69. Why need I speak of the things of
ancient days? Who can test himself by the rules and standards
which Paul laid down for bishops and presbyters, that they are to be
temperate, soberminded, not given to wine, no strikers, apt to teach,
blameless in all things, and beyond the reach of the wicked, 1 Tim. iii. 2. 3; Tit. i. 7. without finding considerable deflection from
the straight line of the rules? What of the regulations of Jesus
for his disciples, when He sends them to preach? S.
Matt. x. 9; S. Luke ix. 3. The main object of these is—not
to enter into particulars—that they should be of such virtue, so
simple and modest, and in a word, so heavenly, that the gospel should
make its way, no less by their character than by their
preaching.