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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85833	An exhortation to peace: with an intimation of the prime enemies thereof, lately delivered in a sermon, and newly published with some small addition, by Lionell Gatford, B.D. rector of Dinnington in Suffolke, now a prisoner in Ely-house in Holborne.	Gatford, Lionel, d. 1665.	1643 (1643)	Wing G333; Thomason E94_1; ESTC R2004	27,384	44

practise Jerem. 36. who when he was shut up in prison thought not that an excuse sufficient for not making known to the people those things which concerned them but sent forth a roll written from his owne mouth to be read in the eares of all Judah I could not satisfie my conscience quickened with so good an example and incouraged with Gods gracious deliverance of him that set it till I had sent abroad something whereby I might in some part informe the people of this Land of their duty and discharge mine owne and haveing nothing in a readinesse now that my former intended treatise is strangled in the birth so seasonable and suitable for these tumultuous and distracted times as this exhortation to peace I have adventured that amongst you You will finde it indeed flatly opposite nay fully contradictorie to multitudes of exhortations wherwith not onely our parlours are pestered 2 Tim. 3. v. 1 2 3 4 5 6. but our very Pulpits are profaned in these perilous times It must therfore be your care with those noble Bereans Act. 17. to search the Scripturs daily whether those things affirmed by those Salij or Priests of Mars in their skipping vociserations or these avouched by me a Minister of peace in this slow-paced Sermon be according to what is there recorded or not For my part I challenge nothing to my selfe but weaknesse and unworthinesse but by the grace of God I am what I am and to the praise and glory of his free grace be it ascribed I have ever been orthodoxall in judgement and conformable in practise to the established doctrine and discipline of the Church of England without swarving or digressing therefrom either to serve the times though never so turbulent or to observe mens humors though never so potent during freely to reprove corruption and innovation in Religion and religious worship where I met with any such when the Stentors or Baaling cryers of these times durst not mutter against them and alwayes labouring though compassed about with many imperfections to adorne Religion and the profession therof by faithfulnesse in my calling and by unstainednesse of life and conversation But for those whose doctrine and practises this Sermon oppugnes They bragge much of their light bring them therfore into the light To the Law and to the Testimony and if they speake not according to this word it is because ther 's no light in them Isa 8.20 and he that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother he is in darknesse even untill now 1 Joh 2.9 They boast likewise that they and onely they have the spirit But beloved beleeve not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world 1 John 4.1 If they have the spirit you shall know it by the fruit thereof Now the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance Galat. 5.22 23. They desire also to make you beleeve what it seemes by Jobs answer Cap. 12.2 his miserable comforters would have assumed to themselves that all wisdome is with them yea and shall die with them if they miscarry nay their very folly and madnesse is stiled by themselves and their Favourites spirituall wisdome But the word of God will try that too For the wisdome that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie James 3.17 For their holinesse and righteousnesse none mayquestion it without the censure of being a reprobate for such a presumption and yet the Scripture is a touchstone that will prove the truth of that also even by their love to peace For the fruit of Righteousnesse saith Saint Iames is sowne in peace of them that make peace Cap. 3. v. 18. And where envying and strife is much more where war and bloodshedding is there is confusion and every evill work v. 16. And from whence come wars and fightings among you saith the same Apostle come they not hence even of your lusts that warre in your members Cap. 4. v. 1. But if you would see the holy warre of the present times lively set forth read on v. 2 3. Ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtaine ye fight and warre yet ye have not because ye aske not ye aske and receive not because ye ask amisse that ye may consume it upon your lusts In a word those new teachers or teachers of newes as the most of them deserve to be stiled would fain dreame you into an opinion that they are for peace as much or more then any onely they would have peace with truth But who can beleeve them when they make lies their resuge and daily wrest and pervert the Word of truth to encourage to warre without peace truth cannot be established and so long as the people are given over to beleeve their lies 't is impossible that peace should be obtained Nay had they been men of truth neither peace nor truth had been now unsetled much lesse shattered into so many peices as that it will be difficult to repaire either and no lesse then a miracle to restore both to their former splendor and glory Had your Preachers dealt truly with you I should not have needed to have sent this sermon of peace at this time amongst you for if some of them when they were consulted by you as that I presume they were concerning the lawfulnesse of the present war had not with those lying Prophets 1 King 22. encouraged to battell with a Goe and prosper for the Lord shall deliver not the City into the Kings hands but the King into the hands of the City certainly our Jerusalem had still enjoyed her blessed peace and all that love her peace had still flowrished in their envied prosperity I am no accuser of my brethren but if from the prophets of Jerusalem as the Lord once complained by that holy prophet Jerem. 23.15 prophanesse or hypocrisie for Gods Name is never more prophaned then by hypocriticall prophets be gone forth into all the land and both Jerusalem and the whole Land be ready to be ruined thereby I conceive I have authority sufficient even from the Prophet Jeremy to complain of such Prophets and that before the people that so the people may yet at last beware of them onely this I must tell the people those filthy dreamers as Saint Jude cals them those false prophets as the deceived people themselves will ere long acknowledge them who defile the flesh despise dominion and speake evill of dignities Jude Epist v. 8. teaching others to doe the like doe but dreame such dreames as the people have caused to be dreamed Jerem. 29.8 and although the prophet be a soole and the spirituall man mad yet the people must remember that 't is for the multitudes of their iniquity and their great hatred Hosea 9.7 Either

their voices like Trumpets not to shew the people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sinnes which they have a commission for Isa 58.1 but to sound an alarme and to incite to warre for which I beleeve they have no particular Commission and their generall Commission I am sure is quite contrary they being sent to proclaime and publish and so to incite unto and perswade peace and not warres One he cryes out in Moses words Exod. 32.29 consecrate your selves to day to the Lord even every man upon his sonne and upon his brother c. forgetting that though he be allowed to sit in Moses seat yet the use of Moses sword is denied him much lesse hath he the command thereof besides Moses though he were the supreme Magistrate urged a particular command from God for what he then incited unto v. 27. whereas this Levit excluded all Magistracy cannot shew the least authority so much as from Moses for what he cals for Another makes bold with Davids words 1 Chron. 22.16 Arise and be doing arise and be doing What I beseech him Would he have the people build an house to the Lord For it was to that purpose that David used those words to his son Solomon I am afraid Gods house is not so well beloved of him no rather arise and be pulling downe Gods house orarise and be plundering thy neighbours house this I beleeve comes somewhat neere his meaning I am sure as neere as his does Davids A third ecchoes forth that bitter curse of the Angel of the Lord against Meroz Iudg. 5.23 Curse ye Meroz said the Angel of the Lord curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because they came not to the help of the Lord to the help of the Lord against the mighty And observe how pertinently and punctually he applies it the case of the Merozits as you may read Iudg. cap 4. and 5. stood thus Iabin King of Canaan with his people the Canaanites farre greater and mightier then Israel had twenty yeers together mightily oppressed Israel then Deborah a Prophetesse in Israel and one that was supreme Iudge in Israel at that time upon a particular expresse command from God besides Gods general command long before given for the utter destroying of the Canaanites making no covenant with them and shewing no mercy to them Deu. 7.1 2. cals to Barak to gather together ten thousand men of the Children of Napthaly and Zebulum the two Tribes that were neeerest him and to encounter with Iabins mighty Host at such a place assuring him that the Lord would deliver that great Host into his hand Now because the Merozites were neere at hand and yet would not come out and shew themselves in the assisting and helping forward this designe thus commanded by the Lord whatsoever cause else there were unrevealed the Angel of the Lord denounced this heavy curse against them saying curse ye Meroz curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants therof c. against them I say the Angel of the Lord denounced this curse and against them onely though sundry other Tribes came not out to this help besides them as Ruben who abode among the sheepefolds and Gilead or Manassch who abode beyond Iordan and Dan who remained in ships and Asher who continued on the sea shore and abode in his breaches Iudg. 5.16.17 None of these came to this help of the Lord and yet they were at the most but reproved or marked for it by the spirit of God not cursed by the Angel of the Lord as the Merozites were Now compare our present case with theirs doth any Idolatrous King and his people farre more mighty and potent then we oppresse our Israel Are he and his people such as are commanded by Gods command to be utterly destroyed and no covenant to be made with them nor mercy shewn them Or is there any expresse particular command from the Lord at this present for the raising an Army against them with an assured promise of victory over them And doth the supreme Iudge in our Israel call to any to put this command in execution Let all these or any of these be shewne and when they are let him blame those that doe not come to the help of the Lord but let him then also take heed of cursing any more of them then the Angel of the Lord commandes him to curse lest the curse fall upon his owne head for cursing Gods owne Israel and perverting Gods Word to the justifying his owne cursing contrary to Gods command A fourth he thunders out that curse Ier. 48.10 Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood but from what blood doth he meane Doth he meane from the blood of Moabites whose King had formerly hired Balaam to curse Gods Israel Numb 22. and whose daughters had tempted Israel to commit whoredome with them to the great provoking of the Lord against them Numb 25 Doth he mean from the blood of Moabites whose Kings and people both had at sundry times sorely oppressed Israel and are now themselves for those and other their impieties destined to utter ruine by an expresse decree from the Lord Doth he I say meane the blood of such when he rends his throat with roaring out a curse against those that shall keepe back their sword from blood If so he doth in something resemble the Prophet yet 't is not unknowne to a meane Divine that the Prophets are not to be imitated in every thing which they did or said witnesse Elijah's act in calling for fire from Heaven 2 King 1. which when the Disciples of Christ would have imitated Christ severely rebuked them for it Luk. 9.54 55. But alas is it not other blood that this blood-hound hunts after Is it not the blood of Christians Is it not the blood of Protestants Is it not the blood of those that are of the same blood with us Nay I pray God the best blood amongst us the Blood Royall it selfe be not too much hankered after by him I am sure the sword would put but little difference and the bullet lesse betwixt that and other blood in a common battell did not the Lord both of sword bullet and battell in his more then ordinary love and care of such blood guide them all otherwise then bloody men aime and intend them Besides to whom is this charge given not to hold back the sword from blood upon perill of a curse for that 's also worthy our taking notice Is it to the Heathen such as the Babylonians were to whom the Prophet there speakes or as some Expositors would have it who are there brought in by the Prophet as speaking it themselves No 't is to Christians t is to Protestants 't is to English-men that this new Prophet speakes he would have us for whom Christ was made a curse and shed his own most precious blood to reconcile us to God think our selves to be accursed if we should with-hold our swords from that cursed act of shedding

one anothers blood Well then may learned and pious O Ecolampadius his intimation given upon those very words be made our observation Seditiosi hunc versum pro se trahunt sed declarant quod Babylonijs similes sint imo licet dicas inferiores quod nullum habeant mandatum a domino c. Seditious men wrest this verse to serve their owne seditions humors but they herein declare themselves to be like the Babylontans those so much abominated cruell Heathen nay thou maist say farre worse then they for that these have no command to take up those words which the Babylonians had And thus what Ezekiel said of the Prophets of Jerusalem Ezek. 22.25 28. is found by wofull experience too true of too many of the Prophets of this Nation There is a conspiracy of her Prophets in the midst thereof like a roaring lyon ravening the prey they have devoured soules they have taken the treasure and precious things they have made her many widowes in the midst thereof They have dawbed her Princes with untempered morter seeing vanity and divining lies unto them saying thus saith the Lord God when the Lord hath not spoken Or to take up the complaint of the Prophet Jeremiah Cap. 5. v. 30 31. A wonderfull and horrible thing is committed in the Land the Prophets prophesie falsly and the Priests beare rule or as it is in the margin take into their hands by their meanes and my people love to have it so and what will ye doe in the end thereof What will ye doe in the end thereof Nay I leave that to God to dispose and to you to expect Onely for further caution to my selfe and fellow-preachers suffer me in a word more to shew how ill-beseeming and incongruous if not wicked and pernitious it is for us Preachers of the Gospell suppose we did avoid those grosse exorbitances now mentioned to encourage to warres unlesse we have some speciall calling from God thereunto For what hath a Preacher of the Gospell of peace to do with war except it be to preach against it 'T is said that by the Law a Priest should not have his vote in a cause of blood I am sure 't is incongruous to say the least of it that a Minister who is commanded both to pray daily in the Congregation Give peace in our time O Lord and to dismisse the Congregation with a benediction of peace The peace of God which passeth all understanding keepe your hearts c. should have his voice so deepe in blood as to encourage any to the waging of warre wherein the blood not of one or two but of many thousands is often spilt in one battell Tune codem ore quo Christum praedicas bellum laudas cademque tuba Deum canis et satanam Doest thou with one and the same mouth both preach Christ that great Peace-maker that Prince of peace and praise warre What is that but with the same voice to trumpet forth the praise of God and of Satan Whence didst thou learne this Doctrine or what example hadst thou to preach such 'T is certaine neither Christ nor his Apostles for they ever taught and perswaded to peace as might be shewne by multitudes of examples whereof thou canst not be ignorant and yet thou wantest no ignorance Take we heede then we that are Preachers and so I winde up this lesson lest whereas 't is said of the Preachers of the Gospell as you heard once and againe How beautifull are the feet of him that brings glad tidings that publisheth peace the contrary be said of any of us How foul is the very tongue of such or such a Minister that brings sad tidings that incites to warre certainly such a Preacher either mistooke his calling or his commission or both 3 I have but a word more to adde and that is a word of Exhortation for I am unwilling to leave you with a reproof that you would be pleased to suffer your selves to obtaine what is or ought to be most desired by you your owne peace in the peace of our Nation and to that end that you would cast not oyle but water on that fire which now threatens the consumption not of the Cedars of Lebanon alone but the very shrubs and brambles of the Forest at least be perswaded to with-hold what fuell you can from it for feare your selves be suddenly made the fuell of it You both see and heare that unlesse you purchase warre at a very deare rate peace will follow you though you doe not follow it And doe you love blood heding so dearly as that you will freely part with that which at other times drops from you as so much of your blood to help forward the spilling of others blood and your owne too O the blindnesse and madnesse of such a people none so blind as they that will not see and none more mad then they that stop their eares at the voice of the Charmer charme he never so wisely Who hath bewitched you or what people were ever thus besotted I cannot finde in all sacred or prophane history that ever I set eye on any example to parallell this That obstinate sottishnesse of the people of Judah and Jerusalem set forth in a dialogue betwixt God and the Prophet Isaiah Cap. 6.9 10 11 12. comes the neerest this of any that I can remember I pray God it be not brought neerer in the conclusion yet all this resemblance is onely in generals but for particulars I challenge all the encouragers to warre and they will streine hard for an example to match it if they can and 't is a strange obstinacy whereof no record can shew a president nor any false prophet feigne one O my beloved if I may call those beloved that love not the peace of Jerusalem bethink your selves in time lest the Lord bring upon you the fruit of your thoughts Jerem. 6.19 That as now when the sword of the Lord would in all probability be quiet Ier. 476. and put up its self into its scabbard and rest and be still ye will not suffer it v 7. the Lord ere long give it a charge against you not to be quiet till it have devoured at least all those who desire that it may still devour The Husband-men call for peace that they may now in their season beat their swords into plowsheares and their speares into pruning hookes The Merchants and Sea-faring men call for peace that they may now at their accustomed time goe downe to the sea in ships and doe businesse in great waters bringing a rich supply of all sorts of merchandize from all parts of the world The Trades-men they call for peace that they may recover their languishing trading ere the spirits thereof be quite spent Wives and Children cry for peace that they may not sit as widowes and Orphans lamenting the losse of their deare husbands and carefull fathers All that are oppressed and wronged cry for peace that the Judges of our Land like Samuel in the dayes of peace may keepe their constant circuites 1 Sam. 7. v. 14 15 16. and judge their causes in the ●●onted places All the faithfull and loyall hearted Subjects call for peace that they may see their Lord the King delivered from the strivings of the people and brought back again to his house and sit on his throne in safety and honour The King himselfe cals for peace that his subjects may sit under their owne vines and under their owne figgetrees enjoying their wonted happinesse accounted his Nay the King of Kings here in our Text cals upon all these to call and cry to him for peace that all these and many other blessings which accompany peace may once againe returne to us and settle their abode amongst us Let us then in obedience to Gods command if not in the sense of our owne present condition hasten unto with all speed and ply with all importunity that Throne of grace to which we are thus graciously invited and for Zions sake let us not hold our peace and for Jerusalems sake let us not rest untill the righteousnesse and peace thereof goe forth as brightnesse and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth Glory be to God in the highest and on Earth peace good will towards men FINIS