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
Souldiers Counselled and Comforted A DISCOURSE Delivered unto some part of the FORCES Engaged in the Iust War of NEW-ENGLAND Against the Northern Eastern INDIANS Sept. 1. 1689. By Cotton Mather Minister of the Gospel in Boston In publico discrimine omnis Homo Miles est BOSTON Printed by Samuel Green. 1689. To my Much Honoured FRIENDS The Pious and Valiant COMMANDERS Of the FORCES now engaged against our Indian Enemies Gentlemen A Request from One of you was that which I esteemed a Command for my Preaching of a Sermon fill'd with Counsils and Comforts to part of the Forces now under your auspicious Conduct I was too dull to apprehend it either an Impudent or an Improper thing for me to do That While I found a Minister and Him none of the oldest neither charged with a very great Solemnity Preach the Word Be instant in season out of season WATCH thou in all things fulfil the Ministry That which most wants an excuse is the Printing of it which is a Service that I have not been so much a Voluntier unto But the Reasons that produc'd my Labour in Preaching which were my Desire to save the Souls and mend the Lives and promote the Edification of those for whom my Hearts Desire and Prayer to God is That they may be Happy and my Ambition to Encounter and Abolish what I can the Unchristian Temper of those who take advantage from the other Difficulties and Entanglements of the Country to refuse doing their part in carrying on the Indian War the same Reasons have procur'd my Consent to Printing of this Little Sermon As I never can endure that mischievous Impertinency of making the first or chief Exercise after our Hearing to be upon that Question How did you like the Sermon to day So I am not much concerned about the Reception and Entertainment which may be given to this poor Sermon by the Readers of it My not having more than half a day to prepare it in made it incapable of being thus written till since the Delivery of it and it is now written as near as well could be to what it was when Spoken without many more Additions I suppose than may somewhat Ballance the Omissions made in the Transcription The Substaneous and so much Extemporaneous uttering of a Sermon indeed I am so far from accounting a matter of Applause that I do esteem it Evil and Sinful and never free from Blame unless Gods Providence and not our Election have made it Unavoidable nor is any thing in the world more fulsome and nauseous than for a Preacher to value himself upon such a Crime as his not spending much time in Study I do therefore beg pardon that I offer you what is no better Studied not without expectations that whether you pardon me or no there are those that will make me run the Gantlets of their Censures for it and yet had I never so much leisure for study I would not I could not offer you a more Needful Thing than the Matter however I might offer you a more Curious thing than the Method of this Discourse Accept the Sermon as a Little Messenger now sent into the Camp after my Brethren with a little parched Corn to refresh them against their Facing of the Philistines and I beseech you let none of them have their Anger so kindled as to tell me Why camest thou down hither I know thy Pride for give me leave to say it What have I now done is there not a Cause Gentlemen It is the War of the Lord which you are now Engaged in and it is the Help of the Lord that we are at Home affectionately imploring for you We have made a fair and just purchase of our Country from the Natives here not encroaching on them after the Spanish Fashion in any of their Properties and Possessions Yet they are now molesting of us in the Enjoyment of what our God because our Right hath made our own which my Pen cannot mention without Jehoshaphats Ejaculation We destroy'd them not but behold how they Reward us to come to cast us out of thy Possession which thou hast given us to inherit O our God Wilt thou not Judge them I believe I am perswaded and Confident He will. But your Wisdom and Courage is now to be Employ'd in order thereunto and we all wish you such large measures of Both as the matter does require Yow are some of you such as in the former War ventured as far as any men Alive and the God of Armies then blessed you not only with safety but with a success also which we should be very unworthy if we should be unthankful for As you have thereby learn'd what a Treacherous Barbarous Dangerous Enemy you have to deal withal so you are not without a gracious Invitation to Trust in God for your future preservation You may animate your selves with such an Hope as that The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the Lion and out of the paw of the Bear He will also deliver me out of the Hands of the Philistine Your former Deliverances whereof the Honourable Wounds upon some of you are perpetual Monitors and Memorials are a Dish of Leviathans Heads well drest for your Faith to feed upon Feed and Fight now with a strong Faith By That you may wax Valiant in fight and turn to flight the Armies of the Aliens Gentlemen Your Forces are Happy in you none of you being that Debauched sort of Captains which will Drink and Swear and Curse and profane the Sabbath and at the same time give out that Perilous Word of Command Follow your Leader alas whither do they Lead them But I assure my self that you are such as have long since Listed your selves under the Banner of the Lord Iesus Christ Let His Banner over you be Love and are concerned that all your men may under that Banner oppose the Lusts which war against their Souls 'T is the design of this Publication that you may be as Happy in your Forces and that those For whom and With whom you are every day pouring out your Prayers to the Lord of Hosts may not want Encouragements to any of those Combates in which you would see them all Victorious You are in the Head of Companies whom you are generously willing not only to Live but also to Dy withal and the chief thing that I am pursuing is That whether Death join you to them or part you from them You may meet them all e're long at the Right-hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have had many Fears upon my Spirit lest the wonderful Deafness to and Contempt of the Everlasting Gospel found in the Rising Generation here may not cause the Lord Iesus to say That He will not have pleasure in our young men but that he will take them off and lay them waste by the plagues of a destructive War. To prevent such Omens may be motive enough unto many such endeavours as you are
utmost Expedition and Extremity Such were the obscure measures taken at that time of Day that the Rise of this War hath been as dark as that of the River Nilus only the Generality of Thinking people thro' the Country can remember when and why every one did foretel A War. If any wild English for there are such as well as of another Nation did then begin to provoke and Affront the Indians yet those Indians had a fairer way to come by Right than that of Blood-shed nothing worthy of or calling for any such Revenge was done unto them The most injured among them all if there were any such were afterwards dismissed by the English with Favours that were then admirable even to our selves and These too instead of surrendring the persons did as we are credibly informed increase the Numbers of the Murderers But upon the Revolution of the Government the State of the War became wholly New and we are more arriv'd unto Righteousness as the Light and Iustice as the Noon Day When the Helm of this little Vessel was taken out of the Hands of those whose palpable Enmity to the Glorious Designs of His Highness the Prince of Orange added unto the innumerable Oppressions and Vexations which we had sustained under them had made us as Suspicious as we were Ignorant what Port they intended for we then found our selves actually Entangled in a War. A Great Sachim of the East we then immediately applyed our selves unto and with no small Expences to our selves we Engaged Him to Employ his Interest for a good understanding between us and the Party of Indians then in Hostility against us This was the Likely the Only Way of coming at those Wandring Salvages But that very Sachim now treacherously by whose Advice I know not of an Embassador became a Traytor and annexed himself with his people to the Heard of our Enemies which have since been ravaging pillaging and Murdering at a rate which we ought to count Intolerable The Penacook Indians of whom we were jealous we likewise treated with and while we were by our Kindnesses and Courtesies endeavouring to render them utterly Inexcusable if ever they sought our Harm even Then did These also by some evil Instigation the Divels no doubt quickly surprize a Plantation where they had been civily entertained a Day or two before and commit at once more Plunder and Murder than can be heard with any patience What can be now said by any Rational man against the proceeding of the War Shall we permit the whole Province of Main to be over-run by the Indians and their Abettors because the Manners of some people there please us not But how can we answer this unto Their Majesties or are we Rich enough to Loose without Regret the Best part of the New-English Trade And are we so fond so mad as to imagine that the Indians will stop there No they have already made their Incursion into Piscaâ—aqua and in the Massachusets too have they been shedding Blood. Certainly my Countrymen 'T is Time to Look about us We are driven upon a purely Defensive War which we may now make Iustly Offensive to the first Aggressors in it If you now ask as he in Job 13.14 Wherefore do I put my Life in my Hand Behold there is at Hand an Answer for you 'T is Because a combination of Ill Men if such Beasts may be called Men have without any cause Assigned by Them or Afforded by us been shedding the Blood of our Neighbours whom we are to Love as our selves and whose Death is Designed by those Execrable Cannibals but as a Breakfast or a Prologue to praecede our own Secondly Know that your Service is Good. You are Fighting for the Defence and Succour of the Blessed Thrones which our David our Jesus has here Erected for himself 'T is Christo Duce Auspice Christo 't is for Christ and with Christ that you are concerned You are Fighting for them for which the Lord Jesus has Bled has Dy'd It was boasted by that Great General Scipio That such was the Love of his Army to him Every Souldier would even Leap from a Rock into the Sea after him if he would Lead them thereunto O let the Son of God have as much of your Hearts in the War now before you 't is Him whom you are Serving of 'T was said in 1. John 3.16 We ought to lay down our Lives for the Brethren 'T is for such Brethren that your Lives are now called for here is a Country so replenished with them that New England the Happy might we be called for the Christians here more than Arabia so for the Spices in it You are Fighting that the Churches of God may not be Extinguisht and the Wigwams of Heathen swarming in their room You are Fighting that the Children of God may not be made Meals or Slaves to the veriest Tygers upon Earth To Dy Fighting in such a Service may pass for a sort of Martyrdome and if you are meerly for the sake of such a Service willing to forego your Lives you may hope to be found among the Blessed and Holy Ones that shall have a part in the First Resurrection Whether you Dy or Live you shall be Honourable if you Scape we will cast Roses upon you for having Acted your part well in our Tragedies if you fall we will write that Epitaph on your Graves Here Lies a sincere and Valiant Servant of his Country Thirdly Know that your Helper is Great You will be Too many for your Adversaries in-as much as you have with you the Hosts of the Lord the very Angels are your Companions in your present Enterprize An Angel said once to an Apostle I am thy Fellow-Servant and many an Angel does now say to you I am your Fellow-Souldier 'T is mentioned as the Employment of the Angels in Cant. 3.7 8. Behold His Bed which is Solomons the Valiant are about it they all hold Swords being Expert in War because of Fear in the Night It is your Employment also thus you stand about this Bed this Church of the Lord Jesus and the Angels are with you in it But whâ—t cannot one Angel do An Army of an Hundred Fourscore Five Thousand cannot stand before Him. How much more will the Innumerable Company of Angels associating with you give you cause to say with him of old There are more with us than against us Yea and you have the Lord of Hosts Himself with you too You may like Luther sing the Forty Sixth Psalm when you see the Difficulties that you are put upon and sing particularly those Clauses in it The Lord of Hosts is with us He makes Wars to cease unto the ends of the Earth Know that I am God I will be Exalted among the Heathen When some Souldiers were talking together the Night before a Doubtful Battel That their Enemies were thus and so Numerous but that Themselves had but such and such Forces to match them with their Couragious