thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me.[1] Peace is not the matter, but following and party. Contrariwise, certain Laodiceans and lukewarm[2] persons think they may accommodate[3] points of religion by middle ways, and taking part of both, and witty[4] reconcilements; as if they would make an arbitrement[5] between God and man. Both these extremes are to be avoided; which will be done, if the league of Christians penned by our Saviour himself were in the two cross clauses thereof soundly and plainly expounded: He that is not with us is against us;[6] and again, He that is not against us is with us;[7] that is, if the points fundamental and of substance in religion were truly discerned and distinguished from points not merely[8] of faith, but of opinion, order, or good intention. This is a thing may seem to many a matter trivial, and done already. But if it were done less partially, it would be embraced more generally.
Of this I may give only this advice, according to my small model. Men ought to take heed of rend-
- ↑ "So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, Thus saith the king, Is it peace? And Jehu said, What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me." II. Kings ix. 18.
- ↑ "And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write ; . . . So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." Revelation iii. 14, 16.
- ↑ Accommodate. To adjust, reconcile (things or persons that differ); to bring into harmony or agreement.
- ↑ Witty. Ingenious.
- ↑ Arbitrement. Compromise, friendly agreement.
- ↑ "He that is not with me is against me." Matthew xii. 30 and Luke xi. 23.
- ↑ "For he that is not against us is on our part." Mark ix. 40.
- ↑ Merely. Absolutely, wholly, completely.
"I wish ye all content, and am as happy,
In my friend's good as if 't were merely mine."
Beaumont and Fletcher. The Honest Man's Fortune, v. 3.
