THE Good of Peace AND ILL of WAR, Set forth in a Sermon preached in the Cathedral Church of S. Paul, the last day of July, 1642. By EPHRAIM UDALL, Rector of S. Augustine's, LONDON. IAM. 3.17. The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy, and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace, of them that make peace. Quaedam remedia sunt triftiora ipso morbo, ut satiùs sit oppetere mortem, quàm his aucupari salutem: ità quandòque satiùs est ferre injuriam, quàm majore incommodo ulcisci, far pacem etiamsi parùm commodam aut aequam, quàm bellum cum immensis malis suscipere. Erasm. in Simil. LONDON, Printed by T. Badger, for Ph. Stephens and C. Meridith, and are to be sold at the gilded Lion and the Crane in Paul's Churchyard. M.DC.XLII. Venerabili admodum Viro D. ANTHONIO VINCENT Militi & Baronetto, de Stoke Dawbernon in Comitatu Surriae, salutem in Authore salutis. ORnatissime Vir & omnibus mihi numeris colende, concionem postremo die Julii in Cathedrali Ecclesiâ Divi Pauli ad Londinates nostros habui: quam jàm impressam omniuminspiciendam oculis emitto. Quas ob rationes, ad Lectorem tibi demonstrabit Epistola, ob quas tuo nomini inscribo facillimè ascribo. Nôsti probè me primam Curam Pastoralem per advocationem Patris tui Patroni mei (memoriae mihi charae ac venerandae) accepisse, qui (tantus amor fuit) me subinde Beneficio reditus amplioris decoravit. Antiquus amor Avi tui, (piae memoriae) in me, per Patrem tuum, ad me descendebat, & quasi scaturigine haereditariâ in te diffusus est. Tu enim ipse, affectibus eisdem (& vivis ipsis, & jam demortuis, aerumnis hujus vitae levatis, in sinu Abrahae requiescentibus, & suavi refrigerio coram facie Domini donatis) me complexus es jugiter. Tantis ideò me tui teneri vinculis existimavi, ut quamprimùm ansam mihi praeberet tempus, grati animi mei aliquod tibi testimonium exhiberem. Quaproptèr, simulàc mecum hanc concionem imprimendam statuissem, sub tui nominis tutela illam, qualem qualem, in apricum mittere decrevi. Dic quaeso incultae huic opellae, vade (per me licet) in Urbem, & Orbem. Indignam illam esse fateor auspiciis tuis, observantiae meae dignissimum est quod potis sum proferre signum. Munuscula Scholaria sunt (Sicut far nostrum modicum, & curta supellex) modica & curta. Grato precor oculo perlustres. Vnam forsan pejùs possis collocare horam. Temeritati dedicatoriae ignoscas, Hominis, scilicèt, nolentis unquàm immemorem, antiquae domus, suorum amicorumse praebere: volentis semper, parato animo, devinctam gratitudinem familiae Vincentum toti praedicare, noctéque, diéque preces effundere bono Deo nostro, ut te cum clara tuâ Conjuge, Progeniéque vestrâ, vitâ piâ, sanâ, honorandâ; morte matura, tranquilla, placida, coelesti gratiâ in terris, & tandem supercoelesti gloria in coelis dignetur coronare, in cujus divini favoris ulnis, teneraeque misericordiae complexibus te per vota recondens, ulteriorem tibi molestiam creare nolo. Dominationis tuae observantissimus, Antiqui amoris tui studiosissimus EPHRAIM UDALL. TO THE READER. THE good opinion some men had of this Sermon that heard it, who do deplore the sad condition of our distracted Nation at this time, moved them importunately to press me to commit it to the Press; against which I was resolved, had not some other reasons overswayed me, of which I give this brief account. First, I was informed by some, that it would be printed, and by others that it was in the Press, by the imperfect and broken notes of short Writers; who what ever their excellency be in the speed of their pen, yet seldom have they the wit or judgement, or faithfulness to put forth any thing they take in writing, without gross corruptions and deprevations; whereof we have divers instances of late in Sermons, both of the living and the dead. Secondly, it fell out at the hearing of it, as it did with our Saviour, john 7.12. Some said he was a good man, others said nay, but he deceiveth the people: so some said it was a good Sermon, others said nay, but it was malignant, and answerably it hath still its accusers to them that heard it not, to whom it is now able to give its own account, wanting only that of Jerome, nescio quid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viva vox habet. Thirdly and lastly, I was informed by more than one, that there were divers Writers, some that came of their own accord, others sent thither, by some of no mean account for profession of Religion, to catch upon something they expected would fall from me, for which they might call me in question, and bring me into trouble. A most wicked & godless practice (if it be true) both in the employed, and them that did employ them, and no ways suitable with that exactness of Religion they make profession of, but proceeding from a malignant influence of Satan, the accuser of the brethren, upon their hearts, in which it seems he hath too great a share; for either they be but Hypocrites, and wholly in his power, or else true Christians (which is possible) and then corruption is too predominant in them. It is an easy thing to find a staff to beat a Dog, but to desire the Dog would commit a fault, that we might cudgel him, is cruelty, not beseeming a righteous man, who is merciful to a beast, Prov. 12.10. but to wish a fault in a man, a Minister, in whom we know none, (especially in times wherein we complain of so much scandal in our Ministers, that we should rather praise God for any one that is not scandalous) and to that end, to watch for his halting, and to catch at his words in his preaching, against whom we have nothing more to say than this, we do not love thee, why? Mat. 1. ult. we know not, only we know we do not love thee, this is so fare from Religion, that sure the Devil hath a strong possession in such men's hearts, and they seem to me (rather than to be true and good Christians) to be the brethren of those cursed Babylonians, who when they could find no other fault in Daniel, would catch him in his prayers, and lay a snare for him in the Law of his God, Dan. 6.5. This is such a sin, as that for which God threatens to cover them with shame, Esay. 29.31. who made a man an offender for a word, and laid a snare for him that reproved in the gate, and turned the just aside for a thing of nought. What is this but to mise-use that excellent gift of writing and hearing of sermons? what, but a profanation of the Lords day, by abusing that holy time to such malicious and wicked services, base, and unworthy any man, whose face but seems to look towards Heaven, and argues graceless hearts, and destitute of the fear of God, put they on what vizour of Hypocrisy and form of godliness soever is pleasing to them? Certain it is that wrath, fury, malice, slandering, are not the way to Heaven, neither let men think that these distempers be religious zeal, or zeal for Religion, or the power of godliness, as many it seems do think, but do deceive their own souls, it being but the efficacy of Satan, and of the remaining corruptions of our depraved nature, The wrath of man doth not accomplish that which is righteous in the eyes of God, jam. 1.20. Neither doth his Majesty stand in need of the unmortified distempers of our hearts to advance his cause or glory, which we may blast by actions unsuitable to Religion, but cannot beautify nor adorn thereby. These things considered, I determined to deliver mine own sense in mine own words, thereby to stop the mouths of all Diabolists, and to stand, or to fall of mine own self to my Reader. I have, as near as my memory would serve me, in things delivered in the birth of this Sermon, over and above the first conceptions of it committed to writing, kept to the words I then spoke, if there be any variation, it is but small, and in nothing material; only I have added some small matter in a place or two, not differing from, but enlarging the same things, but have defaulked nothing. In thesi I know I shall have the concurring consent of all men, except such as love or live by fight. In hypothesi commonly falls the odds, if any be between a Preacher & his hearers; because the applications some time brings home the doctrine, with a kind of salt and vinegar, that troubles and vexes a galled and a guilty heart: For when it comes to Thou art the man, there be few hearers found like David, 2 Sam. 12.5.7.13. The case of Ploudens hogs suits well with many hearers, that touched in their consciences come grunting with open mouth upon the Preacher, as they would all to rend him, in recompense for the pearls he hath cast unto them. I have only applied myself in a gener all way, leaving every man to his own heart, to feel his own pulse, and excited to that which ought to be the study & practice of every Christian, in respect of the present perilous days it hath pleased God to cast us into, that we may be helpful to the Peace of our distressed Nation, or provide for our own Peace and safety, that we miscarry not in the extremity of the confusions that we may live to see. I commend it to thy reading, accept it as thou pleasest. I commend it and thee to Gods blessissing, who is he alone that teacheth us to profit by any thing, and rest In my affections thy well wisher, in thy affections what thou wilt, Ephraim Udall. The Good of Peace and Ill of War, Set forth in a Sermon preached in the Cathedral Church of S. Paul, the last day of July, 1642. PSAL. 29.11. The Lord will bless his people with Peace. THis Psalm is Hortatory, stirring up to the praises of God. And it is Laudatory, setting forth and celebrating the power and greatness of God, for which he is to be praised. And lastly it is Consolatory, in regard of two benefits or blessings, which are promised in it for God's people. The first is Strength, which he will furnish them withal for War against their enemies: in the former part of this verse. The second is Peace, the choicest of all blessings: which is promised in these words, The Lord will bless his people with Peace. Peace is the happy end of all accursed and unhappy contentions, and that that is the desire of all men, after they have been well schooled in the worth of it by the calamities of War. But miserable it is to see, men will not know, nor acknowledge the benefit of it so much Fruendo, by enjoying it, as Carendo, by wanting it. God's choicest favours are least set by by them that possess them, without the least taint or stain of their contrary evils, and the fullness of blessings gives men such satiety, that by enjoying they grow unto a loathing of that that did they want, they would think themselves happy if they might enjoy. The comeliest Lady in the world by time and age grows wrinkled; and then she that was the inamouret of all, becomes undesired of many, and some time the goodliest beauty in the world is quite disdained, and an ugly and deformed creature substituted in those affectionate embraces that are due to that beauty. Which comes to pass through some untoward lust, or impotent and disordered passion, and to men's admiration, that a man should contemn a creature that might content the best of men, for the stolen waters and muddy puddles of a deformed hag and harlot. Just so it fares with many men and peace: That goodly Lady whose beauty hath been wooed and desired, sometime by men of all conditions, and bought sometime upon dishonourable terms, by great and noble Captains and famous Commanders, weakened, wearied and wasted by War. This Lady Peace of whom it was said anciently, Pacem te poscimus omnes, all of us are in love with Peace, is now by age and long continuance with us become so writhe and wrinkled in the eyes of some, that they begin to loathe her company, and seem to turn after, and dote upon that ugly hag of strife, contention, war, that as all other harlots in the end, will bring her lovers to a morsel of bread. But all this comes from some distempered and noisome passion, which we shall seek to cure and heal by discoursing of this beautiful daughter of God, for Peace is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the daughter of God, the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Peace of God, who may say of his favours, as Juro did to Aeolus of her Nymphs, Sunt mihi bis septem praestanti corpore Nymphae, Quarum quae forma pulcherrima Deiopeiam Connubio jungam stabili, propriámque dicabo, Omnes ut tecum— annos Exigat, & pulchrâ faciat te prole parenteno. I have fourteen Nymphs, the fairest whereof is Deiopeia which I will give in marriage to thee, that she may live all her days with thee, and make thee the father of a numerous offspring: So God hath many favours, but the chiefest of them is Peace, the fairest often thousand; and such hath been his love and goodness to this Nation that he hath married us to Peace in a most stable and long continued contract, and to impropriate her unto us in respect of other Nations, and if by our distempers we do not put her away, or by our sins procure a divorce, he will continue this his choicest jewel still among us, as it is here promised, The Lord will bless his people with Peace. In the Text we have three things. First, the Blessing, Peace. Secondly, the Author of that blessing, the Lord. Thirdly, those that be blessed of him with it, his people. And answerably there be three observations. First, Peace is a blessing upon God's people. Secondly, God is the author of it, and gives it to his people. Thirdly, those that may expect it and have the promise of it, are his people. But I will contract and bind up all the Doctrinal part in this one bundle, as the Spouse in the Canticles said of her Beloved, He was like a bundle of Myrrh, he should lodge between her breasts: So I shall lodge that bundle in your breasts, desiring the aromatic savour of it may as a bundle of the choicest flowers, or a most delightful pomander, be always fragrant and redolent in the nostrils of your hearts, and that is this, Peace is a blessing, a rare and precious favour and mercy of God unto his people, Esay 54.13. Esay 66.12. and in infinite places of the Scripture. There is a threefold peace, Externa, Interna, Aeterna; Temporal, Spiritual, Celestial Peace; there is outward peace, the Blessing: inward peace, the Grace: and everlasting peace of Glory. And as in a stately Palace there is a lodge or court that leads into the inmost goodly rooms, so external Peace is the entrance or introduction to the inward lodgings of the sweet Peace of conscience, & of that eternal rest in which our peace in Heaven shall be happy, inasmuch as external peace affords us many accommodations and helps to the gaining and obtaining both of the one and other. Now this Externall Peace I shall discourse of only at this time. The outward Peace in this world, which falls under a double notion, according to a double state of men in the world. First, there is a Civil Peace, in regard of the civil state of men, as they be men only, and are knit together in civil society in one Kingdom or Commonwealth, under one King, Governor or government, and bound in the bond of the same Laws, the sinews of their Peace and welfare. Secondly, there is an Ecclesiastical Peace, as men fall under the notion of Christian men, and are knit together in an Ecclesiastical state, and in the bond of Religion, and the same profession of Faith and manner of Worship in one body or Church, whereof Christ is the head, and the Magistrate his vicegerent, and the Scriptures the sinews of their peace, by precept for things necessary, by permission for things of decency not commanded or determined in Scripture, but left to the discretion of the Magistrate, whose Laws in these things are the Bonds of outward peace. But of this Ecclesiastical Peace, although I have had many thoughts, at this time I will make no words: the many things I have to speak concerning the peace of the common wealth so overcumbring me, that time will be too niggardly and close-handed to me for the other purpose, inopem me copia fecit. I shall therefore at this time only discourse of civil peace of men, as men living together in one Commonwealth under one King and governor, bound up in the same Laws, the bonds and sinews of peace. To this peace are opposite all civil dissensions and contentions in the outward state of things, which usually break forth into, and end in the troubles and confusions of war, the greatest and extremest opposite of peace. The excellency of this civil peace the Psalmist sets forth excellently in two words, Psal. 133. 1. How good and pleasant a thing it is brethren to dwell together in Unity, that is, in Peace! Quam bonum, saith he, & quàm jucundum, how good and pleasant! Some things are good, but they are not pleasant, as the afflictions of this life laid on us by God, by way of chastisement and correction, which though they prove profitable being sanctified to men by God, and bring forth in the end the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that be exercised therein; yet for the present they are not joyous but grievous, Heb. 12.11. Some things are pleasant but they are not good, as the delights and contentments of our sensual appetite, so far as it is carried after the lose and licentious swinge of our corrupted and depraved nature: for though Epicurus, and Aristippus may place their felicity in the pleasure of the sense, and although God hath given us many things contentive thereunto, yet unless the delights thereof be regulated, and the contentments thereof moderated, and the reins of our licentious appetite restrained, though there be pleasure in fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, yet there is no goodness therein; nor differs a reasonable man any thing therein from the brute beast that perisheth: which made the Poet say Compedibus ventrem, vinclis constringe lienem: and the Apostle, Rom. 13.14. Make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof. Some things are neither good nor pleasant, as envy, hatred, malice, the main virtues and ingredients at this time of some men's zeal that would be thought religious. Some things are both good and pleasant, as all kind of virtue, honesty, charity, mercy, and of this nature is peace: which made Henry the second of that name King of England, though he were a valiant and courageous Prince, and always fortunate and successful in his wars, yet to prefer peace before war, because he found it more full of pleasure and of profit, than the Wars. The excellency of civil peace I shall endeavour to set before you in two things. First, in the many commodities it brings with it, for it never comes alone, but as that stately Queen of Carthage came forth to entertain her Trojan Guest Aeneas,— Magnâ stipante cateruâ, A numerous company of glistering Courtiers waiting on her: so peace is always accompanied and attended by a goodly train of blessings, and as Juno's Deiopeia, if thou enjoy her she will fill thee with many other blessings and contentments, as an offspring begotten on her; pulchrâ faciet te prole parentem. In peace husbandry flourisheth, for the comfortable provision of things needful for humane life, Pax Cererem nutrit, pacis alumna Ceres, Saith Ovid: and another Poet, — Pax arva colit, pax candida primùm Duxit aratores sub juga curva boves, Peace nourisheth Ceres, whom the Heathens honoured as a Goddess, because she first devised the sowing of corn; and Ceres is the daughter of Peace, in which the ploughing Oxen were first taught to submit their necks unto the crooked yoke; in which respect although the peace of the sovereignty and rule of Christ be inward and spiritual in the heart and conscience, yet it was prophesied by Micah 4.3.4. that when he should judge among the people, i. e. reign and rule by the Gospel, he should rebuke strong Nations a far off, and they shall break their swords into Ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hookes: Nation shall not rise up against Nation, neither shall they learn war any more, but they shall sit every man under his vine, and every man under his figtree, and Esay 11.6. The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb, etc. 9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all mine holy mountain, for the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord; For Christ's Kingdom is a Kingdom of peace, and his Gospel and Sceptre a Gospel and Sceptre of peace. Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros. In time of peace all Trades, and Arts, and honest Occupations are exercised without molestation, whereby men are increased into abundance, possessing the same with content and comfort, concordiâ res parvae crescunt, by peace small things become great, men's pence are increased into shillings, and shillings into pounds, and he that came naked into the world and a poor lad to London, by his trade in times of peace multiplies his few pounds into hundreds, and his hundreds into thousands. In peace we enjoy our own propriety without violent sharers with us, and can call that we have our own, eating our grapes under our own vines, and our figs under our own figtrees, giving good education to our children, sending them forth in the dance, and breeding them up to the similitude of the polished corners of a Palace, when there is no going out nor coming in, Psal. 144. In peace we enjoy such honour as is conferred on us for wealth or merit, by God and by the King, whereby the Noble are held in due esteem and distinguished from the base. In peace as wholesome Laws are enacted, so are they put in execution, and maintained in their strength and vigour, and civil Magistrates that bear the sword, bear it not in vain, but as God hath stamped upon them his image, so are they obeyed, and had in honour according to his will. In peace Learning flourisheth, the Universities and Schools of the Prophets are erected, augmented, frequented, maintained, cherished and honoured to the advancing of good literature, (not the smallest honour of a Nation) in which respect the Ancients Hieroglyphically represented peace and learning by the Gown, Pier. Hierog. as they did war by the soldier's cassock, and gave this sentence for the excellency of the one above the other, cedant arma togae, let arms give place to Arts, and war to peace. In peace the houses of God are open in season and out of season, that the Tribes may quietly and safely go up thither to worship, even the Tribes of the Lord, and men may tread the ways of Zion, and frequent her solemn feasts, to be fed with the fatness of God's house, and the plenty of his dwelling place, and may attend the means of their salvation in the ways that lead to grace and glory. And in one word, all worldly desirable blessings are in this one blessing, peace, and do acccompany and attend upon her; which made the Psalmist say, Psalm. 133.3. where men do dwell together in unity, there the Lord hath appointed blessing and life for evermore. Secondly, the excellency of peace will appear by the vileness and deformity of war, which is her contrary, contraria juxta se posita, etc. contraries set one by the other are the more clearly discerned. What mischief doth not accompany war? for it never comes alone, but is attended upon by all the imaginable evils that be in the world, which like those Eumenideses, the hags and furies of Hell do agitate and 〈◊〉 men to their destruction, as the horse fly doth the cattles, when the Dogstar reigns in Summer. War is a thing of mighty hazard to all kinds of persons, and things that be in the world, the issues, and changes, and chances of it are most uncertain, therefore the ancient Romans (that knew as much of the slippery tricks of war as ever any people under heaven) called the event of it, alea Martis, because when the battle is joined, the issue of it is as uncertain, as when the Die is thrown what chance shall turn upward. Which made the King of Israel check the insolent boasting of proud Benhadad with this speech, let not him that putteth on his Armour boast as he that puts it off, 1 King. 20.11. The horse is prepared for the battle, but safety is of the Lord, saith the Wise man Solomon, Prov. 21.31. In war there is hazard of all particular persons, be they who they will be, the sword neither regarding the honourable nor the base, the learned nor unlearned, the wealthy nor the poor, the wise man nor the Ideor, the innocent nor the wicked; there is no respect of persons, but it killeth one as well as another, as David said in his letter to Joab upon the slaughtor of Uriah, 2 Sam. 11.25. We read, 1 King 22.34. when Ahab warred at Ramoth Cilead, a certain man drew a bow at adventure and smo●e the King of Israel between the joints of his brigandine, being in his Chariot: here is every thing emphatical to set forth the miserable chance of war: first, a certain man, an obscure fellow, God knows who, not worth the naming, drew a bow at adventure, light where it will light, he shoots at random and aims at no man, but smites the King of Israel, the basest coward or villain peradventure in the Army of the Syrians smites the noblest on the adverse party; a bowman hits the King in his Chariot, and between the joints of his brigandine, the only place to wound him, had he been near and searched at leisure for a place to pierce him. Here therefore in war the Lords anointed, that is better than ten thousands, may fall as soon as the basest and most useless creature, to the great hazard of a state, and to the great sin of those that shall expose his Royal Person to that danger: which made the loyal people of David to say, when Ishabenob the Giant, in a battle wherein David was weak, had like to have slain David, but that some of his Worthies rescued him from that danger, thou shalt no more go forth with us to battle, lest thou quench the light of Israel, 2 Sam. 21.17. for thou art better than ten thousands of us, 2 Sam. 18.3. nay not only the people of David, but the Prophet of the Lord. Lam. 4.20. speaking of a King, and none of the best neither, among other things he laments, makes this one main part of his sorrow and mourning, the breath of our nostrils the Lords anointed, under whose shadow we had rest, was taken in their pit, that is, by the hands of the Babylonians in their war against Jerusalem. Mark here the phrases concerning the King, better than ten thousands of us, the light of Israel, in the mouths of loyal people set forth in the Scripture for their commendation, and our imitation; the breath of our nostrils, under whose shadow we had rest, so is the language of the Prophet inspired by the Spirit of God, though men have mouths at present, that like black mouthed Cerberus, breathe and bark from Hell another language. In war is hazard of whole Armies, and of Kingdoms that depend upon their Army's success. Victory bestows not herself always to one side and party; The battle is not always to the most righteous, it is not always to the strongest, Eccle. 9.11. But as Noah's dove lay hover over the waters, not knowing where to rest her foot, so when a battle is joined, victory hovers sometimes long, inclining one while to the one, another to the other, uncertain where to light, and settles sometimes on the one, sometimes on the others sword. A gag that by his conquering sword had made many women childless, was taken prisoner at the last by Saul, and hewn in pieces by the sword of Samuel, and his mother made childless among women, 1 Sam. 15.33. A doni-bezeck that had overcome threescore and ten Kings, and cut off their thumbs from their hands and feet, and made them eat bread like dogs under his table, was taken captive himself by the tribe of Judah, and retaliated by them, Judg. 1.7. The five Kings that warred against the King of Sodom and his confederates, discomfited them and carried away the spoil of Sodom and Lot Abraham's Nephew also, but Abraham arming three hundred and eighteen of his household servants, pursued these five Kings, and overthrew them in battle, and recovered Lot, with all the spoil they had carried away as a booty, Gen. 14.11.15. The Amalekites invaded Ziklag, spoilt the City, and carried away David's Wives and all the substance of his people; but David and his people pursuing them, defeated them, and recovered back all they had carried away from Ziklag, 1 Sam. 30.1.17. In the wars between France and England upon our pretensions to that Crown, wonderful were the different chances of war, the one sometimes gaining on the other glorious victories, and put at other times to shameful flight and loss: that noble and victorious Prince Henry the fift so put that Kingdom to distress by his victorious conquests, and forced the King to such extremity, that marrying his daughter, besides those provinces that he enjoyed in present possession, it as agreed upon, that after the French Kings death, he should inherit the Crown of France, by Oath of all the Nobles and chief Cities of the Kingdom, and so it was proclaimed in England and in France But Henry the sixth his son lost all his Father had obtained; which Henry the Father, by what spirit I know not did foreprophesie; for when news was brought him of the birth of his son Henry borne at Windsor, he presently said, I Henry borne at Mounmouth shall reign a short time and gain much; but Henry horn at Windsor shall reign long and lose all, which fell out very true by the differing chance of war. Henry the third in the Baron's wars, at the battle of Lewis in Sussex was overthrown by them: but in the battle of Eversham in Worcestershire be defeated his Barons, because the Conqueror, and rid his neck from the yoke of the twelve Peers, that had been put upon him, and had a long time been grievous to him. Thus in the long and tedious wars between the two houses of York and Lancaster, the differing changes of the war were many; sometimes one, sometimes the other faction prevailing in the field; and sometimes one, sometimes the other wearing the Imperial Crown, till all on either side were as weary of the war, as many wanton men are now of peace. All the great Monarchies of the world, as they risen, so they fell and were ruined by war; as the Prophet, jere. 50.23. instanceth in that great one, Babylon, saying, how is the hammer of the whole earth out asunder and brohen? how is Babylon become a desolation among the Nations? In war sometime where strength, and policy, and shill, and courage, and all things needful for the war concur, yet these prevail not, but the weakest, the unskilfulest, the femest and most unfurnished of military accommodations go away with the victory; and sometimes might overcomes right, and the most wicked win the field, when God will chasten a people (for other sins) that have a righteous cause. There is no greater evil and affliction in the world than War, for it is attended upon by all the evils of punishment that God inflicts upon men for their iniquities. And therefore in Scripture, when God is so offended that he purposeth the utter mine and desolation of a family, City or Nation, this is the judgement that he sets on foot to that purpose. By the Wars of the Philistims upon Saul, he put an end to saul's life and Kingdom. By the Wars of Jehu upon Ahab, he swept away the house of Ahab as dung from the face of the earth. By the Wars of the Syrians upon Samaria, that City was brought to that calamity, that women did eat their children by course, to satisfy their hungry souls, and fed and sustained their dying lives with the dung of Doves, a thing that nature loathes. By the Wars of Nabuchadnezzar upon Jerusalem, that City was brought to that extremity, that the beautiful women (the sole of whose foot might not touch the earth) such was their nicety and tenderness, did make their own Bowels the sepulchre, for their children of a span long, the fruits of their own bodies. And when it had been re-edified by Zerobabel and the rest of the reduct of the captivity, by the wars of the Romans, under the conduct of Titus and Vespasian, it was brought unto as great misery, and after taken and razed to the ground, and the people sold by the poll for slaves, and to this day remain miserably dispersed upon the face of the earth. Troy, the most famous City of the World, the subject of the song of Homer, the oldest writer in the world, except Moses that wrote 500 years before him, by the wars of the Greeks was ruined and turned into a tilled field, Jamseges est ubi Troja fait.— And now corn grows where Troy Town stood. The Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites and Peresites, the Gigasites, great and mighty Nations, who had walled Cities, and Chariots of Iron, and the sons of Anack, mighty men among them, were spewed out of their land by the war of the Israelites upon them, Josh. 12. War brings the Screech Owl and the Dragon into the most beautiful and goodly Palaces, laying them as desolate wildernesses, full of briers and thorns, and makes them habitations for Satyrs, the wild beasts of the Islands and other the most doleful creatures, Esay 13.21. Yea, when war enters into the Congregation of God, the very Temples of God are broken down with axes and hammers, Psa. 74.4. Even that very Temple that was the beauty & glory of the world, was burned by Nabuchadnezzar with fire, 2 King. 25.9. which made the Prophet Esay thus complain, Esay 64.11. Our holy and beautiful house, wherein our Fathers praised thee, is burnt up with fire and all our pleasant things laid waste. And the Daughters ran the same fortune with their Mother, Psa. 74.7. They have cast fire into thy Sanctuary, and defiled the dwelling place of thy Name to the ground, they have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the Land: Thus by War the holy Cities of Jury became a wilderness, and Zion a desolation, Esay 64.10. And no marvel, for when great Armies are got on foot, wherein are men for the greater part of them most impious and licentious in their violent lust, what can be imagined, but outrage and villainy? Here is nothing but robbery and spoil, all is fish that comes to net, per fas per nefas, by hook or crook, all is one. In war there is a continual squeezing of the Spungt that sucked up abundance in the time of Peace, treasures are exhausted, plate●▪ turned into earthen dishes, and people mightily inpoverished by the expensive oppression of war. In War trading decays, lands lie untilled, and briers grow up instead of corn, Merchandise by exportation and Importation cease, Cities are unfrequented, like the ways in Juels' time, and are made desolate and waste, Et discordiâres magnae dilabuntur, by war and discord great things are brought to nothing. In war Wives are made Widows, Children Fatherless, Parents childless, Friends friendless, And in civil Wars, the most uncivil and barbarous of all other, the father often fights against the son, and the son against the father, and a man's enemies are those of his own house and blood, so that one brother becomes the butcher of another, and the slaughters are most unkindly and unnatural, all bonds of affinity, consanguinity and humanity being violently broken and cut asunder: as in those civil wars between the houses of Saul and David, betwixt Israel and Judah, betwixt York and Lancaster, in which the brother hath sought against the brother, and the Kings own friends have been forced into the field against him, and have died in that fight, in which they have been but faint enemies to him, and to which they were altogether unwilling. In these uncivil civil Wars, most woeful are the desolations, none being more destructive and pernicious enemies than enraged friends, countrymen, kindred. For when love is turned into hatred, that hatred is most deadly: Corruptio optimi pessima: as it is with any other thing, the better it was in its native, Goodness, the worse it is in its Corruption. I exemplify this in those bloody Wars between the two houses of York and Lancaster, in which let that only reign of Edward the fourth be made our Map, to descry the desolations of civil War: in which were fought nine civil Battles in England; insomuch that in his time most of the flower of the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom, either died by the Sword valiantly fight in the field, or by the Axe of the Executioner, being taken prisoners for partaking. The Civil wars between Marius and Sylla bade almost unpeopled Rome, which made Quintus Catulus, a noble Roman, cry out one day in the Senate, with whom shall we live at last, Si in bello armatos, in Pace inermes occidimus, If in War we slay the armed, and in Peace the unarmed? In that Civil War mentioned, Judg. 21.2. Between the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, when the fury was over, the conquering Tribe wept sore for the destruction of Benjamin, whom they had slain down to the small number of 600 men that fled and hid themselves in the rock of Rimmon. In War, what loss is there of Limbs, of Eyes, of Arms, of Legs? What living sorrows of such as coming off maimed from the Battle do live in misery and want for ever after? So that for all their Marks of Honour, the dead are better than they. And what dying groans, and moans of men ready to gasp out their souls, to whom all pity and compassion is prevented by Fifes, and Drums, and Trumpets, which are used in War, not only to encourage the Soldier to make havoc of mankind, but, as in the valley of Hinnom, that the parents might not hear the shrieking of their Infants sacrificed to Moloch, lest their ear should affect their heart: So are these loud Instruments used in War, that men may not hear the woeful complain of their wounded friends, lest pity should enfeeble that Hellish fury, they call courage and valour, in killing and destroying. In War all privileges and immunities cease, for here is no Law, but power and lust, no justice, but spoil and rapine. Men had led, saith Seneca, a most quiet life, if they had taken away these two words, Meum & tuum, out of the nature of things; which made Lycurgus set up a community in Lacedaemon, that his Citizens might have no contention for any private interest: But in War these pronouns, meum & tuum, mine and thine, are not known, but what the stronger can lay hold on, and carry away by might, that is his own; and it is here according to that proverb, That that is thine, is mine, and that that is mine, is mine own. Here is no Charter nor Freedom of the City, here is no distinction between the Magistrate and people, but Cade, and Straw, and Tyler will beard the King, and give all judgements out of their lawless lips, and the most noble here are made a scorn unto the basest villain. Here is no assurance of one penny to morrow, to him that this day is full and hath abundance. Jocus & l●●us sunt in militiâ, domos diripere, fana spoliare, virgins rapier, solida: urbes atque oppida incendere, Eras. in Adag. In War the goodliest Cities are set on a Flaming fire, & laid in their dust and rubbish. Here the chaste Wife and Virgin are ravished before the face of the miserable Husband and Parent, unable to relieve or rescue them from villainy. Here the little Infants are tossed on the pikes, or taken by the heels, and their brains dashed out against the stones, or slain in the arms, or on the knees, or in the bosom of their dear mother that bore them, and ripped sometimes out of their mother's belly. In war there are a thousand indignities and barbarous cruelties, and nothing to be heard or seen, but weeping, & wailing, & wring of hands, nothing but mourning, and lamentation and woe, heu miseri qui bella gerunt. Indeed War is the last and soarest of all God's judgements, sent out among men for their sins; the famine and pestilence not to be compared with it. For men that be wolves and insatiable in their cruelties, yea devils one to another, be the executioners of Gods sore vengeance brought on a people for their transgressions, when famine, pestilence, and other more gentle corrections have done no good upon them to reclaim them from their sins; against which, if God being angry, but a little, shall put this rod into the hands of men, they will help forward and increase the fury, Zecha. 1.15. Nay more than this, in War the fury reacheth out only to living men, but to the reasonless creatures that are appointed for their comfort. And more than that, to the very senseless creatures, the trees of fruit, the Gardens and Orchards for delight, and fields of corn for the necessary maintenance of humane life, are cut down to the ground, or burned up and consumed, to the detriment of the posterity that are yet unborn: Et nulla salus Bello. When Croesus was overcome and taken prisoner by Cyrus, he preferred Peace before War, by this Argument; that in time of Peace the sons did bury their father's dying before them, in the ordinary course of Nature; whereas in War the fathers bury their children slain violently by the sword. But in War sometimes both fathers and children are exposed naked above ground to the shame of their nature, and contempt of their person, and to the violence of wild beasts, wanting all decency of burial, Psa. 79.2. The dead bodies of thy Saints have they given to be meat to the fowls of the heavens, and the flesh of thy servants to the beasts of the earth; their blond have they shed like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them. And more than that, they are sometime digged and dragged out of their graves, in which they were formerly laid at rest, and abused with contempt and villainy, Amos 2.1. This was one great sin, for which God would not turn away the punishment of the King of Moab, because he burned the bones of the King of Edom into lime, that is, digged them up out of the grave, when he had lain so long, that his flesh was consumed, and burned his bones to ashes. The Duke of Bedford the Regent of France, that was victorious in Normandy in War, and governed it with renowned justice in Peace, dying in that Province, was buried under a stately Monument in Rean, but when by change and chance of War, all Normandy became French, and cast off the English yoke, the people would have pulled down his Monument, and have taken up his carcase, and thrown it into the open field, but that the humanity of the French King would not permit that barbarous outrage to his honourable enemy. This mischievous indignity to humane nature was the reason why the Romans in their funerals burned their dead to ashes, and put their ashes in an Urn, or earthen Pitcher, that if their enemies should at any time sack and take their City, the bodies of their deceased Citizens might not be digged out of their graves, and thus inhumanely abused. If I could reckon up all the mischiefs that ever were of shall be among men in the world, they might all sufficiently be expressed in this one word, War, Si bellum dixeris, omnia dixeris. And therefore the contrary blessing, Pence, cannot but be acknowledged a rare and special favour, and a blessing of God to his people, who will bless his people with Peace. From all that hath been said by way of Explication, I draw these useful directions by way of Application. First, when we do see this blessing of Peace withheld, or shaken and threatened, we should be persuaded to renew our Covenants of Peace with God, and enter into a consideration of our sins, by which we have provoked him to anger, that we may be humbled for them and reform them: For be we well assured, when we behold the Lord gathering his forces together, and preparing to battle against us, we have broken our conventions, and the Articles and Covenants of Peace that we have made with him; For because they have cast away the Law of the Lord, and despised the holy one of Israel, therefore is his anger kindled, and his hand stretched out against his people, Esay 5.25. and thus he threatneth them; If ye will walk contrary to me, I will walk contrary to you, & I will bring a sword that shall avenge the quarrel of my Covenant, Leu. 26.24, 25. And therefore let us enter into consideration, how unworthy of, and unanswerable to the Covenant of the Gospel our Nation hath behaved itself, for whereas we should have adorned the Doctrine of God our Saviour, by holiness and righteousness, as it doth teach us, Tit. 2.11. On the contrary, we have lived in all impiety and unrighteousness, being full of envy, hatred, malice, fraud, deceit, hypocrisy, by lying, and killing, and stealing, and whoring, and swearing, we break forth; for which God hath a controversy with the Land, Hos. 4.1. And seems now to say, awake thou sword of the Lord, and take vengeance on the breaches of my Covenant of Peace. Now therefore upon the alarm given to us by God, we should be careful and studious to renew our Covenants of Peace with him, as one advised, Job 23.21. Acquaint thyself with him, and be at peace, by Repentance and Faith in jesus Christ the Mediator of Peace, entering anew into Terms and Articles of amity with God; and as the men of Tyre and Sydon, when Herod was fallen out with them, procured Blastus the King's Chamberlain to bring them into favour, Acts 12.20. So should we, by renewing our Faith in Christ that sits at God's right hand, advance our pacification with God. Secondly, now we see the confusions of War a brewing, and the storm begin to arise, because we do not know but the date of the Peace of the Nation may be out, and the time come to us to drink the heavy and bitter Cup of trembling, that hath been put into the hand of all the Nations round about us, & have small cause to think we shall go free, our care should be to provide against the mischief of War, which can reach to the great damage of the soul that hath not made its Peace with God in Christ; Therefore we should be persuaded very studiously to provide for the safety and security of our souls, laying them up by Faith in Christ in the hands of God, as in the hand of a faithful Creator, and a reconciled God in him, that if we fall in the common calamity and destructions of the sword, and be deprived of that outward Peace which is in the World, yet keeping Faith and a good Conscience, the sword shall but let our souls out of the body, as out of a prison, to enjoy eternal Peace and rest in Heaven, the consummation of the blessed quiet begun in Peace of Conscience in this Life; & we shall by death be delivered from all the evils that shall come upon the World, Esay 57.2. For the righteous is but taken from evils here below, and Peace doth come to them in death, and the grave is but a bed of rest to them; and that fulfilled that our Saviour spoke, joh. 16.33. In the world ye shall have trouble, but in me ye shall have Peace, the way whereunto is Faith and a good Conscience, Uprightness and Integrity of heart, for the end of the upright and perfect man is Peace, Ps. 37.37. therefore saith the Psalmist, Keep innocency, and do the thing that is right, for that will give a man peace at the last; and though the Heaven's fall, the ruins thereof shall not make him afraid, his heart being supported by a better hope and expectation than the best things in the World can afford unto him, having laid his soul up in the safest hand. Thirdly, seeing War is so full of mischief, and such a destroyer of all the blessings of Peace, make it your daily request to God, that he would be pleased to deliver us from it, to keep it from entering in among us, and to scatter that cloud that hangs over our heads and threatens us. I heard a Preacher once in the pulpit exhort men to pray against the compounding our distractions that be broken forth upon us, as a thing that would undo us, And he said, Though War were a sad way, yet it was the safest way. Dulce bellum inexpertis. Surely David a valiant warrior, and learned in the miseries of it, by long trial and experience, when God (purposing to chasten his pride in the multitude of his people by cutting short the numbers of them) put him by Gad to the choice of pestilence, famine or war; David that knew full well the calamities that accompany this judgement, utterly declined it, leaving himself to God to send which of the other two it was his pleasure, 2 Sam. 24.14. Let me fall into the bands of God, saith he, for his mercy is great, and not into the hands of man (for we may thus supply it) with man in war there is no mercy: from whose example let us learn to pray which way soever he pleaseth to chasten us for our sins, yet to preserve us from this dreadful mischief and calamity of war, if he have any pleasure in us. Fourthly, we should be excited to great thankfulness for our blessed peace that hath been so long continued among us, and for all those blessings that have accompanied it unto our comfort, God having made us all our days to dwell in the multitude of peace, under nourcing Fathers and Mothers, Princes that have delighted in, and under God procured and maintained us in peace, whereby we have been increased into all affluence and abundance of people, riches, and all kind of things needful and convenient for this natural life, in learning and knowledge, and all helps to further the health and happiness of our souls, if now we do not ruin (propriâ mole) by our own abundance; And as fat cattles that came lean and scragged into a rich pasture, being grown wanton with their fullness of feed, turn the heels on the pasture that hath fed them, leaping over the hedge, through desire of change, and to run at random in the vast Common, where their pasture is too short to fill their bellies, and the briers and thorns do plentifully tear and rend their smooth and sleek backs, and send them home with desire to the place from which they broke in wantonness, where they stand as it were bemoaning their folly, but unable to get into the place which they wantonly forsook, till helped in by their Master. Fiftly, it should beget in every one of us an averse disposition to war, and an inward dislike and loathing of it, and should frame in us delights and desires of this great blessing of peace, with all answerable endeavours as much as in us lies to advance and preserve it among us: to be in ourselves of a peaceable disposition, to love and live in peace, it is a fruit of true Religion and an argument thereof, James 3.17. The wisdom that is from above is peaceable, full of mercy, gentle and easy to be entreated, it is not full of malice, and hatred and fury, like them that breath nothing but swords and pistols, and speak nothing but halters and axes, and persuade nothing but war and fight up to the knees in blood, uttering nothing but threaten, and ruin, and confusion to all that differ from them in the least syllable of opinion; surely if any man seem to be religious and refraineth not his tongue his Religion, that is, his profession of religion is in vain, Jam: 1.26. and therefore let your speeches breath peace out of a peaceable heart, desire, labour for and study peace, and as a thing helpful thereunto, follow your own plough, and meddle not in things that belong not to your calling: study to be quiet, saith the Apostle, and as a thing helpful thereunto he adds, meddle with your own business. 1. Thes. 4.11. There be men that have an Oar in every man's boat, matters of State, and the Ministry, and Government, and Reformation is his business that never yet reform his heart or life; they will not allow a Bishop in his own Diocese and yet will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishops in every man's Diocese, from whence grows strife, and contentions, and great and hateful thoughts of heart that prepare men unto civil war, and withal if that evil come upon us, to increase the mischiefs of the judgement, and to make it the more bitter and destructive. Sixtly and lastly, pray for the continuance of our peace so long continued to the happiness of our Nation, but now grievously shaken and threatened, pray that it may be dear and precious in God's eyes, and that which he denounced against his people never befall us, Jer. 16.5. I have taken away my peace from this people. It hath been a great blessing hitherto, that in our time there hath been no going out, nor coming in, nor complaining in our streets, through foreign or domestical war, happy are the people that be in such a case, Psal. 144.15. It was the happiness of Solomon's time, 1 Chro. 22.9. That he was a man of peace, and God did give him rest from all his enemies round about, and therefore he called his name Solomon, that signifies peaceable, for I will give peace and rest in his days, saith God to David. It was a great blessing upon Jehoshaphat and his Kingdom, that the fear of God fell upon all the Kingdoms that were round about judah, so that they made no war against Iehosh●phat. 2. Chro. 17.10. And our duty is to be thankful that it hath been so with us of a long time, and to pray that this our happy peace may be continued, and seeing we have no coming in by invasion, that there may be no crying in our streets by the miseries of civil war in the bowels of our Nation through the distempers of any ill affected persons that do desire or delight in such a war. For did we know so much of civil war as a few months have discovered to them in Ireland, we would think ourselves an happy people, and a little of their vinegar would cure the itch of their fingers that would feign be fight. There be some unquiet spirits always among men, of whom it may be spoken that Agamemnon said of Achilles, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strifes, and wars, and fightings are always pleasant to thee. Angry natures, iracundia lites concitat, concordiam dissipat, anger stirs up strife, and scatters peace. There are a people it seems weary of peace, and desirous of war in the bowels of the Nation, not considering that such a war is with their own brethren and Country men in the flesh, and will be most fatal to the whole Nation, and begin when it will begin, it will be bitterness in the latter end, as Abner said to joab: and come it when it will come, it will bring repentance enough with it when it is too late, both to the vanquished, and to the victor. Benhadad despising terms of peace, and wilfully and proudly making war upon the King of Israel, was taught repentance by an utter discomfiture of his numerous forces wherein he trusted and whereof so much he boasted, 1 Kings 20.20. and was forced when he was half drunken to fly for his life, and after basely to send his Courtiers with ropes about their necks, to say to the King of Israel whom he so much despised and provoked to battle, Thy brother Benhadad saith, I pray thee let me live; Indeed the proudest and most quarrelling Spirits in prosperity are usually the basest, and most ignoble in adversity. The Trojans after the many fearful miseries and dreadful calamities of ten year's wars of the Grecians upon them, provoked by the rape of Helena whom Paris had stolen out of Greece from Menelaus her husband, began to think of sending Helena home, which had they done at first as they were bound in justice, and not perversely gone about to maintain that wicked act with war, they had escaped the misery they suffered, and the ruin of their City: whose late repentance came into a proverb, Serò sapiunt Phryges', the Trojans are wise when it is too late, which will be fit to all that stubbornly betake themselves to war. But of all wars the civil war is most unkindly and disconsolate, though too too many wretched spirits wish it were a foot: and whereas all good men would sacrifice themselves for the peace and safety of their Country, these would feign be fishing in troubled waters, and therefore trouble the waters that they might be fishing. Otho the Emperor being but three and thirty years of age, seeing he must either lay down his Empire, or maintain it with the slaughter of his Citizens, and being exhorted by his soldiers not to despair of the success of that war, made them this answer, sibi suam vitam tanti non esse, ut hâc de causâ bellum civile nasceretur, my life is not so dear to me, that for it a civil war should be raised in my Country. But many are of such pestilent and destructive spirits, so malignant and ill affected to the public, and so full of love unto their own particular, that they wish a civil war, some for spoil and booty, and some to enjoy their licentious liberty, and some to advance only their peevish humour, and to maintain or set up things that cannot in all eternity recompense the slaughter of one battle. Macedonius the Eremite hearing Theedosius the Emperor had determinined to make war upon the Antiochians, Theod. l. 5.20. and to destroy them by the sword, because they in a discontented tumult occasioned by the imposition of an extraordinary tribute, had broken down a brazen image of Placilla the Queen, reproved the Emperor by a message, and charged him to desist from his intended enterprise, and to consider that he was but a man, and depended upon the will of God, and not to destroy the Image of God by war for a brazen Image, seeing many other brazen Images might be made, at ne pilum quidem Jmperator interfecto homine restituere posset, but a hair of a man slain could not be repaired by the Emperor, and the Emperor obeyed the Eremite and forgave the Antiochians. The cause of war had need be very great and urgent, and the benefits of it apparent, for the destructions of it are of things inestimable: and therefore peace hath always been and is a blessed thing, and an esteemed jewel, and war most wretched and abhorred of every man, unless of such as be crazed in their breins or fortunes, that haveeaten hemlock and are fit for the dark and close lodgings of Bedlam, than to see the light and open air, and live in humane society to which they are infestive that desire or delight in war. When a Pirate was brought before Alexander, and accused for robbing on the Sea, Alexander asked him why he infested men upon the Sea? to whom the Pirate boldly gave this answer, Why dost thou infest them on the Land? but because I do that I do parvulo navigio in a small bottom, therefore I am called a thief, and because thou dost that thou dost magno exercitu with a great Army, therefore thou art called an Emperor. Certainly they were both of them mischiefs to mankind by the bad effects of violence, and of the sword, which are the loss of goods, Estates, Liberties, Lands, and all other comfortable things that wait on peace. For in peace there is freedom from all those sad and black calamities, which the dismal cloud of war reins down among the sons of men to their destruction. They are therefore like Alexander and his Pirate, the very pests among men that do delight in war, and do desire to break off and chase away the great blessing of peace. For in peace men enjoy themselves and the fruit of their labours, trade in the City, husbandry in the Country, pleasure in their recreations, traffic with strangers, the Gospel preached, God's Ordinances duly administered, his Sabbaths comfortably observed, communion with their friends and kindred, education of their children, and plenty of all blessings that be dear unto the living, and decent and comely burial of the dead, all which they are deprived of by war, as they be blessed with them by peace. Peace, why it is the desire of Angels for us, Luk. 2.10. Glory be to God on high and on earth peace, was the song of the heavenly choir that celebrated the birth of Christ the King of peace. Peace, why it is a blessing promised to the Church in all the ages of the world upon their obedience to God, Levit. 26.6. If ye walk in my Statutes and keep my Commandments, I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid, neither shall the sword go thorough your land. Peace, why it is the request of the Prophet, and that he stirs us up to pray for, Psal 122.6. Pray for the peace of jerusalem, they shall prosper that love thee, peace be within thy walls and plenty within thy Palaces, for my brethren and companions sake I will now say, peace be within thee, because of the house of the Lord our God, I will wish thee good. First, here is prosperity to them that love the peace of Jerusalem; Secondly, here is peace first, and then plenty after; Thirdly, here is peace prayed for for humanity's sake: and fourthly, for Religion and the Church's sake. And the taking away of peace is reckoned in Scripture a grievous judgement, and so threatened, jer. 16.5. Thus saith the Lord (to the Prophet) enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament or bemoan them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the Lord, even loving kindness and mercy: for if peace be gone, farewell all other blessings of the Lord, and therefore threatening the captivity, he thus expresseth it, ●er. 30.5. we have heard a voice of trembling, of fear and not of peace, for the voice of peace is sweet, as the voice of war is dreadful. And this judgement God seems now to threaten us withal, our peace seems to be shaken, crazed and almost broken in pieces, and war to be entered into our gates, we hear the beating of the Drum, the clangor of the Trumpet, the report of the Musket; and the horse prepared for the battle trots in our streets, and his neighings are entered into our ears, and the destructions will be of the same Countrymen, and of many of the same profession for the substance of Religion, and of the subjects of the same King. Oh, ye therefore that be the friends of peace, the servants of the God of peace, the saved of the Prince of peace, and joined together in the same covenant of peace, who have one God the Father of all, one Lord the Redeemer of all, one faith, one baptism and one hope of Heaven, pray for peace: pray that some Mediator may stand up in the gap to divert this threatened storm of destruction: pray that that God, who when there was such a distance made betwixt God and man by sin, that no creature in heaven or earth could reconcile them, conceiving in the bowels of his mercy thoughts of peace toward man, did send the Son of his love and delight in the flesh, to make peace, to procure peace, to preach peace and purchase peace for us with our God, would stir up in the hearts of Prince and Parliament the studious desire and endeavour of pacification, that these water-breaches that be broken in upon us, may not be given way unto, lest they prove an inundation and deluge of destruction. It would be a work of glory for every man in place fit to that purpose to labour this way, and blessed should he be, blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God, Mat. 5.9. Titus Flaminius' when he had composed the divisions and quieted the seditions of Greece, Plut. Flam. and settled the divided and distracted estate of the Country, triumphed for it with as great joy as if he had conquered the Macedonians and all Greece. So glorious would it be to be a worker in this work of pacification for any man that hath a calling giving him a capacity thereunto, that he should be registered in the Chronicles of Fame to his immortal glory, wherein the wilful raisers up of war shall bear eternally the black mark of Infamy. And for us all of an inferior Orb & Sphere, let's be excited to pray labour, and study in our way for peace, not blowing the Trumpet nor stirring up the coals and fire of war, by factious oppositions, by siding names & Titles that tend only to sedition, and to foment and nourish hatred and malice, there by to prepare us to the greater cruelty one against another, if that judgement should be begun amongst us; let us avoid lying and slandering, especially blaspheming and standering the footsteps of the Lords anointed; let not the voice of war be named by you, unless in detestation, si pacem diligis belli mentionem ne feceris. He was no fool but a wise Statesman that said, S●●t●. de Bene. iniquissimam pacem justissimo bello antefero. I prefer the most unjust peace before the justest war, & omnis pax bello civils praestantior, Cicero. any peace is better than a civil war. Most true it is that peace is better with many disadvantages, than War with all the conditions that be desirable to it. Certainly therefore they be men of mad and disjointed brains, and desperate spirits, that are all for War, especially for a Civil Wary, in the bowels of their own Country and Nation, Cicer. in Phil. Of such a man saith Cicero, Nec privatos Focos, nec publicas Leges, nec Libertatis Jura chara habere potest, etc. He neither esteems men's private interest, nor the public Laws, nor the rights of Liberty dear unto him, whom discord, whom the slaughter of his Citizens, whom Civil War delighteth; and I think him fit to be cast out of the number of men, and to be exterminated the confines of humane Nature; and therefore whether it be Sylla or Marius, or whosoever else that wisheth for a Civil War, I judge him to be borne a detestable Citizen to the Commonwealth. Neither is any thing more horrible than such a Citizen, than such a man, if at least he be to be esteemed a Citizen, or a man that desireth a Civil War. The Turks in detestation of the bloody contentious humour of Selimus their Emperor, who was never quiet, never well, unless he were fight, though it were with his own father, made this a piece of his Epitaph, Licet ossa jacent, animus tamen bella quaerit; Though his bones be at rest, his ghost is hunting after war. Oh, let us that be Christians then, the sons of peace, and called unto peace, in and by the Gospel of Peace, abhor those bloody slaughters of mankind that do accompany War. Think often on the miseries that do wait on War, and go along inseparably with it. Set woeful Germany before your eyes, so wasted and consumed by war, that in the Palatinate, the goodliest and most fruitful Garden of that Country, men have been found dead with grass in their mouths, which they have gathered and gnawed up like beasts, to keep alive their starven souls, ready to die of hunger. Set lamenting Ireland before your eyes, with all those villainies & outrages committed on men, women, children, rich, poor, priest and people, without respect of age, or sex, or calling. Do we desire to be made desolate as they be? Would we see our Towns and Cities on a flaming fire? Would it be pleasing to us to behold our wives, the pleasure of our eyes ravished before our faces? Would it be a delight unto us to see our little Infants, ●hat be so dear and tender to us, that the wind may ●ot be suffered to blow on them, tossed on the Pikes in sport, by the barbarous and remorseless Soldier, or ●aken by the heels, and their brains dashed out against ●he pavement? Would we behold all we have laboured for all our life ●ong, carried away in a moment by a stranger; and all our pleasant places that be dear unto us, made a desolate heap of rubbish; even our Churches, which our fathers with great and expensive costs have builded, and ourselves have at our own charges repaired and beautified, that we may with the more lightsome comeliness, and decent delight assemble together in them to God's service & the welfare of our souls, & into which in some places already the Soldier is entered to be trained and marshaled: Would we see them laid waste, or made shambles, or market-places, or stables, or Pigeon houses, the things that some desire and speak concerning them already? Or do we desire to enjoy God's blessings, and ourselves & wives and children in honesty and in honour, our trades and riches in the City with safety, our pleasure and possessions in the Country with comfort and contentment? Oh then let us desire, and pray, and labour for the continuance of Peace, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Oh fool, fool, all these desirable things are in this one thing, Peace. And if notwithstanding all that hath been said, or may be thought concerning the blessing of Peace, and the mischief of War, we will yet desire to be fight; Remember that imprecation of the Prophet, Psal. 68.30. Thou shalt scatter the people that delight in War. Consider neither side can be assured of victory: nor can any man imagine the sad issues of a discomfiture to the discomfited. Let therefore (I beseech you) the ear that hath heard these things, affect the heart against that fearful judgement of War, and beget in us all a desire and love of Peace, in which we may enjoy all desirable blessings, and the blessed Gospel of Peace, to build us up in that Peace of God that passeth all understanding, and bring us after the troubles of this life to that rest and Peace that shall be glorious and happy in Heaven for ever. FINIS.