aware bring the whole fabrick about their eares to the certain ruine of themselves and others Lastly as Jerusalem was built and compacted together a City at Unity within it self as we finde at the third verse Psal 122 3 Even so all the true Members of the Church do and will endeavour to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Ephes 4 3 as being all washed from their sins in the same Laver of Regeneration all tyed together by the Sinews and Ligaments of the same Christian Profession all fed and nourish'd by the sincere milk of the same Word all feasted at the Table of the same Lord all assumed by the Spirit of Adoption Ephes 4 6. to be Heires of the same Kingdom In a word Since there is but one God and Father of all Gal. 4.26 and but one Church the Mother of all and all are but the Members of one Mysticall Body Rom. 12.4 Gal. 5 12. and there is but one Spirit whereby this one Body is animated and informed and the fruits of this one Spirit are love joy peace c. Oh do but lay it to heart what a foul stain and shame it must needs prove to the Protestant Profession if we should not be like Jerusalem a City at Unity within our selves And thus it appears that Jerusalem here is a Type of the Church for whose peace and prosperity we are all exhorted to pray Now upon what tearms the Peace of Christs Church stands at this day I am not able to declare yet what man of sound judgement and integrity doth not see and grieve to see it so shaken and shatter'd as it is St. Basil in his last Chapter de spiritu sancto taking into serious consideration the state of the Church in his time cries out Cui comparabibus c. To what shall we liken the present state of the Church And he answers Praelio navali quod ex veteri odio conflatum adeo processit ut ira sit immedicabilis utraque pars ruinam meditetur It 's like saith he to a Sea-fight which being caus'd by an old grudge is gone so far that their wrath cannot be appeas'd and either side meditates nothing but ruine Pone simul saith the same Father quod densa caligo turbo vehemens procella immensa hostium amicorum nullam discrimen symbola ignota quam seditionem invidia ambitio fecerunt Adde saith he that there is withall a grosse mist a vehement whirl-winde an huge storm no discerning between friends and foes the Colours cannot be distinguished which sedition was raised by envy and ambition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fundamentum doctrinae munimentum disciplinae convulsum est All the bounds of our fore-fathers are transgressed The foundation of Doctrine and fortification of Discipline is plucked up Per excessum aâ—t defectum as he goes on rectum pietatis dogma transiliunt alii ad JudaismuÌ„ alii ad Paganismum Nec divina Scriptura nec Apostolica traditio litem dirimit Unus amicitiae modus ad gratiaÌ„ loqui inimicitiae sufficiens causa opinionibus dissentire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hinc rerum novatoribus multa copia ad seditionem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that is By excesse or defect the right determination of Piety is skip'd over by some to Judaism by others to Paganism Neither the Scripture which is Divine nor Apostolicall Tradition can end the strife The onely means of friendship is to speak placentia and it is a sufficient cause of enmity to differ in opinions Every one is a Divine and hence Innovators have matter enough of sedition And they take upon them the over-sight of the Church who never had any other Imposition of hands but what they laid upon themselves c. This is the History which Saint Basil who lived within lesse then 400 yeers after the Incarnation of our Lord writes of the state of the Church in his time and whether it be not a Prophesie and that Prophesie fulfilled in our times I leave it in you to judge And if any man desire to see the Picture of the Church of God drawn to the life at this day let him conceive that he saw a silly poor maiden sitting alone in a Wildernesse and beleaguer'd on all sides with Bulls of Bashan devouring Wolves Herodian Foxes foaming Boars greedy Bears grinning Dogs fiery Serpents corroding Vipers stinging Scorpions I mean such men-beasts as Saint Paul fought with at Ephesus in the 15 Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 15 32. men in shape beasts in condition yea and worse then beasts saith S. Ambrose Nam omni bestia bestialior est homo rationem habens non secundum rationem vivens She is fiercely assaulted on the one side by unbelievers on the other side by mis-believers on the right hand by the contentious oppositions of Schismaticks on the left by the blasphemous propositions of Hereticks openly wrong'd by persecuting Tyrants and secretly wring'd by backbiting Hypocrites So many and many are the enemies of the Churches Peace But though they be never so many and mighty yet there be but two sorts at this day which do especially infect and infest her viz. The Schismatick and the Papist The one doth disrumpere charitatis vincula untying the Bond of Peace the other doth corrumpere fidei dogmata undoing the Unity of the Spirit The Schismatick is different even in things of their own nature indifferent and had rather lose the substance viz. Grace and Peace then yield never so little into Ceremony He is no friend to Charity The Papist is almost indifferent in things of their own nature different not caring what becomes of Truth to compasse his own ends He is no friend to Verity And Both of them spurn at the Peace of the Church as at a common foot-ball Judg. 15.4 being herein like Sampsons Foxes sever'd in their heads but tyed together by the tayls with firebrands between them No marvell then though without the Church the coÌ„mon enemy beards and braves the poor Christian despising our little number and yet in truth much lesse then we seem through so many in-bred Sects and Schisms when as even within the Pale of the Church and among those that professe Christianity we see on the one side our irreconciliable adversaries the Papists still plotting and practising the ruine of the Church Reformed among us And on the other side so many sons of Thunder whetting their tongues in Pulpits with cursed and bitter worâ—s preaching common invectives against the Lawfull Governours and Government both of Church and State and animating the giddy multitude to take up Arms as if the Protestant Faith could not be supported but by their Faction and the power of true Religion could stand with Rebellion So that if ever the Church had cause to pray for peace sure now is the time when the enemy springs out of her own sides and bowells But
visages of death deform'd with wounds the impotent wife hanging with tears running from blood-shed eyes about her arm'd husband ambitious to die with him with whom she may no longer live God be thanked we never saw the amaz'd runnings to and fro of such as would fain escape if they knew how and the furious pace of a bloody Victour the rifling of houses for spoil and every villain posting with his load and ready to cut each others throat for the booty they pluck't out of ours In a word it is palpable by our fool-hardy forwardnesse to and frowardnesse in embroiling our selves that we never yet knew how cruell an adversary and how burthensome an helper is in War Look round about you and see the Christian world in an uprore and in arms and a considerable part thereof even in the ashes whilst this our Britain like the Centre stood unmov'd and 't is hard to say whether other Nations hitherto have more envy'd or admir'd us For which our so long and lovely peace and plenty Oh what just cause we all have to be most thankfull to the God of peace and do we now re-pay him with repining For want of a forreign enemy to invade us must we needs ransack and ruine our selves Bellageri placuit nullos habitura tryumphos Oh le ts take heed that Gods mercie being too too much abus'd turn not at last to fury and that he deal not with us being so provok'd by us as he did with the stiff-necked and unthankfull Jews Psa 78.30 when that which went in at their mouths he fetch'd out at their nostrils Many Nations have forfeited as great blessings as those in which we now so much confide and glory by their insolencie and ingratitude And therefore say my beloved Brethren and countrymen if in such a time of siding you can speak without prejudice and partiality whether it be not now high time to fall close to prayer and practise for the better preserving and if it may be perpetuating the peace of our Jerusalem But some head-strong brain-sick Sectary will say perchance as Judas did in another case Ad quid perditio haec Mar. 14 3. Why is this waste What need we be such importunate suitors to God for peace seeing we already enjoy it I wish we did Yea grant we do yet since as the Jews did of their Manna when they cryed Arescit anima nostra we have surfeited of this heavenly food and begin to nauseate it I must tell you that without prayer to God we do but flatter and deceive our selves in presuming upon the security of our peace There can be nothing to which I am naturally more averse then to prophecie evil to this ancient and honorable City in which I was born and bred and have spent the greatest part of my life with so much comfort and respect from the better sort as a poor Minister is capable of and yet in the generall you shall give me leave to tell you that the most flourishing Cities and Countries have their Period as Zenophon truly observes in his Panegyricall Oration of Agesilaiis That there never was any State be it Monarchy Aristocracy Democracy or other kinde of Government but at one time or other it was overthrown and came to an end either through invasion from abroad or sedition and innovation at home And therefore however I will not take up Balaams parable touching the Kenites against this our Mother City Num. 24.21 strong is thy dwelling place and thou puttest thy neast in a rock neverthelesse the Kenite shall be wasted c. Yet as our Saviour himself riding in triumph into Jerusalem the people spreading their garments and crying Hosanna to the son of David Hosanna in the highest when he drew neer to Jerusalem and beheld that City forseeing the heavy judgement which hung over it he wept and said Luke 19. 36-41 If thou hadst known at least in that thy day the things which belong to thy peace but now are they hid from thine eyes c. So I beholding this Metropolis our Jerusalem with the eye of tender pity and compassion such as is due from a true son to his dear mother and premeditating with my self the wofull miseries which our present distraction and division may ere we be aware bring upon us I wish with all my soule that we did know in these yet Halcyon dayes of our peace the things which do tend to the preservation of the same But I fear I fear that either we do not clearly see and know them being in the just judgement of God now hid from our eyes or if we do both see and know them yet notwithstanding all the preparations we make to prevent them I feare least what we take as physick will prove our poyson And I can give no other reason of our present security confidence and contempt save that remarkable observation of Livie in the fift of his Decads where he asserts That Urgentibus rempublicam fatis salutares Dei hominum admonitiones spernuntur when the destruction of a Common-wealth is destin'd then the wholesome warnings both of God and Man are set at naught But Oh may that never be true of us which Demades once objected to the Athenians by way of reproach viz. That they would never vouchsafe to treat or hear of peace but in Mourning-gowns viz. after the loss e of their friends and fortunes in the Wars My firm hope is and my earnest prayer shall be that God in mercie would turn away this heavie judgement from us that so we may not by wofull experience of the more then many mischiefs of a Civil War be forc'd to acknowledge that we too too much slighted vilified and under-valued the inestimable benefit of peace but rather that in these Criticall dayes of our yet surviving peace we may all have the grace prudently to foresee and piously to pursue such lawfull courses and warrantable means as do make for the maintenance of the same And forasmuch as the principall pillars of our peace are the King and the Parliament therefore let us put up our prayers to God for both First I say let us pray for the long life and happy Reign of His Majestie for if the Jews in the first Chapter of Baruch were commanded by God Baruc. 1.11 to pray for Nabuchadonosor and Balthasar his son which kept them in slavery and captivity then great reason have we to pray for the peaceable and prosperous Reign of our gracious King CHARLS who keeps us from temporall and spirituall thraldom that his dayes on earth may be as the dayes of heaven And next le ts pray for the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament that the spirit of the Lord may rest upon them as it is in the 11 Chapter of Isaiah even the spirit of wisdom Isa 11.8 and understanding the spirit of counsell and might the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord Ex. 18.21
aequipollent to an universall Then generall it must be and that in regard both of persons times and places for all persons at all times and in all places must pray as they be here exhorted First I say this duty belongs to all persons for though all cannot fast or give alms or weep or watch or bear arms or fight c. yet all may pray Though thou be as poor as Lazarus as impotent as Mephibosheth Luk. 16 20 2 Sam. 4 4. Mar. 10 46 Luk. 1.20 as blinde as Bartimeus as dumb as Zachary yet thou may'st pray and thou must pray in charity for though thou must have Faith for thy self and hence thou say'st I beleeve in God yet must thou pray for others also and therefore when we pray our Lord teacheth us to say Our Father c. And whilest every one prayes for the whole the whole prayes for every one Secondly it is a duty seasonable at all times for whether it be a time of mirth or mourning health or sicknesse prosperity or affliction peace or warre earely or late or at noone-tide prayer never comes amisse so it be applyed to the opportunity as our Church prescribes in the Lyturgy where wee have set prayers for all occasions Thirdly this is a duty proper for all places and for this cause Saint Paul wills us every where to pray in the 2. Chapter of the first Epistle to Timothy 3 Tim. 2.8 Be a man at home or abroad in the City or Country in his family or in the Temple he may pray to good purpose For as the Prophet Daniel prayed three times a day privately in his house Dan. 6.10 so S. Peter Acts 3.1 and Saint John went up together into the Temple at the houre of prayer And though prayer be good in any place yet there is a more speciall blessing promised to the publike prayers of the Church Vis unita fortior When all meete together in the beauty of holinesse and where there is a generall consent the musicke must needs be sweet Many instruments make the fuller consort God can hardly deny the harmonious prayers of a devout multitude Then much to blame are such Sectaries as seldome or never come to the publike prayers appointed by the Church no not upon the Lords own day and that by the way shews that it is not the word but the man that they come to hear and therin these precisians practize that popish position pressed by Stapleton in the 10 of his Quodlibets Non quid loquitur sed quis à bono Catholico est atteÌ„denduÌ„ when though they will flock to such preachers as they like yet they flye the Common-prayers as a thing which they loath But I would to God that they would take notice that this their peevishnesse and recusancy is not only punishable by censures ecclesiasticall and civill but also that herein they both neglect the right sanctification of the Sabboth publike prayer being a principall duty of this day and a speciall meanes appointed by God for the sanctifying of the same And also forget what our Saviour saith in the 21. Chapter of Saint Matthew My house shall be called the house of prayer but ye have made it a denne of theeves Mat. 21.13 Which is thus farre true in all professed adversaries of publicke prayer that they doe what in them lies to steal this speciall part of Gods worship and service quite out of his house The second circumstance implied in the manner is that you must pray fervently and this is insinuated in this particle O! O pray c. This O is sometimes an interjection of sorrowing â— Saâ— 8.13 as wheu King David bewayling the untimely death of his sonne Absalom in the 18. Chapter of the 2. of Samuel cryed out O Absalom my sonne my sonne Absalom would to God I had died for thee O Absalom my sonne my sonne But here this O is an adverbe of wishing and exhorting and it is added and used the better to presse and perswade you to pray with zeale and ardency of affection Martin Luther calls prayer the gun-shot of the soule and why so but to shew that like a gunne it will not off without fire The prayer of a righteous man prevails much saith Saint James if it be fervent Mark the condition Iam. 5.16 if it be fervent for it prevailes not further then it pierceth and it pierces not at all without fire A bullet as you know flyes no further then it is driven by the strength of the powder nor will your prayers pierce the clouds unlesse they be sent up with a powder they must be fervent And fervent they will not be unlesse they flow from the sence of our spirituall wants and from a broken and bleeding heart There is no musick sounds so sweete in Gods eares as that which is made on broken instruments for a broken heart and a contrite spirit saith David in the 51 Psalme Thou O Lord wilt not despise Non musica cordula sed cor non vox sed votum Whosoever then doth pray with hope to be heard graciously he must see that he pray not more magis quam amore he must not pray faintly but fervently even with a flaming affection ascending up to God in the hearty grones sighes and strong desires of his soule and spirit The third thing implyed in the manner is that you must pray forthwith The verbe in the text is in the Present Tence and so denotes that you must fall presently to your prayers Semper nocuit differre paratis Delay may breed danger Now is the day of salvation saith the Apostle now is the acceptable time And hoc nunc nullum habet crastinum saith Saint Augustine And as Saint Paul stirres up the Romanes to arise from sleep Rom. 13. â—1 by putting them in minde of the season in the 13. to the Romanes so may I justly excite and incite you to fall close to your prayers for publike peace upon the consideration of this very season For if we looke well about us we shall finde that wee never had more cause to pray then at this present when as the publike peace is secretly undermined by false brethren at home and openly impugned by the Irish Rebells abroad There the superstitious Papist seeking to supplant and heere the irreligious Atheist labouring with might in his hand and malice in his heart utterly to roote it out And therefore as the skilfull Pilot at sea seeing a slaw or a storme a comming presently puts into some harbor where he may be safe untill the danger be over So Saint James sends us all to prayer as the onely sure haven in time of distresse where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is any man afflicted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him pray as if he had said Iam. 5.13 is any man in any manner of affliction why the sole remedy of all our miseries and mischiefes is prayer Then if we now finde that
17.11 though it be but private for as Solomon speaks in the 17 of the Proverbs Better is a dry morsell of bread if peace be with it then a house full of sacrifices with strife and contention But as every good thing the more common it is the better it is Luk. 1 74. so publike peace is a far greater blessing for hereby we enjoy that excellent priviledge which Zachary sings of in the first Chap. of S. Luke viz. That being delivered from the hands of our enemies we may serve God without fear in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our lives And yet if we ascend a degree or two higher viz. to the consideration either of Internall peace of the minde and conscience here Ephes 4 7. or of that Eternall peace which is promised us hereafter we must needs acknowledge each of these to be that Peace of God which passeth all understanding But passing over these two last Branches of good peace as not being aim'd at by the Psalmist in the Text I will keep my self onely to this outward publike peace which we are all here exhorted to pray for And however this outward peace in respect of each mans particular be not so rich a blessing as the inward yet such and so great it is in it self that Artaxerxes by the very light of Nature said Peace is such a good thing as all men desire Pacem te poscimus omnes And S. Paul in the second Chapter of the first Epistle to Timothy proposeth it as the chief Motive why we should pray for Kings 1 Tim 2.2 and all that be in Authority viz. That under them we may lead a peaceable and quiet life in all godlinesse and honesty As if the Civill Magistrates office had but these two ends viz. To settle Piety in the Church and Peace in the Common-wealth And the truth is That the Church and Common-wealth are so lincked together that the peace of the one doth redound to the other for as the Secretaries of Nature observe that the Marygold opens with the Sun and shuts with the shade even so when the Sun-beams of Peace shine upon the Common-wealth then by the reflection of those beams the Church dilates and spreads it self as in the 9 Chap. of the Acts Acts 9.31 Then had the Churches rest thorowout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the holy Ghost were multiplied Mark there how peace not onely edifies but multiplies the Church And on the other side when the Countries glory is once eclipsed then is the Churches beauty soon dimmed and clouded as all men whom the god of this world hath not blinded will confesse at this day they see plain enough in this languishing State Not without great reason therefore did the Lord command his peculiar people the Jews even in Captivity to pray for the peace and prosperity of the Babylonians in the 29 Chapter of Jeremy and that because 〈…〉 peace thereof they should have peace 〈…〉 Churches peace depends upon the peace of the Kingdom in which it is planted And accordingly it is the Churches prayer in the 144 Psalm that there may be no Invasion Ps 144.13 no leading into Captivity no complaining in our Streets And yet some phanatick Sectaries there be among us who having evill will at the peace and prosperity of this our Sion and being men of desperate opinions and despicable fortunes themselves count it good fishing in troubled waters Iudg. 17.2 not caring with Micah their good master how much they rend and tear the Churches garments so their own may be whole these in the exuberancy of their misgrounded and misguided zeal do both preach and pray against publike Peace Rom. 20.3 as inconsistent with the Independency or rather Anarchy they aim at and therefore even to hoarsenesse they cry down all fair wayes and means of Accommodation And not a few whom the Church and State finde to be a malignant party having little else to do make it now their trade to lye both by whole-sale and retayl they invent lyes and vent lyes they tell lyes and write lyes and print lyes and this they do as confidently and impudently as if they were informed by that lying spirit which entered as a Voluntier into Ahabs Prophets ◠Ki 22.22 and by lying and raising false rumours they beget jealousies and fears in the people that so they may foment the difference and enlarge the distance between His sacred Majesty and the Parliament and by blowing the coles which they themselves first kindled may at last set all in combustion and bring all to confusion And which makes the disease more desperate and the cure more doubtfull when any of the sons of peace hath convin'cd these Bountefues of disturbing the publike-weale against both law and conscience yet they palliate all by pretending the spirit as having some extraordinary Inspirations Illuminations Revelations of the spirit for all they do But since it appears by their seditious courses and pernicious practices that the way of peace they have not known Rom. 3.17 let all the world judge whether I may not justly apply unto these that which our Saviour himself said to some others instigating him to call for fire from heaven Luk. 9.55 in the 9 Chapter of Saint Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They know not of what manner of spirit they are And all men else do now begin to know them by their fruits Had they bin a while in their forefathers coats Mat. 7.16 or felt they but the pressures of War as our dismayed and dismembered neighbouring Nations do yea but as bleeding Ireland doth at this day then sure they would soon be brought on their very knees to acknowledge That the most glorious Crown of gold in all the world is not worthy to be compared with the now so much contemned Garland of Peace God be thanked ever since the Reformation though our Sectaries will not allow it that Name untill they have throwly reformed both Church and State even to deformity we have lived in peace and plenty God be thanked we never knew what it is to hear the murdering Pieces about our ears or to see our Churches and houses flaming over our heads whilst the flame gave light to the mercilesse souldier to run away with our goods we never yet heard the fearfull cracks of their fals mixed with the confused out-cries of men killing encouraging to kill or resist and the hideous schriking of women children God be thanked we never saw tender babes snatch'd from the Brests of their mothers or ript out of their Wombs and ere they were a span long either panting on the stones of sprawling on the Pikes and the poor pure Virgin ravish'd ere she may have leave to die God be thanked we never saw men and beasts lie together wallowing in their gore and the gastly
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 Chrisâ—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 sâ—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 1â— and Hurâ— 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