A50163:77
Soldiers counselled and comforted a discourse delivered unto some part of the forces engaged…Souldiers counselled and comforted a discourse delivered unto some part of the forces engaged…
Soldiers counselled and comforted a discourse delivered unto some part of the forces engaged in the just war of New-England against the northern & eastern Indians, Sept. 1, 1689 / by Cotton Mather ...Souldiers counselled and comforted a discourse delivered unto some part of the forces engaged in the just war of New-England against the northern & eastern Indians, Sept. 1, 1689 / by Cotton Mather ...
Boston: printed by Samuel Green, 1689
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
CORDIALS.
Wherefore, First, Know that your Quarrel is Just. Indeed the Call and Press of your Superiors; is enough to justify you in doing of your part, for prosecuting of the War. If the injustice of a War be notoriously Evident and Apparent, Judicious Casuists then determine, that every private Soldier is to declare his own Dissatisfaction, and render himself rather Passive than Active in it, and Suffer, sooner than Engage; like Sauls Footmen, when bidden to fall upon the Priests of the Lord. But where a War is not thus evidently and apparently unjust, the private Soldier must use an Implicit Reliance on the Command of the Supreme Power: They must answer for it.
Wherefore, First, Know that your Quarrel is Iust. Indeed the Call and Press of your Superiours; is enough to justify you in doing of your part, for prosecuting of the War. If the injustice of a War be notoriously Evident and Apparent, Judicious C•suists then determine, that every private Souldier is to declare his own Dissatisfaction, and render himself rather Passive than Active in it, and Suffer, sooner than Engage; like Sauls Footmen, when bidden to fall upon the Priests of the Lord. But where a War is not thus evidently and apparently unjust, the private Souldier must use an Implicit Reliance on the Command of the Supream Power: They must answer for it.
☞ Besides this; Your Superiors themselves have also enough and enough to justify Them, in pushing on the present War, with the utmost Expedition and Extremity. Such were the obscure measures taken at that time of Day, that the Rise of this War, hath been as dark as that of the River Nilus; only the Generality of Thinking people through' the Country, can remember when and why every one did foretell, A War. If any wild English (for there are such as well as of another Nation) did then, begin to provoke and Affront the Indians,