Moon and the causes of the said Eclipse that they might not be dismayed at it through the ignorance of the cause Pericles going to war as he went aboord of his ship the Sun was eclipsed at the darknesse of which eclipse the Master of the ship was exceedingly astonished taking it for some ominous or prodigious thing but the General cast his cloake over the Masters face and asked him if there were any matter of terrour in that who answered noâ— No more in the other said the General but that the cause is not so well known If Heathens were thus wise is it not a shame for Christians to startle at the signes of heaven or at the casuall occurrences of accidents below Let Gods command medcine this shie disposition which is worse then heathenish in the Lords account Ier. 10.2 Be not dismayed at the signes of heaven for the Heathens are dismayed at them The third thing is seeking to idols or false Gods so did all the Heathen and new Rome is not one whit short of old Rome in this Maior coelitum populus quaÌ„ hominum lib. 2. cap. 7. Yea as Plinie saith of the one so I may say of the other that the number of their gods exceedeth the number of the Papists And as another saith well they are Lapideus populus a people made of stocks and stones to Saint George and to such they goe for successe in battell The last is difference of daies as some daies they hold good to fight on and some bad as though the Lord had made one day good and another bad This superstitious differencing of daies the other Rome held both in position and practise They were called Fighting-daies saith one wherein it was lawfull to fight with the enemy Proeliares dies appellantur quibus fas est hostem bello lacescere erant enim quaedam feriae publicae quibus nefas fuit id facere for there were some feriall daies wherein it was not lawfull to fight Of these irreligious daies and of their strictnesse in this point Cato maketh †Festus mention in his commentary upon the Civill Law In those daies saith he they did not levy men nor ioyne battell nor sit in iudgement The Macedonians abstayned from fight all the moneth ‘ Tacit. Dio. in Pompo of Iune The Germans held it unfortunate to fight in the beginning of the new Moon or in the full of the Moone It is observed of the Iewes that they neglecting to defend themselvs on the Saboth Pompey took Ierusalem Lucullus the Roman Captain considered better of the matter who being to fight upon the eighth day of October against Tigranes was by some of the company disswaded from it because Scipio as on that day had had a great defeat Plut. Rom. Apoth Let us said he therefore fight the more stoutly that we may make to the Romanes a good day of an evill Ioshua and Israel compassed Iericho seven daies and on the last day took it which was the Saboath of the Lord. Ios 6. One perswading a Generall not to fight upon some ominous conceit taken of the day Optimum augurium est pro patria fortiter pugnare ' I hold it saith he the best kind of divination to fight stoutly for my Country To obserue daies or months and times standeth not with Christian liberty It is charged upon the King of Bohemia when Prague was taken that he would not fight on the Lords day but it is one of the lightest aspersions put upon him by his calumnious enemies If he had fought and carryed the day they would haue put his fighting as an imputation upon his profession for fighting upon the Saboath As fighting hereon and all other works should be avoyded as much as may be though the Papist as one saith pestereth the week with idoll-holydaies and heathenishly maketh lesse reckoning of this then of the least of his devised holydaies yet if necessity command either to assault or defend the day is made for man and not the man for the day That restriction which the Heathens held concerning their daies agreeth very well to the Lords day Si ultima necessitas suadeat administretur Cato in coÌ„ment de jure civili that is if necessitie inforce to fight we may Let Gods people therefore both in peace and warre beware of Romes superstition It is said that old Rome had their superstition from the Hetruscians whether they sent every year Valer. Max. lib. 1. cap. 1. six of the Patricians sonns to learn the rites of religion but all Nations now haue their superstition from new Rome which is become the Mistresse of Whorish inventions and whether our Romanists send their yong Cobbes to learn their postures and motions Of her whosoever borroweth for garnishing or rather for gaudifying of the worship of God may justly feare to the woe of their soules that they pay as deer for it as Israel did for the golden Calf The Altar of Damascus provoked the Lord to forsake his own Altar wherein Achaz presumed of safety oh Cimmâ—rian blindnesse and fearfull apostasie but it proved contrary for it was the ruin of him 2 Chron. 28.23 and of all Israel according to the word it was the break-neck of them or as some translate not unfitly it plagued him and all Israel Was the Apostle in fear of the Galatians Ga. l. 4.10 because they kept daies and monethsâ— And may not we feare and tremble who haue not onely their dismall hollow daies mince them as you will but 〈◊〉 great deale more of the devils dirt wherwith as with a garment spotted with the flesh the garment of Christ is fearfully defiled The strange Armes or colours of the enemy in the field or Cittie are ominous indeed for by them the wallâ— haue been scaled and the forces slain and routed without so much as a blow given in defence even so doe not the Armes of the Beast and the colours of the Whore set up cheek by joull with Gods colours in his House and amongst his Armies in the field presage some fearfull plague approching especially to those that are a sleep our Laodicean conceit shall be so far from sheltering us that thereby we provoke God that he can beare no longer but that he must needs spâ—â— us out of his mouth which if he doe it is to be feared we are such a loathsome thing that he will never take us up againe but make a new people to himselfe Wherefore in the first place Awake you Angels and Watchmen indeed upon the Walls whom I charge as you will answer before God your Master that you will cast away the inverse Trumpets of Furius Fulvus which sounded a retrait when they should haue sounded an Alarum With the Prophet Psay proclaime the iniquity of those things which pestereth Gods worship Isa 30.22 and run so many upon the rocks of separation Are they not the coverings of Idols or Idols themselues Shew the
meet with them in the crossing of a way they will grumble against God as though he had done them wrong or as though there were not in them for the which the Lord might not onely cross them but crush them but let them know if they change not their note the Lord will note them for his enemies and thurst them out for wranglers CHAP. XLV Of humiliation for sin and forsaking of it FOurthly as the conquered seeth sin to be the cause of his euill and therein cleareth the justice of God so he must be humbled for sin and so forsake it that God reconciled to him may be on his side It shall nothing prevayle men to see sinne as Pharao did and never to mourne for it or to mourne for it as Achab did and not to forsake it Israel after their second defeat humbled themselues and mourned exceedingly So Iosua when the people that went up to take A◠fled before their enemies and were smitten to the number but of 30 persons fell on his face mourned and cryed unto the Lord but what meant Iosua might some say was this the courage of so great a Generall thus to be daunted for the losse of 30 men was that such a matter might it not be a chance of war no there was another matter in it It was not the 30 men nor 3000 that would haue so much dismayed Iosuah he wisely fore-saw that all was not well at home and therefore he would not on againe till the matter was cleared the execrable thing was found out To be briefe the Israelits under the yoke of the Philistims found out their sin mourned for it It is said in their humiliation that they drew water and powred it out before the Lord that is they shed teares abundantly before the Lord. 1. Sam. 7.7 The roring Goliahs of our age scorne a stone out of this running brook to beat the brains out of their roaring sins oh mourne and cry Applicatiō that is womanish Well I am sure there was more true worth and valour in in one litle David then in all the roarers in Ram-alley or milford-lane and yet he mourned wept and cryed and roared for griefe of sin but not as they doe Foure motives of mourning in Gods people defeated For four things the people of God are to mourne being defeated for their sin because they grieved God by it for the want of Gods presence for making him depart from his inheritance for the defacing of Gods glory by the wicked in their ruffe For the first many will mourne but rather for the punishment of sin then for the sin it selfe whē the worm of conscience begins to knaw the terrours of hell present themselues to them then they cry and roare as though hell roard for them but they are just like Mariners when the storme is ouer or like fellous they cry rather for the sentence giuen against them then for the felony committed And some will cry for their sin but rather because it is hurtfull and shamefull then for grieving of God by it as if a man by his lewdnes cast into some loathsome disease regrateth the sin for the disease it hath brought upon him and not because thereby he hath offended God but David cryeth out on himselfe and his sin especially for the offence done to God by it against thee against thee onely haue I sinned Psal 51. and haue done that which is evill in thine eyes As for the want of Gods presence so other things goe well with them it is the thing that the most least regard but for the godly they make more of it then of all the things in the world yea nothing without this will suffice the godly giue them this with whatsoever they can be content the good things or hid treasure of this life will serve the wicked well enough without this many say who will shew us any good that is for the belly backe possession or height of ambition but lift thou up over us the light of thy face Iehovah for that is more joy to me then all the riches of the world wherein worldlings most delight And herein is a main difference betweene the child of God and the wicked let Ismael live and be great and let Isaack be the heire with all the troubles that belong to the executorship let Esau haue pottage and let the blessing goe where it will let Saul be honored before the people and let him be an off-cast from the Lord but let all this be put together it is but trash in the eyes of the godly in comparison of his face Observe their desire in the burthen of the 80 Psal where in their captivitie still they desire oh God returne us and cause thy face to shine and wee shall be saved their deliverance and all the happines that may follow it will not be worth any thing to them without the amiable looks of Gods countenance So that as Absalon seemed rather to make choyce of death then not to see the Kings face so Gods people had rather die or endure any sorrow or calamitie under the countenance of a reconciled God then liue Methusalahs age and inioy what the world could afford under the frowning lookes of a displeased God Yea there is no temptation so sharpe no plight so dolorous no fright so fearfull nor agony so in expugnable as the angry countenance of a forsaking God for this maketh a man apprehend and conceive of God as a God inarmed against him for his destruction This the people of God conceive of their state as it appeareth by that patheticall expostulation in the aforesaid Psalme how long wilt thou smoake or shew the tokens of an angry countenance against the prayer of thy people vers 6. What maketh the wound of cōscience so unsupportable but that the Chirurgion denyeth to looke at it he letteth it ranckle and fester till who can beare it yea if the spirit of God should not support his owne by the finger of the spirit though unsensiblie the best should be at their wits end and Sauls impatiencie should drive them to desperate courses But in this he differenceth his owne from the damned that as his one hand is over them so his other hand is under them he supporteth them wonderfully when they conceive nothing lesse and by a secret instinct extorts prayer from them even in the fearfull agony of their soules distresse whē their prayers seeme to be rejected of him but it is nothing so with the wicked in their distresses from God his justly conceived wrath for eyther they seek not at all for the appeasing of Gods angry countenance or with lost labour they leaue presently of and run to the devill directly or indirectly for the alaying of the same I touch these things but briefly leaving the further enucleation to accurat theologs and sound soule-phisitians Lastly for the glory of God trampled under the foote of pride wee should be
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
consequence then it must necessarily follow that there must be but one Religion and that of Gods own appointment Some Civilians who for the most are too much Matchiavalized loving the profits better then the Law labours to palliate this with utilitie matter of fact and necessity And for instance they bring Sultan Solyman the great Turke a fit example indeed who being moved by the Mufty or chiefe Pope and the Cadilesheiri or Arch-prelates together with some of the Bassaes to abandon the Christians Iews and all of diverse religions or otherwise to force them to Muzilmanize that is to professe Turcism The Turke looking out at a window pointed them to the variety of the flowers in the garden whereunto saith he I compare diversities of religions in my Dominions which are rather usefull then hurtfull so they liue in obedience The like they tell us of Alexander Severus Traian and others but what be these to Christian Kings and Rulers who haue not so learned Christ They must walk by Lawes and not by Examples neither must God loose the least jote of his honour for their greatest gaines As for necessity in regard of disturbance all wisedom is to be used in avoyding of it and all faire meanes used to reduce them to the truth but disturbing must not bee avoyded with sinne It is a clause worthy the observation and by the Popes themselues placed in the Canon right though not observed Reg. 1. de Regiminis num 6. but ill abused That it is far better that offence or disturbance should come then the least truth should be forsaken Is a King a noursing father and will he suffer a plaguy or leprous childe to be in the house or lye in the bed with his childe that is sound Will he suffer poyson to lye strawed about where his childe may reach it This were to murther his childe and not to play the parent to it Will a King suffer forraign Kings to erect their Lawes in his Dominions and permit his subjects to obey some one and some another No hee would scorn it and hold them Traytors that should motion it and will he put that upon God and force him as it were to bear that he will not bear himselfe Surely the Lord will not bear it It was a princely part and a royall resolution worthy the imitation in Edward the sixth a Sunâ—shine over-clouded by the sinnes of this land in the very rising hee being requested with his Councell by Charles the fifth then Emperour to suffer the Lady Mary his sister to haue a Masse in her house the Councell sitting about that and other things sent D. Cranmer and D. Ridley to perswade the King to grant it When he had heard what they could say he so learnedly and grauely did refute it out of the word of God that with astonishment their mouthes were stopt Then they fell to him with false grounds of policy as the loosing of the Emperours favour the hardening of his sisters heart the discontenting of Popish subjects to whom he replyed that they should content themselues for hee would spend his life and all that he had rather then agree or grant to that which he knew certainly to be against the truth Yet for all this they would not leaue him but pressing him further he fell a weeping and willed them to let him alone Fox pag. 1179. Hee had cause to weep indeed but they greater Where they should haue preserved him from sinne they were made the meanes to corrupt him The Prelates and pleaders for Conformity haue no great reason to brag of these men as they were Bishops not of Gods making for whilst their heatts were deceived and their eies vayled with the bewitching honours and glorious shewes of Pabel against the light of knowledge they proved as you see enemies to the crosse of Christ therefore God puld them out of their rags and cast them in the Furnace and then they proved his friends indeed and so may some Prelates proue if God bring them to the stake But to the matter for all that they could doe such was the zeale of that holy Saint and happy King that Lady Mary could haue no Masse at that time To conclude this reason men would haue thought that the union of Britains Kingdomes would haue cut short the increase of Babel his Kingdom and that the Foxes should haue been forced either to change their skins or holes but we see for our sinns by neglect of authority that to the dishonour of God the defacing of his Gospell the griefe of his people and indangering of life crown and dignity they are so hugely increased in both Kingdoms and in Ierland that in their own conceit they are grown too hard fâ—â— us it is most just with God if we spare the Cananits that the Cananits should vexus The fourth reason may be taken from idolaters who to our shame are zealous of their false worship The Lord may justly upbraid us with such as he did his people Israel hathâ— nation changed their gods Ier. 2.11 which are yet no gods but my people haue changed their glory for that which doth not profit So the Lord may inquire of us whether heathen Rome and Antichristian Rome do tolerate any worship but that which is of their owne appointment The Laws of old Rome forbade any strange Gods to be worshipped amongst them that is as Tully expoundeth Cic. de leg privatim adscitos of mens private device but by the Senats publique appointment so new Rome is as strict in that they will haue no mixture but of their own making instance the Tridentin excommunications witness likewise with many others the Doctors of Doway upon the Lords forbidding of mixtures of seed Lev. 19.19 cattle and garments here all participation say they with heretikes and schismatickes is forbidden Philip of Spaine said he had rather haue no subject then subjects of a divers religion and out of a bloudy zeale suffered his oldest sonne Charles to be murthered by the cruell inquisition because he seemed to favour profession for which Non pepercit filio suo sed dedit pro nobis Hieron Catina that mouth of blasphemie the Pope gaue him this for his panagyr that he had not spared his owne sonne but had given him for them As old Rome called the Christian religion a new religion so new Babilon calleth the ancient trueth a new religion or heresie and therefore they hold it a damnable thing to haue any thing to doe with it expecting but a day when they may race out the remembraÌ„ce of it As for our drawing nigh unto them in superstitious rites they flout us to our face and tell us in a bravado that let us come as nigh to them as wee will they will not come one haires breadth nigh to us yea they asperse our religion with this Quo vadis pag. 13. Heylin pag. 249. that if it were true wee would never bland it How bitter then
there is a Diapason which Art cannot transcend so there is a diaposon or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the highest-period of Kingdoms and Dominions aboue the which they cannot passe The place of it selfe is so obscure that Aristotle in his fifth book of the Politicks and 12 chapter passeth it over so doth Proclus who illustrateth the other seven bookes with notes but doth not touch that That opinion is much like to another saying of his Naturales sunt rerum publicarum conversiones That the conversions or translations of Common-wealths run by the course of nature It is true indeed as Kingdoms haue their beginnings increase and height so they haue their declinings and their ruins All that hath a beginning hath an ending and as Philo saith the greater height of outward bappinesse that a people attaineth to the lower is their fall As after an inundation the waters are dryed up so States are emptied of their flouds of prosperity to the very channell Experience maketh good that of the Poet. sic omnia verti cernimus atque alias assumere pondere gentes concidere has Thus all things chang'd we see some Kingdoms fall and some advanc't Yet for all this these Philosophers and Sects are a ground in giving the ground of this But Daniel a better Polititian then either Plaâ—o or Aristotle Dan. 2.20 giveth the true ground indeed Blessed saith he be the name of God for ever and ever for he changeth times and seasons he remeveth Kings and setteth up Kings That which Heathen Writers Military men and others doe attribute to fortune namely events of battles victories and foiles Daniel doth attribute to God Multum tum in omuibus rebus tum in re militari potest fortuna Lib. 6. belli Gallie Applicatiâ—Ì„ Caesar that great man at Armes and man of great successe was greatly deceived in the ground when he gaue so much to fortune Fortune saith he in many things but especially in military affaires may doe very much It is not onely their fault for they knew little better but it is more the fault of Professors who know indeed the true ground but in their carriage they doe not acknowledge the ground they confesse the ground but in their profession they follow not to the ground Obserue a courtly complement with us in England wherein great Ones bewray their faultinesse in this kind they denominate the evill or good that befalls a man or State from fortune He hath a good fortune say they his fortune is undone bee their meaning what it will I would haue them as Austine counsels them to change their words and as the Apostle wills them to use a sound forme of phrase 2 Tim. 1.13 beseeming Christian profession Mardonius said well It cannot be denyed but all these foiles and defeats and outrages and spoyles and desolations are of Gods own doing but men will not beleeue it applicatiuely or runne the right way though it be not onely beaten in their eares but they see it cleerly with their eyes Men in this are like the uncircumcised Philistims who though they knew and confessed that the hand of God was upon them for abusing the Arke yet they would try whether or not iâ— were by chance Men thus called by affliction to see the hand of God in it they are like unto Samuel when God called him they runne many other waies before they run to God they run to the bloudy cruelty of one to the innaturallity of another to the falshood under fellowship of the third to the pusillanimity of the fourth and lastly to the conspiracie or concurrence of all the Crue against them who haue vowed their destruction without a cause It is lawfull and expedient to haue an eye to all those and to view every one of them in their kind but first of all we must look to the sin-revenging eye of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to his all-disposing hand of the very least circumstance of our troubles Hence it is that they are called the waues of God and the arrowes of God yea God doth afflict his own that they should see his hand in it and seek to him for deliverance out of it The Lord doth threaten that he will be unto Ephraim as a Lyon and to the house of Iuda as a yong Lyon yea he will teare and take away and none shall rescue him The Lord here in effect doth threaten to send such enemies against them as like roaring cruell and devouring Lyons should tear them all in peeces but the Lord is said to doe it because without him neither foe nor friend can doe any thing But what is the end of this Is it not that they might seek the Lord Hos 5.14.15 I will goe and returne to my place saith he till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they wil seeke me early If a man be wounded will he rather look at the sword then at the man that gaue the blow If a stone be cast at a man will he like a dog run to the stone not looking to the hand that cast it Or if it fall from a height will he not look up to the place from whence it fell When Rebecca felt that strange unusuall struggling of the two twins in her wombe which prefigured the strife between the godlesse and the godly to know the cause of this she goeth unto the Lord Gen. 25.22 and she went to enquire of the Lord saith the Text. To him indeed in our troubles we should goe since it is his doing Heavie and dolefull was that message that Samuel had to Eli insomuch that he feared to shew him the vision yet Eli would haue it out of him that he might know the Lords mind which when Samuel had delivered hee runneth presently to the ground from whence it was and not to any by or secundary meanes by which it might be brought to passe for the Lord wants no means to accomplish that which once hee doth determine 1 Sam. 3 1â— It is the Lord saith he let him doe what seemeth him good He acquiesceth in the good will of God and embraceth the judgement though it were against himselfe and his he like a well nurtured child kisseth the rod though it were made for his own back Then in the name of the Lord both King and Queen and subjects take notice of this that the hand of God is upon you and upon us in you it is the Lord that hath done it and so let us all acknowledge And thus much for the first particular CHAP. XLIII The mooving cause of the defeate is to be observed A Second circumstance of the conquereds carriage consisteth in the inquiring and finding out of the moving cause of their overthrow for though God be the efficient cause yet there is a moving cause without him that provoketh him to give his owne people into the hands of his enemies Psal 94. It
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
Speculum Belli sacri OR THE LOOKINGGLASSE OF THE HOLY WAR Wherein is discovered The Evill of War The Good of Warr The Guide of War IN THE LAST OF THESE I GIVE A SCANTLING OF THE CHRISTIAN Tackticks from the levying of the Souldier to the sounding of the Renaiâ— together with a modell of the carryage both of Conquerour and conquered I haue applyed the generall rules warranted by the Word to the particular necessity of our present times GALLAT 6.16 As many as walk according to this rule peace be upon them DEVT. 29.9 When the Hoast goeth against the enemies then keep thee from every wicked thing 1 SAM 17.47 And all the Assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not vvith sword for the battell is the Lords and he will giue you into our hands Qui presumit de viribus suis antequam pugnet prosternitur Aug. Printed Anno 1624. TO THE MOST ILLVSTIOVS PRINCE FREDERICK KING OF Bohemia Count Palatine of the Rhine c. As also to the most vertuous Lady ELIZABETH Queen of Bohemia and onely daughter to the great and mighty King of Great Brittain THE life of man most illustrious Prince and Princesse is said by God himselfe to be full of trouble yea Iob 14.2 the Humanists term it and that truely rather a trouble then a life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vt sâ—evis projectas ab undis jacet infans indigus omni vitali auxiâ—â—o Lucr lib 6. Diog. Laert lib 9 in vita ipsius This needeth no other proofe then woefull experience through all the parts of mans life The Poet pretily Emblemes our infancy with a ship broken Marriner cast naked hurt and helplesse from the waues upon the shore bewraying with woefull cryes the rest of the passages answerable to the beginning If the consideration hereof made that great Philosopher Democritus weep continually what heart of flesh and eye of pittie can from the promontorie of our present security without a floud of teares behold the wether-beaten Barke of Gods Church over which to use the phrase of the Psalmist all the waues Psâ—l 42.8 and billows of the Lord doe passe yea one deep so calleth for another that if God himselfe were not the Ararat to rest upon it should be split in peeces upon the rockes of Shittim Quorum pars magna fui A great part of this distresse your Graces are therefore for mine own part I could wish with Ieremy That my head were full of water Jer. 9.1 and mine eyes were a fountain of teares Jn the Christall nature wherof while I looked for the cause of this evill that memorable passage of defeated Pompey did offer it selfe to my meditation An approved Author telleth us that Pompey being defeated in the Pharsalick battell as he fled to Aegypt hee took off tht way to visit the Philosopher Cratippus whom curiously he questioned whether at all there were any divine Providence or Moderation of humane things or not For his own part he could hardly be perswaded that God regarded those sublunary things because he had the worse in the better cause The Philosopher answered that there was a full period appointed to Kingdoms beyond which they could not passe The answer and the question now I passe because I shall haue occasion in the Treatise further to explane them But may it please your Highnesse to obserue thus much that if flesh and bloud or meere philosophy be guide in this inquisition a good man may loose himselfe for not onely doth the Athiest from the adversity of the godly and prosperity of the wicked peremptorily conclude Mal. 3.14 that it is in vain to serue God but even the Saints of God forgetting their Logick haue stumbled upon the like Paralogism Ps 63.4.5.6 c. Witnesse the Prophet David in that psalm where he compareth the peace plenty and prosperity of the wicked with the adverse and contrary things which doe befall the people of God Waters saith he of a full cup are wrung out to them Where both the quality and quantity of affliction is laid open Vpon this the people of God are said to turn in that is David and others namely to the thoughts following Is it thus with us Hence they gather this false conclusion How doth God know c. Surely in vain I haue cleansed my heart c. But this they doe in their phrensie a sympton of the fever of their affliction which David acknowledgeth with censuring of himselfe in the same psalm v. 15.21.22 If your Majesties heart hath been levened for so the word doth signifie v. 21. with any such temptation be not discouraged there hath no temptation taken you but such as hath befallen the servants of God Goe with David to the sanctuary and there you shall see the cause of your affliction and your enemies successe for a time namely to work Your tryall their destruction In the mean time renowmed Princes the Lord biddeth you goe on Speak unto the children of Israel that they goe forward Ex 14.15 As we cease not to our power to fill the golden censor with odors Rev. 8. that it may be filled againe with fire and cast upon the earth that is Gods and your enimies Cicero de crator Hutarch in Hannib 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so I haue presumed though the least of all to present your Highnesse with a model or draught of the holy Warre indeed with an earnest intreatie not to faint or giue over till God giue the victory If an experienced Souldier shall censure this Frame as Hamball did Phormio for his lecture of Militarie Discipline with the livery of a fool or as Archidamus did Periander who of a good Phisitian made himselfe by his evill favored Verses an extreme evill Poet let him obserue well and I hope hee shall finde no wrong offered to his Element As for the meannesse of the Frame your gracious acceptance as a stately Roofe shall cover all the deformitie Jn great things it is enough to will as Princes are Gods so in this they resemble him to respect the good will more then the work If I can bring but Goats haire to couer the outside of the Tabernacle or wield but a sling against the Goliah of Babylon or bring but some odors to the Censor of your annoynted selues and yours it shall comfort me and happily encourage others to shew the way more fully at the which I haue pointed Whatsoever it is I am bold to present it to your Highnesses joynt protection You are together the subject of calamity yea the But and point blanke whereat they aim You are joyntly together prayed for that the Lord would plant you as hee hath plucked you up and giue you double joy for your sorrow and glory for your confusion yea that you may not onely be built up but that you may joyntly build up Jerusalem which is the praise of the world In the mean time gracious Princes possesse your soules
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
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
and helpe themselves This hath been the practise not onely of good saints but of all great warryours David asketh of God before concerning his war with Saul 1 Sam. 23.2.4 So a Sam. 5.19 where though he had the ground of his counsell from God with a promised successe yet did he not neglect to consult with men for the accomplishing of Gods counsell The Iewes had two sorts of Magistrats the one for peace called Togati the other for war called Sagati or Bellici So they had two sorts of Counsels the one for peace and the other for war So Quintus Fabius Severus Alexander Pyrrhus effected all by counsel As this truth is of exceeding great weight Reasons so there be weighty reasons to inforce the practise of it as from the nature and excellency of it the necessitie of it the particular object in hand namely war the good effects of it and the great euils ensuyng upon the want of it First then to the Excellencie of counsell A description of counsell which manifesteth the nature of it counsell is not onely an indagation or searching out of things expedient nor yet a bare discourse or discerning of things so sought out but it is also an application of the will to that which is fittest therefore is counsell called Election or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inregard of making choyce of one thing rather then another persupposing alwaies a well informed judgement by mature deliberation So that I may say of Counsell as it is said of Conscience it meddles directly with particulars according to that definition of Damascen Appetitus inquisitivus de rebus utilibus lib. 3. ca. 33. Est subtilis animi prospectus c. 2 Rhetor. Councell is an inquisitiue appetite of things profitable or as Tully It is the electiue power of a pure minde examining the causes and principalls that are to be applyed The excellency of it appeareth in this that it is a speciall gift of God ‘ Pro. 8.14 Counsell is mine saith the Lord. Yea Christ is named by the name of ‘, Esa 9. Counsell The Heathen could say that counsell is truly ,‘ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an holy thing It is wel compared to a deep fountain of water Prov. 20.6 for the fresh springing thereof refresheth and maketh fruitfull all the plots and plantations of policie both in peace and war It is like unto the head which as it is the fountain of life and function and so it transfuseth the facultie of all these through the whole body so counsell containeth the life of warre and is all as the soule is virtually in every part Counsell is very significantly enblemed by Lodovicus Sfortia Duke of Millain by Morus or the Mulbery tree which name the said Duke took unto himselfe as his surname not for the blacknesse of his visage but because he would bear the world in hand that in his actions he was like this tree for as it doth not bud nor flourish till it hath past over the injury of the Winter and presently after bringeth forth buds and fruits and therfore called the wisest of trees By this he would make shew giving this in his Armes that it was naturally given to him to dispose of all his actions maturely and deliberately by counsell But it was but a shew indeed for he did nothing lesse as you shall hear hereafter It were well with Nations if it had been his fault alone Applicatiō but these evill times hath too many too like him who would seem to carry all by counsell but their actions proclaim to the world that they are at deadly enmity both with counsell and wisedome Such dumb shews of councell with contrary actions are well enblemed by the Centaur Whose upper part giveth a semblance of care for the peoples good Estque bomo dum simulit se populo esse pium Militis est robur consiliumque ducis Cic. de off lib. 1. The necessitie of counsell but the lower part which is the beast devours the people under coulor of humanity The excellency of counsell appeareth likewise in this that it is a singular gift given to men fitted to command in war As this is the excellency of it so it is of an absolute necessity What good will forces doe saith Tully if counsell bee wanting in managing of war There is a necessity of counsell saith Quintus Curtius and not of rash violence What good will the wall of strength doe except it haue conncell for the foundation Yea the more strength without moderation by councell the more speedy and greater ruin Yea as Ambrose saith what avayleth wisedom without counsell Quid tibi prodest habere sapientiam si consilium desit lib. 2. de off It is but as a sealed fountain it neither doth good to a mans selfe nor to another And as one saith pithily As is a Citie the walles whereof are ruined and raced to the ground such is a man that undertaketh not all his actions with counsell Caesar held and that truely Counsell to be as necessary in war as Physitians in time of sicknesse Idem est consilium adversus bostes c. It is the onely thing saith Vegetius and the Generals greatest advantage to haue a wise Councell CHAP. XX. VVar especially requireth Councell OBSERVE in the third place the obiect of warre which is the subject of Councell and reason will inforce us to walk by councell Must not the Generall know his own forces and his enemies both for nature power furniture and number as neer as he can Should hee not know how to dispose of his own whether horse or foot to take the advantage of the ground to disadvantage his enemie all that he can and by all lawfull Stra agems to conquer his enemies at the lowest rate that is possible Besides all these to be considered there is a further end namely the averting of all evill and the procuring of all good that can be thought on Doth not goods liberty wiues children lands liues countries Crowns Religion and Gods glory which is worth all the rest lye at the stake yea and on such a hazard often that if the first be lost there is little or no hope of playing a second game All these cry for counsel which under God is the onely wise disposer of the aforesaid meanes and obtainer of the end If for other things of lesse moment wee doe not cast the dice as we say but with great care watchfull forecast and deliberate counsell we labour to effect them what should bee done in this where the adventure is so great the issue so doubtful and the least errour may cast all away As the spirituall warfare of a Christian is the matter of greatest moment under the heaven so next unto it in my judgement is the bodily warre If men of all sorts that professeth the name of Christ would but take this to their consideration it would make them in the first place take up the
body but when he cometh to the head there is all the difficultie there it taketh him tugging even so a Preacher may freely reprove the sinnes of the people for in that there is no matter of feare but wheÌ„ he commeth to the head pointing his hand to the Prince there is the difficultie there matter of feare presenteth it selfe yet it must be done aswell as the rest The like freedome of speech did Frederick Bishop of Vtricke use by way of parable to Lodoviâ—us Pius the Emperour as he sate at dinner with him being newly consecrated Bishop the Emperour willed him 〈◊〉 remember his office without respect of persons for whiâ—â— admonition the Bishop humbly thanked him and askeâ— him forthwith whither he should begin with the head 〈◊〉 that fish that was before him or with the tayle the Emperour replyed with the head as the chiefest member It is weâ— said the Bishop then breake you of your incestuous Match with Iudith Raunlph in Polychronic lib. 5. cap. 29. Anno 1363 which the Emperour did for a time but the Pope upon a penitenciary mulct of some thousands of Crowneâ— made up the Match againe and Iesabel caused the Bishop for his freedome of speech to be slaine in the Church These were honester meÌ„ though the one a Dominick Monâ—e the other a Bishop then that Protean Bandog Spalato whose Dalmatian Pal hath proved but a Pâ— Lib. 1. de rep Euch pag. 28. Sect. 13. to the English Church Amongst the rest of his Sicophantish knaveriâ—s he hath this flat against the Word That the faults of Princes may not at any hand be taxed in publique by whatsoever authoritie wherein sure he shewed him selfe a greater friend to his owne fâ—guts then to the states and soules of Princes And yet weâ— want not such Black-birdes in our owne Purpits who under the name of White Serm. in Rom 13 pag 18. vent this blacke position that Ministers are not to inforce Gods commaÌ„d upon Princes Iudge you by this what fearfull times we live in indeed the high Creast of authoritie thinketh much to stoupe to the word of a weake man as they conceve it What saucie fellows did Pharao esteemeâ— Moses and Aaron that they should will him from God to let his people goe Shall the worlds Minions deified with flattery or Mars his favorites adorned with trophees and attended with triumphes submit and render at the blast of a trumpet yes indeed that word that can make the blind to see the deaf to hear the lame to goe yea the dead to rise can command the greatest Commander in the world Yea if a man were commander of the vvhole vvorld he must eyther by this vvord be Commanded or condemned See the proofe of this in that powerfull discourse of Paul before Felix As he reasoned of rightousnes temperance and judgement to come Act. 24 25 Felix trembled Tertullus and all the smooth-tounged pick thankes under his governmeÌ„t could not haue kept him out of this fit These Counsellours are not to be slighted because the contempt of them is not onely a fearfull prognostick of fuâ—ure ruine but also a main moving cause vvhy the Lord vvil â—estroy both Prince and people Amongst many others Cha 36.15 16. there is a pregnant place for this in â—he second booke of the Chronicles And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his Messengers rising up betimes and fending them because he had compassion on his people and on his 〈◊〉 welling place but they mocked the messengers of God and despised â—his words and misused his Prophets untill the wrath of the Lord â—arose against his people till there was no remedie The worth of a worthy Minister is not knowen but in time of distresse and not then but to those whom the Lord hath taught how to esteeme of him heathens Pagans papists may challenge us of our neglect of this Were ten Nestors so much worth to AgamemnoÌ„ one Sopirus to Darius one Cineas to Pirrhus what is Gods Aaron to his people what is Nathan to David and Elisha to Ioash The Grecians would not part with their Orators on no condition The Romanes had a great care of their Dogges that kept their Walls Sagacissimos caues in turribus nutriebant Viget lib. 2 cap. 26. Anscribus cebaria publice lo antur in Capitolio Cic pro sexâ—o Rossio So the Geese that with their cry did awake the watch when the enemies were about to surprise the Capitol were in great esteeme with the Romanes insomuch that their food was allotted by a publique decree wherewith they were to be fed in the Capitol Yea in great scarsitie of food they would not touch them Will you see what honour Balac the King of Moab did to Balaam the false prophet he goeth out to meete him euen to the outmost border of his land Deut. 22.36 What honour were Baals priests in that eate bread at the Kings table The papists glory much and giue us often in the teeth with that honour they giue to their shavellings Gondomar for an instance made great bragges of this that though he were the Embassador of the great King and besideâ— that he had a breech that was not very bowable yet he mist not an inch of his manners to Blackwell in the tower False Prophets are with the wicked alwayes most in request because they serve their lusts and please their humors Balacâ— would not let Aaron haue so much as a bit of bread or 〈◊〉 draught of water but Balaam I warrant you wanted no dainties Ioash King of Israel was no good man and yet how did he honour loue with the best loue he had Elisha the Prophet 2. King 13 14. When the man of God was a dying he commeth to him vveeping over him cryeth out Oh my father my father the chariot and the Horsmen of Israel Alexander the great came dovvne from his horse and entertained Iaddo the high Priest of Hierusalem vvith all reverent respect All these and many more examples may condemne the neglect of this in the Professors of Christ ApplicatioÌ„ But vvee had best looke to it for neglect or contempt of Gods Messengers in time of peace maketh a vvoefull vvant of them in time of vvar especially vvhen the good spirit of God hath left the soule Saul in his peace vvould haue no Prophet but such as vvere of his ovvne stampe and pleased his humor therefore insteed of Samuel he had none but the devill to ansvvere him in the day of his distresse could all Baals Prophets and his full-fed trencher-chaplaines say nothing to him No never a vvord they vvere all to seeke A false deceiving Hananiah vvith his hornes a Doeg or doglike Amaziah accusing the bretheren a furious boxing Zedekiah smiting Gods Ministers on the mouth vvill prove but miserable comforters in the day of danger Therefore they must be Gods Ministers indeed and not barely in name of the Lords ovvne sending
heaven Tripartit hist lib. 12. cap. 1. help thou me to root 〈◊〉 them and I shall help thee to overcome thine enemies For thâ—â— hee was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fling-fire in French Bon te feu Iust so the frogges of the bottomlesse pâ— doe croak and call together the Kings of the eariâ— to the battle of Armageddon with this incouragement Root out those pestilent Heretickes quit your Dominions of them and besides the peace and prosperity with plenty and obedience from your loyall Catholike subjects you shall haue heaven hereafter as sure as the Pope himselfe who hath the disposing of it But how they haue sped and prospered that haue followed their counsell I shall haue occasion to shew hereafter And as they are of their father the Devill and with lying words deceiue men so 〈◊〉 will assure you upon the word of God who cannot lie that if you will procure such Ministers as are of God warranting their Call by their life and doctrine and hearken to such and obey them as from the Lord the Lord hath said it Deut. 28.7 He shall curse thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face they shall come against thee one way Esa 1.19 and flee seven waies before thee If you will be willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the land Where obserue especially that there must be a willing obedience otherwise both the Minister and the meanes can doe no good It is a vain thing and the grossest point of Popery to presume upon the ordinances Obadiah 1. or the work done This is to make the Nest in the Clift of the rock out of which the Lord will bring every one down that so doth for God thereby is robbed of his glory and the soule cozened when it commeth to reckon The Trojans trusted foolishly to their Paâ—â—adium the Asiatickes to their Pessimuntius the Romanes to their Ancilia the Papists to the Crosse and holy-water and the Israel of God to the Arke of God As the idolatrous Papist in any common calamity cals for the pax and the host so the Israelites caused bring the Arke and putting carnall confidence in that without any counsell asked of Samuel or commandment from the Lord it must be carryed out to battell They were no better here then the uncircumcised Philistim or rather worse for they feared the Arke more then God and his people trusted to the Arke more then to God but the Arke was so far from saving them that God gaue both them and it into the hands of the enemies Yea for their wickednesse and vain confidence the Lord so abhorred his own Ordinances that he suffered them to be polluted with the foule hand of the uncircumcised Philistim who had nothing to doe with them In the very same predicament be our carnall Gospellers who being confident upon the profession of the outward badges of Christian profession as the Word and Sacraments thinke all shall be well enough they are baptized they haue the Word and receiue the Sacraments and they haue an excellent Teacher and they frequent the house of God and sit before the preacher and commend both him and the Sermon the Word is as a louely song and they shew much loue to him with their mouthes Ezech. 33.31 c. but there is one thing wanting which marreth all They heare the words saith God but they will not doe them If the distressed people in the Palatinate Bohemia and Switzerland examine the cause of their captivity in their own land I beleeue they shall finde their presuming on the meanes with unanswerable walking to haue deprived them of the means and made Ashur to lie heavy upon them their exemplary punishment giues an alarum from the Lord to England and Holland who presuming on some Watchmen upon the walls and some manna about their tents thinkes the Lord will never come against them nor remoue the Candlestick but let them know that except the deadnesse of Sardis and the lukewarmnesse of Laodicea be really repented of the Lord will pull them out of the 〈◊〉 of that rock Yea and rather pollute his own Ordinances then indure their mockerie The Provinces may happiâ—â— presume upon some purer reformation and expulsion 〈◊〉 the Antichristian Hierarchie but I protest upon my knowledge from the griefe of my soule that they carry a name that they liue but they are dead both to the power of the the Word and Discipline for besides the infection of all plaguie heresies that they keep warm amongâ— them where is the power of the Word in Saboath keeping family duties gracious words and holy walking Where is the Pastor that can say here am I and they whoâ— God hath given me Where is the power of the Ministery in shaking of the hearts of great Ones Who will not like the Nobles of the Tekoits Nâ—b 3.5 put their neckes to the work of the Lord Yea their great ones in a manner overtop both Word and Ministery and as their enemies speak like 〈◊〉 many petty Popes they make the power of both swords serue onely humane policy which as it is a justling out of Gods honour in putting the Cart before the Horse so it is a thing that God cannot bear for hee is very jealous of his glory and of the Scepter of his Kingdom If the calamity of the aforesaid people cannot work let them and us take a veiw of Scotland the very paragon of true reformation where there was not so much as one hoofe of the beast left yea where their tallest Cedars were made to stoup at the foot of Gods Ordinances yet for want of fruits worthy of so great a mercie the Lord cast them in the furnace of affliction as famine sicknesse dearth and death yea which is worst of all he hath suffered the stinking carkasse of the interred whore to be raked out of the graue and the froggs of Aegipt to swarm in Goshen which is a great and fearfull wonder What think you Is Israel a servant Is he a home-born slaue Why is he spoyled Ier. 2.14 c. Hast not thou procured or deserved the like unto thy selfe v. 17. My counsell is that Princes States and people both with us and them might be humbled for this particular for God doth threaten us if we doe not Ier. 2.37 that wee shall goe forth from him with our hands upon our head yea he will reject our confidences and we shall not prosper in them The injoying of the meanes without the holy use of them maketh men but the more lyable to the wrath of God The word and works that were taught and wrought in Bethsaida made their case more woefull then the case of Tyrus and Sydon By how much higher Capernaaum was lifted up to heaven in the plenty of the meanes by so much lower was it prest down to hell in the abuse of the meanes Take notice then it is not the Temple of the Lord
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
amends That Apothegme of Lamachus to a Captaine of a Company is worth the remembrance The Captaine being rebuked for an errour in fight told Lamachus the Generall that he would doe so no more to whom he answered prettily that for a second errour there is no place in fight Vegetius giveth another reason from the preciousnes of â—ife that lyeth at the stake There is no pardon saith he for an errour in fight because all the good of life and life it selfe is that which is contended for This as the same Author saith is the â—atall day wherein the fulnesse of victory doth laureate the temples of the conquering with a wreath of glory but it layeth â—he honour of the conquered in the dust And be he never â—o great he is at the pleasure and service of his triumphing â—nemy How wise and carefull then should Generalls be in committing fight and how couragious and resolute in the fight it selfe There be many remarkable cautions that should accompany the good advice of fight The disposition of the souldier First the very day of fight the disposition or indisposition of the souldier to fight is much to be regarded which may be gathered by their words countenance and cariage A second thing to be looked to is the avoyding of temeritie a litle of this like a Coloquintiâ—â— marreth all the rest Fresh men at Armes may out of their hot bloud haue a great mind to fight because they know not what it is to fight nor what lyeth upon it Aman that never sayled thinketh it a sport to be at sea because he never feâ—â— a storme Pericles being pressed by his souldiers to fight and that with vile reprochfull termes replyed thus that if he could repayre losse and recover life he would as gladly adventure as they but you see saith he Trees being cut the grow againe but men once slaine revive no more The disposition therefore of the souldier is not enough except other things concurre Avoyding of temeritie It is here as it is in Physicke eâ—sie to erre but the least errour bringeth great damage Anâ— therefore it is a good axiome Temeritas in bello ante omnia vitands Nihil in bello oportet contemni that nothing in fight is so much 〈◊〉 be avoided as temeritie The rashnes of Vladislaus that yong King of Hungarie lost him his crowne and his life It is aâ— good precept the least disadvantage in war is not to be contemned Contempt of the enemie and confidence in forces maketh many reckon twice and sit downe by the losse Instance this in King Iohn of France who presuming of his multitude would admit no conditions from Edward the blacke Prince but fight who with a few wearyed forces driven to a strayt gathered courage from dispaire and gane the French such a foyle both in their honour and forces that they blame themselves much in this that they had no moâ—â— wit Agiselaus that worthy Captaine was wiser in not adventuring on Chabrias the Athenian Captaine against advantage of the ground giuing this reason that courage opportunity of place and necessitie are the wings of victory A wise feare of such is no cowardize but rather a good temper of resolution Aristotle calleth this discreet feare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the right hand of counsell Incogitancie saith one begetteth temeritie but consideration breedeth a wise or cunctatorie fear It is a pretty Adagie the mother of the fearfull seldome cryeth Augustus compareth them well that cast themselves upon disadvantages unnecessarie dangers to those that angle with golden hookes Poliaen lib. 8 G. Iulius Cesar dictator who had no fewer then fiftie times bin in fight with the enemie in this unparalleld by any of the RomaÌ„s learned this in the end as his master-peece to be very wary with whom how and on what termes to fight In this particular as in many other wee may worthily admire his Excellencie indeed the Prince of Orange who by age industrie and experience hath learned to play the Fabius as well as the Marcellus he hath got much honour to himselfe Festinae lente and good and glory to the State by the use of that Motto that Augustus gaue to his Captaines make hast deliberatly There was never man more desirous of fight then that wise politick Emperour Dion Niceph Xiphilin in eius vita great Commander Trajan yet in this he did so temper himselfe that he would rather breake his enemies with delay then unadvisadly or unnecessarily adventure his owne Thirdly Not to fight at the adversaries pleasure a considerate Generall must not fight at the pleasure of the enemie but at his owne best opportunitie none will draw our their enemie to fight but upon some assured advantage That vexed Hanibal that he had more a doe to get Fabius to fight then to overcome other Romane Generalls in fight and therefore he sayd he feared Fabius more detracting fight then he did Marcellus though a great warriour in fight To this point that speech of Gaius Marius fitteth very well who being importuned by his adversary Theutonus to fight Front lib. 4 cap. 7. answered him thus if he were weary of his life there were wayes enough to rid him of it Fourthly Omit not opportumtie as he must avoide temeritie and not serve the enemies desire so he must not omit opportunity by this I haue formerly shewed how great things haue been done and how the greatest Commanders haue attributed much to this No more I say of it ApplicatioÌ„ but the neglect or losse of this giveth us all just cause to Iament for had battle been given to Spinola approaching the Palatinate when opportunity was affoorded it may be the Sanctuary of the Lord had not been possessed by the enimie yea by all likelyhood all the outrage committed might haue been prevented all the bloud saved and all the country preserved but where the fault lay there I leaue it I come to the fifth thing very necessary in fight The necessity of exhortation that is an exhortatory oration from the mouth of the Generall that they quit themselues like men It is fit that the Generall haue the faculty of incouragement as well as of commandment Câ—sar was excellent at this Et manu lingua promptus for he was a man both with tongue and hand amongst many Of other instances none sheweth more cunning then this that being to fight against Ariovistus and the Germanes the hearts of his souldiers through the forces and fiercenesse of the enemy began to fayle them and amongst them all the tenth legion especially which Caesar very cunningly fell to commend in his oration and told the rest that he would use none but that legion Which speech so affected them that being partly ashamed of their former fear Froâ—tin li. 1. cap. 11. numb 3. and partly ambitious to make good his seeming conceit that no service seemed too hard for
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
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
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