dreadfull and horrible. As therefore we do in our ordinary prayers put all thefe together (which are the effects, and concomitants of war) From plague, peftilence and famine, from battail and murder, and from fuddain death, good Lord deliver us; fo good reafon have we to put them into the tenor of our hearty thanksgiving, that God hath graciously delivered us from the fury of all these, in that he caused wars to cease to the ends of our Earth.

As for the benefits of peace, if we were not cloyed with them by their long continuance,we could not but be heartily fenfible of them; and know that all the comforts we enjoy either for Earth, or for Heaven, we owe to this unfpeakable bleffing of Peace; whereto if we add the late acceffion of further ftrength by the union of our Warlick neighbours, and the force of a strong and inviolable league for the perpetuation of our peace and unity, there will need no further incitements to a celebration of this day, and to our hearty thankfulness unto the God of peace; who whiles he hath made wofull defolations in all the Earth befides, yet hath caufed wars to ceafe unto our ultima the ends of our Earth, and hath broken the bow and cut the fpear in funder: Oh then prayfe the Lord, O Jerufalem, prayfe thy God of Sion; for he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates, and bleed Pf. 147. thy children within thee; He maketh peace within thy borders, and filleth 12. 13. thee with the finest of the wheat; To that good God of all glory peace

and comfort; Father, Son, Holy Ghoft, one infinite God in three moft glorious perfons,be given all praise honour and glory, as is due from Heaven and Earth, from Angels and Men, from this time forth and for evermore. Amen.

THE

THE

MISCHIEFE

OF

FACTION,

And the REMEDIE of it.
Laid forth in a

SESMON

Before his MAJESTY

In the

COURTYARD

A T

WHITE-HALL

On the Second Sunday in Lent. 1641.

By JOS. EXON.

PSALM. 60. 2.

Thou haft made the Earth to tremble, thou haft broken it; heal the breaches thereof, for it shaketh.

Y text is a complaint, and a fuit; a complaint of an evill, and a fuit for a remedy: An evill deplored, and an implored redreffe.The evill complained of is double; the concuffion or unfettlement of the ftate of Ifrael,and the divifion of it;. For it hath been the manner of the prophets, when they would fpeak high, to expreffe, fpirituall things by the height of naturall allufions, fetcht from thofe great bodies of Heaven, Sea, Earth; the moft confpicuous and noted pieces of Gods

Almighty workmanship. It were to no purpose to exemplifie, where the inftances are numberleffe? Open your Bibles where you will in all the Sapientiall or Propheticall books, your eyes cannot look befide them: And thus it is here; I fuppofe no man can be fo weak, as to think David intends here a philofophicall history of Earthquakes; although thefe dreadfull events, in their due times, and places are worthy of no leffe then a prophets, either notice, or admiration. But here it is not in his way; It is an Analogicall, morall, or politicall Earth-quake that David hear speaks of, and fo our ufuall, and ancient Pfalter Tranflation takes it well; whiles for (P) the Earth, it reads the Land, by a juft Synecdoche; and:for making the Earth to tremble, reads, moving the Land; and for broken, reads divided, and for breaches, fores; fo as by comparing of both translations, The Earth is the Land; the tremblings are the violent motions of it, whether by way of action, or paffion, the divifions thereof are breaches, and those breaches fores, which the hand of God both makes and heals. Shortly then, here is firft an Earth-quake, fuch as it is; aly. The effects of that Earth-quake, breaches or fores, 3ly. The authour of both, Thou bast made the Earth to tremble, thou hast broken it. 4ly. The remedy of both, with the authour of it; Heal thou the Sores or breaches, and Laftly, the motive of the remedy, for it shaketh.

The Text falls into thefe parts fo naturally, that there is none of you who hear me this day, but were able to divide it for me; which I fhall defire to follow with all perfpicuous brevity, and fitable enforcement.

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And fift; hear and confider that the motions of the diftempers, or publick calamities of States are Earthquakes; either or both, For this Earthquake is either out of a feare or fenfe of judgment or out of the ftrife of contrary affectations; the one we may call a paffive, the other an active Earth-quake; Earth-quakes we know, are ftrange and unnaturall things; There is no part of all Gods great Creation fave the Earth, that is ordained for reft, and ftability; The waters are in perpetuall agitation of flux, and refluxes; even when no wind ftirs they have their neap, and fpring tides.

The air cannot ftand ftill, whiles the Heavens whirle about.. The Heavens or any part of them never food ftill, but onee, fince they were made; but the Earth was made for fixedneffe, and itabili

ty:

ty: Hence ye find fo oft mention of the foundations of the Earth; and the ftile of it is, nefcia moveri, the Earth that cannot be moved; and that stands faft for ever; And therefore for the Earth to move, it is no leffe prodigie then for the Heavens to ftand ftill. Neither is it more rare then formidable; If we should fee the Heavens ftand ftill but one houre, we should (as we well might) expect a diffolution of all things: neither hath it leffe horrour in it to feel the Earth stagger under us. Whose hair doth not start up at this trepidation;and the more a man knowes,the more is his afstonishment, He hangeth the Earth upon nothing, faith, Job. For a man to feel the Earth that hangs upon nothing (but as fome valt ball in the midst Job 26. of a thin yielding air) totter under him, how can his foul choose but be poffeffed with a fecret fright and confusion?Me thinks, I tremble but to think of fuch a trembling.

7.

4. 4.

Such are the diftempers and publick calamities of States, though even of particular Kingdoms; but fo much more as they are more univerfall; they are both unnaturall and dreadfull. They are politickly unnaturall; For as the end of all motion is reft, fo the end of all civill and fpirituall agitations is peace and fettledneffe. The very name of a State implies fo much; which is we know a ftando, from ftanding, and not from moving; The man riding upon the red Horfe which flood upon the myrtle trees, Zachar. 1. 11. defcribes the condicion of a peacefull government; Behold all the Earth fitteth ftill, and is at reft; and Micah, They shall fit still every man under his vine and figtree, Micah and none fhall make them afraid. Particular mens affayes are like the Clouds, publick government is as the Earth; The Clouds are alwayes in motion, it were ftrange for any of them to ftand still in one point of the air; fo it were to fee private mens occafions void of fome movings of quarrells or change; the publick State is,or should be as the Earth a great and folid body, whofe chief praife is fettledneffe and confiftence: Now therefore when publick ftirs and tumults arise in a well ordered Church or Common-wealth, the State is cut of the focket, or when common calamities of war, famine, peftilence feize upon it, then the hearts of men quake and fhiver within them; then is our prophets Earth-quake which is here (poken of: Thou hast made the Earth to tremble.

To begin with the paffive motions of publick calamities; they are the fhakings of our Earth. So God intends them, fo must we ac

count them, and make use of them accordingly: what are we, I mean all the visible part of us, but a pecce of Earth? befides therefore that magneticall vertue which is operative upon all the parts of it, why should, or can a piece ftand ftill, when the whole moveth?

Denominations are wont to be not from the greater but the better part; and the beft part of this Earthen World is man ; and therefore when men are moved, we fay the Earth is fo,and when the Earth in a generality is thus moved, good reafon we fhould be fo alfo : we muft tremble therefore,when God makes the Earth to do so. What shall we fay then to thofe obdured hearts,which are nowhit affected with publick evils. Surely he were a bold man that could fleep whiles the Earth rocks him,and fo were he that could give himself to a stupid fecurity when he feels any vehement concuffations of government, or publick hand of Gods afflictive judgment.But it falls out too ufually, that as the Philofopher faid in matter of affaires, fo it is in matter of calamities,Communia negliguntur.Men are like Jonas in the ftorm,sleep it out,though it mainly concern them:furely,befides that we are men, bound up each in his own skin, we are limbs of a community; and that body is no leffe intire, and confiftent of all his members then this naturall; and no leffe fenfible fhould we be of any evill that afflicts it; If but the leaft toe do ache, the head feels it; but if the whole body be in pain much more do both head and feet feele it. Tell me, can it be that in a common Earth-quake any house can be free, or is the danger leffe because the neighbours roofes rattle allo Yet too many men, because they fuffer not alone, neither are fingled out for Vengeance, are infenfible of Gods hand: Surely fuch men as cannot be fhaken with Gods judgment are fit for the center, the lowest parts of the Earth, where there is a conftant and eternall unreft, not for the furface of it which looks towards an Heaven, where are interchanges of good and evill.

all

It is notable and pregnant which the prophet Efay hath, hear it ye fecure hearts, and tremble. In that day did the Lord of Hofts call to weeping, and mourning, and baldnesse, and girding with fackcloth, and behold joy and gladneffe, flaying of Oxen, and killing of Sheep, eating Flesh, and drinking wine; And what of that? Surely this iniquity fball not be purged till you die, faith the Lord God of Hofts. What fhall we fay to this, honourable and beloved; wherefore hath God given as his good creatures, but that we should injoy them? Doth not

Sola