18.

VII.

2 Sam. 8.

28. 3.

114

No cowardice to pray for pea

SER M. pacifici, and from David's mouth Rogate which we are to make good against both the the one and the other. Those that think it then those that think it an unlawful prayer. And for the former; we know not wha 1 Sam. 16. courage and valour, but sure we are king D wanted neither, famous in Israel for his valo 13; 17. 8. through the world for his victories, that ma 1 Chron. with the giant, and dyed the Philistines in that made war with a witness, and proved m it; yet he it is here, as great a sword-man, a as he was, that comes in upon Rogate pace bids us pray, but prays also for peace him conqueror's prayer. Again, with the poor, that perhaps had no valour in them, there wa Lu. 2. 13. heavenly soldiers, saith St. Luke, and sure w had valour and courage in them enough; y was for peace too, Gloria in excelsis Deo, et po is votum militare, it comes from the mouths of selves; they praise it, and pray for it, they wish it, where they wish any good; neither k better thing they should wish to men, than pea So it is the soldier's prayer also, not the gow nor the weak man's prayer and the stout man's too. it is neither cowardice to for broils and troubles.

only, but the wise a

And being so, we n pray for peace, nor

For what greater happiness can there be, should be with us here on earth, as it is with heaven? and with them it is all peace, as Na observes from their prayer in the Gospel, pugn nescire Deum et Angelos, no broils, no brabble but all at quiet there, and all wishing for pea that a kind of heaven there is upon earth, when t upon earth; and justly are they blessed and rig called the children of God that are, or shall be the procurers of it.

Not that it is unlawful to enter upon a war
Naz. Orat. xii. Opp. i.

f . . . τούτων δ ̓ οὐδὲν οὕτως ἴδιον, ὡς
τὸ ἄμαχόν τε καὶ ἀστασίαστον. S. Greg.

e Anabaptist hath sometimes fondly taught,) when nor ace nor right can otherwise be performed; but that in the Edst of such troubles, our desires and ends be still for peace; at howsoever the sword may be put into the hand, yet that gate pacem, the prayer for peace, be never put out of the

art.

14.

And absque hoc I cannot tell what account men make of ntentions and garboils and mischief done to the other. or if peace be God's blessing, as a chief of His blessings it we may reckon by that what contention, what no peace is: o less than the curse of God, than the rod of His wrath, as aiah termeth it, whereby men are scourged for their pride Is. 10. 5. d for their weariness of a peaceable and godly life. No, it but a sport, says Abner, for men to go together by the 2 Sam. 2. rs; but he found it, as ye all find it, even in any breach of e peace whatsoever, a little sport in the beginning, but tterness in the ending, not to fail. Whereupon we bring king David's advice, both for the state in general, and for ery one of you in particular; Pray for the peace;' seek er out wherever she is to be found; and if she hides herself, quire after her; if she flies from you, give her not over yet, at follow her to the end, and when you have gotten her, you ve got a blessing, the greatest blessing that this world can ford.

In regard whereof, those other men have but little to do, it ems, who are finding fault with the public prayers of the urch, when, according to the prophet's rule here, we pray r the continuance of our peace, and desire to be kept from ttle and persecution. Nay, when we do as king David _viseth, and as St. Paul enjoineth, and must be blamed for at, I know not what to say to them. This I will say, we ed not wonder at their other cavils, when these be so unristian. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem,' saith the -ophet here: pray that you may live a peaceable and a godly

e under your king, saith St. Paul. No; pray for no peace, 1 Tim. 2.2. ay not against any battle, saith our Puritan, directly

h

ainst the text; and for so saying let us ever think what

irit governs the sect, we shall be sure to find that it is none

VII.

116

Christians ought to pray for pe

SER M. of the Spirit of peace. They are all for brabbles, both at home and abroad, and against them, as we also ought to be; and l for the first point.

Joh. 14.

27.

Ps. 122. 6.

18.

I should now come from the civil peace, state, to the religious peace, the peace of t the peace that we are to preserve, one Christi but of that, there is somewhat more to be sai will now allow, which will force us to reserve grace, we have another.

Only for a conclusion at this time, let us remember that without peace abroad we sha peace at home; and if the state has no qu choose but want that blessing ourselves. being subjects under a blessed and a gracious a king, we pray for the continuance of his peace, a perity of this Jerusalem, all our life long; tha Christ in His wish, pax in terris, and with Day in Jerusalem, and with St. Paul in his, 'peace Rom. 12. as far as lies in us,'-that God would put it in and into the hearts of all that profess His Nam His peace, that the prophet here may have his the old Christians said, Orbis pacatus', there through the Christian world. Indeed such desir or miss thereafter, as they meet with the sons o howsoever such good desires, such holy prayers, return into our own bosoms, and the God of pea fail to reward them with peace and joy hereaft righteousness and peace here. To which peace bring us, That hath prepared the same for us, ever Lord and Saviour.

i Tertull. Apologet. cap. xxx. p. 27. edit. 1664.

SERMON VIII.

IN FESTO PENTECOSTES, DURHAM, [MAY 20,] 1632.

Adjutorium nostrum in Nomine Domini.

ROMANS viii. 14.

uicunque Spiritu Dei aguntur, ii sunt filii Dei.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, those are the sons of God.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God.]

THIS feast keep we holy to the sending of the Holy Ghost. And ever upon this feast somewhat we are to speak, and me text to choose that belongs to His sending; so does his. The Gospel ye heard refers to the promise of it, 'I ill send Him;' the Epistleb to the performance of it. And le was sent upon the persons of the Apostles to remain with he Church for ever. This text, to the end of promise and erformance both, that now God has sent Him, and come He , He may have that honour done Him for which His coming nd His sending was, That was to be our leader and our uide, that we may be led by the Spirit of God in this verse, hat we might walk not after the conduct of the flesh but fter the leading of the Spirit, in all the verses before. For Rom. 8. 1, rst and last through this whole chapter, the Apostle still 12, 13, &c. ends us to the Spirit, to see whether we follow Him, or no; hether our walk lies after His guiding, or the guiding of ome other; if after His, then to assure ourselves that we re right and that we keep this feast to some purpose, being Acts 2. 1. The portion of Scripture

John 14. 15. The Gospel for the

VIII.

118

Importance of the feast of Pentec

SER M. thereby brought unto a state of happiness, c
state of the sons of God. But if not, if we
better of some other guide to be led by than
it be of the world, or the flesh, or our own
such leaders as they be,) then to make a
wrong, and that we keep this feast of the H
purpose at all, being by that means brough
misery and death, even the miserable estate
wrath. So it runs here. 'If ye live after the
surely die; but if by the Spirit ye mortify the
Rom.8.13. surely live. For as many as are led by the
those are the sons of God.' Then as many as

1belong

Sons of God they

Him, whose sons are they?
part of Christ's inheritance are they none, the
His sure; they long' to some other.

By this now we come to know what the us Ghost is, and what the use of His feast; that all our other feasts of the year are nothing, eve from the very first, the Incarnation, to the Ascension of Christ, though all honourable in th never a one of them beneficial to us without this duty of the day, which we are to keep holy Ghost. For in all these of Christ He made but only, He did but pay for this inheritance and delivered which we look for, He gave us no possession, no any seizin of it Himself, but reserved that for Who is the earnest, the investiture of our reder St. Paul, that as many as were led by Him migh into full fruition of it, invested to the state, a heirs with Christ, even the sons of the living God

2 Cor. 1.

22; 5.5.
Eph. 1.14.

3 should

So that upon the well or ill keeping, the good of this feast, depends our interest or our forfeit went before. For that cause it would be the bet and if we be willing to learn, this text will teach

In it I shall consider two general heads, (I.) the day, out of each aguntur, that is, the duty we Holy Ghost, to be led by Him; (II.) and then the out of Filii Dei, that doing our duty and being so lo to have assurance made us that we are the sons of two. And in the first I set forth these parts.