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A61178
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A sermon preached before the Artillery Company of London at St. Mary Le Bow, April 20, 1682 by Thomas Sprat ...
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Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing S5058; ESTC R16434
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15,174
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38
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A SERMON Preached before The Artillery Company OF LONDON AT St. Mary Le Bow April 20. 1682. BY THOMAS SPRAT D. D. One of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary Published at their request LONDON Printed for Iohn Baker at the three Pigeons in St. Paul's Church-yard 1682. To the Honourable Sir William Prichard Knight and Alderman President of the Artillery Company Sir Iames Smith Knight and Alderman Vice-President To the Right Worshipful Sir Matthew Andrews Treasurer As also to the Right Honourable Earl of Thanet Lord Allington Lord Lumley Lord Paston To the Right Worshipful and Worshipful Sir Iohn Narborough Iohn Shales Esq Philip Frowd Esq Maj. Richard Burdon STEWARDS And to the whole Court of Assistants Field-Officers Captains and Gentlemen Professing and Exercising Arms in that Renowned and Honourable Society Right Honourable c. IN obedience to your commands I have published this honest-and loyal Discourse which is all I can say to its advantage except what was an unexpected commendation to it that the Enemies of our Church and State have thought fit to dislike it and to shew they did so have had recourse to their old Arts of lying and slandering But it is no matter what they say or do whilst you continue like your selves to think the practice of Loyalty not only a part of your Profession as Souldiers but of your Religion as Christians As to the main Doctrine here delivered there is not any one true Son of the Church of England but will consent to it nor any of its Adversaries that can oppose it without renouncing the common Principles of Christian Government As for the manner of handling it I have reason to ask your pardon but not theirs That I have not managed it as so noble an Argument deserves I beg your excuse That I have not treated of it with bitterness or virulency I believe even they will confess when they shall read it and let them consider what moderation and temper a man had need be of that in this Nation and this Age shall speak against Faction and Rebellion without extraordinary Severity Right Honourable c. I am Your most humble and most obedient Servant Thomas Sprat April 29 1682. A SERMON Preached before The Artillery Company St. LUKE xxii part of ver 36. He that hath no Sword let him sell his garment and buy one WHen in such Warlike Solemnities as yours of this day men of my Profession are admitted to the honour of bearing any part I suppose it is not expected that we should cloy and vex your ears with the terms of your own Art or affect impertinently to entertain you with discourses on the Heroic Science of Arms. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual And if it was justly esteemed once a very indecent presumption in a Philosopher to read a Lecture of Battels before one great Commander how much more improper would it be for a Divine to undertake to teach the Art of War in the presence of so many But when you call us hither to serve you in these your annual Triumphs I know you do it with a pious design That as all Wars of old were usually begun with a public Sacrifice so these your exercises of War should first be consecrated by devotion That here in the House of God you should first receive the Churches Prayers and Benedictions on those Weapons which abroad you are so ready to employ in the Churches defence That of those Arms of which you have elsewhere learnt the skilful and the glorious practice here you might consider the saving and the religious use How a meer natural Courage may be so improved by Piety as to become a most Christian Grace How Victory may be not only made lawful and barely innocent but how it may be sanctified and sanctified not first by Rebellion then by Sacrilege but by fighting only in a truly good and righteous Cause and by defending it not with hypocritical zeal and zealous cruelty not only with Valour and Conduct but with Fidelity Loyalty Justice Equity and Charity How this may be done it being I humbly conceive my proper business here to deliberate whilst I endeavour to do it I must intreat the favour not only of your common patience but of your more than ordinary pardon if besides my many other infirmities that which ought to have been an advantage shall prove my disadvantage if even this great appearance so beautifully-terrible as an Army with Banners which guards this place and secures all within it and round about it particularly us of the Clergy shall yet happen somewhat to discompose me so that I shall not be able to bring a firmness of mind equal to the greatness of the occasion However for my incouragement I have brought with me our blessed Lord the Great Captain of our Salvation speaking to you with power and in the words of my Text pronouncing that which at first hearing seems a most surprizing Doctrine for the Prince of peace to deliver That sometimes the Habiliments of War are more necessary more becoming a Christian than the very Robes of Peace That in some seasons of imminent danger those of his Disciples who had not Swords were obliged to sell if need were their very garments to buy them Such is the literal sense of the words But was not this a strange Precept for that King to injoyn whose Kingdom was not of this world How could this be consistent with that meekness in Persecutions that long-suffering of Injuries that very love of Enemies with which his whole Gospel abounds How was this conformable to his mild example who went as a Sheep to the slaughter and as a Lamb that is dumb Who though he might have summoned more than twelve Legions of Angels to his immediate rescue yet never employed them as a Triumphant Host but as an Harmonious Choir to sing Peace on Earth good will towards men How comes he just then as he was going to be betrayed by one of his own Disciples into the hands of his most cruel Enemies against whom he designed nothing less than opposition how comes he then to talk of furnishing his Attendants with Instruments of War and of preferring Swords before Garments Then especially when presently after as soon as he was seized on by the High Priests Officers he severely rebuked the great Apostle St. Peter for but once using the Sword Put up thy Sword says he into its place He that taketh the Sword shall perish by the Sword It is true these two remarkable Sentences of our blessed Saviour that to St. Peter and this in my Text may seem at first view capable of contrary interpretations But if we shall examine the circumstances and occasions of their delivery we shall soon find that they do not only very well agree with each other but both together may teach us the whole Christian Doctrine of War what use of secular Arms the Gospel permits what it condemns
all his Quarrels and the consciousness of that innocence cannot but render his mind more calm serene and even invincible in all their Events Whence come Wars and Fightings among you says the Apostle Come they not from your Lusts It is true Rapine and unjust Wars come from thence and that Religion which most subdues your Lusts will most remove the occasions of such Wars But at the same time and by the very same way it will more secure the Success more increase the Renown and more brighten the Luster of all your just Arms. Wherefore so far is Christianity it self so far those Doctrines it most tenderly cherishes as its own genuine product the Doctrines I mean of Humility Patience Kindness to the Afflicted and Pardon of Offenders so far is any of these from being opposite to the Principles of true Honour and Valour your Art professes that whoever would conceive in his mind the perfect Character of an excellent Warrior so he ought to form his Image to furnish him with all kinds but especially to adorn him with this kind of easie mild and gentle Virtues And if the very Heathens thought their Poetic Heroes could not be complete except they first received their Arms from their Gods How much more ought a Christian Hero to fetch his from Heaven How devoutly ought he to put on the whole Armour of God as St. Paul calls all the Graces of a Christian life how careful should he be not only to abstain from the common sins which Religion condemns but to aspire to the highest Duties it commands not only not to be given to Luxury and Debauchery not only not to owe his valor to his vices but amidst so many more temptations to keep his Eyes and Thoughts from being defiled as well as his hands from being rapacious Not only not to blaspheme Heaven and defy his Maker with horrid Oaths and Curses but more humbly to Reverence more dutifully to depend on that God to whom he more peculiarly appeals to keep your natural Lives more than ordinarily innocent which are exposed to so many more than natural Deaths to have your Minds free from all sordid Passions or Desires far above the mean appetites of Avarice or Cruelty to have true Glory only for your End to use no inglorious means in acquiring it to have your Courages strengthen'd with Truth Faith Righteousness sweeten'd and graced with Brotherly Love Pity Compassion not to be Enemies to your very Enemies but only to their Oppressions and Injustice to be Friends Lovers Imitators of their virtues not only to be unconcern'd in Dangers but patient in bad mild in good Success merciful in Victory These my Brethren Religion tells us are the chief Excellencies of a Christian. These you know are the principal Accomplishments of a Soldier Of these your Profession acknowledges the Necessity and labors for what the School of Christ only teaches the Perfection The use and honor of just Arms appearing thus consistent with the sincerity with the very meekness of Christianity Be pleas'd that we now go on to contemplate in what special Opportunities what conjunctures of times they may be most justly and with truest praise employ'd First without question always justly the Sword may be drawn by private Men to defend their Lives against private Assaults but not alwayes nor at any time for their private revenge Your personal Preservation from Injury God has in some sort committed to your selves and to your own Swords as well as to the Magistrates care but in no sort distinct from the Magistrate has God intrusted to your selves the avenging of any personal Injuries What a bold invasion then on Authority what a rude violation of Public Justice is the too common ill custom of Mens striving to right themselves by private Duels what is it indeed but another kind of Rebellion against the Government that every man's hand should be ready to be lift up against every man on every imaginary affront that the Shadows and Punctilio's of Honor should be so much more regarded than the solid Substance of it that those weapons which nothing ought to command but the Sacred Cause of your God and your King men should oftner draw for every trifle on every rash word against their Countreymen their Neighbors their best Friends sometimes against their King in his Subjects against their God in his Laws A mistaken way of mens gaining to themselves a contemptible Reputation when either Passion or Intemperance makes them not themselves A way of Honor which the most victorious Nations of the Ancient World seldom or never practis'd and which that very Nation of the Modern World that either first introduc'd or most cherish'd it is grown quite asham'd of I beseech you let not the English think that to be the greatest bravery which was never esteem'd brave by the old Romans whos 's National greatness of Mind in other things you so much resemble Let not the English any longer allow that to be praise-worthy which your next Neighbors on the Continent your old Competitors in Arms have quite forsaken as dishonorable and since they have done so have remarkably flourish'd in the Field You cannot but know that it has not bin by particular Quarrels or single Combats against the Will of the Prince that the Profession of the Sword has bin made so famous I must say had there bin no other use of it it had soon bin most infamous A Skill fitter for divided Barbarians than for Nations civilized The virtue the loveliness of your Art consists in the joint force of it that it can make whole Troops and Armies to have at once the strength of a great Multitude and the firm Union and well combined motion as it were of one Man There never was nor ever will be any Country or Government that got a lasting fame or Empire by the unruly Passions and unlawful Attempts of private Men. Most surely many States have bin destroy'd by them whilest those Kingdoms have bin alwayes most prosperous and renown'd where an orderly well-disciplin'd Valor has bin most incourag'd and single Outrages most severely punish'd where no force has bin thought honorable but what is justify'd by Authority and that force honorable in the judgment of the Gospel it self Wherefore Secondly as by private Men for private Safety though not for private Revenge the Sword may be justly drawn so much more by all in a Public Cause And then not only for Safety but also for Revenge for Revenge too since vengeance belongs only to God and to none besides himself but to the Public Sword has God reserved the repaying of vengeance For just defence then I say and for just offence too the Sword ought to be used in a Public Cause But let us remember nothing can make it to be a Public Cause but a lawful Authority It can never be made so by every or by any private Spirit It is most true Divinity as well as Politics that none the