This is applied to ministers but it applies to everyone in their place and station. Nothing specific in view here; came up on Facebook and thought a good reminder for our discussions here, before we need one.
"Use Two. For exhortation, whether in doctrine, discipline or carriage. And it is in the apostle’s words, “for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church” (1 Cor. 14:12), we had need to take the exhortation in all things to aim mainly at the edifying of the body of Christ. In every sermon, in every exercise of discipline, in every meeting together, in every word we speak in our meeting, in all the steps of our carriage, look to edify. "
- James Durham, “A Sermon on Ephesians 4:11–12,” Collected Sermons of James Durham: Sixty-one Sermons (Naphtali Press and Reformation Heritage Books, August 2017), 925.
One of James Durham's exhortation to his fellow ministers of Glasgow synod, preached at the beginning of the Protester-Resolutioner schism in the Church of Scotland in 1652 which to a large extent centered in this synod as it was the only one with enough Protesters to have a majority and the synod actually split into two competing synods. History tells that Durham's words fell on deaf ears as the division did not really end but the Restoration made it moot and then came the Killing Times.- James Durham, “A Sermon on Ephesians 4:11–12,” Collected Sermons of James Durham: Sixty-one Sermons (Naphtali Press and Reformation Heritage Books, August 2017), 925.
