Hor. So, when they had no settled Revenue or Pomp of Dress from the
Gospel, they took up with the Tithes and Sacerdotal Ornaments of the
_Levites_, and borrow'd from the _Jewish_ Priests and Prophets every Thing
that was worth having.
Cleo. This would open too large a Field, and therefore I would look
into the Clergy's Behaviour no farther, than as it relates to Armies
and military Men, and take Notice, that whenever Pillage or shedding
of Blood are to be justified or encouraged by a Sermon, or Men are to
be exhorted to Battle, to the Sacking of a City or the Devastation of
a Country, by a pathetick Discourse, the Text is always taken from the
_Old Testament_; which is an inexhaustible Fund for Declamation on
almost every Subject and every Occasion: And there is no worldly End,
which the most ambitious Man, or the most cruel Tyrant can have to
serve, but from some Part or other of that Book a Divine of middling
Capacity may find out a proper Text to harangue upon, that shall
answer the Purpose. But to make it evident, that Divines may be useful
to all Fighting Men, without preaching of the Gospel, we need but to
consider, that among all the Wars and Dissentions, which Christians
have had with one another on innumerable Accounts, there never was a
Cause yet, so unreasonable or absurd, so unjust or openly wicked, if
it had an army to back it, that has not found Christian Divines, or at
least such as stiled themselves so, who have espoused and call'd it
Righteous.
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