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| THE GOD OF PEACE, 1 by this name is he knowne, | |
| His peace all vnderstanding doth surmount; | |
| Then those whom he vouchsafeth for his owne, | |
| If they to dwell with him doe make account, | |
| Must live in peace and perfect vnity, | 5 |
| Else, if they say th’are his, I’le sweare they lye. | |
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| Peace, Loue, and Concord, Christian badges be, | |
| By them are Christ’s disciples knowne from others: | |
| But such as liue voyd of all charitie, | |
| Are not his seruants, much lesse then his brothers; | 10 |
| They to another master doe retaine, | |
| And he must pay them wages for their paine. | |
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| Sweet is the name of peace, but sweeter farre | |
| The thing itself; experience prooues it true: | |
| An adage old doth tell me, Sweet is warre. | 15 |
| To whom? To him that warre yet neuer knew. | |
| If any list to try before he trust, | |
| Such will approoue my saying true and iust. | |
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| If men did vnderstand what ioy of heart, | |
| What inward comfort to a soule distrest, | 20 |
| What ease of griefe, and what release from smart, | |
| God’s peace doth bring, and how it makes men blest; | |
| They would sell all they have to get that treasure, | |
| Placing therein their only ioy and pleasure. | |
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| Of peace God is the author and the giuer; | 25 |
| A King so great and bountifull as he | |
| Bestowes not trifles on his true belieuer: | |
| Then peace, God’s gift, must needs a good one be. | |
| All monarchs vpon earth, thou ioyn’d in one, | |
| May not compare their gifts with his alone. | 30 |
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| Christ, when he came, brought peace, and when he parted, | |
| Left that behind to his disciples deere: | |
| Their doctrine, vnto those whom they conuerted, | |
| Was full of peace; and whilst they liued heere | |
| They taught vs still to pray, Da pacem nobis, | 35 |
| As Christ at parting says to them, Pax vobis. | |
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| Christ is our peace; what can be spoke more full, | |
| In praise of that which needs none other glosing? | |
| Yet are our wits, in things diuine, so dull, | |
| As rather leane on human sense reposing, | 40 |
| Then on the truth: wherein he that doth rest | |
| (Say worldlings what they list) is surely blest. | |
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| Well spake the Hebrewes, when they wished good | |
| Vnto their neighbour whom they passed by, | |
| Peace be to thee; which, rightly vnderstood, | 45 |
| Implies all blisse, and all felicity. | |
| That sacred tongue in briefe expresseth to vs | |
| What good peace (if we it imbrace) will doe vs. | |
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| Men of meeke spirit shall the land possesse; | |
| Peace in abundance shall refresh their hearts: | 50 |
| Of innocence and perfect vprightnesse | |
| Peace is the end—(good pay for high deserts): | |
| The hauty-hearted, wicked, and vniust, | |
| Some other thing for hire expect they must. | |
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| Tell, who began to breake the sacred band | 55 |
| Of blessed peace, wherein man liu’d at first: | |
| Was’t not that Cain, who lifted vp his hand, | |
| And with a murthrous mind (O wretch accurst!) | |
| Brake peace, and foully slue his onely brother, | |
| Though they had both one father and one mother? | 60 |
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| This was the first of men that so transgressed, | |
| Yet long before the deuill led the dance; | |
| When Adam and his wife stood in state blessed, | |
| In paradise; it fell not out by chance, | |
| But by suggestion of the wicked fiend, | 65 |
| That man made God his foe, which was his friend. | |
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| The deuill was a make-bate and man-slayer | |
| From the beginning, so continues still; | |
| All that be such must vnto him repaire, | |
| Where they shall finde of brawles and stirs their fill: | 70 |
| Let them not looke for peace,—ther’s none in hell; | |
| Nay, hel’s on earth wheras peace doth not dwell. | |
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| In heauen is peace,—earth’s heauen where peace dwelleth: | |
| A man within himself may be at bate. | |
| The peace of conscience all peace else excelleth; | 75 |
| What so disquiets that, well maist thou hate. | |
| This both with God and with our selues doth set vs | |
| At perfect rest, and then can nothing fret vs. | |
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| O what a hell is’t in a countrey cot | |
| Where dwels not peace, but harsh debate and strife! | 80 |
| All plentie’s there, they are not worth a groat, | |
| Iarres being only ’twixt the man and wife: | |
| If they alone do loue, and liue as friends, | |
| For all defects besides that makes amends. | |
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| Children th’ example of their parents follow; | 85 |
| Good seruants doe their masters imitate: | |
| Ther’s none (but if he haue his heart all hollow) | |
| That ioyes not in beholding such a state. | |
| Such is the power of gracious vnity, | |
| Makes earthly men as heauenly angels be. | 90 |
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| Proceed yet further to a stately towne, | |
| Where peace and concord swayes ’mongst all degrees; | |
| Riches and plenty doe their labours crowne, | |
| They liue together like a swarme of bees; | |
| Both great and small bring honey to the hiue, | 95 |
| A drone is he that knowes not there to thriue. | |
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| Of kingdomes and of empires, large and great, | |
| Like may be said, and more if it were need: | |
| ’Tis peace that doth adorne a prince’s seat, | |
| Making it glorious, like God’s throne indeed: | 100 |
| As kings are God’s lieutenants, so should shine | |
| Their thrones, in sort resembling the diuine. | |
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| In heauen’s kingdome there is no contending, | |
| Those subiects know and doe their duties right: | |
| All is so well, that there needs no amending; | 105 |
| There God and King is euer in their sight. | |
| That’s not for terror, but t’increase their blisse, | |
| For in his presence all contentment is. | |
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| Once yet, aboue there was a foule rebelling, | |
| When factious troupes of angell mutiners, | 110 |
| Ioyn’d with great Lucifer, in damn’d pride swelling, | |
| Were tumbled downe, as vilde conspiraters, | |
| From highest heauen, into that burning lake, | |
| Which once to thinke on any heart would quake. | |
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| But since that time there neuer chanced more | 115 |
| The least disorder—neuer will againe; | |
| Those angels that were true to God before | |
| Had this free charter, that whil’st he did raigne | |
| (Which is for aye) they neuer should decline | |
| Not the least iot from his good will diuine. | 120 |
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| And so they liue in peace (there needs be spoken | |
| No more), that is, in a most blessed state; | |
| Such peace as henceforth neuer can be broken, | |
| Such loue as neuer can give way to hate; | |
| With psalms, and hymnes, and heauenly melodie, | 125 |
| Yeelding laud to the glorious Trinitie. | |
