to shorten it but in sin to provoke God to doe it Our season hath pantings and yet life in it although not health the Lord heare our prayers to recover it out of its fits of convulsion Is there no Balme in Gilliad that will doe it 2 Chron. 7.14 If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seeke my face and turne from their wicked wayes I will forgive their sin and heale their land 1. Argument The season of Peace and the seasonable praying for Peace hath been prescribed limited and terminated to all that have gone before us in relation to Persons Kings or Kingdomes Esaus season past he could never get a returne of the blessing although sought with teares The Gadarens could never get Christ over their water more Nor the Iewes a second season as yet to learne Christ loe I goe to the Gentiles Esa 6. Osea 3.4 I have forsaken my house I have left my heritage The Monarchy of the Babilonians and Syrians was transferred to the Medes and Persians The Macedonians to the Romans The Empire of Constantinople to the Ottoman Familie Joshua tooke ten stones out of Jordan and put other ten in the roome of them Secondly It is but just with God if none find any want of this pretious Iewell to shut up his cabinet and see who will seeke after it God alwayes substracts his mercies when they prove not usefull to us or wee ungratefull for them God knowes as well how to take them from us as tender them to us Hosea 2.3.9 Thirdly In relation to the Giver there can bee but a season expected It is the Mighty God King of Kings unto whom all the Nations of the earth are but as a drop of a bucket c. It becomes not Majesty to waite long upon the tender of their favours the Lord will give inward peace and outward peace but he will seasonably be sought to for it It is no dishonour for the greatest Monarch to attend his Majesty but unbecoming him to waite a moment on the greatest earthly Prince David esteemed it the height of his ambition to be a doore keeper under-value not then to be a receiver and in capacitie to enioy his favour Use of Exhortation If this be so that wee have but a Now for it I beseech you support your drooping soules because although neere yet is not our season past for yet wee heare of peace from the cryers of peace in publique God hath not yet forbid us with Jeremiah not to cry peace unto you cry for peace with mee Nay secondly by a strange kind of working on the heart his messengers day and night seeke peace for the three Kingdomes and your Majesty at the throne of grace you are heartily presented by many thousands of religious conscientious holy faithfull Subjects in both Kingdoms for peace to your soul c. nor hath the Lord stopt our mouths as Jeremiah's 11.14 as yet to say to us pray not c. Yea Thirdly the conditions of Peace and the Lords Propositions to be reconciled to him are by his faithfull messengers presented and by many accepted of the Lord incline your Majesties heart to signe for ever his and your Kingdomes good Yea it is your peoples hopes that you will with the Sun of righteousnesse gloriously arise with healing and peace under your wings to your three Kingdomes all sore wounded and in blood This doore of hope opened let all our seasonable prayers be presented for this blessing of Peace ply this work heartily I beseech you 1. Motive you have but a Now sor it much of the season spent a great journey and little time puts upon expedition and designe Davids former experience of the misery of warre puts him upon the designe of of Prayer for Peace Psal 122. O pray saith he for the peace of Jerusalem and he plies it night and day Finis operationis est opus 2 Motive There is yet Peace to be had for his people and although with Joseph for a time he hath spoken ruffely unto us Gen. 45.1 yet I am consident he yernes in his bowells to us he cannot contain himselfe longer ere he reveale himself unto us and although the Cup of affliction hath been for a time inour sacks mouth yet in the end it shall produce good to us Isa 63.8,9 Hee will not cast off his people when they rebelled he was wrath yet he said Surely they are my people I am their Saviour Wherefore I beseech you as the dumb son of Croesus when he saw his Father about to be slain though never before brake silence and cryed out violently the strings of his tongue being loosed Kill not King Croesus so upon the vision of the sad actings of these times breake silence and seasonably every one cry out Now the Lord of Peace himself give you peace alwayes by all meanes Thirdly Because we are all sharers in the Church and Kingdomes peace more or lesse every owner prayes and lookes after the safety of the ship the Church of God is the ship wherein our great joynt stock of Religion is imbarqued and wee all beare a great adventure It is at this day on a hazzardous voyage many seeming friends by their colours ready to betray it and what betwixt the Rocks of superstition and Idolatry and the quicksands of blasphemy schisme and heresie it steeres sadly we nor our posterity cannot stand after the losse it will be their undoing for ever therefore now pray Think it sad to poyson a pond but a river much more Oh think of your posterity what truths streamed to us in our Fathers blood the Martyrs let it run to our posterity in ours or tears and let us protest against blasphemy and errors for jarring in Jerusalem is a sad and prodigeous Omen when the worshippers in Jerusalem were divided the common enemy prevailed Jer. 7.28 This is a Nation that receiveth not discipline truth is perished from them clean gone out of their mouths then read ver 33. Then I will cause to cease from the Cities of Judah and Jerusalem the voyce of mirth and gladnesse the land shall be desolate Jer. 8.19 The cry of the daughter of my people is great for feare of them of a farre Country Nay further that you may see the necessity of seasonable prayer you may observe our Saviour makes it a signe of the eternall ruine of the world Mat. 24.1,2,3 They say Master what signe wilt thou give us Take heed none deceive you for many shall come in my name and deceive many Many shall betray one another hate one another c. See Deut. 28.47,48,49,50 The divisions amongst the Primitive Christians in the Eastern Churches gave the Turk an opportunity to make them his vassals when the Divines of Bohemia and Germany fell to discord it proved a sad time and when the Pelagians had made their faction strong they set the whole Kingdome in a combustion The Lord give us deliverance from all
AN OLIVE BRANCH Found after A Storme in the Northern Seas AND Presented to his MAJESTY in a Sermon at the Court in New-Castle By SAMUEL KEM a little before his Majesties going to HOLMBEY GEN. 8.10,11 And he stayed yet other seven dayes and againe he sent forth the Dove out of the Ark And the Dove came into him in the evening and loe in her mouth was an Olive sprig pluckt off So Noah knew the waters were abated HAGGAI 2.9 Thus shall the glory of the latter House bee greater then the former sayeth the Lord of Hoasts and in this place will I give peace saith the Lord of Hoasts Published according to Order LONDON Printed by J. D. R. I. for Andrew Kembe and are to bee sold at his shop at Margaret Hill next doore to the Talbot-Gate in Southwark 1647. TO THE KINGS MOST Excellent Majesty May it please your Majesty WHen the King of Kings had fasted forty dayes and forty nights hee was afterward an hungered although assisted by the deitie and then for any within knowledge of it to neglect administring to him a morsell had really concluded them guilty of the highest ingratitude and inhumanity Man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Which your long abstinence from in relation to publique administration hath put mee upon this bold attempt in tender compassion to your better part as to present you with a branch the fruit whereof will if savoured sensibly procure an appetite to those delicates which by more excellent hands are ready at your call to be served in unto you which degree of recovery will disrobe thousands of Gods people and your faithfull Subjects of their sad and sable thoughts and serve up their hearts to the highest degree of prayse that hath in relation to his glory and your good so far heard their prayers Thus thus Sir if your Majesty please to forsake your nets that intangle you deny your selfe and your self-reasoning audience that assault You and follow Jesus Christ in his ordinances the Prince of peace whose name is Councellor to advise you You may yet create all good men your cordiall friends and admit none to repine at your returne but the Gospells and Religions enimies Great Sir If this plainnesse bee an error it is my affection to your Majesties soule makes mee to erre and the prosperity of one fault hath made mee confident to commit a second for I professe I long after it and make it one part of my designe at the throne of grace that God would so sanctifie all your experiences for the time past that you may be a gratious Instrument for the advancing of his glorious will for the time to come And now the Lord grant you usefull profit in perusing my poore indeavours so as shall best sort both for the accomplishment of your owne eternall good and the Kingdomes just desires yea the Lord grant that as this sermon received grace from you in hearing it with reverent attention so it may increase grace in you by your serious intention And the Lord of peace peaceably salute you by it and grace you with all spirituall blessings till he bring you to injoy his and your peoples firme love your Parliaments councell and Heavens Glory which is and shall be the daily prayer of Gods Majesties poore Embassador to You in this Treatise of Peace and Your Loyall Subject SAMUEL KEM TO THE Right Honourable PHILIP Earle of Pembroke BAZILL Earle of Denbeigh and the rest of the Honourable Commissioners with His Majesty at Holmbey Right Honorable I May not without your leaves obtained approach his Maiesty in person or paper It is my duty to begge it May it please your Lordships to grant it I call God to record and my conscience is cleare I neither have nor will speake one word but for his glory and the furthering if possible the Kingdoms Peace and his Majesties good I ingenuously confesse if you search you may finde about me one Epistle superscribed to his Majesty but it is unseal'd and on purpose for your perusall For my selfe I am unworthy to come under that roofe being the meanest servant in my Masters Family yet this Testimony I have in Heaven I have ever desired to doe the best service I could in these sad times to promote the Peace of Church and State and although I have observed many men to have beene thought rare at an easie rate yet it hath beene a peece of my infelicity to multiply enemies by acting and speaking to my power to settle Peace and Truth Therefore as I implore your Lordships favour for your lilence so I humbly Petition your pardon for my boldnesse and present all your conditions daily to the Throne of Grace that as you have beene Pillers of Gods Truth so you may be prevailing Councellors with His Maiesty and be honored in your generations which is the hearty and constant prayer my Noble Lords and Gentlemen Of Your Obliged and Immutable Servant SAMUEL KEM TO THE Truly Noble Faithfull Vigilant and Valiant William Batten Esquire Captaine of His Majesties Ship the St. Andrew and Commander in Chiefe of the Fleet at Sea for the service of the King and Parliament Most Honored and Noble Sir I Shal desire to wave all Apologeticall expressions in relation to my selfe and the weaknesse of this piece You know that the quiet repose of the spiirit is the meanes to produce to the world such births as may inrich it with admiration and delight which my floating condition denyed mee the happines to injoy having my intellectualls so Searummaged that they returned me but darke unrefined notions the product wherof are these poore expressions void of all perfection unles the heat of your affection and Noblenes please to hatch them to some formed beauty worthy acceptation and to reduce the Chaos of my confusions to a serenity worthy the worlds meditation Hover therefore I beseech you with the wings of your protection over these feeble but syncere indeavours to promote in this Iuncto of time with his Majesty for a setled and well grounded Peace for which I have esteemed my life as a trifle in way of purchase and have for some yeares past waded through variety of difficulties to this end And although the inacountable and uncontroleable waters with their independent ragings sunke me to the eye of sense yet God provided something like a Whale that by a strange providence cast me on shore to behold that which I beleived and believing maintained Our Brethren of Scotland their integrity to Our mutuall Covenant and the Kingdomes safety and to act that which I never expected as a poore messenger from the Prince of Peace to salute his Majesty just before the comming of our Right Honourable Commissioners as a providentiall preparation to their invitation of him to take the Covenant and in this now of time to accept of the Olive Branch of Peace the best fignall betwixt King
factions and fractions from the truth of Jesus Christ Fourthly it is an honourable designe and such become Christians it is noble to do good to one with the Samaritan but to doe good to a nation nay three nations is Heroicall and well becomes Majesty Therefore now pray yea excite all from Dan to Bersheba and let it be your motion to set apart a day of fasting and prayer that no apple of contention may grow in our Paradise of God his Church Every blessed action becommeth you this is not onely blessed in it self but makes you blessed Beati pacifici is intailed upon you Now as peace in Religion is the greatest blessing to a Kingdome so to beget or conserve this peace makes a man most blessed in a Kingdome and it is my soules desire you may be yet blessed of God and of your faithfull people Fifth Motive Our relation yea neere relation to the Church and State it is of us we of it The hurt of it will be our hurt the bloud shed in warre our bloud wounds our wounds It is a sad spectacle and moves much for a Captaine or Commander in Chiefe to see but a forlorne hope or a few scouts come off in bloud but to see a field spread with dead bodyes like dung as of late times a piercing calamity For a tender mother to see not a childe but all her children sicke puts her to an extacy of griefe and importunity to seeke remedy and that is the second sprigge of this Olive Branch viz. That seasonable and importunate prayer to God through Christ is a sure meanes to obtaine a firme lasting and well grounded peace And first I should discover to you what I meane by importunity and in a word it is a prayer that will take no nay of God that if bare asking will not serve wee will seeke if that doe not obtaine we will be so bold as to knocke that will not be put off with primitive silence or positive denyal or any contumelious reproach knowing well as I said before that Finis operationis est opus for Sions sake will not hold his peace nor for Ierusalems sake give God no rest till he make it the prayse of the earth And truely we had sped sooner had we prayed better not that prayer merits it but it 's Gods meanes to obtaine it There are severall defects in prayer and there are six or seaven sorts which will stand us in little stead First A Lazy prayer God cannot away to have men reporters when they should bee Petitioners Secondly Empty Prayers that are not full for prayer is a powring out of the whole hearth to God Psal 62.8 Now many powre out their wants but not their sins men should powre out their prayers like water not like Tar the greatest part sticking behind Thirdly Snatcht prayer many give God a ragg of prayer fitting your prayers to your businesses not a Kingdoms miseries or pressing necessities c. Fourthly Silent prayers neglecting that in our prayer which God lookes we should insist on Ps 32. David is said to roare for the disquietnesse of his heart and yet was silent in relation to his blood-shed Fifthly Seldome prayers An Hypocrite can sometimes pray but a good Christian prayes continually Dan. 3. Sixthly Lukewarme prayers Prayers that can never boyle out the scumme of sin or take away the rawnesse of our fleshly part Quifrigide orat oupit negari though you make many Esa 7. Seventhly By-thoughted Prayers like that unworthy Oratour invocating heaven looking to the Earth but in this case doe as Abraham Gen. 15.11 when the birds peck't his sacrifice hee husht them away so do thou that thy prayers may prove an acceptable service through Jesus Christ Quere Sir pray what need so much importunity Sol. First in relation to Gods Majesty as in Ezekiel 36. from ver 23. to ver 27. The Lord shews his people in misery rich mercies and full compensations that he hath in his hands but yet read ver 27. Thus saith the Lord God I will yet for all this be inquired after by the house of Israel to doe it for them c. We have an homely Proverb It is an ill dogge that is not worth a whistle We find little want of and lesse esteem that mercy we omit in prayer Princes freely contribute their favours but to Petitioners And God is the King of Kings and I am yet boy'd up with hope having hitherto rid out this storme on a good ground with the Sheare-Anchor of Faith that God will by all our evills refine us not ruine us correct us not destruct us and bring us all a pretious and refined people out of all our devouring flames both gracious and glorious Secondly in relation to mercy mercy appears best when we blazen out our misery it is a disgrace to mercy to come on the wing of lazie prayer Herculii duri celebrant Labores Samuel shall be dedicated to God that is obtained by prayer and that mercy made much of and hugg'd in the bosome that is obtained with the passion of the heart Thirdly In relation to our selves we would soone slight mercy if easily granted Esa 44.23 Soone gotten soone forgotten who prodigall away their estates sooner then they that never swet to gaine a penny Ier. 31.9 They shall come with weeping and with supplications will I lead them as a gentleman leads a begger that penny that a man hath begg'd for all day is not commonly idly spent away so if your Majesty and your three Kingdomes can but worke out their peace with God by prayer it will be the sweetest mercy that ever lay upon the pallates of our soules It will relish our spirits after all our bitter potions wee have taken to physicke us 2 Quere Why are not men more importunate in prayer Sol. Because most are Romanists in this point and esteeme prayer a pennance an irkesome thing Mal. 1.13 Behold you say what a wearinesse it is yee have snuffed at it saith the Lord. A man can never be found abounding in that is tedious to him to performe wee must count prayer a blessing if ever we will do good on it Blessings are highly prized I beseech you set a high price on this kinde of prayer 2 Many are Formalists and like the Peach that hath a ragged stone under a smooth skin so many under faire and specious shewes and pretences have strange selfe ends sinfull ends and much raggednesse of Spirit Now if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not heare my prayer Thirdly Men are gentlemen-beggers they are loath to have the world know they want or would be beholding to any stand often upon this punctilio of Honour till they starve so of old have not we Abraham to our Father why should we be beholding to this Carpenters sonne Men are loath to be beholding to God through Christ and truely none are so miserable as they that hide their misery now it is good to move pitty to