you were broken of your accustomed time and so when you return to privacy you must thinke of offering I have often thought with my selfe how it should come to passe that Mariners and Souldiers who of all other stand most in need of the benefit of prayer and of a continuall prepared heart as being most often neere to death are yet of all other most commonly farthest from the use of prayer and thought of death and doe usually live more carelesly and loosely It puts me in mind of that which Plutarch speakes in the life of Solon whom he notes to have been formerly of a looser conversation and delighted in Poetry and gives a reason of it from his former course of life when he was a Merchant to this effect Merchants running through many hazards and great dangers doe when the Feare and sorrow wherewith they were possest is over desire to enjoy themselves so much the more in like manner such Souldiers that have no better comforts and refreshments then what sense doth suggest unto them being often in great dangers feares and bitternes of mind doe seeke the sweet of a licentious relaxation and liberty and the more they were straitned before the more they let all loose when once they are free This is no true ease or solace of mind after evills and dangers that are past nor is it any good preparation against those that are to come it is not a Christian but Epicurean remedy against feare and care for it saith let us eat and drinke for to morrow we shall dye But the Scripture would teach both Mariner and Souldier the neerer they are to danger the more carefully to number their dayes that they may apply their hearts to Wisdome which wisdome is in the fearing of God the depending on his protection the serving of him dayly by prayer and thankesgiving the duties already commended unto you And now if you will take a short View of the Services and imployments you are put upon you shall find the use and benefit of those duties in them The imployments or services you are put unto I may reduce to two You are called either to Watch or to Fight against the Enemy to the Guard or to the Encounter and Battell The Watch or Guard I. When you stand upon the Watch or Guard you are there set for the preservation of your selves and others and ought to consider what a great charge is committed to your trust no lesse then the lives of all that are within the compasse of your walls or trenches who are to be secured by your care and to take their rest in your watchfullnes a duty this is conscionably to be discharged by you A great Commander of the Thebans finding his Sentinell sleeping dispatched him forthwith and excused it I found him dead and so I left him dead because sleeping and because sleeping therefore rewarded with death indeed It showes what you deserve if you be found so because those you watch for might be so dispatched by the Enemy through your neglect Hereupon you ought to consider how much it concernes you to take heed of excesse and drunkennesse which makes you unfit for the faithfull performance of this service we read in severall histories how many Cities Armies have been surprized and lost through the negligence of the Watch being opprest with drunkennes and sleep You must also consider that the safety of the City or Camp is not to be ascribed only or chiefly to your care and watchfullnes but to that Eye of providence which never slumbreth nor sleepeth which watcheth over you and those that you watch for which appointeth salvation for Walls and Bullwarks as you heard above and as the Psalmist tells us It is the Lord that maketh fast the barres of our Gates Psa 147.13 and the Watchmen wake in vaine except the Lord keep the City Psa 127. so that this service or imployment calls for your dependance on his protection according to the Duty before commended to you 2dly When you are called to the Encounter or Battell you will find the direction and benefit of the three former Duties and here you are called to the triall of your Valour and to a consideration of the Issue of the Battell VALOVR I. VAlour is both necessary and commendable in a Souldier but very much mistaken now adayes sometimes a quarrellsome disposition and heat of blood sometimes a careles and rash daring goes for Valour we see how drunkennes often brings forth quarrells and fightings when it ha's heated the blood which else upon a just and sober occasion would be cool enough a Valour that deserves not to be armed with swords but drinking pots with which the Thracians a drunken people were wont to fight We see also how a false opinion of honour and reputation thrusts men into Duells from whence come Warres and fightings among you come they not from hence even of your lusts that warr in your members Iam. 4.1 No true Valour here but inordinate lusts and desires that first fight and strive within your selves being set on fire by excesse and riot or stirred up and misguided by a false conceit of your reputation blemished if you doe not answer the challenge that ha's dared you to adventure body and soule The first challenge for a Duell that we read of came from the mouth of an uncircumcised Philistin 1. Sam. 17.8 and yet that was in open warr tending to the saving of many by the hazard of two and because it was therefore lawfull David did accept it but a challenge to a private Duell upon a private quarrell comes from an heart very unchristian uncircumcised Next we find Abner and Joab meeting and putting their men to twelve Duells for being inured to blood they made but a sport of killing 2. Sam. 2.14 but to shew that the Lord liked neither the offer nor the accepting of the triall the matches on both sides fell downe together and perished True Valour is grounded upon the assurance of a good Cause in the maintenance whereof and in the confidence of Gods blessing the Souldier is not affraid to meet Death to hazard life he that is resolute here is truly Valiant though he will not sweare and swagger though he will not answer a challenge from a fellow Souldier but dare from a just lawfull Enemy for he dare adventure his life but not his soule knowing that duell's upon private quarrells are both Vnsouldier-like because men are not call'd together into Armes to try their swords upon each other to pursue a private revenge but an open Enemy and also Vnchristian because in such a case to kill or be kill'd are both unwarrantable damnable Ioab was a valiant man and shewed it not when he slew Abner and dispatched Amasa shedding the blood of War in Peace 1. King 2.5 but when he Encountred the Ammonites and Syrians then he shewed a well grounded Valour Be of good courage saith he to his brother Abishai and let us play
your King and your Captain or Colonel and can readily give account of the duties you are usually put upon and when you speak any thing that concernes conscience it is commonly this you have a good cause All this is true and just but this I must tell you notwithstanding the goodnesse of your Cause and the strictnesse of your obedience to your superiors if you would have your King and your selves to prosper you must also and chiefly know him that has the highest command over you The great Generall of the Armies of the Creatures the King of Kings and Lord of Hoasts that walketh in the midst of the Camp and cannot endure to see any unclean thing amongst you as he tells you Deut. 23.14 If you would have him deliver you and give up your enimies before you as it is there promised you must approve your selves to him for which there are two things considerable your Cause and your Conversation A good Conscience in regard of both these doth assure a blessing from God and addes true confidence to a Souldier in all his enterprizes THE CAVSE THe Lord is no Patron of an unjust cause but will plead a just one as David often desires him to doe in his Psalmes usually alleadging the righteousnesse of his Cause as a prevailing argument to move him to undertake it How comes it to passe then that we see sometimes an unrighteous Cause to prosper We never see it finally prospering but God in his justice suffers it a while to prevaile for the punishment and correction of others that have not hearts and conversations answerable to the uprightnesse of their cause yet in the end the unjust cause will bring destruction upon the undertakers that a man shall say Doubtlesse there is a God that judgeth the Earth Psal 58.10 We may understand the Lords counsell and purpose in this particular Esa 10. v. 5 6 7 12. He there useth the Assyrian whose meaning was nothing else but to spoyle and oppresse as the rod of his anger against the people of his wrath but when he has performed his whole work upon Mount Sion that is throughly humbled and corrected his people then will he punish the stout heart and high looks of the Assyrian The Benjamites are very obstinate in defending a Lewd Cause and doe prosper in two Battels Judg. 20. but in the third when the Israelites had truly humbled themselves Benjamin is cut off with an utter destruction What your Cause is and what you fight for that you may understand and remember it the better it is expressed upon the peices of Silver which you receive in pay looke upon them whose Image what Superscription they beare By that Image which you see on the one side you are told it is for the King and his Iust Rights that Caesar may have what is his by the Superscription on the other side you are assured it is for the established Religion for the Freedome of Parliaments for the Liberty of Subjects that you beare Armes Your Adversaries may fight for the bare Silver having no better engagement to hold them in Armes as for the Image or Superscription they have nothing to doe with either the Superscription which the Priests put upon Iudas his peices of Sylver The price of blood they might read upon theirs and would cast them away as he did his were their Consciences not too far hardened But you fight for the Cause which is able to satisfie Conscience when Gold and Sylver cannot doe it and in the performance and discharge of this your duty and allegiance both the Law of God and of this Land will be your warrant will secure you of the justnes of your Cause Life and Conversation IVstnes of the Cause is not enough to make all prosper without a considerable disposition of the Persons and answerable Conversation of those that are imployed in the defence of it I feare there is too generall a security and confidence this way in many that follow the King in this Warre who seeing that between them and the Adverfary the right of the Cause is on their side are not so sollicitous upon the point of righteousnes betweene God and themselves as if their Loyalty to their Prince would excuse their Rebellion against God or their Zeal to His service cover their neglect in Gods worship Consider what the Lord threatens by the mouth of Samuell If yee shall still doe wickedly yee shall be consumed both yee and your King 1. Sam. 12.25 not only yee for your own but even your King also for your wickednes and Psa 81.14 The Lord tells his People under what condition they might expect his helpe If my People would have hearkened and walked in my wayes I should soon have put down their Enemies turned mine hand against their Adversaries and the Psalmist in his own Person teacheth every one of you to conclude with your selves If I incline unto wickednes with my heart the Lord will not heare me Psal 66. you see you strip your selves of Gods protection nay make him your Enemy who threatens to wound the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his wickednes Psa 68.21 you need no other Enemies he will wound you How oft have we seene a just Cause suffer through the wickednes of Instruments used in the defence of it the Psalmist speakes of Gods people under his speciall protection in the wildernes how that because they provoked him often to anger with their owne inventions they were often brought down in their wickednes as weread Psa 78. and Psa 106. We may see this in severall Examples The Israelites had a just Cause against Moab but observe how they sped in it at first The King of Moab sends for Balaam and shewes him the Hoast of Israell from an high mountaine to the end he might curse them but so long as there was not iniquity and perversnes among them he could have no power against them so he is forced to confesse Num. 23. vers 21 23. He hath not beheld iniquity in Iacob he hath not seen perversnes in Israel the Lord his God is with him surely there is no inchantment against Jacob nor divination against Israel No Art or power of man or Divell can prevail against a people an army trusting in God and serving him Therefore Balaam lets the King of Moab understand that Israel must first be brought to sin against their God before he can prevail against them and for that purpose counsells him which Counsell of Balaam is mentioned Num. 31.16 to send in the daughters of Moab and the Midianitish women among them we have the performance and issue of that counsell Nam 25. They fall by Whoredome and Idolatry and then by the Sword and the Plague Israel had a just cause against the Canaanites yetthey were slain before the Men of Ai through Achans sin they are forewarned of it in these words Jos 6.18 In any wise keep your selves from the accursed thing
The Camp at Gilgal OR A VIEW OF THE Kings Army and spirituall provision made for it And Iosuah made sharpe knives and circumcised the Children of Jsrael and they abode in the Campe till they were whole And the Lord said this day have J rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you wherefore the place is called Gilgal Ios 5.3,8,9 The Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy Camp therefore shall thy Camp be holy that he see no unclean thing in thee and turn away from thee Deut. 23.14 OXFORD Printed by Leonard Lichfield Printer to the Vniversity 1643. For the Kings Souldiers WHen I look upon the Jsraelites in their Camp at Gilgal and how they were brought thither I cannot but think of the condition we are all in and reflect especially upon you that belong to the Royall Camp Those Jsraelites having worn out the long troubles of the Wildernesse and passed through Jordan on dry ground doe look back first upon the way through which the Lord had wonderfully brought them and then upon themselves and that uncircumcision that was still upon them as if they had still belonged to Aegypt which they had forsaken What doe they then Being now upon the borders of their enemies they forme their Camp in Gilgal and there they set up twelve stones taken out of the passage of Jordan for a Memoriall to the Children of Israell for ever that they might know what way the Lord brought their forefathers into that Land Ios 4. and then before they goe out thence to any Battell the reproach of Egypt is rolled away from off them Ios 5.9 that is they are all called to Circumcision which was a mark that put a difference between them and Egyptians and was a signe of new affections now to be entertained to the putting away of that hardnesse of heart that had accompanied their fathers from their coming out of Egypt And now you must give me leave upon the like occasions to invite you to the like considerations you have worne out the trouble of a long Winter and passed through many dangers it is now the time that Kings goe forth to Battell your Camp is formed and you ready to be drawn out against the Enemy what then remains but that before you goe out thence you look back upon the way you have been hitherto led by and out of the severall passages of your deliverances as out of the midst of Iordan take you severall remembrances of Gods power and Mercy set them up in a well grounded Memory and you will find the use and benefit of them ever after then think of rolling away the reproach of Egypt from off you The Reproach of Egypt is that uncircumcision irreligion and profanenesse of life and conversation which besides the black note set upon the Souldiers Profession by the licentiousnes of many in it is laid upon you by those of the adverse party how justly you know best I doe not speak this to reprove you for or dishearten you in this course of life you are now entred upon in His Majesties service but doe prayse you rather the profession it selfe being honourable and this particular service most just and commendable Nor doe I speak it any wayes to clear your adversaries who as they have Art enough to belye you and malice enough to make you and us all Egyptians that they may spoyle us more fairely so indeed they have upon them and it will stick to them never to be rolled away the reproach not only of evill lives and conversations but also of a most lewde cause Yet this you must give me leave to say and it cannot be denyed there is in too many of you too much that savours of the manners of Egypt and is Reproachfull in Israelites in Christians it concernes you therefore to think of Rolling away the reproach from off you of entertaining new thoughts of life and conversation The Lord did promise his people that he would send Hornets before them to drive out their enimies Exod. 23.28 and Ioshua tells them the Lord had performed it Ios 24.12 and we may see the Hornet seizing on them in this Chap. 5. v. 1. the fear and terror of the children of Israel fell upon the Amorites and their heart melted And without doubt the Hornet of Conscience will at length seize upon the enimies of that just cause which you maintain and will drive them out but before that can come to passe the sting of sin must first be felt in yours and every mans conscience that desires and expects a happy issue of these troubles and unto this sting or prick of Conscience for sinne you must adde the knife of Circumcision It is for that purpose that this Monitory these instructions were provided like the sharpe knives which Ioshuah is said to make v. 3. to pare away from you what is inordinate in it selfe and hurtfull and reproachfull both to you and to the Cause you have undertaken to defend It was for the like purpose that the people came out to the Baptisme of John for Baptisme is answerable to Circumcision and among them that specially stood in need of clensing and of direction for a new life there came the Publicans a profession and imployment that had as heavy reproach upon it as any and said unto him what shall we doe Luk. 3.12 After them came the Souldiers likewise and demanded of him What shall we doe v. 14. This was a very commendable readinesse and you cannot but think you are concerned in the example and bound accordingly to seek instruction at least to receive it being offered for these were men of your profession and what their duty was either in the enquiry or in the performance of what was taught them the same belongs to you The Answer they received Doe violence to no man neither accuse any falsely and be content with your wages doth tell you thus much in generall that a restraint is cast upon you you may not doe or speak what you list but must make a Conscience of your words and Actions What successe it had we doe not find expressed so neither do we find that they returned any reproachfull answer for the strict lesson he gave them and I hope this Monitory will be as kindly entertained by you though it should sometimes prove as sharpe as the Circumcisers knife or the Baptists language We see the whole multitude that came to heare struck with an awfull reverence of that powerfull and home-speaking Preacher they all mused in their hearts whether he was the Christ or not v. 15. and we read how afterward many Publicans came to our Saviour unto whom Iohn poynted them the way and we meet with one good Centurion and under him many conscionable and obedient Souldiers Luk. 7.8 For your better and more particular direction you must know and consider under whose command you are and what is your Duty if you be askt under whom you serve you will presently name