The Manner and Concomitants of Our Work
Having spoken of the matter of our work, we are next to speak of the manner; not of each part distinctly, lest we be too tedious, but of the whole in general, especially with reference to the principal part.
1. The ministerial work must be managed purely for God and the salvation of the people, and not for any private ends of our own. A wrong end makes all the work bad, as from us, how good soever in itself. It is not serving God, but ourselves, if we do it not for God, but for ourselves. They that set about this as a common work, to make a trade of it for their worldly livelihood, will find that they have chosen a bad trade, though a good employment. Self-denial is of absolute necessity in every Christian, but of a double necessity in a minister, as he hath a double sanctification or dedication to God. Without self-denial he cannot do God an hour’s faithful service. Hard studies, much knowledge, and excellent preaching, are but more glorious and hypocritical sinning, if the end be not right. The saying of Bernard (Serm. in Cant. 26) is commonly known: “Sunt qui scire volunt eo fine tantum ut sciant, et turpis curiositas est; et sunt qui scire volunt, ut scientiam suam vendant: et turpis quaestus est: sunt qui scire volunt ut sciantur ipsi: et turpis vanitas est: Sed sunt quoque, qui scire volunt ut sedificent; et charitas est; et sunt qui scire volunt ut aedificentur; et prudentia est.”
2. This work must be managed laboriously and dillgently, being of such unspeakable consequence to others and ourselves. We are seeking to uphold the world, to save it from the curse of God, to perfect the creation, to attain the ends of Christ’s redemption, to save ourselves and others from damnation, to overcome the devil, and demolish his kingdom, and set up the kingdom of Christ, and attain and help others to the kingdom of glory. And are these works to be done with a careless mind or a slack hand? Oh, see then that this work be done with all your might! Study hard, for the well is deep and our brains are shallow; and (as Cassiod.) “Decorum hie est terminum non habere: hie honesta probatur ambitio; omne si quidem scientificum quanto profundius quaeritur, tanto gloriosius invenitur.” But especially be laborious in practice and in the exercise of your knowledge. Let Paul’s words ring in your ears continually: “Necessity is laid upon me, and woe unto me if I preach not the gospel.” Still think with yourselves what lieth upon your hands. If I do not bestir me, Satan may prevail, and the people everlastingly perish, and their blood be required at my hand. By avoiding labour and suffering, I shall draw on me a thousand times more than I avoid; for, as Bernard saith, “Qui in labore hominum non sunt, in labore profecto Daemonum erunt;” whereas by present diligence you prepare for future blessedness. For, as Gregor. in jIor. saith, “Quot labores veritati nunc exhibes, tot etiam remunerationis pignora intra spei tuae cubiculum clausum tenes.” No man was ever a loser by God.
3. This work must be carried on prudently, orderly, and by degrees. IVIilk must go before strong meat; the foundation must be first laid before we build upon it. Children must not be dealt with as men at age. Men must be brought into a state of grace, before we can expect from them the works of grace. The work of conversion, and repentance from dead works, and faith in Christ, must be first frequently and thoroughly taught. The stewards of God’s household must give to each their portion in due season. We must not go beyond the capacities of our people, nor teach them perfection, who have not learnt the first principles. As August, saith, li. 12, de Civit., “Si pro viribus suis alatur infans, fiet ut crescendo plus capiat: si modum suae capacitatis excedit, deficit antequam crescat;” and as Gregor. Nysen. saith, Orat de Pauper, amand,, “As we teach not infants the deep precepts of science, but first, letters, and then syllables, &c.; so also the guides of the Church do first propound to their hearers certain documents, which are as the elements, and so by degrees do open to them the more perfect and mysterious matters.” Therefore did the Church take so much pains with their “Catechumeni,” before they baptized them, and would not lay unpolished stones into the building’ as Chrysostom saith, Hom. 40. Imperfect; operis (or whoever else it be, p. (mihi) 318,) “iEdificatores sunt sacerdotes, qui .... domum Dei componunt, sicut enim sedificatores, nodosos lapides et habentes torturas, ferro dolant, postea vero ponunt eos in sedificio, alioqui non dolati lapides lapidibus non cohaerent: Sic et Ecclesiae doctores vitia hominum quasi nodos acutis iucrepationibus primum circumcidere debent, et sic in Ecclesise sedificatione collocare: alioquin vitiis manentibus Christiani Christianis concordare non possunt.”
4. Through the whole course of our ministry, we must insist most uj)on the greatest, most certain, and necessary things, and be more seldom and sparing upon the rest. If we can but teach Christ to our people, we teach them all. Get them well to heaven, and they will have knowledge enough. The great and commonly acknowledged truths are they that men must live upon, and which are the great instruments of raising the heart to God, and destroying men’s sins; and therefore we must still have our people’s necessities in our eyes. It will take us off gauds, and needless ornaments, and unprofitable controversies, to remember that one thing is necessary. Other things are desirable to be known, but these must be known, or else our people are undone for ever. I confess I think necessity should be a great disposer of a minister’s course of study and labour. If we were suJEcient for everything, we might fall upon everything, and take in order the whole Encyclopaedia; but life is short, and we are dull; eternal things are necessary, and the souls that depend on our teaching are precious. I confess necessity hath been the conductor of my studies and life; it chooseth what book I shall read, and tells when and how long; it chooseth my text, and makes my sermon for matter and manner, so far as I can keep out my Own corruption. Though I know the constant expectation of death hath been a great cause of this, yet I know no reason why the most healthful man should not make sure of the necessaries first, considering the uncertainty and shortness of all men’s lives. Xenophon thought “there was no better teacher than necessity, which teacheth all things most diligently.’* Curtius saith, “ElBScatior est omni arte necessitas.” Who can in study, preaching, or life, “aUud agere,’* be doing other matters, if he do but know that this must he done f Who can trifle or delay, that feeleth the spurs of hasty necessity? As the soldier saith, “Non diu disputandum, sed celeriter et fortiter dimicandum ubi uriet necessitas;” so much more must we, as our business is more important. And, doubtless, this is the best way to redeem time, and see that we lose not an hour, when we spend it only on necessary things. It is also the way to be most profitable to others, though not always to be most pleasing and applauded; because through men’s frailty, it is true that Seneca complains of, that “nova potius miramur quam magna.”
Hence it is that a preacher must be often upon the same things, because the matters of necessity are few. We must not either feign necessaries, nor dwell much upon unnecessaries, to satisfy them that look after novelties, though we must clothe the same necessaries with a grateful variety in the manner of our delivery. The great volumes and tedious controversies, that so much trouble us and waste our time, are usually made up more of opinion than necessary verities. For, as Marsil. Ficinus saith, “Necessitas brevibus clauditur terminis; opinio nullis.” And as Greg. Nazianz. and Seneca often say, “Necessaries are common and obvious; it is superfluities that we waste our time for, and labour for, and complain that we attain them not.” Ministers, therefore, must be observant of the case of their flocks, that they may know what is most necessary for them, both for matter and for manner; and usually matter is first to be regarded, as being of more concernment than the manner. If you are to choose what authors to read yourselves, will you not rather take those that tell you what you know not, and speak the needful truth most evidently, though it were with barbarous or unhandsome language, than those that will most learnedly, and elegantly, and in grateful language, teU you that which is false or vain, and “magna conatu nihil dicere?” I purpose to follow Austin’s counsel, (li. de. Catech.,) “Praeponendo verbis sententiam, ut animas prseponitur corpori: ex quo fit, ut ita mallem veriores quam discretiores invenire sermones, sicut mallem prudentiores quam formosiores habere amicos.” And surely as I do in my studies for my own edification, I would do in my teaching for other men’s. It is commonly empty, ignorant men that want the matter and substance of true learning, that are over curious and solicitous about words and ornaments, when the ancient, experienced, most learned men, abound in substantial verities, usually delivered in the plainest dress. As Aristotle makes it the reason why women are more addicted to pride in apparel than men, because being conscious of little inward worth and ornament, they seek to make it up with borrowed ornaments without; so it is with empty, worthless preachers, who aifect to be esteemed that which they are not, and have no other way to procure esteem.
5. All oiu” teaching must be as plain and evident as we can make it; for this doth most suit to a teacher’sends. He that would be understood, must speak to the capacity of his hearers, and make it his business to make himself understood. Truth loves the light, and is most beautiful when most naked. It is a sig-n of an envious enemy to hide the truth; and a sign of an hypocrite to do this under pretence of revealing it:
and therefore painted, obscnre sermons (like the painted glass in the windows that keep out the light) are too often the mark of painted hypocrites. If you would not teach men, what do you in the pulpit 1 If you would, why do you not speak so as to be understood? I know the height of the matter may make a man not understood when he hath studied to make it as plain as he can; but that a man should purposely cloud the matter in strange words, and hide his mind from the people whom he pretendeth to instruct, is the way to make fools admire his profound learning, and wise men his folly, pride, and hypocrisy. And usually, it is a suspicious sign of some deceitful project and false doctrine that needeth such a cloak, and must walk thus masked in the open daylight. Thus did the followers of Basilides and Valentinus, and others among the old heretics; and thus do the Behmenists and other Paracelsians now; who, when they have spoken that few may understand them, lest they expose their errors to the open view, they pretend a necessity of it, because of men’s prejudice, and the unpreparedness of common understandings for the truth. But truth overcomes prejudice by mere light of evidence, and there is no better way to make a good cause prevail, than to make it as plain, and commonly, and thoroughly known as we can; and it is this light that will dispose an unprepared mind. And at best it is a sign that he hath not well digested the matter himself, that is not able to deliver it plainly to another. I mean, as plain as the nature of the matter will bear, in regard of capacities prepared for it by prerequisite truths. For I know that some men cannot at present understand some truths, if you speak them as plainly as words can express them; as the easiest rules in grammar, most plainly taught, will be no whit understood by a child that is but learning his alphabet.
6. Our whole work must be carried on in a sense of our insufficiency, and in a pious, believing dependence upon Christ. We must go to Him for light, and life, and strength, who sends us on the work: and when we feel our own faith weak, and our hearts grown dull, and unsuitable to so great a work as we have to do, we must have recourse to the Lord that sendeth us, and say, “Lord, wilt Thou send me with such an unbelieving heart to persuade others to believe 1 Must I daily and earnestly plead with sinners about everlasting life and death, and have no more belief and feeling of these weighty things myself? Oh, send me not naked and unprovided to the work: but as Thou commandest me to do it, furnish me with a spirit suitable thereto.” As Austin saith, (de Doct. Christ. 1. 4,) “A preacher must labour to be heard understandingly, willingly, and obediently, * et hoc se posse magis pietate orationum, quam oratoris facultate non dubitet: ut orando pro se ac pro aliis, quos est allocuturus, sit prius orator quam doctor; et in ipsa hora accedens, priusquam, exeat, proferat linguam ad Deum, levet animam sitientem,’” &c. Prayer must carry on our work as well as preaching; he preacheth not heartily to his people, that will not pray for them. If we prevail not with God to give them faith and repentance, we are unlikely to prevail with them to believe ’ and repent. Paul giveth us frequently his example, of praying night and day for his hearers. When our own hearts are out of order, and theirs so too, if we prevail not mth God to mend and help them, we are like to make but unsuccessful work.
7. Our work must be managed with great humility; we must carry ourselves meekly and condescendingly to all; and so teach others, as to be as ready to learn of any that can teach us, and so both teach and learn at once; not proudly venting our own conceits, and disdaining all that any way contradict them, as if we had attained to the top of knowledge, and we were destined for the chair, and other men to sit at our feet. Not like them that Gregory M. mentioneth in Moral. 1. 24. par. 5, c. xii., “In quorum verbis proditur, quod cum decent, quasi in quodam sibi videntur summitatisculmine residere, eosque quos decent, ut longe infra se positos, velut in imo respiciunt, quibus non consulendo loqui, sed vix dominando dignantur.” Pride is a vice that ill beseems them that must lead men in such an humble way to heaven. And let them take heed, lest when they have brought others thither, the gate should prove too strait for themselves. For, as Hugo saith, “Superbia in coelo nata est, sed velut immemor qua via inde cecidit, istuc postea redire non potuit.” God that thrust out a proud angel, will not entertain there a proud preacher, while such. Methinks we should remember at least the title of a minister, which though the Popish priests disdain, yet so do not we. It is, indeed, this pride at the root that feedeth all the rest of sins; hence is the envy, the contention, and unpeaceableness of ministers, and hence the hindrances in all reformation. AU would lead, and few will follow or concur. Yea, hence are the schisms and apostasies, as hence have been former persecutions, and arrogant usurpations, and impositions; as Gregory M. saith, in
Mor., “Latet pleriimque superbia, et castitas innotescit, atque ideo tentata diu castitas, circa finem vitse perditur; quia cooperta superbia usque ad finem, in correcta retinetur.” And the same may be said of other vices, which often revive when they seemed dead, because pride was unmortified, which virtually contains them all. Hence, also, is the non-proficiency of too many ministers, because they are too proud to learn; unless it be as Jerom’s adversaries, “publice detrahentes, legentes in angulis;” and scarcely will they stoop to that. But I may say of ministers as Augustine to Jerom, even of the aged of them, “Etsi senes magis decet docere quam discere: magis tamen decet discere quam ignorare;” humility would teach them another lesson; ut Hugo,” Ab omnibus libenter disce quod tu nescis: quid humilitas commune tibi facere potest, quod natura cuique proprium fecit, sapientior omnibus eris, si ab omnibus discere volueris: qui ab omnibus accipiunt, omnibus ditiores sunt.’’
8. There must be a prudent mixture of severity and mildness both in our preaching and discipline; each must be predominant according to the quality or the person, or matter that we have in hand. If there be no severity, there will be contempt of our reproofs. If all severity, we shall be taken as usurpers of dominion, rather than persuaders of the minds of men to the truth, as Gregory M. saith, Moral. H. 20, “Miscenda est lenitas cum severitate, et faciendum ex utraque quoddam temperamentum, ut nee multa asperitate exulcerentur subditi, nee nimia benignitatesolvantur.”
9. We must be sincerely affectionate, serious, and zealous in all our public and private exhortations.
174 GILDAS SALVrANUg:
The weioht of our matter concleinneth coldness, and sleepy dulness. We should see that we be well awakened ourselves, and our spirits in such a state as may make us fit to awaken others. As Gregory saith, Moral. 1. 30, c. v., “We should be like the cock, that, ‘Cum edere cantus parat, prius alas solerterexcutit, et seipsum feriens vigilantiorem reddit: ita prsedicatores cum verbum prsedicationis movent, prius se in Sanctis actionibus exercent, ne in se ipsis torpentes opere, ahos excitent voce, sed ante se per sublimia facta excutiunt, et tunc ad bene agendum alios sollicitos reddunt. Prius sua pimire fletibus curant, et tunc quae ahorum sunt punienda, denuntiant,” If our words be not sharpened, and pierce as nails, they will hardly be felt by stony hearts. To speak coldly and slightly of heavenly things, is nearly as bad as to say nothing of them,
10. All our work must be managed reverently, as beseemeth them that believe the presence of God, and use not holy things as if they were common. The more of God appeareth in our duties, the more authority will they have with men: and reverence is that affection of the soul which proceedeth from deep apprehensions of God, and signifieth a mind that is much conversant ^dth Him. To manifest irreverence in the things of God, is so far to manifest hypocrisy, and that the heart agreeth not with the tongue. I know not what it doth by others, but the most reverend preacher, that speaks as if he saw the face of God, doth more afiect my heart, though with common words, than an unreverend man with the most exquisite preparations. Yea, if he bawl it out with never so much seeming earnestness, if reverence be not answerable to fervency, it worketh but little. Of all preaching in the world, (that speaks not stark lies,) I hate that preaching which tendeth to make the hearers laugh, or to move their mind with tickling levity, and affect them as stage-players use to do, instead of affecting them with a holy reverence of the name of God. Saith Jerom, (in Ep. ad Nepotian, p. mihi. 14,) “Docente in Ecclesia te, non clamor populi, sed gemitus suscitetur; Lacrymse auditorum laudes tuse sunt.” We should, as it were, suppose we saw the throne of God, and the millions of glorious angels attending Him, that we might be awed with His majesty, when we draw near Him in His holy things, lest we profane them, and take His name in vain.
To this I annex, that all our work must be done spiritually, as by men possessed of the Holy Ghost, and acted by Him, and men that savour the things of the Spirit. There is, in some men’s preaching, a spiritual strain, which spiritual hearers can discern and relish; and in some men this sacred tincture is so wanting, that, even when they speak of spiritual things, the manner is such as if they were common matters. Our CAddence also and ornaments must be spiritual, rather from the Holy Scripture, with a cautious, subservient use of fathers, and other writers, than from Aristotle or the authorities of men. The wisdom of the world must not be magnified against the wisdom of God; philosophy must be taught to stoop and serve, while faith doth bear the chief sway; and great scholars in Aristotle’s school must take heed of too much glorying in their master, and despising those that are there below them, lest themselves prove lower in the school of Christ, and least in the kingdom of God, while they would be great in the eyes of men. As wdse a man as any of them, would glory in nothing but Him crucified. They that are so confident that Aristotle is in hell, should not too much take him for their guide in the way to heaven. It is an excellent memorandum that Gregory M. hath left in his Moral., 1. 33, “Deus primo coUegit indoctos; post modum philosophos; et non per oratores docuit piscatores, sed per piscatores subegit oratores.” The most learned men should think of this.
Let all writers have their due esteem, but compare none of them with the Word of God. We will not refuse their service, but we must abhor them as competitors. It is a sign of a distempered heart that loseth the relish of Scripture excellency. For there is a connaturality in a spiritual heart to the Word of God, because this is the seed that did regenerate him; the Word is that seal that made all holy impressions that be in the hearts of true believers, and stamped the image of God upon them. And therefore they must needs be like that Word, and highly esteem it as long as they live. Austin tells us, (in his lib. 10. de Civit. Dei, c. xxix.,) “Quod initium Sancti Evangelii, cui nomen est secundum Joannem, quidam Platonicus (sicut h, sancto sene Simpliciano, qui postea Mediolanesi Ecclesise praesedit Episcopus, solebamus audire) aureis literis conscribendum, et per omnes Ecclesias in locis eminentissimis proponendum esse dicebat.”’ If he could so value that which suited with his Platonism, how should we value the whole which is suitable to the Christian nature and interest! God is the best teacher of His own nature and will.
11. The whole course of our ministry must be carried on in a tender love to our people; we must let them see that nothing pleaseth us but what profiteth them; and that which doeth them good doth us good; and nothing troubleth us more than their hurt. We must remember, as Jerom saith, ad Nepotian, “That bishops are not lords, but fathers,” and therefore must be affected to their people as their children; yea, the tenderest love of a mother should not surpass theirs; we must even “travail in birth of them till Christ be formed in them.” They should see that” we care for no outward thing — not money, not liberty, not credit, not life — in comparison of their salvation; but could even be content, with Moses, to have our names wiped out of the book of life — i. e., to be removed “e numero viventium” — rather than they should perish, and not be found in the Lamb’s Book of Life, “in numero salvandorum.” Thus should we, as John saith, be ready to lay down our lives for the brethren; and with Paul, not to count our lives dear to us, so we may but finish our course with joy, in doing the work of God for their salvation. When the people see that you unfeignedly love them, they will hear anything, and bear anything, and follow you the more easily. As Austin saith,. “Dilige, et die quicquid voles.” We will take all thino;s well ourselves from one that we know doth entirely love us. We will put up with a blow that is given us in love sooner than a foul word that is given us in anger or malice. Most men use to judge of the counsel as they judge of the affection of him that gives it, at least so far as to give it a fair hearing. Oh, therefore, see that you feel a tender love to your people in your breasts, and then let them feel it in your speeches, and see it in your dealings. Let them see that you spend,
M and are spent for their sakes; and that all you do is for them, and not for any ends of your own. To this end the works of charity are necessary, as far as your estate shall reach; for bare words will hardly convince men that you have any great love to them. “Amicitia h dando et accipiendo, nascitur.” (Chrysost.) But when you are not able to give, shew that you are willing to give if you had it, and do that sort of good that you can; “Si potes, dare da, si non potes, affabilem te fac. Coronat Deus intus bonitatem, ubi non invenit facultatem. Nemo dicat, non habeo, Charitas non de sacculo erogatur.” (August, in Psal. ciii.) But be sure to see that your love prove not carnal, flowing from pride, as one that is a suitor for himself, rather than for Christ, and therefore doth love because he is loved, or that he may he, pretendeth it. And therefore take heed that you do not connive at their sins under pretence of love; for that were to cross the nature and ends of love: “Amici vitia si feras,facis tua.” (Senec.) Friendship must be cemented by piety. “Tu primum exhibe te bonum, et quae alterum similem tibi.” (Sen.) A wicked man can be no true friend; and if you befriend their wickedness, you shew that you are such yourselves. Pretend not to love them, if you favour their sins, and seek not their salvation. “Soli sancti, et Dei sunt, et inter se amici.” (Basil.) “Improborum et stultorum nemo amicus.” (Id.) By favouring their sin you will shew your enmity to God, and then how can you love your brother 1 “Amicus esse homini non potest, qui Deo fuerit inimicus.” (Ambros.) If you be their best friends, help them against their worst enemies. “Amicus animse custos.” And think not all sharpness inconsistent with love; parents will correct their children; and God himself will chasten every son that He loveth. “MeUus est cum severitate diligere, quam cum lenitate decipere.” (August.)
Besides this, the nature of love is to excite men to do good, and to do it speedily, diligently, and as much as we can. “Alios curat yedificare, alios contremiscitoffendere, ad alios se inclinat, cum aliis blanda, aliis severa, nulli inimica, omnibus mater.” (August, de Catech.) “Ecce quem amas Domine infirmatur: Non dixerunt veni; Amanti enim tantum nunciandum fuit: sufficiet ut noverit: Non enim amat, et deserit.” (August, in Joan.) So will it be with us.
12. Another necessary concomitant of our work is patience. We must bear with many abuses and injuries from those that we are doing good for. When we have studied for them, and prayed for them, and besought and exhorted them with all condescension, and spent ourselves for them, and given them what we are able, and dealt with them as if they had been our children, we must look that many should requite us with scorn, and hatred, and contempt, and cast our kindness in our faces with disdain, and take us for their enemies, because we tell them the truth, and that the more we love, the less we shall be beloved. All this must be patiently undergone, and still we must imweariedly hold on in doing good; in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance. If they unthankfully scorn and reject our teaching, and bid us look to ourselves, and care not for them, yet must we hold on. We have to deal with distracted men, that will fly in the face of their physician, but we must not therefore forsake the cure. He is unworthy to be a physician that will be driven away from a frantic patient by foul words, KaOatrep ot fmivofievoi Kai rov larpov, i. €., “Sicut insani etiam medicum impetere conantur, ita et illi,” saith Chrysostom of the Sodomites. (Hom. 43, in Gen.) “Et alibi, Medici ferant aegrotum calcibus ferientem, incessentemcontumelis, et conitiis, nee offenduntur; quia nihil aHud quam salutem segroti qnserentes, licet facientis indecora, non ideo k cura desistant, sic concionator licet mala patiatur ab auditoribus,” &c. If we tell them that natural men savour not the things of the Spirit, and are beside themselves in matters of salvation, we must measure our expectations accordingly, and not look that fools should make us as grateful a return as the wise. These are things that all of us can say, but when we come to the practice, with sinners that reproach and slander us for our love, and are more ready to spit in our faces than to give us thanks for our advice, what heart-risings will there be, and how will the remnants of old Adam — pride and passion — struggle against the meekness and patience of the new man! And how sadly do many ministers come off in this part of their trial!
Having given you these twelve concomitants of our ministerial labour, as singly to be performed by every minister, let me conclude with one other that is necessary to us as we are conjoined, q,nd fellow-labourers in the work; and it is this: We must be very studious in union and communion among ourselves, and of the unity and peace of the churches that we oversee. We must be sensible how needful this is to the prosperity of the whole, the strengthening of our common cause, the good of the particular members of our flock, and the further enlargement of the kingdom of Christ.
And therefore ministers must smart when the Church is wounded, and being so far from being the leaders in divisions, that they should take it as a principal part of their work to prevent and heal them. Day and night should they bend their studies to find out means to close such breaches. They must not only hearken to motions for unity, but propound them and prosecute them. Not only entertain an offered peace, but even follow it when it flieth from them. They must therefore keep close to the ancient simplicity of the Christian faith, and the foundation and centre of catholic unity. They must abhor the arrogancy of them that frame engines to harass and tear the Chiuxh of God, imder pretence of obviating errors, and maintaining the truth. The Scripture sufiiciency must be maintained, and nothing beyond it imposed on others; and if Papists, or others, call to us for the standard and rule of our religion, it is the Bible that we must shew them, rather than any Confessions of Churches, or writings of men. We must learn to difference well between certainties and uncertainties, necessaries and unnecessaries, catholic verities “quae ab omnibus, ubique et semper sunt retentae,” as Vincent, Licen., speaks, and private opinions; and to lay the stress of the Church’s peace upon the former, and not upon the latter. We must therefore understand the doctrine of antiquity, that we may know what way men have gone to heaven by in former ages, and know the writings of later divines, that we may partake of the benefit of their clearer methods and explications; but neither of them must be made the rule of our faith or charity. We must avoid the common confusion of those that make no difference between verbal and real errors, and hate that “rabies quonmdan theologomm,” that tear their brethren as heretics, before they understand them. And we must learn to see the true state of controversies, and reduce them to the very point where the difference heth, and not to make them seem greater than they are. Instead of quarrelling with our brethren, we must combine against the common adversaries; ministers must associate, and hold communion, and correspondence, and constant meetings to those ends; and smaller differences of judgment are not to interrupt them. They must do as much of the work of God in unity and concord as they can; which is the use of synods: not to rule over one another, and make laws; but to avoid misunderstandings, and consult for mutual edification, and maintain love and communion, and go on unanimously in the work that God hath already commanded us. Had the ministers of the gospel been men of peace, and of catholic rather than factious spirits, the Church of Christ had not been in the case it is now; the notions of Lutherans and Calvinists abroad, and the differing parties here at home, would not have been plotting the subversion of one another, nor remain at that distance, and in that uncharitable bitterness, nor strengthen the common enemy, and hinder the building and prosperity of the Church, as they have done.