thinks not evil; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things; 1 Cor. xiii. 5, 7. So, when Isaac's servants found the Philistines to strive with them for their two wells of Esek and Sitnah, they did not stand upon points with them; but removed and digged another, which was out of the reach of the strife, and called it Rehoboth; Elbow-room; Gen. xxvi. 22: and thus, the servants of Isaac made the Philistine quarrels to cease, though, by Abimelech's own confession, Isaac was much mightier than himself; Gen. xxvi. 16. Thus, when the main difference grew betwixt Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and the rest of Israel, concerning the altar beyond Jordan, a fair construction stinted that strife, which might have embroiled both parts in a bloody war. Thus it was in the synod of Ephesus, betwixt our good Bishops Cyril and Theodoret, whose differences had like to have rent the Church in pieces, but, upon better understanding, were allayed. Thus it was, in the more general and dangerous quarrel, betwixt the East and West Churches, concerning the inóσraois and ovơía “subsistences and essence in the Trinity, had not holy Athanasius interposed, showing them their own, unknown and unacknowledged, accordance. Would God I could give this phrase to these times we should not be in the condition we are. How many are rather apt to cast oil, than water, upon this flame! to enlarge, rather than heal this wound of the Church!

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(2.) By giving seasonable counsels of peace. So the Father of the Faithful to his nephew: Let there be no contention between me and thee, and thy herdmen and my herdmen; for we are brethren ; Gen. xiii. 8. So Moses to the contending Israelites: Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? Exod. ii. 12. So the wise woman of Abel to Joab: Thou seekest to destroy a city, and a mother in Israel : why wilt thou swallow up the inheritance of the Lord? 2 Sam. xx. 19. So, Abner the son of Ner, after he had set the two armies together by the ears, by the pool of Gibeon; yet, at last, moves for a retreat, calling to Joab whose men he had challenged: Shall the sword devour for ever? knowest thou not, that it will be bitterness in the latter end? how long shall it be then? 2 Sam. ii. 26. Oh, for these counsels of peace in these distracted times! How beautiful would their feet be, that should bring these glad tidings of peace! Alas, men are more ready to clap their hands, as boys are wont to do in dog-fights; and to say Eia, Socrates; Eia, Zantippe! How much more justly may we take up that word of the Psalmist; Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech; that I dwell in the tents of Kedar! my soul hath long dwelt with him, that hateth peace: I am for peace; but, when I speak, they are for war; Psalm cxx. 5, 6, 7.

(3.) By opposing and restraining the known make-baits of the Church and State. If Korah and his company rise up against Moses and Aaron, God takes the quarrel in hand; and they are

swallowed up of the earth. If Sheba, the son of Bichri, blow a trumpet of sedition, he must be speedily pursued to the gates of Abel; 2 Sam. xx. Would God those were cut off that trouble you! saith the charitable Apostle. Neither know I whether this be a greater act of justice or of mercy of justice, in respect of the delinquents; or of mercy, to the Church and Commonwealth. Woe is me, with what words should I bewail the deplorable estate of these late times in this behalf! Let me appeal to your own eyes and ears. I know I speak to judicious Christians. Tell me whether ever you lived to see such an inundation of libellous, scandalous, malicious pamphlets, as have lately broke in upon us : not only against some particular persons, which may have been faulty enough; but against the lawful and established government itself; against the ancient, allowed, legal forms of divine worship. Certainly, if we love the peace of this Church and Kingdom, we cannot but lament, and, to our power, oppose these insolencies. If Reformation be the thing desired and aimed at let not that man prosper, which doth not effect it, pray for it, bend his utmost endeavours to accomplish it: but is this the way to a Christian Reformation, to raise slanders, to broach lying accusations against the innocent, to calumniate lawful and established authority? God forbid! These are the acts of him, that is the manslayer from the beginning. The Holy God hates to raise his kingdom, by the aid of the Devil. Be as zealous as you will, but be, withal, just be charitable; and endeavour to advance good causes, by only lawful means. And then, let him come within the compass of the curse of Meroz, that is not ready to assist and second you. (4.) By cherishing the moderately affected, and encouraging those that intercede for peace; as those who do the noblest offices both to the Church and Commonwealth. If we meet with a man that can truly say, with the woman of Abel, Ego sum ex colentibus pacem, as Tremellius turns it; 2 Sam. xx. 20: "I am one of them that are peaceable and faithful in Israel;" make much of such. To the counsellors of peace shall be joy; Prov. xii. 20. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, saith the Psalmist: they shall prosper, that love thee. Certainly, thus it should be: but, alas, we are fallen upon times, wherein it is cause enough for a quarrel, to plead for peace: too well fulfilling that of the Psalmist; They speak not peace, but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land; Psalm xxxv. 20. A man, in this case, is like the shepherd, that would part the fray betwixt his two rams: they both met together upon his bones, and send him halting out of the field. The God of Peace, in his good time, remedy these distempers: but, in the mean time, let us comfort ourselves in the conscience of our happy endeavours with that of St. James, The fruits of righteousness are sown in peace, of them that make peace; James iii. 18.

And thus much for our duty, in seconding and imitating this

act of God, in making this cessation of wars; by withdrawing the fuel of contention; by giving seasonable counsels of peace; by opposing known make-baits; by cherishing the peaceableminded.

3. We descend to our third use proper for this day, which is THE CHALLENGE OF OUR THANKFULNESS. And, surely, wheresoever God vouchsafes to bestow this mercy, That he causes wars to cease unto any nation, he looks for no less; and we shall be foully ungrateful, if we disappoint him. Whereto we shall the better be excited, if we shall consider, first, the miseries of war; and, then, the benefits and comforts of peace.

(1.) The Miseries of War may be talked of, but can never be thoroughly conceived by any, but those that have felt them. I could tell you of sieging and famishing; sacking, and spoiling, and killing, and ravishing, and burning; of weltering in blood; and a thousand such tragical calamities of war: but I would rather the Spirit of God should describe them, in his own expressions; The sword without and terror within shall destroy, both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of grey hairs; Deut. xxxii. 25. And Isaiah; Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning, and with fuel of fire; Isa. ix. 5. Not to press those passionate descriptions of Isaiah and Nahum, that one of the prophet Azariah, the son of Obed, shall shut up all; 2 Chron. xv. 5, 6. In those times there was no peace to them that went out, nor to him that came in ; but greut vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries; and nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city; for God did vex them with all adversity. Mark but the foot of this report. Upon the mention of war, straight it follows, God did vex them with all adversity: surely, there is no adversity incident unto a creature, which doth not inevitably attend a war : and, as all wars are thus woeful and hideous, so much more the intestine and domestical; those that are raised out of our own bowels these are, beyond all conceit, dreadful and horrible. As, therefore, we do, in our ordinary prayers, put all these together which are the effects and concomitants of war, "From plague, pestilence, and famine; from battle, and murder, and from sudden death; Good Lord, deliver us :" so, good reason 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.

(2.) As for the Benefits of Peace, if we were not cloyed with them by their long continuance, we could not but be heartily sensible of them; and know, that all the comforts we enjoy, either for earth or for heaven, we owe to this unspeakable blessing of peace. Whereto if we had the late accession of further strength, by the union of our warlike 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, while he hath made woeful desolations in all the earth besides, yet hath caused wars to cease unto our ultima, the ends of our earth; and hath broken the bow and cut the spear in sunder. Oh, then, praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Sion: for he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates, and blessed thy children within thee. He maketh peace within thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat; Psalm cxlvii. 12, 13, 14. To that good God of all glory, peace, and comfort; Father, Son, Holy Ghost, One Infinite God, in Three most glorious Persons, be given all praise, honour, and glory, as is due from heaven and earth, from angels and men, from this time forth and for everAmen.

more.

SERMON XXXIV.

THE WOMEN'S VAIL:

OR A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE NECESSITY, OR EXPEdience, of THE CLOSE COVERING OF THE HEADS OF WOMEN.

INTENDED TO HAVE BEEN

PREACHED IN THE CATHEDRAL AT EXETER, UPON 1 COR. XI. 10. OCCASIONED BY AN OFFENCE UNJUSTLY TAKEN AT A MODEST DRESS.

1 CORINTHIANS XI. 10.

For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head, because of the Angels.

διατάξεις

As the Sacred Councils of the Church had wont to have their opovs, and diarágeis; "substantial canons," and "ritual constitutions;" so hath our blessed Apostle: as in all his Epistles, so in this; and as in other parts of it, so in this chapter. Here are main Canons for the essence of God's service, in the matter of the Eucharist here are Rules of order, for the outward fashion of praying and prophesying. These may be as variable, as the other are constant: it is no more possible, to fit all Churches and Countries with one form, than to fit all bodies with one suit, or all limbs with one size.

Neither can I, with learned Beza and Capellus, think, that prophesying here is taken for the hearing of prophecies. These things were extraordinarily done, till they were restrained.

In those primitive times, there were some women extraordinarily gifted by God's Spirit, who took upon them to preach

and pray publicly; which, afterwards, St. Paul forbad to his Timothy; 1 Tim. ii. 12. They, exercising these manly functions, presumed to take upon them manly fashions; whereas, therefore, bare-headedness was in Corinth, as also in all Greece and Rome, a token of honour and superiority, and covering the head a token of subjection; these forward women usurp upon the fashions of their husbands, and will have their faces seen as well as their voices heard: as the Jesuitesses of late time dared both to attempt and practise, till the late restraint of Pope Urban curbed and suppressed them. Our holy Apostle, who was zealously careful to reform even solecisms in the outward deportment of God's service, controls this absurd disorder; and, as the great master of holy ceremonies, enjoins a modest vail to the women, when they will show themselves in these acts of public devotion; For this cause the women ought to have power on their head, because of the angels.

Wherein yourselves, without me, observe Two remarkable heads of our discourse: 1. An APOSTOLICAL CANON; 2. The CARRIAGE or GROUNDS OF IT. The Canon is fully and home-charged; The women ought to have power on their head. The Grounds are double; one precedent, For this cause; the other subsequent, Because of the angels, which, in the Vulgate, and in St. Ambrose, is brought in by a copulative, et or etiam propter Angelos.

1. From the CANON itself in the generality, you would, of yourselves, in my silence, easily infer, That spiritual superiors must take care not only of the substantial parts of God's worship, but of the circumstantial appendances of it. What is a merer ceremony, than our clothes? what can seem of less consequence, than a vail left off or put on? the head may be as good, and as full of holy thoughts, bare or covered; what is that, you would think, to the heart of our devotion? Yet, the Chosen Vessel fears not to seem too scrupulous, in laying weighty charges upon us in so small, and, as we might imagine, unimporting a business. Certainly, my Beloved, though the King's daughter be all glorious within, and there lies her chief beauty; yet her clothing is of wrought gold too. And if, in the Tabernacle, God's first dwelling-place upon earth, it pleased him to give order for the principal stuff of the vails, and curtains, and frame; for the matter and form of the ark, and altars, and tables of the face-bread yet he thought good, not to neglect the punctual directions for the taches, snuffers, snuff-dishes, besoms, and the meanest requisites of that sacred fabric. Justice and judgment, which are the main businesses of the Law, must be chiefly regarded; but yet, even the tithing of mint and anise, and cummin, may not be neglected. Had not Simon the Pharisee meant a hearty welcome to our Saviour, he had never undergone the envy of inviting him to his house but yet our Saviour finds him short of his due compliments; of the hospital kiss of washing,