N00746:54
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.
USE. II.
Let it invite all to come in to Christ, and give up their names to him, and be listed in the Muster-Roll of Saints. The fore-going warning was not designed to discourage any but white Livered and slothful persons: nor properly to discourage them from coming, but to instruct all in the manner of the Kingdom.
In other Musters care is had, or ought so to be, that none but men, and those also able of body, be entered: but Christ in the Gospel giveth order to beat up for all that will, Men, Women, Children, Young and Old; none are exempted. Why then are you so backward? Why so small an appearance? Do you not know that whether you will or no, you must be Soldiers? There are two Camps in the World, Christs and the Devils; and to one of these you must: belong. There are no neuters in this War. Nay, till you do come over to Christ, you belong to some of Satan's Regiments. We are all of us either fighting for God, or against Him. Now think which is best, to abide where you are, or to fly over unto Christ. You serve under a cruel Commander, who hateth you, and pursueth your destruction: whiles he flattereth ⟨p. 28⟩you with fair promises, he will put you upon the hardest Services, and most desperate engagements, and will leave you there to fall, as Joab did Uriah. And the more daringly you have served him here, the more cruelly will he torment you hereafter. You are engaged in a cursed cause, which will certainly fall at last, and all that have stood by it, will be sent, with their Leader, to be with him in blackness of darkness for ever. None ever resisted God, and prospered. But if you will give your selves up to Christ, he will treat you honourably; he will conduct you safely; He is a tender and compassionate General; He will be with you in every Battle, to protect you, and give you an assured Victory at the last. He will bind up the Wounds, which you receive in fight, and that with his own Robes, as Alexander once did by one of his Soldiers. You will be on the surest side; and if you should be worsted in any single fight, yet you shall be Conquerors in the Warfare. He will revive you if you faint, and commend you if you be faithful and resolute, and say to you, Well done. Yea, and he will provide for you a Triumphal Chariot, in which you shall ride gloriously into the great City; and there will he Erect for you Trophies and Arches for everlasting remembrance. This Honour have all His Saints.