Soldiers Counseled and Comforted, Title page – Dedication
Souldiers Counselled and Comforted.
A DISCOURSE Delivered unto some part of the FORCES Engaged in the Iust War of NEW-ENGLAND Against the Northern & Eastern INDIANS. Sept. 1. 1689.
By Cotton Mather Minister of the Gospel in Boston,
In publico discrimine omnis Homo Miles est.
BOSTON Printed by Samuel Green. 1689.
To my Much Honoured FRIENDS; The Pious and Valiant COMMANDERS, Of the FORCES now engaged against our Indian Enemies.
Gentlemen,
A Request from One of you, was that which I esteemed a Command, for my Preaching of a Sermon fill'd with Counsils and Comforts to part of the Forces now under your auspicious Conduct. I was too dull to apprehend it either an Impudent or an Improper thing for me to do That, While I found a Minister (and Him none of the oldest neither) charged with a very great Solemnity, Preach the Word, Be instant in season, out of season, WATCH thou in all things, fulfil the Ministry.
That which most wants an excuse is the Printing of it; which is a Service that I have not been so much a Voluntier unto. But the Reasons that produc'd my Labour in Preaching, which were, my Desire to save the Souls, and mend the Lives, and promote the Edification of those, for whom my Hearts Desire and Prayer to God, is, That they may be Happy; and my Ambition to Encounter and Abolish what I can, the Unchristian Temper of those who take advantage from the other Difficulties and Entanglements of the Country, to refuse doing their part in carrying on the Indian War; the same Reasons have procur'd my Consent to Printing of this Little Sermon.
As I never can endure that mischievous Impertinency, of making the first or chief Exercise after our Hearing, to be upon that Question, How did you like the Sermon to day? So I am not much concerned about the Reception and Entertainment which may be given to this poor Sermon by the Readers of it. My not having more than half a day to prepare it in, made it incapable of being thus written, till since the Delivery of it; and it is now written, as near as well could be to what it was when Spoken: without many more Additions, I suppose, than may somewhat Ballance the Omissions made in the Transcription. The Substaneous and so much Extemporaneous uttering of a Sermon, indeed I am so far from accounting a matter of Applause, that I do esteem it Evil and Sinful, and never free from Blame, unless Gods Providence, and not our Election have made it Unavoidable ▪ nor is any thing in the world more fulsome and nauseous, than for a Preacher to value himself upon such a Crime, as his not spending much time in Study. I do therefore beg pardon, that I offer you what is no better Studied; not without expectations, that whether you pardon me, or no, there are those that will make me run the Gantlets of their Censures for it; and yet had I never so much leisure for study, I would not, I could not offer you a more Needful Thing than the Matter, however I might offer you a more Curious thing than the Method of this Discourse. Accept the Sermon as a Little Messenger now sent into the Camp, after my Brethren, with a little parched Corn, to refresh them, against their Facing of the Philistines; and I beseech you, let none of them have their Anger so kindled, as to tell me, Why camest thou down hither? I know thy Pride; for give me leave to say it, What have I now done? is there not a Cause?
Gentlemen! It is the War of the Lord which you are now Engaged in: and it is the Help of the Lord, that we are at Home affectionately imploring for you. We have made a fair and just purchase of our Country from the Natives here; not encroaching on them after the Spanish Fashion, in any of their Properties and Possessions. Yet they are now molesting of us in the Enjoyment of what our God (because our Right) hath made our own; which my Pen cannot mention without Jehoshaphats Ejaculation, We destroy'd them not, but behold how they Reward us, to come to cast us out of thy Possession, which thou hast given us to inherit. O our God, Wilt thou not Judge them? I believe, I am perswaded, and Confident, He will. But your Wisdom and Courage is now to be Employ'd in order thereunto; and we all wish you such large measures of Both, as the matter does require. Yow are some of you, such as in the former War, ventured as far as any men Alive; and the God of Armies then blessed you, not only with safety, but with a success also, which we should be very unworthy if we should be unthankful for. As you have thereby learn'd what a Treacherous. Barbarous, Dangerous Enemy you have to deal withal; so you are not without a gracious Invitation to Trust in God for your future preservation; You may animate your selves with such an Hope as that, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the Lion, and out of the paw of the Bear, He will also deliver me out of the Hands of the Philistine. Your former Deliverances whereof the Honourable Wounds upon some of you are perpetual Monitors and Memorials, are a Dish of Leviathans Heads well drest, for your Faith to feed upon. Feed and Fight now with a strong Faith; By That you may wax Valiant in fight, and turn to flight the Armies of the Aliens.
Gentlemen! Your Forces are Happy in you; none of you being that Debauched sort of Captains, which will Drink and Swear and Curse and profane the Sabbath and at the same time give out that Perilous Word of Command, Follow your Leader; alas, whither do they Lead them! But I assure my self that you are such as have long since Listed your selves under the Banner of the Lord Iesus Christ; [Let His Banner over you be Love!] and are concerned that all your men may under that Banner oppose the Lusts which war against their Souls 'Tis the design of this Publication that you may be as Happy, in your Forces; and that those For whom and With whom you are every day pouring out your Prayers to the Lord of Hosts, may not want Encouragements to any of those Combates, in which you would see them all Victorious. You are in the Head of Companies, whom you are generously willing not only to Live, but also to Dy withal; and the chief thing that I am pursuing is, That whether Death join you to them, or part you from them, You may meet them all e're long at the Right-hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have had many Fears upon my Spirit, lest the wonderful Deafness to, and Contempt of the Everlasting Gospel found in the Rising Generation here, may not cause the Lord Iesus to say, That He will not have pleasure in our young men; but that he will take them off, and lay them waste by the plagues of a destructive War. To prevent such Omens, may be motive enough unto many such endeavours as you are here treated with. May These Warnings reach some of them that had slighted too many others heretofore! I have done when I have told you, That I hope you have not all your Forces with you; all the praying people of New-England have Embarked themselves with you, and assist your present Expedition. It was not at all Displeasing unto His Majesty, our most Gracious and Illustrious King WILLIAM, to hear those words in a Speech made unto Him by one concerned for us, It may be Humbly spoken to Your Majesty, The very Prayers of your poor Subjects in New-England, may do Your Majesty as much Service as an Army of Forty Thousand Men. 'Twill surely be a satisfaction unto you, to think what an Army of Prayers (quasi manu facta, as Tertullian expresses it) is every day besieging and beseeching of Heaven for your Prosperity. We are no ways tainted with a Popish Fancy, of I know not what, Protection to arise from the Bodies of the Dead Saints that are inhum'd among us; though a very Rich Crop of them will be afforded by this little Spot of Ground, at the Resurrection of the Just. 'Tis foretold of Antichrist, He shall honour the God of Mahuzim, besides, (for so I read it) the God which his Fathers knew not,: Besides, the Lord Iesus Christ whom they despise, our Neighbours, the French, like other Papists, have their Mahuzim, that is, their Defenders, or Guardians; and those are the Saints Departed. Hence even some of the Ancients (or shall I call them by a contrary Name? for, Antiquitas seculi est Juventus mundi) themselves, betimes became so vain, as to count the Reliques of the Dead Saints, the Towers and Ramparts of the places that Enjoy'd them; and the Dead Bodies of two Apostles in the City made the Poet cry out, A Facie Hostili duo propugnacula praesunt.
But instead thereof, you have the Prayers of Living Saints to increase your Protection in the worst of your Adventures. I hope they may make you Forty thousand strong. Our Lively Prayers to the God whom our Fathers knew, will be the best Mahuzim or Forces for you; if we do but choose and love and serve the blessed God of our Fathers, and Reform the Sins that have provoked Him to Avenge with a Sword the quarrel of his Covenant; which O that our God would enable us unto!
Gentlemen, Tho I am neither a Souldier, nor the Son of a Souldier, yet you will allow me that have heretofore published my concern for Military Persons by the pressing of Military Duties, to continue my Affection thereunto; and to perform some part of my Devoirs unto yourselves, by now subscribing my self,
Your Sincere Servant C. Mather.
Souldiers Counselled and Comforted▪ It is written in PSAL. CXIX.109. My Soul is continually in my Hand; yet I do not forget thy Law.
WHEN there was made unto the famous and faithful Iohn of old, that Application whereof we have that Account in Luc. 3.14. The Souldiers demanded of Him, saying, What shall we do? We find that He left them not without those Divine Words of Command ▪ which He thought proper and useful for them. 'Tis in Conformity to his Great and Good Exemple, that I count my self under Obligations at this Time to attempt the satisfaction and answer the Expectation of the Souldiers, whose worthy Leader has brought them into this Assembly, that they might hear a short Sermon adapted unto Their peculiar Circumstances. We are informed in the Sacred Pages, that in the Expedition of the Israelites against the Canaanites, There came down those that Handled the Pen of the Writer. 'Tis the unhappiness of the Expedition which we are at this day concerned in, that our present and pressing Dangers involve every person some way in it. Even Scholars must either Accompany or Encourage Souldiers; and they that have handled none but Pens, must either carry or sharpen Swords. We are in the Briars of a Perplexity, wherein, Omnis Home Miles est, Every man is in his way to bear Arms; and Those that I have to assist you with, I must fetch out of that Christian Panoply the Holy Bible.
'Tis there, my Fellow-Souldiers, that I find the Copy of a Renowned Souldier, to suit your Enquiries, when you repair unto me with your What shall we do? Behold in That of the Psalmist, both your own Condition, and your own Direction. Your Condition is, To have your Lives continually in our Hands. Your Direction is, To not forget Gods Law.
The Text now offered unto your Consideration, is in the longest, and yet the sweetest of all the Psalms. 'Tis in a Psalm, which (as one saith) consisteth of words, Non tam Legenda quam Vivenda, to be Lived rather than Read or Heard; a Psalm, which (as another says) is, Quanto rolixior eo prestantior, having an Excellency transcendent like its Prolixity; a Psalm which the wittiest of the Ancients in a Dream or Vision had presented unto him, as The Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God; What shall I say more? a Psalm which well deserves to be set as the Preface of the Scripture, being the Encomium, and indeed the Epitome of it all.
A Coherence, and so an Analysis, of the several Paragraphs in the Psalm, is not sollicitously to be sought: the Regard had unto the Order and Number of the Hebrew Letters, throughout the whole, giving us cause to look for a Cohaerence of Letters rather than of Matters in it; however in our Context there seems to be some Dependence. We have here the Lovely David, that Eminent Servant and Souldier of the Lord, asserting his own Integrity, against the Temptations of a Various Assault; an Assault both from Snares and Swords. He was Assaulted one while by Fraud; and as to the Temptations thereof he says, The Wicked have laid a Snare for me, yet I have not erred from thy Precepts. He was Assailied another while by Force; & as to the Temptations thereof, he says, My soul is continually in my Hands; yet I do not forget thy Law. Suppose this incomparable General, now skulking and scowring about the Woods, in the Wilderness of Palestine; pursued like a Patridge, by that bloody Fowler Saul, with all his cruel setting Dogs about him. Suppose him, now in Arms, and thus Expressing of himself. Behold in our Text:
First, the Affliction of a great Souldier. 'Tis, my soul is continually in my Hand. By the Soul may be meant the Life, which does consist in a Vital Union between the Soul and the Body. But how may this be said to be, In the Hand? remember Austin upon this place, confesses, he could not conceive what the Psalmist meant. But Ierom hits the Nail, by noting that it is an Hebraism, Quo significatur vitam habere periculo Expositam; signifying to go in Danger of ones Life. The Graecians have a Proverb, as well as the Hebrews to the same purpose; foreign. He hath his Soul in his Hand. To put it out of Doubt, that this is the Intent of the Psalmist here, we find it elsewhere, that when the Life of this very person had been obnoxious to an extraordinary Danger, 'tis thus deciphered in 1 Sam. 19.5. He did put his Life in his Hand. And hence the never enough Regarded and Commended French Translation, so renders the passage, we are now upon, Ma Vie a este continuellement en Hazard; my Life has been continually in Hazard. A Souldier must continually look to be Hazarding of his Life.
Secondly the Affection of a good Souldier. 'Tis Yet I do not forget thy Law. A Souldier must indeed Forget all things, but Gods Law, and his own Sword. For the Object which he is to be Affected with, 'tis Gods Law. That is one of the Ten Words, one of which is used in almost every verse of this glorious Hymn, to denote, The ways and means by which the blessed God reveals His Will unto the Children of Men; and the Will it self revealed in those ways and means.
And then for the Respect which he is to place upon this Object, it is, Not Forgetting. But we are to bear in mind, That according to the Received Rule of Expounding Scripture Phrases to Remember, denotes also, to Know, to Love, to Do. All That is intended here.
And hence the Doctrine here provided for you is, That the Remembrance of Gods Law, is a Thing of no small Importance to them that have their Lives continually in their Hands.
As the little time given me for Preparation, will not allow me to be very Accurate and Pertinent in improving my present opportunity, which until too late yesterday I knew nothing of: so the little strength left me by the excessive. Labours of this morning supervening upon the Languors of a late Illness, will not permit me to be long, in this Discourse; I have only two Propositions to entertain you with.