Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	army_n	enemy_n	great_a	1,068	5	2.8750	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40818	A sermon preached at St. Hilary's in the Isle of Jersey before the garrison, April 10th, 1692 by Philip Falle ...	Falle, Philip, 1656-1742.	1692 (1692)	Wing F341; ESTC R9313	21,860	36

but to do Acts of Violence withal Yes when a Soldier is sent to fight against the Enemies of his King and Country then let him in God's Name use his Sword and let him use it like a Man Let him not put it up while there are any that dispute him the Victory God who allows his Calling allows this in a just War But out of the Battel I know no use that a Soldier has for his Sword more than another Man unless to wear it for Decency and as the Badge and Cognizance of his Profession Had John the Baptist spoke here to Soldiers marching into the Field to fight the Enemy he would not have said to them thus largely do Violence to no Man since he was not ignorant there could be no fighting without that But because he knew those to whom he spoke were Soldiers in GARRISON who if they did Violence to any at that time it must be to Poor Peaceable Innocent People their Fellow Subjects among whom they were Quartered therefore he says do Violence to no Man meaning not to such and that 's the reason the Words are so generally express'd There is particularly a sort of Men whose Profession has been always thought so Harmless and Inoffensive so usefull for the supply of the common necessities of the World I mean that of Poor Country People employed in Tilling the Ground that even in an Enemies Country and in the greatest heat of War they have used to remain safe and untouch'd at least in their Persons and there have been in all times Examples of great severities in well Disciplined Armies against those that have done them Violence What a cruel thing then must it be to see these very Men Beaten Wounded nay and sometimes Murdered not by Enemies which were Barbarous enough and against the ordinary Rules of War tho it were even but so but by Friends by their Guests by those that should be a guard to them while they pursue their painful Calling 'T is not only Cruel but it is Base and Cowardly too And a Soldier wrongs his own Reputation who being Armed strikes an Unarmed and Defenceless Man 'T is a Violence to Government For the end of Government is Protection and in all Governments there is especial care taken of Quiet Labouring Industrious People Therefore Soldiers being the Ministers of Government act against the Interest and Design of it when they do Violence to these II. That they accuse no Man falsly In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Play not the Sycophants A Sycophant is he who by false and invidious Insinuations detracts from the worth or innocency of others especially with Rulers and great Men to whom he hath Access and the good or bad Opinion of whom is of great consequence to those whose Words or Actions he misrepresenteth So that Sycophancy is but another word for the worst and more dangerous sort of Calumny Never Age abounded more with Sycophants than that wherein John the Bapist lived We often meet with them in the Historians of that Age under the name of Delators or Informers and they were so great a Nuisance in those days that it is none of the least instances that is given us of Titus and Trajan's gentle and Moderate Reigns that they banished them from Rome The Roman Soldiers in Judea are here charged by John the Baptist with some fault of this Nature Besides private Aspersions upon private Persons they criminated the whole Nation of the Jews Not only deriding their Customs Manners and every thing else wherein they differed from each other as all Nations and Countries in the World do differ in some things but representing them at Rome and in the Emperor's Court as a People that paid but an unwilling Subjection to Caesar though that cry of theirs at our Saviour's Crucifixion We have no King but Caesar shews they were very well pleased then with his Government However this among other things made such Impression at Rome that they incurr'd the general Hatred they were every where spoken against they were called all the ill Names imaginable they were rarely mentioned without the addition of some Opprobrious and Injurious Epithet and the Government it self was so prepossess'd against them that about 20 Years after viz. in the Reign of Claudius they were by Imperial Edict forbidden to set foot in Italy There cannot be a worse Character fixed upon a Man than that of Sycophant Neither can a greater injury be done to any than to wound his good Name But to lay a Blot upon a whole Nation or Country is so much the worse that it can never be done without manifest Injustice because how culpable soever some particular Persons may be it is impossible but a very great many honest Men suffer and be involved in the Calumny Not to say that Men are generally so Precipitate and Rash in their Judgments that they seldom stay to be well informed of a Country ere they venture to report the Character of it But for Soldiers to do this that is to traduce Persons or Countries is still worse and worse because being Men of Honour they must above all others take care of doing any thing that is dishonourable and mean Therefore saies John to those Soldiers that Reproached his Nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Play not the Sycophants or as our Translation renders it accuse no Man falsly He adds III. That they be content with their Wages None ever gave greater Encouragement to Military Men than the Romans which we may justly think to have been none of the least Causes of that vast height of Power and Empire which that mighty Nation attained to in its time It is the hope of Reward that animates a Soldier To those who by some Eminent Action Signalized themselves beyond others as if they kill'd an Enemy in single Combat rescu'd a Citizen scaled a Wall or mounted a Breach they decreed different kinds of Crowns which were powerful Incentives to Noble Spirits that strove for Glory But besides such Rewards as were purely Honorary they had others that were Pecuniary and Lucrative which were also some times Extraordinary as when an Emperor on his Accession to the Throne or a General on the day of his Triumph bestow'd a Donative or Largess on his Soldiers The ordinary I call that constant and daily Pay that was allowed to every Soldier alike for his Subsistence That Pay hath not always been the same among the Romans at all times but hath vari'd rising higher and higher as that mighty State increased in Riches and Dominion I find that the Establishment made by Augustus which stood in John the Baptist his time was to each common Legionary Soldier ten Roman Pence per diem and to Officers proportionably which they received without Deductions their Cloaths and Arms being by a former Law provided also out of the Publick Revenue And this was the Pay or Wages which John

and uncertain whether the first Shot from the Enemy may not be a Minister of the Divine Vengeance sent to dispatch him must be the most desperate Creature living if this does not make him grow Pale and Tremble and does not prompt him to manage a life which gone he knows he is lost and undone for ever And now therefore who cannot but wish that all of that Profession would seriously apply themselves to become truly Religious and Good Whereby they would not only prove Brave and Excellent Men admirably useful to all the ends and purposes of War but would also take off the Stain and Reproach thrown upon the Profession it self as if none but Men of Flagitious and Profligate manners were now fit to make Soldiers and CASTLES and Armies were only Sanctuaries for Thieves and Murderers In short it is an Honourable Noble and Lawful Profession but it is little beholden to those who by their ill Lives have foully Blemish'd the Ancient Glory and Reputation of it And thus I have consider'd the Persons in my Text called Soldiers under which Denomination I said we were to understand Men engag'd in a Military Life as their proper Calling in contradistinction to those that bear Arms without making it their particular Profession I come now to consider 2. The Duty incumbent on such with regard not to the time when they are abroad in the Field fighting against the Enemy there are peculiar Duties for that but when they are Dispers'd into GARRISONS and Quartered upon the Country for the Safety and the Defence thereof For as it hath been observ'd the Soldiers in the Text were Soldiers in GARRISON They saies the Baptist must do violence to no Man that is nor to their Friends those among whom they live and whom they are sent to Protect they must accuse no Man falsly but they must be content with their Wages or their Pay Were we here to enquire into all the Duties and Obligations of Military Men it would carry us farther than the time would admit But this Restriction in the Text to those in GARRISON will contract the Discourse into a less compass The chief use of GARRISONS inany Kingdom or State is to secure its Frontiers against the attempts of such potent Neighbours as are round about it And the more potent those Neighbours are the greater care ought to be taken of those GARRISONS that lie towards them Not long before that John began to Preach and to Baptize the Emperor Augustus in whose time both he and our Saviour were Born had fixed the Bounds of the Roman Empire Judea that Glorious Scene of almost all the great Actions recorded in Holy Writ was one of those Provinces that lay towards the Parthians a Stout and Courageous People with whom the Romans had waged long and bloody Wars with interchangeable Success the Victory often alternating as it doth betwixt Nations of almost equal Power and Military Skill About 80 Years before they had given a notable defeat to Crassus the Roman General whom they had cut in pieces with the best part of his Army And even in Augustus his time they had made Irruption into the Roman Provinces led by Pacorus Son of Orodes their King taking in Syria spreading their numerous Host over all Judea and entering Jerusalem it self where they made Antigonus High-Priest in the room of Hyrcanus whom they deposed and carri'd away into Parthia And though by the good Conduct of Ventidius they were Repuls'd Pacorus slain and the Provinces reduc'd yet within a very little while after when Mark Anthony undertook an Expedition against them he could effect nothing and returned with Dishonour They had the Reputation of the best Horsemen in the World and the Romans dreaded their very Way of Fighting which much resembl'd that of the Tartars at this Day In a word the Romans had not a more Formidable Enemy than that Warlike Nation to encounter with in that Age. Wherefore the great design of those GARRISONS which the Romans had in Judea and other Provinces of the East was to strengthen their line against all impressions from the Parthians on that side With whom because they always had either certain War or which is worse but an uncertain Peace they took a particular care of those GARRISONS which served also to repress any Emotions that might arise within the Provinces themselves Now the Soldiers that came to John's Baptism belonged to those GARRISONS which the Romans had in Judea There is not a more unhappy Situation than that of Borderers who lie betwixt two mighty States that are in Hostility with each other For as it exposes them daily to the Enemies Incursions and makes them sleep with their lives as it were in their hands so it draws upon them the necessary trouble of Quarters and GARRISONS which tho composed of Troops that call themselves Friends prove often so great an Oppression by the Outrages they commit that there is little difference betwixt them and the worst of Enemies This was the Case of the Jews who being seated on the utmost confines of the Roman Empire in the East and having a fierce Nation bordering upon them were sure upon every Rupture to be the first that felt the Miseries and Calamities of the War a Nation that had once pierced into the very heart of their Country forc'd admittance into their Capital City and violated what they esteemed most Sacred amongst them even the Holy Priesthood But all that was not comparable to what they suffered from the Roman GARRISONS Not but that they understood the necessity of them for their own safety and the guard of the Country but the Soldiers of those GARRISONS demean'd themselves so ill Preyed so unmercifully upon the poor Jews that they could hardly have met with worse usage even from the Parthians themselves This was not unknown to John the Baptist who from his Desart and Solitude could hear the cries of the oppress'd People therefore when the Fame of him had drawn some of those Soldiers out of the next GARRISONS to hear him he resolv'd to take the opportunity to remonstrate this to them And first he prepares them by an excellent Sermon of Repentance which draws from them this Pathetick Question What shall we do intimating that his Discourse had wrought upon them and had produc'd in them a desire to be reformed To this Question he Answers with respect to the Country that they should I. Do violence to no Man II. Accuse no Man falsly III. Be content with their Wages Of these in their Order 1. That they should do Violence to no Man Violence is an extensive Word and may be us'd to imply any Injury or Force offered to a Man in his Body or Goods But here I take it in a more limited Sence for an Assault made upon his Person And that 's the Violence forbidden here But is not Violence the Business of a Soldier What does he wear a Sword for