even as God is pure, and fo endeavour to refemble and transcribe the Divine Perfections here, that we may contemplate them with the greater Complacency and Delight hereafter. To which purpose, let us now and always Pray in the Words of our Holy and Devout Church,

O God, make clean our Hearts within us, And take not thy Holy Spirit from us. Amen.

Difcourfe

Difcourfe the Seventh.

Matth. V. ver. ix.

Bleffed are the Peace-makers, for they shall be call'd the Children of God.

HE Words very well become the Mouth of him that fpake them, who was himself the greatest Peace-maker in the World. He made Peace in Heaven by the Blood of his Crofs, and endeavoured to promote it on Earth. He firft reconciled God to Man, and then tried to reconcile Men to one another. He chose to be born in the most quiet and peaceful state of the Roman Empire, when Aguftus in token of an Univerfal Peace had fhut up the Mystical Gates of Janus Is Temple. And when he came into the World his Proclamation by the Angels was Peace; and when he was to leave the World, the fame was his Legacy, John 14. Peace Í leave with you, my peace Igive unto you. The Order of his whole Life was a conftant Compliance with the Peace of the State, whereof he gave two fignal Inftances, in Paying Tribute when not obliged, and in Forbidding Refiftance of the Officer that seized him; and his last Prayer was for the Peace and L

Unity

Unity of the Church. And now, fince by this great Love and Study of Peace he fhewed himself to be the Genuine Son of God, who is styled the God of Peace, 1 Cor. 14. 33. he might with the better Decorum make the fame Difpofition of Mind the Measure and Argument of our Filial Relation to him; as he does when he tells us, Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God.

By Peace-makers here, I fuppofe, is meant, not only those that interpofe as Moderators, to compose Feuds and Quarrels, (tho that be the more immediate Senfe of the Word ;) but more generally thofe that are peaceably affected, and that fhew this their Peaceable Difpofition, either by living quietly and inoffenfively, or by endeavouring to maintain Peace where it is, or to reftore it where it is interrupted. The first of thefe Degrees of Peaceableness confifts in a mere Negative; the two laft are of a Pofitive Nature, and confequently of a greater Excellence: But the most excellent of all is the laft, it being, for the most part, not only a thankless, but an odious, difficult and hazardous Undertaking, to bring them nearer together, whom Anger has fet at a distance. 'Tis like the Bufinels of a Fire-quencher, who, tho he may, with plying of Engins, and great a-do, refcue the Pile of Building from the devour

ing Flames, yet his Eyes will be fure to smart with the Smoak..

Now this Peace, in the not violating, preferving, or reftoring of which this Peaceable-mindedness is concern'd, may be either private Peace between Man and Man, or publick Peace between Societies of Men. Again, Publick Peace is diftinguishable according to the general Diftribution of Human Society into Civil and Ecclefiaftick, that of the State, and that of the Church. The former concerns Men, not only as fubjected to Government, or as under this or that particular Form of Government; but also as Men, and confequently all Men: For, even the State of Nature, antecedently to all Hu man Conventions and Conftitutions, (as has been abundantly proved against the Author of the Leviathan) is not a State of War, but of Peace. The latter refpects only thofe who are Members of the Chriftian Church, whereof Chrift Jefus is the Head, and subject to that Spiritual Government whereof he is the Author. The former kind of pub lick Peace is opposed to War and feditious Practices, the latter to Schifms and Divisions.

The Way being thus far cleared by pointing out the general Degrees of Peaceableness, and the general Kinds of Peace, we may now with the lefs Entanglement proceed to fix the Subject and Order of the following Dif L 2 courfe.

courfe. And here I do not intend a Cafuifti cal Tract, by entring upon that long beaten Common-place concerning our Obligation to Peace, and the Measures of obferving it with reference either to Church or State: For, befides that this has been the constant Theme of almost every Cafuift, and that it is impoffible to say any thing more than All, or better than Some have already faid upon it, I further think that the thing is of it felf plain enough; and that, were it not for the Perverfenefs of fome Men, rather than for any Obfcurity in the Duty, there needed not have been any other Measure given in this Matter than that general one of the Apostle, If it be poffible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men. For, when 'tis enquired, How far we are obliged to Peace in the State, or Peace in the Church? The Anfwer is plain and ready from hence, That we are obliged to both as far as is poffible, and as much as in us lies; and that nothing less than Abfolute and Evident Neceffity can juftifie either War in the State, or Separation in the Church. Which one Rule if well heeded and practifed, the Condition of the World would be much more peaceable and quiet than it is, or is like to be.

Inftead therefore of treating of this Beatitude in a Cafuiftical way, by defcribing the Measures of our Obligation to Peace, I

fhall