death. But what saith the same Erasmus speaking of Berquin the martyr, burnt by them for religion; Damnari, dissecari, suspendi, exuri; To be condemned, hanged, quartered, burned, beheaded, are things common to good and bad people. (Scultet. Annal.) To condemn, hang, quarter, burn, behead, is a thing common to righteous judges with pirates and tyrants. The judgments of men are various; happy is he that is absolved by God the Judge of all. And this was as much as he dared say against their proceedings, who for saying so much as he did, hardly escaped with this reproach, that for Erasmus they named him Erat-mus; because he so truly but bitterly biteth their ulcers.