always hates most where there is most of God yea men may give a shrewd guess where there is most of God by observing where the greatest hatred of the world lies It was certainly the humility of that Army in giving God the Glory of all their victories that chiefly made them so successful and invincible Never did I hear the most valiant of them all and I am sure most of them were so speak one word tending to magnifie themselves No but attributed all to the out-stretched Arm of the Lord of Hoasts the great God of Battels as you heard before neither after so many wonderful Victories did they domineer or insult over any no not over their conquered Enemies but carried ir friendly civilly and courteously towards all men friends and foes in City Town and Countrey insomuch that many thousands which before were their bitter Enemies became their constant Friends and so won them to their own side whereof the then Long-Parliament c. were not a little sensible while the Officers of other Armies plaid the Devil in swearing cursing whoring drinking plundering and abusing the Countrey where ever they came never regarding whether they were Friends or Foes which hardned the hearts of the People against them and you may be sure their Soldiers were not behind them in all sorts of wickedness and how could they be otherwise when they were taught to be so by the evil examples of their own Commanders Now seeing I have said thus much in behalf of that renowned Army it will not I hope offend the Reader if I set down the Names of their Chief Leaders which I have kept in memory ever since the new Model in the beginning of that Year of Wonders 1645 being then in General Fairfax's Regiment of Foot in Captain Bland's Company a brave stout man of a bold daring Courage and Carriage in the face of the fiercest Enemy and most of them were so who would nevertheless cry out still Nothing without God! Absque Deo nihil possumus A True List of the Chief Commanders of the Parliament's Army in the Year 1645 c. Regiments of Horse Gen. Fairfax Lieut. General Commiss General Col. Fleetwood Col. Rossiter Sir Edw Col. Sheaffield Col. Butler Col. Rich. Col. Scroop Col. Graves Col. Pye Sir Robert Col. Disbrow 12 Regim Regiments of Foot The General Major Gen. Skippon Col. Hareley Sir Edw. Col. Rainsborough Col. Montague Col. Hammond Col. Pickering Col. Waller Sir Hardress Col. Weldon Col. Ingoldsby Col. Herbert Col. Fortescue 12 Regim In each Regiment of Horse 600. In each of Foot 1200. besides all Officers Also Col. Okey's Dragoons Ten Troops 1000 Men besides â—â—rrisons and divers independent Troops and Companies but this was the Marching Army which did such wonders I can assure you there was neither Tinker nor Cobler among all these as some would have it Neither did I ever know or directly hear of any such that were Commission-Officers but one or two in all that Army and I knew most of them But what if there had been twenty such I know no reason why they should be jeer'd by their lawful Trades and Callings especially so long as they were brave Fellows as many of them have been to my knowledge yea transcending both in Worth and Valour some that would be thought great Gentlemen But for all this C Hewson though indeed a Shoe-maker they will needs have to be a Cobler suppose it were so yet where was there a stouter braver man in England among the Bullets than he was Col. Pride a Brewer he must be call'd the Dray-man Col. Barksted a Goldsmith stil'd only the Bodkin-maker out of mere malice and so of others If they were such sorry Fellows as they are represented by swearing Cowards then the more shame it is for such Hectoring Gallants to be trampled unner foot by them in the late Wars during which time though our Regiment had been in forty Battels Fights Skirmishes Stormings c. yet in all of them we lost not above 150 Soldiers and but three Commission-Officers viz. Ensign Morris kill'd at Sherborn-Castle in Dorset-shire Aug. 1645. Capt. Hatfield at Preston-Fight Aug. 164â— and Capt. Hammond at Edinburgh-Castle Decemb. 1650. The two last were worthy men indeed both as Christians and Soldiers But if People must needs be still disparaging valiant men only for their Trades and mean Extractions pray let them read and consider the subsequent List and then perhaps they will not so much malign such of their own Countrey that get Honour by Valour viz. Agathocles King of Sicilia a Potter's Son Iphycrates Athenian General a Cobler's Son Eumenes one of Alexander's Generals a Carter's Son Pertinax Roman Emperor a Weaver's Son Dioclesian Rom. Emperor a Book-binder's Son Valentinian Rom. Emperor a poor Rope-maker's Son Probus Rom. Emperor a Gardener's Son Marcus Aurelius Rom. Emp. a Cloth-weaver's Son Maximinus Rom. Emperor a Black-Smith's Son Sabienus Rom. Emperor a poor Shepherd's Son Brimislaus King of Bohemia a Plough-man Pope Sixtus 4. a poor Sea-man's Son Pope John 22. a Shoe-maker's Son Omnis Potestas à Deo est You see now what great things God can do for and by mean men as well as others and for ought I know blind Hewson the Cobler as they will have it might be as good a Man as the Pope's Father I am sure he was a better Christian than either of them who this Year was Lieut. Col. to Col. Pickering 1645. To conclude some are born to Honour others snatch at it some receive it from their Parents others get it by their Atchievments it runs to some in their Blood others rise to it by their Worth and Virtue be their Parts and Abilities 'T is better to get Honour by honourable Deeds than to buy Honour to make our selves honourable than to be made honourable It is easie to inherit Honour but hard to attain Honour See Caryl upon Job p. 1373. He that makes Honour his chief End his Honour will soon have an End As Honour is no Bar against Infamy so 't is not a great Place or Title that makes a man Honourable but the man himself makes the Place so if vertuous Noble Extraction without noble Qualities is rather a Disgrace than a Glory for the Worth of our Progenitors is none of ours No 't is our own Worth that must make us honourable Then what Abjects are they that beg and buy Titles of Honour which other Gallants have got by Pimping In fine strive not to get Honour but to deserve Honour but the Courses taken by some wil never do it Our chiefest Aim should be to promote the Honour and Glory of God above all things for without him we can do nothing Those that honour him he will honour and they that despise him shall be lightly esteemed 1 Sam. 2.30 As many great Men and Monarchs have been and some are now at this very day which should Allarm others and make them consider what are the chief and true Ends of Government and wherefore it is that God hath put such great Power into their Hands which if they do not exert according to his Will he will have his Will on them one way or other O Jacobe Non nobis Domine non nobis sed Nomini tuo da Gloriam FINIS
People as Moab was then hinted in that Chapter of Jeremiah and other Texts And also such plundering massacring murthering Miscreants as the French Dragoons and other such whether atheistical mercenary treacherous Protestants for there are such Beasts in Nature or Jesuitical Papists and such crafty wicked Foxes must in our days be attacked with great Care and Circumspection Against an Enemy in War discreet delays are commendable when Necessity and Reason require it otherwise delays are very dangerous and foolish especially when thereby a fair Opportunity is lost of doing somewhat upon or gaining some Advantage against the Adversary And this kind of Cunctation may proceed sometimes either from Treachery or Cowardize in the chief Leaders or some of them sometimes through the preposterous irregular Conduct of ignorant unexperienced Commanders sometimes again through Infatuation as a just Judgment of God for Reasons best known to himself And perhaps one Reason may be either because the chief Commander or Commanders depend solely and wholly upon their own Skill Policy Courage and Conduct for a Victory exclusive of Divine Assistance or upon the Number or Valour of their Soldiers or both yea many great Armies have been overthrown meerly upon this Account that is in trusting more to themselves than in the help of God And he tells us plainly by the Mouth of his Prophet that they are accursed which trust in the strength and numbers of Men Cursed be he that trusteth in Man and maketh Flesh his Arm c. Jer. 17.5 6 7 8. Such Commanders have been always censured either for Traitors Fools or Cowards that declined fighting the Enemy when an Opportunity joined with a probability of gaining a Victory has been offered them No valiant Commander trusting in God was ever yet in love with delays his Faith and Hope in the Lord of Hosts making him as bold as a Lyon therefore rather delights in down-right Blows than wandring in the devious Paths of intricate impracticable Policy or ranging in the untrodden uncertain Mazes of groundless ineffectual procrastinating Counsels especially when necessity and urgency of Affairs call for Celerity and Expedition I knew a great Commander in the late Wars that suffered much in his Reputation among the older and wiser sort of Captains for his dull and slow Methods against the Adversary at several Places where he had been entrapp'd and befool'd by them and though he had the good luck to escape with his Brigade without Destruction yet not without loss and shame enough sometimes And for all this to give him his due he was inferiour to none for personal Valour But because his Conduct as I said and manner of ordering Matters when near or in sight of the Enemy was so remiss cold careless heavy-headed and himself always inapprehensive of imminent Danger when there was a real Cause to be very solicitous and highly concerned and I could name where and when that was made divers old Officers say they did not care to go with him upon any Service against a potent Enemy Oliver Cromwel though a wise and wary General yet he could never away with Cunctation always impatient of delays especially when in sight of the Adversary believing and knowing by Experience that Celerity effected more than Force it self sometimes and he never failed of Victory up Hill or down Hill few or many no nor was scarcely ever foiled in his greatest and and most dangerous Undertakings having Ways and Methods of fighting peculiar to himself in many things contrary to the Courses and Counsels of other Generals whereof his strong Faith and invincible Courage were the principal As to the first it was very strange to all Men and his Army themselves that the day before the Battle at Worcester he commanded several Parties of Horse to several Bridges and Passes whither he supposed his flying Enemies would run to escape him the next day and where they were stopp'd and taken by the said Parties in Front and others in the Reer as if he had been sure of the Victory before-hand as it seems he was indeed nay he said as much to many Officers of his Army that very Morning before he began to fight And would often cry out Oh! if we had but Faith these Men would be but Bread for us meaning the Adversary Yea a day or two before Preston-Fight in Lancashire in Aug. 1648. he ordered the Lord Grey and Captain Widmerpool with their Troops to watch the Northern Roads of Cheshire and Staffordshire conjecturing the Scottish Horse would run that Way when he had routed them whereof he made no doubt though he had but 8000 against their 28000 as they themselves gave out and so it came to pass accordingly for at Vttoxater in Staffordshire the said Lord Grey met fought with and routed Duke Hamilton's Body of Horse and took himself Prisoner with many more His constant manner was before he entred upon Action first earnestly to implore the direction and help of God in Prayer with all his Officers then to deliberate and when once resolved how to proceed and what to do he fell on like a storm of Hail and clap of Thunder through thick and thin Horse and Foot though his Enemy out-numbered him never so much Yea his Charges were so fierce and furious that the Devil could not stop him as Prince Rupert and others used to say of him and which he knew and felt many times by woeful Experience so that he carried all before him and to be sure made room where-ever he came But I fear Envy will peck at me for saying this little of my renowned General yet I must say a little more of him and his Army too I must confess I ever hated and scorned to trample upon the Ashes of any valiant Man or Men be otherwise what they will yea though Enemies which rather becomes Men of base low sordid Spirits than generous Souls who scorn and abhor such dirty sneaking pitiful ways of degrading and vilifying Persons of Honour and Worth who with me will honour the Memory of a brave and noble Enemy as well as of a worthy Friend I ever loved a Soldier as a Soldier as I have been my self In the mean time take notice that I meddle not with the grounds of Quarrels nor the Cause contended for in those days When Ireland was all lost from the Parliament and in the Power of the adverse Party in the year 1649. only Dublin and London-Derry excepted yet that brave Oliver landing there only with 10000 Men did great things in few weeks and great Wonders in few months in setting all Friends and Protestants at liberty and free'd them from all fears of Enemies in a very short time Now this being only matter of History methinks none should be offended at it seeing it is nothing but the Truth And you know 't is alone with God to save by few as by many 1 Sam. 14.6 2 Chron. 14.11 For there is no King saved by the multitude of an Host Psal
33.16 17. And that 's the strongest side where God is be they never so few Experientia docet Now for his Army And such an Army as never was the like in all the World for all Vertues I dare swear it They were always true and faithful to their Trust and as valiant upon all Adventures let the Service be never so difficult or dangerous they made nothing of it They did not say Go you and go you no but come Lads let us on on on in the Name of the Lord of Hosts And in truth they went on to a Battle yea to many Battles and Attacks as if to a Banquet and calling upon God while their Enemies were cursing and damning which is still in fashion When they went to storm any great Town or City they were not in the least concerned but fell on with such alacrity and liveliness of Mind as if they had been sure to conquer before-hand Many Cities Towns Forts and Castles they took by pure Valour with very little or no loss at all sometimes nay their very Enemies would say of them and they said true that they made but a Play and Sport of Fighting Yea the soberest of them have said of that Army That they should never beat them unless God would stand Neuter and you know what that implies They never lay still in Summer nor sneak'd into Winter-Quarters while there was an Enemy in the Field or a considerable Garrison untaken scorning to lie still and take Pay for nothing no but were often upon Service even in the deep of Winter not seeking to lengthen out the War for their own private ends but very earnest to put an end thereto which is never found in mercenary Armies who use to say If we catch the Hare this Summer we shall have none to hunt the next The Commission Officers of that Army were sober chaste temperate religious Men free from all sorts of Debaucheries kind to their Soldiers very just in paying them and as severe in punishing Misdemeanors whereby they were both beloved and feared very punctual and discreet in composing Differences between their Soldiers and Land-Lords c. there was neither Plundering Cursing Swearing Whoring Drunkenness nor any such Vices to be found amongst them Most of their Soldiers if not all of them were civiller and soberer in all their Carriages and Behavior than the Officers of other Armies a great rarity never the like seen in any Army but that alone nor I think never will be again They were exercised most commonly on Muster-days and in handling Arms they were second to no Army that ever was most of their Captains being very expert in such Matters many of them having been Members of the famous Military Company of London where they learnt the first Rudiments of War They never stood upon Numbers against an Enemy but whether few or many 't was all one to them in their greatest Attempts For as in Oral Disputes it is not Numbers but strength of Arguments that prevail against the Opponents so in Warlike Disputes it is not numbers of Men but the force of Courage and Resolution in a few that prevails against a numerous potent Enemy whereof they had many Experiences as for instance at Dunbar Fight there was but 5000 of them fought and routed almost 30000 in half an hour's time and all the way up-hill though now they and such as they are scorned and not thought worthy to be employ'd because they cannot pronounce Shibboleth Judg. 12.6 nor say Crows are white which they will never do while they continue to black as they are Verbum sat Rebus in adversis animum submittere noli In the Month of June 1657. 400â— of that Army routed 16000 near Dunkirk led by Don John of Austria and the D. of Y. while the French Horse which should have seconded them looked on and never stirred till the Spanish Army fled and then O brave then they cried Sa Sa Sa Sa for they are very valiant against a Flying Enemy Every Regiment had an able sound Preacher for their Chaplain so that every day in the Week while they lay encamped there was a Sermon or two to be heard and always thronged with Officers and Soldiers besides private Prayers in the Tents of divers Colonels and Captains among themselves and which was their practice all along And therefore I can truly say That no City or Corporation in the World could match them in all things especially for Civility and Piety Yea they conquered more with their Prayers than with their Swords I say the weight of their Faith and Prayers were heavier than the strength of their Arms in repressing their Adversaries They pray'd them down as well as fought them down Not by might nor by power but by the Spirit of the Lord of Hosts Zech. 4.6 But some I know before-hand will make a mock to this or they have lost their old wont and no wonder since Clergy-men have done the like even at Scripture-Phrases and so they will at what I shall now deliver viz. In August 1650. not long before Dunbar-Fight the then Governor of Edinborough-Castle viz the Laird Dundass a sober Gentleman hearing of and also beholding and observing with his Prospective-Glass the Order and Religious Exercises of that Army as they lay encamped on a place called Penthland-Hills about a mile from the said Castle was so affected therewith that he cried out to those about him Oh! there 's no prevailing against a praying Army And for my own particular part I can and must declare that I learnt more good in that Army than ever I did in all my Life before yea many bless'd God that ever they came into it for the same Reasons for it was a Nursery of good Manners and a Seminary of Vertue and Piety in both which I am sure they transcended both the Universities for all they stile themselves the Two Great Lights of England But methinks their Lights are grown very dim of late Years or how comes it to pass that there is so much of the works of Darkness practised among them viz. Vice and Wickedness especially in the junior sort which ought to be inspected by their Seniors and would be had they the true Light of the Grace and Spirit of God within them Hundreds of Soldiers have at least been civilized only by being in that Army which before were rude Fellows as many of them confest and chiefly through the good Examples and Encouragements of their sober religious Officers In the Year 1652. that Army made a free and voluntary Collection among themselves both Officers and Soldiers towards the encouragement of Ministers to Preach the Gospel to the Natives in New-England which amounted to many Hundreds of Pounds if not some Thousands the least that any Soldier gave in our Regiment was 2 s. many of them gave 3 s. and 5 s. a man The Company wherein I was then a Lieutenant gave with their Officers 25 l. 15 s. and 6 d. By which
have seen more of the Presence of God in that Army than amongst any People that ever I conversed with in all my Life for there hath been a very sensible Presence of God with them they have seen his goings and observed his footsteps c. Here I skip seven Lines though harmless enough but some can call the Fox's Ears Horns How often hath fearfulness and trembling taken hold upon the Enemy and the stout men been at a loss for their and the men of might for their hands c. Three Lines more omitted Every Battel wherein they fought they prevailed Two Lines more omitted because God was with them I doubt this will be called Treason this shall be written for the Generations to come but this Atheistical Papistical Generation will not bear it because there is so much of God in it though 43 yers since seeing so many of this present Generation so little regard it and the People that are to be born shall praise the Lord. 6. The Sixth remarkable thing in this Army is Their Faithfulness to the State c. How have they gone up and down in weariness and labours dangers and deaths to do the Work When was it that they sate idle Have they not as soon as one Battel was fought prepared to another as soon as one City was taken advanced to another and gone on till all be reduced that Peace might be hastned to the Kingdom if it were the Will of God and not come as a Snail but on Eagles wings Have they not been active all the winter long in a most cold and frosty season that continued for two Months together viz. all December and January beating the Enemy out of the Field and taking their strong holds when other Armies use to lie still I knew some that came not into a Bed 14 Months together Have they taken the Pay of Idleness or lived the Life of Luxury Have they sought to lengthen the War for their own advantage Have they not made even a short work I challenge all the former Generations of the world to stand forth and to shew so much work of this kind done in so little time and by all these Successes have they ever been lifted up as to make proud Demands Eight Lines more omitted here Nay I declare this to all the Kingdom that as God hath made them glorious in doing so he hath made them contented to be perfect by suffering if it be the will of God And most confident I am that though some men for private Ends and Interests are murmuring and others speaking out against this Army as the perverse Israelites against Moses and Aaron yet the Lord in his due time will take away the reproach of all his People therein This I have spoken in truth and sincerity to the Kingdom and to that Army I shall say VVho is like unto thee O People saved by the Lord who is the Shield of thy help and the Sword of thine Excellency and thine Enemies shall be found Lyars unto thee and thou shalt tread upon their high places Deut. 33.29 This is all except above twenty Lines omitted for fear of offending which yet cannot be excepted against as untrue and this Character being such as my self and many more can truly testifie I cannot therefore but once again affirm that there was never such an Army in the whole World Jew nor Christian as that was for all Vertues especially for Justice Temperance Sobriety Chastity Humanity Morality and Piety It is seldom that God prospers a wicked debauched Army unless against such as they are themselves and that is the wicked chastising the ungodly which are as two Pitchers dashing against one another till both are broken the Conqueror coming off many times with as great loss as the Conquered But very rarely doth God honour such wicked Armies in doing any great good for his Church or make them special Instruments in carrying on his own work in the world directly because they are neither Spirited nor Principled for such a glorious undertaking nor in the least fitted for it No it is the Sons of Zion that he employs chiefly and directly next under himself in the hehalf of Zion others only by the by serving as a Thorn-bush to stop a gap for a while to keep out the wild Boars and the Foxes from tearing his Vine too much Cant. 2.15 Psal 80.13 at other times sets them to beating of the Bush for his own Fowlers to catch the Birds as the Earl of Essex his Army did for Fairfax his civil religious Army in those days Though God hath often for Sin punish'd and almost ruin'd his own people in their temporal Concerns in all Ages by wicked men as the Jews by the Assyrians Syrians Philistians Babylonians and other barbarous Nations of old in the Ten Persecutions of the Christians under Rome Pagan and many times since that by Rome Papal and now of late the Protestants in France But when Ephraim is against Manasses and Manasses against Ephraim and both against Judah viz. the true Gospel or Scripture-reformed Church this is sad indeed and a greater Argument of divine displeasure against them or some of them than when the worst of men are let loose upon them from both which Calamities I pray God deliver and keep these Nations wherein may the VVolf dwell with the Lamb the Leopard lie down with the Kid the Lion with the Calf and the Child play on the hole of the Asp c. Isa 11.6 7 8 9. I say God continue all sorts of Protestants in peace and unity among themselves and labour to beware of the Jesuits dividing Principles and the Devil 's divided foot and other Incendiaries and treacherous Dealers viz. false self-ended self-interested Protestants and Clergy-men too I say if we have not a great care of these Miscreants and keep peace and concord among our selves we shall without a miracle be made a prey to the common Enemy which daily wisheth and watcheth for an opportunity to ruine us which they cannot do but by dividing us And now the time is come at last that most people begin to think of and to know the worth of that Army by the want of it and would they not in these perilous treacherous times prize such another But their Equals in all things are not easily to be found yet God can raise up and qualifie others of this present Age to do his work as well as they as I hope he will but if they should prove indeed like the old praying Army in virtue and piety they would be scorned mocked and abhorred of all the sorts of wicked men For Oliver's Army because they could not live like Debauchees of the world in their days nor tread in their hellâ—sh steps On how were they hated of all the drunken whoring swearing cursing damning crew of Great Britain Whose Raiâ—ings they answered with silence and contempt and passed by them with an honourable scorn What Christian knows not that the world