depend upon their Armies successe Victory bestowes not her self alwayes to one side and party The battell is not alwayes to the most righteous it is not alwayes to the strongest Eccle. 9.11 But as Noahs dove lay hovering over the waters not knowing where to rest her foot so when a battell is joyned victory hovers sometimes long inclining one while to the one another to the other uncertaine where to light and settles sometimes on the one sometimes on the others sword A gag that by his conquering sword had made many women childlesse was taken prisoner at the last by Saul and hewen in peices by the sword of Samuel and his mother made childlesse among women 1 Sam. 15.33 A doni-bezeck that had overcome threescore and ten Kings and cut off their thumbs from their hands and feete and made them eat bread like dogs under his table was taken captive himselfe by the tribe of Judah and retaliated by them Judg. 1.7 The five Kings that warred against the King of Sodome and his confederates discomfited them and carried away the spoyle of Sodome and Lot Abrahams Nephew also but Abraham arming three hundred and eighteene of his houshold servants pursued these five Kings and overthrew them in battell and recovered Lot with all the spoyle they had carried away as a booty Gen. 14.11.15 The Amalekites invaded Ziklag spoyled the City and carried away David's Wives and all the substance of his people but David and his people pursuing them defeated them and recovered back all they had carried away from Ziklag 1 Sam. 30.1.17 In the warres betweene France and England upon our pretensions to that Crowne wonderfull were the different chances of warre the one sometimes gaining on the other glorious victories and put at other times to shamefull flight and losse that noble and victorious Prince Henry the fift so put that Kingdome to distresse by his victorious conquests and forced the King to such extreâ—ity that marrying his daughter besides those provinces that he injoyed in present possession it as agreed upon that after the French Kings death he should inherit the Crowne of France by Oath of all the Nobles and cheife Cities of the Kingdome and so it was proclaimed in England and in France But Henry the sixt his sonne lost all his Father had obtained which Henry the Father by what spirit I know not did fore-prophesie for when newes was brought him of the birth of his sonne Henry borne at Windsor hee presently said I Henry borne at Mounmouth shall reigne a short time and gaine much but Henry horne at Windsor shall reigne long and lose all which fell out very true by the differing chance of warre Henry the third in the Barons warres at the battell of Lewis in Sussex was overthrowne by them but in the battell of Eversham in Worcestershire bee defeated his Barons because the Conqueror and rid his neck from the yoke of the twelve Peers that had been put upon him and had a long time beene grievous to him Thus in the long and tedious warres betweene the two houses of Yorke and Lancaster the differing changes of the war were many sometimes one sometimes the other faction prevailing in the field and sometimes one sometimes the other wearing the Imperiall Crowne till all on either side were as weary of the war as many wanton men are now of peace All the great Monarchies of the world as they rose so they fell and were ruined by warre as the Prophet Iere. 50.23 instanceth in that great one Babylon saying how is the hammer of the whole earth out asunder and brohen how is Babylon become a desolation among the Nations In warre sometime where strength and policy and shill and courage and all things needfull for the war concurre yet these prevaile not but the weakest the unskilfulest the femest and most unfurnished of military accommodations goe away with the victory and sometimes might overcomes right and the most wicked winne the field when God will chasten a people for other sinnes that have a righteous cause There is no greater evill and affliction in the world than War for it is attended upon by all the evils of punishment that God inflicts upon men for their iniquities And therefore in Scripture when God is so offended that he purposeth the utter mine and desolation of a family City or Nation this is the judgment that he sets on foot to that purpose By the Wars of the Philistims upon Saul he put an end to Sauls life and Kingdom By the Wars of Jehu upon Ahab he swept away the house of Ahab as dung from the face of the earth By the Wars of the Syrians upon Samaria that City was brought to that calamity that women did eat thier children by course to satisfie their hungry soules and fed and sustained their dying lives with the dung of Doves a thing that nature loathes By the Wars of Nabuchadnezzar upon Jerusalem that City was brought to that extremity that the beautifull women the sole of whose foot might not touch the earth such was their nicety and tendernesse did make their own Bowels the sepulcher for their children of a span long the fruits of their own bodies And when it had been reedified by Zerobabel and the rest of the reduct of the captivity by the wars of the Romans under the conduct of Titus and Vespasian it was brought unto as great misery and after taken and rased to the ground and the people sold by the poll for slaves and to this day remaine miserably dispersed upon the face of the earth Troy the most famous City of the World the subject of the song of Homer the oldest writer in the world except Moses that wrote 500 years before him by the wars of the Greeks was ruined and turned into a tilled field Jamseges est ubi Troja fait And now corne grows where Troy Town stood The Canaanites the Hittites the Amorites the Hiuites and Peresites the Gigasites great and mighty Nations who had walled Cyties and Chariots of Iron and the sons of Anack mighty men among them were spewed out of their land by the war of the Israelites upon them Josh 12. War brings the Screech Owle and the Dragon into the most beautifull and goodly Palaces laying them as desolate wildernesses full of briars and thornes and makes them habitations for Satyres the wild beasts of the Islands and other the most dolefull creatures Esay 13.21 Yea when war enters into the Congregation of God the very Temples of God are broken down with axes and hammers Psa 74.4 Even that very Temple that was the beauty glory of the world was burn'd by Nabuchadnezzar with fire 2 King 25.9 which made the Prophet Esay thus complaine Esay 64.11 Our holy and beautifull house wherein our Fathers praised thee is burnt up with fire and all our pleasant things laid wast And the Daughters ran the same fortune with their Mother Psa 74.7 They have cast fire into thy Sanctuary and defiled the
dwelling place of thy Name to the ground they have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the Land Thus by War the holy Cities of Jury became a wildernesse and Zion a desolation Esay 64.10 And no marveile for when great Armies are got on foot wherein are men for the greater part of them most impious and licentious in their violent lust what can be imagined but outrage and villany Here is nothing but robbery and spoyle all is fish that comes to net per fas per nefas by hooke or crooke all is one In war there is a continuall squeezing of the Spungt that sucked up abundance in the time of Peace treasures are exhausted plateâ— turned into earthen dishes and people mightily inpoverished by the expensive oppression of war In War trading decayes lands lie untilled and briars grow up instead of corne Merchandize by exportation and Importation cease Cities are unfrequented like the wayes in Juels time and are made desolate and waste Et discordiâres magnae dilabuntur by war and discord great things are brought to nothing In war Wives are made Widdows Children Fatherlesse Parents childlesse Friends friendlesse And in civill Wars the most uncivill and barbarous of all other the father often fights against the son and the son against the father and a mans enemies are those of his owne house and bloud so that one brother becomes the butcher of another and the slaughters are most unkindly and unnaturall all bonds of affinity consanguinity and humanity being violently broken and cut asunder as in those civill wars between the houses of Saul and David betwixt Israel and Judah betwixt York and Lancaster in which the brother hath sought against the brother and the Kings own friends have been forced into the field against him and have died in that fight in which they have been but faint enemies to him and to which they were altogether unwilling In these uncivill civill Wars most wofull are the desolations none being more destructive and pernicious enemies than enraged friends countreymen kindred For when love is turned into hatred that hatred is most deadly Corruptio optimi pessima as it is with any other thing the better it was in its native Goodnesse the worse it is in its Corruption I exemplifie this in those bloudy Wars between the two houses of York and Lancaster in which let that only reigne of Edward the fourth be made our Map to descry the desolations of civill War in which were fought nine civill Battailes in England insomuch that in his time most of the flower of the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom either died by the Sword valiantly fighting in the field or by the Axe of the Executioner being taken prisoners for partaking The Civill wars between Marius and Sylla bad almost unpeopled Rome which made Quintus Catulus a noble Roman cry out one day in the Senate with whom shall we live at last Si in bello armatos in Pace inermes occidimus If in War we slay the armed and in Peace the unarmed In that Civill War mentioned Judg. 21.2 Between the tribe of Judah and Benjamin when the fury was over the conquering Tribe wept sore for the destruction of Benjamin whom they had slaine down to the small number of 600 men that fled and hid themselves in the rock of Rimmon In War what losse is there of Limbs of Eyes of Armes of Legs What living sorrows of such as comming off maimed from the Battell do live in misery and want for ever after So that for all their Markes of Honour the dead are better than they And what dying groans and moanes of men ready to gaspe out their soules to whom all pity and compassion is prevented by Fifes and Drums and Trumpets which are used in War not only to encourage the Souldier to make havocke of man-kind but as in the valley of Hinnom that the parents might not heare the screeking of their Infants sacrificed to Moloch lest their eare should affect their heart So are these loud Instruments used in War that men may not heare the woefull complainings of their wounded friends lest pity should enfeeble that Hellish fury they call courage and valour in killing and destroying In War all priviledges and immunities cease for here is no Law but power and lust no Iustice but spoyle and rapine Men had led saith Seneca a most quiet life if they had taken away these two words Meum tuum out of the nature of things which made Licurgus set up a community in Lacedaemon that his Citizens might have no contention for any private interest But in Warre these pronounes meum tuum mine and thine are not known but what the stronger can lay hold on and carry away by might that is his own and it is here according to that proverbe That that is thine is mine and that that is mine is mine own Here is no Charter nor Freedom of the City here is no distinction betweene the Magistrate and people but Cade and Straw and Tyler will beard the King and give all Iudgements out of their lawlesse lips and the most noble here are made a scorne unto the basest villaine Here is no assurance of one penny to morrow to him that this day is full and hath abundance Jocus lâ—â—us sunt in militiâ domos diripere fana spoliare virgines rapâ—re solida urbes atque oppida incendere Eras in Adag In War the goodliest Cities are set on a Flaming fire laid in their dust and rubbish Here the chaste Wife and Virgin are ravished before the face of the miserable Husband and Parent unable to relieve or rescue them from villany Here the little Infants are tossed on the pikes or taken by the heeles and their braines dashed out against the stones or slaine in the armes or on the knees or in the bosome of their deere mother that bare them and ripped sometimes out of their mothers belly In war there are a thousand indignities and barbarous cruelties and nothing to be heard or seen but weeping wayling wringing of hands nothing but mourning and lamentation and woe heu miseri qui bella gerunt Indeed War is the last and soarest of all Gods Iudgements sent out among men for their sins the famine and pestilence not to be compared with it For men that be wolves and insatiable in their cruelties yea devils one to another be the executioners of Gods sore vengeance brought on a people for their transgressions when famine pestilence and other more gentle corrections have done no good upon them to reclaime them from their sins against which if God being angry but a little shall put this rod into the hands of men they will helpe forward and increase the fury Zecha 1.15 Nay more than this in War the fury reacheth out only to living men but to the reasonlesse creatures that are appointed for their comfort And more than that to the very senselesse creatures the trees of fruit the
First the Blessing Peace Secondly the Author of that blessing the Lord. Thirdly those that be blessed of him with it his people And answerably there be three observations First Peace is a blessing upon Gods people Secondly God is the author of it and gives it to his people Thirdly those that may expect it and have the promise of it are his people But I will contract and bind up all the Doctrinal part in this one bundle as the Spouse in the Canticles said of her Beloved He was like a bundle of Mirrhe he should lodge between her breasts So I shall lodge that bundle in your breasts desiring the aromatick savour of it may as a bundle of the choycest flowers or a most delightfull pomander be alwayes fragrant and redolent in the nostrils of your hearts and that is this Peace is a blessing a rare and pretious favour and mercy of God unto his people Esay 54.13 Esay 66.12 and in infinite places of the Scripture There is a threefold peace Externa Interna Aeterna Temporall Spirituall Coelestiall Peace there is outward peace the Blessing inward peace the Grace and everlasting peace of Glory And as in a stately Palace there is a lodge or court that leades into the inmost goodly roomes so externall Peace is the entrance or introduction to the inward lodgings of the sweet Peace of conscience of that eternal rest in which our peace in Heaven shall be happy inasmuch as externall peace affords us many accommodations and helps to the gaining and obtaining both of the one and other Now this Externall Peace I shall discourse of only at this time The outward Peace in this world which fals under a double notion according to a double state of men in the world First there is a Civill Peace in regard of the civill state of men as they be men only and are knit together in civill society in one Kingdom or Common-wealth under one King Governour or government and bound in the bond of the same Laws the sinews of their Peace and welfare Secondly there is an Ecclesiasticall Peace as men fall under the notion of Christian men and are knit together in an Ecclesiasticall state and in the bond of Religion and the same profession of Faith and manner of Worship in one body or Church wherof Christ is the head and the Magistrate his vicegerent and the Scriptures the sinews of their peace by precept for things necessary by permission for things of decency not commanded or determined in Scripture but left to the discretion of the Magistrate whose Laws in these things are the Bonds of outward peace But of this Ecclesiasticall Peace although I have had many thoughts at this time I will make no words the many things I have to speake concerning the peace of the common wealth so overcumbring me that time will bee too niggardly and close-handed to mee for the other purpose inopem me copia fecit I shall therefore at this time only discourse of civill peace of men as men living together in one Common-wealth under one King and governour bound up in the same Lawes the bonds and sinews of peace To this peace are opposite all civill dissentions and contentions in the outward state of things which usually break forth into and end in the troubles and confusions of warre the greatest and extreamest opposite of peace The excellency of this civill peace the Psalmist sets forth excellently in two words Psal 133. 1. How good and pleasant a thing it is brethren to dwell together in Unity that is in Peace Quam bonum saith hee quà m jucundum how good and pleasant Some things are good but they are not pleasant as the afflictions of this life layd on us by God by way of chastisement and correction which though they prove profitable being sanctified to men by God and bring forth in the end the peaceable fruit of righteousnes to them that be exercised therein yet for the present they are not joyous but grievous Heb. 12.11 Some things are pleasant but they are not good as the delights and contentments of our sensuall appetite so far as it is carried after the loose and licencious swinge of our corrupted and depraved nature for though Epicurus and Aristippus may place their felicity in the pleasure of the sense and although God hath given us many things contentive thereunto yet unlesse the delights thereof bee regulated and the contentments thereof moderated and the raynes of our licencious appetite restrained though there be pleasure in fulfilling the lusts of the flesh yet there is no goodnesse therein nor differs a reasonable man any thing therein from the brute beast that perisheth which made the Poet say Compedibus ventrem vinclis constringe lienem and the Apostle Rom. 13.14 Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Some things are neither good nor pleasant as envy hatred malice the maine vertues and ingredients at this time of some mens zeal that would be thought religious Some things are both good and pleasant as all kind of vertue honesty charity mercy and of this nature is peace which made Henry the second of that name King of England though hee were a valiant and couragious Prince and alwayes fortunate and successefull in his warres yet to preferre peace before warre because he found it more full of pleasure and of profit than the Warres The excellency of civill peace I shall endeavour to set before you in two things First in the many commodities it brings with it for it never comes alone but as that stately Queene of Carthage came forth to entertaine her Trojan Guest Aeneas Magnâ stipante catervâ A numerous company of glistering Courtiers waiting on her so peace is alwayes accompanied and attended by a goodly traine of blessings and as Juno's Deiopeia if thou enjoy her she will fill thee with many other blessings and contentments as an off-spring begotten on her pulchrâ faciet te prole parentem In peace husbandry flourisheth for the comfortable provision of things needfull for humane life Pax Cererem nutrit pacis alumna Ceres Saith Ovid and another Poet Pax arva colit pax candida primùm Duxit aratores sub juga curva boves Peace nourisheth Ceres whom the Heathens honoured as a Goddesse because she first devised the sowing of corne and Ceres is the daughter of Peace in which the plowing Oxen were first taught to submit their neckes unto the crooked yoke in which respect although the peace of the soveraignty and rule of Christ be inward and spirituall in the heart and conscience yet it was prophesied by Micah 4.3.4 that when hee should judge among the people i. e. reigne and rule by the Gospell hee should rebuke strong Nations a farr off and they shall breake their swords into Plow-shares and their speares into pruning-hookes Nation shall not rise up against Nation neither shall they learne warre any more but they shall sit every man under his vine