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{Sermons on Ephesians 5:15
The Doctrine Explained
Precisians are Described
Negatively
Not an Extremist}
A Precisian is not an extremist32 [one who does evil for his cause], he is no son of violence or contention. He is not one who does not know of what spirit he is, calling for fire from Heaven to set all ablaze if everything is not done exactly according to his own mind (Luke 9:54). This is not a Precisian; the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable; the servants of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle, and so on (James 3:17, 2 Timothy 2:24).
32extremist: literally, one who takes an extreme position. In this literal sense, a precise Christian is an extremist because the commands of God are exclusive and absolute. But in contemporary usage, an extremist is one who is wild or irrational, and more importantly, he or she is typically willing to do evil to support his or her cause. Alleine used “phrenetic,” a word then similar in meaning to the modern “frenetic,” meaning a madman or one characterized by excessive excitement and enthusiasm or one who is furious, frantic, or a fanatic. But it is Alleine’s description of what a Precisian is not that calls to mind the fact that the Precisian is the opposite of an extremist (in the usual, common and contemporary sense).
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