Military Duties Recommended, Rule 4
RULE IV.
Cry mightily to GOD in CHRIST, that by Strength from Him you may be made Conquerers and more than Conquerers over the Enemies of your souls.
When the Apostle had Arm'd his Christian Souldier from head to foot, he then concluded, Pray alwayes, and watch thereunto (a military Order, take not a wink of sleep) with all Perseverance. O cry mightily to God, for the Weapons of your War-fare are mighty thro' God alone. The best posture for you, wherein to War and to Fight against your Soul-Enemies, is (that wherein a wounded thought-dead Souldier once gave a mortal stab unto a proud Conquerer that was pleasing himself with a View of them whom he had slain) upon your Knees: In the midst of your Encounters, use to do as the Emperour Theodosius did in the Extremities of a furious dubious Battel; betake your selves to importunate Prayers for Succour from above; be praying Iacobs, and you shall be prevailing Israels. If any Temptation be more than or dinarily violent in besieging of you, do like those Warriors in 1. Chron. 5. 20. Cry to God in the Battel; and therewithall put your trust in Him: do as Paul saith he did in such a case, (in 2. Cor. 12. 8.) I besought the Lord thrice; perhaps he kept three dayes of Prayer. And O let the Spirit of Prayer cause you to fill your lives with frequent and servent Prayers unto God, that He would gird you with Strength unto all your Battels and subdue under you those that rise up against you I would conclude my Sermon as the Mertyr us…d his Letters, O pray, pray, pray. You cannot contrive a more effectual preservative from the Hurts of Temptation than Prayer; daily, wrestling, Restless Prayer. The infamous Day of Origen's foul Apostasy, was a day whereon he had been remiss in his morning Prayers. I will not tell you Nazianzen's Story of what a Devil was forc'd to own unto Cyprian, about his inability to work upon a praying Soul, in his dayes: But this I am sure of; The Trumpets of Gideon did not more fright the Midianites, than the Prayers of the Faithful do all the Devils in the dark Regions. The Devil roars about the Prayers of the Beleever as the Scotch Queen did about Knox's Prayers; I am more affraid of those Prayers, than of the biggest Armyes. Accustom your selves to Every Sort of Prayer; and so keep your Hands lifted up, like Moses in the Mount, until the Lord Deliver you from your strong Enemy, and from your Haters which are to strong for you. Often set apart Whole dayes, for your thus rallying your disordered Forces against them; and every day let your private and Secret Groans be sent up to your Eternal Helper on this Errand; Yea, let scarce one waking hour in the day pass you without Shooting over the Camp of them that are strictly beleaguring of you, Requests ty'd to the Arrows of ejaculatory Prayer, that God would not be farr from you; Happy is the man that has his quiver full of these arrowes. O Pray and plead as he in 2. Chron. 20. 12. Lord, I know not what to do, but my eyes are up unto thee. And while you thus pray without ceasing, Exercise a true Faith on the Bloud of Jesus Christ as the, meritorious Cause of all your Successes, which Bloud will more dismay and and confound all the Behemoths of Hell. than the Sight of Bloud could the Elephants in the Macc…bees of old. And exercise a strong Faith on the Grace of Jesus Christ, as both enableing and enclining of Him to succour them that are Tempted as He once was Himself, which Grace is engaged to be sufficient for you. Thus Pray and Warr and Fight, until you come to shout as dying disconsolate Mr. Welch did, when the Word Victory came from the mouth of the person that pray'd with him, and he catch'd hold on it with over-powering never-ending Joy, Crying Victory, Victory, Victory now forevermore. Yea, leave not off, till you come to say with Paul. I have fought the good Fight, there is now laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness. Amen.
And now,—Do thou grant unto us, O Lord our God, That we being delivered out of the hands of our Enemies, might serve thee in Holiness and Righteousness all the dayes of our Lives.
Militat omnis homo qui dat sua nomina Christo; Qui que Deo fidit, Militat omnis homo.
Books printed for, and sold by Ioseph Brunning at his Shop at the Corner of Prison Lane next the Exchange.
A Discourse Concerning Com…s, wherein the Nature of Blazing Stars is enquired into, by Mr. Increase Mather.
—An Essay for the Recording Illustrious Providences
—The Mystery of Christ opened & applyed.
—The greatest sinners exhorted & encouraged to come to Christ, and that NOW without delaying. Also the exceeding Danger of men's Deferring their Repentance. Together with a Discourse about the Day of Iudgment. And on several other Subjects.
—The Doctrine of Divine Providence opened and applied. To which is annexed
A Sermon wherein is shewed, That it is the Duty and should be the Care of Believers on Christ to live in the constant Exercise of Grace. by Mr. Nathaneel Mather, Minister of the Gospel at Dublin in Ireland.
A Practical Discourse Concerning the choice Benefit of Communion with GOD in His HOUSE, witnessed unto, by the Experience of Saints, as the … Improvement of Time. By Mr. Ioshua …y Minister of the Gospel.
Self-Employment in Secret, containing Evidences upon Self-Examination, Thoughts upon Painful Afflictions, Memorials for Practice, by Mr. Iohn Corb….
An Arrow against Profane and Promiscuou… D…ncing. Drawn out of the Q…iver o… … SCRIPTURES. by the Ministers of Boston.
ERRATA.
PAge 15. line. 2. read, English-man's p. 30. l. 12. r. Knighthood. p. 64. l. 12. r. which are Smitten with them. p. 70. l. 8. r. the worst Enemy. ibid. l. 12. r. a srojan horse.
End of the text · Cotton Mather, Military Duties Recommended (1687)