man servant, his maid servant, his ox, his ass, and every thing that is his.

In the same licentious manner, the custom and maxims of war subvert or reverse the benevolent and peaceful precepts of Jesus, and authorize every passion and every vice, prohibited by the gospel. What then is more deserving of the character of the "man of sin," or of antichrist, than the spirit and cus tom of war! And have we no reason to fear, that the judicial threatening," God shall send them strong delusions that they may believe a lie," has been awfully verified among professed Christians, who have had pleasure in this unrighteous custom? Can there be stronger delusions, than those by which men are made to believe, that they are acting in a manner which God will approve, while they support a custom which sets at defiance every precept of his law and his gospel!

We are amazed at the power of delusion in the religious fanatics of Munster, who, fancying themselves to be the favorites of heaven, claimed as their privilege the indulgence of every licentious passion, and the right of slaughtering their fellow men, that they might inherit the earth. But what excesses, what inconsistencies, what enormities can be charged to their account, which have not been equalled or surpassed by war makers in every age! The deluded king of these madmen assumed no more power over the lives of men and the laws of God, than has been commonly assumed by war making rulers.

We regard the Algerines as barbarians, pirates, robbers, and murderers; because their modes of warfare are in some respects different from those adopted by Christian nations. But these barbarians have their customs as well as other people; and they can plead that their inhuman practices are not only authorized by their rulers, but by their religion. Their rulers have as good a right to authorize their barbarous conduct, as christian rulers have to authorize the most bare faced violations of the laws of God and the precepts of the gospel. If a christian ruler can, by a war mandate, render violence and murder justifiable, why may not the Dey of Algiers convert the most cruel slavery into a justifiable means of obtaining money?

Their mode of warfare is indeed abominable inhumanity; but this is true of the modes authorized by christian rulers.

We reprobate the customs of the Indians, in torturing captives, and scalping the dead. But these are Indian customs, and according to their maxims of war; nor are they more savage, than the indiscriminate butchery of men, women, and children, which has often been authorized by pretended christian rulers, on taking a city by storm. In truth, we can find no custom among the most savage nations, or the most deluded fanatics, which may not be vindicated with as good a grace, as the custom of christian rulers in making war. If christian rulers will so far agree with the Indian chiefs, as to authorize the murder of the innocent, let them not reproach the Indians for the far less unjust and inhuman practice of taking the scalps of the dead. To take life from the innocent and the living, is a very serious injury; but to take the scalp from a dead man, does him no harm at all. It is only an Indian mode of glorying in victory; and perhaps as little offensive to God, as the modes often adopted by Christians. On the whole, christian rulers should either admit that the established customs of the Algerines and the Indians, are as justifiable as their own, and cease to reproach them for their inhumanity, or begin a reformation at home.

OMAR'S SOLITARY REFLECTIONS.

SECTION I.

I HAVE now done writing to the President. What effect my letters may have on his mind, I know not. I hope they will give no offence, for surely none has been intended. He sees the error of duellists, but I fear he will not be easily persuaded to renounce an error, which has been sanctioned by his own administration. He is, however, certainly a man of talents, and capable of examining the subject. I cannot but indulge some hope of success.

But alas! how san I hope to convince a statesman that war is a wicked custom, while so great a portion of the clergy

are its advocates! It is surely to be lamented that ever a minister of the gospel was known to approve a custom, which involves every species of guilt which God forbids; and which cannot possibly exist but by the indulgence of a temper, directly opposed to the temper of Jesus.

While different sects of christians have adopted different criterions of the christian character, and pursued a course of exclusive conduct towards each other; how seldom has the benevolent and self-denying temper of the gospel been admitted as the best evidence of true religion! And how unanimous have been most sects of christians in supporting a custom of violence and revenge, by which many thousands of lives are annually sacrificed to the ambition of rulers! Shocking indeed is the thought, but so it seems to have been, that on no one point have christians been more united than in supporting the very worst custom in the pagan world!

But why do I wonder at others? I too was educated under the light of the gospel, except so far as this light was eclipsed by antichristian opinions and customs. Yet how long did I remain in darkness, bewildered by popular delusions!

O my God, cleanse my soul from all the guilt I contracted by supporting sanguinary customs. Dispose me to be as ready to forgive as I am desirous to be forgiven-as cheerful to obey the precepts of thy Son, as I am to be saved by thy grace through him,

SECTION II.

Let me pause a moment. -My letters are gone out of my hands, and possibly they will be published to the world. How then shall I retain my standing in the church? Shall I not be censured for departing from the faith and practice of our ances tors?

I have however done what I thought to be my duty; and with God I leave the event. While I was a fighting christian, my character was supposed to stand fair, although my heart and my hands were defiled with blood. Now I have renounced the fighting character and become a penitent for the blood I have shed, some will probably reproach me as an apostate

from the religion of Jesus. But I have no reason to fear worse treatment than he received; and surely I do not deserve better than he deserved, who" came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them."

There is such a perfect contrast between the maxims of the gospel and the maxims of war, that I feel amazed and confounded, when I reflect that for ages the great body of the clergy have justified the most sanguinary custom that ever existed among men. How would the compassionate Savior have appeared at the head of an army, pronouncing a violent philippic, to excite men to revenge and havoc? Or how would he have appeared as a chaplain, praying to his Father to grant success to an army about to engage in the work of vengeance and murder! How opposite this, to the spirit of his command: "Love your enemies ;" and to his prayer on the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Whoever may have been in the right, or in the wrong, in the theological controversies of the present age, how harmless have been most of the errors which have been combatted, compared with that enormous practical error, which has been common to all the contending parties? I can hardly think of any error, short of absolute atheism, which appears to me more repugnant to the gospel, or more dangerous to the souls of men, than this popular belief, that christians may, in obedience to the gospel, or as followers of Jesus, meet each other in the field of battle for mutual violence and slaughter-and that prior to entering on this dreadful work they may, on each side, cry to the Father of mercies to grant them success in their attempts to butcher one another. Yet this monstrous, murderous error, like the " camel" of the Pharisees, has been swallowed by almost every sect of christians; and that too, while each has been careful to "strain out" some "gnat," infinitely less dangerous to the lives, and to the souls of men.

We have indeed many melancholy proofs of the moral blindness and depravity of mankind; but the popularity of war among christians, who have the gospel in their hands, crowns the whole, and leaves no room for doubt. "Their feet are

swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace have they not known."

What errors may not christians embrace and support from an improper regard to the traditions they have received from their forefathers! Had the custom of war never been adopted among christians of former ages-had our ancestors kept themselves pure from shedding innocent blood-and expressed a proper abhorrence of war, as it existed among pagans; what horror would the people of this country have now felt, at the bare proposal of settling a national controversy, by an ap peal to arms! The thought of settling a parish dispute in the same manner, would not have appeared so shocking and dreadful.

But as the custom of war has been so long popular among christians, and among cur ancestors, many perhaps will be more shocked to hear its justice and morality denied, than they would be to hear of the slaughter of a hundred thousand fellow beings, in a battle bravely fought.

SECTION III.

It is a common maxim, that " misery loves company," and perhaps it is not less so with error and vice. When persons become convinced that they have been in a popular error, they are too apt to be pleased with the thought, that they have not been alone in the business; that men of all ranks have been equally deluded. This consideration may have influence with many, to prevent a thorough inquiry, after the morality of a popular custom is called in question. On the same ground some may feel justified in neglecting to exert themselves to open the eyes of others, when they have become fully convinced that a custom is of a dangerous character. But it ought ever to be considered, that the more popular any vicious custom is, the more dreadful are its effects; and therefore the more thorough should be our inquiries and our exertions"Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not pass unpunished."

Suppose I had discovered to my satisfaction, that a pretended remedy for the most dangerous disease had obtained cir