be concealed, that many are forced to go, both against their judgment and against their will.

The Superior Being, hurt at these various accounts, would probably ask, And what then does the community get by these wars, as a counterbalance for the loss of so much happiness, and the production of so much evil? It would be replied,-nothing. The community is generally worse off at the end of these wars than when it began to contend. But here the Superior Being would wish to hear no more of the system. He would suddenly turn away his face, and retire into one of the deep valleys of his planet, either with exclamations against the folly, or with emotions of pity for the situation, or with expressions of disgust at the wicked- ̧ ness, for these little creatures,

"O for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,

Might never reach me more! My ear is pain'd,
My soul is sick with every day's report

Of wrong and outrage with which earth is fill'd—
Lands, intersected by a narrow frith,

Abhor each other, Mountains interpos'd

Make

Make enemies of nations, who had else,
Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.-
Thus man devotes his brother and destroys—
Then what is man? And what man, seeing this,
And having human feelings, does not blush,
And hang his head, to think himself a man ?”

SECTION VI.

Cowper.

Subject further examined-Sad conceptions of those, relative to the Divine Being and the nature of the Gospel, who plead for the necessity of warwar necessary, where statesmen pursue the policy of the world-nature and tendency of this policy -but not necessary, where they pursue the policy of the Gospel-nature and tendency of this policy-this tendency further confirmed by a supposed case of a few Quakers becoming the governors of the world.

IT is now an old maxim, and time with all its improvements, has not worn it away, that wars are necessary in the present constitution of the world. It has not even been obliterated, that they are necessary in order to sweep off mankind on account of the narrow boundaries of the earth. But they,

who

make use of this argument, must be aware that, in espousing it, they declare no less than that God, in the formation of his system, had only half calculated or half provided for its continuance; and that they charge him with a worse cruelty than is recorded of the worst of men: because, if he told men to increase and multiply, and gave them passions accordingly, it would appear as if he had created them only to enjoy an eternal feast in the sight of their destruction. Nor do they make him a moral governor of the world, if he allows men to butcher one another without an individual provocation or offence.

Neither do persons arguing for the necessity of wars do less than set themselves above the prophecies or oracles of God, which declare that such warfare shall some time or other cease.

Neither do they, when they consider wars as necessary, and as never to be done away, on account of the wicked passions of men, do less than speak blasphemy against the Gospel of Jesus Christ; because they proclaim it to be inadequate to the end proposed.

For

For the proper subjugation of these, among other purposes, it was, that the Gospel was promulgated. If it be thought a miracle that the passions of men should be subdued, it is still a miracle, which Christianity professes to work;-which it has worked since the hour of its institution;-which it has worked in men, who have placed their highest reputation in martial glory;—and which it continues to work at the present day. Those, therefore, who promote wars, and excite the passions of men for this purpose, attempt to undo what it is the object of Christianity to do, and to stop the benign influence of the Gospel in the hearts of men.

That wars are necessary, or rather that they will be begun and continued, I do not mean to deny, while statesmen pursue the wisdom or policy of the world.

What this wisdom or policy is, it will not be difficult to trace.-And, first, when any matter is in dispute among the rulers of nations, it is not a maxim that a high tone is desirable in the settlement of it, in order that the parties may seem to betray neither fear nor weakness, and that they may not be thought to lose any of their dignity or

spirit?

spirit? Now, as the human passions áre constituted, except they have been previously brought under due regulation by Christianity, what is more likely than that a high tone of language on one side should beget a similar tone on the other; or that spirit, once manifested, should produce spirit in return; and that each should fly off as it were at a greater distance from accommodation than before, and that when once exasperation has begun it should increase? Now what is the chance, if such policy be resorted to on such occasions, of the vation of peace between them?

preser

And, secondly, is it not also a received maxim, that in controversies of this sort, a nation even during the discussion should arm itself, in order that it may show itself prepared? But if any one nation arms during the discussion,-if it fits out armies or fleets of observation, with a view of deterring or of being ready, in case of necessity, of striking, as it is called, the first blow, -what is more probable than that the other will arm also, and that it will fit out its own armies and fleets likewise? But when both are thus armed, pride and spirit will

scarcely