large portion of my undertaking. To you, and others, I fear, the perusal of these Letters may be tedious and irksome; to myself the writing of them has been a most gratifying employment; as, at every step I have advanced in my work, fresh conviction has poured in upon my mind, that the principles I have advocated, are consonant with the revealed will of God.

In my remaining Letters I purpose to enter upon the most difficult part of my task, which is to persuade you, and others, to embrace my opinions respecting defensive war; by showing, or endeavouring to show, that it is irreconcilable with just notions of religion, natural and revealed, and particularly that it is inaccordant with the very first rudiments of Christianity. I am aware of the difficulties attending my attempt, and am not so sanguine as to expect much present success from my endeavours: the most I can hope to accomplish is, to draw attention to a subject which, however disregarded and scoffed at in the present day, will, most certainly, in the forth-coming ages of the world, occupy the attention of virtuous and enlightened Christians; a subject, the serious consideration of which will, and that, perhaps, at no very distant period, paralyse the uplifted arm of the warrior, and cause him, when about to take away the life of a fellow-creature, to remember the words of the Saviour and Benefactor of mankind: "Put up again thy sword into his place; for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."

I remain, &c.

LETTER XI.

THE PROFESSION OF ARMS INACCORDANT WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL RELIGION.

"For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.-Rom. ii. 14.

MY DEAR SIR,

we

WHEN We contemplate the innumerable worlds which the great Creator has formed for his glory, and the innumerable orders of beings which he has created for their happiness, we have the most powerful incitements to gratitude and adoration, to humility, and an entire self-devotion to the " GREAT FIRST CAUSE."

Still greater reason have we to be impressed with these feelings, when we consider that the High and Holy One, who created all things, hath not only given us by nature the knowledge of good and evil, or a law written in our hearts; but hath also given us a written law; a revelation of his will, in every way adapted to our wants; and calculated to render us comfortable in this our probationary state, and to fit us for unalloyed felicity for an eternity of ages.

Among the various transgressions of these sacred laws, whether written in our hearts, or in the sacred pages of inspiration, all others seem to sink into insignificance when compared with the atrocities of war. Wild animals, destitute of reason and any sense of duty to their Maker, are generally armed with natural weapons of defence and annoyance, and use them for these purposes; but man, made in the image of God, and qualified to enjoy and communicate acts of benevolence, goodness and love, appears to surpass the whole brute creation in ferocity and cruelty*. It seems scarcely within the verge of possibility to imagine any thing more savage, more irreligious, more irrational, or more unnatural, than that beings formed for such noble purposes, and particularly those professing Christianity, should meet by thousands and hundreds of thousands, for the express purpose of deliberately killing each other. If Christianity is, indeed, a true religion; if it proceeds from a wise, a just, and good God, it would seem that no other proof could be wanted to show that such a practice must be directly opposed to the Divine will. But war, at least defensive war, is not only advocated, but even sanctified by the ministers of the Gospel of Peace, who, forming part of adverse armies, pray to the God of all peace, to give them the victory; i. e. to enable them to kill as many as possible of

* See Letter IV. p. 99. Extract from Mr. Burke's Vindication of Natural Society.

their brethren; and after the battle, they thank him for having enabled them to do so.

Had mankind no written law; were the Scriptures of truth extinct,-the book of Nature seems intended to teach them the duties not only of forbearance and forgiveness, but of amity and love. The celestial bodies, as Erasmus observes, seem to move with harmony and concord; and nothing like war or discord can be discovered in their motions.-In the human body, which may be regarded as a symbol of the political body, all is union and harmonious co-operation. Among animals even the most ferocious, nothing like war with their own kind is to be found. Even the very trees and the plants seem to condemn the warrior-they speak the language of amity and love. The vine embraces the elm, and other plants cling to the vine. The very stones seem to bear witness against man—the loadstone embraces the loadstone; and the attraction of cohesion, as a law of love, pervades all inanimate nature. What is still a greater reproach to man, the accursed spirits entertain for each other more unanimity than man for man.

"Devil with devil damn'd, firm concord hold,

Men only disagree of creatures rational."

Having in the preceding Letters exposed a few of the trivial causes which have produced war and all its horrors; with the insidious and antichristian arts frequently resorted to by statesmen, to gloss over their guilt in exciting the inhabitants of one nation to rob and plunder those of another; having also faintly sketched a few of the evils,

moral and physical, proceeding from war and military establishments; and further shown that in the earliest and best ages of Christianity, the followers of our Lord never engaged in war under any circumstances, on account of its unlawfulness,-I might, on a subject of minor importance, have laid down my pen, under the impression that a custom so entirely subversive of human happiness and virtue must necessarily be irreconcilable with the will of a wise, gracious, and just God.-It might, indeed, be presumed a priori, that a religion to be promulgated by the Prince of Peace, would never sanction its votaries to slaughter each other. So strong, however, are the prejudices of mankind, and so potent the incitements for many to desire the continuance of a practice so truly disgraceful to the religion of Christ, that it becomes necessary for the friend of peace to give line upon line and precept upon precept.

It is, perhaps, one of the strongest internal evidences of the truth of Christianity, that its precepts are agreeable to just notions of natural religion, and fitted to promote the happiness of beings formed as men are. Previous, therefore, to inquiring how far war is reconcileable with the precepts of revealed religion, I shall endeavour, in this Letter, to show that the practice of war is inaccordant with the principles of natural religion.

One great and leading principle pervades all religious systems, whether natural or revealed; this is, the paternal character of the Deity. This character, though not generally discoverable by human reason,