waters in perills by our owne country-men in perills by the heathen in perills in the city in perills in the wildernesse in perills on the sea in perills among false brethren c. And since we are in the midst of so many perills oh what need we have to fall to our prayers Psal 36.9 The Prophet David in the 36th Psalme speaking to God saith A pud te est fons vitae with thee is the well of life And if with the Psalmist we shall liken Gods mercy to a well or fountaine then may prayer be resembled to a bucket wherewith the water of this living fountaine must be drawn up And as the woman of Samaria in the 4th chapter of Saint John sayd to our Saviour in another case Iohn 4.11 The well is deep and thou hast nothing to draw with c. So may I truely say in this the fountaine of Gods grace is unsearchably deep and you have nothing wherewithall to draw thence the least temporall corporall or spirituall blessing save only this bucket of prayer James 1.5 For what Saint James speaks of saving wisedome in particular if any man lacke wisedome let him aske it of God in prayer is undoubtedly true of all good things whatsoever for they all descend from the Father of lights and therefore if any of you lack any of these you must aske it of God in prayer You must come to God in faith as to an ever-running and over-running fountain of inexhaustible goodnesse and you must use prayer as a conduit-pype to convey the sweet and saving streams thereof unto your selves Apoc. â— 6 And if Saint John in the 4th chapter of the Apocalyps rightly compare this world to the sea then may I with Saint Chrysostome nor lesse aptly liken prayer Velis remis to the sayles and oares wherewith we must be wasted through this turbulent sea to the haven of happinesse And as Marriners while they be at Sea do ply their Sayls and Oars hard that so they may arrive at the Harbour where they would be Even so needs must we apply our selves close to our prayers if ever we mean to obtain from God this blessed Peace in the Text. And so I passe from the Necessity to speak somewhat of the Efficacy of Prayer Many excellent things are spoken in Scripture to set forth the power of Prayer as that it both shuts and opens Heaven Iam. 5.16 17. For Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are saith S. James and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth for the space of three yeeres and Six months And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain c. Yea prayer commands the whole host of Heaven for at Joshuah's prayer the Sun stood still in Gibeon Ios 10.12 and the Moon in the valley of Ajalon Prayer hath stayed the fury of fire Dan. 3.27 2 King 6.6 and made Iron swim upon the water Prayer hath made the barren womb fruitfull as in the first Chapter of Saint Luke Zachary thy prayer is heard and thy wife Elizabeth shall conceive and bear a son Luke 1.13 Prayer cures the sicknesse of the body as in the fift Chapter of S. James Is any man sick let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them Pray for him and the prayer of faith shall save the sick Iam. 5.14 And Prayer cures the sin of the soul too as of David the Publican â—he Thief upon the Crosse and divers others who as soon as they pray'd were pardon'd Not to trouble you with a world of other Instances the singular power of prayer may be discover'd to the full if you 'l ascend but these three degrees First that which subdues all flesh living viz. Death 1. Cor. 15.27 yields notwithstanding to the force of prayer as we read of the Shunamites childe Lazarus the widows son of Sarepta the Rulers daughter and some others who by the vertue of prayer have been rais'd from death and restored again to life Heb. 2.14 Secondly the Devill who in the 2. Chapter to the Hebrews is said to have the power of death is notwithstanding vanquish'd sometimes by the power of prayer Mat. 37.21 as in the 17 Chapter of Saint Matthew where our Saviour saith expresly This kinde of devills go not out save by prayer and fasting Not by fasting alone as the Papists fondly imagine and therefore make it a meritorious work for fasting without prayer is but an image of holinesse and a picture of hunger but it is prayer quickned with fasting that must do it Thirdly and lastly God himself who hath power over death and the devil is after a sort overcome by prayer else why doth he call out to Moses in the 32 Chapter of Exodus to let him alone It seems that the fervent prayer of Moses at that time Exo. 32.10 did not onely vincere but vincire after a maner binde Gods hands and so hinder him from powring the Vials of his wrath upon the people Gen. 32 24 And in the 32 Chapter of Genesis the Patriarch Jacob by wrestling prevail'd against an Angel which the Prophet Hoshea expounds of the power of prayer for it is absurd to think Hosh 12.4 that by bodily strength Jacob could prevail against an Angel but the truth is as the Prophet speaks By prayers and tears he had power over the Angel and was therefore call'd Israel And S. Paul alluding thereunto in the 15 Chap. to the Romans useth the very phrase Rom 15.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now I beseech you brethren for the Lord Jesus Christs sake and for the love of the spirit that you strive together with me in your prayers to God He would have the wrestle for so the word in the Originall properly signifies with God by prayer and by wrestling to overcome him It is very much that a true Christian is able to do in this kinde if he would stir up the grace of God in him and put forth his strength It is our own fault that we pray not as we ought if we prevail not with God as our forefathers have done That then we may now obtain this peace in the Text. Oh let us all bend and buckle our selves to our prayers and herein let us wrestle with God as Jacob did and not leave him untill he leave a blessing behinde him even this blessed peace which we are all here exhorted to pray for And thus having touched the Dignity Necessity and Efficacie of Prayer I have done with the matter of this duty I come now to acquaint you with the manner of the same In which as I said before there be five circumstances implyed whereof The first is that this your prayer must be generall for the Verb is here in the plurall Number Expetite not pray thou but pray ye It is an indefinite expression and an indefinite proposition say Logicians is
blessing so generally desired and Prayer is a duty so necessary to be used Oh let the Charity of the Church and the commodity of Peace and the necessity of Prayer invite you all to put in practice what the Psalmist here so fervently presseth O pray for the Peace of Jerusalem Briefly since Jerusalem is maintained by Peace and Peace is obtained of God by Prayer Oh let us constantly and conscionably use the means that we may the better come to the end and accordingly let us all pray for the Peace of Jerusalem Of these three Parts in this Order and I begin with the first viz. The Act or Duty which at this time is too too much neglected yet in the Text it is the main thing to which we are exhorted and that is prayer O pray And for my more Methodicall proceeding herein be pleased to observe both the matter of this Duty and also the manner of the same The matter is expressed viz. Prayer in handling whereof I will touch only these three things viz. The dignity necessity and efficacy of prayer The manner is implied and I shall shew that the Psalmist here insinuates that if you will pray as you are here exhorted then you must do it first generalitèr secondly ferventèr thirdly presentèr fourthly perseverantèr lastly practicè that is you must pray generally fervently presently perseveringly and practically A word of each and first of the matter of this duty and therein of the dignity of prayer which in 141 Psal is called a sacrifice and that of incense Let my prayer come before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice The sacrifice of incense was well pleasing to God under the law and therefore it was called the sweet incense in the 4th chap. of Numbers And there was appointed an alter of gold for it in the 40th chap. of Exodus and this is moralized in prayer in the 8th chapter of the Revelation where wee reade that an Angell came and stood at the altar having a golden censer and there was given unto him much incense that hee should offer it with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne Marke how for the sweet incense of prayer there was provided a golden Censer and a golden Altar and an Angell to offer it What greater honour can a mortall man who is but dust and ashes as Abraham himselfe acknowledgeth attaine unto Gen. 18 27 then to be admitted to friendly and familiar conference even with God himselfe and yet this is obtianed by prayer which is defined by some to bee an holy colloquy or dialogue betweene God and a devout soule Yea Saint Chysostome tearmes prayer Animam animae The soule of a christian soule for as the soule is the most essentiall part of a man so is prayer of a Christian And as the reasonable soule puts a difference between a man and a brute-beast so doth prayer betweene a true Christian and a Heathen Saint Basil fitly resembles prayer to a chain of gold wherewith the ear of God himself is as it were tyed to the tongue of man for whereas Gods Seat is in Heaven whence all grace and goodnesse distills and mans upon earth which is but a sink of sin and valley of tears There is no other chain to linck God and man together save onely this of prayer And that this combines them it is plain for as a Christian in the 9 Chapter of the Acts is described by this Periphrasis Acts 9.27 That he calls upon the Name of the Lord so God himself in the 65 Psalm is described by another Aequivalent unto it Psal 65 2. for he is stil'd The hearer of prayers O thou that art the hearer of prayers to thee shall all flesh come And indeed to whom should we go save onely to him who can both hear and help us The Saints departed cannot hear us saith Job the Angels cannot help us Job 5.1 Then that with the Papists in their blind devotions we pray not in vain let us addresse our selves onely to God who is the hearer of prayers Let us begin as our Church doth at Almighty and most mercifull Father and let us conclude all our prayers in the name of Jesus Christ our onely Lord and Saviour and then no doubt hee will make good what hee hath promised Ioh 16.23 Quaecunque petieritis c. What ever you aske the Father in my name he will give it you Or if we shall compare the Kingdome of heaven to a pallace or princely mansion-house Iohn 14.2 as our Saviour doth in the 14th chapter of Saint John then is Christ himselfe the onely ready way conducting to this pallace and so he calls himselfe in the 6th verse of that chapter where he saith Ego sum via I am the way And as Christ is the right way that leads to life Iohn 14 6. so faith apprehending him is as it were the door that opens to this way and it is so called in the 14th chapter of the Acts Ostium fidel Acts. 14.27 the doore of faith And as faith is the doore so the word of God and the knowledge of the same is as it were the key that opens this doore and it is so called in the 11th chapter of Saint Luke Clavis Scientiae the key of knowledge And as knowledge is the key Luk. 11. â—2 so is prayer as it were the ring or hammer wherewith we knocke the very terme is used in the 7th chapter of Saint Matthew where our Saviour exhorting unto prayer sayth Matth. 7.7 Pulsate knocke and it shall be opened Then in the name of God let us all take this hammer of prayer in the text and therewith let us knocke and call upon God that hee would bee pleased with the key of knowledge to open unto us the doore of faith that so we may have entrance by the way of life into the pallace and paradise of heaven But leaving the consideration of the dignity of prayer I come now to touch the necessity of the same And this is such that whereas Darius in the 6th chap. of Daniel made an edict that no man for the space of thirty dayes should make any petition to God or man save to the King onely Dan 6 7. yet the prophet Daniel chose rather to be cast into the lyons denne then to forbeare so long the so necessary exercise of prayer The simple necessity whereof will soon appeare if you will but take notice First of our manifold wants both of outward blessings and eke of inward graces Secondly of our manifold evils both of sinne and punishment Thirdly of our manifold miseries flowing both from temptation nnd tribulation Fourthly of our manifold dangers for what Saint Paul speakes of himselfe in the 11th chapter of the second epistle to the Corinthians is true of us all 2 Cor. 11. that we are in perills of robbers in perills of
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
our peace is declining and our enemies increasing who laugh at our distraction labour our destruction crying with them in the 71. Psalme Psal 71 1â— Ha ha so would we have it prosecute and take them God hath forsaken them If we see Gebal and Ammon and Amalek a legion of Sectaries like unto those other Locusts that came out of the bottomlesse pit swarming at this day among us Apoc. 9.3 and joyning purse and forces heads and hands against us that so they may bring upon us a sodaine fearefull and irreparable devastation desolation Yea if our owne sinnes abounding at this day and yet unrepented off and which is worse justified and worse then that gloried in doe at this time threaten some heavy judgement ready to fall upon us from the hands of men by the sword whom neither pestilence nor famine could winne to turne from our irreverence prophanesse sacriledge schisme sedition and other raigning lusts to him Yet let us now now I say whilest we have time to repent and opportunity to amend hasten to this harbor of prayer in the text beseeching God in mercy to divert this deserved judgement and to continue his most gratious protection and our most sweet and blessed peace unto us The fourth thing implyed in the manner is that you must pray with constancy and perseverance for the verbe in the text being of the present tense denotes Actum continuum a continued Act as the School-men observe Iud. â— 30. There be many saith Saint Ambrose that make preces Bethulianas their prayers are but a composition for certaine dayes If God relieve them not at a becke and grant not what they pray for at the instant then they grow impatient and will pray no longer This is the sin which the Psalmist objects against the Israelites viz. That they tempted God and limited the Holy one of Israel Psal 78.41 where note that he who limits God is said to tempt him Then stint him not to thy time who is the Lord of times and seasons Though he heare not ad voluntatem yet happily he doth ad sanitatem But pray continually as Saint Paul injoynes in the 5. Chapter of the first Epistle to the Thessalonians which words of the Apostle must not be understood in so rigid an acception as if a true Christian should doe nothing but pray as the Euchitês held and whose heresie Saint Augustine doth worthily confute and condemne but Saint Paul must be understood either secundum effectum orationis according to the effect of prayer which commonly is an holy life and qui benè vivit semper orat He that lives christianly prayes continually The constant practice of piety is a continuall prayer Luke 18.1 Or he must be understood of perseverance in prayer as in the 18. Chapter of Saint Luke we read that our Saviour propounded two parables the one of an unjust Judge the other of an importunate widow thereby teaching us to pray always that is not only to pray at certain set hours or onely when some speciall occasion is offered but not to give over praying untill God hath heard us graciously and answered us in mercy And to do this and thus we are both exhorted and encourag'd First I say we are hereunto exhorted and that both in the generall as in the 6. Chapter to the Galathians Bee not weary of well doing And also in spetiall â—as in the 62. of Esay Galat. 6. Isa 62.7 keep not silence and give the Lord no rest till he establish thee And we are also hereunto incourag'd by many memorable instances and examples Maâ—â— Maâ—â— 28. â—â— as of blind Bartimeus who gave not over calling and crying for mercy to the son of David till he restored him his sight And the Canaanitish woman which notwithstanding so many repulses yet continued her devotions till she obtain'd her desires The fift and last thing implyed in the manner is that you must pray practically according to the rule of the Rabins Verbs of sence imply action Your prayer must not only be Optative but Operative The word in the originall is indeed very Emphaticall that way and by divers expositours rendred diversly For Some translate it Quaerite pacem Seek peace and seek it not lazily and at leasure but as our Saviour exhorts us in the like case Quaerite primum Seek it in the first place Mat. 6. â—3 even first in your intentions before other things and first in your affections above other things It must be sought first both tempore et honore as St. Ambrose speaks Others render it interrogate pacem Inquire for peace Let it be the main interrogatory The Churches cause stand's or fal's upon this issue and therefore see you put it home Arias Montanus hath it Postulate pacem Require peace If you have any interest in man or power with God extend it this way Junius and Uremelius read it Expetâ—te pâ—cem desire peace and see you desire it ex intimis precordiis from the very bottome of your hearts For as this peace under God is your Summum bonum the only height of your happinesse so must it be your Summum voâ—um The very depth of your desires Rhemigius out of the Septuagint and St Hierome render it Rogate pacem pray for and procure peace and these you must do even as a beggar forc'd by extreame necessity sues for an alms with much earnestnes and importunity The Summe is you must all diligently and devoutly seek and inquire and require and desire and humbly pray for and studiously procure this peace in the text For Oratiâ— sine operâ— nihil est saith S Chrysostome Prayer without practise is nothing and nothing worth And it is a good rule in Divinity Pro illâ—s laborandum prâ— quibis orandum We must labour for those things with our hands which we pray for with all our hearts and we must strive against those evills which we pray against For as it were extreme folly for a man that 's fallen unawares into a pit or snare to lye still crying God help Lord help if he did not withall bestir himself seeking by all possible means to get up and to get out So is it not much better to say God send us peace as 't is the manner of some dow-bak'd men among us now adayes who like so many Cymballs sound out of their emptinesse and pray Ex usu magis quam ex sensu more for fashion then out of feeling unlesse we do in our severall places and callings to the very utmost of our power pursue it and labour to procure it I say we must all both Prince and People Magistrate and Minister Nobility and Comminalty Clergy and Laity even all and every of us from the highest to the lowest laying all private ends and oblique respects aside must endeavour to procure and preserve the publique peace and to prevent all Schisme Sedition Rebellion and other notorious impediments of the same And yet forasmuch
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
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
pray for the peace of Ierusalem Secondly let us all like so many good children be prodigall not only of our time and estates but even of our dearest blood in our holy Mother the Churches cause for which Christ gave himself both an offering and a Sacrifice As an offering in his life so Ephes 5 2. a sacrifice in his death There was never any Citie on earth more bravely defended against a forraign Enemy then was Ierusalem against Titus and Vespatian and only upon a conceit that this City was eternall and should never be destroyed But they erred not knowing the Scriptures Mat. 23.37 for the truth is that all the promises of Ierusalems perpetuity and continuance were not made to that Ierusalem which was built with materiall walls for that Ierusalem kill'd the Prophets and ston'd the men of God which were sent unto her and so brought the guilt of innocent blood upon her Gal. â— 25 and is therefore in bondage with her children even unto this day but to the Church of God 1 Pet. 2.4 that Ierusalem which as St. Peter speaks is compacted of living stones cemented with Christs blood built by faith and consisting in the fellowship of the Saints whose maker and builder is God Mat. 16.18 and against this the spirit of truth assures us that neither men nor devills shall ever be able to prevail For as Socrates said of his Accusers Necare possunt nocere non possunt So may I say of the enemies of the Church that they may kill us if God permit but they cannot conquer us Rom. 8 37 For like Sampson we shall be victorious even in death it self at which time Iudges 16.30 with the Proto-martyr St. Steephen we shall see the heavens open Acts 7.56 and the Sonne of man standing at the right hand of God Rom. 8.31 and if we stand for him and he stand for us then who can withstand us And yet as in Ierusalem there were factions by which as Iosephus reports more of the natives and Citizens were slaine within the walls then by the common enemy without so it is most true that there ever have been and that there ever will be factions in the Church though I must tell you that no one age that ever I read of did so abound with them as doth the present Oh what herds swarms and sholes of Sectaries have been seen of late These are dangerous and if not prevented in time they will be deadly enemies to the peace of the Protestant Church established by Law among us And to each of these God our Father and the Church our Mother will say hereafter as the Romane Fulvius did to his revolting son heretofore Non ego te Catilinae genui adversus patriam sed patriae adversus Catilinam Which with some small variation of the words may be rendered thus I begat not thee to assist the Sectaries in their sedition but the true Protestants in their subjection Rom. 13.1 to God for his own sake and to his anointed over us for Gods sake who saith peremptorily in the 13th Chapter to the Romans Let every soule be subject to the higher powers Marke Every one must be subject without excepting or exempting any one Thirdly and lastly let us Oh let us all labour to heal the breaches of the Church as once the Israelites did to build up the wals of their Jerusalem See in the 2d of Nehemiah how carefully he procur'd means from Artaxerxes to reaedify Jerusalem and how couragiously and unanimously the people of God went about it in the midst of so great dangers that they were faign to work with tooles in one hand and swords in the other And thus if we would approve our selves to be true Israelites must we all do our utmost endeavour to build up the Church of God or at least to be repairers of the breaches that are made in the same And this we must do the rather because the Romish Sanballats on the one side and the Rammish Sectaries on the other strive so eagerly at this day to set up their Babell it may be properly so call'd and to pull down our Ierusalem as of old Tertullian complain'd of the Hereticks Nostra suffodiunt ut sua â—dificent Yea the truth is that these our profess'd adversaries on both sides laugh at and jeer us to our faces as Sanballat and Tobiah then did and yet let us be so far from being discourag'd from so religious an enterprize that let us go on in our prayers to God and honest endeavours with men untill we have brought it to perfection Not doubting but what Nehemiah then promis'd Neh 2.20 will in due time be made good unto us The God of heaven will prosper us therefore let us arise and gobnild And that our building in this kinde may go the better forward let us all minde and speak the same things Phil. 2.2 for if in the building of Babell division of tongues hindered the work Gene. 11 8 how much then in that of our Ierusalem Then for conclusion of all let me say unto you with the Apostle in the 13. Chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Corinthians Be ye all of one minde live in peace and the God of peace shall be with you And with you after a speciall manner viz. 2. Cor. 13.11 by blessing your prayers and practise in this kinde with peace all kinds of peace viz. Peace of body in a well-ordered temperature of the severall parts peace of the sensitive soul in a just restraining of the appetite peace of the reasonable soul in the sweet Harmony between action and speculation peace both of body and soul in a sober course of life peace between God and man by faith and obedience peace between man and man by a mutuall entercourse of love politicall peace by the subjection of every soule to the higher powers Ecclesiasticall peace by our joynt prayers for Ierusalem and universall peace by the tending of every creature to that very end for which God made it temporall peace here and eternall peace hereafter And this he grant us who is the God and Father of Peace and that for his dear Son sake who is the Prince of Peace To both whom with the Holy Ghost the blessed spirit of peace three persons and one invisible indivisible and incomprehensibly glorious Lord God be ascribed all Glory Power and Praise now and for evermore Amen FINIS