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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	authority_n	call_v	scripture_n	1,590	5	5.5725	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51374	Religio militis, or, A soldier's religion writ by a field officer of the army in his winter-quarters / W. Morgan.	Morgan, William.	1695 (1695)	Wing M2758; ESTC R32961	10,518	30

innumerable Sects at Home for want of keeping her Men in constant Breath and Exercise against the Turks and Saracens abroad And Christian Princes have spent their Metal upon each other which they employ'd with much more Honour against the Common Enemy of CHRISTENDOM It was indeed an Age of Gallantry the Genius of it truly Martial and Heroick and the Race of Men such as seem'd born to distinguish Themselves in Feats of Arms even in their Sports and Exercises which were Noble and Manly and what is yet more even in their very Tales and Romances for much about that time as some think were all those bold Fables of Knights and Giants first hatched which contributed not a little perhaps to that Expedition as in succeeding Times they grew up to the Illustrious Orders of Knighthood of Saint George and the Golden Fleece While these Legions had a Power over Men's Minds they became bold by Meditation their Heads were fill'd with Notions of Braves and Hero's and they were carried even beyond themselves to Great and Generous Enterprizes Thus Alexander by having Homer under his Pillow became a Conquerour and Thucydides as it is reported by hearing Herodotus read cou'd not contain himself from Tears but was spirited into an Historian by meer force of Emulation But alas these Tales have long since lost their Reputation the Love-Romances and Novels are altogether in Vogue and Esteem whilst those of Chivalry are wholly laid aside and in Disgrace Other Notions have prevail'd with which Men have been too long unhappily perverted and debauch'd Feats of Arms heretofore in the greatest Admiration are now ridicul'd and run down under the odious Terms of Knight-Errantry so visible are the Decays of the ancient Courage that in the Opinion of some the Degeneracy of the Spaniards from their former Reputation in Arms is in a manner owing to the Buffoonries of Don Quixot I remember to have read the Statute of 33 Hen. 8. cap. 9. which ascribes the Growth of Debauchery and Decay of Military Discipline with us here in England to the Disuse of Archery and the change of the ancient Exercise of the Long-Bow for the more unmanly new Exercises of Tennis Bowls and Nine-Pins to which might be added the Desuetude of those Martial Sports once in use of Tilting Tournaments and Running at the Quintin as also the Discontinuance of the Trial once so frequent in criminal Cases by Battel or Combat a Priviledge which if it be denied to others yet if I may be allow'd to speak in the behalf of my Profession I think it hard to barr us from claiming it as our Right For why shou'd my Hands be tied up when my Life is in question more strictly by Formalities of Common Law than I am by Civil Law in making my Will to dispose of my Estate since the Emperours made duly this Provision for the ease of Soldiers That their last Wills should be good though made without Solemnities of Law the reason of which is plainly declar'd to be in consideration of their Ignorance of the Law as an Allowance less than necessary to our close Attendance on our Colours Nor is it reason to expect the Skill of other Arts from us whose sole Profession is the Art of War and to this purpose Juvenal Satyr XVI By ancient Laws and Customs sacred held By Great Camillus Soldiers never were compell'd Tappear in Courts but in the Camp t' abide And by their own Commanders to be Try'd Though had the Trial by Battel been a Right in such Cases yet indulg'd to all I am of Opinion it might have been no less a means to redeem the ancient Honour of the English Nation than the Juego de Toros or the Bull-Feast has been esteem'd among the Spaniards to retrieve their lost Reputation in Arms which has so visibly declin'd of late among them that Don Quixot considering the general Entertainment he has met with in so many Nations and his Translation into so many Languages seems at present to have a better Right to the Universal Monarchy than they who once laid claim to it themselves notwithstanding he turns all Fighting into a Jest and his Story is no less than a most accomplish'd Libel on all the Soldiers of Christendom It were to be wish'd however the witty Spaniard had infected only his own Country-men but it is to be fear'd alas the Poison has been transplanted too far in so short a time and that it has taken but too deep root with too many of their once Renown'd Neighbours nay and even of our own Nation too For I have been credibly inform'd of one of the Senior Fellows of a certain College in Oxford too well known to need Naming who having imbib'd a fond Opinion That whatever was the last Employment of a Soul at the point of Death would hold the same even to the Day of Judgment He in pursuance of such an Opinion when he apprehended himself near his last Moments made all the haste his Extremity of Age would allow to turn over the Leaves of Don Quixot as if he courted no better an Employment for his Soul than to be engag'd in that Comieal History until the Day of Judgment What shall I say else to the applauded Satyr against Man of one of our admir'd Wits wherein he has bid Defiance to our Profession and to all Mankind at once in telling us That All Men wou'd be Cowards if they durst but only this That if Cowards bid so fair for Universal Monarchy the Spaniards even yet may hope not to be excluded But this alas is but the Gospel of a Poet who was suppos'd to have said this in defence of himself who lay under some Scandal of that kind But what do we talk of single Persons when of late there is risen up a New Sect among us who make Conscience of Cowardice and entail Religion upon it I mean the sneaking Anabaptists who are proper Patrons for such a Doctrine as this That all Wars are unlawful I shall not press them with the Heroick Description of the War-Horse in the Book of Job because I hear that has not the Authority of Canonical Scripture with them but is reputed no less Apocryphal than our Profession But what do they say to the Practice of one of the first Reformers abroad Zuinglius who scrupled not to be a Captain and died bravely in his Calling at the Battel of Zurick leaving an Example behind him which those of the Helvetian Reformation have follow'd close ever since as all Republicks taste much of their first Beginnings since the Swiss-Cantons are in effect but a Commonwealth of Soldiers who by hiring of War abroad among their Neighbour-Princes have wisely found the way to free their Country from Thieves as also from the unhappy and dismal Effects of Civil Wars at home as they are generally call'd though I think for the most part very rude and sharp and indeed the worst sort of all Where are they now that accuse Rapine and Poverty as the natural and immediate Results of War since it appears by a juster Calculation of Astrology that Beggars enter'd into all Christian Countries upon the Dissolution of Slaves as even the Republick of Switzers affords us a Glorious Instance in the other respect since no Commonwealth furnishes out more Soldiers or has fewer Thieves I take Mr. Hobbs to be a far better Divine than any of the Anabaptists in his Opinion That the State of Nature is a State of War where every Man's Sword is against another Nor do I think his other Opinion That Dominion is sounded in Power altogether so ill-grounded and extravagant since it cuts off so many nice Disputes about Princes Titles and the Rights and Justice or Lawfulness of their Wars which seems so unreasonable to engage Men of our Profession in that it appears a Task much fitter for an Army of Casuists than Soldiers Did the Anabaptists look for Miracles their condemning all Camps as unlawful might merit the same Excuse as their condemning all Colleges and Schools as vain and superfluous from their Pretences to Inspiration for so the Argument would hold alike fair and concluding for banishing both Soldiers and Scholars out of the World and as they make one step to make Dunces by Divine Right for company I deny not but that I gaze often as I ought with profound Reverence and Admiration upon Sampson's killing Heaps upon Heaps with the Jaw-bone of an Ass and upon the Walls of Jericho falling flat before the Trumpets of Rams-horns and upon Gideon's miraculous Campagne with his Three hundred Men arm'd with their Lamps lighted and their Pitchers in their hands These I look upon as very extraordinary and magnificent Scenes in that Age of Miracles But now that these miraculous Militia's are ceas'd which it may be were peculiar to that State I frankly own That the Sword of God and Gideon is to me more intelligible and I ingenuously profess my self much of the same Belief of that Spanish Marshal who us'd to say He trusted in God and great Squadrons FINIS