Prophet enter not into the house of mourning neither goe to lament or bemoan them for I have taken away my peace from this people saith the Lord even loving kindnesse and mercy for if peace bee gone farewell all other blessings of the Lord and therefore threatning the captivity he thus expresseth it â—er 30.5 wee have heard a voyce of trembling of feare and not of peace for the voyce of peace is sweet as the voyce of warre is dreadfull And this judgement God seemes now to threaten us withall our peace seemes to be shaken crazed and almost broken in pieces and warre to bee entered into our gates we heare the beating of the Drumme the clangor of the Trumpet the report of the Musquet and the horse prepared for the battell trots in our streets and his neighings are entred into our eares and the destructions will be of the same Country-men and of many of the same profession for the substance of Religion and of the subjects of the same King Oh ye therefore that be the friends of peace the servants of the God of peace the saved of the Prince of peace and joyned together in the same covenant of peace who have one God the Father of all one Lord the Redeemer of all one faith one baptisme and one hope of Heaven pray for peace pray that some Mediator may stand up in the gap to divert this threatned storme of destruction pray that that God who when there was such a distance made betwixt God and man by sinne that no creature in heaven or earth could reconcile them conceiving in the bowells of his mercy thoughts of peace toward man did send the Sonne of his love and delight in the flesh to make peace to procure peace to preach peace and purchace peace for us with our God would stirre up in the hearts of Prince and Parliament the studious desire and endeavour of pacification that these water-breaches that be broken in upon us may not be given way unto lest they prove an inundation and deluge of destruction It would be a work of glory for every man in place fit to that purpose to labour this way and blessed should he be blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God Mat. 5.9 Titus Flaminius when he had composed the divisions and quieted the seditions of Greece Plut. Flam. and setled the divided and distracted estate of the Countrey triumphed for it with as great joy as if he had conquered the Macedonians and all Greece So glorious would it bee to be a worker in this worke of pacification for any man that hath a calling giving him a capacity thereunto that he should bee registred in the Chronicles of Fame to his immortall glory wherein the willfull raisers up of warre shall beare eternally the blacke marke of Infamy And for us all of an inferiour Orbe Sphaere le ts be excited to pray labour and study in our way for peace not blowing the Trumpet nor stirring up the coales and fire of warre by factious oppositions by siding names Titles that tend onely to sedition and to soment and nourish hatred and malice there by to prepare us to the greater cruelty one against another if that judgement should be begun amongst us let us avoyde lying and slandering especially blaspheming and standering the footsteps of the Lords anointed let not the voyce of warre be named by you unlesse in detestation si pacem diligis belli mentionem ne feceris He was no foole but a wise Statesman that said Sâ—â—tâ— de Bene. iniquissimam pacem justissimo bello antefero I preferre the most unjust peace before the justest warre omnis pax bello civils praestantior Cicero any peace is better than a civill warre Most true it is that peace is better with many disadvantages than War with all the conditions that be desirable to it Certainely therefore they be men of mad and disjoynted braines and desperate spirits that are all for Warre especially for a Civill Warie in the bowels of their owne Countrey and Nation Cicer. in Phil. Of such a man saith Cicero Nec privatos Focos nec publicas Leges nec Libertatis Jura chara habere potest c. Hee neither esteemes mens private interest nor the publique Laws nor the rights of Liberty deere unto him whom discord whom the slaughter of his Citizens whom Civill Warre delighteth and I think him fit to bee cast out of the number of men and to bee exterminated the confines of humane Nature and therefore whether it be Sylla or Marius or whosoever else that wisheth for a Civill War I judge him to be borne a detestable Citizen to the Common-wealth Neither is any thing more horrible than such a Citizen than such a man if at least he be to be esteemed a Citizen or a man that desireth a Civill Warre The Turkes in detestation of the bloudy contentious humor of Selimus their Emperor who was never quiet never well unlesse he were fighting though it were with his own father made this a piece of his Epitaph Licet ossa jacent animus tamen bella quaerit Though his bones be at rest his ghost is hunting after war Oh let us that be Christians then the sons of peace and called unto peace in and by the Gospell of Peace abhorre those bloudy slaughters of mankind that do accompany War Thinke often on the miseries that do waite on War and go along inseparably with it Set woefull Germany before your eyes so wasted and consumed by war that in the Palatinate the goodlyest and most fruitfull Garden of that Countrey men have beene found dead with grasse in their mouths which they have gathered and gnawed up like beasts to keep alive their starven soules ready to dye of hunger Set lamenting Ireland before your eyes with all those villanies outrages committed on men women children rich poore priest and people without respect of age or sex or calling Do we desire to be made desolate as they be Would we see our Towns and Cities on a flaming fire Would it be pleasing to us to behold our wives the pleasure of our eyes ravished before our faces Would it be a delight unto us to see our little Infants â—hat be so deare and tender to us that the wind may â—ot be suffered to blow on them tossed on the Pikes in sport by the barbarous and remorselesse Souldier or â—aken by the heeles and their braines dashed out against â—he pavement Would we behold all we have laboured for all our life â—ong carried away in a moment by a stranger and all our pleasant places that be deare unto us made a desolate heap of rubbish even our Churches which our fathers with great and expensive costs have builded and our selves have at our own charges repaired and beautified that we may with the more lightsome comlines and decent delight assemble together in them to Gods service the welfare of our souls into which in some places already the Souldier is entred to bee trained and marshalled Would we see them laid waste or made shambles or market-places or stables or Pigion houses the things that some desire and speake concerning them already Or do we desire to enjoy Gods blessings and our selves wives and children in honesty and in honour our trades and riches in the City with safety our pleasure and possessions in the Countrey with comfort and contentment Oh then let us desire and pray and labour for the continuance of Peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh foole foole all these desirable things are in this one thing Peace And if notwithstanding all that hath been said or may bee thought concerning the blessing of Peace and the mischiefe of War we will yet desire to be fighting Remember that imprecation of the Prophet Psal 68.30 Thou shalt scatter the people that delight in War Consider neither side can be assured of victory nor can any man imagine the sad issues of a discomfiture to the discomfited Let therefore I beseech you the eare that hath heard these things affect the heart against that fearefull judgment of War and beget in us all a desire and love of Peace in which we may enjoy all desirable blessings and the blessed Gospell of Peace to build us up in that Peace of God that passeth all understanding and bring us after the troubles of this life to that rest and Peace that shall bee glorious and happy in Heaven for ever FINIS
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