A brother offended [is harder to be won] than a strong
city,
&c.] A fortified city may sooner be taken by an enemy, than
one brother offended can be reconciled to another; their
resentments against each other are keener than against another
person that has offended them; and their love being turned into
hatred, it is more bitter; and it is more difficult to compose
differences between brethren than between enemies; wherefore such
should take care that they fall not out by the way: this is true
of brethren in a natural sense; as the cases of Abel and Cain,
Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brethren, Amnon and Absalom, and
others, show; and of brethren in a spiritual sense, as Paul and
Barnabas, Luther and Calvin, and others; and [their]
contentions [are] like the bars of a castle:
which cannot be easily broken or cut asunder: so contentions,
especially those among brethren, are with great difficulty made
to cease, and their differences composed; they will stand it out
against one another as long as a strong city, or a barred castle,
against an enemy.