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.[61]
[61] To the same purpose are the two following sentences from Hilary:
_Etiam quæ_ pro _Religione dicimus, cum grandi motu et disciplina
dicere debemus_.--Hilarius de Trinit. Lib. 7.
_Non relictus est hominum eloquiis de Dei rebus alius 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_).