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A01690 Christiana-Polemica, or A preparatiue to warre Shewing the lawfull vse thereof. The iust causes that may moue thereunto. The necessitie of preparation for it. The duties of those that wage it. Together with diuers instructions concerning it. A sermon preached at Wooll-Church in London, before the captaines and gentlemen that exercise in the artillerie-garden vpon occasion of their solemne and generall meeting. Aprill 14. 1618. By Abraham Gibson, Bachelour of Diuinity, and then preacher to the temples. Gibson, Abraham, b. 1586 or 7. 1619 (1619) STC 11828; ESTC S118766 14,920 48

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they crie for the Lord so also for Gideon Gideon is added for further incouragement to them and further terrour to their enemies For we daily read how that the very name of some valiant Captaines Caesar Alexander and the like haue daunted the enemies without striking a blow That as it is said of the swords of Hazaell Iehu and Elisha 1. King 19. 17. Him that escapeth the sword of Hazaell shall Iehu slay and him that escapeth from the sword of Iehu shall Elisha slay So here of God and Gideon He that will not be affrighted at the name of God why yet that man shall tremble at the name of Gideon though he but Gods Liefetenant Now Gideon hath a twofold consideration First Gideon a meane man Secondly Gideon a single man First Gideon a meane man his Family by his owne confession was poore in Manasseh and he the least in his fathers house as it is in the former chapter He was not trained vp in feates of armes or facts of chiualrie more skilfull in tilling the ground then pitching a feild in handling a flaile then tossing a pike yet when God had made him their Prince appointed him their Captaine presently they follow his direction and forgetting all sinister respects they crie out for Gideon for Gideon Non nobis Domine non nobis sed nomini tuo seruo tuo not for our selues our wiues our children or our estates but for Gideon A good Captaine is aequipollent to the whole Armie Plus in Duce repones quam in exercitu saith Probus of Epaminondas Me verò Ducem tuum pro quot nauibus aestimas saith Demetrius in Plutarch Whence it was said better haue an armie of Stagges and a Lyon Captaine then an Armie of Lyons and a Stagge the Leader The hazard of all standeth in the hazard of the Prince or Captaine And therefore neglecting both themselues and the meanesse of his beginning they crie for Gideon for Gideon To teach vs when we haue Gods warrant not to regard the weakenesse of the meanes the weaknesse of God being stronger then men 1. Cor. 1. for though Gideon was not a trained Souldier yet the Angell of the Lord calleth him a valiant man because the Lord was with him The Lord is with thee thou valiant man Iudg. 6. 12. As Christ cured so God saueth without meanes nay against meanes Howsoeuer therefore the instrument seeme weake which God setteth ouer vs yet wee must not intertaine distrust and diffidence but ioyne the respect of our Gouernours with our repose in God For the Lord and for Gideon Secondly for Gideon a single man and this confirmeth that Polemicall rule In bello magis expedit Principatus Monarchicus quam Aristocraticus better in warre to haue one Generall then many one singular then many good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many Captaines lost the Citie Whence the Romanes in time of warre did alwaies chuse them a Dictator which was aboue their Consuls and Scipio in Iustine I had rather saith he take one Zopyrus then a hundred Babilonians A dangerous thing to haue Corriuals in warre as well as in loue-matters because that enuie and emulation will nourish discord and faction But I ●resse not this point because it is more Polemicall then Theologicall ●●tter to bee discoursed in Gideons●ent ●ent then in Moses chaire Onely for our instruction you ●ee the people here are content with the Captaine whom God set ouer them they labour not to set vp ●ny Anti-captaine They dispute ●ot his inexperience or insufficien●ie as did Nabal to Dauid 1. Sam. 25. Who is Dauid or who is the sonne ●f Iesse what portion haue wee in Gideon or what inheritance in the sonne of Ioash but in a holy submission whatsoeuer he commaunded them that they put in practise for the Lord and for Gideon For certainly where God is honoured there Gideon will be obeied where the feare of God is there will be reuerence of the Magistrate There is no Parenthesis betwixt God and Caesar in Christs speech no medium twixt the Lord and Gideon in the people crie For the Lord and for Gideon And from these two persons iointly ariseth a necessarie condition requisite to euery warre namely that the cause be iust groundes either on religion to God or loyaltie to our Prince For it is religion that maketh a man truely valiant the righteous are bold as a Lyon If they liue they know by whom they stand If they die they know for whose sake they fall Hence it is that Thomas requireth three things in the vndertaking of any warre Authoritas Principis causa insta intentio recto a lawfull commission a iust occasion an vpright intention Otherwise to wage warre where a man is not fully perswaded of the iustnesse of his cause be it iust or vniust he sinnes mortallie saith the Schoole Then what shall we thinke of all your Duellists who being priuate persons vpon euery triuiall occasion will be pointing field The taking of the wall or giuing of a disgracefull word is quarrell iust enough as though either of their honours were of more worth then both their soules Such men certainely know not what it is to liue and care not how they die If there were any feare of God or reuerence of man any respect of life or death they would neuer giue themselues ouer to this highest pitch of madnesse In which it is hard for a man to determine who scapes best he that killeth or he that is killed For a man is pressed with an vnanswerable Dilemma on both sides If he be killed he hazardeth with his body his soule because hee dieth in passion and distemper If he kill hee hazardeth with his soule his body because hee fighteth both against God and against Gideon Against God whose image he extinguisheth and against Gideon whose law he contemneth And therefore both the wrath of God followes him and the sword of Gideon ouertakes him hee must answere it both to the Lord and to Gideon And so much for the first thing the parts of the distribution both for the Lord and for Gideon Now a word or two of the second thing the order of the parts First for God and then for Gideon And because for God therefore for Gideon because Gideons authoritie is from God So then for the Lord and for Gideon that is simply and absolutely for God subordinately and dependantly for Gideon primarily for God and secondanlie for Gideon A good lesson for all Souldiers and militarie men to direct them both in the beginning continuance and end of their battels For the beginning wee must first looke to the cause of God Giue him the vpper hand giue his quarrell the preheminence Yet is not a subiect alwaies to dispute whether the cause be iust if his Prince commaund because he is a Minister of the law not a
causalitie in this kinde peculiar and proper to him He is the efficient cause thereof By mee Kings raigne and Princes beare rule the great Centurion that saith to euery creature Goe and he goeth Come and he commeth Fight and he fighteth He is the formall and exemplary cause thereof Hee teacheth my hands to warre and my fingers to fight saith Dauid He girdeth mee with strength vnto the battell and subdueth mine enemies vnder me He is the instrumentall cause my rocke and my Fortresse saith Dauid in another place my shield and strong tower and a buckler to all them that trust in him And therfore it standeth with good reason that he should be the finall cause too in whose name all battels must be begunne and to whose glory they must be deuoted And hence it was that the Iewes neuer went out to warre vnlesse they first offered sacrifice and wee in our Baptisme doe take Sacramentum militare an earnest penny or presse-money to become Christs Souldiers And to this end we weare his colours and are attired in his liuerie with a solemnevow to fight for him and that not onely in the spirituall warfare where we put on the armour of God but euen in the corporeall also where we put on armour for God Not that God standeth in need of any helpe of man he requireth no Champion hee can vindicate his owne cause without vs nay against vs but because the law of subordination and retaliation doth exact so much Wee are his vassals vnder him to whom we owne suit and seruice we are children begotten and created by him to whom wee owe feare and reuerence and therefore must thinke our selues obliged in a double bond to defend his cause who doth himselfe pleade ours to die in his quarrell by whose prouidence wee liue whose gracious goodnesse it is to turne that to a blessing which at first was a curse so sweetning death which is a punishment as to cause vs to die for his name so sweetning life which is a warfare as to cause vs to fight for his sake In which quarrell though a man die in warre yet doth he also depart in peace in conflict with men but in peace with God because he putteth on as a militarie habite so a peaceable minde Good Christians go to warre saith Bernard both meekely and couragiously agnis mitiores Leonibus fortiores innocent as Doues because they imitate Christ and bold as Lyons because they fight for Christ And to this end the Christians in their ensignes they beare the Crosse to shew they fight in Christs behalfe And hitherto allude all your auncient orders of Knighthood as Knights Hospitallers and Templers Knights of S. Iohn of Ierusalem and S. Iames of Compostella and Knights of the holy Ghost which Henrie the third of Fraunce instituted whose ensigne was the Doue in the midst of a Crosse intimating that they were not to fight but either in Gods cause implied by the Crosse or in a iust and innocent cause signified by the Doue The Pope he would faine be accounted Master of this order For as though he were elected Gods immediate Vicegerent aboue Caesar and Gideon and all Princes hee taketh vpon him to institute warres at his pleasure against Infidells and those whom he calleth Heretikes or whosoeuer dare but mutter at his vsurped authority And this hee calleth by the name of a Croysadoe or holy warre the marke whereof is a red scarfe which the Souldiers weare in their Troupes Such a warre Pope Innocent decreed against the Valdenses and Pope Martin the fourth against Peter King of Arragon And it is a miserable thing to consider how many hundred thousands of men haue bin cōsumed throughout all Christendome by those voyages into the holy Land at the Popes appointment The zeale of this iourney hath eaten vp Christians and enlarged the Popes territory who tooke this opportunitie to send Emperors and Kings afarre of that hee might wrong them at home without controule What Is this to fight for Christ to spill the bloud of Christians as it were in a humour for his owne gaine Is this to be called a holy warre Sure as improperly as he a holy Byshop or that a holy action whereby he hath diuers times giuen away the Kingdomes of England Fraunce Sicily Naples and the rest to those that could get them or Palestine the holy Land which is rather to be accounted an accursed Land as the Iewes were sometime Gods people but now are an accursed people a Land of it selfe not worth the recouery were it not for the rescue of some Christians there in thraldome and for the expelling the Turke out of the Christian confines Yea and all such proiects as these they were neuer deriued from heauen but hatched in hell This is not to be Gods Vicar but Sathans Liefetenant not Successour to Peter but Predecessour to damnation This is to fight against God and man against the Lord and against Gideon not to crie with the people here For the Lord and for Gideon But for vs Beloued let vs bee sure as in all our actions so especially in warre cases to take God along with vs. For as there is no Captaine to be compared to the guidance of his Spirit no policy to his prouidence no aides nor allies to his assistance so on the contrary no sword woundes so deepe as his desertion no Foe like his frowne no danger like his displeasure As if hee be with thee no man can be properly against thee because all things worke together for the best of those that are his So if he be not with thee all men may be said to be against thee because all creatures bow at his becke and become as roddes of his indignation to take vengeance on those that doe euill You know how in the old Testament they still asked counsell of the Lord before they went vp to fight against any people and the Heathen themselues vsed in like manner to aske aduice at their Oracles so let vs be sure that we haue the Lords call and the Lords allowance Otherwise we shall haue the same successe that the Israelites had when they fought against the Amalakites contrarie to the Lords will Numb 14. Wherefore as Barak said to Deborah Iudg. 4 8. If thou wilt go with mee then I will go but if thou wilt not go with me then I will not go so must we to God Let his cause awaken vs let his presence prepare vs let his glory prouoke vs let his Spirit possesse vs let his name go before vs and then no enemie can annoy vs. Stand wee for the Lord and the Lord will stand for vs. If wee fight with Gideon for the Lord the Lord will fight with vs for Gideon Which is the second part of the first generall braunch As