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dom, but to inflict it; not to lay down one's own life for the 'truth, but to take away the life of others for worldly purposes of vanity and avarice.' 'But you argue in defence of this indecent practice of hanging up flags or colours, as they are 'called, in churches, that the ancients used to deposite the mo"numents of their victories in the temples of their gods. It is true; but what were their gods but demons, delighting in blood and impurity? not the God, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Never let priests, dedicated to a God like this, have any thing to do with war, unless it is to put an end to it, and promote love and reconciliation. If the clergy were but unanimous in such sentiments, if they would inculcate them every where, there is no doubt, notwithstanding the great power of the secular arm, that their authority, personal and professional, would have a preponderance against the influence of courts of ministers of state, and thus prevent war, the calamity of human nature.'

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A third prejudice in favour of the lawfulness of War, is founded upon the undeniable moral excellenee of the characters of some individuals engaged in the military profession. Paley, in combating the notion, that it is unlawful for a Christian to bear arms,'. remarks, that the profession of a soldier is no where (in Scripture) forbidden or condemned.' He instances the reply of John the Baptist to the soldiers, "Be content with your wages," and remarks, that the precept supposed them to continue in their situation.' 'It was on a Roman ' centurion,' he adds, that Christ pronounced that memorable • eulogy, "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." The first Gentile convert who was received into the Christian Church, and to whom the Gospel was imparted by the im'mediate and special direction of Heaven, held the same station and, in the history of this transaction, we discover not the smallest intimation, that Cornelius, upon becoming a Christian, quitted the service of the Roman legion; that his profession was objected to, or his continuance in it considered as in any wise inconsistent with his new character.' * Paley, however, was too acute a reasoner to adduce these examples as arguments in favour of the practice of War itself. It may ' be necessary,' he shews, for individuals to unite their force, and for this end to resign themselves to the direction of a common will and yet, it may be true that that will is often actuated by criminal motives, and often determined to • destructive purposes.'

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Let it be recollected, in the first place, that under the Roman government, which was a military despotism, the army may

* Moral Philosophy, Vol. ii. pp. 425, 6.

be considered as constituting the civil defence of the State, and the Centurion appears to have possessed a degree of civil au- i thority. In time of peace, the military would be merged in thei civil character, and the circumstances of the soldiery would re-', semble that of a militia, except in relation to the nature of the government to which they were subordinate. On this ground, there would seem to be no reason that the Gentile convert should forsake his calling, especially as that act might expose him to the charge of a defection from civil obedience, and thus bring a scandal on Christianity. It cannot be imagined that the New Testament designed to give the least countenance to slavery, when it directed every man to " abide in the same calling "wherein he was called;" yet it follows: " Art thou called, "being a bondman? Care not for it; but if thou mayest be "made free, use it rather be not ye the slaves of men."? The case of the Christian convert in the Roman army, appears to us to be precisely parallel. War and Slavery are equally incompatible with the principles of Christianity; but so long as they exist in connexion with the political institutions of a country, it may not be unlawful for a man to continue a, soldier, or a slave, on the ground of civil obedience to the government: "Yet if thou mayest be made free, use it rather."

Civil obedience is a thing wholly distinct from political duty; the distinction of de jure and de facto is here perfectly legitimate. A subject is bound to obey the constituted authorities; it is equally his duty to avail himself of every constitutional means for bringing about beneficial changes in the political system. Nero was the Cæsar to whom Paul appealed as the highest constituted authority; but would the Apostle have applauded the tyrannical system of the Roman government? It may be lawful to yield civil obedience to tyranny, and at the same time to compass its overthrow. If not, what do we mean by the glorious Revolution in 1688, thrice glorious, as having been bloodless? In like manner, we conceive it neither unlawful nor inconsistent for those who think themselves justified in continuing in the army, as a matter of civil obedience, to promote, to the utmost of their power, the abolition of War; and were but the military of a country to be actuated at all generally by this sentiment, not from effeminacy, but from the operation of Christian principle, it would be one of the most effectual means of stemming the passion for destruction.

We confess that, with our views, no genuine Christian ought to deem it lawful, on any plea short of necessity, (a plea which it would be difficult to substantiate,) to continue in the military profession. But this is not the only case in which individuals whose religious character we should be reluctant to doubt, have lived in the unconscious practice of what is in itself, though VOL. VII. N. S.

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not in their view, unlawful. There have been such men as Colonel Hutchinson, and Colonel Gardiner, and less distinguished individuals of eminent piety, in modern armies; good men who thought it right "to abide in the same calling wherein they "were called," and to resign themselves,' as subjects of the government, to the direction of a common will,' without calling in question the motive by which that will was actuated. We cannot for a moment imagine, that the piety of such men, which supplied them with a calm and steady courage in the prospect of eternity, was itself a delusion. It would indeed be horrible to imagine, that the soldier's life of hardships and awful uncertainties, was necessarily incompatible with the existence of that principle of religion which might prepare the individual for his final encounter with danger. But let us not dare speak of the glories of such a death. That is not the "death of the "righteous" which we desire to die. We admit, indeed, with Mr. Chalmers, that a soldier may be a Christian, and that from the bloody field on which his body is laid, his soul may wing its ascending way to the shores of a peaceful 'eternity.'

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But,' adds the Author of the Sermon referred to, when I think that the Christians, even of the great world, form but a very little flock, and an that army is not a propitious soil for the growth of Christian principle-when I follow them to the field of battle, and further think that on both sides of an exasperated contest. the gentleness of Christianity can have no place in almost any bosom; but that nearly every heart is lighted up with fury, and breathes a vindictive purpose against a brother of the species; I cannot, but reckon it among the most fearful of the calamities of war, that while the work of death is thickening along its ranks, so many disimbodied spirits should pass into the presence of Him who sitteth upon the throne, in such a posture and with such a preparation.” pp. 16, 17.

It is, indeed,

A fearful thing,

To see the human soul take wing
In any shape, in any mood;-
To see it rushing forth in blood,'-

to be the actual instrument of dislodging it from the body of a.. human being, and sending it, in all its guilt, to receive its sentence; to be, in a sense, not only the destroyer of the frame, but the executioner of the soul of a fellow-creature, by sealing up it irreversible condition in death; and not the soul of one human being only, but the souls of hundreds of human beings; to be, in a word, the pander to the malice of infernal spirits :when we think of a man's voluntarily subjecting himself to this horrid drudgery, resigning himself to a common will,' with

the certainty of its

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as if we must retract what we have admitted as to the possibility of his being a Christian. Surely, the infatuation by which such a man is prevented from discerning the enormity of his conduct, must be pronounced the very climax of fanaticism. How forcible, in such a reference, is the exhortation-Be not ye the "slaves of men."

of his being ang upon him such an office, we feel

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We have one more prejudice to encounter: Wars ever have been, and Wars ever will be; they are necessary; or, to attempt to abolish war is Utopian. This plea, the last refuge of selfish indolence and unbelief, would equally apply to all attempts to counterwork the spread of moral evil, the total extermination of which we cannot hope for, and to improve the social condition of mankind. Yet how fatally does the apprehension, of uselessness reconcile persons to a dereliction of active duty!

it is imagined,

self-preservation, for redresey! For what purpose? For

or

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honour? urge the former plea, as the ground of this necessity, we must define what is meant by the term self, in application to a state or community. Does it imply the lives of the members of that community? Assuredly, War is not necessary or conducive to their preservation. Does it imply the preservation of territorial integrity? This can apply only to cases of actual invasion, and these are of too rare occurrence to need consideration in a general argument. Self-preservation is a plea which has in general no better foundation than the remote possibility of injury in respect of commercial interests, or of political power. In this sense, we deny its necessity. Is it necessary for the purpose of redress? Redress may be necessary, and yet war be as a means both unnecessary and inefficient. Is it common,' asks the

author of the Solemn Review," for a nation to obtain a 'redress of wrongs by war?' wrongs by war? There is scarcely an instance of it in history, scarcely an instance in which the original or pro fessed object of waging war has been gained by the belligerent *! War is not the only means of redress; that which is not the only means cannot be considered as a priori necessary: war is not in general a successful or an efficient means of redress; it is not only therefore not necessary; it is impolitic. In the "Friend of Peace," the President, in his conference with

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Southey's admirable ballad, The battle of Blenheim,' presents this homely truth in a form of the most touching simplicity. "It was the English," Kaspar cried,

Who put the French to rout;

But what they kill'd each other for,
I could not well make out.

"But every body said," quoth he,
"That 'twas a famous victory."

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Omar, demands, What could have been done to avoid the war? The answer he receives, is: The very same, Sir, that was done to make peace.' 'Such a treaty as we now have, had it been made before the war, would have saved all the sacrifices of blood and treasure on both sides of the contest.' This is the practical absurdity of war, that it usually terminates in a treaty, of which the status quo ante bellum is the very basis. Well might Erasmus exclaim: Let men cover their malice with what cloak they please; it is certain, that

They say it was a shocking sight,
After the field was won;
For many thousand bodies here
Lay rotting in the sun;-

But things like that, you know, must be
After a famous victory.

Great praise the Duke of Marlbro' won,
And our good Prince Eugene;
"Why 'twas a very wicked thing!"
Said little Wilhelmine.

"Nay, nay-my little girl," quoth he,
"It was a famous victory."

And every body praised the Duke,
Who this great fight did win;
"But what good came of it at last ?”
Quoth little Peterkin.

"Why that I cannot tell," said he,

"But 'twas a famous victory."

Southey's "Minor Poems," Vol. III. (1815) p. 167.

This Poem is accidentally omitted in the "Contents," which has given rise to the injurious supposition that it was designedly omitted by the author. Bishop Porteus, in his Poem entitled "Death," exclaims,

- One murder makes a villain,

Millions a hero. Princes were privileged

To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime.'

But Cowper, of all our Poets, speaks out the most nobly.
War is a game, which, were their subjects wise,
Kings would not play at.'

See "The Task," B. ii. and v. "On Heroism," and "Expostulation." In his last Poem, occur the following remarkable lines:

Thy rack'd inhabitants repine, complain,

Tax'd 'till the brow of labour sweats in vain ;
War lays a burthen on the reeling state,
And peace does nothing to relieve the weight;
Successive loads successive broils impose,
And sighing millions prophecy the close.

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