Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
If ye have bitter envying and strife - If ye be under the influence of an unkind, fierce, and contemptuous spirit, even while attempting or pretending to defend true religion, do not boast either of your exertions or success in silencing an adversary; ye have no religion, and no true wisdom, and to profess either is to lie against the truth. Let all writers on what is called polemic (fighting, warring) divinity lay this to heart. The pious Mr. Herbert gives excellent advice on this subject: -
"Be calm in arguing, for fierceness makes
Error a fault, and truth discourtesy;
Why should I feel another man' s mistakes
More than his sickness or his poverty?
In love I should; but anger is not love,
Nor wisdom neither; therefore g-e-n-t-l-y m-o-v-e."
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