I found this from Richard Baxter and thought it fit in our generation as well.
…ministers must smart when the Church is wounded, and be 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…
How much time are we spending attempting to close breaches instead of create them? How many needless articles are there that stir up ways that we differ instead of simply edifying souls?
They must, therefore, keep close to the ancient simplicity of the Christian faith, and the foundation and center of catholic unity. They must abhor the arrogancy of them that frame new engines to rack and tear the Church of Christ under pretense of obviating errors and maintaining the truth.
In an effort to root out error and maintain truth we can do more harm than good. If we rend the church of Christ while trying to protect her from error, we might have more blood on our hands than the supposed error that we hoped to squash would have ever brought forth.
The Scripture sufficiency must be maintained, and nothing beyond it imposed to others…We must learn to distinguish between certainties and uncertainties, necessaries and unnecessaries, [foundational Christian truths] and private opinions; and to lay the stress of the Church’s peace upon the former, not upon the latter.
The church can be united without being uniform. We must make it our effort to focus our attention on that which truly unites us, and leave the rest for glory.
…we must learn to see the true state of controversies, and reduce them to the very point where the difference lieth, and not make them seem greater than they are. Instead of quarreling with our brethren, we must combine against the common adversaries…
I found this gem by Richard Baxter very fitting for our day. There is more to be said here—but I encourage you to read each section and consider what this brother from days long gone has to say to us.
(Quotes taken from The Reformed Pastor, by Richard Baxter)
