Upon this new subject I shall enter next. And I confess I shall enter upon it willingly. First, because I know of none that is more important: Secondly, because, though controversy may have thrown some light upon it, much remains to be added. And, thirdly, because the assertions of the Society on this point are disputed by many at the present day.

With respect to the opinions of the early Christians, which I shall notice first, it must be premised, that such of them as have written books have not all of them entered upon this subject. Some of them have not had occasion even to notice it. But where they have, and where they have expressed an opinion, I believe that this will be found unfavourable to the continuance of war.

Justin the Martyr, one of the earliest writers in the second century, considers war as unlawful. He makes the devil "the author of all war. No severer censure could have been passed upon it than this, when we consider it as coming from the lips of an early Christian. The sentiment, too, was contrary to the prevailing sentiments of the times, when, of all professions, that of war

was

was most honourable, and was the only one that was considered to lead to glory. It resulted therefore, in all probability, from the new views, which Justin had acquired by a perusal of such of the Scriptures as had then fallen into his hands.

Tatian, who was the disciple of Justin, in his Oration to the Greeks, speaks precisely in the same terms on the same subject.

From many expressions of Clemens of Alexandria, a contemporary of the latter, we collect his opinion to be decisive against the lawfulness of war.

Tertullian, who may be mentioned next in order of time, strongly condemned the practice of bearing arms, as it related to Christians. I shall give one or two extracts from him on this subject:-In his Dissertation on the Worship of Idols, he says:

Though the soldiers came to John, and received a certain form to be observed; and though the centurion believed; yet Jesus Christ, by disarming Peter, disarmed every soldier afterwards; for custom never sanctions an illicit act." And in his Soldier's

Garland he says, "Can a soldier's life be lawful, when Christ has pronounced that he,

who

who lives by the sword, shall perish by the sword? Can one, who professes the peaceable doctrine of the Gospel, be a soldier, when it is his duty not so much as to go to law? And shall he, who is not to revenge his own wrongs, be instrumental in bringing others into chains, imprisonment, torment, death?”

Cyprian, in his Epistle to Donatus, takes a view of such customs in his own times as he conceived to be repugnant to the spirit or the letter of the Gospel. In looking at war, which was one of them, he speaks thus:

Suppose thyself," says he, "with me on the top of some very exalted eminence, and from thence looking down upon the appearances of things beneath thee. Let our prospect take in the whole horizon, and let us view, with the indifference of persons not concerned in them, the various motions and agitations of human life. Thou wilt then, I dare say, have a real compassion for the circumstances of mankind, and for the posture, in which this view will represent them. And when thou reflectest upon thy condi tion, thy thoughts will rise in transports of gratitude and praise to God, for having made

thy

thy escape from the pollutions of the world. The things thou wilt principally observe will be-the highways beset with robbers; the seas with pirates; encampments, marches, and all the terrible forms of war and bloodshed. When a single murder is committed, it shall be deemed perhaps a crime; but that crime shall commence a virtue, when committed under the shelter of public authority; so that punishment is not rated by the measure of guilt, but the more enormous the size of the wickedness is, so much the greater the chance for impunity." These are the sentiments of Cyprian; and that they were the result of his views of Christianity, as taken from the Divine Writings, there can be little doubt. If he had stood upon the same eminence, and beheld the same sights, previously to his conversion, he might, like others, have neither thought piracy dishonourable, nor war inglorious.

is

Lactantius, who lived some time after Cyprian, in his Treatise concerning the true Worship of God, says, "It can never be lawful for a righteous man to go to war, whose warfare is in righteousness itself." And in another part of the same Treatise he observes,

observes, that "no exception can be made. with respect to this command of God. It can never be lawful to kill a man, whose person the Divine Being designed to be sacred as to violence."

It will be unnecessary to make extracts from other of the early Christian writers, who mention this subject. I shall therefore only observe, that the names of Origen, Archelaus, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Jerome, and Cyril, may be added to those already mentioned, as the names of persons, who gave it as their decided opinion, that it was unlawful for Christians to go to war.

With respect to the practice of the early, Christians, which is the next point to be considered, it may be observed, that there is no well-authenticated instance upon record of Christians entering into the army for the first two centuries; but it is true, on the other hand, that they declined the military profession, as one in which it was not lawful for them to engage.

The first species of evidence, which I shall produce to this point, may be found in the following facts, which reach from the year 169 to the year 198:-Avidius Crassus had

rebelled