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A14374
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A plea for peace: or A sermon preached in St. Pauls Church in London. Iuly 9. 1637. By Henry Vertue, parson of the parish church of Alhollowes Honey-Lane in London
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Vertue, Henry, d. 1660.
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1637
(1637)
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STC 24691; ESTC S114883
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38,111
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69
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not either take or give offence And thereunto S. Austin addes of his own Quia contingit ut una Ecclesia habeat alios Sabbato jejunantes alios prandentes mos eorum mihi sequendus videtur quibus corum populorum congregatio regenda commissa est Quare si meo consilio acquiescis Episcopo tuo in hac re noli resistere quod facit ipse sine ullo scrupulo sectare Because it so falls out that in one and the same Church some may fast on Saturdayes and others dine the custome of those seems to me to be followed to whom the government of the Church is committed If therefore you rest in my advice resist not thy Bishop in this thing and what he doth follow thou without scruple The observation of this rule and care to walk according to it would not a little tend to the preservation of the peace and unity of the Church 7 Shut out tale-bearers if we would shun private breaches there is a generation of men that go up and down from one to another carrying the devils pack like Pedlers seeking to curry favour with all sides these are mischievous persons A whisperer Prov. 16.28 saith Solomon separates chiefe friends If therefore we desire to maintaine peace let us walk by Solomons rule Prov. 25.23 As the North winde drives away raine so doth the angry countenance the backbiting tongue And the issue we shall finde according to that other adage of his Prov. 26.20 Where no wood is the fire goes out and where no tale-bearer is strife ceases And for the preventing of publick breaches hearken to the counsell of Saint Paul Mark them that cause divisions and avoid them Rom. 16.17 There is a brood of ill-minded men who care not what they say or write whereby to worke in men an ill opinion of the Church wherein they live though never so apparantly false and that they may the more easily insinuate and winde themselves into the mindes of well-meaning people they will make a faire pretence of zeale for the good of the Church as if all that they did were altogether for the preservation of the truth of Doctrine and the purity of Gods worship when God knows it is if not onely at least especially for their owne advantage to raise themselves a name by defaming of others whose preferment they envy such as these the Apostle would have us to marke and avoid and according to this is the advice of Saint Cyprian that famous Bishop of Carthage Admoneo pariter consulo saith he Câ—pr Epist 40 〈◊〉 plebem de quinque Presbyter Schismaticis factionis foelicissimi ne perniciosis vocibus temerè credatis ne fallacibus verbis consensum facilè commodetis ne pro luce tenebras pro die noctem venenum pro remedio mortem pro vita sumatis nec aet as vos corum nec authoritas fallat c. I admonish and counsell you that ye do not rashly beleeve pernicious words nor hand over head give assent to deceitfull speeches lest ye take darknesse for light night for day poyson for remedie and death for life Let neither their age nor authoritie deceive you c. Let this be our care and we shall be well shielded against Schisme and division and enabled to maintaine unity and to live in peace and so the God of love and peace shall be with us To which God Father Sonne and holy Ghost be rendred of us and the whole Church all honour and glory praise and power might and majestie from this time forth and for evermore Amen FINIS Errata PAge 3. line 24. for Apostles reade Apostle p 6 l 3 for spirits r spirituall p 20 l 9 for dissentio r dissensio p 28 l 4 for slaughter r laughter p 37 l 2â— for iniunction r iniunction p 49 l 7 for pretend r did pretend p 51 l 3 for defraudeiur r defraudetur l 19 for Diaboli sed pax Dei r Diaboli sed pax Dei p 52. l 23 for Saint Bernard Hic et r Saint Bernard hic et p 53 l 30 for Thus as Tertullian testifies Valentinus hunting r Thus as Tertullian testifies Valentinus hunting c. p 57. l. 27 for God The other c. r. God the other
A Plea for Peace OR A SERMON PREACHED in St. PAVLS Church in LONDON Iuly 9. 1637. By HENRY VERTUE Parson of the Parish Church of Alhollowes Honey-Lane in LONDON LONDON Printed by M. F. for IOHN CLARK neare S. Peters Church in Cornhill 1637. REcensui concionem hanc cui Titulus est A Plea for Peace c. nec in ea quicquam reperio quo minus cum utilitate publica imprimatur October 9. 1637. Sa Baker TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE LADY SARAH Countesse Dowager of Leicester Right Honourable THis Sermon was preached in St. Pauls Church by the command of Authoritie The choice of the subject was left to my owne discretion when seeing with griefe the breaches among us and fearing to what they might come I fell upon that which now presents it selfe to your Ladiships view as studious to cast one bucket on these flames to quench them if it were possible for who can sit still and keepe silence when he sees the prosperity of so famous and flourishing a Church as this in which wee live hazzarded by unbappy differences raised up by unquiet spirits I was perswaded by some to make this Sermon thus preached more publike by committing it to the Presse who were of opinion that it might bee of use for that end at which God knowes I aimed in the preaching of it namely the setling of the mindes of men and the composing of them to a peaceable conversation which if I may see in any measure effected it will more joy mee then the foolish speeches of some lawlesse tongues against me for my peaceable endeavours have been able to trouble me And no sooner had I resolved upon the exposing of this Sermon to publike view but your Ladiship came to my mind with some content to thinke that now I might have an opportunity to bring my selfe againe to your Honors remembrance and to expresse my gratitude for that favour and respect which long fince both I and my parents received at your Ladiships hands May it please you to accept of this poore pledge of my unfained and sincere respect to pardon my boldnesse thus intruding on your Honour and to beleeve that what I have or am is at your Ladiships service professing my selfe to be Your Honours in all true observance HENRY VERTUE A Plea for Peace EPHES. 4.3 Endeavouring to keepe the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace SAint Ambrose hath a rule Ambros tom 3. epist 70. which warrants my choice of this Text. Nobis Sacerdotibus id praecipuè curae sit ut ea vitia resecemus quae in plurimos videntur serpere that is The study of us Priests saith the Father ought to bee especially to bend our endeavours against those sinnes which we see to bee most frequent and predominant How divisions abound among us who sees not the more the pity What sonne of the Church may not readily acknowledge it now high time to come with our buckets to quench these flames if it be possible Who shall or can judge it unseasonable now to plead for peace when we finde such wide breaches among us Nor can I make my Plea in better words nor can I make choice of a better ground for it then the passage now read Endeavouring to keepe c. St. Paul in the first verse of this Chapter begins the exhortatory part of his Epistle and the first advice which he gives is generall and comprises all the rest Walke worthy of the calling c. but thence hee descends to the particulars included in that generall And now the first thing that he pleads for is peace and unity with the necessary prerequisites of it which being in the foregoing verse humility meeknesse long-suffering and mutuall forbearance his maine Plea it selfe for unity wee have in the words now read which hee contents not himselfe barely to propound but he ads to it a strong argument for the backing of it taken from the unparalleld neernesse of Christians in the verses following But the Apostles plea it selfe for peace and unity is to be the subject of my discourse at this time and my errand to you from heaven to which I shall crave your attention for the present and your obedience for the future That yee endeavour to keepe c. In this Plea wee finde these particulars 1. The subject of the plea the unity of the Spirit 2. The thing required with respect to it endeavouring to keepe it 3. The course prescribed for the preservation of this unity In the bond of peace But lest I seeme to wrong my Text offering violence to it by pulling it in pieces unnecessarily or be in danger to trouble you with coincidencies and tautologies I shall choose rather to looke at it and so to handle it as one entire Proposition which is That S. Paul advises his Christian Ephesians and in them us and all Christians in the whole world to endeavour to keepe the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace And in the handling of this Proposition I shall observe this order 1. To explaine the termes 2. to prove the point 3. to say something by way of Application 1. The explication concernes the Parties to whom the advice is given and the Advice it selfe 1. For the persons to whom the advice is given they are as I said the Christian Ephesians and all Christians in the whole world and in all succeeding times of the world If that bee true which Saint Paul saies The things Rom. 15.4 which were written aforetime were written for our learning Tertull. de Spectat answerably to which Tertullian saies truely Cum Israelitas Deus disciplinae admonet vel objurgat ad omnes habet that is When God doth admonish or chide the Israelites he hath a respect to all Cum Egypto vel Ethiopiae exitium comminatur in omnem Gentem peccatricem praejudicat And when he threatens ruine to Egypt or Ethiopia hee gives sentence aforehand against every ungodly Nation then is it much more true which the same Father affirmes of the Epistles of the holy Apostles Ad omnes scripsit Tertul. contra Marcion l. 5. dum ad quosdam The Apostle writing to some writ to all Aug tom 5. de Civit. Dei l. 14. c. 9. which also S. Austine affirmes of our blessed Apostle in particular For having by way of commendation said that hee furnished populos Dei the people of God with more Epistles than any of his fellow Apostles he addes by way of explication Non tantum illos qui praesentes ab eo videbantur sed illos qui futuri praevidebantur that is not onely those which hee saw for the present to bee the people of God but those also whom hee foresaw so to be in future times So that here will be no scope whereby to shift off this advice of our holy Apostle for it was not for them alone to whom it was immediatly and at the first hand directed but for