it be a Sacrament as they say yet the Sacrament of orders barreth them of it as the military sacrament did bar the souldier But Severus more wisely Herodian lib. 3. upon better warrant gaue them free liberty to haue their wiues at home but Alexander permitted them to haue them in their Camps with their families after the Persian manner and so to liue and breed in Camps as the Hollander doth at Sea Though this proved well for Alexander as every thing did and though a great many loving wiues willing to liue and die with their husbands would be of his mind yet upon mature judgement the middle rule shall proue the best but I leaue it to the scanning of the judicious and I come again to Discipline Sejanus as Tacitus reporteth would haue Camps remote from Cities except they did beleagre them that by the evils of the Cities they might not be corrupted Yea the lascivious and disordered youths were brought into the Campes IuveneÌ„ urbano luxu lascivientem melius est in castris haberi lib. 2. Annal. that by the force of Discipline they might be reclaimed For as the Synagogue of Rome and all the lymmes of that confused Babel liketh nothing worse then the Discipline of Christs Campe so to the loose Atacticks of these evill times there is nothing more contrary then the medicine of Discipline A great many therefore had need to be in Camps if Campes were as they should be the schooles of Discipline As the necessitie of this Discipline is evident from the exorbitancy of corrupt nature and the evils incident to a militarie life so it is more then manifest from Gods own command concerning the government of the Israelites Camp wherunto Moses and Ios hua had a great respect namely that Discipline should be exactly exercised as appeareth in the censure of Achan and others Yea the Romans whose glory was their God and their Common-wealth their best inheritance made this the inlarger and maintainer of their Dominions It was said of Scipio to his great commendation that hee was the restorer of Discipline not onely fayling but also neglected among the Romanes insomuch that hee held it a greater labour to reduce his own forces to Discipline then to giue battle to the Numantines his enemies therefore he abandoned all Bauds Whoores Coseners Coggers Diviners and Figure-flingers And to giue our enemies their due for the wicked are wise in their own generation how admirable hath the Turkes been in the â—ictnesse of Discipline I formerly shewed Pandect Turc cap. 24. whereof you â—ay see more at large in Leunclavius Hypolitus Busbequius â—â—d others Yea to come to a latter instance in one of â—e greatest of Gods enemies that this age affoorded nameâ—â— the Duke de Maine for excellency in discipline he was â—â—cond to none For the ruin of this The causes of the decay of Discipline I may again with â—â—e learned renew my complaint but I haue handled that before onely the causes would be observed which I take First to be want of piety the duties of the second Table wise from the duties of the first Other causes we may gather from the words of Appian Lib. 4. de bello civili These are the things saith he that layeth millitary Discipline in the dust every one forgetteth his place namely that he is a souldier hee preferreth the serving of a private humour or his own lust to the publique good great Ones or Princes abuse the service of Inferiours to their own onely gain In sua orat apud Dionys Haâ—â—carnas Appius Clauâ—â—us giveth another cause namely mans palliating foule sins with abused names as haughtinesse and contempt with the name of gravity filthy ribauldry with the name of merriment palpable foolery with the name of simplicity starke staring madnesse with the name of fortitude bloudie oaths with the name of big souldier-like words drunkennesse with the name of good fellowship the Idol-maker of a Cup with the name of a good subject and lastly the loose carriage of great Ones with the names of refreshing themselues And by the contrary the best things are branded with the worst and foulest names as piety by the name of Puritanism humility with the name of pusillanimity simplicity of speech is called hypocrisie and sobriety singularity and reproofe of sin too much holinesse due execution of discipline cruelty but remissenesse of discipline gentlenesse As the evill is manifest with the causes thereof so of necessity there must be a medicine else all is mard and with this as I shewed the great Ones in themselues must begin Moses and Iosua if they will leade the Lords forces must disciplinate themselues before they direct others If a King 〈◊〉 in the Camp Discipline should rule him It is very base flattery and meat and drink to many to suggest to Kings that they may rule others by Laws and themselues by their our wils The very Heathen Emperours who had no moâ— knowledge then the bookes of Nature or at most such 〈◊〉 Morall Philosophy could affoord and no more glory bâ—â— transitory command yet they would subject themselues tâ—â— the selfe-same Laws that they willed others to obey A notable instance in this we haue in Adrian the Emperour the first after Octavius Caesar that revived Discipline and therefore much magnified by Aelian in his Tackticks Sparlian in vita Hadrian Lib. 5. eb 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was the manner in creating of a Tribune of war to put a sword into his hand as an Ensign of command vvhich the Emperour holding out to the Tribune Behold saith he receiâ—â— this sword which if I command and rule in reason as a Prine should doe draw it out and use it for me but if I doe otherwise use it against me Crinitus hath words to the same effect spoken by the Emperour to Sura when hee set him over the Pretorian forces So Dio. But Suidas hath the words in Greeke Secondly if Commanders would haue Discipline the must not disdain to shew them the way And that great Generals haue not denyed to doe in things even inferiour to their place As I shewed you before in Adrian so by a whole Iury of the learned the like is testified of Scipio the restorer of Discipline He would haue no beds and to shew them an example he used himselfe to much hardnesse lying no better then on a bed filled with Hay hee abandoned all dainties and delicacies Ignâ—viam aliaque mi litum vitta exercendo potius in castris velut in scholis quam puniendo sustulit Appian de bell HispaÌ„ 1. alij so that ease had no intertainment and by these pains he obtained his end As it is said of him to his great praise That hee tooke away sloth and other vices of the souldiers rather by his exercise in the Campe as in a schoole then by inflicting of punishment â—et Christian Kings and Commanders learne this of â—od the great Commander
the Chancell our of Rochel told the King that the right pretended was not well deceided and that he should not doe well to attempt war but upon a good ground Vpon this Embassadours were sent to the Duke and on both sides it was referred to learned Counsell to search out the right In the mean while the Duke dyed the King had the heire to wife and so the controversie was ended Annal. in Ann. 1488 The like course the same King took for resolution of his right to Naples and Cicily before he would attempt any thing he convocated all the Presidents of his Parliamentary Courts his Chauncellors privy Councell and Princes of the bloud willing them to inform him truely Where upon due search of the Genealogies of the Kings of the aforesaid Kingdoms Annal. in An. 1493. they found the true title to be in him So that upon this ground he carryed his forces into Italie not that he meant to intrude upon Italie as Matchivel would foolishly charge upon him bringing this his attempt as an instance of a just vvar vvithout any truth of title at all but he meant nothing lesse for in suyng out a good ground for Cicilie and Naples he never pretended any right to Italie onely hee assured himselfe of some Towns for his safer passage which hee minded to giue up at his departure To come to a present instance Application The equitie of the cause is an undenyable good ground for the Bohemian war undertaken by his Highnesse Frederick King of Bohemia Hapily some scoffing Ismalites and the rayling crew may flout and make mouthes at the Title because hee is abandoned the possession of that and all other his right but howsoever truth is truth in despite of the devill and the Lord vvill up one day and restore him to his right The equity of the Bohemian warre on the Kings part As for the equity of the vvar it will appear to the view of every indifferent eye in these two particulars First on his part it was meerly Defensiue secondly it vvas undertaken for the maintenance of Civill right and true Religion If vvar be not just undertaken upon these grounds I know not any vvar at all to be just For the former of these two that the Crown and Kingdom of Bohemia is his Right it is as cleere to every impartiall minded man as the Sun-shine at noon day and that upon these grounds First it was freely offered unto him when he did not so much as think upon it Secondly it is cleer from the state and condition of their Kings and Dukes vvhich from the very first beginning of their state to this present time Dubrav Aeno Silv. Haiccius hath been meerly electiue witnesse their uninterrupted practise of free election recorded by the unanimous consent of all that ever undertook their Histories together with the testimonies of Kings and Emperours and lastly the reversall letters of all the Emperours even to this present Ferdinand will witnesse the same Lib. 30. Haic fol. 167. One pregnant instance for all recorded by Dubravius and Hajecius when Anno 1458 some seven or eight Competitors and that no small ones as the Emperour himselfe and the King of France put in for the Kingdom The States to manifest and to maintain their undoubted and indisputable free right of election made choice of Georgius Podiebrachius So that you see without any respect to treatie or intreatie or any motion of disposall upon pretence of hereditary right that State stood ever fast in their free liberty of election They that will be further satisfied may see this truth from point to point discovered and confirmed in the defence of the Bohemian right with a full answer to one that calleth himselfe the Informer who indeed is rather a misinformer and of lesse truth and honestie then the basest sharking Promooter For as I doe not think but he hath perused their Lawes and read their Histories so against the tenour of the one and the truth of the other hee hath laboured to his shame by shifting and shuffling to with-hold the truth in unrighteousnesse but if the light in him and others be darknesse how great is the darknesse His onely overture is that foisted-in clause of Charles the 4 to procure and confirm to his posterity hereditary succession This is fully answered in the related answer Doth it stand vvith reason that a King Electiue shall of his own head infert a new clause to the subversion of the fundamentall Lavves of the State vvherein he is elected Besides this No man is a sufficient witnesse in his own cause Yea the same Charles in another priviledge bearing the date of the same day and year shevveth the approving of the free election of Wenceslaus by Frederick King of the Romans so if the clause be his he is contrary to himselfe As for the right of pre-election of Ferdinaend novv Emperour as the said ansvver sufficiently proveth it was none at all First he deprived himselfe of all right or title to that Kingdom by rejecting and contemning the right electiue and striving to possesse it by hereditary right as the adopted son of Matthias or by some other right of bloud And that this came not barely of himselfe but was the plot of the whole Imperial faction is as cleer as the light in the particular instruments of the pactions and conditions betwixt Phillip the 3 King of Spain and Ferdinand Archduke of Austria Mathew the Emperour procuring and confirming the same The summe of all which is this that upon certain conditions amongst themselues agreed upon the hereditarie right of Bohemia and Hungary should passe from one to another upon the fayling of issues Where obserue that all right of election and by consequence all right indeed is quitted by the Emperour but because great is the strength of truth when hereditary right would not hold water they pretended the right of election A bare pretence indeed if it be duely examined First it was done the King being aliue and still King and therfore of no validity for in every Election two things are required a vacant state and lawfull Electors the former must precede the latter both these in this pretended election was wanting for the full right was by reservation in Mathias with a joynt inhibition that Fordinand should not meddle with the government and that upon the challenge of intrusion which notwithstanding he laboured to infringe against law and promise and by vexation of Armes endevoured to turn an electiue power into an hereditary right yea and that before he was actually possessed which made his election voide if it had been lawfull for elections being conditionall the conditions broke the election is no election As for the Electors besides their want of power the place being full as they wronged themselues so they wrong all those that had any interest therein If the same grounds be well sifted his title to the Empire and Hungary will proue but
both by Counsel and Armes the land became a counsell of war and an army of valorous counsellors Fourthly the successe of the war doth often follow the vertue of the commander To omit other examples witnes the Kings of Iudah While they were good they pevayled against their enemies as David Ezekiah c. 2. King 16 but by the contrary against the bad Kings the enemies prevailed instance Achas branded by the Lord for a bad one this is that Achas 2. Chron 28 and he had as bad successe For evidence whereof reade the places quoted It is often noted of that King and great Commander Moses that he was the servant of God Deut. 34.5 Rev. 15.3 and that not onely for his authoritie and fidelitie in his place but also for his pietie And this indeed is the greatest honour that any Commander can attaine to to be Gods servant So did David esteeme it It is said of Cornelius the Centurion that he was a devout man fearing God Thus you see then that it is not enough for a man to haue a good cause authoritie in his hand but if he will thriue and haue the same to prosper Application he must be good himselfe It then condemneth to hell from whence it came that hellish principle of Matchiavell that a Prince or great One should endeavor rather to be esteemed religious 2. part mâ—x 1. then to be so indeed He hath to many apt Schollers in this especially but is not this to extinguish the light of nature to mocke God and to play the damnable hypocrite What gaines he by this First that which is not in graine cannot hold Secondly when once he commeth to dance in a nett and the colour is cast to the eyes of all men then he turnes from hypocrisie to open impietie he takes on the Lyons skin when the foxes will not serve which is a mayne instance of this Matchiavillian rule and he maintayneth that with open tyranny which he could not cover with hypocrisie Lastly when the Lord hath made him thus vile Pompon 〈◊〉 Lae. t in Iul he makes his grave in a field of shame All these may be instanced in Iulian a grand hypocrite while his uncle Constantine lived but as great in Aposiate and as cunning an Atheist after his death But his end was answereable to his courses Such ends made Gaius Caligula that errant Atheist and Herod Agrippa that truell murtherer yet the one dissembled paynim devotion and the other the profession of true religion as might appeare by his solliciting Tiberius for the Iewes when he was incenst against them Let Christian Princes then follow Abraham walke with God and be upright and in peace and warre God shall blesse them Now as the CommaÌ„der must be such such also should the souldiers be as Cornelius was a devout man himselfe so he called unto him with his two servants a devout souldier also God himselfe in Deuteromy Act. 10.7 giues lawes concerning the puritie of a Campe when the Campe goeth forth against thine enemies Deut. 23.9.10 Numb 5.23 then keepe thee from every evill thing which after he calls uncleannes because sin defileth He here forbiddeth all morall civill legall uncleannes the former two concerne all campes So in Numbers the leper and uncleane were put out of the Campe. Of all Iepers the sinner is the foulest and of all sinners the wicked souldier is the greatest One Achan made the whole army fare the worse Ios 7. Vnholy Armies although they be for a good cause and war under lawfull authoritie yet through their exorbitant courses they incourage the hearts and inarmes the hands of the enemies I will produce but one instance because I must labour to abridge my self The Turkes advantage by our sinnes having many things to goe through Aventinus relateth how they of Rhodes wrote to Frederick the third the Princes Electors how the great Turke being disswaded by his Nobles from making war against the Christians especially against the Germans his answere was as he feared no Christians so least of all the Germans and that for 4 reasons First their disagreement amongst themselves like the five fingers of a mans hand which seldome come together Secondly they are dissolute in their lives by whooring drinking and all manner of riot delighting more in great plumes of fethers then martiall armes Thirdly they are disorderly in their proceedings Fourthly they neglect all laws of government not punishing the bad or rewarding the good As the Turke putteth these imputations upon a natioÌ„ once second to none as they gaue good proofe to Caesar so I wish that they all Europes armies could quit themselves of these better then indeed they can for howsoever the envious Turke with Lamia his eyes seeth much abroad and nothing at home yet our home bred evils which he thus taxeth are more hurtful to us then all his forces De sacro foedere l. 5. as witnesseth Folieta in a speech to the same effect upon that victory obtained by the Christians in a Sea-fight against Assanus Bassa where he observerh that they stand not so much by their own forces as by our sloth negligence and discord Oh then that vvee vvould make a holy Warre indeed that is to be holy in our selues and then neither Gog nor Magog should prevaile against us To this end the Lord biddeth us sanctifie a war By which phrase hee vvills Jer. 6.4 that all that vvill vvar for him should be holy As this serveth to direct us what manner of souldiers in a just warre are required so it discovers the blasphemy of that Matchiavillian principle of Atheism wherein with open mouth Machiavils blasphemy he preferreth Paganism in souldiers to true Religion because Religion saith he makes men humble pusillanimious or weak-minded and more apt to receiue injurie then to repell it Before I come to the answer let me say thus much of him once for all if that Atheistly burn paper and blinde bayard had lived amongst the Heathens and had dealt with their feyned gods as he hath dealt with the true God they vvould haue made him an example to the world and would haue burned his blasphemous papers in the fire but as they humored exceedingly his lewd Countrimen so they flew over the Alpes yea and the Seas also infecting France and all the rest of Christendome Insomuch as the Sybillin oracles were the refuge of the Painims for their direction so most Princes and their affaires now are guided by Matchiavel Are not men now of divilish pates and deep reaches to the evill and such as are acquainted with the depth of Satans policie the onely men of service as they call them Yea say they be but very beetles and block-heads yet if their brains vvill serue to hatch toades they will serue the turn as well as can be if he can swear horribly and blaspheme fearfully vvith termes not to be named if he can roare
home Deut. 20.7 And to that end hee caused the officers to make proclamation What man is there that is soft or tender that is faint-hearted let him goe and return unto his house The like proclamation did Gideon make at Gods command when he was to fight against the Midianits and of 32000 men that were with him Iudg. 7.3 1 Mach. 7. there returned 22000. Iudas Ma chabeus being to fight against Licias maketh the same proclamation The Law-giver himselfe giveth a reason of this Law that his brothers heart melt not or grow not faint as his heart a good reason indeed for as melting mettall cast upon other may make it also melt so a sort of fainting swoonding fellows may cast all the rest in a syncope As the faint-hearted spyes returning from the view of Canaan discouraged all the rest insomuch that they durst rather rebell against God then look their enemies in the face so a company of cowards may dash the courage of the best and as the Spyes brought a plague upon Israel for their faintnesse and incredulity so faithlesse and fearfull Cradons bringeth the rest to destruction And as this faintnesse is dangerous to their fellow souldiers so it bringeth themselues to further evils then they are aware of It bringeth sin shame and destruction for besides that with deserved ignominy they die often like doggs and swine they bring also as the Hebrews obserue the bloud of all the rest upon their heads Yea these white livered fellowes haue a double curse First this soft feeble and effeminate heart is a curse in it selfe the Lord speaking of the curses that he would bring upon his people if they would not obey threatneth this as a speciall one I will even bring softnesse into their heart in the land of their enemies Lev. 26.36 Secondly they are accursed in with-drawing their hand from Gods work or in doing the work of the Lord deceitfully Cursed is he that doth the worke of the Lord negligently or deceitfully and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from bloud The 300 valiant and couragious men that lapped water with their tongues Indg. 7.4.5 were worth all the 32000. Caleb and Iosua having another heart were of more esteem with God then all the rest of the people I would haue all Gods Warriours to take heed of softnesse of heart in this sense and at any hand not to trust such for commonly they haue hard and cruell hearts against any thing that good is The King of Britaines observation upon the Lords prayer maketh this good by the instance of the Deer which being the softest hearted and fearfullest of all other beasts yet is the cruellest of all to minde an injury and an opportunity to revenge it Hence a fearfull man is called A Man like a Hart. Ancients doe tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and examples doe testifie that there is no greater Tyrant then a cowardly King Witnesse Nero Caligula Tiberius yea according to Plutarch as feare and cowardize is the cause of their cruelties so the greatest coward of all is a faint hearted souldier The idolatrous Gentiles both Roman◠and Grecians Dii 〈…〉 made a Temple to Fear as to one of their 〈…〉 which they sacrificed a dog intimating thereby Alex. ab Alex. l. 1. cap. 13. p. 21 that they should haue no fellowship with feare It is better to haue a coward to thy foe then to thy counsellour or copartner for a man can look for no true good from the fearfull Benevolentiae vis est metus insbecillis 2. off Faint feare saith Tully is an enemy to good will The Camelion saith Pliny is the fearfullest creature of all other and therfore it turneth it selfe into all colours that it may shift for it selfe So fearfull men without respect of faith or friendship they turn themselues into all colours but the truth that they may saue themselues And whom they fear most they serue most though it be least to their credit or commodity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cowardize is well compared by the Grecians to a white livered disposition whence we take our proverbe white livered as that waterish duscrasie or distemper of the liver causeth dropsies and Lienteries and so hurteth the body more by corrupt humours then it helpeth it by sanguification and howsoever life for a time be protracted yet colour strength and appetite faileth exceedingly and breath at length forsaketh the body so a fearfull white livered friend may seem to keep life in a good cause for a time but it is but an hydropick or lienterick life which being both together are symptomes of inevitable death Some corrupt counsell luke-warme comfort and weake forces to no effect they may affoord but it is but a palliation it is no cure it is but to quench the Citie with a pottle pot when it is all on fire which indeed will make it burn the faster In a word the fearfull man is a foe to his friend and a sriend to his foe What made Saul eye David continually to doe him hurt but his conceived feare though other causes concurred yet this was the speciall 1 Sam. 18.8.9 What can he haue more but the Kingdom Whence arose the ruin of Achaz and all his but from the servile feare wherewith they were possessed as the the holy Ghost by the Prophet Esay witnesseth When hee heard that Syria was confederate with Ephraim hi◠heart was moved and the heart of his people 2. Tim. 1.17 as the trees of the wood Where this spirit of slavish feare is the spirit of God is not God saith Paul to Timothy hath not given the spirit of feare but of power of love and of a sound mind Where the Apostle opposeth the spirit of God or the graces of the spirit as power loue and soundnes of judgment to this slavish feare which for the prevayling power of it he calleth the spirit of feare which cannot consist with the power of the foresaid graces whether it be in ministers souldiers Captaines Generalls or Kings As it is spoken there directly to the Ministers so of all men they had most need to looke to it for the spirit of feare in a Minister is a most fearfull plague to himselfe and others especially in these fearfull times that requireth so much use of the Spirit of power A sound conclusiō But observe this as a main conclusion from the place touching all persons that where this spirit of feare resideth there is neither soundnes of judgment nor sinceritie of affection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor power of action to be looked for What should men then doe with such Ministers friends souldiers or any other such these white livered men as the Grecian noteth well are good for nothing As I desire that all men might remember the fearfull punishment of this slavish feare namely the burning lake for the fearefull and unbeleeving Rev. 21.8 c. Where observe they
is a question moved in the Psalmes by David why dealeth the Lord thus and thus with his people why dost thou cast us off for ever why doth thine anger smoke against the sheepe of thy pasture why withdrawest thou thine hand and why hast thou broken downe her hedges so that all that they passe by the way doe plucke her grapes Psal 80.12 The Prophet answereth all these questions by quitting God and charging upon his people the cause of all this namely their inquitie When in the 79 Psalme he hath layd out the desolation of the holy temple the bloudy cruelties coÌ„mitted upon the bodies of his saints their inhumanitie against the dead bodyes the reproch they suffered and Gods wrath against them which was heavyer then all the rest he layeth downe their iniquitie to be the cause of all remember saith he not our former iniquities against us let they tender mercies speedily prevent us for wee are brought very low v. 8. In all the places quoted from the booke of Iudges wherein I haue shewed the overthrow of Gods people to be from God you shall still see their sin laid downe as the moving cause provoking God to deale so with them Iud 4.1 6.1 and the children of Israel againe did evill in the sight of the Lord so that this phrase of speech is made a preface to usher in the judgments of God This was the matter of Abiiahs message to Ieroboams wife the Lord shalt smite Israel as a reede is shaken in the water and he shall roote up Israel out of his good land and shall scatter them beyond the river he shalt give Israel up and what is the cause 1. King 14.15.16 because of the sins of Ieroboam who did sin and made Israel to sin Where observe the sin of the King and his people to be the cause of their ruine This was prophesied of by Samuel to the people if you shall doe wickedly you shal be consumed both you and your King Sam. 2.25 and so it came to passe indeed In a place of Ieremie the Lord setteth downe the reason why he would scatter his people with an east wind before the enemie why he would shew them the backe and not the face in the day of their calamitie because saith he my people hath forgotten me Ier. 18 1â— And to conclude the Prophet Esay in the places quoted layeth down the same cause Cap. 42.24 for they would not walke in his wayes neither were they obedient to his law therefore he hath powred upon them the fury of his anger and the strength of battel So in the other place thy first fathers hath sinned Cap. 43.27.28 thy teachers haue transgressed against me therefore c. I have prophaned the Princes and haue giuen Iacoh to curse and Israel to reproches The curse must alwayes accompany sinne he spared not the soule of his â—eloved when they sinned yea nor the sonne of his loue becomming surety for sinne no prerogatiue exempts from wrath but being in Christ witnesse Gods protestation concerning Ieconiah the last and the worst of the line of Iudah As I liue saith the Lord though Coniah Ier. 22.24 the sonne of Iehoiakim King of Iudah were the signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck thee thence Iosephus deploring the unparalelled calamitie of his owne nation of Iudea layeth downe the cause of their utter desolation namely the abomniable impietie and iniquitie of the Princes and people which were growen to such a height that every one in their place did strive to out-strip another De bello Indaic lib. 7. cap. 28. in somuch that if one should haue gone about to haue devised some new sin there was no place for him they were all growne so cunning A fearfull and incorrigible case ApplicatioÌ„ and yet woe is us no worse in a manner then our owne is though wee will not know it the fearfull things giuen out of this nation both for sin and judgment may make our eares to tingle and our hearts to tremble yea as the same Author reporteth and that in grief of heart that if the Romanes had not come against them to execute the fierie wrath of the Lord upon them he thought a new deluge would haue swallowed them up with the old world Ibidem lib. 6. cap. 16. or fire from heanen would haue consumed them with Sodome for saith he they exceeded eyther of their sinnes The like is related by one of our owne Authors concerning the last loosing of Hierusaâ—em to the Saracens under Saladine their Commander When the Christians had kept it 80 yeares Gulielm Neabrigens rer Anglicar lib. 13. cap. 14. after the recovery of it by Godfrey Duke of Bullion the height of their iniquities wherto they were come did so ascend in Gods presence and made such a shrill cry in his eares that he cast them out againe making their civill dissention serve for the Saladines advantage So that you see the cause is within our selues wee neede not seeke it without Ne te quaefieris extra it is not in God for he delighteth to do good to his people nor is it in the wicked for he hateth them as they hate both him and his people it is not in the creature of what kind soever for he made it good and he loveth every thing as the workmanship of his hands It is then the sin in our bosome or our bosome sin that maketh him deale thus with us As sin doth separate the soule from God so it often separateth the whole person from Gods house from country from wife and familie from King from subject and from what not Therefore in this our separation wee should search our sin Lam 3 40 and every man know the plague of his owne heart which hath made the Lord to plague us Search your selue saith the Prophet and turne unto the Lord. But herein wee are all faultie men eyther search not at all or they search as though they desired not to find they search as meÌ„ doe for their bade mony they know they haue it but they would gladly haue it passe for currant amongst the good money Lastly they search not for that which especially they should find out It was a very pertinent question of the Israelits when 4000 were smitten by the Philistins wherefore hath the Lord smitten us to day before the Philistims 1. Sam. 4.3 But their answere was not answerable O say they let us fetch the Arke of the covenant that it may come among us saue us out of the hand of the enemie What were they smitten because the Arke of the covenant was not among them So they conceived and would conceive no better but the trueth was their sinnes had caused the God of the covenant to depart he went not out with them Samuel went not with them these were they that laid both the Arke and themselues in the mouth of the
This is Princely indeed for as we are all born as Tully saith to doe so they especially who are of high place and authority To say much and doe nothing doth not rellish of the English wit nor worth whose noble ancestours for doing haue been too plaguie fellowes and enemies of State terrible as an Army of Banners It hath often been to me a matter of wonder how our Ancestors with so little or no light at all dispatched more work in a week then we in a year of which I conceiue with submission of my iudgement these to bee the reasons They presumed of the work done and made the honour of their house and the glory of their name the height of their ambition but we in greater light know that the work done wilnot serv and as for the assurance of Gods loue which should put confidence in our hearts and courage in our actions but a few labour for it and this is the death of action and they with whom Gods honour is not in the highest esteem never make a true account of their own honour Besides this our ancestors had not such hellish pates and hollow hearts to deale with as our Senate hath I wish they may work while they haue light for when the night commeth they cannot work if they would as I haue often shewed occasion to be the soule of action so when action looseth breath the soule departs and returns no more They want no lawes for their warrant nor patterns for their practise nor wit to apply them Let them up then and doe it and God will be with them Shall the fear of Forraigns freeze the waters of our counsell and never a fire of zeale nor even-down rain of courage to thaw or dissolue them Shall the prophane oppose piety and maintain ungodlinesse and never a Nehemiah to take an order with them Shall Snakes eate out the belly of the Common-wealth and still be kept aliue in our bosoms Shall the eye of our high and honourable Senate be dimmed or dazeled with a white Rochet Shall by him the Scepter of Christ be trampled under foot to the casting away of soules and his soule not pay for it Let me speak freely let them take heed how they let Benhadad that is men committed to their keeping goe lest the liues of them and us goe for their liues whom the Lord hath appointed either to destroy us or to be destroyed Shall a two faced Ianus or a man with a heart and a heart dance in a net or goe masked and no body see him nor unmaske him I hope they will pardon my freedom of speech for my boldnesse is no more then my fidelity loue and service bindes me to The fire of sinne flames through all the land and the fire of judgement is kindled in every corner except some bestir themselues to quench it we shall all be consumed The Lord giue resolution and action to those that are in place to arise for Sion for be they sure if they sit still deliverance shall come to Zion another way but they and theirs shal pay for it As for the Hollander I hope he will be still in action but I would haue him to do as much for God as he doth for himselfe and as much against sin as he doth against the enemy for that is the way to undoe the enemy It were better for them to be cast in the mould by a plaine and round dealing ministery then to be battered by the Popes foure corned Canoniers or the Arminians sacred minions the Prelates These be Hawkes of prey wherewith the Princesse of Parma and Granvil thought to haue seazed upon them in the beginning of their troubles and they haue ever and anone been threatned with them since Let them leaue off provoking God lest they be plagued with them as others of their neighbours be and let them take heed of that Romish Dictatorship of constant Moderation which is the next step to Imperious Hierarchy CHAP. XLIX Of the end of Warre NOW I come to the very last point concerning the end of war which I haue reserved to the end of the Treatise and will shut it up in a word or two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For a great book is called a great evill The end of it is Gods glory peace and publique good Evill ends may undoe good causes annihilate good means and frustrate the most probable expectations Iehu had a good cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maius bonum est sinis quam quod non est finis Arist lib. Rhet. cap. â— Horat. in Arte. and used lawfull means but his end was naught and that marred all to him It is true the worke of the Lord was done but no thanks to him who in seeking of his own ends made his own work the main work and the Lords the by-work The end as the Philosopher saith is the speciall good of a thing Private ends in warre are the greatest enemies of the publique good fuit haec sapientia quondam Publica privatis secernere sacra profanis It was the wisedome once for to perferre Publique to private sacred to profane Si stâ—dium pecuniae suftuleris aut quo ad res feret minueris Orat. 2 de Ordin Reip. Salust hath a pretty rule for the ordering of mens affections in military courses Thou maist bring a great deale of good saith he to the Country to the State to thy selfe and family to all those that haue any correspondency with thee if thou remoue desire of money or at least let is not haue dominion over thee I am here occasioned to direct my speech once more to the Lords of the Vnited Provinces that as publique good is the end of their war maintained so in raising means for the maintenance of warre they would prefer the publick good to the private which is not observed as I think in the still increasing of excize upon victuals for this course injureth a many as Commons Tradesmen Travellers yea and the souldiers whose bloud maintains the war and the private profite redoundeth to a handfull so great ones saving their purses by this disproportionable dealing they who haue least and labour most they haue often the most eaters and payes most Methinkes a Geometricall proportion were a great deale juster then an Arithmeticall and that the strongest horse should carry the heaviest load I speake plainly and out of loue to the State which many waies may be hurt by this inequality By-respect and sinister intent is like a strange fire which blows up the work and brings vengeance on the Workman it a close kind of hypocrisie and therefore the Lord will certainly plague it instance that requitall of Iehu his pretended zeal in the destroying of the house of Ahab First it was the Lords own work and Iehu had his warrant for it in the 2 of the Kings ch 9. v. 7. Thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master c. In the second place obserue
delictum c. August de de verbâ— dom Noli exstimare nemineÌ„ Deo placere posse Fortitudo quae per bella tuetur a barbaris patriam plena justitiae est Offici 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Surely this is to bring bloud upon their heads and to sin both against the Law and the Gospell It is not a sin as Austin saith to war but to abuse it Doe not thinke saith the same Father that a man cannot please God in warre for David was a warrior and God gave to him a great testimonie The force of war saith Ambrosius that maintaineth the country against bloudy and barbarous enemies defendeth the weake and such as are subiect to oppression delivereth the confederates that are in danger from the hand of the bloud-thirstie is full of righteousnes There be but two wayes saith Tully to decide matters eyther by dispute or armes and men must haue recourse to the latter when there is no place for the former Thucidides like a wise man pressing all meÌ„ to keepe the peace secludes not the lawfulnes of war if necessitic inforce it Good men saith he if necessitie inforce them change peace into war To conclude this point the Apostle willeth us to haue peace with all men but if it be possible where the Apostle implyeth that it is impossible to haue peace with some Rom. 12.1 Yea while the godly speake of peace their enemies prepare for war Lu. 22.36 Therefore wee must doe as the Apostles were commanded in another kind Sell our coates and by swords Or as Nehemiah Nehe. 4 14 17. in the same kind incouraged the people Fight for your brethren your sonnes and your daughters your wives and your houses yea it standeth us upon it to doe the worke with the one hand and with the other hold the sword CHAP. III. Of the Guide of Warre THus hauing shewed the incommodities of war and the equitie of it I come to the third last point of the treatise namely the ordering of warre This is the main point for the clearing whereof I haue with as much brevitie as I could handled the former two Here againe to Apologize my want of skill and to deprecate censure were to be iealous of the readers good will and to detract from my highest patronage To come then to the point In every warre there be two things especially to be observed That it be Iustum Iuste just in it selfe that is iustly vndertaken and it must be iustly and duely followed For the first we must first know what a iust war is The description of a iust war wich may be thus defined That which is undertaken for a iust cause by a competent person in place of Magistracie in a lawfull maÌ„ner against an externall or internall enemie following it orderly by the law of nature and nations having for the end Gods glory and our owne peace to the same effect as divines tell vs to a iust and lavvfull war three thinges are required A good cause a well ordered affection and a lawfull authoritie Or if yow wil for the better ordering of war by its proper lawes let vs observe three sorts of polemick lawes some concerneth the preparation some the battle it selfe and some the sequele or the event Some parts of the description apperatine to the first lawes some to the second and some to third The iust cause of war To come in order to the first there must be a iust cause which may briefly be exprest under the maintenance of religion or civill right eyther for our selves or our Christian confederates 〈◊〉 Thus was the warre of the Israelits against the Amalekits Exod. 17 So against the Midianites Numb 25.17 18. For they had hurt them both in their bodyes and in their soules A like good ground had Abraham for his war against the four Kings namely the rescuing of his nephevv Lot out of the hands of merciles bloudy enemies It is true indeed that Lot had no good ground for being there neyther is it thought that the King of Elam wanted iust cause to come against Sodome to represse rebells but howsoever they had nothing to doe with Lot by whom they were not wronged and this gaue Abraham just cause without further expostulation of Lots oversight to adventure his owne life and the life of his for the delivery of his friend And indeed as the cause was just he did but what he should haue done yea if he had not done it it had been both sin and shame to him Wilt thou not saith the Wise man preserue those that are led to be slaine Prov. 24.11 In the war injoyned by God to his people against the nations and in other warrs permitted occasionally they were alwayes to looke to the equitie of the cause as the main ground whereupon they were to go For God himselfe injoyneth nothing without a good ground The Romanes who had onely the light of nature to guide them in their procedings had alwayes respect to the ground of their vvar before they vvould undertake it Amongst many instances observe these tvvo The Campani who vvere nieghbours to the Romanes being invaded by the Samnites a mightie people desired ayd against them pressing them vvith many forcible arguments as from the lavv of proximitie or neighbour-hood of affinitie of ensuyng commoditie and finally from the Romans generous disposition but all these allegations not affording a sufficient ground this vvas all the Romanes did for the present they sent Embassadors to the Samnites desiring them to cease from vvar against their neighbours vvhich the Campanian deputies knovving to be lost labor they yeild themselves up as the right of the Romans vvith this speech If you thinke much to defend vs from the unjust invasion of a Tyranons enemy yet defend that which is your owne Vpon this voluntarie dedition Tit. Liv li. 7. Decad. the Senat undertooke the defence of them having a just title for the ground of the vvarre Another instance offers it selfe in that dispute between the wisest man and the best man in Rome namely Cato and Scipio Nassica Because the Carthaginians began to rig ships contrary to the articles of peace it was the judgement of Cato and others that warre should be denounced out of hand but Scipio was of another mind because he thought it was no sufficient ground for warre for they had yet sustained no damage but the Carthaginians had rather indammaged themselues in violating their faith they should rather be summoned to lay down their Armes to untackle their Ships and so to keep the peace Scipio his judgment was approved but the Carthaginians contemned the summons Whereupon the Senate and that upon just ground agreed all in one to take up Armes against them Other memorable examples are extant to this purpose Charles the 8 of France a yong King being instigated to take Arms against Francis Duke of Brittaine and â—o lay hold upon the Dutchy as his right
a broken title This I was forced to cleer as briefly as I could that the right of King Frederick might be the clearer which being laid in the ballance of equity with the former pretended right shall shew it selfe of a just weight which the other vvants First the place was orderly quitted of all lavvfull challenge Secōdly he vvas called vvithout seeking or intruding Thirdly he had an orderly unanimous and plenarie election all vvhich as I haue shevved vvere vvanting in the former Neither did ever the said king infringe any of their liberties This being as you see his undoubted right stood it eyther vvith equitie or pietie not to maintaine it Compare his right and maintenance of the same vvith the examples quoted of the Campani the Romanes and out of them you shall see as from the minor to the maior that his cause action is as just as may be First the Campani vvere a free people to make choyse at their pleasure of their Head and Governor so vvere the Bohemians and ever haue been since their first being Witnes all the Histories of Bohemia Hungaria Polonia the Annalls of Cilecia and the examples monuments of the Bohemians Aeneas Silvius in hist Bohem. To the vvhich I may add for the better cleering of the point that Embassye of Charles the seventh of France to the Bohemians after the death of Ladislaus to vvhom he had contracted his daughter vvherein he requested them eyther to chuse one of his sons for their King or such a one on vvhom he might bestovv his daughter Secondly they vvere unjustly invaded by a mightie people the Samnites so did the Bohemians suffer much from the hovvse of Austria and no litle by the present Emperour Thirdly they sought aide from the Romanes vvho would not but on just ground undertake the vvarre and therefore they became their subiects and so they vndertooke it so the Bohemians made suit to the Prince Elector in their feare of cruell dealing that he vvould become their King and take the maintenance of their iust cause which he did and that lawfully not undertaking any thing for them directly or indirectly before he vvas their King Compare these together In Nevio licet quod in Gais non licet and except that we wil say that it is lavvful in Nevius which is not lawful in Gaius or a heathen Senate may doe for their subiects vvhat a Christian King may not doe for his I see not whye the one in him is not as lawful or more lawful then the other was in them But to conclude this point If his successe of possession had seconded his right of election a great many of our English Imperialists other drowsy Sybarits would never haue torne his title nor exclaimed on his practise as they now doe To them for the present I will say no more but to iudge actions by events right of titles by present possession is in these evill dangerous dayes rather to approve of tyrannous intruders both in church commō wealth then of the true owners As for the latter point of the ground namely truth of religion the defence whereof he undertooke It is the trueth and none but it against which the gates of hell the dragon beast and false Prophet the croaking frogges and all the drunken Princes of the earth with the cup of the whore doe what they can shall never be able to prevayle As hitherto then appeareth the equitie of the warre on the Kings part The iniquitie of our onemies war so likewise from the want of this ground is laid open to the view the iniquitie of all the warres vndertaken by the enemies of God against his people as the warres of Gog and Magog and of the heathen Emperours made vpon Gods inheritance What ground had the great red Dragon for making warre against the woman and to stand before her to devour the man child when it was brought forth Rev. 12.3.4 As for the greatnes of this persecution by the Roman Emperours and for the bloudy crueltie of it it may justly be called a wonder so not vnfitlie may it so be called because there was no cause given them by those whom they persecuted but rather by their quiet and holy behaviour they deserved to live in peace So the Psalmist speaketh of the rage of the wicked against Christ his Church Psal 2.2 Why doe the people tumulteously rage Where David marveileth at the tumulteous hurling together of the wicked as if they would devoure the godly as they would indeed What ground had the scarlet whore to bathe her leprous carkasse in the bloud of the Saints Where observe likewise Rev. 17.6 that it is called a great wonder What equitie was there that the Popes unholinesse under a pretence of the inlargement of Peters patrimony took armes against Kings and Emperours as Iulius the second against Lewes the tvvelfth of France Yea he gave battel on Easter day against the French at Ravenna Innocent the second against Roger king of Cicilie What ground of stirring up one Prince against another giving of Kingdoms from hand to hand the French against the English as Lewis against King Iohn by Innocent the third the English against the French as Rich of England an Vrbanist made war at the Popes command upon the King of France a Clementine Paul the third sent Cardinall Poole to forraigne Princes to stir them up against Henry the eight giving him his people as a prey to their enemies So how like is the Pope to the devill his father in being prodigal of Kingdomes which are none of his to deale Doe wee ever reade as a fryer Minorite said well that Peter did so Vpon what ground doe they incite subiects to take armes against their soveraigne Kings and Princes as Pius quintus Sixtus quintus the one by his Bull the other by his Declaration excited the subiects of England to take armes against their soveraigne Queene Elizabeth yea to lay hands on her and punish her What just cause had Philip the 2 of Spaine to undertake by force of Armes against law and covenant the establishing of the bloudy Inquisition in the Low countries The best ground I can find was Duke de Alva his hart-burne against the people and Cardinall Granvils spleene against the Gospell What account in conscience could the Duke and Red-cap giue to counsell the King to conquer England whereto he had no right at all and to suppresse religion in all other places For the effecting of this Chiapin Vitelli Duke de Alva his Chiefe Captaine was sent with some faigned message to the Queene but indeed his errand was to try the Papists for immediatly after his departure out of England the Earles rebelled in the North. And for fuell for this fire Duke de Alva had ready in Zealand 10 Regiments to be imbarkt for England but God quenched our fire quickly and found him enough to doe at home for all
and quarrell and out-face heaven and earth by his sinnes he is fitter to be a souldier saith the Matchiavillist then he that will say surely and truely and so forth because such a one is a meer Puritan and so weak and faint-hearted that the enemy doth not fear him To come then to the answer of the point there is nothing more impious then the Position and nothing falser then the reason For the first is there any thing more impious then to prefer Paganism to Piety If this had been good in vain had Iohn perswaded the doubtfull Souldiers to take a holy course Likewise the reason that true Religion maketh men cowards it is against all reason against the nature of true magnanimity the power of Religion and the experience of time Standeth it with reason that hee that hath the strongest on his side should haue the least courage True magnanimity makes a man couragious to undertake the good and hate and abhor the evill as a base thing unworthy of such a spirit Who but the religious doe so The power of religiō Also the power of religion doth tie a man that hath it to his God assuring him if he loose this life he shall haue a better The souldier thus perswaded in his conscience and bearing Arms for a good cause as for the glory of God the defence of Religion the good of his Countrey and credit of his Prince will not loue his life unto death in the doing of his service Caesar tells us that the ancient Gaules were a generous and warlike people wherof he giues this ground that they resolutely beleeved the immortality of the soule Haue not all the true Worthies of the world bin religious ones Who more truly magnanimious Who more valorous victorious then David yet a man for zeal piety according to Gods own heart Who more couragious then holy Constantine who vanquished Licinius bringing peace to the Gospell and establishing the Gospel of peace What glorious victories had godly Theodosius who was Gods gift to the Church indeed against the Barbarians and other enemies of the Empire I could bring many other instances but these will suffice The wicked errant Cowards And as none more worthy then such so none more unworthy then irreligious Athiests the openly prophane or rotten hypocrite Was there ever a greater coward then Gajus Caligula Sueton. in Calig ca. 51 Dion in Calig who would hide his head at the Thunder And marching one time on foot through a streight with his Army was put in mind by one if the enemy should charge them what fear they might be in like a cowardly Atheist he mounts himselfe in an instant and fled with all his might though no man pursued him Let the word a witnesse beyond all exception determine this question The sinners in Syon are afraid fearfulnesse hath surprized the hypocrites Esa 33.14 For how can that man stand who is pursued by God and an ill conscience Other instances I might giue of great Tyrants yet starke Cowards but I can giue but a touch onely let me commend to you an instance of this kind worth your observation As the Kings of Iudah were holy and religious so they were valorous and victorious they were as God promised they should be the head and not the tayle but on the contrary as they were impious and idolatrous so they became degenerous and cowardly and so they became as God threatned the taile and not the head And as it is with Commanders so it is with souldiers The vertue of a souldier Xiphil apud Dion in Marc Anto. remarkeable and miraculous was that blessing that God gaue to Marcus Anthonius the Philosopher and his Army and that by means of the Christian companies that warred under him in his war against the Marcomans and Quadians He and his whole Army were inclosed in a dry country having no means to come by water but through a streight passage which the enemy kept and were like to be lost without one strok the Emperours Generall in this distresse told him that he had a Legion of Christians in his Army which could obtain any thing of their God that they prayed for the Emperour hereupon thought himselfe not too good to intreat them this office which they willingly and heartily performed in the name of Christ God as hee is ready to hear answered their desires with lightning upon their enemies and plenty of rain upon themselus which they kept in their Targets and Head-peeces and drunk Whereupon such fear fell upon their enemies that through terrour they were vanquished without stroke wherefore the Emperour called them The Thundering Legion and honoured them ever after and all Christians for their sakes But some will object object doe we not see and reade that men monstrously wicked haue behaved themselues to death so valorously in the field that their names haue no mean place in the book of valour I answer answ ambition may provoke a man to buy a bed of earthly honour vvith his dearest bloud or unadvisedly he may adventure not counting what it may cost him but if he should compare this life with eternall death attending after it upon all those that are not in Christ he durst not for a world be so prodigall of this life except he knew of a better yea he would quake and tremble at the verie thought of death Then to conclude this point as Ioshu◠had a resolution that he and his house would serue the Lord and as David would haue the faithfull to serue him so let those that will be Gods warriours be good warriours For as the evill carriage of Souldiers both Popish and Protestant haue laid Christian Kingdoms open to the Turkes tyrannie so we must confesse to our shame that our unworthy walking and walking after the flesh betrayes our good cause into the hand of the man of sin whose souldiours doe not prevaile because their carriage is better then their cause for both are starke naught but hee cannot endure that in his own Numb 2.31 which for a time he will in his enemies The Midianites that caused the Israelites to sin vvere vvorse then the Israelites but God first corrected his own people and then vexed the Midianites Last of all object 2 If any say that this my frame of a Souldier is like Sir Thomas Moore his Vtopia or Tully his Orator shewing rather what should be then what possible can be I answer it is true answ if we respect the perfection of the thing but it doth not follow that we should not labour for perfection No phisicall rules can be laid down nor receipts given to reduce the body to a perfect latitude of health yet still the Phisitians prescribe and study On all hands Valeat quātum valere potest Aut tales inveniant aut faciant Let bee done what can be done And first let one labour to be such and if they cannot finde such let them striue to make
against God God calleth not every man to this he gaue some to be Pastors and some to be Teachers not all Thirdly great are the enormites that doe accompany warre as I haue shewed both in Commanders and in ordinary souldiers Bello nulla salus and therefore they had neede to be hedged in by the Lords husbandmen with the pale of the word Fourthly from their excellency they are the greatest gift saue Christ that ever was giuen to man A Prophet will I rayse up from among their bretheren Dâ—ut 18.18 like unto thee In which words though Christ be especially meant as S. Luke applyeth them Acts 3.22.23 Yet they necessarily imply the giving of others though Christ be the chiefe God by the Prophet Ieremie speaking of the desolation of his people whereunto they were fallen by their owne sinnes and wickednes of their for-lorn Priests telleth them of a great blessing Jerem. 23.4 That he will set up sheepheards over them that shall feede them Such are called Gods in the booke of God I haue made thee a God to Pharao Exod. 7.1 saith the Lord of Moses namely in bringing judgements and removing of them They are said by God himselfe in Ieremie to stand in his counsell Ier. 23. And for their service with God pietie and holines towards him they are called Angells Fifthly for their industry fidelitie they are called Seers Watchmen Elisha kept Centinall against the King of Aram over the King of Israel when he slept So the men of God in the armies of God whether they sleep or wake they are alwayes at Centinall For though they sleepe as Salomon saith yet the heart is awake In this respect Ministers may well be called the foure beasts full of eyes before and behind Rev. 4. being round about the throne to watch and discover As for their industrie and watchfulnes they are the surest guard so for their fidelitie and plainnesse they are the safest counsell Kings with Antigonus and warriours with Severus may all in those dayes goe out of the Court out of the Counsell and out of the Camp to seeke truth because they cannot find it but they shall find it with the watchmen of Israel There were never indeed more vile and wicked flatterers both in Courts and Camps for as flesh-flies and other Vermin are bred out of the putrifaction of some humid matter by unnaturall heat so this kind of vile vermin is bred and fed out of the corruption of the times What a swarme of Munkies and Marmozets and Ianglers and Gnatoes are every whereâ—â— It is not my purpose to particularize their differences but this may be said of them all they are the corrupters and ruine of Kingâ— and Kingdoms To busie the reader with instances of this nature were but to prove that which no body denyeth for Dioclesian one of the worst men that ever was was so pestered with those flyes that from an Emperour he turned a Gardener hauing observed as Flavius Vopiscus observeth of him all their villainies he concludeth thus A good wise and vertuous Prince is bought and sold by this people 2. Sam. 15. Yea David a man after Gods owne heart holding out against the cursing of Shemei was overcome with the flattery of Zyba Yet this one thing is no lesse lamentable then remarkcable that though they be such ravenous vipers and haue eate out the bellies of so many great Ones yet still they creepe into their bosomes and are nourished by the selfe same heat which they doe extinguish Yea they cast King and Court and good counsell and State first in a Marasmos or deadly Hectick and then out at dores yet for all this who but they Comineus giveth one cause of this because such doe best please the humours of Princes Princes love better those that are of Placentia then those that are of Verona They love the things that please better then those that profit â—â—b 1. c. 21 Plutarch rendereth another cause namely they are often touching that string that Princes much affect namely their owne prayses in things many times not praiseable which flatterers can cunningly effect by palliating their vices with the seeming vicinity of some vertues As the despising of his people they wil term it a Princely inawing of them the imposing of what he pleaseth upon them an improuement of his prerogatiue Royall the doing of all out of his own devise the singularity of wit or quintessence of policy Secondly they vvill make them beleeue they are affected and praised of others and then it is as wel as can be when indeed there is nothing lesse But to leaue their shifts and the great Ones evils that accreweth upon them my purpose is to point out the remedy and the Physitian namely that plain-dealing Word from the mouth of the man of God against the venome of those Aspes and the poyson of all the sinnes which they loue to palliate I know no better Physitian then a good Minister That saying of Gordianus is most true and worthy the memory That miserably is that Prince from whom the truth is concealed And Lewis the 11 complained that this one thing wanted in his Court Yea sundry great Princes haue gone in private manner amongst their subjects to un-boult the truth But this is the way for Court and Camp to haue the Trumpet of truth in it that dare not nor will not lye or flatter This impartiall dealing and plain course is set forth at large in Deuteronomy where Moses by the spirit of prophesie declareth the excellency of the Tribes and the blessings that should be upon them upon Levi as he sheweth should be Vrim and Thummim yea he should say of his father and his mother I respect him not Ch. 33.1.9.10 and his brethren he acknowledgeth not and his sonnes he knoweth not Where as there is an allusion both to the commandement Lev. 21.11.12 and to the execution of the idolaters Exod. 32 so the morality of it is his that Gods Ministers gifted with light and perfection shall giue every one his portion from the Word without partiality yea neither Highnesse nor nighnesse shall make him play the Huckster with the word Papinian the Lawyer was never so plaine with Caracalla nor Ephestion so free with Alexander nor Mecenas so faithful to Augustus as Eliah was plaine with Ahab Iohn Eaptist free with Herod and Nathan faithfull to David One instance amongst many is worth the noting When the Gospel of God in the Northern parts of this Iland began to be set on foot the devill bestirred him exceedingly in the enemies of the Gospel Queen mother of the house of Guies with the Scottish Papists and her French Forces did so overtop the Lords and others of the Congregation that with griefe enough they were compelled to quit Edenburgh and to goe to Sterueling where a man of God made a worthy Sermon in his application much lamenting the confusion that was come upon them
with Millaine he made his end CHAP. XXXII The Exercising of Forces in the Field NOw I come from oppugnation and defence of places to speake of exercising forces in the field the ordering and ioyning of battle the lawfull use of victorie and the behaviour required in the conquerour and conquered As the neerer things come to their Center they move the faster and the nigher the Sun approcheth the Zenith it is the hotter so this the last part of my subiect being the chiefest part highest point of all the warlike motions it requireth the speciall workmanship that of such a workman as is highly guifted with wit and experience Haniball could not but laugh at a stoicke disputing by arguments that onely a wise maÌ„ should be a commander not knowing that use and experience must concurre to the making of a militarie man Stobeus Serm. 52. so if my affection to the businesse should not gaine excuse in place of approbation I should move laughing and insteede of a plaudite I should gaine an apage but hauing experience that men of Armes are generous eueÌ„ in affecting them that loue Armes I proceed to touch though not to sound the depth of those things And if my skill were to my affection yet could I not direct in every particular because necessitie offereth many inconveniences in war which the wisest and expertest Commander cannot avoid for the which notwithstanding there is a good generall rule to correct that by art and counsell which of its owne nature is adverse The hearts of souldiours should be knit together by the bond of loue Lib. 2. cap. 21. Caritas inter milites comilitio augesst To this rule for the better directing of all the particular passages let me add or perfix the counsell of Vegetius that the hearts of souldiers should be knit together by the bond of love yea they should be compacted and united together not onely in order but also in affection so they all should be but one body or one soule in divers bodyes where an Army thriveth aâ— Tryphonius the lawyer observeth not onely knowledge familiaritie but also loue increaseth in the fellowship of war The Army being thus bound together as head and body in their severall places and functions ready to serve one another Two Speciall things there be two things which the leader especially must set before his eyes namely laying hold of present occasion and celeritie of dispatch The former as I shewed is the soule of the action and the latter is the quick passage of the animall spirits Lay hold on occasion effecting the functions of the soule Life once lost cannot be recovered occasion once past cannot be recalled Lucius Portius Cato speaking of Catelin taketh this as he sheweth for a rule approved on by all that in all our affaires opportunite is to be served and nothing more to be avoided theâ— neglect of occasion Stobeus Serm. 52. Agesilaus being demanded what were the rarest ornaments of a commander summed them in these three particulars Valor Counsell and laying hold on occasion That proverbe of Vespatians courtiers taking their best opportunitie to petition him is an excellent motto for a commander know thy time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Avidius rapiendum quod cito praetervolat A man in this sence must be a time-server as one injoyneth us serve time A man as Erasmus saith must snatch at that which fleeth away Scipio the great Cunctator did call it the part of a sluggard to pretermit occasion The neglect of this lost Pompey his greatnesse First not to dispute whether he did well or no in quitting Rome at Cesars approching I am sure he lost his way when he went to Greece to cast himselfe upon inexpert and weake forces degenerate from the use of Armes Had he rather gone into Spaine of whose warlike and strenuous souldiers of proofe when with Q Metellus he warred against Sertorius he had experience without question he had made his part good against Cesar for which I haue this ground that Cesar in his last fight in Spaine with Pompey the elder was put to such a desperate pinch that he was in parle of offering violence to himselfe What would he haue done if Pompey himselfe had been there especially in the beginning when Cesar was neyther of any great power nor authoritie in the place This errour of Pompey made way for many others for his campe in Greece began to grow effeminate lazie full of ryot and neglect of all good occasions and that out of the abundance of good things euilly abused insomuch that it was liker the camp of Darius or Sardanapalus then of the ancient Romanes such as Camillus Fabritius c. But the neglect following is most palpably of all without excuse neyther thinke I if Pompey were alive that he would deny it namely in the battel of Dyrrachium wherein he overthrew routed Cesar but he neglected to follow the victory which when Cesar perceived he said of Pompey Negavil eum scire vincere Semper nocuit de ferre paratis that he knew not how to overcome You may see then in this instance and others of the like nature the saying of Lucanus made good Neglect of time doth ever hurt the cause As occasion thus doth animate the businesse Vsâ— celerity so celerity in performance is the energetical power of life in military performances In rebus bellicis celeritas amplius solet prodesse quaÌ„ virtus Qucknesse as Vegetius saith is often moâ—â— helpfull then valour it selfe That golden saying of Caesar should in capitall letters alwaies be in the eyes of greaâ— Commanders That whatsoever he had effected celerity hâ—â— done it Another thing to be thought on in the leading of Forces How to quit themselues in a strayt is how to quit themselues when they are brought into a strayt and so invironed with the enemy that there is no way to passe without hazard then and there is the speciall use of some cunning stratagem Examples of such we haue many of good note in Frontine and none more wittie then that of Hanibal against Fabius A witty Stratagem although none more common Where Hanibal was brought to such a strayt that he could quit himselfe no way but through the narrow passages that Fabius kept Lib. 1. c. 5. He tyed bundles of combustible matter between the Hornes of Oxen and set them on fire The Romans sent out by Fabius could not tell at first what 〈◊〉 make of it for they thought it had been some prodigiouâ— thing but conceiving what it was they told the Generall who fearing it to be some slight to draw them out kepâ— close in their Camp so that Hanibal with all his Forces past without opposition This was indeed a witty one but yet a costly one for the pattern out of which he had it coâ—â— his father Amilcar his life The Dukes of Spain againâ—â— whom he warred yoked up Oxen in
them and the rest being emulous of their commendation Oratio saepe plus valet quam pecunia Comment did striue to deserue it as well as they Thus by experience Caesar made good the proofe of his own position That a good speech prevaileth sometimes more then money The motiues whereby Generals may perswade are these The motiues of an exhortatory oration and the like as first from the goodnesse of the cause for every one at least pretendeth a good cause as you may see in all the speeches of this nature From this Ioab did inforce valour upon his souldiers 2 Sam. 10.12 Be of good courage saith he and let us play the men for our people and for the Cities of our God Of which one saith very well Non potuiâ— vox duce dignior câ—gitari Pellic. That though he was no good man yet no speech could be worthier of a great Captain Secondly they perswade from the valour of the enemy and sometimes from the weaknesse of the enemy to overcome the former it is exceeding great glory Pro aris focis pugnatur and to haue the other to fight with assureth victory Thirdly from the preservation of them and theirs for goods liberty wiues and children life honour and religion it selfe lyeth upon it When the Romanes were to fight they brought all the prey the sallary and richest substance that the souldiers had Alex. ab Alex. lib. 4. c. 2. and laid it bound in fardells hard by the colours that thereby they might be whetted on to fight The Persians bring their wiues and preciousest things into the field and so doth the Spanyard the richest things he hath Fourthly they moue with hope of glory and promise of reward Feare and punishment are the bonds of Camp Discipline but the souldiers must be carryed on to the battle on the wings of hope and reward Fifthly it is no small motiue to obserue the impossibility to escape the enemie if they should flye through the nature of the place wherein they fight Myronides the Athenian Generall leading his souldiers against the Thebans brought them into a fair large field where they were to fight where he caused them all to lay down their Armes view the place all round about You see my souldiers said he what a large field is heer and our enemies are brauely mounted on swift horses therefore if we flee there is no possibility to escape but if we stand to it there is good hope of victory Vpon which speech they pur on resolution to stand it out to a man and did second the same with such courage Polyaen l. 1. that they carryed the day and had a great victory which they followed to Phocis and Locris The last motiue and that of no small force is taken from the cruelty and inhumane condition of the enemy with whom they are to fight If men fight against such as are worse then Beares and Lyons that are never satisfyed with bloud such as the brood of Gog and Magog Turkes and Papists whose very mercies are cruelties Were it not better to die upon the sharp with honour in the field then to be reserved for a while unto some cruell torment intollerable sorrow and disgracefull reproach Fpaminondas Generall of the Thebans being to fight with the Lacedemonians that he might not onely strengthen his souldiers but also sharpen their indignation against their enimies delivered in his Oration that it was the determination of the Lacedemonians if they overcame to kill all the Males of the Thebans man and mothers sonne and further to make slaues and captiues of their wiues and daughters and last of all to equall Thebes with the ground This did so inflame the Thebans against the Lacedemonians that at the very first shock they overcame them Doth not the belluin rage and cruelty Application executed upon the Germanes and Bohemians by woefull experience tell us what mercilesse and inhumane enemies we contend with namely the bratts of the bloudy whore The ripping up of women the shamefull abusing of them not to be named the torturing of men with new devised torments the bathing in the bloud of inoffensiue children the cruel murthering of Gods Ministers who by the lawes of God and Nations haue alwaies been sacred In aword their unparallâ—ld immanity aboue Turkes or Barbarians would put life in a man to fight to the last gaspe rather then to liue and see the least part of these horrible indignities To passe by the Spanyard outrage upon the Indian and Hollander whose resolution and valour ariseth out of the Spanish cruelty and perfidie cast but your eye upon the Spanish provision for 88 and you may see how like the base bramble Abimelech they were determined to burn up the inhabitants and as the scourges of Gods wrath to whip us to death with tormenting scorpions as if they would haue made the torments of the English a terrour to all nations But by you my Lords and people of the Vnited Provinces let this particular be observed in your encounter with the Spanyard I know the monuments of the more then Saracen cruelties remains with you you haue pictures in your houses and draughts drawn in the tables of your hearts Yet let this sharpen your resolution to fight it out to the death that if ever the black brood be masters you shall haue the blackest day that ever men had If Radamanthus and Minos were come out of hell to torment they could not exercise more cruelty then they would upon you and yours yea as they would make you a spectacle to all the world so they would send you bodies and soules to hell if they could As Hanibal therefore was a sworn enemy to the Romans in his childhood so teach your youth rather to die then to liue at the mercy of the Spaniard But withall fit your selues and yours for death better then you doe and then let fire or water haue the land and all that you haue yea if I may so say and make it good in dispute let the devill haue it as he had all Iobs substance rather then the Spanyard haue it who is a devill incarnate As the bloudy disposition of so devilish an enemy should put you on to fight it out to the very last pinch so should it likewise terrifie you from any terms of peace which if once you intertain you are caught in the trap The Spanyard is like the Irish who under a perfidious peace doth his adversary more mischiefe then in open war Your charge and paines in peace shall be never a whit lesser for I am sure you dare not trust them your damage and danger shall be greater For who ever gained by peace with the Spanyard England excepted who hath of late gained repentance I wish they be not too late in bringing forth the fruits of it But to speake of this though I cannot speak enough I shall be further occasioned onely I will shut it
people how they should loath them and account them as a menstruous clout and that they should hold them unworthy of presence should say unto them get you hence Let them plead for Baal that are of Baal Hold never that to be clean in Gods worship that the Pope or Pagan hath once polluted being mans invention No it is unpossible that it should be cleansed With â—he sound of the Trumpet awake the Kings Maiesty awake the Prince the Parliament the Councell the Nobles Gentry and Commons that we may meet our God in sackcloth and ashes for great is the controversie that he hath wâ—th us all You are the Physitians content not your selues with the bare theoricke or generall rules but apply your rules and pick out particular mediâ—ines for particular diseases in particular subjects for Chronical pandemical or Epidemical diseases Haue your specifick rules and receits discover the darke day and the devouring people wherewith wee are threatned Ioel 2 v. 2.3.11 the day of the Lord is great and very terrible who can abide it As for your Majestie on the knees of my soule with all humble duety I doe intreat you as you haue begun in the spirit you would not end in the flesh but that you would beat down that Altar of Damascus bray the golden Calfe to powder crush the brazen Serpent to peeces and break off those bonds of superstition Ease Sion of her burthen under which she groaneth help not those that hate God and hate not those that loue God Let not God be robbed of his Sabboath nor his name be torn in peeces by bloudy oathes for these and the like are like to make your Dominions mourn Yea if your Highnesse loue the Lord your soule your life your Crown your people look to it Aegipt is deceitfull Nilus is ranke Poyson mixture of his worship is a mockery and no worship and God hath said he He will not be mocked For the Lords sake down with Balaam Balaamites and all their pedlery ware giue the Lord all or nothing for he is a jealous God In a word Dread Soveraigne remember I beseech you by how many mercies God hath ingaged you to be zealous of his house and that of all sins he cannot endure back-sliding As for you Gracious Prince If you desire to present your selfe to God as a member of his unspotted Spouse in Christ be not unequally yoked away with that Lincie-wolsie Match with reverence be it spoken it is a beastly greasie and a lowsie-wearing unbefitting your Grace Scripture will apologie my termes which speaking of spirituall whoredome giveth it alwaies the vilest termes Then good Sir curtall Baals Messengers by the middle to their shame Cast out of Gods house all the garish attire of the Whore and bring not an Athaliah what soever she be into your bosome who will adorn Balaams house with the riches of your God Let it never enter into your Princely heart that Dagon and the Ark can stand together for Christ and Belial hath no communion Let no profane person nor Popishly affected like briars and brainbles pester your house nor choake both life and practise of holy disties in you Keep good and plain dealing Physitians for your soule chear the hearts of Gods people with the loue of your countenance and in so doing you may bee assured the Lord will make you a sure house And you right Honourable and most Worthy of the High Court of Parliament together with his Majesties Councell Vse the counsell of a great King to his councell He would alwaies haue them to leaue two things without Simulation and dissimulation be either first for God and the reforming of his house or otherwise you can bring no honour to your selues nor good to your Country You illustrious Princes Nobles and Favorites of the King serue not the times nor your own turnes Ezr. 3.5 with the neglect or opposition of Gods cause withdraw not your neckes from the work of the Lord with the Tekoites nor break not the yoke of Gods obedience by impiety profanenesse and superstition as those Princes did in whom Ieremiah sought some good but found none Ier. 3.5 be not like those Princes of Iuda that with their false flatteries fayned curtesies and fleshly reasons 2 Chro. 24.17 made Ioash cast down all with his heele that he had set up with his hand but let Nehemiah his care Daniels zeale the three Childrens resolution Gid on s valour and Obadiahs loue possesse your soules for the purity of Gods worship with a loathing hatred of all superstition And to you great Prelates or sprightfull Lords the very hearth that keeps in the fire of all this superstition and the Ensigne staffe that fixeth those strange colours in our Camp If I could perswade you let your train fall Away with the little beast with the two hornes Rob not the Nobility and Magistracie of their Titles and places no more then they should usurp the office of the Ministerie Lord it not over the Stewards of Gods house and let not him finde you beating his servants when hee cals you to a reckoning in a word lest Pashur his case proue yours if danger come Let Christ raign in his Ordinances and let that maxime once be made good in a good sense no ceremony no Bishop Lastly to you people which be of two sorts carnall and called of the Lord to the former Thinke not the rotten walls of your profanenesse or meer Civilisme shall still be daubed over with the stinking morter of Romish superstition the durt whereof you cast in the faces of Gods faithfull Ministers if they touch your galled sores away with those fig-leaues and leprous clouts and let the Word haue its course with you To you the latter sort that with some lazie wishes are content to haue it so as the Prophet speaketh giue me leav out of my very loue to tell you that Isâ—char his caraiage or bowing down like an Asse between two burthens will not serue but you must hate the garment spotted with the flesh and say to the Idols Get you hence what haue we to doe with you Lastly to conclude the point to you all I say again from the highest to the lowest with my duety to all in lawfull place reserved if admonition will not work let terrour of iudgement prevaeile Levit. 10. the strange fire in Gods worship was punished with the fire of Gods wrath from heaven God proportions iudgement to the sin we haue ever kept in and pleaded for the excommunicate thing for the which the Lord may plague us we haue like fooles reserved the seedricks of superstition therfore the Lord is like to giue us enough of it Hos 8.11 we haue made many Altars to sin and they may be unto us for sin let King and Prince and Nobles and Ministers 2 Chron. 25 14 c. and people look to it King Amasiah setting up the gods of Seir by the God of Israel
a fast through all Iudah vers 3. I shew the scantling of the place the rather 2. Chron. 32 20.21.22 because I know no place in all the booke of God fitter for this purpose Other instances there be as that prayer of Hezekiah against the Asstrians The like course tooke the Israelits being to ioyne battle with the Philistins So Iacob looking for nothing but for battle from his brother he prepareth himselfe by prayer So did Ezra I urge the more places the rather because I would inforce the necessitie of the duetie and manifest the good effect of the same being performed and justly to tax our selues to our humiliation for the neglect or uniound performance of this duetie To the first you may see by this cloud of witnesses how strict Gods people haue beene in this duetie To the second it is likewise cleare that good successe hath followed the duetie in all the quoted testimonies Ezra relating how he had commended the cause to God wheÌ„ they stood in feare of their enemies sheweth us what was the issue of this their holy practize Ezra 8.23 So wee fasted and besought our God for this and he was intreated of us And for the last namely our neglect would to God our mourning for the sin were as manifest as the sin it selfe looke but on the successe of our battles that argueth our neglect God is one the same God the cause is likewise Gods but God is not sought unto he is not importuned Wee are like to the Israelits going against Beniamin who inquired of the Lord whether they should goe up against them or no and what tribe should lead them and hauing their direction in both these they set themselues in order Heare they make the cause sure and for avoyding contention about the leading they haue the bravest Leaders allotted them Iudges 20. and for their forces they were eyther enough or too many yea of the choyce souldiers and very well ordered but how sped they But very meanly as you may see in the text they were twice foyled and lost to the number of 40000 men But what was wanting heare I answere even the selfe same things that are wanting in us Search of sin and seeking to God Wee doe not read in all the text that they did eyther of these till they were beaten to it And what needed they in their owne conceit They had a just cause and the Lord his owne warrant and braue Commanders and for multitude they might haue eaten them up and why should they goe to God for the victory they doubted not of that but as they looked least to the matter of greatest waight so they were plagued in that which they least feared to teach them and others to take their whole errand with them God gaue them twice into the hand of their enemies and then they saw their ouersight and went up to the Lord and wept and fasted Vers 26. and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord then by the Lords direction they went up and prospered So wee may lay our hands upon our mouthes in this case and proclaim our selues to be faulty for wee haue presumued much upon a good cause and secundary meanes but wee haue not wrastled with God for the victory The Pagans and Papists doe condemne us in this who toyle themselues with their idols babling out many blasphemons prayers and that for the most part for the prosperous successe of wicked designes Lib. de bello punico Appianus telleth us that before the Romans ioyned battel they sacrificed to Audaciâ—ie and Feare Plutarch Satim ante acient immolato equâ— concepere votum Florus telleth us that the Lacedemonians before the fight sacrificed to the Muses The MysiaÌ„s before they fought did sacrifice a horse To what a number of Saints doe the Papists sacrifice when they goe to fight how doe they ply the idoll of the Masse in which they put their considence The Iesuits indeed the Popes bloud-hounds trust more to the prey then to their prayers They much resemble as one saith well the Vultures whose nests as Aristotle saith cannot be found yet they will leave all games to follow an Army because they delight to feed upon carryon neyther will they be wanting with their prayers such as they are for the successe of the great Cracke and blacke day as they call it wherin these harpies thought to haue made but a breakfast of us all they erected a new Psalter for the good successe of a wicked counter parliament the depth of whose consultation was fiery meteors the proiect whereof was the rending of mountaines and tearing of rockes with an earthquake of firie exhalations to consume and swallow up both hils and valleys and to increase the iniquitie with wicked Iesabel they would colour it with a fast and with blasphemous and lying Rabshakah they would beare the world in hand by this their Psalter that they came not up against us without the Lord 1. Reg. 25. and the Lord had bidden them doe it Their develish dittie consisteth of a seven-fold psalmody which secretly they passed from hand to hand set with tunes to be sung for the cheering up of their wicked hearts with an expectation as they called it of their day of Iubilie The matter consisteth of rayling upon King Edward and Elizabeth and our Soveraigne that now is of perition imprecation prophesie and prayse for successe I will set downe some of these because the Psalter it selfe is rare or not to be had For they are taken up by the Papists as other books be that discover their shame Prayer Psalme 1. Confirme say they the heart of those thy laborours endue them with strength from aboue and giue successe unto their endeavours Embolden our hearts with courage to concur with them freely in the furthering of thy service Confirme your hearts with hope Prophesie Psal 2. for your redemption is not far off The yeare of visitation draweth to an end and jubilation is at hand The memorie of novelties shall perish with a cracke as a ruinous house falling to the ground he will come as a flame that bursteth out beyond the fornace His fury shall fly forth as thunder and pich on their tops that maligne him Howsoever God in mercie disappointed them yet by these you may see as by so many ignivomus eruptions of the helfiry-zeale of Aetna what their diligent endevour was for they would be wanting in nothing The necessitie therfore of the duetie the good successe of it the sinister zeale of idolatrie in this point according to their kind and the danger of the neglect of it may provoke us if wee be not void of sense to set upon the duetie If idolaters who by their prayers and sacrifice bringing nothing but sorrow upon themselues doe so bestir themselves what fooles are wee in slighting off so excellent a duetie wherein the Lord hath promised to be with us yea
your heads and shame upon your enemies This course will break the heads of the Dragons of your sinns this will offer violence to heaven and as it were inforce God to answer this will be like an earthquake to your enemies it will sinke them it will swallow them up A pretty instance of this I remember from the confession of an arch-enemy of the Gospell namely Queen mother of Scotland who fighting against God and the erecting of his Kingdom confessed openly That she feared more the fasting and prayer of the man of God Iohn Knox and his Disciples then an Army of 20000 armed men As your neglect hath been great in this particular so the blemish of out Nation in neglecting and opposing this office is indeleble No Nation professing the Gospell but they haue publiquely been humbled in some measure we excepted we onely haue not set forth to help thus against the mighty which I thinke verily hath accursed all the rest of our helps that they are as Water spilt upon the ground It is true that the soules of Gods people haue been exceedingly humbled in secret for the afflictions of Ioseph and haue poured out their hearts in aboundance of sighes and teares for their miseries But what is this to the publique discharge Since I am fallen upon the point I cannot but with griefe obserue that this Nation hath been at such opposition and enemity with this duety that it is thought as dangerous a thing to undertake it as it was in Athens to make mention of the recovery of Salamis or as it was amongst the Iewes to speake in the name of Iesus What should be the cause of this I haue often wondred I am sure of this It is an evill sign of an evill cause yea a fearfull fore-runner and provoker of Gods long protracted wrath to fall upon us Not any finne of omission or commission hath a more fearfull threatning against it then this Witnesse the Prophet Esay Ch. 22.12.13.14 When God saith he called to weeping and mourning and to humiliation in the highest degree as the word importeth then behold saith he ioy and gladnesse slaying of Oxen and all the contraries by which they braved out God to his face But what followed A fearfull threatning Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you dye saith the Lord of Hosts Whose eares should not tingle to heare this And whose heart should not tremble to thinke upon it And yet the best in this is too secure But since the duety is so called for and since it setteth such an edge on invocation it hath so prevailed against the enemies of Sion and the neglect of it is so severely threatned what may be the cause may some say that in a Christian Common wealth it should be thus neglected and withstood If you will haue my opinion in my judgement I conceiue these to be the Remoraes or break-necks of this duty First the universall plenty except the wants of the meaner for so long as there be Oxen and Sheep to kill and sweet wine enough so long no humiliation Ioel 1.13 When the meat offering and the drink-offering fayleth them then will the Priests saith the Lord by Ioel gird themselues in sackcloth and lament and houle A second let is the conceited glory of the Church the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord say they and that imgreat pompe and glory and what need we mourn It is an outside glury indeed but there is but a little glory within A third let is this men are so inslaved to sin and Satan and so vassalled to their own corruptions that they dare not incounter with their Maisters for whose service they haue bored their eares The fourth Remora is this the plants that are not of Gods planting know well that the use of humiliation would find out the causes of our evill amongst which themselues would be found to be the chief So that it is no wonder that they cannot endure to hear of humiliation But if men be thus fearfull to awake sleeping dogs and will hazard themselues and the Nation upon the point of Gods Pike what a fearfull plight shall they be in in that gloomy day that is like to come upon us wherein the Lord shall giue the Alarum May not Ahab condemne us in this Obliviscitur se Regem esse ubi Deum omniū Regem pertimescit purpuram abjicit c. And where shall we appeare when Ninivie sheweth it selfe Of whose King Ambrose giveth this pretty observation that he forgot himselfe to be a King when once his heart was smitten with the fear of the King of Kings hee casteth away his robes and beginneth by his repentance to be a King indeed for he lost not his command but changed it from the worse the better But to conclude the point oh that my counsell could please all those that I haue spoken to both Kings Ministers and people that we might be humbled as one man together and every man apart by himselfe and renting our hearts before the Lord never leaue importuning him nor let him goe till he were intreated If we would humble our selus the Lord would humble our enemies It is his Covenant Psal 81.13.14 Oh that my people had hearkened to me and walked in my waies I should soon haue subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their Adversaries Oh that wee were like Israel in the Iudges Chap. 20. who went to God the second time humbling themselues and offering burnt-offerings and peace offerings whereupon the Lord gaue their enemies into their hands So if we would humble our selues and kill our sinnes our enemies should quickly loose what they haue got and pay full deerly for all costs and damages But before I conclude the point take one caveat with the duty that it be performed with sincerity and singlenesse of heart for if it be done in hypocrisie or perfunctorily slighted over in the performance it provokes God and plagues the performer The Hollanders and French fast but without exprobation be it spoken they had need to send as God speaks for mourning women Ier. 19.17 that by their cunning they may be taught to mourn A soft heart sets well to a mournfull ditty where this is wanting there is no musick Humiliarion without reformation is a mockery of God and the undoing of a good cause The Lord tels us in the 58 chapter of Esay and the 7 of Zacharie how he abhorred the fasting of his people without reformation he giues a good reason in the fift and sixth verses They fasted not to the Lord but to themselues that is for their own ends as if men would serue their own turns with God and care not a whit how hee be served of them it were just with God to mock both them and us with shews of favours because we mock him with shews of service and amendment And surely if we look not to it in the humbling of
place so all the souldiers must be carefull to quit themselves in their places for the defence of their head the maintenance of their good cause the glory of their nation the good of all that depend upon them their owne honour and reputation For militarie directions in fight I think there be no better rules then that of the Apostle Paul though in another kind namely a spirituall fight The termes are borrowed from a bodily fight and therefore they are the fitter for the purpose The words of the rule are very significant and emphaticall and therefore I set them downe watch yee stand fast 1. Cor. 16 13. quit you like men be strong The words as they are applyed by the Apostle expresse the whole use of every part of the spirituall Armor unfolding fully all the cunning and dexteritie of a spirituall fight So the words in themselves are as so many rules out of which every souldier may reade his duetie in fight All things required of a souldier in fight may be reduced to those fiue heads Vigilancie Fidelitie Five things required of soulciours in fight Valorous Magnanimitie Promptitude Perseverance All these are included â—n theforesaid termes First then there must be a wise heedie watchfulnes especially in subordinate Commanders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even from the file-leader â—o the highest in subordination that thereby they may take or giue command Nil magis ad victoria facit quam monitis obtemperare signorum lib. 3. cap. 5. Interest quoque non parum ut milites in praelii confusione de ducis consilio certiores fiant In Veget. pag. 216. by or from signall cryer or trumpet oâ— from the motion of the Commander which is an excellent director for all militarie motions As there is nothing according to Vegetius more avayling to victory then the true taking and observing of command by what meanes soever iâ— be given so there is nothing more dangerous then the mistake of the mind of the Commander It is a matter of no small consequence saith Stuchus for the souldiers in confusion of fight to be well possessed of the Generalls mind and by the contrary the mistaking of his mind may mar all Appiâ—nus giveth a pregnant instance of this in Hanibal who being in fight and seeing some troupes of French and Spaniâ—â— horses goe to the ascent of an hill he made towards theâ— to bringe them on for renewing of the fight the souldieâ— and Commanders not understanding his intent but supposing him to flee presently forsooke fight and routing themselves fled without any order not after their Generall buâ— whether each one listed By this you see what shame confusion followed upon a contrarie construction of the Generalls intent At the battle of Newport as I haue been informed there was a foule mistake full of danger in Lieutenant Yakslie who having his command from General Vere tâ— bring up such forces for such a service was so takeÌ„ up eyther with a jealous emulatioÌ„ of Lieutenant Honywood with whom that very morning he should haue fought or with some other transporting cogitation that he quite mistooke the matter and brought on such as were not any way fiâ— for that service which the Generall perceving in grief anger gaue him this farewell Goe on Yakslie said he and adieu for thâ—â— hast lost this day all the honour that ever thon hast got in thy life The Lieutenant being brought to this strayt that there was no place for retreat nor opportunitie for change was forced to lead them on howsoever who being to weake to entertaine the charge of the enemie gave presently backe and would not for any thing he could doe or say stand to it whereat the Commander being vexed exceedingly and being ashamed to come off live with the blot of that misscarriage desperately threw himselfe in the gulfe of the enemies fury to the pittifull losse of a noble souldier and a very brave Commander and all as you see upon a mistake Thus then in fight it is first required that the souldier haue a good eye and a good eare both being given in charge under the word watch Now to the second thing required which is fidelitie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inioyned in the word stand this is as much here as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be resolutely bent to endure the worst or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stay by it faithfully and not to flee a foot for as men must overcome the devill not by flying or shifting so must souldiers their enemies And this word here is properly opposite to flight which is holden by the currant of all millitarie lawes very â—ignominious and if it be to the enemies very treacherous Vegetius as Stuchus expoundeth him hath the very same in effect to fly beastly or to be taken cowardly Illa ad ignominiaÌ„ pertinet haec Remp. prodit Lib. 1. cap. 20. pag. 44. In praeliis maxime timentibus maximum est periculuÌ„ is ignominious to the partie that doth it but to flie to the enemie is to betray the cause and the country hurting with those same Armes and hands the very parties that haue inarmed them Againe as they endanger all the rest so they are so far from exempting themselves from danger as the same Author observeth that they are in most danger of all others and therefore he calleth it madnesse in men to flee if they can doe any other The case may so stand and such may be the adversary that men had better dye like men in fight then to forsake their colours and be at length made subjects of the enemies tyrannie Wee read of the Romans in fight that when it was told the Tribunes of the seventh Legion that the left wing was cleere defeated their colours taken by the enemies Caeser 7. Belli Gall. Mercinaâ—ia fides unnquam durat in adversiâ—â— who were charging them upon their backes they gaue not way one foote but stood to it till they were slaine every man But because there is too much mercinarie faith which never endureth in a strayt Generalls haue taken course somtimes to tye the run-awayes to their service Lucius Lucellus preceiving the Macedonian horse to flee to the enemie caused presently an alarum to be given and sendeth some out after them the enemie conceiving that they were comming against him entertained them with a flight of darts When the fugitives preceived that they were pursued by their owne encountred with the enemie they fell upon the enemie and quit themselves like honest men against their willes So Datames following his fugative troupes commended them out of cunning that they would first charge the enemie with which speech they being ashamed they did it indeed It was very frequent with the Romanes to inviron such as were suspected of cowardize or infidelitie with their choycest troupes who might eyther cause them for feare to stand to it or cut them off if they attempted
Philistim and yet these were they that they never suspected till the battle was lost wherein 30000 were slaine their Priests were gone Eli his necke broken and which was worste of all the Arke of God was taken Then they began in their calamitie to call a new quest of inquirie to make a new search and to find out this execrable thing namely their sin 1. Sam. 7. â— for the which as it is said all the hoast of Israel lamented before the Lord. The like neglect wee may behold in the people of Israel going against Beniamin The first day they lost 22000 they lament indeed and looke about them what should be the matter but they go the wrong way they fall to doubt of their commission as though there had been some fault in that they supposed they could not prosper because they had lift up their hand against their brethren although God had bid them doe it but there was another matter in it that they were not a ware of that was their sin which questionlesse God did punish by those two overthrows First they were altogether become corrupt and abhominable in their courses worship of God insomuch that as the Lord speaketh every man did what seemed good in his owne eyes It is true when they heard of the beastly and abhominable act of killing of the Levits wife under their filthy lust their hearts rose against it they would be avenged on all the whole tribe if the transgressors were not delivered This was all well but this was not all they should haue begune at home and purged themselues of spirituall uncleannesse and other sinnes that doe accompany that and then they had been fit to haue punished the beastlinesse of the Beniamits Againe for number they were so many and the other not a gleaning to them that they made no question of the victory so that they thought it needlesse to seeke to God by humbling of themselues for a good successe But God for those met with them and set them in the right way ere he had done with them for when after the second defeate they got sight of their sin and humbled themselues for it by fasting and praying they received a better answere with assurance of the victory Now give me leaue to applie and that in all humilitie Application The ground of your enterprise was good the commission faultlesse and the end for any thing I know upright yea and the enemie Gods enemie yet for all this thus far they haue prevayled and doe prevaile the cause I feare is want of reformation at home and it may be too much presuming of worldly forces and friendship which the Lord would haue to prove no better then a broken reede If the commission be good and the parties disable themselues from the execution of it what fault is in it or in him that gaue it out As it is far from me to charge any thing upon any mans conscience so I intreate every man to charge his owne conscience as David did and say I am the man A generall view or search will not serue for so long as men keepe themselues at generals they never find out that in themselues which most displeaseth God but often mistake that to be no sin which is sinne or that to be sin which is no sin Men must not stay themselues in the Procatartick or remote causes but they must dive unto the Proegumene conjunct or essential imediate cause Empyrickes mistaking symptomes for the sicknesse it selfe are fayrer to kill then to cure so in finding out some petty sinnes some never look at the main sinnes like those that lop off branches of the tree but never strike at the roote and as by this pruning the trees grow bigger so by daliance in search all growes worse and worse therefore to the bosome sin the darling-sin the seed-sinne that is deer as hand and foot cut it off and cast it away Let every man be severest with himselfe and favour himselfe not in the least sin that sin that hee least lookes after and will not acknowledge to be sin is commonly the capital sinne as taking liberty to profane the Sabboth going to stage-plaies scoffing precisenesse pettie oathes abuse of the creatures usury these be Nationall sins and set ope the gate to all other sins and consequently to judgment On the first my heart giues me to dwell if it were my place and the Treatise would permit for as it is the sin of Nations so it is the capitall sin though least thought on the threatnings against the breach of this commandement the promise annexed to the keeping of it the backing of it with reasons and fore-fronting of it with a remember Zacor doe necessarily imply all these lessons as first the antiquity of it and the continuance of it that as it was from the beginning so it should be remembred to the end Gen. 2.3 secondly it discovers the propensity of man to the light esteem of it and to the breaking of it thirdly it shews the greatnesse of the sin Ezech. 20.12.22 fourthly Gods great desire to haue it kept calling it the holy honourable day yea and the delight of the Lord Es 58.13 All these cords will pull down inevitable judgements upon all the palpable profaners of this day by their pleasures or ordinary imployments except they repent This sin cryes in England and roares in Holland where by open shops and other works of their calling they proclaim with open mouth their little regard of God or his Sabboth Iudgement likewise hangs over the head of all halvers of the Lords day making it neither Gods nor theirs but divide it All Iewish translators of the Sabboth all toleration from higher powers to profane it at which we may lay our hands upon our mouths But I hope the Parliament will redresse it likewise on all that dare proclaime it from Pulpit to bee onely a Ceremoniall Law and that the rest now injoyned is a meer Civill Ordinance The Papists presse this as a meer humane Institution in religious Worship Spalato a little before his departure told a man in dispute with him that that Commandement was done away Many Libertine Ministers and Prelats in England maintain the same in effect and the worst of the Ministers of the Vnited Provinces concur with them in this point for though some presse the keeping of it yet they urge it not as a divine Precept but as a time appointed by a meer positiue law for the worship of God but this crosseth the nature of the commandement being Morall given from the beginning before the Ceremoniall Law written by Gods own finger proclaimed to all the people to continue to the end It substracts from the number of the Precepts being ten Exod. 34.18 Deut. 10.4 it oppugneth the practise of God which is for a president to us It is against naturall reason and divine prerogatiue that God should not haue a solemn time appointed for
his worship and that he should not be the appointer of it Hence it is that not onely the Hebrews but also all Greeks and Barbarians did rest from work on the seventh day witness Iosephus Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius lastly it afronteth Christs institution included in the very name of the day Why is it called the Lords day Rev. 1.10 1 Cor. 16.2 is it not because it was appointed by the Lord and to continue for the Lord as the Sacrament for the same reasons is called the Supper of the Lord. To make an end of the point let the Magistrates of London and other parts who haue kept back their authority from sanctifying of the Sabboth look to the end fire is broke out already but I fear if we will not â—earken to hallow the Sabboth of the Lord that the fire spoken of by Ieremy shall break forth in our Gares and not bee quenched till it haue devoured us I might say much in this point both by reason of the commonnesse of the sin and plenty of matter against it but I will onely say this Where there is no conscience of keeping of the Sabboth sincerely they haue no ground to expect any good As for Stage-plaies they are the devils chaire the seate of Scorners the plague of piety and the very pox to the Common-wealth but I haue a whole Treatise against them And as for the other sins mentioned it is counted but Puritanism to count them sins but so much the worse As our Nation is a field of crying sins so the cry of some sinns must not be discovered but countenanced in a searfull manner who knows but the things which we count trifles may be the speciall matter of our controversie with God A little other fire then God had ordained might seem a small matter in the eyes of indifferency yet it was such a sinne as made all Israel guilty as appeareth by the sacrifices offered for that sinne Levit. chap. 16 yea it brought such a fire from the presence of the Lord as could hardly be quenched These sinnes therefore must be taken by the poll and others of the like nature as contempt of the Word and hatred of Gods people and they must be beaten to powder with the Israelites Calfe Goe from a Tribe to a Family from a Family to a house and so to every man of the house till the golden wedge be found out We must not trust our wicked hearts with this work for corrupt nature is blind as a beetle in the finding out of sinne witnesse the Israelites even then when all the plagues of God were comming upon them they sayd What is our iniquity or sinne against God Ier. 16.10 Princes and people had need of good Seers whom they must suffer to shew them their sinne that either they cannot find or will not finde such was Nathan to David they must not count such men of contention and busie-fellows as the Iewes called Ieremiah but our evill age doth not onely hide sinn but maintaine sinne There is also too much propensitie both in the bade and also in the good to palliate sin to tranfer their troubles to other causes then to it I remember that Traian Generall to Valence the Emperour that mirror of impietie going against the Gothes he was defeated in the very first battle for which Valence upbrayded Trajan at a feast with cowardize and sloth as being the causes of the overthrow but noble Traian not enduring that indignitie with freedome of speech told enduring that indignitie with freedome of speech told the Emperour in plaine termes that he had lost the day for you do so war against God saith he meaning his persecuting of Christians that you abandon the victory and send it to your enemies Niceph. Calist lib. 11. Cap. 40 Eccle. Hist it is God saith he that overcommeth and he giveth the victory to those that obey him but such are your adversaries and therefore you haue God to fight against you how then can you overcome Here you may see a patterne of a wicked disposition well taken up and the saddle set upon the right horse And not onely doe such bloudy monsters as this shift off their calamities from their sinnes but also Gods people by falling in sin and lying in sin may be tainted with it witnesse David a man otherwise after Gods owne heart yet tainted with this Amongst the rest of his trickes of legerdemain when he spun the spiders webbe of his implicit sin this was one to cover the murther of Vriah he useth a principall experimentally knowen the sword devoureth one at well as another make thy battell more strong against the cittie and so overthrow it 2. Sam. 11.25 David spake the trueth but not truely for he knew that it was not common lot that had cut off Vriah but his owne heart and hand had caused him and others to fall yet he would daube over a filthy peece of business with a litle white plaistring but when once he was awaked he was so far from daubing as that he chargeth himselfe more deeply with every circumstance then any other could haue done I am the man And after the numbring of the people when his heart smote him grieving at the punishment of the people he taketh the whole sin upon him and vvould cleere the people both of the sin and punishment Loe I have sinned and I haue done wickedly but these sheepe what haue they done 2. Sam. 24.77 let thy hand I pray thee be against me and against my fathers house CHAP. XLIIII Of quitting God of all injustice A Third thing in the behaviour of the conquered is this since sin is the cause they must quit God of all injustice how heavy soever their burthen lye upon them David quitteth the Lord of all injustice if he should adjudge him to eternall death Lament 〈◊〉 18. so doth the people of God in the lamentations being under the verie rod of his wrath The Lord is righteous for I haue rebelled against his commandment By condemning of our selues to acquit God De summo bono lib. 3. is the readiest way to get an acquitance from God Yea as Isedor saith let a man learne not to murmur when he suffereth although he were ignorant for what he suffereth let this suffice to tell him that he suffereth justly because it is from him that cannot deale but justly Pompey was herein exceedingly mistaken who seeing all to goe on Caesars side doubted not to say that there was a great deale of miste over the eye of divine providence for with him that offered nothing but wrong to the commoÌ„ wealth all things went well but with him that defended the common-wealth nothing succeded But Pompey blamed the Sunne because of his sore eyes There be many in our age of Pompey his saucie humor yea arranter wranglers then he because of greater light and showes of profession who if their corruption be never so litle crossed or the Lord
ride when windes blow and waues rage if heaven and earth be shaken this will hold But because groundlesse hope is no better then an Anchor without ground groundlesse hope saith the Poet for the most part deceiveth I wil point out the grounds of your hope in this great bufinesse and but briefly point at them because I may haue occasion to handle them more at large First consider the goodnesse of your cause of which I neede not much dispute for it will maintayne it selfe in the end A better cause there can not be then Gods right and mans right All Gods people that have scanned it are perswaded of the equitie of it which shall one day manifest it selfe as cleere as the Sunne shine at noon day This was it that maintayned Davids hope for as he often commends the goodness of his cause to God so he bringeth in his hope much depending on the goodnesse thereof Iudge me o God and plead my cause against an ungodly nation and unmercifull Psal 43.1 In consideration whereof he checkes his drouping soule and awaketh it up to waite upon God waite hopefully for God for yet I shall confesse him vers 5. Where observe as he maketh hope his Anchor so the goodnesse of his cause is the cable that he rideth by Bernard hath a pretty saying to this effect if the cause of the warre be good saith he the end of the warre can never be evill Si boun fuerit causa pugnae exitus malus esse non poterit neo bonus iudicabitur finis ubi causa non est bona Serm. ad milites Templi cap. 1. howsoever for many causes it may be long first and may be much at under in the meane time neither can a good end saith he come of an evill cause A second ground may be taken from the nature of hope it selfe which is to maintayne a man when all other things faile this sweeteneth and replenisheth the labour of the husbandman it conforteth the marriner when he seeth no land releeveth the patient when the phisition hath giuen him over and inlargeth the heart of the captive in the darkest prison This sustained David in all his troubles David acknowledged that he had fainted if this had not beene Psil 27. â—3 I had fainted except I had beleeved to see the goodnesse of God in the land of the living Where by the land of the living he meant even this world wherein men liue and in particular that land of Canaan the seate of Gods Church This so supported Iob that he would trust in God though he would kill him This was all that Alexander reserved to himselfe This is pictured like a beautifull virgin for the continuall beautie and vigor that is in it It is compared to brasse by the learned for the durable and impenetrable nature of it This is it that caryeth us aboue hope namely of carnall reason This is both staffe lanthorne when all sight and sence of all secondary means faile yea this is never higher elevated De divinia mâ—seratione tum ampltus spâ—raÌ„dum cum â—â—esidâ— humana â—â—fecerint Hexam then when our State in all mens eyes is at the lowest yea so low that the blasphemous wicked will not sticke to say God cannot restore him or at least God will not restore him Ambrose giveth a good direction from the nature of hope manifesting it selfe in greatest extremitie wee should most of all hope saith he in divine helpe wheÌ„ humane and secundary meanes fayle us so long as there is life there is ‘ DuÌ„ spâ—â—es sâ—â—â—a hope yea if it goe so hard with us that as Seneca saith Wee can hope †Qui nuÌ„â—il poâ—est sâ—e râ—ed dâ—speret nâ—bil nothing yet let us despayre nothing The third ground is from the succefle of hope in most desperate cases therefore it is said of hope that hope maketh not a shamed Which phrase is a Hebraisme denoting unto us the certainty or things hoped for to be accomplished Where first hee putteth a difference between hope in God and hope in man or humane things the latter proveth no better then a broken reed by which when a man is deceived he blusheth at the folly of his confidence but it is not so with that hope that is in God It likewise meeteth with the worlds misconstruction of Gods cause in distresse and the miserable case of his people when they see them deprived of their state their liues hunted like a Partridg how they are forsaken of their friends and made the object of the enemies wrath then the world flouts them Gods enemies whet their teeth on them drunkards sing songs of them vile Varlets bring them upon the Stage exposing their names and persons to all manner of contumelies and open mockery Is not this shame enough No saith the Apostle all this is nothing where hope is all the devils in hell cannot make a man ashamed for the things hoped for shall not deceiue him It is true that in temporall deliverances and vindicating his cause from the calumny of the enemy he hath not promised by this or that particular man yet it is enough to every particular man set a work that hee will doe it by him or another and why not by him as well as by another Let him waite on therefore it is enough that the Lord will doe his work Gen. 48.21 Israel said to Ioseph Behold I dye but God shall be with you and bring you againe to the land of your fathers Was not Davids case desperate in all mens eyes and in his own his hope almost forlorne his heart sunck in his belly Yet the object of his hope was made good Israels hope was very low for comming into the promised land and yet the Lord did not fayle them in any good thing they hoped for I might instance this in Ioseph Iob Mordecai and others But to bee short Let us come to our own times How haue many worthy men out of the sparkes of hope raked up in the ashes made a braue fire how haue they been lifted up out of the dust and their horn exalted on a suddain I will instance but in two or three Antonius Grimanius by noble prowesse and vertue rising from one degree to another till hee came to be Procurator for S. Marke in Venice but being defeated by the Turke in that Sea-fight at the Sporades through the fault of the Gally-masters that came not up to the fight hee was falsly accused to the Senate brought in chaines to his answer condemned to banishment and his greatest enemy Melchior Trivisan set up in his place but having lived in banishment till envy was extinct by the Senate hee was called back with a publique decree Integritatis virtutis ergo intimating his integrity and vertue to be the cause of his restitution and being made one of the Senate and Procurator as he was before he went in a great Embassie to Francis of France and
of your hope is from the enemie with whom you haue to deale namely the beast the Dragon and the false Prophet whose ruine the Lord of hoasts hath vowed and determined It is a great advantage to know our enemies but a greater incouragment to know that our enemies are Gods enemies and God their enemie so that they cannot stand What your enemies are and what attempts they shall make and how certainely and suddenly they shall fall it is cleare in the Revelations It is true indeed you haue monstrous enemies unparaleld by any other Sagitta disbolt Hon. 3. in Psal 38. Imo peior Diabolo Hom. 8. in Esech namely the devill the Imperiall force giving the devill or Dragon for his Armes and the Pope or Anti-Christ whom Origen termeth truely the arrow of the devill yea and worse in a manner then the devill himselfe whose chiefe instruments be these hellsh furies the Iesuits these shall gather together all the waters of the whore on which shee sitteth but the Sun-shine of the Lords wrath shall dry them up her flesh shall be given to be eaten and shee shall be made naked her wound shall not be cured shee shall be burned with fire shee goeth to utter destruction And for the more certainty hereof it is set downe as though it were already done Rev. 16.17 18. cap. It is done it is fallen it is fallen Babilon that great cittie I might bring a world of proofes both from the ancient fathers from the Sybills from their owne Prophets and others that fearfull and finall shall be the fall of Rome That Roma as the Sybills say shal be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ruin indeed but the thing is so cleere to those that haue read any thing whose eyes God hath not blinded that to deny it is both to contradict God and man It hath beene often to me matter of wonder above all all other their oppositions of the truth how they could deny this but I am perswaded the learned of them withhold the trueth of God in vnrighteousnesse Otto Frisingensis an ancient Author who lived 1161 speaking of the ruine of Rome as it hath been the head of all both for dominion and sin so in Gods just judgment it shal be measured to as it hath measured to others I could cite Hildegard Abbas Ioachimus Chrisostom Bernard and others but I rather reserve the larger handling of it to another treatise Beda hath a prettie verse to his purpose Regna ruent Romae ferro flammaque fameque Romes Kingdome falls by famine fire and sword Which to referre to the Gothes and Vandalls were impudencie since that was long before To apply it Applicatiin lovers of Rome and lookers toward Rome and all that loue to be peddling with it and under-propping it secretly looke to it for the day shall come that they shall cry alas for it and shall perish with it As for those that set their heart and hand against it by prayer or sword and hate all communion with it yea every patch of it or garment spotted with the flesh let them go on and prosper howsoever it may be nay it must be through fire and water yet the day shal be theirs There is a Spanishfied popish pamphleter endeavouring to maligne the State of the Vnited Provinces erected maintayned by the finger of God who disswadeth all men from the maintenance protection and partaking of and with the Hollanders and that by sundrie calumnious idlements rather then arguments He draweth one from the fatall end of all such as haue undertaken that businesse beginning with Monsieur de Lemmay and ending with the late Queene Elizabeth of happy memory aspersing like a blacke mouthed Cur as much he can the life and death of a famous nursing mother of vertue and religion giving up also his virulent gorge upon that rightlie renoumed Prince of Orange To which I answer First that as unnaturall and violent death doth not alwayes argue an evill life so it doth not prejudice the goodnes of the action in hand and therefore he is a greater calumniator then argumentator againe if this without further limitation be a good argument then all men haue reason to forsake the maintenance of Babel whereof he is a brat for who haue led such monstrous lives and made such prodigious ends as the maintayners thereof yea I shall be able to prove punctually that never a man that hath put his hand to the maintenance of that Babilonish altar carry it as cleanly as he could but the Lord set Ieroboams marke upon him in one kind or other but that I refer to another treatise To the partie himselfe I will say no more now but that by way of retortion which he putteth upon Sir Ralfe Winwod namely if he had been as good an Englishman as a Hollander the Cautionarie Townes had not been released so had he been as good an Englishman as he is an arrant traytor The affaires of Holland pag. 71. and a spaniolized sycophant he had never profaned with aspertion the ashes of his native Soveraigne nor presumed to suggest false matter of iealousie against the King of Bohemia The last ground of hope or rather the first though I put it in the last place is the love of God in Christ Iesus This is the procatartick cause of hope Spes bona praestat opē this is the ground wheron the Anchor is cast where this is there must be hope and where hope is there is both helpe and assured good successe Rom. 5.5 Hope maketh not ashamed saith the Apostle because the loue of God is shed abroad in our hearts This is a good ground indeed this will never let the Anchor come home all the other grounds are made good to your Majesties your faith and the spirit must make good this to your soules which is the ground of grounds Without this all the other are nothing as the Apostle saith neyther circumcision Gal. 5.6 nor uncircumcision prevayleth any thing but the new creature in Christ Iesus so neyther a good cause nor the nature of hope nor experience of helpe nor the wickednesse of their enemie will doe any good without this main good the assurance of Gods love So long as men walk saith the Prophet Ieremy after their own devices and doe the imagination of their evill hearts so long they say and can say no other that there is no hope Ier. 18.12 What hope can these men haue of good successe to their courses or to see the face of God with comfort that crosseth God and themselues and his people in all their courses God showes what came of Zedechiah his hopes Shall he scape saith the Lord that doth such things Ezech. 17 1◠Or shall he break the covenant and be delivered All Gods people this Summer haue refreshed themselues with the hope of the English Parliament but except they make sure Gods favour by the zeale of his glory the amendment of life