God dominates in the middle, that men are united together to serve it with an
CHAPTER 4: The Pure in Heart Peacemakers and the PersecuteD
God dominates in the middle, that men are united together to serve it with an agreement: and then, it is also necessary that those who want to carry it away by outrage and violence, be repressed, and that the innocent be maintained in their rights. Example: Today, when there are quarrels between men, those who want to be the most skillful and valiant in boasting of being peaceful, will settle the matter quickly, without looking at who is wrong or right. Then, they will simply divide the difference There will be one who will be a bandit, who will cut his brother's throat: the other will simply ask to hold his own, and will be content to have his right. Here is someone who places himself between the two parties as a peacemaker. Now do not fight any more, but let each one take his portion. Does this mean that a bandit robs an innocent poor person and yet we are there as if blind not to discern between white and black? Let us therefore learn that it is not enough that we grant quarrels: but it is necessary that justice always prevails, and that it takes place.
And thus we see in what condition it is that we must procure peace: and for this cause our Lord Jesus Christ says, that we must be persecuted for righteousness. Under this word he understands in the first place that we maintain the rights of each one, that we have no respect for people to favor these things, and to reject those things, but that we see that we live in good equity, that those who rise up in audacity and violence are put down, and that those who do not otherwise ask that we leave them alone.
wheat for their good, be maintained and bear. That's it first one. But if the justice of men must be recommended to us, what is this compared to that of God, that is to say his truth, which is the rule of all righteousness? Therefore, when we have to suffer and hate, and sins, and slander for having maintained the quarrel between the good and the simple, we must have an even greater zeal to be God's witnesses, so as not to allow us to blaspheme against his truth, or to in any way pervert the doctrine of the Gospel, in which all our good and our salvation consists. This is also why the two are connected. He spoke in general of justice: and then he puts, of the Son of man, and of the Gospel. Our Lord Jesus Christ therefore wants us to try to give reason to everyone: and yet he also wants his truth to be privileged above all, and the glory of God his Father, and the Kingdom which has been given to him: let this therefore be preferred to all the rest. Now in the first place, we can never be truly peaceful without being attacked from all sides: because everyone wants to have prosecutors and advocates: that is to say the least. And when equity governs us, and we are not in favor of one party or the other, we will have to blame both sides. And we usually