Jerusalem that is above the Mother of us all In the state of Nature the good and welfare of Mans Body depends upon the Peace and Harmony of the forementioned Qualities and his dissolution proceeds from their Discord The natural good of his Soul consists in an interiour Repose Tranquillity and easiness of Spirit which renders him serene content and satisfied His Body is sustained by Peace as its Life and his Soul breaths after Peace as its utmost felicity Irrequietum est Cor nostrum Domine donec revertatur ad Te. Even all his outward Senses and inward faculties seek after Quiet and repose as their ultimate End and Good What do all the Senses aim at in those several Objects they pursue with so much eagerness but to repose in them by delight All the Senses are in perpetual motion searching on all sides for proper Objects and Diversions and having met with them they embrace them and embracing them they unite themselves to them and being united to them they delight in them and being delighted there they rest and are at quiet rejoycing in their Happiness and thus in their Repose they meet with their Perfection And as for his interiour Powers his sensitive Appetite Imagination Memory Understanding Will what do they quest after what do all their bustlings stirs and motions tend to but to find Repose by uniting themselves to Objects agreeable In a word All that is in man looks out after its proper Object and in its Object its delight and in its delight its peace and quiet and in its quiet its End and Happiness So that Peace is the Perfection of Man and of all that is in Man To what do all his desires and devices his Designs Labours and Industry bend but to settle himself in his ease and in his ease to meet with Content and in Content to find Peace and in Peace to enjoy Happiness Why do Men delight in Society to what purpose were Empires Common-wealths and other Communities founded to what end serves Order and the Dependance of Inferiours and Superiours of Commanding and Obeying but to take away Confusion to establish Order and with Order Peace and Quietness among Men What is the meaning of Magistrates and Laws Policy and Punishment but to uphold this Peace by cutting off those Refractory Members that would disturb the Harmony of the Body Politick Just as they turn a jarring Voice out of a Quire of Musicians and take a false string from a Musical Instrument And thus is Peace the Perfection of Man considered in his pure Naturals Peace is the scope of his Designs the end of his Labours the Center of his Faculties the Repose of his Motions the Life of his Body and the Happiness of his Soul But to little purpose do we study to be quiet in this World At least it is a fond hope to meet with a perfect and accomplish'd Peace any where but in God Nature and the whole Oeconomy of Nature cannot yield that Quiet and Repose that Man is bound to seek after And not only doth Faith teach us but Reason demonstrates and Experience convinceth us that nothing here below can yield an entire Peace to our hungry appetite but that Divinity which gave it Being And therefore we must raise Man a degree higher than the order of Nature and consider him in that of Grace as a Christian endowed with Faith Hope and Love of God whose fruition he expects in the state of Glory and in the fruition of God his compleat Peace his intire Quiet and absolute Perfection It is true the works of God are all Perfect and God created Man compleat both as to his Body and his Soul His Body injoy'd perfect Quiet by reason of that Temperamentum ad pondus that exact Temper and Harmony of the humours A Harmony that Death could not destroy nor Maladies disturb since he was enobled by a supernatural Gift which rendred his Body Impassible Immortal and Incorruptible His Soul in like manner injoyed most perfect Repose not experiencing the least contradiction in the inferiour Part and being at Peace with God by an entire agreement of his Will with the Divine Will original Righteousness maintained this harmony by calming his Passions bridleing in his Senses taming his Flesh and subjugating his Appetite to Reason and his Reason to God From whence sprung so great an accord in the Soul of Man that even upon Earth he had a foretaste of the sweets of Heaven But Sin having caused Reason to rebell against God made the Appetite to rebell against Reason and violating that agreement which was between God and Man did likewise disturb that quiet which Man had in himself and sow'd those seeds of Dissention between the Flesh and the Spirit Sense and Reason the Appetite and the Will Nor did Sin onely interrupt the inward Peace of his Soul but the outward Repose of his Body also by taking from him that gift of Grace which made it Incorruptible And then the materials and humours whereof he was composed presently began to mutiny and this spoil'd the harmony by sicknesses and utterly destroy'd it by Death And hence arise all those mischiefs which at this day inviron the wretched Off-spring of Adam both in Body and Soul Had Man maintained the Peace with God by a sweet Concord of his Will with his Sovereign's he had likewise retained most absolute Tranquillity in himself But assoon as he broke the League by his Rebellious will all things broke the Peace with him His Body by the clashing together of the humours his Soul by those many contradictions he finds there Then presently War was proclaimed the Angel took his Sword and the Earth arm'd it self with Thorns the Heavens with Thunder the Air with Contagion and wild Beasts with Fury Beasts Elements and Angels the whole Creation rose in Arms against their Makers Enemy And whereas before he had peace with all Things with God by Grace with himself by the happy Concord between the Soul and Body with all other Creatures by that Obedience they paid him Now he is attacqued on all sides God became his Enemy his own flesh his Adversary and all Creatures rebell'd and so by woful experience he found that to break Gods Peace is the greatest mischief that can betide a Rational Creature But at last after innumerable Acts of Hostility past on both sides on man 's by his multiplied Iniquities and on Gods by his severe Chastisements he whose Property it is to have Mercy and to forgive though the first provoked and assaulted yet was graciously pleased to propose terms of Reconciliation and that not by an Angel or Servant but by his own Son God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself and he dismantled those strong Holds that Sin had raised and breaking down the wall of Partition made all Friends And therefore the Apostle expresly calls him Our Peace He united the Humanity and Divinity together in his own Person by the Hypostatical Union he joyned
continually going forward and growing upward from Grace to Grace from Vertue to Vertue till we be of full growth in Christ Jesus A Christian must neither be like Hezekiah's Sun that went backward nor like Joshuah's Sun that stood still but like Davids Sun Psalm 19.5 Which is as a Bridegroom coming out of his Chamber and rejoyces as a strong Man to run his Race There is always in Christianity a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something remaining And though some of our Neighbours brag much of their State of Perfection of their Ne plus ultrà in their spiritual Journey of Immediate Vnions with the Divine Essence in the pure fund of the Spirit Yet we poor Protestants God help us must according to the command of our meek and humble Jesus when we have done all we can look upon our selves but as unprofitable Servants and follow the example of our Blessed Apostle Phil. 3.13 Not as though I had already attained or were already Perfect but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before I press toward the Mark for the Price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus 2. The second Obligation here seriously recommended to our consideration and practice is the study of Peace and Quietness A most Important and Seasonable Duty and which cannot be too much press'd at this time Now as Plato said of Vertue so I may say of Peace Could she but assume a visible shape we should all presently become inamour'd of her Wherefore I know no more effectual Medium to urge the practice of the Duty in my Text than by presenting to you the Blessed fruits and effects which will undoubtedly accrue to us by it I mean by maintaining that Peace and Quiet we at present enjoy and which nothing but our own boisterous and unruly passions can rob us of Let us then I say but take a full view of what the Apostle here so pathetically presses upon us and recommends as an object worthy of our utmost Care and Study It is nothing else but what is our Happiness more than our Duty Peace that Soul of the Universe that Chain of the World and Cement of Nature the Bond of Governments the Desire of Men the Joy of Angels the delight of God himself Peace the design of Nature the Perfection of Grace and Consummation of Glory Peace the Reconciliation of Sinners the Consolation of the Saints the Crown of the Blessed Peace at which the Scriptures aime which Faith intends Hope aspires to Love mounts towards it and it is compleat Beatitude to attain it To procure this Peace the Son of God came into the World he toyl'd and laboured to treat about it He died to confirm it and arose again to proclaim it and sent his Holy Spirit to bestow it on us His Labours acquired it his Bloud bought it his Death merited it and his Love bequeathed it At his Birth the Angels chanted it forth Glory be to God on High and on Earth Peace And at his Resurrection He himself published it Peace be with you Thus was Peace the Beginning of his carrieer and the end of his Course Peace was the design of his Combate and Peace was the Crown of his Victory Indeed if we look a little more particularly into the matter we shall find that this Quietness which we are here commanded to study is the perfection both of the Greater and of the Lesser World I mean Man himself The greater World is composed of two parts the Celestial and Elementary World To what tends that constant and regular motion of the Heavenly Bodies that most exact Dance of the Rouling Spheres but to make up the Harmony of a most ravishing Concord And that mutual Marriage and Conjunction of the Elements what doth it breathe forth but the sweets of a most Amiable Peace in the Sublunary World The motions of the Heavens being so different and the Qualities of the Elements so contrary who would not presently conclude an inevitable War must follow both in the Heavens by their diverse Revolutions and in the Elements by their manifold Antipathies And yet both the Heavens compose their discord and the Elements do as I may say lay aside their Quarrel to produce and preserve that Peace which is the life of Nature and the Conservation of the World From whence proceeds the Beauty of the Universe but from Order and what maintains this Order but that Peace which is amongst its members Every one keeps its Rank and Station without intrenching upon the others Offices and so they keep an inviolable Peace which preserves their Being and buoyes up their Dignity Whereas if Debate and Dissension should once intrude among the parts of this great Body immediately upon Debate would follow Disorder and upon Disorder a Dissolution of the whole Fabrick and that which Quietness makes appear so Goodly and Beautiful that it derives its very names of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Mundus from its comely features would in a moment by Discord be turned into a Chaos of Confusion Let us descend a little to Particulars and see how Peace is the Perfection of the Parts as well as of the Whole All that is in this Great Family of the World may be distributed into two Classes or Orders of things Some whereof have nothing but a simple Being as Stones Minerals and other inanimate Bodies Others besides a Being have Life either Vegetative as Plants or sensitive as Animals I speak not as yet of Man who besides his sensitive hath a Reasonable and Intellectual Life And First as to Things that have nothing but Being that very Being is their Perfection Now what is it that preserves the being of Stones and Minerals but the Peace and agreement of the four first Qualities as they call them Dry and Moist Cold and Hot Their Being hath no other foundation but the marriage and Union of these contraries that compose them As soon as one Contrary begins to get the upper hand over his Fellows and the Peace is broken presently a dreadful Civil War commenceth they mutually destroy one another and this is infallibly attended with the ruine of the whole Compositum And hence it comes to pass that all Bodies under Heaven even the most solid Stones and Metals are corruptible because they are all composed of contrary Ingredients and Peace cannot be very permanent in the midst of so much contrariety Thus Concord preserves them and War ruins them Quietness is their Perfection and Debate the Original of their Destruction The very same thing happens in Plants and Animals and therefore from them I proceed to Man himself and shall endeavour to shew how this study of Quietness is the Perfection of Man in what ever state we consider him either in the state of Nature as a Man or in the state of Grace as a Christian and God's Friend or in the state of Glory as one of the Blessed Inhabitants of the
God's and Man's Nature together which were before at such vast distance and by Grace he re-unites the Will of God and the Wills of Men which were so contrary And now you see what reason there is we should study to be Quiet since Peace and Quietness are the very end for which the Son of God came into the World did and suffer'd so much and at his last Departure bequeath'd it to his Church for his richest Legacy And therefore he that doth not make this his study doth as much as in him lies to frustrate the whole Course that God hath taken with us and to render the Bloud of the Son of God of no effect And yet for all this wicked and Turbulent Men will not be quiet with any like Ishmael their hand is against every man and every mans hand against them They are at War with themselves by the disorder of their Passions at War with their Neighbour by quarrels and discord at War with God by disobedience They are uneasy and unquiet on all hands From God they are troubled with the dreadful threats of his Justice from Man they meet with a thousand disturbances and contradictions and from themselves with infinite disquietudes But good Men Gods Children are at perfect Peace with all with themselves by due curbing in their Passions with their Neighbours by perfect Love and Amity and with God by an Universal Obedience to his Commandments They are at quiet with themselves by submitting the Flesh to the Spirit Lust to Reason the Inferiour part to the Superiour For as in a Consort of Musicians the Harmony proceeds from this that every Voice keeps its own part so in Man when the flesh is kept under and the Soul permitted to reign from this due Order and observance as from a Consort of Voices proceeds the sweet harmony of interiour Quietness And as a Musick-Master is continually attentive to keep every Voice in its due rank to elevate those that are too low and depress those that are too shrill thus Reason in Man must keep a strict eye over the Body and keep it from mounting too high and disturbing the Harmony And this was our Apostle's great secret when he found the flesh rebell against the Spirit Castigo corpus meum in servitutem redigo Thus by captivating our flesh and subduing our Passions Reason will command the Soul will reign and maintain the Microcosm in perfect Peace and Unity But man being in the Philosophers phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Creature shaped out for Converse and Society he can no ways keep peace with himself if he be not at quiet with his Neighbour As one member of the body ruines its self if it attempt to loosen that which fastens it to the rest of the Members And de facto there are no persons so uneasy and unquiet as envious Persons Riotous Debauch'd Seditious Men who make it their study to sow Dissentions 'T is true they are a trouble and vexation to their Neighbour but a far greater torment to their own Souls and while they scatter abroad the seeds of War and Tumult they reap the first fruits of it in themselves And thus both Nature and Reason teach us that if we desire to be happy and injoy Repose and Tranquillity in our selves we must study to be quiet with our Neighbour But especially we are obliged to this Duty since the Son of God who so dearly purchased this Peace for us hath so earnestly commended it to our practice by his own Doctrine which breaths nothing but Peace and by his own example who truly acted as the Prince of Peace and in his commands by the mouth of his Apostle that we should keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace and from the Nature of the Church it self which is but one Body whereof the Holy Ghost is the Soul and Jesus Christ the Head and the faithful are the Members Love is the life of this Body and Peace and Quietness that band that ties one Member to another and all to the Head Who ever yet saw in one and the same Body one Member war against another And yet both in the mystical Body of the Church and the Political Body of the State what more ordinary than for Christians who are all Members of this Body to bite and devour one another It belongs to none but Madmen and Desperadoes to tear their own flesh and rend out their own Bowels And yet every day presents us with Christians snarling at each other nay man becomes a Wolf to his Neighbour one member devours another and what would be accounted a prodigy in Nature is become a familiar spectacle in Religion But let such Persons flatter themselves with what specious pretences they please we are assured they cannot be Members of Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace but limbs of Satan the Father of Dissention no Children of God whom they hypocritically profess but of the Devil whom they so exactly imitate They belong not to the Heavenly Jerusalem the Temple of Peace but to Hell the Mansion of Tumult and Theatre of Confusion God in the old Law commanded us to love our Neighbour as our selves and Jesus Christ renewed it in the Gospel A new Commandment I give unto you that you Love one another And he hath extended this Love even to our Enemies themselves But I say unto you love your Enemies Desiring to establish a firm Peace among Men as he had done between God and Man But alas May we not complain with Linacer Aut hoc non est Evangelium aut nos non sumus Christiani Either this is not Gospel or we are not Christians We are at this time so far from studying to be Quiet from minding the Things that belong to Peace that we seem to want that Love that is between Beast and Beast If one Sheep faint the rest will stand betwixt it and the Sun to shelter it If a Swine be injured the whole Herd will muster together to revenge the Jujury Natural Historians are full of examples of grateful Lyons kind Eagles and trusty Dogs ready to dy both for and with their Masters In holy Writ we read of Elijah fed by Ravens and of Daniel not hurt among Lyons Sed O detestandam Humanae Malitiae Crudelitatem Aves pascunt ferae parcunt Homines saeviunt as the blessed Martyr St. Cyprian complain'd in his time Or as holy David in his Ill minded Men imagining mischief in their heart and stirring up strife all the day long Their throat is an open Sepulchre the poyson of Asps is under their Lips Their mouth is full of Cursing and bitterness c. their teeth are Spears and Arrows and their tongue a sharp Sword Psalm 20. More sharp saies S. Bernard de Tripl Custod than the Spear which pierc'd our Saviour's side for it doth not onely wound Christs mystical Body but even rent it in pieces making as Many factions in the Kingdom as there are Offices and