the people being a rebellious people lying children children that will not heare the law of the Lord Isa 30.9 have said to the Seers see not and to the Prophets prophesie not unto us right things v. 10. Or else they have shewn themselves too well pleased with them when they have so prophesied but not a word more now either of Prophets or people in that way I am to present you with an Exhortation to Peace and therfore I shall avoid as much as I can whatsoever may exasperate any that are peaceably inclined The Prophets Priests Princes and people of Jerusalem had all of them sinned highly against God and so provoked him that he had made a breach amongst them which threatned utter destruction unto them as you may read at large Ezek. 22. And yet God of his infinite mercy was pleased to seek and to seek but for one man amongst them all to make up the hedge and stand in the gap before him for the Land that he should not destroy it v. 30. How then should we of this Nation notwithstanding all our sins of Prophets Priests Princes and people so resembling Judah's as if coppied out by them our rebellion onely excepted wherein we exceed both them and the most of other Nations how should we be encouraged to seeke to God to have our breaches made up and to approach boldly unto the Throne of his grace Heb. 3.1 that we may obtaine mercy and sinde grace to help in time of need How should we be quickned in our prayers and best endeavours for the peace of our Jerusalem when the prayers and endeavours of one man is so prevalent with God for the making peace for a whole Nation and for the averting destruction from it Whether our prayers prevaile with God for the peace of our Jerusalem or not we our selves that so love Jerusalem as to pray for the peace thereof are sure to prosper we have Gods Word for it in our Text. To our prayers then to our prayers with all possible constancy and fervency and so to the Sermon with all due reverence and submission humbly beseeching our most gracious God whose Word is here tendred us to make this his Word so effectuall to us all that it may help to make us to pray more and more effectually for Jerusalems peace on which depends all our prosperity Amen Amen So prayes A prisoner of the Lord and your daily Orator Lionell Gatford Ely-house Feb. 1642. Text. PSAL. 122. vers 6. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee THE Scriptures saith Saint Paul are able to make a man wise unto salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 Liber psalmorum c. The Booke of Psalmes saith Saint Augustine comprehends in it as in an epitomie or abstract whatsoever necessary things all other books of Scripture contain at large Now amongst the Psalmes the Psalmes of degrees are by many accounted Psalms of some degrees of excellency above other Psames and amongst the Psames of degrees if there may be comparatio gradus ad gradum a comparing of a degree with a degree where each Psalme is in its degree so admirable this Psalme of degrees out of which my Text is taken is none of the lowest degree The text it selfe I am sure is one of the sweetest and pleasantest straines in all the Psames For what more delightfull and pleasing to God then prayer the prayer of the upright saith Salomon is Gods delight Pro. 15.8 and let my prayer saith David be set forth before thee as incense Psal 141.2 that is let it ascend as a sweet perfume and pleasant smell into thy nostrils it being the peculiar honour of prayer as Dionisius Carthusianus hath observed to have the stile of incense attributed to it for nulla justatia saith he thumiamits comparatur nisi sola oratio No other theologicall vertue is compared to incense but onely prayer at least not so properly And this we finde incited unto in the first word of my text pray pray c. Againe as nothing is more delightfull and pleasing to God then Prayer so nothing is more sweet and acceptable to men except they be men of Belial then Peace Pax non re duntaxat amica sed nomine quoque ipso jucunda saith Nazianzen Peace is not onely lovely in the thing but pleasant also in the very name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil the absolutest of Blessings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostome there is no Blessing equall to Peace and the Scriptures make good what they all say by putting Peace so often for all Blessings as comprehending all other Blessings in the bosome of it as amongst other places Psal 125.5 But peace shall be upon Israel and Psal 29.11 The Lord will blesse his people with peace or as the ordinary translation reads it The Lord shall give his people the Blessing of peace In both which places the word translated Peace as expositors have observed non tantum pacem sed reliqua bona omnia complectatur et corpori et animo necessaria doth not only comprehend peace within it's signification but all other good things whatsoever necessary both for body and soule as it doth also in sundry other places of Scripture And this we are called upon here in my Text to pray for pray for the peace c. The peace what peace not the peace of Babylon though when the Jews were delivered into the hands of the King of Babylon and carried away captive thither they were commanded both to seek the peace of that City and to pray for it Jerem. 29.7 but the Peace that our text exhorts to pray for is the Peace of Jerusalem that is according to the literall sense the Peace of that City which the Lord hath chosen among all the tribes of Israel to place his name there 2 Chr. 6. as also to place the throne of David and so of justice and judgement there 2 Sam. 5.5 both expressed in the three immediate verses before my Text as arguments to make way for the praying for the peace thereof Jerusalem is builded as a City that is compact together whither the tribes go up the tribes of the Lord unto the testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord for there are set thrones of judgement the thrones of the house of David then followes pray for the peace of Jerusalem c. Or els by the peace of Jerusalem we may understand here according to the misticall sense of the words the peace of Gods Church in what Cities or Nations soever it be planted called Jerusalem which is above and the mother of us all Gal. 4.26 the City of the living God the heavenly Ierusalem Heb. 12.22 and that not without allusion to that and the like prophesie of preaching the Gospell Esay 2.3 Out of Sion shall goe forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Ierusalem that is the Gospell shall first be preached and so the Church first planted
in Ierusalem and from thence the Gospell shall be published and so the Church transplanted in all the world and therefore the Church having her first rise and beginning from Jerusalem she might well beare Ierusalems name Pray for the peace of Ierusalem I had once thought to have opened the other part of the Text ere I had let you further into the treasurie of this but me thinks I see you impatient of being kept off any longer from tasting of these rarities which have been already presented before you I forbeare therefore all super-addition of arguments to invite your attention to the Text and fall close to the unbowelling of it The Text at the first touch fals into two parts a Precept and a Promise The precept in the first words pray for the Peace of Jerusalem The promise in the following words they shall prosper that love thee In the precept these five particulars offer themselves to our consideration 1. The Act or Duty commanded and that is to pray Pray c. 2. The object of that Act and that is peace Pray for the peace 3. The Specification or determination of that object not for all peace nor the peace of all but for the Peace of Ierusalem Pray for the Peace of Ierusalem 4. The party by whom this precept is delivered and that as the title of the Psalme shewes is David David the King of Ierusalem take Ierusalem in the letter but David the sonne or citizen of Ierusalem take Ierusalem in the misterie 5. The party unto whom this precept is recommended and they are no where expressed but fully implyed in the word precamini or rogate pray ye all ye that have any interest in or relation to Ierusalem pray for the Peace thereof so farre the precept extends but the promise reacheth further and fetcheth in all those that love prosperity assuring them that they shall all prosper that so love Ierusalem wherein three other particulars require our observation 1. The subject matter of the promise and that 's Prosperity they shall prosper 2. The condition of the promise and that is the loving Ierusalem so as to pray for her peace they shall prosper that love thee 3. The extent of the promise collected from the persons unto whom this promise is made namely they and all they and onely they that so love Ierusalem as to pray for the Peace thereof These are the parts of the Text and these are the particulars of each part but for feare lest the Text might lose some of its strength and virtue by being chopt into so many small pieces I shall forbear the prosecuting that division and subdivision and choose rather to give you the juce and substance if not the spirit and quintessence of all these particulars in these 4 propositions 1 That the peace of Jerusalem is a thing most desirable worthy of the best prayers and the prayers of the best 2 That the prime meanes both of procuring and preserving the peace of Jerusalem is to pray for it 3 That it is the duty of all men that have any interest in or relation to Jerusalem to pray for the peace thereof themselves and to incite others to doe the like 4 That they and all they and onely they shall prosper that so love Jerusalem as to pray for the peace thereof I begin with the first proposition That the peace of Jerusalem is a thing most desirable worthy of the best prayers and prayers of the best This proposition I shall endeavour to make good both according to the literall and according to the misticall acceptation of this terme Ierusalem and first according to the literall Doct. The peace of Jerusalem as Jerusalem is taken for the place of Gods worship and the seat of justice and judgement was then and so is the peace of all such places still a most desirable thing worthy of the best prayers c. Tantum est pacis bonum saith Saint Augustine lib. 19. de Civitate Det cap. 11. ut etiam in rebus terrenis atque mortalibus nihil gratius solcat audiri nihil desiderabilius concupisci nihil possit melius invenâ—ri such is the good of Peace that amongst earthly and transitory things nothing is to be heard of more acceptable nothing is to be wished for more desirable nothing can be found out more excellent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysos hoâ—â— 3. in Coloss saith Saint Chrysostome the mother of all good things are the ground of all joy and as there is no man qui gaudere nolit who would not rejoyce so there is no man qui parem habere nolit who would not have peace is Saint Augustines position in the booke before cited cap. 12. and he there makes it good and 't is so good what he there saith that I thinke it worthy both of our repeating and observing ipsi qui bella volunt saith that stout Champion of the Church nihil aliud quam vincere volunt they that most desire warres doe therefore desire them that may conquer and overcome and so in the upshot they desire wars that may obtaine a more glorious peace for what is victory or conquest but the subduing and bringing into subjection those that oppose and resist and what is that when it is accomplished but very peace so that warres themselves are waged upon an intention of peace and peace is the desired end of all warres They which doe most disturbe the peace which they enjoy and therefore are accounted enemies of peace yea of their owne peace they doe not so properly hate peace as desire to exchange one peace for another neither would they that there should be no peace at all but that such a peace should be as they would The most factious seditious fellowes that are though out of their factious seditious spirits they seperate themselves from society and peace with others yet with their fellow-conspirators they observe and keep an exact kind of peace or else they could never improve their conspiracies to so much mischiefes as they doe Theeves and robbers could not either with the least safety or successe infect and trouble the peace of others unlesse they did preserve a firme seeming peace amongst themselves or if there be any such beast of prey that is either so powerfull in strength or so fearfull by nature that he need not or dare not commit himselfe to any companion but plots and acts all his robberies and other outrages himselfe alone yet in his owne house with his owne family he studies peace and quietnes and if any disturbance chance therin none more forward then he to correct and vindicate it domus suae pacem si ita necesse est saith Saint Augustine of such a one etiam saeviendo componit he composeth the peace of his house if it be needfull so to doe even by tyrannizing and exercising cruelty on those that infringed it Nay I will crave leave to step one step further with that father let us for
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
once suppose such a monster as the Poets faigned their Cacus to be whom for his insociable savagenesse they called semi hominem non hominem but halfe a man not a man one cujus regnum dirae speluncae fuerit solitudo whose lonesomenesse in a direfull cave was his Kingdome and whose wickednesse was so beyond other men's that like the Divell he had his name from it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that tooke pleasure neither in the winning society of a wife nor in the recreating sports of children one that would neither rule over others nor enter conference with them one that would give nothing to any but take from all whatsoever he could and could take whatsoever he pleased yet this horrid monster so abhorring all peace with others does by his very solitarinesse and detestation of all society declare plainly that freedome from all molestation and so peace is the prime scope and aime of all his desires And that I make not a fiction the uppermost step of my gradation suffer me to tell you that the very devils themselves what inveterate implacable cruelty soever they beare against the peace of men amongst themselves they conspire for peace and doe to all admiration conserve it Satan is not divided against satan Marke 3. and a whole legion of devils can dwell together as one in one man Marke 5.9 Nothing therefore is naturally more desirable then peace and there is none that hath all the impressions of nature so defaced in him but that some peace or other is beloved and desired of him how much more desirable then is the peace of Jerusalem as 't is the place of Gods worship and service and the seat of justice and judgment to all those that love either Where there is no peace the publike worship and service of God doth not onely lose its beauty and comlinesse but suffers much in its very essence and being One thing saies David have I desired of the Lord that I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord al the dayes of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord visit his temple or enquire in his temple Psal 27.4 but because David was a man of warre and the time of his reigne a time of warre he never could obtaine this his desire in any perfection though he were most zealous and earnest in it David never so much as thought of building an house unto the Lord till he had some respite from warre as appeares 2 Sam. 7.1 2. c. and when he did thinke on it God who knew his thoughts knew also that it was in a manner to no purpose for him upon whom warres were presently to returne to undertake that worke for neither could that worke it selfe be so well effected in such times nor the publike worship of God in that house if it should be built be neer so wel performed as it would be in more peaceable times And therefore observe how the Lord took off David from those thoughts as David himselfe relates it to his sonne Solomon 1 Chron. 22. v. 7.8.9.10 And David said to Solomon my son as for me it was in my mind to build an house unto the Name of the Lord my God but the Word of the Lord came to me saying thou hast shed blood abundantly and hast made great warres thou shalt not build an house unto my name because thou hast shed much blood upon the earch in my sight behold a sonne shall be borne unto thee who shall be a man of rest and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about for his name shall be Solomon and I will give peace and quietnesse to I frael in his dayes he shall build an house for my Name c. Behold David a man of warre though a man after Gods owne heart and his warres no other then what God had approved he was inhibited the building of an house for Gods publike worship and service onely for this reason because he had shed much blood and made great warres whereas the bloody reformers of these times cry up the laying of the foundation of their reformation of Gods publike worship in service in nothing but blood that the blood of those who professe the worshipping and serving of God in that publike manner and way for the sounding and erecting whereof many renowned Mattyres were willing to lose their blood so sarre are their thoughts from Gods thoughts and their wayes from Gods wayes Observe further how God to cleare his owne reason of forbidding David to build him an house that it was therefore therefore onely because he had made great warres and shed much blood at the same time when he inhibited David for that cause he gave commandement to his Sonne Solomon to build him an house for his name and alleadgeth the just contrary reason for that command viz. because he should be a man of peace and rest and one unto whom God promised that he would give rest from his enemies round about and give peace and quietnesse to Israel in his dayes And he indeed undertooke this worke and so prospered in it that he finished it in seven yeeres 1 Kin. 6.38 The inferences from hence are many and various according to the apprehension of severall Expositors but all that I shall urge from hence is but what I have already toucht That God by the very time appointed by him for the building of his Temple the place of his publique worship and service signifies unto us that times of peace are the onely times for his publike worship and service it selfe and that warres though never so just doe not onely hinder it but doe in a manner yea and in a great measure to prophane it and what I say of the times of peace and warre must of necessity reach to the places where peace or warres settle and therefore as the house for Gods publike worship and service was at first built in time of peace so 't was built in a City of peace in Ierusalem which is by interpretation the vision of peace God may I confesse be worshipped and served publikely in some Camps or Leagers yea in the midst of Mars-hill as 't is said Saint Paul once preacht Acts 17.23 But alas the worship and service that is usually performed unto God in such places hath scarce a rag of that beauty and splendor or a spark of that zeale and vigour wherewith it is adorned and inclined in places of peace unlesse they be such places of peace as doe not know what belong to their peace which indeed Ierusalem her selfe sometimes did not Luk. 19.42 How beautifull upon the mountaines saith the Prophet are feete of him that bringeth good tidings that publisheth peace Isa 52.7 The Apostle appplies that saying to the Preachers of the Gospell Fom 10.15 How beautifull are the feet of them that preach the Gospell of peace c. The beauty and excellency of preaching the Gospell is such as
nothing more then for such times wherein he might againe as formerly he had in times of peace Psal 27. Psal 42. Psal 84. present both himselfe and his prayers to God in Gads house has holy Temple or Sanctuary the place of publike worship The Scythians who as Herodotus reports of them did worship very many Gods did erect neither Temple Altar nor statute to any God save onely Mars the God of warre intimating that where warres are predominant there all constant publike worship and sevice of God or whatsoever is called God is quite cashiered This we finde in sacred records the Prophets prophecying to the Jews the free liberty happy enjoying of Gods publike worship service amongst them did commonly join with it or rather promise before it some promise of peace Isa 52.7 a place even now cited How beautifull upon the mountaines are the feet of him that bringeth good tiings that publisheth peace c. then follows v. 8. Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice c. There is little or no lifting up of the voice of watch-men to be excepted in any place till peace be proclaimed So Nahum 1.15 Behole upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publisheth peace then followes O Judah keep thy solemne feasts performe thy vow where peace is there the publike worship and service of God may be performed with some solmnity but where peace is not though men should divote themselves to it never so much yet they cannot performe it with any solemnity nay scarce with any tolerable reverence if then there were no other reason of praying for the peace of Jerusalem but its being the place of Gods publike worship and service that alone is sufficient to ingage any man in that duty that desire to worship and serve God as he should But then confider Jerusalem as it is also the seat of justice and judgment and so the force of the argument for the praying for the peace thereof is in a manner doubled let judgement saith the Prophet Amos run downe as waters and righteousnesse as a mighty streame Cap. 5.24 that is let justice and judgment have their free course and run in their owne channell without chick stop or outlet now that cannot be but where God is pleased to grant peace to a place if God do not extend peace to a place as a river Isa 66.12 Justice and Judgement can never run downe there as a streame Righteousnesse and peace saith the Psalmist have kissed each other Psal 85.10 't is as true of this Righteousnesse and peace whereof we are now discoursing as of any and since they first greeted it can never be found where ever this Righteousnesse was without peace though this peace hath been in many places without Righteousnesse Just and strickt discipline may be and is observed in warre so farre as it may advantage either the designe in hand or the whole Armies safety or the Commanders honour but for common justice equally communicating it selfe unto all men 't is onely to be sound where peace is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Maximus Tyrius warre is the teacher or master of injustice In warres 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as that woman complaines in Homer they kill men they fire Cities into ruinous heapes they lead away women and children into captivity or as Tacitus described the iniquity of a warre waged by Antonius and is found true of all warres Non dignitas non at as protegebat quo minus stupra caedibus caeda stupris miscerentur c. neither honour nor age nor ought else did protect any but rapes warre mingled with murders and murders with rapes hoarihared men and superanuated women esteemed not worthy to be made a prey or spoyle were drawn and dragged up and downe the streets for sport and pastime and young and tender Virgins together with youthes of any comelinesse and feature were even torne in peices by the lustfull Souldiers and the Souldiers themselves many of them slaine in their lusts by their owne fellowes burning in the same lusts with them O the injustice of warre 't is not to be expressed with just expressions 't is a maxime of warre quodcunque libet facere victori licet 't is lawfull for the victor to doe what him pleaseth and victor or not victor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Euripides hath it he is accounted an ill Souldier that does not some mischiefe and if any that are injured or abused prove so ridiculous or rather so mad as to complaine thereof either to the Generall or to some subordinate Commander the best answer they can expect is that of Caesar to Metellus when Metellus urged certaine lawes for not taking away the money in Saturnes Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The time of warre is no time for observing lawes or that of Caius Marius to some that accused him and his Souldiers of great wrongs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I cannot heare saith he the lawes for the noise of Armes the ratling of drums and the roaring of Ordnance silence the lawes strike the very Judges themselves deafe If then it were but for Jerusalems being the seat or place of justice there being the Thrones of judgment the Thrones of the house of David Jerusalem deserved and so doe all such places still the best prayers and prayers of the best for the peace thereof Thus you have been showne the desirablenesse of Jerusalems peace as Ierusalem is taken litterally for that place which God had made choice of to be the place of his publike worship and service and the seat of justice and judgement now take Ierusalem in the mistery as it signifies Gods Church in what place or places soever it be planted or dispersed and so the arguments for the desirablenesse of Ierusalems peace may be doubled and trebled but I shall for the present choose rather to give you the application of what hath been delivered and reserve my meditations on the peace of Gods Church till I have liberty to enlarge them to some proportion befitting that subject If the peace of Ierusalem as Ierusalem is taken for the place of Gods publike worship and service and the seat of justice and judgement were then and so the peace of all such places is still a thing most desirable worthy of the best prayers c. In the first place you may from hence learn what to think of them in part who goe about to disturbe the peace of such places yea and to banish if it were in their power all peace from them I say you may from hence learne what to thinke in part of such for what heart so large what thought so vast as to be able to comprehend what they deserve in the totall Blessed saith our Saviour are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God Math. 5.9 And if the Peace-makers are blessed we may conclude by the law of contraries that surely the peace disturbers are
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 â—â—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