Methodus Sacrae Scripturae in publicis tum praelectionibus tum concionibus utiliter atque intelligenter tractandae

...in hand will demand, you follow, nor rashly slip into a common place, nor negligently passing over those things which will be accommodated from the common place to your purpose. Therefore, carefully and with method and judgment applied, like a certain Lesbian rule a flexible rule used in ancient architecture to measure curved stonework, here signifying a flexible standard, you will assume for yourself for the explanation, first from Sacred Scripture itself, then from the common place, and finally from the commentaries of learned interpreters, what and how much each matter requires.

This is mostly my reason and method. But because I feel I have said all these things more briefly than is necessary, I will now explain each one more broadly and specifically.

I am accustomed, therefore, to use three places, and only those, by which I easily and briefly encompass all the things above. These places are named by me as follows: The Rhetorical Place, The Dialectical Place, The Theological Place. These three, as much as is right and the undertaken material allows, I believe should also be applied and joined in the treatment of every sacred verse.

I call the Rhetorical Place the brief demonstration or reason of the continuation and series of the undertaken place with the previous one, which is usually designated by almost one word. But because it is necessary for us to borrow this word from the rhetoricians, therefore I call the place and name of this continuation and annotation the Rhetorical Place. This place contains those things which rhetoricians are accustomed to observe usefully in the writings of orators, so that the conjunction and connection of the entire speech may be understood...