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A85833 An exhortation to peace: with an intimation of the prime enemies thereof, lately delivered in a sermon, and newly published with some small addition, by Lionell Gatford, B.D. rector of Dinnington in Suffolke, now a prisoner in Ely-house in Holborne. Gatford, Lionel, d. 1665. 1643 (1643) Wing G333; Thomason E94_1; ESTC R2004 27,384 44

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neither the Prophet nor the Apostle could expresse and therefore they cry out in admiration thereof quam speciosi pedes c. how beautifull are the feet of him or them that publish or preach peace and as there is beauty in the publike preaching the Gospell so there is beauty in the publike praying unto God and praising of him as also in the rest of Gods publike worship and service rightly performed and therefore is the whole worship and service of God in his house called as you heard but now by the kingly Prophet David the beauty of the Lord Psa 27. and the beauty of holinesse Psal 29.2 But beloved in what places is this beauty and excellency of Gods worship and service to be found Not in those places wherein the sound of the trumpet and alarme of warre are daily heard for what agreement hath the preaching of the Gospell of peace with warring and fighting or what entertainment can praying finde where killing and murthering are professed and who can hope to heare the voice of praising God where cursing and blaspheming his Name are so uncontrolledly practised 't is a short but a smart and pithy examination of the Souldiers Pater-Noster which Erasmus takes in his Querimoniae pacis I will adde but a little to it and by it you may guesse how God is worshipped and served in those places where such men keepe their Randevooze quid quaeso orat miles what I beseech you saith Erasmus does the Souldier pray or how Doest thou say Our Father O impudent mouth doest thou dare to call God father who art flying at the throate of thy brother to cut it or teare it out Doest thou say hallowed be Thy Name when Gods Name is by none more blasphemed and dishonoured then by thee and thy Comrades Doest thou say thy Kingdom come when none is a greater enemy to the Kingdome of grace and hath lesse hope of the Kingdome of glory then thy selfe Doest thou say Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven and yet when God tels thee that 't is his will that thou shouldst follow peace with all men and holinesse thou delightest in war and all manner of wickednesse refusing all just conditions of peace and adhortations to piety Doest thou say Give us this day our daily bread and yet takest away by violence and rapine all the bread and other necessaries of life that thy poore brother hath laboured for in the sweat of his browes Doest thou beseech the Lord to forgive thee thy trespasses as thou forgivest them that trespasse against thee when as nothing but thy brothers blood will satisfie thee and his too who never did nor would have offended thee didst not or hadst not thou first beyond measure provoked him Doest thou pray not to be led into temptation and yet accountest it pusillanimity not to venture upon any thing that thy lusts tempts thee unto And doest thou supplicate to be delivered from all evill and yet art never at rest from plotting and practising all the evill thy heart can invent making it thy trade of life to live all thy dayes in that evill of evils bloody warre What is all this praying but a mocking of God and blaspheming of his Name and how then can praying or any other part of Gods service be performed as it should in those places where warres rage when the actors in that bloody tragedy being the onely men of power and sway in those places are so flatly opposite in all their practises to what is commanded by God or desired from him I but will some Souldiers of these times say you are quite mistaken in us we doe not use the Lords Prayer at all but we pray onely as the Spirit teacheth us but what Spirit is it I beseech them Whose teaching they follow in their prayers when they lay aside and despise the prayers which the Lord Christ himselfe hath taught them Certainly 't is not that Spirit of God which helpeth our infirmities and when we know not what we should pray for as we ought doth it selfe make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Rom. 8.26 For that Spirit would never teach men to contemne and reject that prayer Christ by the same Spirit hath taught them but on the contrary would so instruct and quicken them in their powring forth that and other prayers now slighted by them that the using thereof once would more effectually prevaile with God and more feelingly comfort themselves then all the vaine tedious tautologising bablings that ever fall from them besides men taught by that Spirit would abhorre to appeare in any acts so repugnant to each clause of that prayer I confesse for my share that as where I call to minde the reigning sinnes of these times such as blindnesse of heart pride vaine glory and hypocisie envy hatred malice and all manner of uncharitablenesse fornication and other such like deadly sinnes sedition and privy conspiracy false doctrine and heresie hardnesse of heart and contempt of Gods Word and Commandement c. I doe not wonder to see and heare of such multitudes that startle at our set formes of publike prayer wherein these sinnes are set forth ript up and prayed against with so much plainnesse of expression and no lesse vehemency and ardency of devotion and to desire rather to use some loose prayers of their owne wherein they may take their owne liberty and pray against those sinnes as frees any suit whereof others are guilty not themselves So when I observe of what spirit many men are calling daily for fire from heaven upon their fellow brethren or stirring up what fire earth and hell can helpe them to kindle against them I doe not admire that even the Lords prayer also is which is composed of a spirit so much contrary to theirs laid aside by them But 't is a sad case in the interim that should either be given up to such a reprobate mind or live the least time in such an ungodly course of life as not to dare to use that forme of prayer which Christ hath prescribed or if they doe their very using thereof proves no better then a mocking or an abusing of him that prescribed it I doe not condemne all Souldiers nor all souldiers prayers the faith of that Centurion in the Gospell Math. 8. Acts 10. and the prayers of that Centurion in the Acts and the faith and prayers of many devout souldiers both before and since would rise up in judgment against me if I should so judge them and their devotions but the more devout souldiers are the more they will assent to truth propugned by me that warres are an enemy to publike devotion whatsoever interruption private praiers suffer by them I doe confesse we doe not read that ever David was more fervent or frequent in his prayers then when he was encompassed or pursued by his warlike enemies but then it must be also acknowledged that even in those times David prayed for
accursed and if they shall be called the Children of God these may be called the Children of the divell And indeed none but such cursed chidren of that accursed father would ever have attempted the disturbing of the peace of those places wherein God is solemnly worshipped and justice and judgement duly executed For what is the glory and strength of a Nation but these two the worship and service of God rightly performed and justice and judgment faithfully administred The glory is departed from Israel saith the wife of Phineas for the Arke of God is taken 1 Sam. 4.22 The Arke of God being the signe of Gods presence amongst the people of Israel is stiled the glory of Isriel And what doth now manifest Gods presence amongst any people so evideutly and lively as the true worship and service of God doth Nay what is there but that which makes God to be present amongst any people God himself I confesse or the presence of God amongst a people is properly the glory of that Nation so Ierem. cals him 2.11 My people have changed their glory for that as doth not profit so the Psalmist Ps 106.20 Thus they changed their glory c. But this name may by a metonimia be ascribed also to that which is the signe of Gods presence and so as well to Gods worship and service now as ever it was to the Arke And that Gods worship and service is also the strength of a Nation as well as the glory no other Testimony need be produced then that 2 Chron. 11.17 so they strengthened the Kingdome of Judah and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong three yeeres for three yeeres they walked in the way of David and Solomon that is they worshipped and served the Lord as David and Solomon had done Then that the executing of justice and judgment is likewise both a strength and a glory to that Nation that is blessed therewith may be seen sufficiently either Isa 1. from v. 17. to the end of v. 27. or Cap. 9.7 It being declared in the latter place that a Kingdome is both ordered and established by justice and judgement and in the former that the want thereof is a main cause of a Kingdomes ruine Now this being cleared that the worship and service of God rightly performed and justice and judgment faithfully administred are both the glory and the strength of a Nation and it being at large demonstrated that neither of these can be performed where peace is not preserved what can we conclude lesse of those that labour to undermine and blow up the peace of a Nation wherein both those rich gemmes of a Nations glory and firme pillars of her strength are then that they are Traytors to that Church and state It deserves to be reputed treason against a Kingdome if any of that Kingdom especially should attempt ought against the peace of it though the sound of Gods worship and service hath scarce been ever heard therein of such unspeakeable worth and excellency is peace it selfe of what brand then are they worthy that have attempted the utter ruine of a Nations peace I need not name the Nation wherin God hath beene longer and more eminently worshipped and served to his glory not ours be it spoken and justice and judgement more strictly and duely executed then in any one Nation whatsoever To call their crime high treason is too low a terme for it for take the crime in its true altitude and you 'le finde that it reacheth from hell where it was first contrived to Heaven it selfe against which it is complotted and so 't is high treason to the stretch of height being treason against the most highest Every one sees or at least may if he doe not shut his owne eyes or suffer others to blindfold him that the sacred Person of our most gracious Soveraign and some of the best of His blood divers of His Nobility are for what they lately have been I tremble to recall in imminent danger on the one part and the representative body of the Kingdome as they themselves declare themselves are but in little lesse hazard on the other and for ought any that are best skilled in Armes know ere the sword be put up againe the whole Kingdom may be ruined And this one would think is treason high enough to contrive all these into so much perill the Lord discover the contrivers whosoever they be But alas who who sees or is able to conceive what blasphemy against God and Christ what scandall to Religion and Christianity it selfe will from hence be occasioned and that too too justly For what first will the Heathen and other Infidels say Are these the Christians are these they that glory so much in their Lord Christ and call themselves after his Name Why they tell us that Christ was no warrier no fighter no revenger no spiller of blood c. but was the Prince of peace whose government and peace is inseparable as well as endlesse they tell us that Christ did no violence to any no nor so much as opened his mouth when he was afflicted and oppressed himselfe but was led as a lambe to the slaughter and as a sheepe that is dumbe before her shearers They would make us beleeve also that Christ came into the world to make peace betweene the world and his Father and that at his comming the very Angels sang of peace on Earth and that all the time of his being here on earth he preacht peace and a little before his returne to heaven he prayed for peace and at his very leaving his Disciples he left peace with them as his last legacy but he that should observe how little these Christians regard peace and how small a thing will provoke them to spill one anothers blood to teare out one anothers throat or to doe one another any mischiefe cannot beleeve that themselves doe beleeve their Lord Christ to have been such a peace-maker peace-preacher and peace-practiser as they say he was They call themselves Christs sheepe and Christ their Shepheard but did ever any man see sheep so worrey and devour one another Why Wolves or Tygers Beares or Lyons cannot deale more cruelly with one another then they doe They call themselves the Vine-branches and Christ their Vine but was it ever heard that Vine-branches did gall oppresse and vex one another as they doe Why briars and thornes doe not scratch and rase one another halfe so much They say they are all members of one and the same body but did ever any members of one and the same body so fight and quarrell with one another so mangle and martyr one another They say they are servants to one and the same Lord but did ever fellow-servants so beat and butcher one another They say they have all but one faith but would any man thinke they had any faith at all when they seeke to supplant and ruine one another so as they doe They say they are all baptised