N01237:44
A discourse concerning the grace of courage, wherein the nature, beneficialness, and necessity of…
A discourse concerning the grace of courage, wherein the nature, beneficialness, and necessity of that virtue for all Christians, is described. Delivered in a sermon preached at Boston in New-England. June 5th. 1710. / By Increase Mather, D.D. ; [Two lines from I Corinthians]A discourse concerning the grace of courage, wherein the nature, beneficialness, and necessity of that vertue for all Christians, is described. Delivered in a sermon preached at Boston in New-England. June 5th. 1710. / By Increase Mather, D.D. ; [Two lines from I Corinthians]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Samuel Phillips, 1710
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
3. Military Men above others need a great Fortitude and Courage. For if they are called to actual Service against the Enemy, they Expose their Lives to danger, which without Courage they will be loth to do. […] said concerning his Father Gideon, Judg. 9. 17. My Father fought for you, and adventured his life far. He Exposed himself to the greatest dangers: for him with but Three hundred to engage in battle with more than an hundred thousand, was Courage and Mighty Valour, as the Angel said of him: but since the word for the battle to begin, was, The Sword of the Lord, and of Gideon! the Sword of the Lord, and of Gideon! that put Courage into him. If there had been only the Sword of Gideon, he might have despaired, but he knew that the Sword of the Lord was engaged with him, and that made him fear no danger. It is also ⟨p. 26⟩said of the people of Zebulon and Naphtali, That they Jeoparded their Lives unto death in the high places of the field, Judg. 5. 18. First they Expected their Enemies to come to them on Mount Tabor, where they put themselves in battle array, so did they Jeopard their Lives in the high places of the field, but they not coming, they went down to meet their Enemies, choosing rather an honourable Death in the Service of their Country, than to live Slaves under such a Tyrant as Jabin was. They had more Courage and Grace than to be for Non Resistance and Passive Obedience, when God called them to make a Revolution. Nothing is more unbecoming a Soldier than Cowardice. The old Romans were very severe in their discipline towards such. If a battle were fought and any man saved his Life by flying, they would not suffer him to come home again, they would banish him out of his Country. We find in Scripture that God would not suffer a faint-hearted Soldier to be employed in the Armies of Israel when they were to go out to battle against their Enemies, left one Coward should make many. Dent 20. 8. The Officers shall speak unto the People, and they shall say, what man is there that is fearful and faint hearted? Let him go, and return to his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart. It becomes a Soldier to be Valiant. Especially Fortitude and Courage is necessary for Commanders who have Soldiers under them.
3. Military Men above others need a great Fortitude and Courage. For if they are called to actual Service against the Enemy, they Expose their Lives to danger, which without Courage they will be loth to do. said concerning his Father Gideon,