Peace

The peace of body and soul is the well-ordered and harmonious life and health of the living creature. Peace between man and God is the well-ordered obedience of faith to eternal law. Peace between man and man is well-ordered concord. Domestic peace is the well-ordered concord between those of the family who rule and those who obey. Civil peace is a similar concord among the citizens. The peace of the celestial city is the perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God and of one another in God. The peace of all things is the tranquility of order.

Christians have peace with all men, and altogether abstain from armor; for everyone does that to another which he would wish to have done to himself. But, because all are not so minded, but that many unruly persons, wicked thieves, and oppressors of the poor live and dwell among honest and good-meaning men, as wild beasts among harmless creatures, therefore God from heaven has given the sword into the magistrate’s hand, to be a defense for harmless people against unruly cutthroats.

He is truly wise who hates iniquity, who speaks the truth, and works the works of justice; and he that leads a sober and chaste life, who is pious, humble and devout, and who shuns the perilous rocks of temptation, possesses true wisdom, and the favor of God and of men. His conscience is pure—sorrow assails him not. Peace is his possession, and God often pours into his breast consolations that the world can neither know nor relish.