Ministers to preach plainly as well as learnedly, to the ca∣pacity of their Hearers, [ 1067]
IT is observable, that the profoundest Prophets accommodated thems••lves to their Hearers capacities, as of Fishes to the Egyptians, droves of Cattle to the Ara∣bians, Trade and traffique to the Tyrians; So our blessed Saviour tells his Fisher∣men, that they shall be Fishers of men; And after many plain Parables to the Peo∣ple, (as if the father, the essential word, had been at a losse for a fit word, familiar and low enough for our dull and shallow apprehensions); Whereunto, saith he, shall we liken the Kingdom of Heaven?* 1.1 Yea, the Evangelists spake vulgarly many times for their Hearers sakes,* 1.2 even to a manifest incongruity. In after ages (those two great lights of the Church) St. Augustine,* 1.3 and St. Ambrose,* 1.4 the one confes∣seth that he was fain to use some words sometimes to those Roman Colonies in Afri∣ca,* 1.5 where he preached that were not Latine, as ossum for os, dolus for dolor, floriet for florebit, to the end they might understand him; And the other remembring that he was a Minister, stood not alwayes upon the pureness of his style,* 1.6 but was farre more solicitous of his matter, then of his Words: Thus as Children use money to jingle with, and Men use flowers for sight and scent, but Bees for hony and wax, not to gild their wings as the butterfly, but to fill their Combs, and feed their young; In like sort there are those that tip their tongues and store their heads, some for shew, and some for delight; but Ministers above all men, have these talents in trust, that therewith they may save themselves, and those that hear them, they must condescend to the capacities of their Hearers,* 1.7 stoop to the apprehensions of the mea∣nest, become all things to all Men,* 1.8 in S. Pauls sense, that they may win some. Hence was that saying of a reverend Bishop,* 1.9 Lord send me learning enough, that I may preach plain enough.