N00746:17
The man of war. A sermon preached to the Artillery Company at Boston, on…
The man of war. A sermon preached to the Artillery Company at Boston, on June 5. 1699. Being the anniversary day for their election of officers. / By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston. ; [Three lines of quotations]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Benjamin Eliot, 1699
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.
DOCTRINE. The Employment of a Soldier is very Honourable.
DOCTRINE. The Employment of a Souldier is very Honourable.
It is too good for a Canaanite to be admitted to, or for a Slave to have his name Enrolled in this Muster: but is only fit for a free-born Israelite. God hath therefore put Honour on this Calling, by assuming that as one of his Titles, Exod. 15.3. The Lord is a Man of War, the Lord is his Name; but the word [Ish] is there used.
It is true, had man retained his primitive Integrity, there had been no occasion for the Art Military; because he would have had no Enemy ⟨p. 9⟩to Encounter; no Fortresses to be Built, and Garrisoned; no Instruments of War to be invented, no Tactics to be learned. He was in a great Error, who asserted, That the State of Nature is a State of War, if he referred it to the Condition of the Creation, as it was at first disposed by God. But when once sin had depraved Humane Nature, it filled man with jarring principles, and sowed in him the seeds of dissension; so that now he is no farther in safety, than as he puts himself in a posture of Defence against the assaults, and of Offence for the suppression of his molesting adversary; which, though it hath not taken away the evil nature of War in it self, yet it hath made it occasionally both good and necessary; and it must needs therefore be Honourable, when undertaken, not for its own sake, but for the securing or recovering of the public peace and tranquility: and though some are of the mind that there will be a time come, when that Prophecy shall have a complete literal accomplishment,