The Implacable Hatred of Divines

“Contentions cause much perverseness in men’s tongues, and this causes a breach in their spirits. Your contending costs you dearly. Though it were in nothing else, yet the loss of this sweetness of spirit makes it very costly to you. All the wrong that you would have endured if you had not contended would not have been so great an evil to you as this one thing is. There is nothing more contrary to ingenuity than quarrelsomeness. It is reported that when Melanchthon was to die he gave this speech, and Strigelisu at his death said the same: ‘I desire to depart this life for two causes: first, that I may enjoy the desired sight of the Son of God and the church in heaven, and, second, that I may be delivered from the fierce and implacable hatred of divines.’ There was much disputing, contending, and quarreling in those times which was so tedious to the spirits of these good men that it made them the more willing to die that they might be where their souls should be at rest” (Burroughs, Irenicum, pp. 274-275).