Military Duties Recommended, Application 1
USE. I.
There is a strong Invitation to an Attendance on Military Discipline hence given un…o all that are capable thereof.
This Truth should be as good as a Thousand Drums beating of a Troop in your he… ing, engageing of you to repair in your … unto a peaceable military Rendezvous. It … lamentable to see how Military Discipline … begun to languish among us; to see how … list themselves in military Societies, and … delinquent in military Services they that … listed often are. I would to God the T… were come wherein we might have … seasonable Sermon on that Text, Isa. 2. 4. They shall beat their Swords, into Plow-shares and their Spears into Pruning-hooks; for they shall learn warr no more. When will men chuse David's Motto, Anishallo…; i. e. I am peace? When will those two make-bate Pronouns, Meum and Tuum leave off to set mankind together by the Ears? But surely, till Gog and Magog are burnt up with flashes of hot Lightening, as their predecessors, the Assirians were of old, a fitter Theme to be preached on will be that in Ioel. 3. 12. Beat your Plow-shares into Swords, and your Pruning-hooks into Spears, and let all the men of War draw near. Thanks be to the God of peace, for the Peace wherewith we enioy the Gospel of peace. We have no occasion to kindle Becons, or to stick up a Scoth Fire-cross for the Summoning of all between Sixteen and Sixty, to oppose an invading enemy. The thing which our Civil Authority puts us upon this day, and all that I am concernd to speak a good word for, is, The regard to military Discipline, which our peace does give us a most happy advantage for. There is this Argument for the abundant use of military Discipline in the midst of us, now giving Encouragement thereunto; The Almighty GOD is the Teacher of it. And what! Will any of you be loth to go-to-School unto the Almighty▪ GOD▪ Will you play the Truant from the School of GOD? Let the able Idle Spectators of military Exercises for shame count themselves concerned to rank and file with their honest and industrious Neighbours. Tis desireable that all our Trained Bands might flourish, and become Terrible, as an Army of Banners. And it is particularly to be desired that our Artillery Companyes may be unto the utmost countenanced. In Persia once they had an Artillery Company consisting of Ten Thousand, which they called, The Immortal Company, because whenever any one was taken off, another was still chosen to supply his place.
May THAT Artillery Company in special which I am now speaking unto, in this sense become an Immortal Company.
CONSIDER, I.
That Military Discipline is a very lawful thing.
When the Souldiers satt under the Ministry of Iohn Baptist, he said not unto them, Lay down your Arms; but as in Luc. 3. 14. Be content with your Wages; which was as good as saying, Be content to be Souldiers. The believing CenCenturion did not look upon himself as obliged to throw up his Commission, tho it had a Roman Original: and yet of him it was said in Matt. 8. 10. I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel, as in him. It is recorded of the Patriarch Abraham, (of that Father of the Faithful) in Gen. 14. 14. that he had a kind of Artillery Garden at his house; an Artillery Company was under his Conduct, whereto about forty Files belonged. Shall we imagine that GOD will teach any unlawful thing? No; The ever-glorious GOD Himself is called, The God of Armies. But He is never called, The God of Theeves, or The God of Murderers; or the God of any thing that is to be thought sinful. It is indeed said, that They that take the sword, shall perish with the sword. But this refers to taking up the Sword without a right Cause, and without a just Call. When men meddle with Swords without a sufficient Call from both God and man, they are wont to come off like those Ephraimites which the seventy eighth Psalm singeth of, among other ancient things, who would needs break prison out of Egypt and sieze upon Palestina, by Force of Arms, before they had a good Warrant for it, and were slain by the men of Gath, to the great grief of their FaFather, and the encrease of their Servitude. It is also said, Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. But private, personal Revenge is the thing forbiden there. Tis to be suspected, that the people who make Out-cries against all Use of carnal Weapons, would (as One ingeniously saith) use the Weapons very carnally, yea, very bloodily, if they had them in their own Hands.
CONSIDER, 2.
That Military Discipline is also a Needful thing.
It was a true Remark of the ancient Gre…ian, That, A Common-Wealth wherein there is not a plenty of Military men, is as a Body without Sinews. A Wall of Stones about a City or a Countrey is good for little without a Wall of Bones defending of it.—Hi sunt Spartae m… nia. It is threatned as a very direful Plague unto a Land in Isa. 3. 2. The Lord of Host… doth take away the men of War therefrom. Why should any of us have an hand in bringing such a plague on the Land wherein we live.
¶ Don't plead, Its being a Time of peace may Excuse us from being in Arms while thes… Halcyon dayes continue. For a Time of Peac… ▪ is the time to prepare for a time of Warr. The prudent King Asa thought so of old. And the want of Preparation in us, may sharpen the Edge of an Enemies Desire to our Land; Some West-Indian might have been upon our skirts before now, if the Military Appearances among us had not dampt them. You are not ignorant of what befel the Inhabitants of quiet and secure Laish long ago.
Do not plead, I can't spare the time to Train. What! not spare time to go to School to GOD? Tis observ'd, that the people in this Countrey with moderate Diligence make themselves capable of greater Leisures than many in the world. Besides, Would you serve God with that which costs you nothing? Or would you be made Souldiers by a Miracle?
Do not plead, There are enough to train with…ut me. How if every one should plead so? Certainly, people did not thus exempt themselves from the Artillery Company at Ierusalem, in the dayes of Iehoshaphat. It is noted (for so I would understand it) in 2. Chron. 17. fin. That while one man was Leader of that Company, they were an Hundred and Eighty Thousand: While another, they were Two hundred Thousand; while another, they were two hundred and eighty Thousand; and while another, they were no less than Three hundred thousand. There were Thousands exceeding the Unites in our Artillery Companies!
Should I now pretend to give Directions how Military Discipline may best be ordered among us, I might justly be derided no less than he that would read Military Lectures before the Martial Hannibal. Yet there are Two things which I would presume upon … Liberty to say.
ADVICE. I.
It seems good Prudence to be most Attent o… and Accurate in that peice of Military Discipline which is most Necessary.;
Or most accommodated for the SAFETY of the place which we belong unto. We have such a Parenthesis in the Preface of David's Elegy over Saul and Ionathan, 2. Sam. I. 18. He had them teach the Children of Iudah the—Bow. Some take that Word, the Bow, to be only the Title of the ensueing Song. But others thus conceive of it. The PhiliPhilistines had made fearful Slaughter among the Israelites by their being curious Archers; and the study of David now was to have the Israelites out-shoot the Philistines in their own Bow. All that you shall now hear of this matter from one whose highest military Attainment is that he counts Military Discipline a thing not to be despised, is only This: There is a swarthy Generation of Philistines here, the Indian Natives, I mean, whom alone we are like to have any Warrs withal. These Salvages have (not long since) butchered several Hundreds in these Plantations; in that bloudy gloomy-day, when the Alarm of Warr was heard, and it was said, Sword, go through the Land, the Canibals had many an Hellish Feast of English Flesh; and the main thing wherein the wild Creatures out-did us and …n-did us was this, They were very yare Marks-men, and every tree was a Fort from whence they took their Aims. If ever those now-wounded Chaldeans should make an Attempt again upon us, there will be few Words of Command used, unless those two, Make ready, and Give fire. The best Marks-man will then be the best Souldier: The Benjamites that can shoot to an Hairs Breadth will probably carry the day. How comes it then to pass, that in our Trainings there seldome are any of Marks and Prizes set up for the promoting this Accomplishment?
ADVICE. II.
They that give their presence to Military Discipline, should be ashamed if their Proficiency therein be not conspicuous and considerable.
The Counsil which Paul gave to a Spiritual Souldier is very Proper here, in 1. Tim. 4. 15. Give thy self to these things, that thy profi…ng may appear unto all. Do not look upon Training dayes as designed for meer Diversion and Recreation; or to do nothing but make Smokes. Be not of them who unless to get off a Fine would never appear at their Colours; Remember that, As you were, is not a fit word of Command for you all the year long. Behave your selves alwaies in your Trainings, as under the Eye of the Authority whom, under His Majesties favourable Protection, you are therein Obedient unto, yea, and as if you were by them also bid to expect the sight of an Adversary. At the End of each day, be able to make a good Reply unto that Question, Quid profeci? or What progress have I made this day in military Discipline? Give not your Tutors cause to blame your Non-proficiencies.