An Enquiry into an Origin of Honour; and the Usefulness of Christianity in WarMandeville, Bernard
Religion
An Enquiry into an Origin of Honour; and the Usefulness of Christianity in War
Mandeville, Bernard
Honor
Cleo. All this while you take that for granted, which I told you long
ago was notoriously false; _viz_. That in camps and Armies, the plain
Doctrine of _Christ_ is delivered without Disguise or Dissimulation:
Nay, I hinted to you just now, that if Repentance was preach'd among
Military Men, as might be expected from Christian Divines, Solders
would be in Danger of being spoil'd by it, and render'd unfit for
their Business. All knowing Clergymen, at first Setting out, suit
themselves and their Doctrine to the Occupations, as well as
Capacities of their Hearers: And as Court Preachers speak in Praise of
the Government, and applaud the Measures of it, shade the Vices of
Princes and their Favourites, and place their Merit in the handsomest
Light it can be seen in so Divines in Armies speak up for the Justice
of the Cause they are engaged in, and extol the Generals to the Skies;
cajole and curry Favour with the Troops, and flatter more particularly
the respective Regiments they belong to. There is not a Chaplain in an
Army, who is not perfectly well acquainted with the Duty of a Soldier,
and what is required of him. Therefore they preach Christianity to
them, as far as it is consistent with that Duty, and no farther. Where
they interfere, and are clashing with one another, the Gospel is set
aside. The Politician must have his Business done: Necessity is
pleaded, and Religion ever made to give Way to the Urgency of Affairs.
There is a vast Latitude in Preaching; and Clergymen often take great
Liberties: Being as much subject to Errour and Passion as other
People, they can give bad Counsel as well as good. Those, who are
pleas'd with a Government, we see, preach one way; and those who are
not, another. Above Half the Time of the last Reign, a considerable
Part of the _English_ Clergy exhorted their Hearers to Sedition, and in
a Contempt for the Royal Family, either openly or by sly Inuendo's, in
ever Sermon they preach'd: And every Thirtieth of _January_ The same
Church furnishes us with two contrary Doctrines: For whilst the more
prudent and moderate of the Clergy are shifting and trimming between
two Parties, the hot ones of one side assert with Vehemence, that it
is meritorious as well as lawful for the people, to put their King to
Death whenever he deserves it; and that of this Demerit, the Majority
of the same People are the only Judges. The Zealots on the other, are
as positive, that Kings are not accountable for their Actions, but to
God only; and that, whatever Enormities they may commit, it is a
damnable Sin for Subjects to resist them. And if an impartial Man,
tho' he was the wisest in the World, was to judge of the Monarch,
whose unfortunate End is the common Topick of the Discourses held on
that Day, and he had no other Light to guide him, but the Sermons of
both Parties, it would be impossible for him to decide, whether the
Prince in Question had been a spotless Saint, or the greatest Tyrant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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