Secondly, Because of the publicness of the auditory I shall be bold to speak a word or two to my brethren in the ministry, and those
^ 'Qui referre injuriara nltitui", eum ipsura a quo Isesus est gestit imitari; ita qui malum imitatur bouus esse nullo pacto potest.' — Lactant. de Vcro Cultu, lib. vi. cap 18.
^ Tertul. in Apol., cap. 39.
^ ' Nullse infestse hominibus bestise ut sunt sibi ferales plerumaue CKristiani.' — Ammia. Marcelli. lib ii. cap. 2.
ZeCH. XIV. 9.] MEAT OUT OF THE EATER. 401
who are to deal publicly in these matters ; they may do much to the calming of the times. We are ambassadors of the Prince of peace ; it •will ill become us to be men of violence. Oh ! that the Lord would dispose of our hearts to think of healing the breaches ; the reproaches cast upon us are a hint from Grod to press us to the more care. I hope I shall not take too much upon me if I commend something out of the scriptures to myself and brethren. Admonitions are not accu- sations, and when God giveth a call, it is not too much peremptoriness to admonish : by the bowels of Christ let me entreat you to mind a few things.
1. Beware of passion in your own interests ; though they may be much shaken and endamaged in the present controversies, yet self-deny- ing patience will be the best way to settle them : the injury to us may be great, but the injury to truth is greater; we must approve our faithfulness in afflictions as well as doctrine. It is an excellent place that of the apostle Paul, 2 Cor. vi. 3, ' Giving no offence, but approv- ing ourselves as the ministers of Christ in necessities and distresses/ Mark, that we are to show ourselves ministers of Christ in furthering the gospel by our necessities ; and sometimes it is a duty to depart from our just rights. Therefore be not too passionate in and for your own interests. The hint is not needless : Christ's disciples, being too sensible of their own contempt, called for fire from heaven, Luke ix. 54, 55. A tender- ness of our own interests may soon raise us into an undue heat and rage, and in a mistake of our spirits, we may think that a coal from the altar which indeed is but taken from some common hearth. The false church hath been more zealous for interests than truths. Luther might have been more quiet, if he had not declaimed against the triple crown and the monks' bellies. Our conveniences should learn to give place to the advantage of truth. It is said of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, Mat. xii. 19, that ' he shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets,' i.e., he shall not keep a-bustling and astir for worldly glory and great matters in this life ; and truly we should learn of him. Paul would not take maintenance, because the false teachers pretended they would preach the gospel freely : 2 Cor. xi. 12, ' But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off" occasion from them which desire occasion, that wherein they glory they may be found even as we.' It seemeth that some, as now, to get credit and entrance, would take no relief from the churches ; now, saith Paul, though I have a right, I will not make use of it, that I may not, through their glorying in this matter, disadvantage my endeavours in the gospel. Our esteem, credit, authority, must all be sacrificed upon the interest and advantage of truth. Nazianzen, in his orations and verses, doth often profess his desires of laying down his bishopric and all his church honours for the peace of the church. In one place, I remember, above all, he tells them of Constantinople, that rather than he would any way be guilty of the least concurrence to their distractions, he should count it a high mercy to go aside and spend the rest of his days in obscure silence, for he had learned to prefer Christ above all : —
' Oi5 ycLp Irjs' yevSfnjv nolpTjS 6pd<jv$ dffirioiiLTijs, OiiS' iCeXov XpicToO d\\6 rl Trp6a6e <()ipuv, VOL. V. 2 c
402 MEAT OUT OF THE EATER. [ZeCH. XIV. 9.
'AXXo. TO. fxh \rj9T]$ Ke69oL [3v66s, avrap ^yoyye 'Hi/dev d^opfJiyjOeis, Tep\poiJ.ai drpefiirj.' ^
A good resolution and worthy to be imitated.
2. Press doctrines of Christ, and the main things of religion. Some men love to live in the fire, and to handle the red-hot questions of the age with passion and acrimony ; but, alas ! this doth no good. Zuinglius was once asked by a friend, Cu7' own contra ijontificios ? — why he was not more keen against the Papists, and preached not oftener against them ? He answered, he would first plant the fear of God, and then men would be for the cause of God. To gain men to a party before they be gained to G od is not so warrantable, and to press zeal in some particular ways doth but produce blind fury, which un- doeth all. TertuUian ^ noteth it as a miscarriage of the heretics in his time, that they were more for gaining men to a party than. Christianity. Suppose you press the truth, yet Christ telleth us that * wisdom is justified of her children,' Mat. xi. 19. God's own people are most zealous for God's truths : Jude 4, ' They turn the grace of our God into wantonness.' Sense of interest begetteth the purest, freest zeal for God. The intent of our ministry is not that we should gain men to the support of our faction and party, but to Christ and Christianity. Other differences would be allayed were it not that we do so often revive them by unseasonable agitations ; and, indeed, for the lesser differences, they were better wholly laid aside than so often stirred. Calvin, after his return to Geneva, would never con- tend about the business of wafer-cakes, for which he was at first cast out ; though he altered not his mind in it, yet would never publicly contend in that matter, only many times modestly suggested what he thought was the better way.3