I will send the sword amongst you, I will send the Assyrian against you and then I will tear you. The judgment of war it is a tearing judgment. Gods wrath never appeareth more dreadful than in letting out the wrath and rage of provoked enemies upon a people.1 The teeth and claws of this Lyon is no other than spears and swords and poleaxes, the mouth of this Lyon is no other than the roaring Cannon, from whose mouth proceedeth fire and smoke and sudden death: Here you may see thousands stout and strong ones struck down to t•• ground in a moment; Here one mans arm is torn from his shoulders, there another mans leg is rent from his body; here one lies wallowing in his own blood giving up the ⟨p. 503⟩ghost, there another weltering in his gore all mangled and wounded, Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise and with garments rolled in blood, death reigneth in the field and is sure to have the day which side so ever falleth; And when report of what is done in the field cometh home, as in 1 Sam. 4.17. when there was a great slaughter among the people, one brings Phinehas his wife news that her Husband and her Brother-in-law was dead; so when news comes home to the poor fatherless children and widows, your husband is dead, and your father is dead, Oh what tearing of hair, wringing of hands, rending of clothes, lifting up the voice and crying until the noise thereof reach up to heaven. My brethren, war is a tearing judgment, it is Malum complexum, a compound of sorrow. The cup that is now in the hand of God,2 is full of mixture, full of bloody ingredients, of fire, famine, pestilences, murders, rapes, cruelties, and all miseries; the Lord teareth now indeed: Oh how is the husband rent from his wife, haled to prison by cruel and bloody soldiers! How are mens estates and whatsoever is comfortable unto them rent and torn from them in tumultuous outrages! Their pleadings and cryings are rejected with scorn and contempt, and the bodies of their wives and children and their own too, abused in the rage and malice of the insulting adversary. And of all wars, Civil wars are most dreadful;3 there God teareth most indeed; there the brother contendeth with the brother, and the father goes about to tear out the bowels of his son. Thus the Lord hath been a Lyon in many parts of the Kingdom. Alas our brethren abroad they cannot say as they in Jer. 4.5.
I will send the sword amongst you, I will send the Assyrian against you and then I will tear you. The judgment of war it is a tearing judgment. Gods wrath never appeareth more dreadful than in letting out the wrath and rage of provoked enemies upon a people.1 The teeth and claws of this Lyon is no other than spears and swords and poleaxes, the mouth of this Lyon is no other than the roaring Cannon, from whose mouth proceedeth fire and smoke and sudden death: Here you may see thousands stout and strong ones struck down to t•• ground in a moment; Here one mans arm is torn from his shoulders, there another mans leg is rent from his body; here one lies wallowing in his own blood giving up the ⟨p. 503⟩ghost, there another weltring in his gore all mangled and wounded, Every battel of the warrior is with confused noise and with garments rolled in blood, death reigneth in the field and is sure to have the day which side so ever falleth; And when report of what is done in the field cometh home, as in 1 Sam. 4.17. when there was a great slaughter among the people, one brings Phineas his wife news that her Husband and her Brother-in-law was dead; so when news comes home to the poor fatherless children and widdows, your husband is dead, and your father is dead, Oh what tearing of hair, wringing of hands, rending of clothes, lifting up the voice and crying until the noise thereof reach up to heaven. My brethren, war is a tearing judgment, it is Malum complexum, a compound of sorrow. The cup that is now in the hand of God,2 is full of mixture, full of bloody ingredients, of fire, famine, pestilences, murders, rapes, cruelties, and all miseries; the Lord teareth now indeed: Oh how is the husband rent from his wife, haled to prison by cruel and bloody souldiers! How are mens estates and whatsoever is comfortable unto them rent and torn from them in tumultuous outrages! Their pleadings and cryings are rejected with scorn and contempt, and the bodies of their wives and children and their own too, abused in the rage and malice of the insulting adversary. And of all wars, Civil wars are most dreadful;3 there God teareth most indeed; there the brother contendeth with the brother, and the father goes about to tear out the bowels of his son. Thus the Lord hath been a Lyon in many parts of the Kingdom. Alas our brethren abroad they cannot say as they in
- 1The Teeth & Claws of the Lyon, & his mouth.
- 2Psa. 57.8. opened.
- 3Civil war most dreadful.
