XIII. WHEN BEGUN, ENDED.

THE Scripture giveth us a very short account of some battles, as if they were flights without fights, and the armies parted as soon as met, as Gen. xiv. 10; 1 Sam. xxxi. 1; 2 Chron. xxv. 22.

Some will say the spirit gives in only the sum of the success, without any particular passages in achieving it. But there is more in it that so little is said of the fight. For some time the question of the victory is not disputed at all, but the bare propounding decides it. The stand of pikes, ofttimes no stand, and the footmen so fitly called as making more use of their feet than their hands. And when God sends a qualm of fear over the soldiers’ hearts, it is not all the skill and valour of their commanders can give them a cordial.

Our late war hath given us some instances hereof. Yet let not men tax their armies for cowardice, it being probable that the badness of such as stayed at home of their respective sides 117had such influence on those in field, that soldiers’ hearts might be fear-broken by the score of their sins who were no soldiers.