Casuistical morning-exercises the fourth volume /

10. My last Advice is, to Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: This every one may do, and this every one ought to do. Psal. 122.6. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. There are few greater Reasons for our solemn Fasting and Prayer than this: If some Plague, or War, or Drought come upon us, we reckon it's high time to Fast and Pray: But alas! those are in themselves but Miseries, but our Contentions are so our Miseries, that they are our sins also: Those will but destroy some of our People, but Uncharitable Contentions will consume us all. But whatever Others do herein, let it be every sincere Christian's care to lay holy violence to Heaven upon this Account. You have done all that is in your Power to restore Love and Peace, and it is in vain; try th•• what God can do, Abi in cellam, & dic miserere Deus. He can make Men to be of one mind in a House, City and Nation: He can bow the Hearts of a whole Nation, even as the Heart of one man, and that in a moment of time; He can bring the Wolf, and the Lyon, and the Lamb to feed together, so that they shall not hurt nor destroy in all his holy mountain, Isa. 65, 25. And O that the Prayer of our most Blessed Saviour, Joh. 17.21. may yet prevail with God to pour down a spirit of Love and Peace into us all!

In the mean time, let all those that are passive, that are upright, humble, and quiet, comfort themselves with Salvian's saying, Insectantur nos, & in nobis Deum. Christ is a fellow-sufferer with all that suffer as Christians; and their design is against God himself, that devour his servants. And then pergant nostrae patientiae praecones [Greek or Hebrew], beatos nos hoc modo facient, dumb vellent miseros. They that speak and write all manner of evil of you, so it be falsely, while they endeavour to render you miserable, do thereby make you happy. True Virtue and Piety shines most in the fire, and therefore in Patience possess your Souls, if you can possess nothing else.