Selected quad for the lemma: peace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
peace_n	jerusalem_n	pray_v	prosperity_n	2,298	5	9.5696	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28333	An earnest plea for peace and moderation in a sermon preached at Barnstaple in Devon, to the ministers and others occasionally there assembled, Octob. 17, 1660 / by Martin Blake.	Blake, Martin, 1594 or 5-1673.	1661 (1661)	Wing B3133; ESTC R25930	13,288	30

six his Sanctuary as you may read Deut. 12. 10. c. And accordingly his will was that at some certain times of the year viz. at Easter Pentecost and the feast of Tabernacles all the Males of the people should come up thither to perform their religious services unto him as you may see Deut. 16. 16. compared with the former passage So carefully did the Divine Wisdom project for the establishment of a well-ordered Uniformity of Religious Worship in a settled State to prevent distractions and to preserve Unity among the people After this for the space of many hundred years the Israelites notwithstanding remained in somewhat an unsetled condition and the Tabernacle with the Ark were oftentimes removed as in a state of migration from place to place until the time of King David So long it pleased God to exercise his peoples faith and to hold them in an humble expectation of his performance But at length when the season which God had fore-determined within himself was now at hand it pleased him to make known unto David that Jerusalem in the Tribe of Judab should be the City and Mount Sion the place where his Ark should rest and where also he would have a Temple built unto his Name as you may gather from those expressions of his 1 Chron. 28. 11 19. compared with Psal 76. 1 2. 78. 67 68. With much gladness did King David listen to this Oracle of God and accordingly he had it in his heart to have performed the whole work himself in his own dayes but being commanded of God to leave the building of the Temple to his sonne Solomon that should succeed him he contented himself as to that particular only he provided for it some materials aforehand and in the mean season addressed himself to bring up the Ark of the Testimony from the house of Abinadab where it then was unto Jerusalem which from thenceforth became the solemn seat both of Religion and of the Kingdom And here by the way we may observe the Piety and Zeal of this good King in that together with the well setling of the Civil State he took into his Princely consideration the right ordering of affairs in reference to the Church and house of God Accordingly he calls unto him the chosen men of Israel and so with one unanimous consent they chearfully set upon the work And although their first attempt miscarried by reason of some failing in the manner at which God was displeased yet their second endeavours which were undertaken with better caution and more regularity of Devotion obtained a better successe for as we read 2 Sam. 6. 15 c. They brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet and set it in his place in the midst of the Tabernacle that David had pitched for it Their failing at the first time was partly in that Vzzab being but an ordinary Levite presumed to touch the body of the Ark which God allowed not to any but the Priests and partly for that in imitation of the Philistines they carried the Ark upon a Cart whereas God had required that it should not have been borne but upon the shoulders of the Levites The error in both these was now at this second time reformed and so the work succeeded to content So then though the intentions of Men in medling with the things of God be never so right yet the success will not answer our desires unless it be managed by such hands as God hath called and consecrated to the work Well now all is right and on they go as full of Joy as of Devotion and to further them in both these the King as it is conceived by most Expositors had furnisht them aforehand with this Psalm with a charge to sing it by the way as the Ark of God was thus carrying up unto Jerusalem and for this cause partly and partly also it may be for that it was to be sung with an elevated voice it was called a Psalm of Ascensions or Degrees An excellent Psalm indeed and very opposite unto the occasion whereupon it was composed It is of a mixt kinde as containing in it expressions of several sorts for it begins with Joy and Exaltation it goes on with Praise and Commendation and then concludes partly with Exhortation to the People and partly with Protestation for his own particular The Exhortation takes up the two first verses wherein this good Prince professeth his joy for the gratious temper of his people expressed in their chearfull forwardness to frequent the place of Gods publick worship and their resolution to be constant in their holy performances of that kinde I was glad saith he when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord our feet shall stand within thy gates O Jerusalem See here how much a zealous and well ordered people in the matters of Gods worship do contribute to the comfort of their Prince and how apt a good Prince is to rejoyce in their well-doing especially of that kinde The commendation follows in the three next verses and sets forth the praises of Ierusalem in a threefold reference that is to say First to the unanimity and sweet agreement of the inhabitants among themselves Ierusalem saith he is built as a City that is compact together vers 3. Secondly to their devout and holy deportment towards God Thither saith he the Tribes go up the Tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord vers 4. Thirdly to their care of Justice in the equal distribution of rewards For there saith he are set Thrones of judgement the Thrones of the house of David vers 5. Lo here the three great Ornaments and indeed the strong supports of a Kingdom or Commonwealth Love Religion and Justice The exhortation which he annexeth to both the former is briefly sum'd up in the two next verses wherein he adviseth them every one in his place to sollicite the Throne of Grace for the confirmation of this their sweet accord and prosperous condition without being interrupted by any either hostile opposition from without or unbrotherly dissention from within The first in these words Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem they shall or as some read let them prosper that love thee vers 6. The second in the next words wherein he adviseth them to pray again and say Peace be within thy walls and Prosperity within thy Palaces vers 7. whence we may observe that the favours which God indulgeth to a Church or State are rendred the more comfortable and lasting by the blessing of Peace superadded to them and that therefore in the midst of all our enjoyments we must beg that blessing at Gods hand yea and call in others to concurre and joyn with us in their Devotions for that end In the last place the Protestation which King David maketh for himself and wherewith he concludeth the whole Psalm is sairly

laid down in the two last verses wherein he seriously declares his own hearty intentions to practise what he did advise and to do in his own person what he would gladly should be done of others also The inference is as if he had thus said unto the people then about him You may perceive by what I have already spoken how greatly your forward zeal towards the house of God hath affected me to joy and I have laboured as I could to blow up that zeal of yours in a greater flame partly by minding you of the manifold blessings of God upon this place and partly by exhorting you as much as in you lies to promote the peace and welfare of it that so not only you for your own particulars but your Posterity also after you may live happily under the continuance of these mercies and in your several successive generations all along enjoy this liberty of coming into Gods Courts and partaking in his holy Ordinances This I have urged and yet I would not herein be mis-understood as if while I call upon you for this performance I my self would be exempted or as if in all this I had no further aym than only the securing of my own affairs No surely but I will joyn with you in this good work and bring on the best of my endeavours for it and that also upon four other and better motives than my own Personal or Domestical concernments I can with truth enough say unto Jerusalem her self for whom I plead before you For my Brethren and Companions sake I will now say Peace be within thee because of the House of the Lord our God I will seek thy Good This I conceive to be the inference of these words upon the former and from hence we may conclude the sweet temper and candid disposition of this godly Prince in that while he commended so pious a duty to the observance of his people he was no lesse forward to lead them to it by his own example And thus having brought you home to the words of my Text let us now stay a while and take a view of them as they lye They are elegantly brought in by the way of Apostrophe wherein this good King though in the hearing of the people doth yet for the while look off from them and turn his speech unto Jerusalem professing his hearty zeal for the promoting of her welfare together with the motives inducing him thereunto They are in effect as if in other words he had thus said Thy inhabitants O Jerusalem and the rest of thy free Denisons whose weal dependeth upon thy safety are of my near and dear Relation I look upon them first as my Brethren not in the flesh only but in the faith and then as my Companions not meerly in the participation of the same outward blessings but in the profession and practise of the same holy Worship and therefore even for their sakes as much as for my own I will now say Peace be within thee Not only Peace from without but a blessed immunity from the violence of foreign Power though that also I wish but Peace also within by a sweet accord and loving agreement of thy Children among themselves Nay further yet thou art O Salem the seat of Religion the place where God hath set his holy Tabernacle and the Ark of his presence where also he gives forth his holy Oracles and requireth our Service and communicateth his Blessings unto us his people in a more special manner and therefore even in this regard Because of the house of the Lord our God I will yet much more seek thy Good Seek it I say not by my Prayers only but by my endeavours too not only my tongue but my heart yea my hand and all shall contribute what they can toward thy preservation and wellfare This is as I conceive also the true strain of these words being indeed no other than a holy mixture of resolution and reason while he sayes For my Brethren and Companions sakes I will now say Peace be within thee because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy Good Words worthy to be written in Letters of Gold and to be treasured up in our dearest remembrance that so they may serve unto us as a pattern whereby to regulate and square our practice which also that we may the better do let us see the particular oppressions as they are here couched in the Apostrophe of King David to his Jerusalem First he tells her what he will say and what he is resolved to do in her behalf What he will say I will say now Peace be within thee what he will do I will seek thy good Her peace and wellfare is the main of his intendment and for the compassing of that he will bring on all his endeavour he will not only wish well but do well to his power he will begin at the heart but not rest there all that he is and all that he hath shall be employed about it Secondly he acquaints her with the grounds and motives whereupon he took this resolution to himself and they are specially two the one more civil an Argument taken from Humanity For my Brethren and Companions sake the other more sacred an Argument drawn from Religion and Piety Because of the house of the Lord our God These were as indeed they thought among the chiefest motives which quickned him up to this performance that is to say a tender regard to the good of his Brethren with whom he was in communion and a hearty well-wishing to the thriving of Religion and the service of God in that place where he had his being By this time I hope you see in some measure the drift and meaning of these words I shall now proceed to make some Observations from the whole and indeed as you may perceive the Text is very fruitfull in that kind all which if pressed would seasonably conduce to our instruction But because the time and the businesse which is to follow will not permit me to insist upon many I shall only for this present fasten upon one which you may take if you please in these words That It is both the duty and property of a Godly man to be affectionately zealous for the peace and wellfare as of the Church in general so of that Church in special to which in a more immediate manner be doth relate A point of needfull consideration at all times but especially now and accordingly I shall give you first the proof of it as by plain testimony from the Scripture so by many very pregnant reasons from the Bowels of my Text and then after a short Application of the whole commend both you and all that hath been or shall be spoken by me to the good blessing of God And the Lord for Christs sake so enable me to speak and you to hear that in the mutual discharge of our several duties his Name may be glorified his