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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	king_n	think_v	2,554	5	4.1628	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29207	A sermon preached in Yorke Minster, before his Excellence the Marques of Newcastle, being then ready to meet the Scotch Army, January, 28. 1643. By the Bishop of Derry. Published by speciall command	Bramhall, John, 1594-1663.; Newcastle, William Cavendish, Duke of, 1592-1676.	1644 (1644)	Wing B4234; ESTC R214129	15,024	25

short The Princes of Ammon conspire against David they were kinsmen as descended from Lot but no Subjects the lesse was their crime These find themselves too weake and therefore hire an Army of mercenary Syrians strangers to them both to invade Israel This forceth Joab King Davids Generall to divide his Army part against the Syrians part against the Ammonites Church and Common-wealth are both at stake but by the valour and providence of Joab the Syrians are first beaten and presently thereupon the hearts of the Ammonites faile them they never looke into the field againe Rabba the royall city of Ammon is taken by King David and upon this occasion Syria is absolutely subjected to the Crowne of Israel Let the successe prove answerably to all that hate his Majesty and let the application be to his Enemies But let those that love him be as the Sunne when he goeth forth in his might So and never but so shall this Land have rest The Exhortation will be somewhat longer It was wisely said Externus hostis unitatis vinculum A forreigne enemy is or ought to be a composer of Domesticke differences Nature doth teach us to unite our selves for our owne preservation Cast water into a dusty place and it will contract it selfe into round globes to save it selfe An Embleme of association yet this is contrary to it's owne disposition Humid bodies are easily conteined in other bounds difficulty in their owne Vomitio vomitionem sedat c. If a veine be broken within the body the ready way say the Physitians to stay the bleeding is to open another without If a Forreigne enemy doe not cure our rancorous dispositions one towards another I can say no more but Quos perdere vult Jupiter hos prios dementat whom God will have destoyed he first infatuateth Simple and prepossest people may be seduced by Declarations and Protestations to beleeve that their comming is really for the good of this Kingdome I deny not but it may so accidentally fall out But I desire to know when did ever any Nation that intended War want such pretences Am I now come up without the Lord against this land The Lord hath said unto me goe up against this Land said Senacherib Isay 36.10 Can the vast charge and the bitter fruits of the last voyage be so soone forgotten of us When the Lacedemonians once made a reasonable suite to the Athenians even in their owne judgement yet they rejected it in this respect least they should teach their neighbours of Lacedem●● the way in like cases to Athens or give them an haunt to make such suits What I pray you would they have done if the suite had been unjust and unlawfull if their neighbours had made such a motion in a chargeable commanding hostile manner I have seen their latest and shortest Declaration sent from Barwicke by the Commissioners in a Letter to Sir Thomas Glemham to satisfie their brethren of England in these three things concerning their present Expedition First of the justnesse of their Cause Secondly of the lawfulnesse of their calling thereto Thirdly of the faithfulnesse of their carriages therein If they faile in any one of these their Expedition is unjust and cannot be approved in the judgement of a brother for bonum ex singulis circumstantiis malum ex quolibet defectu But if they faile in every one of these as they doe what good shall we expect from such a voyage Doe men gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles Mat 7.16 First for the justnesse of their cause Hearing them so often tell of their cleare demonstrations who would not have expected some downe right authorities and presidents from the Word of God or at least some authenticke proofes from the Nationall Lawes of one or both Kingdomes These are the standard and measure of Justice to us Who would not have expected that they should at least have endeavoured to have answered the late Acts of Pacification so solemnely passed in both Kingdomes But for all these behold a deep silence If silence be not a plenary consent yet in this case it implies strongly that they know in their owne consciences that the Lawes of God and man are both against them But in stead of these they professe before God and the world that their hearts are cleare from all sinister intentions that the love of Christ requireth Christians to heare one anothers burthens that he Law of nature doth challenge their care and endeavour to prevent their owne danger which is wrapped up in their neighbours Alas what poore bulrushes are these to beare the weight of so much Christian bloud as is like to be shed in this Cause That Plea taken from their owne danger shewes us plainly that howsoever they pretend the love of Christ yet their charity begins at home Indeed there is no fence for feare but what cause have we given them to feare Nihil timendum video sed timeo tamen Unlesse it be that of the wise man Wisd. 17.11 Wickednesse condemned by her owne witnesse is very timerous and being pressed with conscience alwayes forecasteth grievous things But let us take their words for once seeing we can have no other assurance of their intentions It is not a good intention nor a pretended love of Christ nor a supposed necessity nor any one of these nor all of these together that can justifie an unlawfull action It is not lawful to doe evill that good may come of it Charity and Justice goe alwayes hand in hand together this is for feare of an uncertaine danger to run into a certaine sinne But they tell us that they come to rescue the Kings Person out of the hands of evill Councellors who are enemies to Religion In serious causes it is dishonourable to trifle with pretences Doe they thinke or can they thinke that the King is kept in durance against his will or necessitated to do any Act contrary to the dictate of his owne reason I appeale to their owne consciences It were greatly to be wished that they would once speake out and name the evill Counsellors The History of this Kingdome doth shew that Treason hath often put it selfe into this Dresse seeking to hide it's deformity from the world under this painted maske of removing evill Councellors God be blessed His Majesty hath now the flower of both Houses of Parliament about him I hope these are not the evill Councellors and daily more and more are repairing to him so many for number so venerable for their condition that all your Committees put together doe not deserve to be named upon the same day If we look backe to former Parliaments we shall find the most of these Great Confessours and in will Martyrs for this Common-wealth Some of them clapt up into the Tower others into the Fleete others dis-justiced in the Countrey and disabled to leave all offices for their love to their Countrey and shall we now be frighted from them with the name of evill

made Anathemas for their brethren Their Socrates drunke his poison cheerfully Our Cyprian said Amen to the sentence of his owne condemnation There Scevola burned his hand for mistaking Porsenna Wee are able to name a catalogue of Martyrs who have kissed the stake sung Hymns in the middest of the fire who have accounted their sufferings palmes their punishments triumphs their infamy glory their Exile their country their bond their crowne their prison their paradise their death-day their birth-day So in Courage we equall them in the cause we farre excell them this is good Courage indeed Some think to expresse their courage by roaring and blaspheming over their cups by unseasonable duells and quarrells by muttering against their Commanders by tyrannising over their inferiours by trampling under foot all Lawes both of God and man this is so farre from good courage that it is rather an argument of cowardise True courage is fearfull to offend God hath a reverend regard of the Lawes is obedient to superiours courteous to equalls indulgent to inferiours and evermore grounded upon a good cause and accompanied with cheerfulnesse and resolution that 's my next point And let us play the men A strange kind of play but the terrible face of War is sport to a martiall and experienced mind As Job saith of the Leviathan That hee esteemeth iron as straw accounts darts as stubble and laugheth at the shaking of the speare 2. Sam. 2.14 Let the young men arise and play before us a fatall skirmish where not one survived Vertue is derived a viro from a man so the phrase is used 1 Sam. 4.9 O ye Philistines be strong and quit your selves like men In the same dialect David speaketh to Solomon 1 King 2.2 Be thou strong and shew thy selfe a man That is of a masculine vertue and spirit A men not a child Vae terra cujus Rex est puer Woe is that Province where the Governour is a child uncertaine mutable without resolution Ephes. 4.14 That we henceforth be no more as children tossed too and fre c. Fluctuating men without resolution are compared to children who may be drawn any way with a faire word or an apple Or to ship lying at Hull tossed too and fro still changing postures Secondly a man nor a woman without courage and resolution God provides strictly Deut. 22.5 That a man shall not weare a womans garment much lesse pu● on womanish manners There could be nothing more opprobriously objected then this Vos etenim juvenes animos geritis muliebres Illaque virgo viri Whence was that bragge of a Lacedemonian woman that they only brought forth men Let us play the men But the chiefe Emphasis lies in this word Vs let Vs play It was Caesars honour that his commands to his souldiers were not Ite Goe ye but venite Come let Us goe It was A●imelechs charge to his Army What ye see me doe doe quickly Jud. 9.48 Digna Gideonitarum genere sententia a saying worthy of the sonne of Gideon The example of a leader hath a strong influence upon his followers Observe the words of Vri●h 2 Sam 11.11 The Arke and Israel and Judah abide in tents and my Lord Joab is incamped in the open fields And shall I goe into mine house to eat and drinke My Lord Joab there is his patterne It was debated among the Philosophers whether an Army of Lions having an Hart to be their Captain or an Army of Harts having a Lion to be their Captaine were the more considerable Army and it was determined for the Army of Harts having a Lion to their Governour The great wheele of a Clocke sets all the little wheeles on going In Alexanders●ime all the Macedonians were souldiers In Augustus his raigne all the good wits in Rome were Poets The example of a leader drawes his followers as the load-stone drawes iron or the jett drawes chaffe In a word A vigilant and a resolute Commander is like a light in a watch-tower to direct his company to the safe harbour of Victory But a negligent and cowardly Leader is like fires made among the rocks brings his followers the ready way to ruine and destruction Therefore saith Ioab Let us play the men But what is resolution without a good cause Ioab wanted not that For our people and for the cities of our God For our people that is our wives our children our parents our neighbours our friends our native countrey and for the cities of our God that is our Churches our Religion So for our people and for the cities of our God is pro Aris focis for our Altars and for our fires for our Church and Common-wealth The very heathens could teach us by the light of nature that we are not borne only for our selves but partly for our parents partly for our Countrey Vlysses preferred the smoake of Ithaca his native soile before all those pleasant Regions that he had seen Nescio qua natale solum dulcedine cunctos Ducit Whether it be by the instinct of nature as beasts love their dens birds their nests or by civill institution as having the same Lawe the same Ceremonies the same Temples the same Markets the same Tribunalls It was the prayers of the Elders for Boaz That he might do worthily in Ephratah and be famous in Bethlehem Ruth 4.11 that is in his native Country It was Esters resolution for her Country-men If I perish I perish And Nehemiah though for his owne particular he was Cup bearer to a great King yet his affections are still the same to his Countrey Why should not my countenance be sad when the city the place of my fathers sepulchres lieth wast and the gates thereof are burned with fire Nehem. 2.3 Abraham that was so ready to sacrifice his onely son upon a meete command yet when God requireth him to leave his native Countrey he presseth it home to him with many reasons and promises Gen. 12.1 Brutus commanded his owne son to be slain before his eyes for conspiring against their Country When Sampson without any weapon in his hand set upon a Lion as though it had been a Kid Jud. 14.6 the reason is intimated in the Verse precedent for the safeguard of his father and his mother There cannot be a juster War then for defence of our Country It was Tullies wish that every one in Rome had it written upon his forehead how he stood affected to the Common-wealth I thinke it were a good wish for England at this present that we might know who are truly zealous for their people The other reason is altogether as strong And for the cities of our God The Italians give sundry additions to their chiefest Cities as Flo●ence the Faire Venice the Rich Geneva the Stately Millaine the Great Rome the Holy This is certaine No City in the Universe can have a more glorious title then this in my Text to be one of the cities of our God But why are the cities of Israel called

edge-tooles Profane Lucian was torn in pieces with dogs and the other will find that God is a severe avenger of such impious scoffes Davids care of his servants shewes how Governours ought to protect their Inferiour and subordinate Ministers in the execution of their commands and to preserve them from contempt The Ammonites see their errour when it was too late there is no doubt but even then upon submission David would have remitted the injury but their consciences told them the abuse was too grosse and publicke to be forgotten We see by daily experience that conscience of guilt and desperation of forgivenesse drive men into courses pernicious both to themselves and others Therefore to secure themselves the Ammonites wage 33000. Syrians but in the disposing of their men this is worthy our observation that they kept themselves neare the gates for a sure retreite but the Syrians they placed in the open field It was never held to be discretion in any Nation to bring Armies of Forreigners whom they could not regulate into their chiefe strengths and holds witnesse the Mammertines in Messana the Saxons in Britaine But here they met with Joab an overmatch for them in the art of Warre as he shewes by the ordering of his men verse 9. By his provident forecast verse 11 Feare the worst and the best will alwayes save it selfe And lastly by his gallantry in my Text Be of good courage and let us play the men for our people and for the cities of our God and the Lord doe that which seemeth him good In which words I observe foure parts First A brave exhortation Be of good courage Secondly A magnanimous resolution And let us play the men Thirdly A just reason For our people and for the cities of our God Fourthly A pious submission And the Lord doe that which seemeth him good It hath beene ever the custome of Generalls before an hazardous Battell to cheere up the hearts of their Souldiers in a Patheticall Oration with arguments drawne from the approved valour and vertue of themselves or their ancestors from the assured hope of rich spoiles from the justice and piety of their cause So God commands Deut. 20.3 So Joab practiseth in my Text Be of good courage c. I cannot passe in silence by the brotherly love of Joab and Abishai verse 11. If the Syrians be too strong for me thou shalt help me And if the Ammonites be too strong for thee I will help thee As when one foot trippes the other is ready presently to sustaine it And here in my Text By encouraging one another to play the men or rather to play the man As it is said of the Children of Israel that they went out as one man 1 Sam. 11.7 That is with one heart and one soule animated with the same desire of the publicke good The left hand doth not stand more in need of the right then an Army doth of the concord of its Commanders where I see this blessed sympathy I cannot but eccho out that of the Psalmist Behold how good and joyfull a thing it is brethren to dwell together in unity for there the Lord hath promised his blessing and life for evermore Psal. 133. But where men are drawne into action as a beare to the stake by force or feare where a little base Plunder is preferred before Honour and Victory where there is Faction Envy and Emulation amongst great Officers it portends Destruction and Dissipation The God of heaven and earth ever blesse this Army from it And if there be any person within the sound of my voyce who are conscious to themselves of such sinister respects or of any other impediment which may retard our hopes of an happy Victory either by offending God or disabling them to doe the duties of their places I doe here beseech them by that service which they owe to God by that allegiance which they owe to His Majesty by that love which they owe to their native Countrey to sacrifice them this day to the common Cause or at least with the Serpent to deposite them so long till this Army returne againe in peace And the only way to peace is Courage which yeelds to no chances is terrified with no dangers Et ab ipso ducit opes animumque ferro There cannot be a worse counsellor then Feare in time of danger Pessimus in du●iis augur tim●● Feare caused Moses to stagger at Gods Commandement Exod. 3.11 Feare caused Elias to flie from the womanish threatnings of Jesabell 1 Kin 19.3 Feare caused Peter to deny his Master Feare will metamorphise a field of Thistle into an Army of men Feare will cause a man to tremble at the sound of a shaken leafe Lev. 26.36 As a man standing upon the edge of some lofty turret or precipitious cragge without any to push him forward even by looking downe is in danger to tumble down head-long through Feare So degenerous Feare betraies the succours of the soule Therefore when Gideons Army was to give the charge upon the Enemy he caused proclamation to be made in the Camp Whoso is timerous let him depart Ju●g 7.3 The reason is given Deut. 20.8 least his example make his fellow souldiers to faint But nothing is difficult ●o Courage In the land of Canaan there were Giants to whom the Israelites being compared did seem but Grashoppers yet said Caleb and Joshua Feare them not they are bread for us Num. 14.9 bread which is eaten without any labour or difficulty When Saul was to be inaugurated King by Samuel he set nothing before him but a shoulder 1 Sam. 9. A meane dish for a Royall entertainment some have found out a mystery in it they might better call it an allegory That as the shoulder doth beare up the beast so the courage and fortitude of a King doth sustaine the body politicke so to teach Governours how they ought to beare the burthen of the Common-wealth The ancient law of governing the Romans Army was reduced to two heads First Non sequi Secondly Non fugere First not to make a rash hazard without good ground he that loveth danger shall perish in it Secondly not to decline danger timerously when it offers it selfe and cowardly to betray a good cause Therefore as one said that pronounciation was the first and second and third part of a good Oratour So may I say that Courage is the first and second and third part of a good Commander It is a slander cast upon Religion that it makes men cowards The feare of God is the best armour against the feare of man Religion is the root of Courage Heb. 11.33 By faith our fathers subdued Kingdomes c. Waxed valiant in fight and turned to flight the Armies of aliens Let the Heathens bragge of their Decii add Curtii that devoted their lives to death for the love of their Countrey Vicit amor patriae laudumque immensa cupido We have our Moses and Paul that desired to be

the cities of God For two reasons First because the Lord had a peculiar interest in this land above all other lands Levit. 25.23 The land shall not be sold for ever for the land is mine ye are strangers and sojourners with me So the Lord was the true owner the Israelites were but the usufructuaries Secondly because they were the Church of God Juda was his Sanctuary Israel his Dominion in them he had put his name Solomon knew the true mother from the feigned by her love to the childe So a genuine sonne of the Church may be distinguished from a counterfeit by his affection to the Church By the rivers of Babylon we sate downe and wept when we remembred thee O Sion And Arise O Lord and have mercy upon Sion for why thy servants thinke upon her stones and it pittieth them to see her in the dust But the Church requires not onely our affections and supplications but our best endeavours It is recorded of Theodosius that good Emperour to his eternall honour that upon his death bed he was more solicitous for the cities of God that is the Churches then for himselfe or his posterity And when ordinary endeavours will not serve the sword is never more justly drawne then to defend Religion As we reade of those builders of Jerusalem who laboured with their trowells in the one hand and their swords in the other hand Neh. 4.17 But these were builders up not pullers downe whatsoever they did was by the license and upon the speciall warrant of the great King Artax●rxe● not rebelliously upon their owne heads What a pittifull complaint did Laban make for his Images tulerunt deas they have taken away my gods and Mary for the dead body our Saviour tulerunt Dominum they have taken away my Lord Much more have we cause to be moved when men goe about by force to robbe us of our Religion A private man may lawfully keep the possession of his house or land against all acts of violence much more may a whole Church hold the possession of their Religion Three sorts of losses principally concerne a man First in his estate that is but chaffe next in his body that is but branne lastly in his soule that 's the flower and there is the greatest losse What shall it profit a man to winne the whole world and lose his soul We do not reade of any Wars among the Heathen for Religion except to punish Sacriledge The reason was partly in their Gods which were sociable to admit fellowes When Tiberius made a motion in the Senate to have Christ admitted into the number of their Gods it was answered that he was impatiens consortis not like their Gods he would admit no companions And partly in themselves many of them were of opinion that as variety of instruments makes the sweetest consort so variety of Religions makes the best harmony in the eares of God But now see how the world is turned Sacriledge is grown a principall part of Gods service or else some have but a little share of Religion who yet despise all others as profane Now uva vel faba a Grape or a Beane is too too much for Gods service though David was of a more generous disposition 2 Sam. 24.24 Nay but I will surely buy it of thee at a price neither will I offer burnt-offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing Now the duties which many men pay to the Deity are nothing but opinions and crotchers and for these they thinke it lawfull for private men to mingle Heaven and Earth together for Subjects to invade their Soveraignes Dominions They who lately cryed for nothing but liberty of conscience now will obtrude their owne conceits upon strangers by the sword In this case he is no good Christian no good Common-wealths man no true English man that will not say cheerfully with Joab in my Text Be of good courage and let us play the men for our People and for the Cities of our God Deo duce ferr● comitante with a good sword to attend them and God Almighty to lead them That brings me to my last part And let the Lord doe that which seemeth him good This shewes Joabs dependance upon God and his submission to the will of the Lord If he see it be good for us to be Conquerers we shall be Conquerers If not we shall die gloriously however Blessed be the name of the Lord Men never prosper who deale too magistrally and will needs be their owne carvers with God When the husband man hath tilled and sowne his ground he may not challenge a good crop at the hands of God but expect it of his bounty Paul may Plant and Apollo Water but still it is God that gives the encrease We are blind and know not what is truly good for ourselves Perieramus nisi perrissemus said Themistocles to his children We had perished if we had not perished that is in our owne opinions Rachell longs and cries for children and she dies in child-bed Therefore the Heathen prayed O Jupiter If I begge of thee those things which will prove hurtfull to me with-hold them from me But that which seemeth good to God is alwayes truely good who disposeth all things sweetly and out of poyson can extract a good cordiall Then let us doe our duties and submit the successe to God Carking and macerating cares dry up the bones plow up deep furrowes in the forehead make the white Almond-tree to flourish before the time shorten the life Our Saviour bids take no thought yet Saint Paul tells us That he that taketh no care is worse then an Infidell How are these reconciled Take care for the means that is good Take no care for the event that is bad Tolle quod tuum est Take up thy part and leave Gods part to himself Play thou the man and let God doe that which seemeth him good But besides the dependence it shewes also Joabs confidence let not us be wanting to our selves and God will not be wanting to his owne Cause The knowne justice of the Cause is a great incouragement to a Souldier in the day of Battell This was the reason of that Roman pollicy before they began any Wars the Herald or Feciall went to the confines of the enemies Country and made a solemne prayer Audi Jupiter c. Heare O Jupiter and thou Juno Quirinus thou and all ye Gods Caelestiall Terrestriall and Infernall I call you to witnesse that this people is unjust c. And having so said he threw his javeline into the enemies Countrey But leaving them to their superstitions It is an happy conflict which is undertaken for a good cause where they neither fear sinne from the slaughter of their enemies nor danger from their own deaths where they kill securely and are killed more securely being defended with armour without and with a good conscience within Now I have done with my Text The Application is