CHAPTER XX.

THE GOOD SOLDIER.

a

A SOLDIER is one of a lawful, necessary, commendable, and honourable profession; yea, God himself may seem to be one free of the company of soldiers, in that he styleth himself, " Man of war." (Exod. xv. 3; Isaiah xlii. 13.) Now though many hate soldiers as the twigs of the rod war, wherewith God scourgeth wanton countries into repentance; yet is their calling so needful, that were not some soldiers, we must be all soldiers, daily employed to defend our own, the world would grow so licentious.

MAXIM I.

He keepeth a clear and quiet conscience in his breast, which otherwise will gnaw out the roots of all valour.-For, vicious soldiers are compassed with enemies on all sides; their foes without them, and an ambush within them of fleshly lusts, which, as St. Peter saith, "fight against the soul." (1 Peter ii. 11.) None fitter to go to war, than those who have made their peace with God in Christ. For such a man's soul is an impregnable fort. It cannot be scaled with ladders, for it reacheth up to heaven; nor be broken by batteries, for it is walled with brass; nor undermined by pioneers, for he is founded on a rock; nor betrayed by treason, for faith itself keeps it; nor be burnt by granadoes, for he can quench the fiery darts of the devil; nor be forced by famine, for "a good conscience is a continual feast."

II.

He chiefly avoids those sins to which soldiers are taxed as most subject.-Namely, common swearing,-which impaireth one's credit by degrees, and maketh all his promises not to be trusted; for he who for no profit will sin against God, for small profit will trespass against his neighbour;-drinking, whoring. When valiant Zisca, near Pilsen in Bohemia, fought against his enemies, he commanded the women who followed his army, to cast their kerchiefs and partlets on the ground; wherein

According to PHILLIPS and KERSEY, " Partlet, (in old statutes) is the loose collar of a doublet, to be set on or taken off by itself; also a kind of neck-kerchief or band."-Edit.

I

their enemies being entangled by their spurs, (for though horsemen, they were forced to alight and fight on foot, through the roughness of the place,) were slain before they could unloose their feet. A deep moral may be gathered hence; and women have often been the nets to catch and ensnare the souls of many martial men.

III.

He counts his prince's lawful command to be his sufficient warrant to fight.—In a defensive war, when his country is hostilely invaded, it is pity but his neck should hang in suspense with his conscience that doubts to fight. In offensive war, though the case be harder, the common soldier is not to dispute, but do, his prince's command.‡ Otherwise princes, before they levy an army of soldiers, must first levy an army of casuists and confessors to satisfy each scrupulous soldier in point of right to the war; and the most cowardly will be the most conscientious, to multiply doubts eternally. Besides, causes of war are so complicated and perplexed, so many things falling in the prosecution, as may alter the original state thereof; and private soldiers have neither calling nor ability to dive into such mysteries. But if the conscience of a counsellor or commander-in-chief remonstrates in himself the unlawfulness of this war, he is bound humbly to represent to his prince his reasons against it.

IV.

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He esteemeth all hardship easy, through hopes of victory.Moneys are the sinews of war; yet if these sinews should chance to be shrunk, and pay casually fall short, he takes a fit of this convulsion patiently. He is contented, though in cold weather his hands must be their own fire, and warm themselves with working; though he be better armed against their enemies than the weather, and his corslet wholler than his clothes; though he hath more fasts and vigils in his almanack than the Romish church did ever enjoy. He patiently endureth drought, for desire of honour; and one thirst quencheth another. In a word: though much indebted to his own back and belly, and unable to pay them, yet he hath credit himself, and confidently runs on ticket with himself, hoping the next victory will discharge all scores with advantage.

Fox's "Acts and Monuments," p. 646. homo miles.-TERTULLIANI Apol. cap. ii. lib. v. cap. 33.

In publicos hostes omnis AMESIUS, Cas. Conscien

V.

He looks at (and also through) his wages, at God's glory, and his country's good.-He counts his pay an honourable addition, but no valuable compensation for his pains. For what proportion is there betwixt four shillings a-week, and adventuring his life? I cannot see how their calling can be lawful, who for greater wages will fight on any side against their own king and cause. Yea, as false witnesses were hired against our blessed Saviour,* (money will make the mouths of men plead against their Maker!) so were the giants now in the world; who, as the poets feigned, made war against God himself; and should they offer great pay, they would not want mercenary soldiers to assist them.

VI.

He attends with all readiness on the commands of his general. -Rendering up his own judgment, in obedience to the will and pleasure of his leader, and by an implicit faith believing all is best which he enjoineth; lest otherwise he be served as the French soldier was in Scotland, some eighty years since, who first mounted the bulwark of a fort besieged; whereupon ensued the gaining of the fort: but marshal de Thermes, the French general, first knighted him, and then hanged him within an hour after, because he had done it without commandment.+

VII.

He will not in a bravery expose himself to needless peril.—It is madness to hollow in the ears of sleeping temptation, to awaken it against one's self, or to go out of his calling to find a danger. But if a danger meets him as he walks in his vocation, he neither stands still, starts aside, nor steps backward, but either goes over it with valour, or under it with patience. All single duels he detesteth, as having, first, no command in God's word; yea, this arbitrary deciding causes by the sword subverts the fundamental laws of the Scripture; secondly, no example in God's word,-that of David and Goliath moving in a higher sphere, as extraordinary; thirdly, it tempts God to work a miracle for man's pleasure, and to invert the course of nature, whereby, otherwise, the stronger will beat the weaker ; fourthly, each dueller challengeth his king as unable or unwilling legally to right him, and therefore he usurps the office himself; fifthly, if slaying, he hazards his neck to the halter; if

• Matt. xxviii. 15.

+ HOLLMAN in his book of "the Ambassador."

slain, in heat of malice, without repentance, he adventures his soul to the devil.

OBJECTION." But there are some intricate cases, (as in titles of land,) which cannot otherwise be decided. Seeing, therefore, that in such difficulties the right in question cannot be delivered by the midwifery of any judicial proceedings, then it must (with Julius Cæsar in his mother's belly) be cut out, and be determined by the sword."

ANSWER. Such a right may better be lost, than to light a candle from hell to find it out, if the judges cannot find a middle way to part it betwixt them. Besides, in such a case, duels are no medium proportionatum to find out the truth, as never appointed by God to that purpose. Nor doth it follow, that he hath the best in right who hath the best in fight; for he that reads the lawfulness of actions by their events, holds the wrong end of the book upwards.

OBJECTION." But, suppose an army of thirty thousand infidels ready to fight against ten thousand Christians, yet so that at last the infidels are contented to try the day upon the valour of a single champion; whether, in such a case, may not a Christian undertake to combat with him? the rather, because the treble odds before is thereby reduced to terms of equality; and so the victory is made more probable."

ANSWER. The victory was more probable before; because it is more likely God will bless his own means, than means of man's appointing: and it is his prerogative to give victory, as well by few as by many. Probability of conquest is not to be measured by the eye of human reason, contrary to the square of God's word. Besides, I question whether it be lawful for a Christian army to derive their right of fighting God's battles to any single man. For the title every man hath to promote God's glory, is so invested and inherent in his own particular person, that he cannot pass it over to another. None may appear in God's service by an attorney; and when religion is at the stake, there must be no lookers-on, except impotent people, who also help by their prayers; and every one is bound to lay his shoulders to the work. Lastly, would to God no duels might be fought till this case came into question! But how many daily fall out upon a more false, slight, and flitting ground, than the sands of Calais whereon they fight? especially, seeing there is an honourable court appointed, or some other equivalent way, for taking up such quarrels, and allowing reparations to the party injured.

OBJECTION." But reputation is so spiritual a thing, it is inestimable, and honour falls not under valuation. Besides, to complain to the civil magistrate showeth no manhood, but is like a child's crying to his father, when he is only beaten by his equal; and my enemy's forced acknowledgment of his fault (enjoined him by the court) shows rather his submission to the laws than to me. But if I can civilize his rudeness by my sword, and chastise him into submission, then he sings his penitential song in the true tune, and it comes naturally indeed."

ANSWER.-Honourable persons in that court are the most competent judges of honour; and though credit be as tender as the apple of the eye, yet such curious oculists can cure a blemish therein. And why, I pray, is it more disgrace to repair to the magistrate for redress in reputation, than to have recourse to him in actions of trespass? The pretence of a forced submission is nothing, all submissions having aliquid violentum in them; and even the evangelical repentance of God's servants hath a mixture of legal terror frighting them thereto.

OBJECTION." But gownmen speak, out of an antipathy they bear to fighting. Should we be ruled by them, we must break all our swords into penknives; and lawyers, to enlarge their gains, send prohibitions, to remove suits from the camps to their courts. Divines are not to be consulted with herein, as ignorant of the principles of honour."

ANSWER. Indeed, "honour" is a word of course in the talk of roaring boys; and pure enough in itself, except their mouths soil it by often using of it. But, indeed, God is the Fountain of honour, God's word the charter of honour, and godly men the best judges of it; nor is it any stain of cowardliness for one to fear hell and damnation.

We may therefore conclude, that the laws of duelling, as the laws of drinking, had their original from the devil; and therefore the declining of needless quarrels, in our soldier, is no abatement of honour. I commend his discretion and valour who, walking in London-streets, met a gallant, who cried to him, a pretty distance beforehand, "I will have the wall." "Yea," answered he, "and take the house too, if you can but agree with the landlord." But when God and his prince calls for him, our soldier

VIII.

Had rather die ten times than once survive his credit.-Though life be sweet, it shall not flatter the palate of his soul, as, with