The saints everlasting rest

I answer, 1. Set those upon the work who are more able. 2. Yet do not think that thou art so excused thyself, but use faithfully that ability which thou hast; not in teaching those of whom thou shouldst learn, but in instructing those that are more ignorant than thyself, and in exhorting those that are negligent in the things which they do know. If you cannot speak well yourself, yet you can tell them what GOD speaketh in his word. It is not the excellency of speech that winneth the souls; but the authority of GOD manifested by that speech, and the power of his word in the mouth of the instructor. A weak woman may tell what GOD saith in the plain passages of the word, as well as a learned man. If you cannot preach to them, yet you can say. Thus it is written. One of mean parts may remember the wisest of their duty when they forget it.

Object. It is my superior: and is it sit for me to teach or reprove my betters? Must the wife teach the husband, of whom the scripture biddeth them learn? ⟨p. 220⟩Or must the child teach the parents, whose duty it is to teach them?

I answer, 1. It is sit that husbands should be able to touch their wives, and parents to teach their children; and GOD expecteth they should be so, and therefore commandeth the inferiors to learn of them. But if they through their negligence disable themselves, or through their wickedness bring their souls into such misery, then it is themselves, and not you, that break GOD's order, by bringing themselves into disability and misery.

I answer, 1. It is sit that husbands should be able to touch their wives, and parents to teach their children; and GOD expecteth they should be so, and therefore commandeth the inseriors to learn of them. But if they through their negligence disable themselves, or through their wickedness bring their souls into such misery, then it is themselves, and not you, that break GOD's order, by bringing themselves into disability and misery.