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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85709	A patheticall perswasion to pray for publick peace: propounded in a sermon preached in the cathedrall church of Saint Paul, Octob. 2. 1642. By Matthew Griffith, rector of S. Mary Magdalens neer Old-Fishstreet, London.	Griffith, Matthew, 1599?-1665.	1642 (1642)	Wing G2016; Thomason E122_17; ESTC R4434	34,095	58

my solitary aim in this Sermon is to direct you both in your prayers and practice how to salve up our sores and to heal our wounds and if in any thing that serves to so good an end I seem too bold or bitter let your grave experience make this Apologie for me viz. That a mortall wound must be thorowly searched ere it can be soundly healed and that no purgative Medicine can bring health without some bitternes I would not wittingly give any man any manner of offence and yet if in the faithfull discharge of my duty I should I hope that they among you which are moderate will confesse That wholesome meat must not be altogether debarred the table though by accident it may possibly disgust some aguish Palate I will conclude with that of S. Paul to the Romanes Ro. 16.17 Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions contrary to the Doctrine which you have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not our LORD JESUS CHRIST but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple For your obedience is come abroad unto all men I am glad therefore on your behalf But yet I would have you wise unto that which is good and harmlesse concerning evill And the God of Peace shall bruise Satan under you feet shortly The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all Amen So sayeth and so prayeth Your Worships most affectionate servant in the Lord MATTH GRIFFITH A. Patheticall Perswasion to pray for Publike-Peace PSALM 122.6 O pray for the peace of Jerusalem THough the whole Scripture be given by divine inspiration yet this book of Psalms seems to challenge some kinde of priviledge and preheminence 2 Tim. 9.16 because the Pen-man hereof was not onely a King and a Prophet 1 Sam. 13.14 but a man according to GODS heart and a lively figure of Christ yea he was saith Euthymius Primiregis ●or lingua calamus The heart tongue and pen of the king of Kings and lord of Lords Apoc 17.14 King Alfred whom our English Chronicle so much extolls was wont to have the PSALTER alwayes with him as Saint Hierome advis'd his Friend Rusticus to make it his Vade-mecum John Cosmus that holy Bishop of Constantinople being forced to flye from that City took no part of his treasures with him save Davids Psalms which to him were both pro prae divitiis Our blessed Lord and his Apostles cite no lesse then Sixty Testimonies out of this book which is more frequently read and sung both in the Jewish Synagogues and also in our Christian Congregations then any other parcell of holy Writ Yea the Turks themselves swear as solemnly by the Psalms of David as by Mahomets Alcoran And whereas all other parts of Scripture have their severall bounds and limits as it were some of them consisting chiefly of matter of Prophesie others of History some serving for instruction some for reprehension some for consolation the short is that this book of Psalms comprehends all being indeed a common Store-house of good things out of which all persons of what calling or condition soever may fit and furnish themselves according to their exigents and occasions For which very reason Saint Basil calls this book a divine Treasury Saint Agustine stiles it a spiriituall Library Saint Ambrose terms it a Map of holy Writ Saint Chrysostome calls it a Panoply or whole Armour Gregory the great held it the Register of the whole Scripture and I may truly say of it what S. Paul doth of the whole 2 Tim. 3. ●6 that it is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousnesse And as for this particular Psalm of which my Text is a considerable part it is the generall consent in a manner of all Divines That it was compos'd and compil'd by the sweet-Singer of Israel upon occasion of the bringing of the Ark into Jerusalem and applyed and left for the use of the Church that so oft as the Israelites should appear before the Lord at their solemn feasts it might be sung in publick the better to stir them up to a just gratulation and thanksgiving to God for two extraordinary Benefits whereof the one was the establishing of the Church and Religion in the City of David the other was the stating of the Kingdom and succession upon the house of David And to the end that both the Church of God and the Religion thereof and eke the Kingdom of David and the succession thereof might the better flourish and continue The Psalmist in these words of my Text combines them together calling both by one name viz. Jerusalem and calling upon us as one man with one minde and mouth to pray for the peace of this Jerusalem O pray for the peace of Jerusalem In which words of the princely Prophet we may observe three considerable parts viz. First what it is whereunto he exhorts us viz. Prayer O pray Secondly for what it is he thus exhorts us to pray viz. for Peace O pray for peace Thirdly for whose peace it is that we are thus exhorted to pray viz. for the peace of Jerusalem O pray for the peace of Jerusalem The first viz. Prayer is the only ordinary means by which we do obtain of God all such good things as we stand in need of for what Saint Paul speaks of godlinesse in the fourth Chapter of the first Epistle to Timothy Pietas ad omnia utilis 1 Tim. 4 8. is no lesse true of Prayer This is profitable to all things having both bona proposita and eke bona reposita the promises of this life and of that which is to come And therefore O pray The second viz. Peace is the principall pillar both of Church and Common-wealth and by an usuall Hebraism it signifies all happinesse and perfection and therefore O pray for Peace Gal. 4.26 Exod. 20. The third viz. Jerusalem is from above it is the mother of us all And as children are bound in duty to pray for and procure their Naturall mothers good so is each true childe of God bound by a stronger tye to wish and work the welfare of his holy Mother The Church and therefore O pray for the Peace of Jerusalem The first word in the Text is Pray This is the Act to which we are here exhorted and it sets forth unto us the necessity of Prayer O pray The second word is Peace This is the Object of our Prayers and it sets forth unto us the commodity of Peace O pray for Peace The third and last word in the Text is Jerusalem This is the Subject whose peace and prosperity we are all to pray for and it insinuates unto us The Unity and Charity of the Church which as the Heathen spake of the Country omnes omnium charitates in se complectitur Then since Jerusalem is so highly to be respected and Peace is a

alas what horrid impiety and extreme ingratitude it is Viper-like to gnaw out the bowells of the Mother Church that bare us May she not justly now renew her old complaints Eccè in pace mea amaritudo mea amarissima Behold in my peace I had great bitternesse And St Bernard shews you how Isa 38.17 by running thorow all the degrees of comparison thus Amara in persecutionibus Tyrannorum c. Great bitternesse the Church hath alwayes had caus'd by Tyrannicall persecutions Greater bitternesse by reason of hereticall propositions But her greatest bitternesse comes from domesticall dissentitions when as it was foretold in the 7 of Micah a mans enemies are of his own houshold Micah 76. Some Morall Divines hold Rebecca when she bare twins to be a Figure of the Church for though she prayed to God for children yet finding them to strive and struggle in her womb for priority and superiority and feeling the smart of that contention she said If it be so why am I thus as if she wish'd she had never conceived And it is most sure that the Church hath many children whom she hath conceived with care brought forth with pain and brought up with all tendernesse of affection who yet through their grievous strife and schism have so vexed and rent her very bowells of late that she hath just cause to wish she had never conceiv'd them But however these Schismaticks as Saint Augustine speaks of Donatus are in some sense worse then the very Tormentors of Christ upon the Crosse For saith he Venit persecutor non fregit crura Chris●i c. The persecutor came and brake not Christs legs hanging on the Crosse yet Donatus came and rent his Church in pieces Christs naturall Body was whole in the hands of his very Executioners and yet his Mysticall Body is not whole among us that are Christians Yea however these Schismaticks in some sort out-act that Monster Nero's cruelty in ripping up the Womb of their Spirituall Mother Ephes 5.1 yet let us as dear children rather imitate the pity Ier. 31.20 and piety of our heavenly Father And as his bowells were troubled for Ephraim in the 31 of Jeremy so let ours yern for our Jerusalem And the better to expresse our dutifull and due affection to our holy Mother the Church let us all be exhorted to do these three things with which I will conclude First let us pray for her Peace and prosperity For as S. Augustine speaks in his 19 Book de Civitati Dei Tantum est c. Such is the good of Ecclesiasticall Peace that nothing can be heard more acceptable nothing can be coveted more desirable nothing can be found more unvaluable wherefore let him that hath this peace hold it let him that hath lost it seek it for whosoever is not found in peace he shall be rejected by God the Father disinherited by God the Son and discarded by God the holy Ghost And if ever this exhortation To pray for the Churches Peace were seasonable then 't is much more now which makes me to re-inforce it For this Island which was but surrounded before seems at this day to be quite overflowed with water and that with water more brackish then that of the Sea it self even the waters of Meribah The waters of Strife God grant they prove not like the waters of Marah Exod. 17.1 bitter waters in the end For division ever tends to Exo 15.23 and commonly ends in destruction according to that in the 55 Psalm Divide destrue c. Psal 55.9 Divide their tongues and destroy them O Lord for I have seen violence and strife in the City Mark there how division ushers in the destruction of that City which the Psalmist speaks of I hope it was no Prophesie of this And yet are we not divided Have we not answerable to that in the 9 Chapter of Isaiah our Ephraim against Manasses Isa 9.21 and Manasses against Ephraim and both against Judah Have we not Sectaries against Papists and Papists against Sectaries and both against the true Protestant Is not that certain Prognostick of the Generall Judgement at the last day pointed at in the 24 of Saint Matthew now visible in His Majesties Dominions Mat. 24.7 when as Kingdome riseth against Kingdome and Realme against Realme Yea even in this Kingdom are we not divided Have we not innumerable Sects and lamentable Schisms in the Church Have we not dangerous dissention and digladiation in the Common-wealth And doth not our Saviour tell us plainly in the 12 Chapter of S. Matthew That a Kingdom divided against it self Mat. 12.25 shall be brought to delation And shall we not believe him or if we do shall we go on and perish for not obeying him Can we ever hope to prosper whilst we are thus divided and whilst our divisions Iudg. 5 15. like those of Reuben in the 5 Chapter of Iudges are great thoughts of heart and those great thoughts indeed for they are great thoughts against the Liturgy and great thoughts against Episcopacy if not against Monarcy it self These must be confess'd to be great thoughts and so great that there cannot well be greater These lay the Axe to the very root and therefore in reason what can be expected but that these great thoughts should beget great troubles which like so many Mathematicall lines will be Divisibiles in s●mper divisibila If we cast off all that is called God among us we must never look for peace as a blessing from God So that what St. Paul speaks of himself and his fellow labourers in the 7th Chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Corinthians may with some advantage be applyed unto us 2 Cor. 7.5 Our flesh hath no rest but we are troubl'd on every side without fightings within are feares And both sides agreeing in the cause of taking up of Arms viz. that they do it for the maintenance of Religion Law Liberty Proprietie c. Do we not both fight for and fear we scarce know what One thing I am sure cannot be denied that through these groundlesse altercations and causelesse feares publike peace is in great danger to be lost if it be not casher'd already and as things now stand we know not well either where to seek it or how to settle it The best way that I can think on for the present is this in the text viz. To pray for the peace of Jerusalem which hath now as great need to be upheld by your faithfull prayers and endeavours as ever had the faint and feeble hands of Moses need to be supported by Aron Exo. 17 1● and Hur● in the 17th Chapter of Exodus Oh then let us all fall close to our prayers for it is an infallible signe of a prophane person when he never puts up an hearty prayer to God for the Church in time of distresse He is no better then a Brat of Babel who cannot be perswaded to