A brother offended [is harder to be won] than a strong city: and [their] contentions [are] like the bars of a castle.
Ver. 19. A brother offended is harder to be won, &c.] Whether it be a brother by race, place, or grace; Corruptio optimi pessima: those oft that loved most dearly, if once the devil cast his club between them, they hate most deadly. See this exemplified in Cain and Abel, Esau and Jacob, Polynices and Eteocles, Romulus and Remus, Caracalla and Geta, the two sons of Severus the Emperor, Robert and Rufus, the sons of William the Conqueror, the civil dissensions between the houses of York and Lancaster, wherein were slain eighty princes of the blood royal, a the dissensions between England and Scotland, which consumed more Christian blood, wrought more spoil and destruction, and continued longer than ever quarrel we read of did between any two people of the world. As for brethren by profession, and that of the true religion too, among Protestants, you shall meet with many divisions, and those prosecuted with a great deal of bitterness. Nullum bellum citius exardescit, nullum deflagrat tardius quam Theologicum. b No war breaks out sooner, or lasts longer, than that among divines, or as that about the sacrament; a sacrament of love, a communion, and yet the occasion, by accident, of much dissension. This made holy Strigelius weary of his life. Cupio ex hac vita migrare ob duas causas, saith he. For two causes chiefly do I desire to depart out of this world; First, That I may enjoy the sweet sight of the Son of God, and the Church above; Next, Ut liberer ab immanibus et implicabilibus odiis Theologorum, that I may be delivered from the cruel and implacable hatreds of dissenting divines. c There is a most sad story of those that fled to Frankfort hence in Queen Mary's time; yet among them there were such grievous breaches, that they sought the lives one of another; great care therefore must be taken that brethren break not friendship: or if they do, that they reunite in peace again as soon as is possible.
a Dan, 192.
b Bucholcer.
c Melch. Adam, in Vita.