When Man, I
say, such a one as I have describ'd, should be forc'd to hear and see
all this, it would hardly be possible for him, not to believe, in the
first Place, that God actually assisted this Army; and in the Second,
that the Means, by which that Assistance was procured, were the
Strictness of the Discipline and the Religious Duties, that were
observed in it; tho' he himself should never Join in the one, or
Submit to the other, but against his Will, and with the utmost
Reluctancy. I am persuaded, that such an Opinion, well rivetted in a
Man, would, in such an Army as I am speaking of, be of vast Use to him
in all Adventures and Expeditions of War; and that, if he was fit at
all to be made a soldier, it would in the Day of Battle inspire him
with a Confidence and Undauntedness, which the same man could never
have acquired, _Cateris Paribus_, if he had served among other troops,
where Divine Worship had been little insisted upon, or but slightly
perform'd. And if this be true, I have proved to you, that Acts of
Devotion, and an outward Shew of Religion, may be serviceable to the
greatest Profligate for the obtaining of Victory, tho' the General
should be an _Atheist_, most of the Clergy Hypocrites, and the greatest
Part of the Army wicked Men.
Hor. I can see very well the Possibility, that a few Profligates,
among a great many others, that were not so, might be kept in Awe by
strict Discipline, and that Acts of Devotion might be serviceable even
to those, who were present at them against their Wills.
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