Page images
PDF
EPUB

14

405

On War.

[ocr errors]

To say nothing on the unlawfulness of war, in this latter dispensation of Peace on earth, and good will towards men. experience, woful experience, from the commencement to this day, hath shown, hath abundantly evinced, both its inexpedience and inefficacy; and that, instead of effecting, it utterly defeats its own purpose'; as the apostle James clearly and emphatically demonstrates in chap. iv. 1-3 querying

From whence come wars and figlitings? Come they not hence, even of your fusts that war in your members? Ye Just, and have not; ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight, and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not; ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." Our blessed Saviour and Redeemer, whose disciple James was, had before forbid den all wars and fightings. But that stiff-necked generation, the Jews, hardened in disobedience and iniquity, would not receive him they were so far from listening to his salutary doctrines, reproofs, and instructions, that, even after he had raised Lazarus from the dead, and performed many other miracles, they combined against him: see John xi. 47, 48. Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles: if we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him; and the Romans will come, and take away both our place and na tion." They persisted in their unbelief; they would not depend on his promise of protection and preservation if they believed on him; but they slew him, and took the sword to defend themselves, contrary to his injunction, and consequently perished with the sword; the Romans did come, and take away both their place and nation, according to their own prediction. Now, I would query, if the same language hath not been held, and the same resistance made, by recourse to the sword, by most if not by all nations ever since; and if the effect, the consequence, hath not been the same also to one after another? But, to bring it home to our own knowledge, the dear-bought experience of the present day, hath not this been the language, the conduct, and catastrophe of every nation that has fallen since this war was waged? This, certainly, must be answered in the affirmative. Again: Do we ourselves attend more strictly, more carefully, to these divine injunctions than they have done; though we call him our

VOL. II.

3 H

Lord and lawgiver, and they denied him? Do we "love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to those that hate us, and pray for them that despitefully use us, and persecute us?" Mat. v. 44. I fear we do not; but, rather, the reverse of all this, to the utmost of our power. Do we not traverse the globe in ships of war, fraught with weapons, instruments of destruction prepared for use, in pursuit of dominion and wealth? And are we not too ready to plunge a bayonet, or a dagger, into the bosom even of strangers in a strange land, wherever we please to intrude, if any we find that shall dare to resist or oppose us, any that we may choose to style our enemies, whatever the pretext, though we be the aggressors? That this long hath been, and continues to be, our practice as a nation, a cloud of witnesses in every quarter, east and west, north and south, in the pages of history and with liv, ing voices, can and do abundantly testify, almost innume rable are the instances. To conclude: If we have, moreover, been the first or chief promoters, or instigators, of this pre 'sent disastrous and cruel war, at a most enormous expense of blood and treasure, and still are at the bottom, the root of the evil, (which who can doubt or controvert?) bow then can we, if determined to persist, expect long to survive, or to escape, the general downfall and ruin? Possibly we may be suffered to vaunt a while longer, to vilify, to revile, to abuse, if not to discomfit the enemy, or the many that we have made our enemies; just as other empires, kingdoms, and nations, or their rulers, have done before us, and are now doing!

I wish the whole to be seriously and weightily considered, in a truly Christian, not in a sophistical, or worldly-political, point of view. I pretend not to be a politician; but, if it be not rightly considered, if a change be not made, and things not regulated and conducted in a Christian spirit,—what the end, the conclusion of the contest will be, I take not upon me to pronounce, gloomy as the prospect seems; it is in the womb of time. "The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposal thereof is of the Lord."-His wisdom is inscrutable!

There is not, however, a shadow of doubt with me, that now, in this latter, this Gospel dispensation of peace and good-will, whatever the pretension or the profession of religion be, the world over, war and fighting, bloodshed and slaughter, are totally forbidden, and unlawful to Christians. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." Rom. xii. 19. A LOVER OF PEACE.

407

Extract from a Sermon preached before the University of Cambridge, by R. Watson, Bishop of Llundaff, in 1788.

[ocr errors]

WERE all the nations of the earth converted to the Christian religion, and the individuals of those nations not nominal merely, but reat Christians, it would be utterly impossible for a state of war ever to have a beginning, amongst them. But, un bappily for mankind, neither of these events is likely soon to take place; Christianity hath amended the lives and elevated the hopes of a few individuals; but has it fully and virtually pervaded the hearts and councils of princes, from whence are the issues of peace and war?

The councils of princes are usually governed either by the princes themselves, or by a few individuals of their own appointment; who, being in most countries free from human animadversion, and the fear of punishment, too frequently suppose themselves superior to all control. Men of this stamp, if they do not look upon religion as a human contrivance, invented by statesmen to keep the ignorant in awe, are apt to consider its influence as limited to the concerns of private life. The prosperity of the state, or, which with them is the same thing, the gratification of their ambition, or any other passion, they think may be prosecuted by all possible means: in public transactions they acknowledge no justice but what springs from utility, ad is regulated thereby. There can be uo doubt that individuals with principles such as these are not Christians. They may be potent princes, experienced statesmen, able generals; but they are not Christians.

Christianity, in its regards, steps beyond the narrow bounds of national advantage in quest of universal good. It does not encourage particular patriotism in opposition to general benignity; or prompt us to love our country at the expense of our integrity, or allow us to indulge our passions to the detriment of thousands. It looks upon all the human race as children of the same father, and wishes them equal blessings; in ordering us to do good, to love as brethren, to forgive injuries, and to study peace, it quite annihilates the disposition for martial glory, and utterly debases the pomp of war.

Brave and unfortunate islanders! (the Corsicans) ye stemmed for a time the torrent of tyranny, in hopes that some of the states of Europe would have enabled you to repel it with success. Ye shed with ardour your best blood at the shrine of freedom. Overpowered at length, desponding and deserving

of a better fate, ye fell ;-lamented by every friend of humanity, assisted by none.

Was it the spirit of Christianity which combined in an unnatural union three of the most powerful sovereigns in Europe, and induced them to plan and effectuate the dismemberment of Poland?We ourselves paid no attention either to Corsica or Poland we either had not a disposition, or were not in a condition we were by some means or other prevented from standing forth the protectors of those two devoted countries. Other nations may be in a like situation with respect to us; and a few arbitrary princes of the continent, who look upon their people as brutal property, their kingdoms as private estates, ministers as stewards, and standing armies as collectors of their rents, may conspire together to annihilate the little remaining Liberty of Europe; and yet preserve a balance of despotism among themselves.

Was it the spirit of Christianity which has prompted not African but European princes to traffic in blood, to make a profit of the butchery of their people? Gracious God! whence is it that man, the noblest of thy terrestrial works, can so fat forget the dignity of his nature, become so deaf to every call of humanity, as to murder those who never injured him, or his country, never gave him or his country occasion of offence? -Ibi fus, ubi plurimu merces.

I hope it will not be thought indecorous to have spoken thus freely concerning such practices of sovereign princes, as ap pear to be wholly repugnant to that Gospel by which, and by which alone, they and we must look for salvation and eternal life.-The hour may be at hand to some of us, it can not be far off from any, when this tremendous truth will be better understood. In the mean time, it is our especial duty to represent the rights of humanity as of far more value thau the acts of sovereignty; the laws of Christianity as far more sacred than the customs of civil society.

This you will think is plain speaking. The place from which it is spoken requires plain speaking at all times. On a day especially of solemn humiliation for our sins, you would not expect to hear any lax, temporizing principles of morality. from the pulpit. Alas! let us speak as plainly as we can, we have no great expectation of being regarded. Selfishness has banished honesty; and Christianity, because it will not truckle to our passions and interests, has lost all its hold on our consciences. No. V. in vol. viii., published by himself in 1788. -Sold by T. Evans, Paternoster Row.

INDEX

TO THE SECOND VOLUME.

AFRICA, account of interior, by Ford, Rev. Mr. on the causes of

Kizell, 294.

African Institution, 200.

sixth report, 279.

schools, 291.

Amelia brig, (a slave-ship,) case of,44.
America, North, 161, 395.

Barley, 346.

Bentham, remarks on unexecuted
laws, 19.

crimes, 183.
Food, 338, 381.

Hemp, see Palm-tree.
Herrings, 344.

Houses of industry, 129.

Howard's Life, Remarks on, 1, 136,
249.

, by Dr. Aikin, 8.

penitentiary houses, lead-Ignorance the source of crimes, 134.
ing positions, 130.
Indians, North American, belief in a
Bibles, mode of supplying the poor, Supreme Being, 163.

267.

Bread, 345.

Cayor, 23, 152.

-, speech at a public council,

171, 260.

see Civilization.

Canoes, curious mode of building, 24. Infidelity, persecutions for, impolitic

Civilization of North American Indi-

ans, 160, 258.

the Moravians, 387.

Cod, salt, 344.

and improper, 210.
Indigo, African, 288.

[blocks in formation]

Coffee, African, 289, 297.

, to make, 354.

, advantages in its use, 354.

Conjurers, African, 27.
Cruelty to animals, 384.

Cuffee, Paul, memoir of, 32,291,308.

Debts, Mile End Society, 244.
Detraction, essay on, 956.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »