A SERMON Preached at the public FAST the ninth day of Aug. 1644. At St Mary's OXFORD, BEFORE The honourable Members of the two Houses of PARLIAMENT, There Assembled. By PAUL GOSNOLD Master of Arts. And published by Authority.  
OXFORD, Printed by Henry Hall.   
PSAL. 122. 6. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. 
TO tell ye that my text is pertinent, were to distrust your sense; for there are but three words in it▪ and the first concerns the day, the second the times, the third the state: Prayer, a principal end of Fasting, is proper to the day: Peace is seasonable in these divided times: Jerusalem brings in the State: But three words (I say) in the original; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but they are all three Verba Trojana, pregnant words, every one contains a catalogue: Pray, all duties in one: Peace, all blessings in one: Jerusalem, all Cities and States in one. Pray, &c.  
Every word playing his part will divide the Text into a single act, and a double object: or into an Act, an Object, and a Subject: the Act or duty; Pray: the Object of prayer, Peace: the Subject of Peace, and yet the Object of Prayer too, Jerusalem. But I will invert the order of the words: and because the Object in nature is before the Act, and the Subject before them both, I will first speak of Jerusalem, next of Peace, and conclude with Prayer.  
These words were written for our instruction, and therefore, though Jerusalem be only named, all Cities and States are meant; David for Jerusalem, We for great Britain, every man intercede for his Country, and Christ for us all.  
Pray for Jerusalem, for these reasons.  
1. Homo est animal politicum, Man is a creature naturally both needing, and desiring society, therefore it is not good for man to be alone, nor were it safe for men to be together, but in Jerusalem, under some form and frame of government: for homo homini lupus, nothing is more wild and cruel than man, if he be not tamed by authority: out late confusion and violations of political order, have made England like the sea about it, where one fish hunts and preys upon another. Uncontrolled licentiousness, though to the gross conceited vulgar it seems to be liberty, yet we find by dismal experience, that it produceth nothing but disorder, injustice, rapine, and insupportable slavery: for now violence and the sword bear sway, every man does what he can, and the strongest takes all: wherefore it was well and wisely spoken of Calvin, polity or government is of no less necessity, and of far greater dignity than bread and water, I may add, than the air we breath in, or the Sun that gives us height: for indeed there is no living without it; at least men would be driven to live solitary in woods and caves, like beasts, and savages. Therefore it is a fundamental duty to pray for Jerusalem.  
2. We see in the great world, how all parts of it dispense with their particular affections to their proper Elements, when their general duty to the universe requires it: Stones would forsake the earth, the place of their private repose, & mount as high as Heaven to fill a vacuity to heal a wound in Nature. So also in the microcosm, the little world of man's body, if the heart, the mother of life be distressed, presently the spirits and blood flock and flow from all parts to relieve her. Now if (as learned Hooker observeth) those voluntary actions are most agreeable to reason, which do most resemble the necessary works of nature; then as it is in the natural, so in the politic body it ought to be, every part should have a main ear of the whole. Therefore it is our natural duty to pray for Jerusalem.  
3. If the sun should draw the Ocean dry, or the Ocean swell to quench the sun; if Heaven put out his lights, or Earth keep in her fruits; the Winds hold their breath, and the Clouds stop their Bottles, what would become of the world? and if the world should perish, what would become of them? So if we, the particular members of Jerusalem (for what is Jerusalem but ourselves incorporate?) should withdraw our duty, she could not subsist; and if she do not, neither can we▪ if the whole be ruined, the parts must suffer; if the tree fall, the branches wither; if the kingdom be overrun, who sees not, who feels not, that the substance, lives, and liberties of private men must needs go to wrack? Therefore, though we have no care of the public, but refer all things to ourselves, and our domestic commodities, yet because these are enclosed in the happiness of the universality, it is our necessary duty to pray for Jerusalem.  
4. Prayer is the expression of desire, the object of desire is Good, the greater good is to be preferred before the less, the public good is incomparably greater and worthier than the private, by how much a whole society is more worth than one man. Therefore it is our principal duty to pray for Jerusalem.  
5. To these reasons I will add God's commandment, which we cannot disobey, unless first we will be unreasonable. Honour thy father and mother; if the parents of our flesh, the authors of our generation and being, aught to be honoured, than our King and Country, to whom we owe our preservation and well-being, are worthy of double honour: for it is better to be well or happy, then simply to be; as it is worse to be miserable, than not to be at all. Honour thy father and mother. Jerusalem is the mother of us all, &c. Our Country (saith the Orator) is major altera parens, our grandmother; wherefore we must do all we can to honour her; inwardly, with our judgements and affections; outwardly, with our endeavours and devotions: the least we can do is to pray for her. Therefore it is our bounden duty to pray for Jerusalem.  
But because Jerusalem without peace were no right Jerusalem, that is, the Scene of peace, or where peace is to be seen; but rather a very Babylon, a city of confusion: Therefore in the second place pray for peace, the peace of Jerusalem.  
1. Many are of the mind, that, though men had persisted in their primogeneal integrity, there should have been dominion and government amongst them: yet (as profound Hooker noteth) if Adam had not fallen, there is no impossibility in nature, but they might have lived without it. But all agree in this, our fall and corruption made it necessary: For when there were but four persons in the world, (but four that we read of; howsoever, no great multitude) one brother murdered the other; and, as their number, so their malice and mischiefs increased; for restraint whereof, there was no way, but to come to composition, and by common consent to authorise one, or more to superintend the quiet and safety of the rest; to defend them, who were not able to defend themselves, to curb the unruly, to distribute to every one his due, and so preserve the peace and tranquillity of all. Seeing then an inclination to peace was the original spring of civil communities, and the establishment of peace the very end, whence they had their beginning; and seeing the end is bonum primae intentionis, though obtained last, yet desired first; first in our purposes and wishes, this is a duty, which hath none before it, to pray for peace, the peace of Jerusalem.  
2. But if peace be not larded with prosperity, 'tis not worth the praying for: for as prosperity without peace is but an uncertain felicity, so peace without prosperity is but secure misery. Did we dwell in a barren desert, or a pestilential air, in the Acherusian fens, or under the North-pole, we should find cold comfort in our peace. But peace here, peace, in the language of the Holy Ghost, doth signify the confluence of all earthly blessings, the entire mass of human welfare. Some render it, Salutate Jerusalem, for the Jews saluted them, to whom they wished all happiness, with this compliment, Peace be unto you. Peace then, according to the sacred idiom, is the Rendezvouz or Magazine of all that good is: For all that good is either honesium, jucundum, utile, honest, pleasant, or profitable; as for decorum it is but a gloss set upon the rest, or a reflection from them. 1. Peace is honest, for it is nothing but a sweet resultance from the due observation of good laws; she's the daughter of righteousness, saith the Prophet, Isa. 32. 17. 'tis a fruit of the holy spirit, saith the Apostle, Gal. 5. 22. righteousness and peace kiss each other, 
Psal. 84. 10.  as the Psalmist sings most sweetly; 'tis founded in charity, which is the comprehension of all Christian virtues. 2. Whether peace be pleasant, or no, I appeal to your now quickened experience. What is more wished, or would be more welcome than peace? What is better or sweeter than peace? What is more splendid and beautiful than peace? Peace is that fair Astraea that linketh men together in the golden fetters of mutual amity, and maketh them to live, as if, their persons being many, their souls were but one. Peace is the harmony of the world, the smile and serenity of the earth, the handsel and image of our happiness in heaven, the tutelar Saint of Kings and Princes, the very form or soul of a commonwealth, the nursery of Arts, shortly, a Paradise where all accommodations for this life and the next do grow. O how good and pleasant a thing it is to see Brethren to dwell together in unity! If there were no positive pleasure in peace, yet as it is the greatest torment to be deprived of Heaven, so it is not the least of pleasures to be freed from Hell: 
〈◊〉. 1. 11.  {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, saith the grand Philosopher: 'tis a pleasure to be rid of that which displeaseth us; to be freed from this hell of ●●rre, the fire and brimstone, storms and tempests, plagues and vexations of it; if for no other reason then this, how pleasant a thing is peace? 3. Peace is profitable; for in that encomiastic psalm of Peace, it is not only compared to the fragrant ointment of Aaron, but also to the prolifique dew of Hermon, fructifying the fields of Zion; Pacis alumna Ceres, peace and abundance go together: therefore she is emblemed in a fair woman holding a Copia-Cornu, a horn full of flowers and fruits in one hand, and leading Pluto's the good of riches in the other, to paint out unto us, that riches and plenty are the inseparable companions of peace O what a blessed Trinity conspire in this unity! Certainly they know not what is good for themselves, who do not pray for peace, the peace of Jerusalem.  
3. The greatest benefit of peace is, to improve it to that end, for which God had given it; namely, the advancement of religion, and the exaltation of his service. 'Tis a most unthankful alienation of his favours, to abuse them as as we have done; turn his grace into wantonness, consume our fertile peace in making provision for the flesh, to satisfy the lusts thereof, to make our backs fine, and our bellies full: Better follow the wars, than thus to stain our peace. God sends peace for holier purposes, that we should lead quiet lives in all godliness and honesty. 1 Tim. 2. 2. that we should sow the fruits of righteousness in peace▪ Iam. 3. 17. that being delivered from the hands of our enemies, we should serve him without fear: Luc. 1. 74. If Hannibal were at the Ports, Rabshache upon the Walls, the Rebels now within our works, what a wild confusion would rout your attention? Put men into a bodily fear, and quite mar their devotion. The Jews were thrice a year to worship God in Jerusalem; now in the time of war 'twas ill travailing the country, men were then afraid to say, what David was so glad to hear, Let us go into the House of the Lord. The Psalmist therefore being exceedingly delighted to behold these meetings, and wishing in his heart they might never be interrupted, from the desire of his soul breathed this flagrant ejaculation, O pray for the Peace of Jerusalem. Indeed it is the very beauty of peace, a blessed spectacle to see men trooping to Church; endearing themselves with the mutual offices of piety, like those in the eighth of Zachary, lovingly inviting, calling, and exciting one another, hear you neighbour, friend, brother, Let us go into the House of the Lord. The free and solemn exercise of religion is so great an happiness, as we can enjoy no greater, till we come in Heaven, and the principal means to bring us thither. Therefore it is as much as our souls are worth to pray for peace, the peace of Jerusalem.  
But after we have been so cruelly swinged with the iron flail of war, 
Nehem. 1. 3.  sure no man can be so merciless to himself, as not to be glad of peace. To most of those, who were so forward at first to blow the coal of this terrible conflagration, if S. Austin's question were now put, Vultis pacem? would ye have peace? how greedily would they answer? Cupimus, amamus, volumus, yes, with all our hearts. But how shall we repossess ourselves of it? Hic labour, hoc opus est: for we are grown to desperate extremities; we have lost ourselves in a Labyrinth of most perplexed difficulties, and can find no clew to wind us out of it; our breach is too wide to be healed, our wrongs too great either to be suffered, or to be satisfied; our quarrels by mutual slaughters incensed to implacable hatred, and our peace so ruined beyond all reparation, that a temper now, reconciliation now may seem impossible. But what is impossible with man, is possible with God, therefore Pray. He, he alone can recollect the pieces of this shattered kingdom, and join them together again in a firm and lasting peace, therefore pray; do but ask and have, speak and speed. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  
1. God, the only object of prayer, is the author of peace and lover of concord: his chiefest title in the New Testament, is, the God of peace; to intimate this great states-matter is at his disposing. Knowing then from whence peace doth come, hereby we know whither to go; whither for peace, but to the God of peace? at him we cannot come pedibus, sed precibus, not with the feet of our body, but with the feet of our soul, our affections lifted up in prayer. Prayer then being the only avenue to God, who is the only giver of peace, 'tis the only means to procure it. There-pray. Pray for &c.  
And here I may opportunely sally out upon the Epicurean and judiciary ginger; for if their doctrine be true, this of my text is false. The Epicure makes God like Aesop's Incuriosus, not caring how the world goes: whatsoever befalls us, be it peace, be it war, it is not long of him who lets all things run at random, to hap as hap may: as if it were an Indecorum, a thing unworthy the sublimity of his state, to vouchsafe the cast of his eye upon sublunary matters;  
Scilicet is superis labour est, ea cura quietos Sollicitat.  
But go to the beasts of the field, thou Epicure, and they shall teach thee; to the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee; to the flowers of thy garden, and they shall instruct thee: for if God be careful to feed lions and ravens, and to clothe lilies, how much more shall he regard men and human societies, O ye of little faith? Next, the Planetarian gravely tells us, that for our long, almost miraculous former peace we may thank our stars▪ whose kind aspect and propitious irradation was the cause thereof and that war hath since been kindled by the fiery influence of Mars, inflaming the choleric humour of Potentates. If so, than the best physician were the best statesman: and what needed so many consultations, overtures, propositions, and umpires of peace, when a good Purge would have done the feat? Bishop Fotherbie confuteth these men by Psal. 75. 6. Promotion cometh neither from the East, nor from the West, nor from the North, nor from the South: not from the East, whence the stars come in their diurnal motion; nor from the West, whence they go in their natural motion; nor from South or North, whence they come and go in their motion of Trepidation; from none of these motions doth promotion come, therefore the happiness of States doth not hold of the stars. But shall we in good earnest confute these men, or shall we laugh at them? To confute them were to answer a fool in his folly; therefore either pity their blindness, or laugh at their madness, and so let them go.  
2. I might by many Scripture Examples show the force or rather omnipotence of prayer; what power it hath over men, over devils, over the elements of the world, over God himself. To cite a few proving the efficacy thereof for the public good. When Pharaoh and his Egyptians were ready to cut him and his Israelites to pieces, Moses by prayer divided the Sea, and escaped from them. When Corah and his complices made an insurrection, and disturbed the peace; the same Moses by prayer opened the mouth of the earth, and sent them quick to hell. When God Exod. 32. would have dispatched all Israel at a blow, the self same Moses held his hands by prayer so strongly, that God seems to ask Moses leave to strike them; and like one struggling to get loose, but could not, cries out, Let me alone: Let thee alone! Quis tenet te Domine (replies Saint Augustine) Lord, who holdeth thee? Why, that doth Moses here, that I cannot have my will upon these rebels. Cannot? Not for want of strength, for who is like to the Lord in power? but for the abundance of his clemency, which would not suffer him to lift up his hand against that people, for whom his faithful servant so earnestly besought him. I might name more, but these are enough to show how effectual it is to pray, to pray for the peace of Jerusalem:  
3. Take this for a rule. Prayer implies the use of all subordinate means requisite for the obtaining of that we pray for. We must not stand wishing and woulding and do just nothing: This very thing hath undone us, like the Carter in the fable, who when his Cart stuck fast in a slough, sets him down and cries amain, help Hercules, help: Hercules appearing chid the lubber; help you (said he) and I will help. Our devotion must be seconded by our devoir. To our prayers we must join our purses and our persons; not only pray, but fight, and pay for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray and pay too? durus sermo, this is no good Sermon, who can endure to hear it? Pray if you will, the whole Liturgy over; outpray a false Pharisee, a babbling Papist, an extemporanean Enthusiast, with all their orationes sine ratione, their endless senseless effusions, yea and fast into the bargain, so we may scape Scot-free and pay nothing. But no penny no paternoster, as good neither the one nor the other, as not both together; both these must meet, or no peace will be concluded. For this deduction is obvious to every man's reason: Our peace we shall never recover, if the rebels may have their will; their will they will have, if we be not provided to break them of it; provision cannot be made without money, money cannot be had without contribution, therefore out with your purses, and pay for the peace of Jerusalem.  
I may boldly speak it: He can neither be a good Subject, nor a right honest man, who for the preservation of the King, Religion, laws, Liberty, Learning, the Churches and his country's peace, would not think not only all the money in his purse, but all the blood in his body well spent. Christ hath commanded us to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's▪ and enforced the commandment by his own example, who as Lord Verulam well observeth, never wrought miracle about money matter, but only to pay tribute unto Caesar. But enough of this: for he is too much a stranger to these hard times, that thinks to do any good by chargeable doctrines. Now for fighting, although the perverseness and obstinacy of our enemies hath left us no other way to raise our collapsed peace; yet it is not so comely for us who are or aught to be Angels of peace, out of this place to sound the alarms of war, and to whet men's courages to cut throats. Only this I'll say, whosoever out of a conscientious regard had to his duty, obliged by the laws of God and men, shall lose his life in the service of the King, I dare not deny that man the honour of a Martyr.  
4. Prayer is for, or against: if we be friends to the peace of Jerusalem, we must be enemies to the enemies of it; if we pray for that, we must pray against these. Now if God be the author of peace, war and discord can have no author but God's adversary the devil; and they that are the stirrers up and fomenters of it, must needs be his instruments whosoever they be. If the peacemakers be blessed, for they shall be called the sons of God; than cursed are the warre-makers, cursed to the pit of hell, for they shall be called you know what: if there be any devils upon earth, these are they; as like their father, as if they had been spit out of his mouth, who was a liar, and a murderer from the beginning. Therefore we need not make any scruple of praying against such: against those Sanctimonious Incendiaries, who have fetched fire from heaven to set their Country in combustion, have pretended Religion to raise and maintain a most wicked rebellion: against those Nero's, who have ripped up the womb of the mother that bare them, and wounded the breasts that gave them suck: against those Cannibal's who feed upon the flesh and are drunk with the blood of their own brethren: against those Catiline's who seek their private ends in the public disturbance, and have set the kingdom on fire to roast their own eggs: against those tempests of the State, those restless spirits who can no longer live, then be stickling and meddling; who are stung with a perpetual itch of changing and innovating, transforming our old Hierarchy into a new Presbytery, and this again into a newer Independency; and our well-tempered Monarchy into a mad kind of Kakistocracy. Good Lord! what wild irregular courses have these men run, since the reins have lain loose upon them? I am afraid, they will never leave chopping and changing, plotting and practising, till in conclusion they bring all to confusion, all to an Anarchy or savage ataxy, Prayer, Peace, Jerusalem, and all. Therefore it is no breach of charity to pray against these men. How long, Lord, how long holy and just shall our blood and wrongs be unrevenged upon them? how long shall the devil and his instruments have place and power to deface and defile thy Temples, to profane thy service, to persecute thy ministers, to pursue the life and honour of thine Anointed, and to seduce the silly people like sheep to the slaughter? How long shall they blaspheme thy Name and Religion by making it an instrument of such hellish practices? How long Lord, how long holy and just?  
Thus have I run through the parts of my Text. I have showed ye, that our chiefest care should be for Jerusalem; that the greatest blessing we can wish Jerusalem, is peace; that the most effectual means to procure peace, is prayer. Therefore, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  
Let natural-hearted men, that wish the conservation of the world; Let loyal Subjects, that are tender of the safety and reputation of their Prince; Let true Patriots, that regard the flourishing condition of their Country; Let devour Christians, that think it an happiness to enjoy the free use of religion; Let whosoever desire to see good days, and the lives of them and theirs prolonged and prospered upon earth; Let us all, that have been tormented with the furies of a long war, join in a main army of Supplicants, and Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  
Before these causeless wars began, (Causeless, for though the meritorious was too apparent, yet the next immediate cause is somewhat mystic and wondrous:) Before (I say) these causeless wars had cut asunder the Gordian knot of our well-settled peace; God had advanced this Nation above all Nations with so rare and continued course of prosperity, that all the world, and all the ages in the world could hardly pattern it; for which so much we owed unto his heavenly bounty, as we were never able sufficiently to pay: And therefore if we did not give him an infinite number of thanks, and praised him with our mouths, & magnified him in our hearts, and glorified him in our lives, and did all we could to set forth and celebrate his matchless goodness and indulgence towards us, we were the most ingrateful, and consequently the most hateful people under heaven: For God in the first of Esay summons all the world with a tragical Prosopopeia, to wonder at such, as monsters, rather than men. hear O Heaven, give ear O Earth, and be astonished: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.  
Doubtless this black sin of ingratitude, our unthankfulness in not acknowledging, and our dissoluteness in abusing such singular favours made us longer unworthy of them. For besides that war and Destruction having taken their progress through the neighbouring Countries, according to the ordinary destiny of earthly things, our turn was likely to be next: Did not our ripe sins expect the sickle? Did not their extreme enormity, leaving scarce any fear, that we could be worse; and their brazen impudency, leaving as little hope that we would be better, argue the measure of our iniquities to be brimful? hath not our more than heathenish profaneness and impiety, our exorbitant pride, and foppish gaiety, our rank voluptuousness, riot, luxury, and most ungracious abuse of God's innumerable mercies, provoked his Justice to bring upon us the same or worse calamities, then have so long, and do still afflict the wretched Territories of the dismembered Empire? Therefore it is high time, now that we are at the pits mouth of utter undoing, ready to be tumbled in, with penitent hearts and teary eyes, with all fervency and importunity to pray uncessantly for the peace of Jerusalem.  
When from this general, which is confessed on all sides, I descend to the inquisition of more particular and nearer causes of our present misery, I am struck silent with amazement; my thoughts are all confounded, I know not what to say to it, unless I should ascribe the division of States to the conjunction of stars, unless men at certain periodical times were carried into it by a fatal sway; that such eager and mortal contention should flame from little or no provocation.  
Or if there be any cause other then fatal; was it, that we were come to the desperate resolution of Aesop's ass, who made no haste to fly from the enemies, presuming they could not load her with heavier burdens than her Master? It cannot be denied but such Asses were numbers in the kingdom, till sad experience, the fool's Mistress, made them find and feel to their cost the little finger of the Rebels to be heavier, than was the hand, loins, and whole body of the King.  
Or shall I think Religion, that most specious pretext, the only sound whereof (for, dull souls, they skill little of the substance of it) doth so mightily bewitch and inveigle the people? Shall I think this to have been the true genuine cause? Nothing less. For our religion of old was (saith Lactantius) and still is to be defended, (especially against those whom God hath set over us) not by fighting, but by dying; not by cruelty, but by patience; not by wickedness, but by faith; not by breaking out into rebellion, but by constancy in suffering. And yet these men, with stupendious boldness, have pretended religion for all their barbarous and bloody actions; and made the doting multitude believe, That all this killing and staying is for the glory of God. For the glory of the devil, is it not? I am sure the devil's glory in it, and make merry in hell, that we are so mad upon earth; they sit clapping of their black hands to see us together by the ears; there, there, so we would have it. It is no new art to dissemble, and to set a good face upon a bad cause; but if there were the least affecting sense of religion in the hearts of men, if they had any taste of Heaven or Hell, it would not, it could not be thus. 'Tis impossible minds seasoned with the sweet doctrine of the gospel, which commands us to love our very enemies, should entertain thoughts of deadly hostility against their friends and brethren. Certainly the devil hath distilled the quintessence of his serpentine policy into this stratagem, to convert religion, which God intended for the firmest bond of amity, and which naturally conserves the peace and incolumity of States and kingdoms, into the main cause of war and bloodshed. The Christian religion; that that should draw men to disobedience, that that should make them▪ thieves, murderers, Rebels, traitors: O blasphemy! Why, our religion is all for peace, the Author of it is styled. The Prince of Peace, the lamb of God, who came into the world on purpose to guide our feet into the ways of peace; therefore the Angels at his coming proclaimed peace, and when he was come, the religion that he taught us is called the gospel of peace, and it consists of many admirable precepts of meekness, patience; humility, innocence, subjection, charity, &c. all the mothers and nurses of peace; nay it denounceth damnation to all that break the peace. Let not then turbulent spirits and the troublers of Israel once offer to speak of religion, for if our religion, that is, if the gospel be true (as who dare say the contrary?) there is no religion in them. Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft: 1 Sam. 15. 23. Witches (they say) when they first covenant with the devil, renounce their baptism, renege their Christianity: So they, that follow or favour rebellious courses, had as good renounce Christ, abjure his gospel; for howsoever they may continue formal Professors, they are real Apostates. When I steadfastly view the palpable hypocrisy of these times; my mind leads me to think our greatest Zealots, that personate Saints upon earth to be no better affected than Machiavelli, who esteemed it wisdom to profess, but weakness to believe any religion. And indeed nothing doth more strongly possess me with a fear of the large reign of atheism in these wretched days, than the general abusing and profaning of religion, by making it the grand engine of practices, a vizour to cover the face of all knavery and impiety, a mere legerdemain to mock vulgar eyes: For, mark it; if the design be to make a fortune, or to mend a broken one, to satisfy some revengeful or ambitious humour, the only sure way to effect it, is, to proclaim a Fast, to overlay it with the fair colours of religion. Men now a days would seem out of mere devotion and conscience to break all God's commandments in the highest degree. O times! what can be added to the impudence of this age, wherein such foul and horrible villainies, all manner of tyrannical outrages are persuaded, acted, and applauded, as singular testimonies of our good affection to Christ and his religion?  
But to give over this scrutiny: whatsoever the cause was, listen to a prodigy, by which, without the help of a prophetic spirit, you may easily prognosticate, what the effect will be. Pliny writes of a Serpent, called Amphisbaena, a Serpent with two heads, one where it should be, the other where the tail should be, at each end a head: which two heads striving to go contrary ways, do miserably strain and wring the body, and at last with continual biting and fighting, woory and tear it all to pieces. To apply it were to reproach ye with dulness; only, what can come of our unnatural and virulent distractions, but such hopes to our enemies, such fear to ourselves; joy to our enemies, sorrow to ourselves; encouragement to our enemies, disheartening to ourselves; and finally triumph to our enemies, unprofitable repentance to ourselves? These things considered, it concerneth us to cry mightily unto the Lord, and with ardency more than ordinary, to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  
Pray that Jerusalem may be as a City at unity in itself: pray also that she may have peace in her borders, peace with her neighbours: The word in the text is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Jerusalem in the dual number, that is pray for the peace of the two Jerusalem's, pray for the peace of England and Scotland: That as we have one land, one language; one religion, one King, one God; so we may be of one mind. I speak not this out of pusillanimity, or any base fear of that most insolent and most unexcusable enemy, for he carrieth the heart of a leveret in the bosom of a man, that being superior to his adversary in cause, should be inferior in courage; but I speak it out of compassion to my bleeding Country, and out of horror and detestation of the infinite mischiefs of civil war, rapes, ravages, proscriptions, depopulations, sacking, burning, killing, and a world of miseries. O cast your sorrowful eyes upon the present lamentable condition of England, lately one of the most happy, potent, rich, resplendent, renowned regions in the world; now nothing but a great slaughter-house, the true representation of all the cruel and cursed effects of discord, the lively picture of all deadly calamities; behold in all places what harms and havoc war hath made, and then join your acclamations with mine, O blessed, thrice blessed be the peacemakers.  
I will conclude with a brief admonition, that Jerusalem would not put a bar between Prayer and Peace. If prayer and religious duties (for prayer {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} contains them all) be the most sure preservatives of peace while we have it, and the most sovereign restoratives when we have lost it; then, by the Law of contraries, sin and impiety is most destructive and obstructive of it. Therefore let us not, as our manner is, shift off and transfer the fault, for unless we had no sin ourselves, why should we throw stones at others? but let every one call himself to a strict account, descend into his own breast, and there like Ionas asleep in the sides of the ship, he shall find the cause of all these stormy commotions, his own sin and transgression: upon this discovery, let him sadly weigh and deeply consider what it is to be guilty of the deaths of so many thousands, guilty of the desolation of a most glorious Church, guilty of the subversion of a most flourishing kingdom: for to all these every man's sin doth make him accessary. For, as it appears by that famous Dialogue between God and Abraham, 
Gen. 18.  if a Land be supported and saved by the righteousness of the Inhabitants, than it is lost and ruined by the wickedness of them that dwell therein. righteousness and peace may kiss each other, but wickedness and peace cannot dwell long together. I might present ye with a cloud of examples out of ancient and modern, profane and divine story. How often in the book of judges do we read, again Israel committed wickedness in the sight of the Lord? and again Israel committed wickedness in the sight of the Lord: and again, and again, and toties quoties, Israel smarted for it, and were delivered into the hands of their enemies. But why should I fetch in foreign Precedents, ourselves at the present being a fearful example of this truth to all the world? For though we had a wall of water, 
Nah. 3.  the Sea for our wall, as Alexandria had; though we had a wall of wood, a mighty Fleet, as Athens had; though we had had a wall of brass, as (they say) time was, when we might have had; and a mighty rampire of mountains, as Jerusalem had; yet sin so abounding within, centuplex murus rebus servandis parum est, an hundred walls would not have kept the enemies out: no, nor the Horses and Chariots of Elisha, our prayers were not able to guard us: For if we regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us, saith David: Why should he hear us, who will not hear Him? Why should he give us audience, who deny him obedience? Why should be respect our prayers, who disrespect his precepts? Qui orat & peccat, non orat Deum, sed deludit Deum, to sin and pray, and pray and sin, is not devotion but delusion: Nay, for us to pray for peace, who have abused it to his dishonour, and will not be reclaimed by war, is impudens postulatio, a very impudent request. we know (saith the blind man in the gospel) we know, as if it had been an increated notion, 
Joh. 9  we know that God heareth not sinners. If them we come before him with our sins unrepented, with foul and contaminated consciences, lifting up impure hands; pray we never so earnestly, 
Isai. 1.  Give peace in our time, O Lord; Speak peace unto us, O most gracious God, Pacem te poscimus omnes; what answer can we expect, but some such as the furious Jehu made to Jehoram? What peace, so long as your sins and iniquities are so many? and than let fly his arrow and kill us all. Therefore, as God directs ye by his Prophet, wash ye, and make ye clean; cease to do evil, and learn to do well: and then we may go with boldness to the throne of heavenly grace: then come, and let us join the desires of our minds, and the requests of our mouths; Let us with one heart, and one voice, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, that peace within her walls, and prosperity within her palaces for ever and ever may dwell. Which the God and Father of peace grant, for Jesus Christ's sake, who is our peace, through the Holy Ghost the bond of peace: To which undivided Trinity, the glorious pattern, and bright mirror of all peace and unity, be praise and honour now and ever.  
FINIS.