APHORISM XLII.

Passion no friend to truth.

Leighton.

Truth needs not the service of passion; yea, nothing so disserves it, as passion when set to serve it. The Spirit of truth is withal the Spirit of meekness. The Dove that rested on that great champion of truth, who is The Truth itself, is from Him derived to the lovers of truth, and they ought to seek the participation of it. Imprudence makes some kind of Christians lose much of their labour, in speaking for religion, and drive those further off, whom they would draw into it.

The confidence that attends a Christian's belief makes the believer not fear men, to whom he answers, but still he fears his God, for whom he answers, and whose interest is chief in those things he speaks of. The soul that hath the deepest sense of spiritual things, and the truest knowledge of God, is most afraid to miscarry in speaking of Him, most tender and wary how to acquit itself when engaged to speak of and for God.**

**To the same purpose are the two following sentences from Hilary:

Etiam quae pro religione dicimus, cum grandi metu et disciplina dicere debemus.--Hilarius de Trinit. Lib. 7.

*Non rdictus est hominum eloquiis de Dei rebus aliius quam Dei sermo.--Idem.

The latter, however, must be taken with certain qualifications and exceptions: as when any two or more texts are in apparent contradiction, and it is required to state a truth that comprehends and reconciles both, and which, of course, cannot be expressed in the words of either:--for example, the Filial subordination (My father is greater than I), in the equal Deity (My Father and I are one).