Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A42489
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The love of truth and peace a sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, assembled in Parliament, Novemb. 29, 1640 / by Iohn Gauden ...
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Gauden, John, 1605-1662.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing G363; ESTC R492
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24,201
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54
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nor yet are all truths to be prosecuted with such vehemencie heate and contention as to make Shipwrack of eithers peace The windowes and lights of truth must not bee so enlarged as to weaken the firmenesse solidity and entirenesse of the building Nor may the Walls be so thick close and compacted as to exclude or obscure the light which the Turks doe who so farre secure their peace as they forbid the searching of Truth neither darknesse may make the house of God uselesse nor breaches under pretence of letting in more light may bee made so wide as to render the edifice unsafe and tottering As divine Truth of Religion so civill truth of Judicature and Peace must kisse each other Here the veracity and conscience of Iudges and Magistrates is chiefely required that they bee Men of truth Exod. 18. 21. For false corrupt and unjust Iudges like Comets portend warres and commotions in a state scattering so malignant an influence into mens minds that every one had rather adventure the injuries of warre than suffer the injustice of peace 4 The Lovelinesse of them which will best appeare by the benefits from them why truth and peace are to be loved 1 Civill or Politicall truth is the mind of the Law the rule of Iustice the right measuring and distribution of things to every one according as equity and reason require By this truth the propriety and enjoyment of what is our own are maintained fraud injuries and violence detected punished and restrained Innocencie releeved industry maintained and incouraged due rewards to vertue and merit as well as punishments to sinne and vice are dispensed In a word the safety of your persons wives children houses lands goods honours liberties lives and all that is deare to you in this world depends upon this truth in Iudicature without which no Society of men can subsist at least not flourish but degenerate to a poore and slavish vassalage and such a lazie despondency of minds which sink them next degree to beasts seeking no more but to live having no thoughts or designes generous noble or extending beyond the present supply of back and belly See then how much they deserve publique hatred who through feare or flattery or base and sinister ends falsifie the minde of the Law at once cutting asunder that great Cable which holds the state from shipwrack turning the sword of justice put into their unworthy hands to cut the throat of lawes and liberties 2 The lovelinesse and benefit of Divine truth revealed whereon our Faith our Religion our Soules our Church depends is so great that no time or words serve to let it forth By this light of sacred truth we know our selves in our worst lost sinfull and damnable estate wherein else as heathen or beasts we should stupidly and miserably die and perish By this we know God in his infinite mercies through Christ which is life eternall Ioh. 17.3 By this we discover his grace and love to us for our free justification by the righteousnesse of Christ and sanctification by his Spirit By this truth the burthens of our sinnes our feares our miseries the horrour of death hell and eternity are disarmed and releeved by this blessed light of truth wee have many sweet and precious promises to support us in all states and all tryals and temptions But this as Moses from Mount Nebo we discover the pleasant and happy prospect of heaven and eternity the joyes peace pleasure happinesse and security of that after-state wee expect in the other world we see a full though future victory over sinne fatan flesh world men death hell and all a full tryumph and crowning of the soule and body in eternall glory You may see then how little experience or knowledge they have of this truth and the comforts by it who are weary of it enemies or indifferent to it Better not have the truth than having it to want the love of it 3 The amiablenesse of peace publick and Nationall in Church or State it is like the smiling of a beautifull face when peace flourisheth with truth O how lovely is it at once to serve God with purity and safety with sincerity and security to enjoy the blessings of Gods right and left hand together To eat every man with joy and cheerfulness of heart the fruit of his owne vine and plantings to reape the harvest hee hath sowed to dwell in the house hee hath builded to enjoy the wife he hath espoused and the children he hath begotten Your owne long and happy experience may best teach you what is the beauty and sweetnesse of the breasts of peace whence plenty flowes Learning Arts industry trading thrive and prosper your private and in them the publike strength honour and treasure increaseth God grant you be not taught to prize and be thankfull for it by the want of it your selves look over Sea on the sad and black Characters which fire famine and sword have wrot nay ingraven and ploughed upon the faces of men women and children on their houses fields vineyards Cities Churches c. and you may with weeping and amazed eyes reade this lesson O the sweet and lovely blessings of Truth and Peace O the horrid hideous deformity of errours and warres En quo discordia gentes Perduxit miseras 3 Wee come now to the third generall head having seene what truth and peace are how well they agree how much they merit our love now we goe on to the last part which is our duty Therefore love them Here wee will inquire two particulars 1. What need there is that men should bee thus exhorted to love these which have so attractive a lovelinesse in them 2. Wherein most effectually wee must expresse our love to them I Although nothing more deserve our love yet such is the ignorance dulnesse or depravednesse of mens mindes affections and manners that few there are which truely love them First some love neither Truth nor Peace of which temper the Iesuitick spirit seemes to be which deceives the Nations with the Cup of errour and scatters coales of fire and dissention among men Secondly some love truth but not peace zealously affected to truth but for want of sound and steddy knowledge or meeke and humble hearts they are full of violence and bitternesse so prone to strife and contention that from words and disputes they easily kindle to blowes Some when you speak to them of peace prepare for war Quia multis utile bellum their best fishing being in troubled waters Thirdly some love peace but not truth as Ishachar sluggishly couching between the burthens of Superstition and Oppression rather than trouble their Peace in a land of plenty Out of a lazie grosse and sensuall humour so addicted to the enjoyments of peace that they care not what encroachments are made on Truth Fourthly many seeme to love them but not simply per se and propter se but corruptly and partially for by-ends and advantages to bee had by them
Zach. 8. 16. Execute the judgement of Truth and Peace in your gates By the third our soules health and happinesse are maintained while we see know beleeve and rest upon those excellent and saving truths which God hath in his word revealed to us in the plainenesse and simplicity of the sense not denying or doubting any thing but humbly and willingly embracing every truth revealed as it agrees to the generall rule and Analogy of Faith contained in the holy Scriptures this is Veritas fidei religionis The first truth wee gaine by senses and discourse The second by common notions or inbred principles of reason The third by divine revelation depending upon the veracitie infaâ—libility and authority of God No truth is to be neglected because it is a beame or lineament of God but those are most to bee loved and esteemed which discover God most cleerly to us bring us nearest and make us likest to him This as the most excellent and usefull truth I chiefly here understand which exceeds all others as much as the soule doth the body or eternity a moment And in this mens hearts are most prone to be negligent and coldly affected 2. Peace Peace in any kinde and under any notion is sweet and lovely {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Naz. We can better tell what it is by the fruition than description of it what health is to the body and calmnesse to the sea and serenity to the day such is peace which ariseth from the fit orderly and proportionable disposing of things It is a kinde of sweet divine and heavenly concent harmony or beauty of things subordinate one to another Such it is first peace in nature and the greater World from the wise and apt combination of creatures by symbolicall qualities so contempered that all agree to make up one intire body the World 2. In the lesser worlds of mixt bodies Peace is that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} due temper and moderation of humours and parts which keep their true place and proportion Quá quodlibet corpus non minus appetit unitatem suam quam entitatem 3. In the rationall World Peace is that composednesse and tranquillity of the soule whereby all the inferiour faculties and the populacy of affections or passions are regular and subject to the rule and soveraignty of reason 4. In the spirituall world the regenerate soule Peace is the humble and willing subjection and sutablenesse of the conscience in all things to the Will and Spirit of God 5. In the Politicall or civill world the State or Church Peace is the setling and due ordering of things by just Lawes of government and by true grounds or rules of Piety and Religion whereto all submit It consists {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the right skill of governing and will to be governed When all agree in one thing all think speak and do by the same thing all conspire in one maine end the glory of God and the publick good which is the supreame Law when all are setled on one ground move by one rule and tend to one end Truth Order and Iustice are the only foundation and pillars of Peace in both Church and Common-wealth 2. The second consideration is the union of the two Truth and Peace In God they are united and so in every good soule well ordered Church or State they may and doe best agree together no firme or durable peace which is not fastned and cemented with truth so false and pernicious a principle is that of some that the lesse men know of truth the more easily they will bee kept in Peace that the way to subdue men to an asinine patience is to cast them into an asinine ignorance Whereas on the contrary no men or minds are more obedientially disposed to an heroick patience as to the burthens pressures and exactions upon their states and liberties c. than they who are best informed how little all these worldly things are to be valued having hopes of farre better And no men are more stubbornely contumacious refractory and prone to flame to rebellion and munity than they who know and expect no better or higher good than those of sense and present life who think you robbe them of their heaven God and all happinesse if you injure them in their estates honours or liberties Those subjects are most shie and prone to start from obedience and fall from peace who live by Moone-light of humane reason and senses onely which amazeth their minds with the shadowes of good in riches pleasures honours and liberties temporall and walke not by the Sunne-shine of divine truth which discovers the onely necessary excellent and satisfactory objects worthy of the soules love and acceptance for nothing is truly lovely which is not spirituall and eternall No such bonds of peace and unity then as the spirit of truth which ties the conscience to obedience and patience The wisdome from above is first pure then peaceable James 3. 17. So that they best may march together but first truth then peace Truth must have the precedence rather truth than peace Truth wee owe to God and our soules immediately peace onely to our bodies and states c. If one must be despensed withall it is peace not truth better truth without publique peace than peace without saving truth Truth alone will bring us peace the best peace Christs peace which the world can neither give nor take away Pax est omni bello tristior quae veritatis justitiae ruinâ constat That peace is farre to deare which costs us the losse of truth I meane great saving necessary and fundamentall truth 2 Where these truths are asserted study to adde peace to them that truth may root spread fasten and fructifie the more Nor is the publique peace to bee violated for every truth such as neither tends to faith nor much to good manners Dissidiis magnis controversis non sunt redimendae minores istae veritates Wee must not by contention of tongues or pens or hands so farre vindicate truths of lesser size and consequence as to break the peace of our affections words and conversations Let truth and peace then goe together in our loves and lives Truth as the root peace as the fruit Truth as the light Peace as heat truth as the foundation peace as the structure And certainely in the Church those tenets and propositions are likeliest to be true which tend to the peace of the Church as it was the true mother which pleaded against the dividing of the child And that peace in the civill state is likeliest to be lasting and sound which is built on the Truth of Reason and Religion both and not upon the fancies opinions dictates traditions examples and tyranny of custome and men Neither peace of Church nor State is to be purchased with the sale of Truth saving and necessary