strained from blowing up (I believe) the bridge of Austerlitz. These national trophies have not only a tendency to keep alive a martial spirit at home, but they produce feelings of envy and hatred in the breasts of those whom it is our duty and interest, as Christians, to conciliate and love. What Frenchman passing through some of our streets, or over some of our bridges, will entertain for us feelings of kindness, affection, and esteem? Will he not rather hate us, and wish for opportunities of humbling us to the dust? The wise man says, "Rejoice not when thy enemy falleth, lest the Lord see it, and it displease him." Had our pious ancestors, as they are often termed, instead of binding the sovereign by his coronation oath to preserve inviolate certain speculative dogmas, made it imperative upon him to take for his "SOLE guide the precepts of our holy religion, namely, the precepts of justice, Christian charity, and peace*, we should have heard of no Waterloo bridges or Waterloo places,-nor would the cry of our Catholic brethren for emancipation have now been heard among us! Discord would have been banished from our land, and brotherly love and charity, "glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace," would have been established as the sacred bonds of union between the Catholic and the Protestant, the Churchman and the Dissenter. Such a pledge from the sovereign, instead of laying the foundation of dissension, like the present coronation oath, would have prepared the way for all Protest

* See Letter to the King, page 21.

ants, Catholics, and Dissenters becoming one body under one head, namely Christ.

To sum up the real causes of war in a few words, I should say that every thing anti-christian-every thing that opposes the reception of Christianity, or that has a tendency to weaken its beneficial effects upon nations or individuals, whether arising from false and erroneous doctrines, or from making Christianity subservient to human policy, may be considered as an indirect cause of war; Christianity being appointed by God to put an end to war, and to establish universal peace and righteousness on earth. This being the case, it becomes the bounden duty of every good man, but more especially of every Christian minister, by every lawful means in his power, to labour to remove every impediment to the establishment of uncorrupted Christianity, and universal peace. The former may be regarded as the tree, the latter as the fruit. The latter cannot be good without the former is in a healthy state. Is it not therefore evident that, in every belligerent nation, the sacred tree should be managed agreeably to the directions given by our Lord? (See Luke xiii. 8.)

The great cause of war, and of its concomitant evils is, no doubt, irreligion. If we consider the miseries now suffering in Turkey and Greece, which call forth so much of our sympathy, we must unavoidably trace them to this origin. If we turn our attention to the sufferings of Catholic states in the South of Europe, we must draw the same conclusion. Their sufferings appear to be the conse

quence of their disobedience to the precepts of the religion of Jesus; and between their sufferings and those of the Jews, though different in degree, a parallel may be drawn. The commandment delivered by Moses is, in some measure, applicable to Christians as well as Jews: "If thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day; all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee."--Deut. xxviii. 15. We are authorized to apply this to Christians; for Saint Paul, after mentioning the sins and punishments of the Jews, says, "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come."

If, therefore, Protestants attribute the sufferings of Turks, Greeks, and Catholics to irreligion, ought they not to look to themselves; and must they not attribute the minor sufferings they have endured to the same cause? Have they profited as they ought to have done by their holy religion? Have they improved the superior talents committed to their care? Have they cultivated "the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance?" That existing civil and religious institutions in any Protestant state have not produced these Christian fruits, is a melancholy truth; and probably, unless they receive the culture already mentioned, (Luke xiii. 8.) they never will subdue those lusts which produce war, viz. pride, envy, malice, covetousness, and

uncharitableness. The consideration of this important subject cannot be too much pressed upon the statesman, the patriot, the divine, and the philanthropist, who may be assured, that whatever promotes real Christianity will have a tendency to promote universal peace; and whatever checks the progress of Christianity, will be a cause of war.

When we consider the talents and influence of a host of advocates in favour of war, and the various and powerful causes that operate to produce it, and also to keep alive a military spirit, any attempt to stem the torrent of interest, of fashion, and delusion, that has prevailed for so many ages, seems almost an Utopian undertaking. But the Christian philosopher and philanthropist need not despair; he has the spirit of prophecy, "the testimony of Jesus," for his polar star: and it is delightful to contemplate the realization of these precepts, the accomplishment of these prophecies, which, in the coming periods of the world, we are taught to expect, and to expect without a possibility of being disappointed. These days may be remote, or they may be near, even at our doors. This we know, that it is the will of God that such days shall arrive; that they are designed by him to promote his glory, and the happiness of his creatures; can any Christian minister, therefore, my dear sir, entertain a reasonable doubt, of its being his bounden duty to labour in the cause of peaceof universal peace, and good-will among men of all

nations?

I am, &c. &c.

LETTER IV.

ON THE PHYSICAL EVILS OF WAR.

"Where strife is, there is confusion and every evil work."-James iii. 16.

MY DEAR SIR,

CONSIDERING the Gospel of Christ as a system of religion and morals contrived and intended by the great Ruler of the world to render men virtuous and happy; and regarding war as destructive of every virtuous and moral principle which the Gospel inculcates, we must contemplate its existence as one of the greatest evils in this our probationary

state.

The evils occasioned by war may be divided into physical and moral. The former, though tremendous, may be considered as trifling, when compared with the latter; and nothing can be more just than the remark of our admirable female bard, that

"War's least horror is the ensanguin'd field."

The laws of Omnipotence are so wisely and benevolently framed, that obedience to them may be considered as the road to happiness; and the disobeying them, the path to misery. Contemplating the evils arising from war as correctional punish