their Power shame their Confidence lessen their Numbers and frustrate their Hopes When God was displeased with Israel for the accursed Thing in the time of Joshua three thousand Israelites shall flee and be smitten before the Men of Ai though but thirty six in number But if God be our Friend though ten thousand of the People set themselves against us we need not fear He is a sufficient Defence we need not fear all the Nations of the Earth if we are at Peace with God and at Peace among our selves which would follow upon it He is the Shield of our Help and can be a Wall of Fire round about us Tho the Enemy come in like a Floud he can lift up a Standard against him and when he comes one way make him fly ten He can show Strength with his Arm and scatter the Proud in the Imagination of their Hearts and turn their Devices backward What deep Designs does he defeat What mighty Projects does he disappoint by taking away Wisdom from the Wise and Courage from the Valiant cutting off the Spirits of Princes by a surprizing Stroke altering their Minds and Purposes or ending their Lives c. Peace and War are in his Hand All the Hosts of Heaven are at his Command and Service to fight his Battels and accomplish his Designs The Stars in their Courses shall fight and the Elements of Heaven shall be muster'd in his Quarrel From the Air he can pour down Hail-stones as on the Ammonites or send an Angel to discomfit a mighty Army as he did Senacherib's or by Fire consume an Enemy's Troops as those which came against Elijah The Water shall bury the Egyptians and rather than fail the Dust of the Earth shall start up into Armies of Flies and Lice and Frogs against Pharoah And he is the God of Peace as well as the Lord of Hosts As 't was of the Lord that the Canaanites did not make Peace with Israel and that Zedekiah rebelled and that Ahab went to War at Ramoth Gilead c. So 't is he that makes Peace I make Peace I create Evil Isa 45.7 I the Lord do all these things He is said to make the Instruments of War to create the Smith that formeth them and to create the Waster to destroy Isa 54.16 Therefore he can stop them hinder them destroy them when he pleaseth To all the Ends of the Earth he is said to make Wars to cease that is Psal 46.8 in all Places in all Countries in all Societies in Families in Churches in Cities in Nations in particular Souls Every where it is his Work to make Peace and every kind of Peace is from the God of Peace 3. If God be angry and bring desolating War on a People Human Help is all in vain and his Anger will make all the Calamities of War to be double If Israel become the People of God's Wrath he lets loose the Rage of Man and then every base proud idolatrous Assyrian shall tread them down as Mire in the Streets Even Sampson shall fall by the uncircumcised Philistines when God departs whereas before he was wont to slaughter them by Heaps If God be angry and send this Judgment of Sword or Famine against a People who can describe the Dread and Horror of such a Calamity Every Battel of the Warrior saith the Prophet is with confused Noise and Garments roll'd in Blood Isa 9.5 but this shall be with Burning and with Fewel of Fire The Wrath of God shall put an unusual Terror on the very Countenances of an Enemy and give an unusual Edg to their Sword The Anger of God will sharpen the Sting and Terror of natural Death it will invenom the Teeth of Famine and make all the Calamities of War unsufferably more grievous than can be exprest There is nothing so base but the greatest Spirits shall stoop to nothing so unnatural but the tenderest of you all may be brought to comply with You think you should part with your own Lives a thousand times over rather than eat the Flesh of your Children I doubt not but the delicate Women in Jerusalem thought so too and yet in Famine they boiled their Children and were glad to eat them Pity shall perish from Parents Courage from the Men of Might Wisdom from the Antients Flight from the Swift and the Strong not be able to find their Hands For it is the Day of the Lord's Wrath and who can abide it You may seek for Death at such a time and not find it and within an Hour Death may offer it self and then you will flee from it and within a few Moments repent and wish you had died Such will be the Distress and Anguish of your Souls between vain Hope and tormenting Fear that your very Lives will be a burden Think what the case would be where the Sword without and Torror within shall destroy young and old the Suckling and the Man with gray Hairs When there is no Peace to him that goes out or to him that comes in but great Vexation on all the Inhabitants Nation destroyed of Nation and City of City for God did vex them with all Adversity Think of these things and repent of Sin for that is the Cause of it 4. We do not know what we may further experience and feel of the terrible Effects and Miseries of War The most are confident that all will quickly be well and the present Cloud vanish There will speedily be an honourable Peace the French are impoverish'd and almost starved Their Numbers are lessen'd and ours encreas'd against this Campagne They must e're long make Peace or we shall force them to it Or if they should not many flatter themselves they have this or the other Project to provide for themselves they doubt not for their parts but to escape well let things be as they will But may not all such Confidence prove a Refuge of Lies Consider what God saith by the Prophet Jer. 37.9 10. Thus saith the Lord to the King of Judah Deceive not your selves saying The Chaldeans shall depart tho you had smitten the whole Army of the Chaldeans that fight against you and there remain'd but wounded Men among them yet should they rise up every Man from his Tent and burn this City with Fire What is there for publick Safety or private Defence that can be Proof against the Anger of God For certain it is not the great Numbers or Riches of a People no advantageous Situation or Strength of Places nor the best prepared Armies and Navies or any Confederacies abroad or Fortifications at home can secure us The best the greatest the most hopeful of all such things have been frequently baffled and sham'd and confounded by the Divine Anger Riches be sure profit not in the day of Evil they rather expose to Envy and Danger than secure against it They who have most to lose are likely to suffer most and commonly are least able to bear
durst be so bold to think of Death and the final Judgment of God and of passing into an everlasting State which ordinarily they think of as seldom as they can At such a time their Peace is disturbed and they ready to sink under the Fears of an After-reckoning This is ordinarily true except of those who are stupified and hardened so as to be past feeling which is not the Case of all nor is it presently the Case of any But great Peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them This cannot be said of others whose brutish Sensualities and flashy Joys which they call Pleasure are tinctur'd with Uneasiness and end in Sorrow They have Care and Fear and Trouble and Weariness and Regret and do those things daily which must make them unsatisfied with themselves when they come to review them But the good Man hath the promise of having his Desires granted and fulfilled and while he walks uprightly may expect things will proceed fairly orderly sweetly and with Delight he hath the ground however of inward Satisfaction 2. The most of such who live under the Ministry of the Gospel and yet continue in Sin do act against their own Light and the Dictates of Conscience they live in a Contradiction to what they know they ought to be and do and therefore can have no inward Peace Conscience tells thee that this thy Course is not pleasing to God that this is not according to Scripture-Rule that thou must leave thy vain Company and redeem thy Time and live no longer in the neglect of Prayer that thou must repent of Sin and endeavour to make thy Peace with God and prepare for another World and be in a readiness for a sudden Death Thy Conscience tells thee thou must do so and therefore while you live in a neglect of this and in a contrary Course you are self-condemned And how many such are there who from Morning to Night are under the Convictions and Condemnations of an accusing Conscience but yet are held in the Chains of some Sin so that their Lusts prevail against their Convictions You know you ought to worship God in private and publick that you ought to acknowledg him in all your Ways and make it your Business to please and glorify him tho you do it not You know you ought to avoid evil Company tho you continue to frequent it You know that Drunkenness is a Sin and Uncleanness a Sin and Oppression Covetousness Injustice Theft Over-reaching Treachery Perjury c. are Sins You know for such Sins the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven You know your Guilt you know you have not repented you know you are not fit to die you know you ought to turn to God and seek his Favour lest you be surprized by a sudden Death but your Lusts are too strong for your Light I wonder not that such Persons cannot bear Retirement that they do not love to be Alone for serious Consideration nay that they are afraid of waking in the Night and for that very Reason some of them have confessed they usually drink more freely in the Evening than otherwise they would do that they may sleep soundly to prevent the Uneasiness of their own Thoughts in case they should not sleep As some Malefactors will make themselves drunk when they are to be executed that Death may not be terrible which is a Medicine against Repentance not against Hell By some such Methods Men may in part keep off the feeling of their Misery till the hope of Cure and Relief be past But what a sort of Peace is this For if they awake in the Night their Conscience is awake And the Light of Conscience doth not only shine but burn and scorch them even at Midnight Some of those who pretend to be above such Fears notwithstanding all their Hectoring and Damning and Blasphemy and Railing are followed with bitter Reflections of Conscience and are often filled with Horror and Astonishment from the Gripes and Terrors of a guilty Mind as divers have afterward acknowledged tho Inconsideration sensual Pleasures and the hope of Death being at a good distance kept them from such constant Fears in Health 3. The Rage of some impetuous Lusts and the Violence of sinful Passions is manifestly inconsistent with inward Peace 'T is from Lust and Luxury from Pride and Envy from Malice and Spite from Ambition and Covetousness and such Dispositions which the Grace of the Gospel is design'd to cure and Christianity condemns that Men cannot enjoy inward Peace and Tranquillity While their Passions run violently and wildly towards the basest or meanest Objects they must needs be punish'd with inward Uneasiness Remorse and Dissatisfaction They travel with Iniquity and conceive Mischief they are in as great Pain almost as a Woman in Travail and all to bring forth a Lie Psal 7.14 One burns with impatient Lust which is its own Torment another eats out his Heart with Envy or Malice another is even choak'd to Death with Thirst after Money and is sick and in pain because he cannot reach the Estate he covets Tho the more he gets the more he thinks is yet necessary e're he can be happy and at rest his Fever is still growing Not to mention the Extravagancies of Lusts and Passions there is nothing almost so ridiculous and absurd brutish and abominable but the Violence of sinful Passions hath brought Men to The outward Disorder and Folly of their Actions show the inward Disturbance and Discomposure of their Minds To this purpose saith the Prophet that the Wicked are like the troubled Sea that cannot rest that is always casting out Mire and Dirt. They are hurried and torn and set upon the Rack by the Violence of various Lusts Their eager Desires of gratifying some and the Fears of Disappointment in others and the Dread of Discovery at other times and the continual Fears of Punishment afterwards in most cases must needs destroy the inward Peace of such Mens Minds But he that walks according to the Rule of the Gospel needs not be at all this Pains to prevent Disappointment or Shame to guard himself and suspect every body to curb his Tongue and watch his Memory and manage his very Looks and Gestures to obviate other Mens Jealousies or contrary Designs and to prevent the Discovery of his own Intentions or secret Actions And I might add that the Contrariety and Inconsistency of some Lust doth also hinder inward Peace as while Covetousness makes a Man toil and labour to scrape together and hoard up his Pride and Vain-glory prompts him to spend and scatter that he may not be out-done by his Neighbours 4. In Adversity and Affliction in bodily Sickness or the prospect of Death we then find what an Enemy Sin is to inward Peace Then Conscience begins to awake in most Men then when they think of passing from one World to another they are restless and uneasy and afraid of every thing and of
pleased than I should be with your eating and drinking You might as well have let it alone and bestowed your time otherwise Your very Confession of Sins will witness against you if you do not forsake them To what purpose is your Mourning and Lamentation and hanging down the Head for part of a day Is it unto me saith the Lord. It is not at all unto me except you repent and turn from your evil Ways Your Sighs and sad Looks your Confessions and Deprecations all your Complaints and all your Expressions of Sorrow Mourning and Humiliation without this avail nothing unless your Souls be humbled and broken unless you abhor your Sins and loath them and resolve against them and henceforward be watchful and diligent in earnest to overcome and mortify your Lusts and turn to God and live to him O that some may be able to say that from this Fast-day I began to turn to the Lord with all my Heart and put away the Evil of my doings from before his Eyes Believe it therefore and consider it that unless you put away the Evil of your Doings the Evil that is in your Tabernacles in your Houses in your Trades in your Families c. you cannot expect Peace We may go on lamenting one Calamity after another bewailing this and the other Grievance and be never the better while we neglect the Cause while those Lusts and Vices are still reigning spreading and increasing which provoke God to plague and punish an unreformed People If we would be rid of Judgments or prevent them we must begin where the Judgment begins Our Lord knew this when he saith to the Paralytick who came for Cure of his Disease Thy Sins are forgiven thee Let me urge and inforce this 1. By calling you to consider the Miseries of War and the Blessings of Peace Most of us know little what it is to live in a Country that for many Years is the Seat of War to have a Bloody Enemy at your Gates or rude Souldiers domineering in your Houses or to have them pillaged every Week or laid in Ashes at once to have your Children wallowing in Blood before your Eyes Virgins perishing under the Lusts of profligate Villains Widows mourning for the dead and hardly daring to show they mourn To have no Children left to the Father or Husband to the Wife or Money to the Rich or Clothing to the Delicate and they that were brought up in Scarlet to imbrace Dunghils weltering in their own Tears or Blood You would hardly have Patience to hear the recital of what others have suffered Look abroad and consider the Countries round about us behold and see what sad Characters of Misery and Ruin are engraven or rather plowed on the Persons Houses Fields Vineyards Cities Churches c. of our Neighbours Yesterday or a day or two ago saith one I and my Family were in Peace and Safety and had Food and Rayment Liberty and Plenty I have now no House to harbour me no Food to nourish me or Money to buy it and hardly Clothes left to cover my Shame and Nakedness A few days ago I slept quietly in my own House and Bed but now I have no Place or Pillow but Jacob's Pillow of Stone whereon to lay my Head My Father is kill'd or taken Prisoner saith another my dear and tender Father who nourish'd and sustain'd me and now he is not or is a miserable Captive and hath hardly Bread to sustain himself Or Parents bewail the loss of a beloved Son My Son that was the Staff of my Age the Joy of my Heart and Stay of my Family the Comfort of my Life he is imprisoned by a cruel Oppressor or he is mortally wounded or he is dead The Widow bemoans the loss of a tender Husband made nearer by God than Father or Mother snatcht away by an untimely Death whom she shall see no more So the Brother the Kinsman the Neighbour the Friend each lamenting the Desolation the Sword hath made Let us mix Thankfulness to God for our selves with our Pity and Compassion and Mourning for the Calamities of others who have hitherto suffered more than we We do not hear the Voice of the Spoiler in our Borders We hear not the murdering Pieces about our Ears We see not our Houses and Churches and Places of publick Worship flaming over our Heads We do not behold our pleasant and beautiful Dwellings in Ashes where we traded feasted and slept in Peace nor are turn'd out to the Streets or Fields for Shelter not knowing where to look for Security for our selves or nearest Relations seeing some of them slain before our Eyes or not knowing where they are whether alive or dead hearing the confused Out-cries and Skrieks of our distressed Neighbours mingled with the Noise of French or Irish Souldiers killing or encouraging to kill You have not seen tender Babes snatcht from the Breasts of their Mothers bleeding on the Stones or sprawling and strugling for Life on the Souldiers Pikes and the distressed Mother ravish'd it may be e're she have leave to die You have not seen the ghastly Visage of Death deform'd with Wounds and Men and Horses wallowing in their mangled Blood and the amazed helpless People running to and fro to escape but know not how or whither Others have seen and known such tragical Effects of War let us mourn for them and let us be thankful that as yet we do not Let us improve the Day of our Visitation our Civil and Religious Liberty lest the things of our Peace should be hid from our Eyes 2. Consider that it is God alone that can give Peace Our Business is with God in order to an happy Issue of this War It is he must prevent or conclude and shorten the Miseries of War He that is the Lord of Hosts who makes Wars to cease to the Ends of the Earth He must make our Officers Peace He that works all our Works for us must ordain Peace for us Isa 26.12 that Violence shall no more be heard It is He that strengthens the Bars of our Gates and makes Peace in our Borders Psal 147.14 c. and feeds us with the finest of the Wheat It is He who keeps our City and guards our Island and can prosper our Fleet and Armies He turns Swords into Plow-shares and Spears into Pruning-hooks and sheaths the Sword when it hath done his Work It is by the Restraint of his Providence that the Inhabitants of the Earth learn War no more He sits upon the Floods and stills the Waves and sets Bounds to the Raging of the Sea to the Lusts of Princes and to the Tumults of the People He can take the Obstacles of Peace out of the way when we expect it not He hurles Princes from their Thrones and sets up others in their room He breaks their Scepters in pieces as easily as you can a Venice-Glass He over-rules their Designs he can change their Counsels break their Measures blast