Preciúmne operæ fuerit, pacem vobis operosè collaudare; quam, summi instar beneficii, terris apprecati sunt angeli; quam, ditissimi patrimonii loco, legavit nobis, cœlum repetiturus, Cœli Dominus, Servator noster Jesus Christus? Nimis, profectò, irritus foret omnis iste labor.

Christianos alloquor, alloquor pios Ecclesiæ filios: communis Matris incolumitatem, Evangelii successum, ac plerarúmque animarum salutem in hoc cardine verti, facilè persentiscitis. Discordiæ utriusque, tam civilis quàm ecclesiasticæ, malis ferè omnes ita ingemuimus, ut vix ullus suspiriis lacrymísve locus deinceps videatur superesse. Ilicet tempus nunc est, ut, jam serò, paci litemus Evangelicæ; ut gladios in ligones, hastásque in falces, Christiani omnes tandem convertamus'. Isa. ii. 4; Mic. iv. 3.

SECT. 25.

AUDIO inconsultos quosdam, ubi ulla pacis mentio inciderit, Veritatem illico inclamitare ac Justitiam: præque his flocci facere, quam tantopere desideramus, fidelium unitatem ac concordiam; quasi, verò, cordatus quispiam hæc à se invicem divelli ac disjungi unquam patiatur. Pax certè non est, quæ veritate destituitur; sed iniqua quædam in errore conspiratio : pax non est, quæ vacat justitiâ; sed pusillanimis quædam et desidiosa populi degeneris, et cuivis tyrannidi succumbentis,

servitus.

Scilicet aut se mutuò exosculantur pax et veritas, veritas et justitia; aut ipsæ, quæ videntur, non sunt. Veritatem quovis pretio redimere jubet regum sapientissimus, nec quo vendere ; Prov. xxiii. 23. Sed huic, interea, valore proximam voluit esse pacem, qui Pacis Deus appellari amat. 2 Thess. iii. 16.

Nulla, certè, veritatis Christianæ particula est, quam quis bonus, sciens prudénsque, quâvis mercede, quovis metu prodere velit; et, timidâ quâdam abnegatione, prorsùs abdicare. Sunt tamen, interea, quidam veritatis parùm necessarii apices, qui publicæ pacis studio tantisperdum celari et possunt et verò debent; et in universalibus, non tam dolosus versatur, quàm pacificus. Nempe, unum hoc est, quod vos iterum atque iterum

̓Αρκεῖ τὰ γεγονότα, ἀρκεῖ· μισῶ πόλεμον ἐμφύλιον κὰν κρατῷ. Otho. apud Dionem.

Can it be worth while, to accost you with an elaborate panegyric upon peace; when the angels of heaven announced it as the greatest blessing to earth, and the Lord of Heaven, our Saviour Jesus Christ, when about to return to heaven, bequeathed it to us, as our richest heritage? Well I know that all such labour would be supererogatory.

I address Christians; I address the pious sons of the Church: you easily perceive that the safety of your common Mother, the success of the Gospel, and the salvation of many souls, hinge on this determination. We have so wept, almost to a man, over the evils of discord, civil as well as ecclesiastical, that there seems henceforth to be scarcely room left either for sighs or tears. Now, in short, is the time, that we do honour, however late, to the peace of the Gospel; that all, who are really Christians, convert their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. Isaiah ii. 4; Micah iv. 3.

SECT. 25.

I HEAR Some unadvised men, whenever peace happens to be mentioned, immediately begin crying out for truth and justice: in comparison with these, they esteem the unity and concord of the faithful, which we so desire, a thing of small account; as if any prudent man, the while, would ever suffer these things to be rent in twain and plucked asunder from each other. That certainly is not peace, which is deprived of truth, but only a wicked confederacy in sin: that is not peace, which is void of justice, but the cowardly and slothful prostration of a degenerate people, crouching to any tyranny that may usurp the rule over them.

We may be sure that either peace and truth, truth and justice, mutually kiss each other; or themselves are not what they seem to be. The wisest of kings commands us to buy the truth at any price, and not at any price to sell it; Prov. xxiii. 23. Yet he who loves to be called the God of peace, has willed, meanwhile, that Peace should be the next to truth in value. 2 Thess. iii. 16.

Certainly there is no particle of Christian truth, which a good man would consent, wilfully and deliberately, for any recompense, or under any temptation, to forego: and thus, by a sort of timid backwardness, to renounce altogether. Yet there are meanwhile, some points of truth, not wholly indispensable, which, in the pursuit of public peace, both can and may be, to a certain extent, withheld. He who deals in universals, is not so much a man of dissimulation, as a man of peace. For this is that one topic, on which I would have you admonished again and again: Is our contention for the very

Oportebat quidem nihil non ferre, ne Ecclesiam Dei scinderes. Dionysius ad Novatum. Euseb. 1. vi. c. 44.

monitos velim: De Fidei Christianæ animâ lis est? Præ hàc ψυχήν ἡμῶν οὐ τιμίαν ἔχομεν, cum Heroe illo Evangelico ; Act. xx. 24. Hanc nos fortiter usque propugnemus, oùv dopí, oùv domide; voveamúsque, juxta magnanimum illud matrum olim Laconicarum mandatum", ǹ TâV, ỷ Èπì Tâs. De vestis interea fimbriis non nimis atrociter decertemus.

Libertate nostrâ Christianâ modestè utamur et prudenter: neque ita nos geramus, ut, dum ergastulum quoddam nimis fortè angustum refugimus, per campos latè patentes, perque loca invia ac deserta, onagrorum more, vagi discurramus; ventùmque anheli hauriamus, nullis aut legum frænis aut pietatis sepimentis contineri sustinentes. Sed, si verè sapimus, aλnDevóvтes év áɣárn, Eph. iv. 15. ea, quæ fidei sunt, etiam cum vitæ dispendio tueamur; quæ præter fidem, aut susque deque habeamus, aut certè non impetuosiùs prosequamur; quæ, denique, contra fidem, abominemur, et, quantum possumus, animosè debellemus: et ita, demum, nos comparemus, ut per omnia pares simus divinæ illi Tapakλýσet, quam Corinthiacis suis impertiit Gentium Apostolus: Fidelis est Deus, per quem vocati estis in communionem Filii ipsius, Domini nostri, Jesu Christi. Obsecro, autem, vos, fratres, per nomen Domini nostri, Jesu Christi, ut idem loquamini omnes; et non sint inter vos dissidia, sed sitis coagmentati eâdem mente et eâdem sententiá. 1 Cor. i. 9, 10.

ὁμοψήφως καὶ ὁμοψύχως.

SECT. 26.

QUOD si qui sint, qui sententias suas impias cervicosà animositate, ut cum Gersone loquar, non sine publicæ pacis dispendio, tueri velint; non aliâ profectò erga hos quàm Paulina utar charitate; Utinam abscindantur, qui vos conturbant: Gal. v. 12. abscindantur, inquam, non tam ore gladii, quàm gladio oris. Haud, equidem, invenio, ubi quem hæreticum Apostolus sæculari potestati tradiderit: tradidit, quidem, Satanæ; non tamen ut damnaretur illico, sed ut disceret non blasphemare. 1 Tim. i. 20. Habet ensem suum magistratus; habent et suum non Petri modò successores, sed et Apostolorum: stringendus erit, ubi opus, utérque; ita verò, ut alter alteri subsidio esse

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life and soul of the Christian faith? In comparison of this, we may say, with the bold Apostle, we count not our life dear unto ourselves." Acts xx. 24. This we must defend bravely, with the spear and with the shield; and we must resolve, according to that noble exhortation, given of old by the Spartan matrons, to return either with it, or on it. But we need not fight so very fiercely for the fringes of the garment only.

Let us use our liberty, as Christians, with moderation and prudence: nor let us so demean ourselves, that, while perhaps we dislike the narrow confines of the work-shop, we must run about, like wild asses, over the open plains, and through pathless and desert places; panting as we snuff the wind, and disdaining to be restricted, either by the bridle of the law, or within the hedge-rows of religion. But, if we be truly wise, let us speak the truth in love: Eph. iv. 15. those things which come within the pale of our faith, let us defend even at the expense of our lives; those things which lie beyond the range of our faith, let us either regard with unconcern, or at least pursue without impetuosity; and those things which militate against our faith, let us both abhor and zealously exterminate, as far as we are able and so at length prepare ourselves, that we may be in all things equal to that divine benediction, which the Apostle of the Gentiles imparted to his brethren at Corinth: God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment. 1 Cor. i. 9, 10.

One in voice, and one in spirit!

SECT. 26.

BUT should there, after all, be some, who choose, not without hazard to the public peace, to maintain their unholy sentiments with headstrong pertinacity; towards these I would adopt no other charity than that of Paul; I would they were even cut off, which trouble you: Gal. v. 12: cut off, I mean, not with the sword of battle, but with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. I find no instance, where an Apostle delivered up a heretic to secular authority: he delivered such an one, indeed, unto Satan; yet not that he might be damned outright, but that he might learn not to blaspheme. 1 Tim. i. 20. The magistrate has his sword; and the successors, not of Peter only, but of all the Apostles, have theirs: either must be drawn, when necessity arises; but only in such wise, that each may subserve the other, and

possit; hominum animabus, utérque. Ne vulpeculæ, quidem, ipsæ, vitibus Domini infestæ, ferendæ sunt. Sed, si quis ex Árii vel Socini nemore conturbator aper vineam Christi penitùs vastare aggressus fuerit, nunc,

Odora canum vis,

Retia rara, plagæ, lato venabula ferro, Æn. iv. 131, 2.

in auxilium vocanda sunt: sylvæ cingendæ : et quidvis tentandum, denique, ut fera bellua capiatur; atque ita secum agi sentiat, ut à tam manifesto suffossionis periculo Ecclesia Dei deinceps liberetur.

Verè ille olim, "Aliæ sunt leges Papiniani, aliæ Christi;" utrarúmque tamen scopus unus idémque est, ut benè sit populo Dei, cujus salus suprema lex.

In Libano hujus mundi, licèt passim exaudiantur operariorum clamores, fabrorum secures, serrarum stridores, et lapicidarum tuditantium mallei; at in monte sancto, in Templo Domini ædificando, vult Deus, ut ne lignei quidem malleoli sonus aurem verberet. 1 Reg. vi. 7.

At, at, Bone Deus, ubi sumus? quis istic strepitus? quæ ferramentorum collisio? quis hic horridus cadentium saxorum fragor? Destruitur nimirum, destruitur planè, hoc modo, Templum Dei; (ita enim Psaltes olim, Etiam nunc sculpturas ejus simul vecte et tuditibus tundunt: Ps. lxxiv. 6.) sic, verò, ut extrueretur uspiam domus Dei, fando nunquam auditum est.

O nos in illa servatos tempora, de quibus Servator noster olim præmonuit: Futurum est, ut audiatis bella, et rumores bellorum insurgent gens in gentem, et regnum in regnum! O verè apxyv Tŵv wdivwv! sed et pænè etiam exitum. Matt. xxiv. 6-8. Illud, enim, unum, in tam communi bonorum omnium cordolio, afflictissimis piorum animis solatio esse potest, indicia hæc esse appropinquantis, quasique præ foribus astantis, Liberatoris nostri Domini, Jesu Christi. İlle nempe Benedictus in secula Dei Filius, qui, in Primo suo Adventu,

Belli ferratas portas, postésque refregit; Ennius.

neque in orbem, nisi Augusti sceptro pacatissimum, descendere voluit; Secundi Adventus sui tempus in illud ævum conjecit,