He was also a great Enemy to all Contention, & would ring a loud Curfew-Bell wherever he saw the Fires of Animosity. When he heard any Ministers complain, that such and such in their Flocks, were too difficult for them, the strain of his Answer still was, Brother, Compass them! and Brother, Learn the meaning of those three little Words, Bear, Forbear, Forgive. Yea, his Inclinations for Peace, indeed sometimes almost ⟨p. 40⟩made him to sacrifice Right it self. When there was laid before an Assembly of Ministers, a bundle of Papers, which contained certain matters of Difference and Contention, between some people which our Eliot thought should rather unite, with an Amnesty upon all their former Quarrels, he (with some limitation of what Constantine did upon the like occasion) hastily threw the papers into the Fire before them all, and with a zeal for peace, as hot as that Fire, said immediately, Brethren, wonder not at what I have done; I did it on my knees this morning before I came among you. Such an excess (if it were one), flowed from his Charitable Inclinations to be found among those Peace-makers which by following the Example of that Man who is our Peace, come to be called, The children of God. Very worthily might he be called an Ireneus, as being all for Peace; and the Commendation which Epiphanius gives unto the Ancient of that Name, did belong unto our Eliot; he was a most blessed and a most holy man. He disliked all sorts of Bravery; but yet with an ingenious Note upon the Greek word in Col. 3. 15. he propounded, That peace might brave it among us. In short, where-ever he came, it was like another old John, with solemn and earnest persuasives to love, and when he could say little else, he would give that Charge, My Children, love one another!
He was also a great Enemy to all Contention, & would ring a loud Courfeu-Bell wherever he saw the Fires of Animosity. When he heard any Ministers complain, that such and such in their Flocks, were too difficult for them, the strain of his Answer still was, Brother, Compass them! and Brother, Learn the meaning of those three little Words, Bear, Forbear, Forgive. Yea, his Inclinations for Peace, indeed sometimes almost ⟨p. 40⟩made him to sacrifice Right it self. When there was laid before an Assembly of Ministers, a bundle of Papers, which contained certain matters of Difference and Contention, between some people which our Eliot thought should rather unite, with an Amnesty upon all their former Quarrels, he (with some limitation of what Constantine did upon the like occasion) hastily threw the papers into the Fire before them all, and with a zeal for peace, as hot as that Fire, said immediately, Brethren, wonder not at what I have done; I did it on my knees this morning before I came among you. Such an excess (if it were one), flow'd from his Charitable Inclinations to be found among those Peace-makers which by following the Exemple of that Man who is our Peace, come to be called, The children of God. Very worthily might he be called an Ireneus, as being all for Peace; and the Commendation which Epiphanius gives unto the Ancient of that Name, did belong unto our Eliot; he was a most blessed and a most holy man. He disliked all sorts of Bravery; but yet with an ingenious Note upon the Greek word in Col. 3. 15. he propounded, That peace might brave it among us. In short, where-ever he came, it was like another old John, with solemn and earnest perswa•ives to love, and when he could say little else, he would give that Charge, My Children, love one another!
