conclude rashly that this subject The Souldiers Commission Charge and Reward is therefore like an Almanack out of date because wars in Ireland are blessed be God for the present at an end but well weigh with me these following Considerations 1. These truths are all grounded upon and extracted from the holy Scriptures which are always profitable for very good ends and uses as the Apostle declareth Rom. 15.4 1 Tim. 3.16 2. They were preached when they were most seasonable although they passed not the Presse till now even in the height of war there when I suppose few or none of our English Divines had handled this Theame by reason of our long continued Peace formerly in these Nations 3. It is wisdome to keep in store by you a Soveraign Receipt though there be no present need of it that it may be in readinesse when need shall require 4. As long as we have wars else-where by Sea and land directions are necessary for all such as are or shall be employed therein how to demeane themselves in this work of the Lord aright 5. Such as have been actors in these precedent wars now past have yet need to look back and compare all their proceedings from the first to the last with the rules which God hath prescribed them to walk by that they may have comfort in their weldoings or repent of their failings 6. Although the Souldiers Commission and Charge were terminated yet the Reward of such as have been faithfull and diligent in this service of the Lord observing his will and aiming at his glory shall never have end To God alone through Jesus Christ be all Glory world without end Amen A SERMON preached at the Funeral of Sir CHARLES COOTE senior who Deceased the 7th of May 1642. JEREM. 48.10 Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood IN this Chapter is comprised Moabs doom which is the destruction of that Nation v. 8. the spoiler shall come upon every City saith the Lord no City shall escape but they shall all be desolate without any inhabitant v. 8 9. for this end the Prophet enumerateth the sins wherewith the righteous Lord was incensed to pass this sentence upon them and these were carnal confidence in their riches v. 7. and in their numbers might and strength for war v. 14. their idolatry v. 13. contempt of God v. 26. and derision of his people v. 27. arrogancy pride and haughtiness of heart v. 29. This verse containeth the Chaldeans charge who were to be the executioners of that judgement on the Moabites to do their work throughly without sparing one or other Cursed be he saith the Lord that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully or negligently as it is in the margin for the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth both And that all may know what is here meant by the work of the Lord he expoundeth himself in the next words Cursed is he that keepeth back his sword from blood that is from the slaughter of the Moabites Hence we clearly gather That the right waging of a lawfull war is a work that God will own Doctrine This truth is further ratified by those titles wherewith the Lord stileth himself elswhere Jer. 10.16 The Lord of hosts is his name and Exod. 15.3 the Lord is called a Man of war as also the battels that David fought are termed the Lords battels 1 Sam. 1.17 and he is said to go forth against the Churches enemies in the Name of the Lord of hosts the God of the Armies of Israel 1 Sam. 17.45 This might suffice for proof but because this truth hath been of old and is at this day by some much controverted I shall briefly annex some other grounds for it Vide Ames de conscion l. 5. c. 33. sect 4. Argument 1. God cannot but allow of that which is done by vertue of his own command provided alwaies that it be performed in a right manner Now God hath commanded that whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the Image of God made he man Gen. 9.6 Thus he commanded Gideon to go against the Midianites to smite them and promised to go with him Judg. 6.14 16. saying to him Go in this thy might and save Israel from them have not I sent thee and again Prov. 20.18 With good advice saith the Lord by the mouth of Solomon make war 2. As he giveth a Commission so he giveth his Spirit to some for strength to turn the battel from the gate Isa 28.6 as well as for judgement to him that sitteth in judgement where he sheweth that a souldier is as necessary in time of war as a Judge in time of peace 3. He furnisheth those whom he calleth forth for his service not only with strength but likewise with singular dexterity and skill he teacheth their hands to war and their fingers to fight as he did Davids for which he blesseth the Lord who fitted him for the work and then employed and blessed him in it Psal 144.1 4. We finde him highly commending those who have behaved themselves excellently in this His work in 1 Chron. 11.11 26 c. where we have a catalogue of Davids Worthies reckoned up according to their several ranks and degrees of prowess and they are called more Honourable then others who were more valiant and slew more then others v. 20 21 23. 5. We finde him also distributing large and ample rewards to men eminently serviceable in this kind for he made David a sure house because he fought the battels of the Lord 1 Sam. 25.28 Loe here Davids house was surely founded in the blood of the enemies of the Lord. 6. He disposeth as he pleaseth of the events of warre and the Saints have ever ascribed their victories unto him alone 1 Chron. 29.11 and have accounted them exceeding great mercies and blessed him for the same which they would not have done but would rather have confessed themselves to have been guilty of hainous sins as of cruelty and murther in obtaining them if so be warfar in it self had been unlawfull Our fathers saith the Church got not the land in possession by their own sword neither did their own arm save them but thy right hand O Lord and thine arm and the light of thy countenance because thou hadst a favour to them Through thee will we push down our enemies through thy Name will we tread them under that rise up against us Psal 44.3 5. 7. Lastly The Lord hath sharply taxed such as have been called to this work and have refused to come either through divisions or imployments of their own either about husbandry or Merchandize as you may see in Judg. 5.14 16 17. where we have those tribes recorded to their everlasting honour that came readily to Barak against Amalek as Ephraim Zebulun the Princes of Issachar and Naphtali and on the other side those are
Let us not then be troubled with the multitude of the Rebels nor their bloody threats and intentions if they prevail nor yet with the successe now and then attending their enterprizes but let us weigh their cause with our own in the ballance of the Sanctuary and then all may see whom God in fine will side with when he hath truly humbled and fitted his people for deliverance The just Causes of war in Scripture are such as these 1. Men may lawfully defend themselves and friends being unjustly assaulted having a Calling from God so to do Thus Abraham fought for his Nephew Lot and rescued him and his Allies having slain the invaders and is highly commended for it Gen. 14.14 18 19. and * Exod. 22.2 Multò magis licitum est defendere propriam vitam quā domum Aquin. 22. q. 64. he that defendeth not himself when he may is guilty of his own wrongs 2. The Children of Israel took up Arms against the Children of Reuben the Gadites and half Tribe of Manasseh and questionlesse they would have therewith pursued them if they had not given them good satisfaction for innovation in Religion and Gods Worship Josh 22.11 12. 3. God approves of the punishing of Capital offenders and such as protect them by force of Armes Judg. 20.13 4. David pursued the Amalekites by the Lords appointment and smote them for * Concil Lateran Sess 4. Publicas injurias usurpationes injustas princeps aequo animo ferre nō debet sed totis viribus quae sua sunt servare arrepta armis recipere plundring Ziglag and so recovered the goods and persons whom in a hostile manner they had taken away 1 Sam. 30.8 16. 5. God proclaimed an irreconcileable war between Israel and Amalek till they should blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven Here is an extirpation of Nation and name commanded if you demand for what fault The Lord giveth in their Inditement Deut. 25.17 18. Remember what Amalek did to thee by the way saith God to Israel how he met thee coming from Egypt and smote the hindmost of thee even all that were feeble behind thee when thou wast faint and weary and he feared not God Thou shalt never forget it v. 19. 6. Wherefore did David destroy the children of Ammon and besiege Rabbah but for the Villany of Hanun in taking Davids servants and shaving off one half of their beards and cutting off their garments in the middle even to their Buttocks and sending them away in this guise 1 Sam. 10.4 and 11.1 Did the Irish let the English of either sex escape so 7. King Ahab slew Naboth for his Vineyard and after his death tooke possession for which reason the Prophet Elijah told him from the Lord that in the place where dogs licked Naboths blood the dogs should also lick his blood even the Kings for murthering his honest Subject which accordingly came to passe for after he was slain in battel he was brought to Samaria where one washed his chariot in the pool and the dogs licked his blood according to the word of the Lord 1 King 21.19 Now all these grounds and other apparent causes have we of the English Nation to proceed in like sort against our Antichristian and bloody adversaries in Ireland who 1. Have been long mancipated to grosse Idolatry 2. Against the Law of the Land they took the sword 3. Committed at the first unheard of and prodigious massacres of men women and children without respect even of one hundred and fifty thousand Christians according to their own reckoning living inoffensively and securely among them 4. Having first entred into a Covenant written with their own blood to extirpate all the English with their memorial herein imitating that notorious conspirator of old cursed Cataline who first bound all his fellow-traytors with a curse and for confirmation gave them mans blood mingled with wine to drinke as Salust records Conjurat Catilinae But these miscreants surpassed them for the confirmation of this their covenant was the receiving of the Eucharist or Sacrament Some of their Articles were these That they would not leave in this Island one Brittish man alive either English Scotch or Welsh no so much as any footsteps of them but would utterly destroy all both Houses Cattel Orchards Hedg-rowes c. Item if any English man should be found who had married an Irish woman and had children of her both he and his children because they bore his name should perish but if an Irish man had married an English woman both she and her children should live 5. After all this blood-devouring ferity they grew more and more outragious daily and scornfully * See Sr. John Temple of the Irish rebellion rejected all terms of peace at any time tendred unto them while they had power to do mischief and therefore cannot expect any favour when the Lord shall deliver them into your hands see Deut. 20.10 13. 6. Since the righteous God hath evidently manifested oft-times from Heaven his great abhorrency of their most savage cruelties and hath shortned their hornes that they can do no more mischief as formerly they still continue Amalek-like to cut off such as they meet by the way sick faint weak and wounded persons that are cast behind our Camps 7. In stead of manifesting repentance for all their blasphemies and numberlesse wicked practises though they have made the land an Aceldama from one end thereof to another and in their skirts have been found the blood of the soules of poore innocents as the Prophet speaks Jer. 2.34 yet are they so far from repenting that they boast much till this day of what pranks they have committed and what tortures they inflicted on the Hereticks as they call us and repent themselves of nothing but for letting any at all escape alive from among them ratifying these and such like assertions with hideous oathes because they would have the world to believe them 8. What was Hanuns villany to theirs he cut off the garments of two or three men by the middle and so sent them away these hell-bred monsters ripped up the bowels of men and women and hung them up like slaughtered beeves searching their guts for gold compelled children to execute their parents and parents their children slew husbands and ravished the wives inticed some ignorant and unstable souls to go with them to their abominable Masses and then forthwith hanged them while they were as they said in a good mind and thus they endeavoured to destroy both their bodies and souls at once Obj. But they were not all alike will you condemn all for some Ans No indeed The men were more inhumane than salvages the women were far worse than the men and their children surpassed them both But what have I called them men and women they may fitly be compared to that beast which John saw in the Revelation c. 13.2 Like to a Leopard with the feet of a Bear and the mouth of
received condign punishments according to their just demerits these mischiefs had not now issued from them No marvel then that the curse denounced against all partial indulgent and deceitful workers in this particular be doubled in my text Cursed be he that doth the Lords work negligently and again Cursed be he that keepeth his sword from blood where the ingemination denoteth four things 1. The suddennesse of the curse 2. The certainty 3. The greatnesse and 4. the continuance of it q. d. If you dally and delay in so weighty a businesse God will not dally or delay with you if you deal doubly with him he will send a double curse upon you if you sleight his work of doing justice heavy judgments shall light upon you either deal truly with him this once or he will never trust you more if you favour his enemies his fierce and durable plagues shall fall upon you and your friends like fire and there shall be none to quench it My Lords the interpretation be to your enemies and let the Lords Councel be acceptable to you as you desire to prevent this curse 1. It is threatned against the deceitful 2. Against the slothfull in the Lords work Bee you then 1. Faithfull therein 2. Diligent This was Davids Encomium who is so faithfull as David 1 Sam. 22.14 Though King Saul ill requited him for it yet the Lord the God of truth commendeth him very highly for the Integrity of his heart The faithful man shall abound with blessings Pro. 28.20 On the contrary Cursed be the deceiver either 1. In the things of God Mal. 1.14 or 2. In transactions with men Gen. 27.12 If I seem to my father said Jacob to Rebekah as a deceiver I shall bring a curse upon me and not a blessing Or 3. In martial affairs here in my Text. Shall any think that the Judge of heaven and earth will tolerate partiality in matters of life and death will you hold with the hound and run with the hare shall your bodies be on this side and your hearts on the other Be not deceived God is not mocked Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days Psal 55.23 I will set before you but one President Hophni and Phinehas deserved to be cut off old Eli spared them for they were his sons but God neither spared him nor them nor any of his race because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not for this iniquity will I judge his house for ever saith the Lord and further sweareth it shall never be purged with sacrifice 1 Sam. 3.13 14. Must justice then be done upon sons Judges may not think that they may put to death whom they will and whom they will they may keep alive They may not spare a guilty son or brother The second word of your Charge is diligence Motives 1. The work is the Lords 2. His eye is upon you from one end of the year to the other therefore eye-service is not here forbidden as it is to masters according to the flesh Col. 3.22 3. He is the only Master Mat. 23.10 therefore what we do for him it must be done with all our might Eccles 9.10 4. No service will be accepted of him without diligence for it cannot be separated from his love as the notation of the word in latine imports and so much is intimated by the embleme of the firstling of an asse which was not to be offered up in sacrifice but to be redeemed with a lamb or else the neck of it was to be broken Exod. 34.20 shewing that God abhorreth sloth and sluggishnesse in all undertakings for him Heb. 11.6 5. He giveth the best wages if men be diligent 6. He punisheth the slothful here and everlastingly Mat. 25.26 7. Our enemies are vigilant their feet are swift to shed blood Isa 59.7 8. Our delays and negligence giveth them great advantage By this onely stratagem procrastination Q. Fabius Max. recovered the lost estate of the Romans so averreth Ennius Unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem Expedition as our case now stands will doe us as much good Lastly As the treacherous person is accursed so is * Sophoc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the slothful being here included under the same word and involved in the same twofold curse to wit 1. In the life to come and 2. In this world 1. He shall be accursed in soul and 2. Body 3. In his undertakings and 4. Posterity This may make the ears of all such to tingle as send relief to besieged places but not till they have intimation they are taken and of such as insinuate themselves into our counsels I had almost said Councils purposely to inform the enemy of such also that come to take up arms among us that they may fly to the enemy when they meet with the first opportunity and so use them against us or that wilfully desert their fellows when they have most need that they may be surprized by such as they more affect or that in stead of shooting at the Rebels shoot into the aire or into their fellows or Commanders bodies Shall not God find out these and all other deceitful workers yes and the curse too He that is more true than they can be false hath fore-spoken it and he will make it good when he begins he will make an end 1 Sam. 3.12 Here by the way before I proceed to the last Use let me hint unto my brethren of the Ministry a note of * Si jussu Dei sermo Propheticus hic subjicit eos maledictioni qui negligentèr occidunt quantas nos poenas exolvemus si munus spirituale parvi pependerimus Theod in locum Theodorets upon my Text to this effect If Souldiers fall under a double curse through their negligence in sparing the temporal lives of them whom God hath adjudged to the sword how many and great curses shall fall upon such Ministers as through negligence destroy the souls of them whom God hath sent them to save Ezek. 33.6 Vse 6 Consolation And so I passe from mount Eball to mount Gerizzim to pronounce blessings in the name of the Lord upon all those that are Deut. 27.12.13 or shall be active and faithful in this work of the Lord according to the directions of his word formerly laid down This war is just be well assured that it is your duty to prosecute the same and then before you go forth to battel repent you of all your sins since you are now called to punish others for theirs begin with prayer to him who giveth victory to whom he pleaseth proceed in faith confidently relying upon his mercy and faithfull promises Cast off all fear of men and pusilanimity of spirit Be of good courage and fight valiantly for the cause of God and his people against these Anti-Christian enemies and leave the successe to God Be obedient to the lawfull commands of your superiours and be just among
judgement of God Rom. 2.1 3. On which place Theophylact conceiveth that the Apostle chiefly intends Magistrates For if it be a reproveable thing in Ministers of the Word to reprove their hearers for such faults as themselves are guilty of before they themselves have repented of them much more hainous is it in the Ministers of Justice to execute punishments upon delinquents while they remain guilty of the same or such like crimes Direct 3 3. Before men go forth to war Let God be sought to by publick fasting and prayer So began Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 20.3 when multitudes of Moabites and Ammonites and others came against Judah who had no might against them neither knew they what to do v. 12. and received a gracious answer and aid from above Be not afraid said God nor dismaied neither shall ye need to fight q. d. You have done enough already in ingaging me in the battel now only stand ye still and see the salvation of the Lord v. 17. Behold here the wonderfull efficacy of fasting and prayer whereof we in this City have had very happy and remarkable experience I shall relate but one memorable passage for the manifestation of this to all impartial hearers After the breaking out of this horrid Rebellion which began Octob. 23. 1641. presently the State had information that the enemies design was to besiege Drogheda and therefore they sent all the forces which then possibly could be raised to the fortification of that Garrison after whose departure we had no considerable strength left behind for defence of this City and some of those we had were persons little to be confided in The numerous and subtil enemies perceiving this drew together and begirt us round In this forlorn condition some Preachers pressed the Council daily for a publique fast as the only remedy left but it could not be obtained through the aversnesse of some who should have been most forward in such a work till the 12 of November ensuing and now mark on that very evening after our general humiliation the Lord gave a gracious return and taught us that our best weapons were as Ambrose speaks prayers and tears For as the Spirit of God came upon Othnâ—el and raised him up to deliver Israel in their distress Judg. 3.9 10. when they cried unto him so did the spirit of magnanimity and strength fall suddenly upon this deceased Senator and ancient expert souldier who had been long before this day by age and sicknesse almost decrepit hardly able to set his foot to the ground who comes to the Council Table and tendereth his service to go forth against the enemy accounting it he said more eligible to die in the field than to be slain within doors This motion was no lesse acceptable then seasonable but some thought it would prove abortive saying The good mans spirit is willing but his body is weak Others demanded where he would have men for the service but our pressing exigencies would admit of no long consultations the State knew his pristine valour commended his present resolution and promised him their best assistance He goes forth and with all speed taketh up such men as first came to hand mostly such as had been stripped and were half starved and had never been trained these he led forth to the number of seven hundred at most into the County of Wicklow where the strength of the enemy was concentred he fals on at the first our men were disranked he skilfully rallies them on a sudden and in fine routeth the enemy and returneth without the losse of any one man excepting one only whom he shot himself as he was running away to the Rebels This mercy seemed to us no lesse than a Resurrection from the dead What matter of joyfull thankfulnesse did it afford us How were we animated to continue our weekly daies of humiliation with exceeding great concourse of our English into our Congregations and as Joshua and Israel prevailed against Amalek Exod. 17.11 while Moses held up his hand and when he let down his hand Amalek prevailed so as long as we here continued in publique prayer and supplication our party prevailed in the field till they became masters of the field during the space of a whole year and half But now mark again I pray some of the City Ministers being sore pressed with this so long continued burden of keeping two weekly Sabbaths as they said made their addresses to the Lords of the Council for mitigation alledging that our enemies were well brought under our straits and fears removed and we become their superiors and therefore that a monethly fast might well suffice And at length their daily importunity prevailed and we were inforced to draw up our nets before the fish was caught Now no sooner had we intermitted one fast day but dismall news was brought from our Army the very next day that Sir Charles Coote Gods visible instrument of our preservation from the beginning of these direfull wars was shot at Trim in his pursuit of the enemy by treachery as some strongly conceive but that I leave to the plenary decision of the last day And now may any easily presage which way we are going even back into the wildernesse again Oh! what an incomparable losse have we all sustained in the fall of this great man I cannot expresse it but a short time shall discover it Psal 66.5 How terrible O God are thy doings toward the children of men Return O Lord for thy servants sake that a small remnant of thy people in this Land of ire become not like Sodom and Gomorrah for the Lords sake Right Honourable Peers worthy Commanders and all dear Christians would you have the Lord not to depart from us but to go forth with our Hosts you must continue wrestling with him with prayers and tears Gen. 32.28 and then if you prevail Jacob-like with God you shall also prevail with men Direct 4 4. Adde to prayer faith We must all live by faith and pray in faith but above all it is primely necessary in a Christian souldier for he is not only to fight against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers Eph. 6.12 and suppose you vanquish the former and be subdued by the latter through unbelief it will not be so much as a semi victory But if you build upon the Rock Christ by faith the gates of hell shall not prevail against you much lesse shall the serpents seed wicked men overcome you How victorious a grace faith is even in wars with men may be seen in Gedeon and Barak Jephtha David and others who through faith subdued Kingdoms escaped the edge of the sword out of weaknesse were made strong waxed valiant in fight turned to flight the armies of the aliens Heb. 11.33 34. Wherefore did the Lord deliver the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host with very many Chariots and Horsemen into the hands of Asa not for his multitudes or skill or
power but because he relied upon the Lord 2 Chron. 16.8 Therefore although others trust in their owne preparations numbers policy strength skill or former successe let your onely confidence be placed in the promise power and presence of God as Davids was Psal 20.7 8. Direct 5 5. Heathens require prowesse and valour in martial men and certainly God cannot abide cowardlinesse in such as fight his battels Cic pro Mar. Certè in armis militum virtus multum juvat for saith he to Israel Deut. 20.1 When thou goest out to battel against thine enemies and seest horses and chariots and a people more than thou be not afraid of them And when they approach to battel he commandeth the Officers to speak to the people saying What man is fearful and faint-hearted let him goe and return unto his house lest his brethrens heart faint as well as his heart v. 8. But what heathen Authors can afford you such encouragements and valid incentives to true valour as the word of God doth Be strong and of a good Courage saith the Lord to Joshua have not I commanded thee Ch. 1.9 Again Be not afraid nor dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest The first argument here is taken from Gods Commandement and that doth not only require but also infuse courage into the hearts of all obedient hearers 2. Mark his promise I will be with thee whithersoever thou goest this if it be rightly laid hold on will so fortifie the Spirit that if ten thousand should hemme you in you could not be afraid it will also defend you and repel your stoutest foes even then when they are most confident and all outward helps seem to fail you Adde to these a third which Joab useth to Abishai 2 Sam. 10.12 Be of good courage let us play the men for our people and for the cities of our God and let the Lord doe that which seemeth good in his eyes Loe here a triple coard never to be broken let us put them together God sets you a work God will be with you in the work and for God and * Bern Epist 129 Ecclesiae inimicos expugnare decet his Church you fight Who would desire to die better than in such service as this Direct 6 6. Obedience to superiours may well challenge the next place among these Directions Mat. 8.9 I am a man saith the Centurion under authority having Souldiers under me and I say to this man goe and he goeth and to another come and he cometh The want of this drove David to greater straits than all his adversaries could do 1 Sam. 30.6 Direct 7 7. What a glorious ornament would it be to Christian profession if Justice both Commutative and Distributive might be found in Camps when as it hath been of old and still is reported of such places that there lust ruleth in stead of law Jurisque locum sibi vendicat ensis 1. Justice requires that * Concil Lateran Sess 6. Bellum cum hostibus arma infâ—ramus cum nostris beneficiis certemus de recuperandis quae nostra sunt contendamus innocent persons especially such as for whose help souldiers pretend to come should be defended and not wronged by them See John Baptists charge Luk. 3.14 when the souldiers demanded of him saying What shall we do he answered Do violence to no man neither accuse any falsly and be content with your wages 2. Justice commandeth that notorious offenders in no case be spared Agag was worthy of death Saul saved his life and lost his Kingdome for this indulgence Foolish pitty to * Plutarch Lenitas erga sceleratos est in bonos crudelitas one malefactor is cruelty to your selves and many others Ahab let Benhadad escape hereat the Lord was displeased and sent him a tart message by the Prophet 1 King 20.42 Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to destruction therefore saith the Lord shall thy life go for his life and thy people for his people 3. There ought to be a distributive Justice among your selves I beseech you be not offended with me for shewing you the way of God to your own temporal and eternal prosperity and though carnal reason will perhaps suggest other counsel to you yet acknowledge you him in all your ways Pro. 3.6 and he shall direct your paths The spoils taken from the enemy should not be ingrossed by some but by an equall distribution imparted to all See Davids order in this case 1 Sam. 30.22 24. Some of his men were faint and so were cast behind when the rest followed him to battel wherefore after they returned back with great spoiles some of them would not allow any share of the prey taken unto their fellows so cast behind for which cause they are termed wicked men and men of Belial and David told them they should not do so but they should all share alike even they that tarried by the stuffe as well as they that went down to the battel and he made it saith the text a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day Direct 8 8. The ends for which war is undertaken and maintained ought ever to be regarded and these ought to be Gods glory the preservation of good men the punishment of hainous offenders and the setling of peace in the Common-wealth not covetuousnesse desire of revenge or affectation of dominion or vain-glory for which Jehoash King of Israel thus reproved Amaziah Thou hast indeed smitten Edom and thine heart hath lifted thee up glory of this and tarry at home for why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt that thou shouldest fall and Judah with thee 2 King 14.10 But Amaziah refused to hear and therefore he and Judah were worsted before Israel v. 11. The end of wars is peace Aug. de civitate Dei l 19 c. 12. Pacem constat belli esse finem optabilem saith August and in Serm. de verbis Domini Apud veros Dei cultores ipsa bella pacata sunt quae non cupiditate aut crudelitate sed pacis studio geruntur ut mali coerceantur boni subleventur Among the true worshippers of God their very wars are peaceable being waged not for lust or cruelty but with desire of peace that bad men may be suppressed and good men aided These be the chief directions to which more might be added but I proceed Vse 3 Are wars thus waged the work of the Lord here is matter of terror to the enemies of Gods Church and comfort to such as go forth against them in this way of God for although the former may seem for a time to prevail yet in due time they shall be subdu'd and God will be sure to arise at last to maintain his own cause This is assigned the reason why the Hagarites and many others fell down slain before two tribes and an half because the war was of God 1 Chon 5.18 22.
a lion for no one wild beast can half expresse their malice and cruelty The Leopard exceedeth all bruit creatures in hatred to man so that in his rage he will tear his very picture in pieces wheresoever he sees it if he can possibly come near it no lesse have these children of Belial hated the Image of God in his people endeavouring to quench the Light of his Gospel in the blood of the sincerest Professors of it for against such have they been most furious and herein resembled fell Lions and have been more ravenous after prey than any wild Bears in the Forrest It hath been their holy-day work to hunt Boys and Girls with dogs and spaniels like ducks in the water till they have drowned them and it hath been their great delight all the week after to discourse of their Sundays disports O ye enemies of all righteousnesse shall not the Lord visit for these things shall not his soul be avenged on such a Nation as you if Cain were so accursed for killing one righteous Abel Gen. 4.11 whose blood yet cries against him and you how accursed shall you be for ever who have murthered in a rage reaching up to heaven so many thousand souls innocent quoad vos howsoever otherwise they were sinners before the Lord 2 Chron. 28.9 10. are there not with you sins even worse sins also If they be deservedly pronounced accursed in my Text that should keep their sword from the blood of the Moabites whose iniquities were every way far short of yours how accursed must you needs be for whose sake others shall be accursed if they spare you were you but sensible what masses of wrath are coming upon you for your butcherings of so many both Saints Prophets and Infants as well as others as one day will appear before your Judge and theirs would you but take to heart what terrors and torments shall there arrest you and for ever abide upon you in the lowest Hell it were sufficient to drive you and all your abettors as it hath done some of you already to distraction and desperation True it is judgment began at the house of God you have beheld it yea and executed it on them but have the righteous scarcely been saved what shall be the end of such impious blasphemers cursed Idolaters and desperare infringers of all Laws both humane and divine both of nature and Religion as you Repent therefore of all your wickednesse and pray God if it be possible that you may be forgiven for you are in the gall of bitternesse and fast bound in the chains of your iniquities which have begun already to find you out and if ye continue to stop your ears at the voice of the charmer with the deaf adder in the Psalme charm he never so wisely as ever hitherto you have done since I knew you the wrath of God shall fall upon you to the uttermost in this world and in the world to come The worst I wish you is this that ye may return that your souls may live Vse 4 This may serve for a warning to us and all other people of all Nations to beware of Moabs sins mentioned in this Chapter namely Confidence in the arme of flesh Riches humane force Policy Idols Contempt of God and Scorning of true Godlinesse Pride and Haughtinesse and if we be guilty of any of them as indeed the inhabitants of these Lands are generally most hainously guilty let us repent of them with speed for the bloody revenging sword is drawn and hath begun here in Ireland to eat our flesh and drink our blood as long before it hath done in the Palatinate and in Germany but we would not take warning by them and now except England and Scotland take warning by them and us and prevent it in time the Lord is about to raise up against them also their worst enemies with this charge in the Text injoyned under the same penalty of the curse more dreadful than that in the Poet Occupet extremum scabies Horat. de arte Poetica Cursed be he that withholdeth his sword from blood for questionlesse we and they are guilty of the forementioned sins of the Moabites and many worse Return Return why will you die without remedy Vse 5 Exhortation to all you that are and all that shall be called to this work of the Lord against this rebellious Nation or any other Antichristian forces hereafter to be sincere and * Leo Imperator in Tacticis c. 1. n. 3. 6. Ante omnes res maximè bellicas consultores adhibe ad excogitandū solertes fideles rem verò de quâ deliberasti omni studio ac diligentiâ contendas ad exitum perducere diligent in executing this divine commission as you and they would desire to escape his reiterated malediction here denounced against all that shall be negligent and deceitful in pursuance thereof How can you spare such as the Lord hath designed to destruction for blood-guiltinesse unlesse you be content that your owne lives go for their lives 1 King 20.42 If you spare them the curse shall not spare you whether it be for favour or affection or old acquaintance for kindreds or countreys sake or for gain or pleasure of friends or any other respect it shall avail them but for a short time and disadvantage your selves for ever for God shall destroy you with them either immediatly or by others whom he shall send to accomplish this his work with vigor in your steads and then shall you know there hath been a Prophet among you If any shall pretend that pity is to be shewed where God requires justice to be executed or that there is a necessity of making a cessation with them when God and the world know the contrary that person whosoever he be shall bring upon himself and upon his posterity all the innocent blood that they have spilt Now after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespasses seeing that our God hath punished us lesse than our iniquities deserve and hath given us such deliverance as this should we again break his Commandements and joyn in league with the people of these abominations would not our God be angry with us till he had consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping Ezra 9.13.14 Deut. 7.2 Thou shalt make no covenant with these people nor shew mercy to them and Judg. 2.2 Make no league with them Obj. But those were Canaanites these are Christians that you now speak against Ans It is too good a name to call them Canaanites they may more fitly be termed Cannibals Secondly unlesse you be veiled Papists you must confesse they are as vile Idolaters as ever breathed Obj. 2. Your allegations are fetched out of the old Testament but we live under the new which is a better Covenant Ans This makes nothing for them but much against them for Gospel vengeance will be the sorest vengeance of
all other Heb. 12.25 2. The New Testament condemneth making leagues with Idolaters as much as the old Read 2 Cor. 6.14 15 16. 3. The Gospel no waies protecteth wilfull murtherers but calleth for justice upon them as the Law requireth Mat. 26.52 and Revel 13.10 They that take the sword saith our Saviour shall perish by the sword he that killeth with the sword saith his Apostle John must be killed with the sword and yet the worst is behind for after this life ended both Murtherers and Idolaters shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death Rev. 21.8 And is not all this new Testament Obj. But you are Ministers of the Gospel of peace you should preach peace bloody preaching and bloody praying should be far from you Ans Parcius ista viris Shall you plead for rebels and murtherers and condemn us for crying out for justice to the righteous Judge and his substitutes 2. Do we pray any otherwise than the soules under the Altar even of them that were slain for the word of God did who cryed with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth Rev. 6.10 And although you condemn these our prayers our Lord Jesus assureth us that his father will hear them Luk. 18.6 Where he is pleased to demand both of you and us Shall not God avenge his owne elect which cry day and night unto him though he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily Obj. 4. But the seven Nations are expresly nominated whom God enjoyneth Israel to destroy Deut. 7.2 You have no such particular rule Ans You have heard Christs expresse Command that all that take the sword shall perish by the sword and a particular rule is given how Anti-Christ is to be dealt with in Rev. 18.6 Reward her as she rewarded you and double unto her double according to her works See then what these Popish conspirators Anti-Christs limbs have done to the Protestants being instigated thereunto by Romes Emissaries Priests Friers and Jesuits you may do the like to them yea it is just to render to them double for God hath so commanded it should be Obj. But what if they had the Kings Commission for what they did Ans So they pretended * Sr Phelim Oneale at his execution confess'd that they gave out at their first rising they had the Kings coÌ„mission for what they did but took it upon his death it was false for their owne excuse But were it so indeed Had not Doeg I pray you the Kings command to smite Ahimelech with the City of the Priests 1 Sam. 22.18 The King said to Doeg turn thou and fall upon the Priests And Doeg the Edomite fell on the Priests and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linnen Ephod yet because this was unjustly done the Kings warrant would not excuse him but the Prophet threateneth him in the name of the Lord Psal 52.5 saying God shall likewise destroy thee for ever he shall take thee away and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place and root thee out of the land of the living Selah Obj. But Doeg exceeded his Commission for he smote not the Priests alone with the edge of the sword but men and women also children and sucklings and Oxen and asses and sheep and therefore was he thus punished Ans Did Doeg exceed his Commission therein also have these Irish Edomites exceeded him their little finger hath been heavier than his loins and therefore must expect a farre heavier punishment 2. He destroyed only the City Nob they left but few undestroyed in the whole Land and their intent was if their design had proceeded in surprizing this City of Dublin and the Castle to have left in this land not one man woman or child of our Religion alive Remember O Lord these children of Edom who cryed in the day of our Jerusalem rase it rase it even to the ground Aug. de civit Dei l. 1. c. 7. Quòd innsitatâ rerumfacie immanitas barbara mitior apparuit ut quidam parcetentur hoc Christi nomini tribuendum Absit ☞ Ut prudens quis quam hoc feritati imputet â—arbâ—â—orum Obj. 7. If they had been so savage and mercilesse as you would render them they might have destroyed many more when they had them in their hands who yet survive Ans Blessed be the Lord whose hook was in their nostrils to preserve a remnant alive as it is this day but sure we are the tender mercies of the wicked were cruel for when some being stripped in frost and snow others being wounded also thought it impossible to travel 40 or 50 miles in that case and so chose death rather than life these Hamans usual answer was no they would not shew them so much favour as to kill them for then they should put them too soon out of their pain whereas on the other side if they perceived any to be fearful of death and to beg for life such they cut off incontinently no intreaties would prevail Call you this pity in requitall whereof a Cessation should be granted them upon their first demand My Lords till meer necessity enforced them they never sought it when any advantage shall be given them they will never keep it Sad experiments of their former perfidiousnesse from every quarter can witnesse this Say unto them therefore as Jehu did to Jehoram what have you to do with peace so long as your wilful murthers and execrable blasphemies remain blood defileth the land and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him that shed it Numb 35.33 Now the Lord hath armed you with power put on Davids resolution and say we will early destroy all the wicked of the land Psa 101.8 He that should punish capital offenders and doth not when he may * Corn. à Lapide in locum is as guilty before the Lord as if he himselfe had perpetrated all that they have done * Plutarch in Lacon moral Hoc est sceleratos ad malcsicia armare Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea more he shall be guilty of all the wickednesse that ever afterwards they shall commit I have read how a King of France complained that one man had been pardoned twice for murther and yet he had slain a third man his jester standing by sayd to the King nay my Liege he killed but one and you slew the other two for if you had caused him to have been executed for the first fact * Si primum non condonasses reliqua non perpetresset erat Ludovic XI rex Franciae he had never lived to have committed the second and third So may I say to you some of these Rebels and more of their ancestors have rebelled thrice within these 47 years space had they then
instantly of weak he became strong and to all mens admiration went forth in confidence of assistance of the most high and by Faith put to flight those that rose up against him and who saw not that God was with him First he discomfited the Rebels in Wicklow he burned Clantarf a place neer this City filled with rapine and blood he took in the Garrisons of the Naaz and Trim he expeld the enemies out of the Navan and then he encountred with the whole body of the enemy at Kilrush in a pitcht battel and routed their vast multitudes and would have pursued them if he might have had his will with such heat and vigor that they should have had little leasure or opportunity to rally any more but he was called back and the number of his desired victories being made up with some overplus in his last battel near Trim he was slain being shot as it is verily conjectured by one of our side into the body having a little before with three or four Troops chased three or four thousand almost two miles and left about four hundred dead on the place Thus died this honorable Patriot and Champion in the Lords work and victorious in the sixty fifth year of his age Cic. de Senect wherein as Cato Major saith of Q. Maximus Hic bella gerebat ut adolescens cum plane grandis esset he was like Caleb for strength Jos 14.11 as able for the war both to go out and to come in as he was the day when he was first sent over having about a quarter of an hour before his fall slain with his sword a Rebel of great stature hand to hand But now as David said of Abner may I say of him A great man is fallen in our Israel in whom the Lord hath bereaved us at once of the mighty man and the man of war the prudent and valiant Captain the honorable man and the Counsellour c. 3.2 as the Prophet Isaiah speaks The greatnesse of our adversaries rejoycings at his fall proclaimeth aloud the greatnesse of our losse but nothing hath befallen him or us but what hath befallen the dearest of Gods Servants Sampson is reckoned in the Catalogue of Believers Heb. 11. who slew more ar his death than in all his life yet he perished among the Philistines by the Philistines sword gracious Jonathan afterwards fell upon Mount Gilboa 2 Sam. 1.20 which occasioned much triumph to the daughters of the uncircumcised Faithfull Uriah was also betrayed by Joab at the Kings Command and cut off by the sword of the children of Ammon Adde to these godly Josiah to whom there was none like before or after among all the Kings of Judah yet was he slain by the sword of Pharaoh Necho The sword devoureth one as well as another and all things befall all alike him that feareth God and him that feareth him not Yea Aristotle calleth this kind of death the most beautifull of all other Ethic. l. 3. Offic. l. 1. de somnio Scipionis c. 6. The Orator affirmeth that no good man will doubt to die for the profit of his Country This our deceased Champion accounted to be most eligible for such as lay down their lives for the brethren eminently shew forth their love to God and his Church 1 Joh. 3.16 as Gods love is apparently seen in his sons laying down his life for us And wise men in all ages agree upon this maxime Decet Imperatorem stantem mori And God gave him his option he was taken from us by this eligible beautifull honourable death for he deceased on Hors-back being upheld by his Son riding behind him till he had brought him to his quarters The Lord convince and humble us all for all our sins which have brought this judgment upon us Not one but many Achans have thus troubled our Israel for I know no kind of sins which are not predominant among us It is the Lords mercy we are not all consumed The Lord help us to look up to Jesus Christ whom our sins have also pierced Isa 55.4 for him hath God given to be a leader and commander to his people who once died that by his death we may have life and by his life salvation temporal and eternal for now though other Commanders die he liveth for ever and when other helpers may be far off he is ever present with all his people who alone can help when as without him all help of men is in vain as when the Spirit departed ttom valiant Sampson he became weak like other men This hath he commanded us to do and promised salvation to all them that so do Isa 45.22 And then shall our sorrows be all turned into joy and our enemies rejoycing shall vanish then shall the Lord who hath the residue of the spirit in the room of this one Heroick Patriot now gone to his rest raise up many deliverers endued with wisdome counsell and might and the fear of the Lord who may fight our Battels tread down our enemies as mire in the Streets restore poor out-casts to their rightfull possessions again and settle peace and truth in all the borders of this sinfull and bloody Land to the comfort of all true Israelites and his own everlasting glory Amen FINIS