usage that they meet withal They have so many Hands against them that their Lives are in their Hands and from that Flock of Slaughter now one and then another is made a prey to Wolvish Persecutors before whole Rabid Violence they say Lord For thy sake We are killed all the Day Long. And this is the case of Souldiers too It was remarked by a notable man of that Character 〈◊〉 2 Sam. 11.25 The Sword Devoureth One as Well as another The Hebrews call War by a Name that signifies A Devourer And Souldiers carry in their Hands what the Monster feeds upon the Leviathan devours the Lives of them who do Encounter him The Lives of Souldiers are where their Arms are even in their Hands for they know not whether they shall return Alive out of the Battels which they are push'd upon And it is for a double Reason that our God carves out such a condition for us First It is to check our Worldly-mindedness It was said unto that good man in Jer. 45.5 Seekest thou great things for thy self seek them not for thy Life will I give unto thee for a prey When our Life is for a prey our Life is then in our Hand we have it by a meer snatch as it were This now prohibits our seeking of great things for our selves in as much as we cannot secure to our selves the Enjoyment of That which alone makes us capable of Enjoying all other Sublunary Things By bringing our Lives into our Hands our Hands are knock'd away from too fast a gripe or grasp after Secular Objects When our Life is in our Hand God has a voice in His Mouth to this purpose Dream not of mighty Things no nor of any Things in this Transitory World until thou hast better Assurance of thy continuance here The blessed God thus inviteth us and obligeth us to look after the glorious Crowns and Ioyes in another VVorld He Inviteth us and obligeth us To set our Affections upon the Things which are above and To Look at the Things which are not seen and are Eternal and to make sure of an Hope in Christ without which we see when we have Life in Hand our selves to be of all men most miserable Secondly It is to cure our Creature-Confidence It was said by the Apostle in 2 Cor. 1.9 We had a Sentence of Death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raises the Dead A Condemned Malefactor carries his Life in his Hand from the Bar. VVe are sometimes in as perilous a Likelihood of Dying as a condemned Malefactor and we are hereby called upon to Trust in God alone for the Reversing and Repealing of the Sentence By having our Lives in our Hands we are under a Necessity of Reliance upon God alone to keep them there VVhen we have our Life in our Hand we have also that call in our Ear Do not Lean upon any Temporal Visible Interest for the preservation of thy Life let all thy Expectations be as all thy Salvations are from God alone The Lord breaks down the Hedge on every side of us and we Ly open to Death every way 't is that we may reserve our Dependance for all support and all succour to be placed upon God alone 't is that we may learn the Song of him that returned with his Life in his Hand from the maw of the great Shark Salvation is of the Lord. Proposition II. The Direction proper for them that have their Lives in their Hands is to Remember the Law of God. VVhen you have considered a few Conclusions your thoughts will rightly apprehend the Intent and Extent of this Assertion Conclusion I. Their Memories being Fraighted and Stored with Divine Truths do marvellously assist those that have their Lives in their Hands Our Souls have an admirable Faculty of laying up in themselves the Images of Things which have made their Impressions on us This is our Memory VVe have both a Retaining Memory which is more Sensitive and a Regaining Memory which is more Rational a Memory that can both keep Safe and fetch Back what Idaeas we have been Entertained with This Memory is a Treasury to be replenished with such Things as the Law of God affords unto us 'T is Required in Prov. 3.1 My Son forget not my Law. 'T is Resolved in Psal. 119.16 I will not Forget thy Word The Law of God contains Commandments every one of which are Holy and Iust and Good it contains Promises every one of which are Great and Precious it contains Threatnings every one of which are Quick and Powerful and these are all to be Treasured up in our Memories VVhen they have been communicated unto us we are to take heed that Menasseh or Forgetfulness be not the Name of our Souls The Distillations of Gods Law like Manna fall about our Tents from Day to Day our Duty now is that in 2 Pet. 1.15 To have these Things always in Remembrance and Gods Law will not like Manna corrupt but rather sweeten by being Reposited until To morrow The Law of our God is both Written and Preached among us now 't is declared in Heb. 2.1 We ought to give earnest heed unto the Things lest at any time we let them slip or Lest we be like Leaky Vessels thereunto The Truths couched in the Law of God are to be like Nails fastned in our Souls never to be removâ—d never to be displaced After we have been sitting under the Dispensations of Gods Law He will ask of uâ— as in Heb. 12.5 Have you forgotten the Exhortation To which we should be able to Reply as the Psalmist of old Lord I have not forgotten thy Law. And hence we should Receive the Truths therein offered unto us with that Affectionate and Agreeable Ejaculation Lord keep it for ever in the Imagination of the Thought of my Heart Now those of you that carry your Lives in your Hands will have this peculiar Benefit by having of Gods Laws thus in your Minds First your Memory will suggest Necessary Truths unto you You cannot always come at those Ordinances which are the Wells of Salvation being driven to wander in the Dry paths of a Solitary Wilderness But your well-furnished Memories will supply you with the words whereby you may be saved bring a Little Sanctuary to you when you are Banished from the Great Ones They will render you the Instructed Scribes which will not want Things New and Old for the Repast of your Souls in the Desert which you range forth into Salvation was to come unto you by your Hearing while you were here it may now come unto you by your Remembring for the Apostle said in 1 Cor. 15.2 Ye are savÌ„ed if you keep in Memory What I Preached unto you And Secondly Your Memories will suggest Seasonable Truths unto you You are going into a Warfare wherein you will often have occasion for some Advice from God. While you were among us you could seldom labour under any
Intent of the Psalmist here we find it elsewhere that when the Life of this very person had been obnoxious to an extraordinary Danger 't is thus deciphered in 1 Sam. 19.5 He did put his Life in his Hand And hence the never enough Regarded and Commended French Translation so renders the passage we are now upon Ma Vie a este continuellement en Hazard my Life has been continually in Hazard A Souldier must continually look to be Hazarding of his Life Secondly the Affection of a good Souldier 'T is Yet I do not forget thy Law. A Souldier must indeed Forget all things but Gods Law and his own Sword. For the Object which he is to be Affected with 't is Gods Law. That is one of the Ten Words one of which is used in almost every verse of this glorious Hymn to denote The ways and means by which the blessed God reveals His Will unto the Children of Men and the Will it self revealed in those ways and means And then for the Respect which he is to place upon this Object it is Not Forgetting But we are to bear in mind That according to the Received Rule of Expounding Scripture Phrases to Remember denotes also to Know to Love to Do. All That is intended here And hence the Doctrine here provided for you is That the Remembrance of Gods Law is a Thing of no small Importance to them that have their Lives continually in their Hands As the little time given me for Preparation will not allow me to be very Accurate and Pertinent in improving my present opportunity which until too late yesterday I knew nothing of so the little strength left me by the excessive Labours of this morning supervening upon the Languors of a late Illness will not permit me to be long in this Discourse I have only two Propositions to entertain you with Proposition I. To have their Lives in their Hands is a Condition which the Children of Men are liable unto There is indeed a Threefold Condition which brings the Lives of Men into the Hands of Men with a Gradual Descent from Generals to Specials it may be set before you The first Condition of this kind is that of All Men Accordingly our Observation is 1. Men have their Lives brought into their their Hands in point of Mortality Our Lives are come out from our Hearts unto our Hands and they are in a sort ready to shake Hands with us Our Lives do as it were take us by our Hands and say Well I am going Fare you well Our Lives are come into our Hands for the Brevity of them Once indeed there was a Longevity in Fallen Man that seem'd almos◠Aemulous of that Immortality which Uprigh◠man should have had experience of The Antediluvian Patriarchs might have broke up Company with probable Agreements to have met again in the same Place and Form an Hundred Years afterwards But that LONG LIFE i◠by our Vice and Gods Curse now terribly Abbreviated Our own Corruption has Enfeebled the principles of Life in our Successive Generations and Gods just Malediction has confirm'd that Feebleness whereby we Dy before our Time for being wicked overmuch The Sacred Law of God has now Abridged our Lives into Seventy Years and the Common Law of Man into Seven Our Lives are now IN our Hands and we have not an Handful thereof The psalmist could say in Psal. 39.5 Behold Thou hast made my Days as an Hands Breadth In an Hands Breadth may be grasped the whole of the Lives which we have in our Hands Our Lives are likewise come into our Hands for the Uncertainty of them What is in our Hands is Extra nos 't is uncertain whether we shall keep it or no. Our Lives are so in our Hands that we know not whether they will stay with us They may be wrested out of our Hands and in a Turn of an Hand they are gone before we are aware 'T is said in James 4.14 What is your Life It is even a vapour It is as a Vapour or a Candle that we bear not in Horns but in Hands 'T is liable to be Extinguished by every puss of Wind. The Second Condition of this kind is that of Old Men. And so our Observation is 2. Men have their Lives brought into their Hands in point of Infirmity Aged persons Lean with their Hands and on their Staves they carry their Lives The Life may be put for the whole Man with the Old Man 't is come into the Hands his Feet cannot now support him 'T is said of him in Eccles 12.3 The strong men i. e. his Legs bow themselves and so the Trembling Hands must be the Keepers of the House All the strength left him and all his Life is in his Hands He does all things with a Staff in Hand and so with a Life in Hand as 't is noted of the Gray-headed and Decrepit Iacob in Heb. 11.21 He Worshipped leaning on the Top of his Staff When he rose off his Couch to worship God he could not rise without a Staff his Life was relieved and exerted mostly by his Aged palsey Hand The third Condition of this kind is that of Confessors and that of Souldiers And our Observation upon it is 3 Men have their Lives brought into their Hands in point of Danger to Loose their Lives 'T is the Chaldee Paraphrase upon this place Anima mea periclitatur ac si esset 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in super ficie manus meae Our Lives are sometimes by Dangers placed as t' were on the Back of our Hands We have no hold of them but they will take wing and be gone in the Twinkling of an Eye We are sometimes to venture our Lives and when we do so We may say as in 1 Sam. 28.21 Behold I have put my Life in my Hand That which is in our Hands is easy to be Taken away yea What is ready to be Given away we take in our Hands In both respects our God often calls us to have our Lives in our Hands We are sometimes to engage in those things wherein 't is but a Peradventure whether we shall ever come off Alive Yea we are sometimes not only to Expose our Lives but also to Resign them and let them go out of our Hands and pour them forth as a Drink-offering before the Lord. This is the case of Confessors They Dy Often they are as 't is said in 2 Cor. 11.23 In Deaths often Yea they Dy Daily they can say as in 1 Cor. 15.31 I Dy Daily That is They are Often they are Daily in Danger in Dying and so they have their Lives in their Hands There is a Number of people in the World who profess the Truths and Ways of God and serve Him according to His Word This people are a sort of Army under the Colours and Commands of the Lord Jesus Christ but the Ancient Legend pardon me that I call it so of the Thebaean Legion is verifyed in the
Mercies of the Lord Jesus Christ with a gracious Promise Lord I will now be thy Servant Devoted to thy Fear You must quickly and you should boldly look Death in the Face with your Souls in your Hands in order thereunto Let me utter that proper word of Command Make Ready I say Make Ready Get out of your unrenewed Estate and Make Ready that at the first Alarum e're long you may have nothing to Do but Fight and Dy. Secondly Let them be none but Pure-hands in which you carry your Lives We read in Isa. 1.15 When you spread forth your Hands I will hide mine eyes from you for your Hands are full of Blood. Even so there are Hands full of Luxury there are Hands full of Injustice but those Hands are not clean enough for your Lives to be carried in them Wherefore as 't is said in James 4.8 Cleanse your Hands ye Sinners Let me call upon you Cleanse your Hands ye Souldiers Let there be no Uncleanness no Disorder found in your Hands Endeavour to have a pure Camp and be Like the Host of God. We read sometimes of a Church in an House Why should you not as well study a Church in a Camp Keep your Camp as free from Swearing Drinking Gaming Rioting and Sabbath-keeping as any Church in the World and let God be worshipped in your Camp as frequently as Devoutly as in a Church This this will render you Terrible as an Army with Banners You may have Military Valour enough to conquer an Indian but you must also have Christian Valour to subdue a Lust. When Peter had Armed people round about him how nimbly how stoutly did he draw upon them but presently after a sorry Damosel made him give way to that which Broke all his Bones O be so Valiant as to put out of your Hands all that may not be Convenient for the Lives which you carry there Thirdly While you have your Lives in your Hands Let your Ends in your Eyes be such as they ought to be Be not acted by Lucre by Revenge by any sorry or Dirty Principles in your present Undertaking but be acted by a sincere Desire to Defend the people of God fâ—om a crew of Unjust Men that are skilful to Destroy 'T is said in 1 Cor. 10.31 Whatever you Do Do all to the Glory of God. Even in the meanest Actions the Glory of God is to be the Star to Guide us the Spur to move us A Godly Man among our first Planters here while he was cuttâ—ng oâ— Wood being asked Who it was for answered I am Cutting of Wood for God. If in Cutting oâ— VVood much more in Killing of Men you should be able to say I am at work for God. Be not thâ— Souldiers of Fortune as they are called but bâ— the Souldiers of Iesus and let the Account thaâ— you may give of your Concerns be this I woulâ— do all I can that the Churches of God may have Resâ— and that therefore those may be cut off who Troubâ— them Let every Bullet be shot with an Eye taking aim at this White when you are Firing up on the Blacks in the Swamps of the Howling Wilderness Fourthly Don't part with â—our Lives out of your Hands without such Demonstrations of Courage as may Confound your Adversaries Let it not be said at your Death He Dyed as a Fool Dyes Have Life in your Hands while you have Lives in your Hands and let them be Lively Hands too in which you carry your Lives To run from a Press is a thing not so generous and the speedy Rebukes of Heaven have been Conspicuously Dispens'd unto some that have done it here But to Run from a Fight is a thing too Cowardly sure for any New-Englander to be guilty of it Let me Exhort you in the words of that Famous General 2 Sam. 10.12 Be of good Courage and let us play the men for our people and for the Cities of our God and the Lord do that which may seem good unto Him. VVhen the Day of Battel comes then to speak Apostolically Quit you like men be strong It is the Glory of the Horse and much more is it for the Souldier his Rider So then to mock at Fear and not be affrighted nor turn back from the Sword but to go on Rejoycing to meet the Armed Men. Your Enemies have made themselves notorious for this Quality That as Difficilius est invenire quam vincere it is easier to kill them than to find them so they can rarely Take any but a shaking Trembling Aim at one that boldly faces them Face them then and when you do it imagine you have that voice from Heaven sounding in your Ears Josh. 1.9 Have not I commanded thee such a Commander have you Be strong and of a good Courage Be not affraid neither be thou Dismay'd for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest At the first Appearance of the Tawny Pagans then Courage brave Hearts Fall on Fall on Couragiously with the Assurance in Psal. 3.6 7. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of the people that have set themselves against me O my God thou hast smitten all mine Enemies Yea when once you have but got the Track of those Ravenous howling Wolves then pursue them vigorously Turn not back till they are consumed Wound them that they shall not be able to Arise Tho' they Cry Let there be none to Save them But Beat them small as the Dust before the Wind and Cast them out as the Dirt in the Streets Let not the Expression seem Harsh if I say unto you Sacrifice them to the Ghosts of the Christians whom they have Murdered They have horribly Murdered some scores of your dear Country-men whose Blood cries in your Ears while you are going to Fight Vengeance Dear Country-men Vengeance upon our Murderers Let your Courage in the Name of God be daring enough to Execute that Vengeance on them But what Cordial shall I procure which may inspire you with such a Valour Let me set before you a few Thoughts which may raise your Spirits to an Elevation beyond what the Ratâ—ling Noises of any Drums or Trumpets can fetch them to CORDIALS Wherefore First Know that your Quarrel is Iust. Indeed the Call and Press of your Superiours is enough to justify you in doing of your part for prosecuting of the War. If the injustice of a War be notoriously Evident and Apparent Judicious Câ—suists then determine that every private Souldier is to declare his own Dissatisfaction and render himself rather Passive than Active in it and Suffer sooner than Engage like Sauls Footmen when bidden to fall upon the Priests of the Lord. But where a War is not thus evidently and apparently unjust the private Souldier must use an Implicit Reliance on the Command of the Supream Power They must answer for it ☞ Besides this Your Superiours themselves have also enough and enough to justify Them in pushing on the present War with the
General happening to over hear them surprised them with that Expression And I pray how many do you count ME for In like manner when you are anxious about the proportion of your Numbers to those that may oppose you the Blessed God interposes And I pray how many do you count me for The Confession that New-England makes to the God of Heaven is The Lord is my King my Lord my Law-giver We may add He will save us And you may sing with him Psal. 18.6 12. The Lord is on my side I will not fear The Nations compassed me about like Bees but in the Name of the Lord I will destroy them all Tho' you carry your Lives in your Hands yet they are not in your own Hands no they are in the Hands of that God without whom not a Sparrow falls and by whom every Bullet is directed You may say as the Syriac version of my Text expresses it My Life is continually in thy Hands O God. The Good God will be careful of your Lives and your Deaths will be precious to the Lord. Know Lastly That your Success is very probable Indeed God may Humble us and Abase us and vex us yet by that Foolish Nation which he has let Loose upon us but we may believe that They shall all shortly perish by the Arms of His New English Israel They What are they but Bloody and Deceitful men And you may look to be Instruments of Executing what God has denounced on them That they shall not Live out half their days Even They themselves not only may but perhaps Do expect utter Desolation and Extirpation and they would soon lay down their Arms if he that hurried the Swine of old had not a wonderful possession of them That old Sagamore and Conjurer Passaconnoway whose Posterity 't is among the rest that we are now galled by When he lay Dying about Thirty Years ago did in a great Assembly of Indians thus take his Farewel of his Children I am ready to Dy said he and I now Leave this Counsil with you Take heed how you Quarrel with the English for tho' you may do them some Hurt you will yourselves be all rooted out of the Earth if you do I was as great an Enemy to the English at their first coming here as any one I try'd all ways to prevent their Settlement but I am convinced there can be no effecting of it These Counsils and Commands are Disobeyed by some of his wicked Children whose Dayes we may therefore think shall not be Long in the Land. Indeed They have none to Assist them but the worst Auxiliaries in the World the Divels and the Papists The Divels have a great Hand in Exciting and Supporting of them and hence the last Winter from the mouth of a possessed Child among us They gave I think a very broad Notice of the Slaughters which the Summer would produce That These have had a Long and an Old Interest in America cannot be reasonably questioned by them that shall read what was written even before the Birth of our Saviour by Diodoras Siculus In very Ancient Times says he the Phenicians tossed with Storms after many days arrived unto this Vast Island as he calls it which then had stately Buildings in it Hither the Divels did seduce a wretched party oâ— Mankind that they might have them out of the Gospels Way when it spred thro' the Old World by the Ministry of the Apostles and here they have Reigned as Kings as Gods without control over millions of people for Ages not a few It has given a terrible Alarum to them that the Silver Trumpets of the Gospel are now at length sounding in their Territories and it puts them into a Flaming Rage that the Way to Salvation by Iesus Christ is proclaimed here Many are the Wiles which they have used for the Discouragement of these Notable Beginnings in which our Lord Jesus is taking the utmost parts of the Earth for his Possession Hence 't is that their Vassals who have more than once been disquieting of us in our Properties and Possessions now have also taken Arms again to make us miserable But as these Attempts and Attacques of Hell upon us have been all Abortive heretofore so we may Apprehend that they will still miscarry The Barbarians may as 't is by Escaped Captives reported that they have by their Diabolical Charms keep our Dogs from Hurting of them but they shall not so keep our Swords from coming at them Faith and Prayer among us hath wonderfully made the Divels themselves to fly before it so shall These too find unto their Cost Tho' the Papists may likewise contribute what Help they can unto these Miscreants and say Mass with them as of Late after their Little Victories yet we need not be disanimated but the rather from thence prognosticate their Approaching Ruine For we too much Distrust our own Observation if we do not now think that the whole Papal Empire which was of late replanting a Tabernacle in the Glorious Holy Mountain between the Seas is very near its End when none shall help it and that the twelve Hundred and sixty Years during which the people of God were to be harrassed by it are not far from their Expiration In a word you may go forth with such a Triumph as that in Psal. 20.7 8 Some Trust in Chariots and some in Horses some in Satan and some in Antichrist But wee will Remember the Name of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen but wee are Risen and stand Vpright And for a close Let me mind you that while you Fight Wee 'l pray Every good man will do it in secret and in private every day and publick Supplications also will be always going for you We will keep in the Mount with our Hands lifted up while you are in the Field with your Lives in your Hands against the Amalek that is now annoying this Israel in the Wilderness It was the Watch Word which a Battel once Commenc'd withal Now for the Fruit of Prayer Now for the Fruit of Prayer To gather that Fruit will be your Errand into the Thickets of our Scythian Desart I therefore conclude with a few BLESSINGS On you which the whole people of God in this Land will say Amen unto We wish That you may be all good Souldiers of Iesus Christ and not want the Spiritual Armour which may enable you to withstand Devils as well as Indians We wish That since our Lord says unto you as he said unto them I send you forth as Sheep in the midst of Wolves this Great Shepherd may preserve you from them and with his mighty Crook defend you when you come into the Valley of the shadow of Death We wish That your Enemies may not have their Lives in their Hands but in Gods slings and that God would Sling them out as out of the middle of a Sling While you that have your Lives in your Hands may have your Souls bound up in the Bundle of Life Finally we wish That your Heads may bee Covered in the Day of Battle that you may by the Almighty God bee made the Liberatores Partie the Saviours of your Countrey and that if any of you must Breath your last in the High places of the Field your Souls may bee Received by Him that has Armies in Heaven Clothed in fine Linen White and Clean. 'T is with these Wishes that wee Bless you in the Name of the Eternal God and the Whole Congregation will say AMEN AMEN Benedictus que dat Fatigato Robur At the North Meeting House in Boston 1 d. 7 m. Afternoon 1689. FINIS