of Heaven which are infinite always protect our Religious and Gracious KING his Dearest BROTHER and every Branc of that ROYAL FAMILY and may all the Treasonable Conspiracies of those Rebellious Schischmaticks be always thus happily prevented That the continued Care of His Majesties Justices of the Peace for the County of DEVON for the Safety of His Majesties Sacred Person the preservation of the Publick Peace and advancement of true Religion may be fuller known and have a better Effect I do hereby Order and Require all the CLERGY of my Diocess within the County of Devon deliberately to publish this Order the next Sunday after it shall be tendred to them THO. EXON Hugo Vaughan Cler. Pacis Com praed My LORD GENTLEMEN YOu have taken the right measure for securing our Peace and rendring unto Caesar the things that are Caesars by rendring unto God the things that are Gods in the first place We all owe it to your Piety R. R. Father who have loved our Nation and built us another Synagogue which with all thankfulness we acknowledge and may it ever re-remain a House of Prayer for those ends to which you have designed and reconsecrated it by your presence and Devotion When I saw the Heads of our County following the Guide of their Souls and like Moses and Aaron on the Mount stretching out their hands with their hearts unto God in Prayer it seemed to me a good Omen of Success and Victory against those Amalekites that are still conspiring against us in the Vallies For such as you who make it your business to serve God and the King are the Chariots of Israel and the Horsemen thereof In you we may see Righteousness and Peace embracing and kissing each other and may they never prosper that attempt to put them or you asunder And now I beseech you R. R. Father and worthy Gentlemen suffer a word of Exhortation which is that you would bend your united Force against that Profaneness and Debauchery which as it is an effect of our former Divisions and War so it will be the cause of new Confusions and drawing down the Wrath of God on the Land For if such men of Belial as are still fighting against God blaspheming his Holy Name by accursed Oaths and damnable Imprecations that own no other Deity but the Lusts of their upper nether bellies and sacrifice more of their time and Estates to Bacchus and Venus than to their God and Saviour and Leviathan like sport themselves n the waters of the Sanctuary scoffing at all things that are Sacred and think themselves so great that no man durst put a hook in their nostrils or reprove them though never so friendly and in the Name of God be permitted to riot it in the day-time we may expect an approaching night of as much blackness and darkness as violent storms and tempests as hitherto God be thanked hath past over our heads And because Tipling and Brothel-houses and the Nurseries of these mischievous vices where men sacrifice more of their time and Estates to their ungodly Lusts than to their God and Saviour let those Nests and Receptacles of unclean Locusts and devouring Caterpillars which do even cover the Land and though they have the faces of men yet under them they carry the hearts of beasts and the stings of fiery Serpents be suppressed I know there may be some Silver-smiths that will plead for these Shrines of the great Goddess Diana which bring no small gain to the Crafts-men But certainly if the time and Treasure which is spent and spilt by these Debaucheries in Idleness and upon their Lusts were employed in their dayly Labours and honest Callings the King would have a far greater as well as a better Revenue and Aid than from all those Augean Stables These are those Devils Chappels which in many places he set up for himself at the very entrance into God's House where his Chaplains daily attend his Service but especially on those Holy-days which are set apart for God's Worship and from hence there are as many Oaths and Imprecations for Vengeance and Damnation sent up against Heaven as there are Prayers and Supplications for Pardon and Salvation in the Churches of God And how great Provocations these are to our Holy God your own experience of the great and dayly trouble occasioned by such Riots may inform you for from hence proceed Thefts Whoredoms Bastardies Brauls and Quarrels which are prosecuted by expensive and ruining Law-suits maiming of Limbs and shedding of innocent Bloud These are the Sanctuaries of Vagabonds and Robbers the Hospitals of incurable Fools and Madmen where men are besotted bereaved of reason and strength and made uncapable of any good Employment The very Pesthouses of the Nation where Diseases are propagated and Infirmities intailed on succeeding Generations By these Circean Cups men are transformed into beasts and by their looks and their language you may know them for Vix hominem sonant These were the Apollyons that destroyed the late Kings Armies his Forts and Garrisons and reduced him to more straights than the Armies of his Adversaries who when they should be fighting against the Kings Enemies were fighting against God and discharging Vollies of Oaths against Heaven when they should have been praying for mercy and forgiveness from thence These hardned the hearts of the Kings Enemies and alienated the affections of his Subjects as if the Cause could not be good that was defended by such Instruments for they brought an evil Report on a righteous Cause as if their Prince were like that Party or Gallio like cared for none of those things It was doubtless by and for the wickedness of these men that so good a Prince and so just a Cause was overthrown and if we still do wickedly though as yet we have no visible Enemies the Mouth of the Lord which is able to do it hath said Ye shall be destroyed both you and your King Wherefore I beseech you who have Power and Authority from God and the King vigorously and unanimously to endeavour the Suppression of those Seminaries of sin and uncleanness which provoke God and bring the Government into Contempt and then we may hope that God will still suppress our Enemies and establish us on the sure Foundations of Peace and Righteousness which is and shall be the hearty Prayer of Exon Jan. 21. 1683. My Lord and Gentlemen Your most humble and hearty Servant for God his Church and the King THO. LONG St. JAMES 4.1 From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even from your lusts which war in your members BEing to speak to so solemn an Audience I could not think of a more seasonable and proper Subject than to commend unto you especially R. R. Father in God and worthy Gentlemen who are in Commission for the PEACE and Enquiry into the Causes of WAR And the Text seems to be a Writ of Enquiry From whence come wars In the due execution whereof
you may do God and the King your selves and your Country most acceptable Service For in this Text you have a discovery of the first most secret motions that tend to War and Confusion which as it is said of the Basilisk being first seen they die but if they surprize us we perish I shall therefore wave all formalities and delays and become your humble Sollicitor to take immediate cognizance of the merits of the Cause that OLD CAUSE which hath formerly involved the three Nations in War and Confusion and is like to set us all on a flame a second time And I doubt not to produce such clear and unquestionable evidence concerning the matter of fact that not one though interessed and prejudiced person shall return an Ignoramus but agree fully in the Verdict with St. James That the wars and fightings among our selves can proceed from no other cause but those lusts that war in our members And in this I dare make every man a Juror being as well under the Oath of God in his Baptism as the Oath of the King in his Allegiance both which oblige him to discover and bring to condign punishment those lusts that fight against God against the Peace of our Soveraign Lord the King and the temporal and eternal Peace of our own Souls Three things the Text directs us to enquire into 1. The matter of Fact Wars and fightings 2. The Persons engaged Among you or between your selves viz. the twelve Tribes to whom St. James writes this Epistle 3. The Original whence these Wars came which our Apostle assures us was from no other cause but those lusts which did war in their members First of the matter of Fact which was more than private Stirs and Heats as some term them there was some fire and flames and Behold saith our Apostle how great a matter a little fire kindleth it proceeded to Open Hostility and Murther For although by Gods just Judgment upon them they had been for above an hundred years under the Power and Government of the Romans and owned no King but Caesar by whom they were permitted the enjoyment of their Religion Laws and Liberties under the easie tribute of one peny yearly for each person which was the ordinary pay of a Labourer or Souldier for one days service yet did they not onely often rebel against their lawful Governours on the account of that Tribute but frequently by more than Civil Wars did execute most barbarous and bloudy Fights among themselves being divided into many restless Factions each striving to be uppermost until they were all ruined This our Apostle plainly expresseth v. 2. Ye fight and war and again ye kill and desire to have i. e. to get dominion and unlawful possessions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word is and it seems to refer to a Generation of men that called themselves Zealots who under a pretence of Justice and Religion made it lawful to kill and destroy all that opposed their ingrossing the Power Wealth and Trade of the Nation for that was the Religion of those men And thus began those unnatural Wars the People were perswaded by these Zealots that their Religion Laws and Liberties were invaded by their King that Prince of Peace the anointed and Holy One of God Against whom the great Council and some chief Priests stirred up the People and conspired to put him to death And having all the Factions at their beck against him as their common Enemy that would let in the Romans upon them and having by many intolerable affronts and indignities driven him from his Royal City and hunted him from place to place they corrupted a Judas to betray him for a sum of money and by Subornation of false Witnesses and a Pagan Judge and mockery of Justice they murthered him as it were at the Gates of his great City Jerusalem whose thirst of bloud he had a little before endeavoured to quench by a floud of tears O Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets c. This our Apostle observes ch 5. 6. Ye have condemned and killed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Just One Parallel to Acts 3.14 Ye denied the Holy One and the Just and desired a Murtherer to be granted unto you And now that the Royal sence was digged down what could be expected but a deluge of Bloud even the days of Vengeance wherein all things that were written were to be fulfilled Luke 21.22 And Judgment was to begin first at the house of God Accordingly we find Acts 6.9 that Some of the Synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians c. accused St. Stephen the Proto-Martyr For they being not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake and by his sharp but just reproofs ch 7. 5. being cut to the heart v. 54. the People Elders and Scribes caught him and brought him to the Council and set up false witnesses which said that he had spoke blasphemous words against Moses and against God and would change their customs ch 6. 11. And him they prosecuted with a rage that reached up to Heaven for they gnashed on him with their teeth and cried with a loud voice for his bloud and stopped their ears to all sober counsels and ran upon him with one accord and stoned him calling upon God and praying for his enemies Lord lay not this sin to their charge Acts 7.60 Then Herod their usurping king vexed the whole church imprisoned St. Peter and slew James the Brother of our Lord with the sword And those men of whom the world was not worthy were counted worthy to die and die they did like worthy men for they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods and had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings bonds and imprisonment and being tempted to deny the faith chose rather to be sawn asunder and slain with the sword What havock was made of the Flock of Christ by these grievous Wolves after that the chief Shepherds were smitten is too large to be repeated Onely as Geographers are wont to describe great Countries and Cities Battels and Devastations in a little Map I shall present you with a prospect of those Wars as it was delineated by our Saviours own hand whereof it was impossible but every tittle should be true Mark 13.9 He says They should deliver one another to the council and beat them in their synagogues That brother should betray brother to death and the father the son and children should rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death that a mans foes should be those of his own house and whoever did kill his disciples should think that he did God good service That there should follow those wars great afflictions pestilences famines such as had not been from the beginning of the world That they should fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all Nations and Jerusalem should be trodden down of the Gentiles Luke 21.23 for their enemies should cast a trench
Roman were against Christ It would fill a Volume to discover the Intrigues of these two Factions how mutually they assist each other with Arms and Arguments against their common Enemy They are conscious that they are too weak singly to encounter the established Government and therefore will not suffer either to be utterly suppressed nor will the Jealousie of either Party suffer the other to be uppermost lest they should carry away the whole Prey So that we are kept as good Grain between two Mill-stones of an equal size till we are ground to dust and then they will grinde the faces of each other Now I take those and onely those who do agree with the Jesuits in preaching and propagating seditious and traiterous Principles and Practices such as The lawfulness of Resistance and taking up Arms in defence of Religion against the Supreme Magistrate That the Original of the Magistrates power is in the people who may call them to an account and depose or murther them as they see cause That would erect another Supremacy in the Pope Parliament or Presbytery that secretly conspire the death of their Prince or raise Open Wars to effect the same those who have murthered one King already and use the same methods to destroy another that oppose defame and condemn men of Peaceable Loyal and Christian Principles and Canonize Traytors and Regicides as Saints and Martyrs and in a word all such as will not declare that it is unlawful to take up Arms against the King on any pretence whatsoever or that they will not endeavour any alteration of the established Government they whose Sermons are Satyrs against their Governours whose Preaching is of Cursing and Lies and their Practice to raise Wars and Fightings among us for such false Prophets as our Saviour bids us to beware of If these men do indeed abhor the name and doom of false Prophets let them do what they can and ought to do to clear themselves let them expunge out of their Books such traiterous Principles and anathematize them in their Conventicles let them follow that worthy Example of the University of Oxford and that of the Converts Acts 19.19 bring those conjuring Books together that can raise up Legions of Evil Spirits and without counting the value of them though it be 50000 pieces of silver publickly burn them And they will make as comfortable a Bonfire as ever the Nation saw except that of New-Market But if they will still go on as those false Prophets Jer. 23.14 to strengthen the hands of evil doers that none doth return from their wickedness if they will publickly despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities and one Party condemn Prince and People as Hereticks and Schismaticks fit to be destroyed by the Sword or to pass through a Fiery Purgatory and the other accuse us as Popish and Antichristian though they know not whether God or Magog the Christianissimus or Antichristianissimus be the Antichrist but whoever he be they are more ready to be reconciled to him than to the Religion and Government established they shall never be able to wipe off the guilt or escape the doom of false Prophets as long as they teach such Damnable Doctrines for so the Scripture hath determined it They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Rom. 13.2 And yet as if the Genius of the Nation inclined them to Wars and Fightings how do we like children in every City and Market-town flock after these Drums and Trumpets that sound an Alarm to Wars and instead of the Gospel of peace propagate an Evangelium Armatum the Law of the Sword that maintain unlawful meetings for the mustering of their Forces and make their Exercises like those of the Artilleries to discipline the People for War and can as by a word of command lead them from their Folds into the Field and arm them with Zeal enough to murther their Brethren their Bishop their Prince and in a little time one another It is not certainly the Gospel of peace which these men preach that would transform Lions into Lambs but their Harangues transform Lambs into Lions and Tygers that would teach men to beat their Swords into Plowshares this teacheth them to beat up their Plowshares and silver Bodkins and Thimbles into Swords and Pistols And between the Faux's of this Age who with their dark Lanthorns and lighted Fire-brands are ready to give fire to their subterranean Mines and are sorry for nothing but their disappointment and those Blunderbusses who being full charged to the very mouths with Powder and Bullet and have Zeal enough though their hearts be as hard as Flint or Steel to give fire in the face of Majesty it self we are still between the Jaws of those roaring Lions that go about seeking how they may devour us And had not the Almighty hand of God restrained these Sons of Violence and kept them back with more than Bit and Bridle they would have long since fallen on us and rent us in pieces But blessed be God even the God of our Salvation our Deliverer and Defender who hath hewn the Snares of those ungodly men in pieces and though they have often assaulted us from our youth up ye he hath not delivered us over as a prey unto their teeth And may we never provoke him by our murmurings and discontent our hypocrisie and profaneness our divisions and lusting after evil things to repent him of all the loving kindness and wonders of mercy which he hath wrought for us which if they lead us not to repentance and amendment of life will render us more fit for destruction and then in vain may we hope for another miracle to deliver us from those fiery furnaces which these lurking firebrands have prepared for us and by their indignation since our miraculous deliverance from the Lions den and their as wonderful disappointments are heated seven times hotter than ever for their wickedness still burneth like fire and is like that worst sort of fire which goeth not out though never so many waters of clemency and favours be poured on it they have the effect of Oyl and Fuel to increase rather than to extinguish the flame For they have provided that their malice may survive themselves and be immortal they have inclosed their Seminaries for Briers and Thorns and Brambles out of which a fire may come in time to burn up all the Cedars in Lebanon and they have fitted their Nurseries for another generation of Vipers who suck in their poysonous principles and are armed with invincible prejudices against that Christian Religion and Loyalty which is established among us like some plodding Spaniards at their game at Chess who having not time or success sufficient to blow off their Bishops and give check to their Kings leave the game to be played out by their Successors For from the poisonous principles that fall from their lips as from the Serpents teeth in the Poet there spring up a numerous brood of armed men who
are as deaf to sober counsels and arguments for peace and unity as the very Adders and as ready as so many Swine to turn on them and rent them who cast those Pearls before them It is said that few men dye without a Feaver and as certain it is that there was not one of those who were Executed for the late horrid Conspiracy whom the prejudices which fermented their spirits from their Childhood did not swell and make sower and animate them to those desperate designs which brought them to those untimely ends Thus that degenerate Gentleman Mr. SIDNEY had no other Apology for himself than that he had been managed from his youth in that OLD CAUSE which was begun in Treason and carryed on with confused noise and garments rolled in blood And another as unfortunate as himself had those principles of the lawfulness of Resistance in case of Religion infused to him by false Teachers from his youth which were the venemous ingredients to his death The Author of the Life of Julian had it seems confirmed him in the belief of what Dr Manton had long before instructed him in who on this very Text raiseth the Question Whether Religion may be defended by Arms to which among other things he answereth That sometime the outward exercise of Religion and Worship may be established and secured by Laws and among other priviledges and rights the liberty of pure worship may be one which being invaded by violence may be defended by Arms The Estates of a Kingdom may maintain their Religion against the tyranny and malice of the Prince And on these prejudices dyed the whole Colledge of the late Conspirators whose blood may be required at their hands that corrupted their hearts with such blood-guilty principles For from hence come wars and fightings among us 2. Next to the lusts of Pride and vain-glory St. James doth arraign those of envy and malice as the cause of wars for he tells us That the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy v. 5. and where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil thing Jam. 3.16 And if there be bitter zeal or envyings and strife among us that it proceeds from the devil who was a murtherer from the beginning and is restless till he draw others under the same condemnation with himself for the envious man is felo de se he seeds on his own blood and bowels and leaves no bowels of pity for any that he thinks in a better condition than himself 't is this that is the rottenness of the bones Prov. 14.30 This slayeth those silly ones that entertain it Job 5.2 and none is able to stand before it Prov. 27.4 And next to Envy followeth Murder Rom. 1.29 Gal. 5.21 The first Murder in the world was committed through Envy against a Brother Wherefore did Cain slay Abel but through envy his own works being evil and his Brothers righteous Acts 7.9 the Patriarchs moved with envy sold Joseph to Egypt As soon as they understood he was to be preferred above them they could not speak peaceably to him Gen. 37.4 because his Father loved him more than them and v. 20. they conspire against him Come let us slay him and cast him into a pit It was for Envy that the chief Priests and people of the Jews delivered our Saviour Matth. 27.18 and pursued him with outcries Crucifie him Crucifie him and let his blood be upon us and our Children by which impiety they shewed themselves to be the children of them that had slain the Prophets and filled up the measure of their iniquities and drew down on themselves and the whole Nation all those Judgments of which I have told you when God visited on them all the righteous blood that had been shed from the blood of Abel to the blood of Christ himself which brought them to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 utter desolation which Josephus their Country-man calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Judgment worthy of God The shedding of blood though of his own and Gods enemies so displeased the Lord that he would not permit David to build him a Temple that work was reserved for a peaceable Solomon and if any mans hands be defiled with blood though he make never so many prayers he will not hear till he have cleansed his heart and washed his hands in innocency and not till then may he have access to Gods Altar The blood-guiltiness of a few draweth down the wrath of God on a whole Nation There was a Famine on Israel three years together in the time of David and when he inquired the cause of it it was revealed to be for Saul and for his bloudy house that slew the Gibeonites 2 Sam. 21.1 And if the bloud of the Gibeonites was avenged not onely sevenfold on the house of Saul by hanging up seven of his Sons but upon all Israel by three years famine we may justly impute the consuming Pestilence and Fires that have been among us to the shedding of much more innocent bloud And we may justly fear that the inquisition for that bloud is not yet ended for bloud defileth the land and it cannot be cleansed but by the bloud of them that shed it unless it be prevented by a deep and timely repentance and the avenging it on our selves by a hearty sorrow by a serious mortification of those lusts that provoked us thereunto and a thorow reformation and amendment of our sinful ways and doings except we cry mightily to God for pardon and the bloud of Christ which speaketh better things than that of Abel be joyned with our Cries and Tears Without shedding of more bloud there will be no remission for the cry of innocent bloud is not to be silenced by any earthly thing but will enter into the ears of the Lord of Sabboth with an Vsque quo Domine How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth Revel 6.10 And when we see Rebellion to be like the sin of witchcraft which seldom or never admits repentance when not one of the old Regicides or new Conspirators though they confessed the fact for which they died professed any Regret or Repentance for it which yet in the Case of Christ Judas and Pontius Pilate did and every common Murtherer is wont to do when there are still so many among us that approve of those horrid Impieties of their Forefathers and onely want Opportunities to act over the same Tragedies again when men are ready to cast Fire-brands Arrows and Death and think it a Sport when God infatuates a People and delivers them up to such strong delusions and fascinations that not all the Oracles of God nor all the Examples of Divine Vengeance and Humane Justice can awaken them and reduce them to a sounder mind neither if one should arise from the dead will they repent And whether it be that God hath given up such Offenders to a reprobate mind
or with Cain they apprehend their sins greater than can be forgiven or that God delivered them up to the furies of their guilty Consciences and hath sentenced them to those Chains of impenitence and darkness to the judgment of the last day it is to me the most certain and sad Omen that God hath yet fuller vials of wrath to be poured out on such men at least if not on the whole Nation against whom his hand is not yet withdrawn but his arm is stretched out still We have a day of Humiliation appointed for the barbarous Parricide of our Royal Martyr and we have had a day of Thanksgiving for the miraculous Deliverance of our present Soveraign which you have this day religiously commemorated But while some mourn and make the first a day of Lamentation for the Anointed of the Lord who was taken in the pits of deceitful and bloud-thirsty men others applaud that execrable Fact and nourish their hearts as in a day of slaughter or such a Sacrifice wherewith God was well pleased And when the second is a day of Joy and Gladness to see Jerusalem in Peace and Prosperity and the King and his Crown flourish others mourn that their Babel is fallen if while some bless God that hath preserved the King and his People others curse the King and People whom God hath preserved and while these are perswading to peace they make them ready for War what can a People so divided expect but to be destroyed Another cause of War is the Amor habendi the immoderate desire of having things that are superfluous and unlawful whether power pleasures or possessions For when men can set no bounds to their Lusts they consider not whether the end be necessary or the means lawful but they must have the Rem quocunque modo rem And so S. Paul 1 Tim. 6.9 They that will be rich fall into a snare and temptations and many foolish and hurtful lusts that drown men in perdition and they that are greedy of gain will not stick to take away the life of the owners thereof This our Apostle observes when he joyns the desire of having with killing And our Saviour makes this the reason of the Jews killing the heir that the inheritance might be theirs Thus Solomon brings in ungodly men conspiring together Prov. 1.13 We shall find all precious substance we shall fill our houses with spoil and then Come let us lay wait for bloud let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause This Lust warreth first in our own members Prov. 15.27 He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house disquieteth himself and his desire of having is not quenched but with the bloud of those from whom he takes Thus Ahab was sick at the heart for Naboth's Vineyard and nothing could cure him but Jezabel's Receipt of killing and taking possession Yet this was to be gilded over with a shew of Religion a solemn Fast must be proclaimed and Naboth accused of blaspheming God and the King That our Wars and Fightings were begun for the satisfaction of such covetous Lusts the same method of killing and taking possession plainly demonstrate The Royal Martyr shortly after his Coronation in Scotland makes a Revocation of such Lands as were taken from the Crown in his Fathers Minority Also some Noblemen and others called Lords of the Erection or Impropriators who had ingrossed almost all the Tythes of the Nation allowing the Ministers an inconsiderable Pittance or Stipend and these Lay-patrons so oppressed the Country that no man durst to take home his nine parts until the Impropriators had set out their tenth by means whereof the generality had their dependance on these Lords against whom the King received frequent Petitions from the Gentry and their Farmers as also the Ministers complaining of this Oppression Whereupon his Majesty grants a Commission of Surrendry of Superiority and Tythes in which some of the interessed Lords were made Commissioners and so fairly and equally was it executed that the Lords received a competent satisfaction and the Ministers Gentry and Commons being freed from that Vassalage thankfully acknowledged the benefit But the Lords perceiving they should lose the dependance of the People suggested that this was done in favour of Episcopacy and to the prejudice of Religion and taking advantage of some other Accidents they begin to associate and enter into a Covenant for defence of their Religion and hence came those Wars and Fightings For the success of the Scots against their Bishops stirred up the like lusts in some Members of our Nation who under the like pretence of Religion and clamours of Popery and Idolatry armed themselves to commit Sacriledge and as soon as they had power to kill and take possession and with such ample Dividends of Church and Crown-lands did those Reformers gratifie the lusts that warred in their several members that they proved a Snare not to themselves onely but to their Posterity who applaud their Fathers doings and though they proved sowre Grapes unto them yet their childrens teeth and appetites are set on edge to devour things that are holy And so just do they still think their Title to those Lands that they think it lawful to vindicate it by a second Rebellion And hence come wars and fightings c. The last cause of War which I shall mention is the want of a due consideration of the Mischief and evil Consequences of War that Pandora's Box whence all manner of Plagues do issue pestilential Fevers bloudy Fluxes Famines Conflagrations of Towns and Cities demolishing of Castles and Temples devastation of whole Countries and introducing of Atheism and Barbarity of all which this Nation hath had sad experience which made the Orator to say Quem discordiae quem Caedes Civium quem bellum civile delectat eum ex finibus humanae naturae exterminandum puto Phil. 13. They who delight to live in a state of War are not fit to live in any state of Mankind Some among us have heard to what great honour the Dregs of the Nation have been advanced how Coblers have been translated to Colonels and Clowns to Counsellors of State how Bankrupts have become Bankers and Apprentices Preachers and the Saint-like Souldiers have had the honour to bind Kings in Chains and Nobles in Fetters of iron and hence it is that such as are in debt and distress such as dissent from the established Worship and like Corah and his Confederates think themselves more fit than Moses and Aaron aspire to the Magistracy and Ministry by Rebellion and Bloudshed But these silly men consider not who it is that by the Chains of these Lusts is leading them Captive to Death and Damnation they think not what Dogs-heads they may prove as Hazael did who had as good a conceit of himself as they to slay their brethren with the sword and set on fire the strong holds of Israel to dash their children and rip up the women with child 2 Kings 8.13 Nor