Peace is a calm in conceit, where the senses take pleasure in the rest of the spirit.  It is Nature’s holiday after reason’s labour, and wisdom’s music in the concords of the mind.  It is a blessing of grace, a bounty of mercy, a proof of love, and a preserver of life.  It holds no arguments, knows no quarrels, is an enemy to sedition, and a continuance of amity.  It is the root of plenty, the tree of pleasure, the fruit of love, and the sweetness of life.  It is like the still night, where all things are at rest, and the quiet sleep, where dreams are not troublesome; or the resolved point, in the perfection of knowledge, where no cares nor doubts make controversies in opinion.  It needs no watch where is no fear of enemy, nor solicitor of causes where agreements are concluded.  It is the intent of law and the fruit of justice, the end of war and the beginning of wealth.  It is a grace in a court, and a glory in a kingdom, a blessing in a family, and a happiness in a commonwealth.  It fills the rich man’s coffers, and feeds the poor man’s labour.  It is the wise man’s study, and the good man’s joy:  who love it are gracious, who make it are blessed, who keep it are happy, and who break it are miserable.  It hath no dwelling with idolatry, nor friendship with falsehood; for her life is in truth, and in her all is Amen.  But lest in the justice of peace I may rather be reproved for my ignorance of her work than thought worthy to speak in her praise, with this only conclusion in the commendation of peace I will draw to an end and hold my peace:—­It was a message of joy at the birth of Christ, a song of joy at the embracement of Christ, an assurance of joy at the death of Christ, and shall be the fulness of joy at the coming of Christ.

WAR.

War is a scourge of the wrath of God, which by famine, fire, or sword humbleth the spirits of the repentant, trieth the patience of the faithful, and hardeneth the hearts of the ungodly.  It is the misery of time and the terror of Nature, the dispeopling of the earth and the ruin of her beauty.  Her life is action, her food blood, her honour valour, and her joy conquest.  She is valour’s exercise and honour’s adventure, reason’s trouble and peace’s enemy:  she is the stout man’s love and the weak man’s fear, the poor man’s toil and the rich man’s plague:  she is the armourer’s benefactor and the chirurgeon’s agent, the coward’s ague and the desperate’s overthrow.  She is the wish of envy, the plague of them that wish her, the shipwreck of life, and the agent for death.  The best of her is, that she is the seasoner of the body and the manager of the mind for the enduring of labour in the resolution of action.  She thunders in the air, rips up the earth, cuts through the seas, and consumes with the fire:  she is indeed the invention of malice, the work of mischief, the music of hell, and the dance of the devil.  She makes the end of youth untimely