dren with pacific principles, are anxious to place them in those seminaries, as the high road to wealth and honour; they appear to forget that a reward of a more exalted nature is reserved for those who "labour for peace." If we may judge of the importance of Christian duties by the rewards attached to them, the promotion of peace is one of the very first duties of a Christian; for to it is allotted by our Saviour the highest honour to which a human being can aspire;-"Blessed," says our Lord, "are are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God."

Notwithstanding scenes of bloodshed and devastation have passed in the present century, which can hardly be paralleled in the history of the world; and notwithstanding the rewards promised by the Saviour of mankind to peace-makers, the ministers of Christ, with few exceptions, have remained as silent and inert in all parts of Europe, as if the establishment of "peace on earth" formed no part of their duty. If they continue thus silent, may they not expect "the stones to cry out?" Figuratively, this may be said to be already the case; for at this very time, God seems to be raising up from among the laity, men of peace, in various nations, who, in a way that tends to establish, on the firmest basis, the authority of legitimate government, in connection with the best interests of Christianity, are labouring to inculcate upon mankind the pacific precepts and principles that pervade every page of the New Testament. A union of the clergy of the Established Churches with these men of peace, would greatly

facilitate the establishment of universal peace, on the solid basis of Christian morality*.

You will, perhaps, tell me that, by the XXXVIIth Article, the ministers of the Church of England are precluded from such a union. It is greatly to be

* The author having been blamed by some of his clerical friends, for being too severe upon the clergy in the foregoing remarks, begs to submit to them the following extract from Erasmus's Complaint of Peace.

"While the king does his duty as the guardian and preserver, instead of the destroyer, of the people committed to his charge, let the right reverend the bishops do their duty likewise. Let the priests be priests indeed; preachers of peace and good-will ;"

"let the whole body of the clergy remember the truly evangelical duties of their profession; and let the grave professors of theology in our universities, or wherever else they teach divinity, remember to teach nothing as men-pleasers unworthy of Christ. Let all the clergy, however they may differ in rank, order, sect, or persuasion, unite to cry down war, and discountenance it through the nation, by zealously and faithfully arraigning it from the pulpit: in the public functions of their several churches, in their private conversation and intercourse with the laity, let them be constantly employed in the Christian, benevolent, humane work of preaching, recommending, and inculcating peace. If, after all their efforts, the clergy cannot prevent the breaking out of war, let them never give it the slightest approbation, directly or indirectly; let them never give countenance to it by their presence at its silly parade or bloody proceedings; let them never pay the smallest respect to any great patron, or prime minister, or courtier, who is the author or adviser of a state of affairs so contrary to their holy profession, and to every duty and principle of the Christian religion as in a state of war.” Complaint of Peace, by Erasmus, page 55. See a translation reprinted in London in 1802, by T. Gillet, Salisbury Square. The original work was dedicated to Philip of Burgundy, Bishop of Utrecht, who, in a letter addressed to the author, says, "Your Complaint of Peace delights not only myself, to whom it is expressly dedicated, but all sincere professors of Christianity." Preface to the Complaint of Peace, page v.

See

How few protestant bishops of the present day would patronize, or even tolerate an Erasmus !

regretted that the ministers of Christ, or others, of any national church, should have burthens laid upon them by human authority, that may, in anywise, interfere with their duty to God. It is for you and them to consider, whether, like the Pharisees of old, you do not "make the commandments of God of none effect, by your ordinances." It is for you, conscientiously to consider whether these ordinances speak the words of "truth and soberness," or whether they are "hay and stubble." It is for you to consider, whether you do not libel the Bible, and tell the Almighty that his Book is incomplete without your emendations-that your wisdom is superior to his. Especially it is for you to consider, whether those who impose, and also those who receive these ordinances, do not add to the things contained in that sacred volume; and whether they do not injure the Gospel of peace, and, by making it less pacific, render it less credible than it would otherwise be. Dr. Paley, in the dedication to Bishop Law of his Moral and Political Philosophy, observes, that "whatever renders religion more rational, renders it more credible; that he who by a diligent and faithful examination of the original records, dismisses from the system one article which contradicts the apprehension, the experience, or the reasoning of mankind, does more towards recommending the belief, and with the belief the influence of Christianity, to the understandings and consciences of serious inquirers, and through them to universal reception and authority, than can be effected by a thousand contenders for creeds and ordinances of

human establishment." Intending, in future letters, not only to point out the causes of war, but to show that war, in every shape, is altogether inaccordant with the spirit of Christianity, and consequently unlawful, I shall, for the present, dismiss the subject; only observing that, at this very time, the evils attending superstition, creeds, and ordinances of human establishment, are lamentably exemplified in the South of Europe.

The great warfare in which Christians are not only permitted, but in which it is their duty to engage, is the subjugation of those lusts from whence wars arise. This Christian warfare, which will ultimately benefit the whole world, and cannot injure either nations or individuals, ought to alarm no good men, for it is to be prosecuted by weapons that "are not carnal." They are, however, equal to the glorious effect they are destined to produce, "the bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ*." But as Christians in the early ages degenerated by slow degrees, so we may expect that they will hereafter be regenerated in the same progressive manner. The learned writer I have already quoted, (Paley,) observes, that Christianity "can only operate as an alterative. By the mild diffusion of its light and influence, the minds of men are insensibly prepared to perceive and correct the enormities which folly, or wickedness, or accident, have introduced into public establishments." This slow, but sure progress of Christia

* 2 Cor. x. 4, 5,

nity, is more forcibly described by our Saviour, when he says that "the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." During the first two centuries, this leaven produced a race of men, whom no earthly consideration could induce to shed human blood in war*: that its operation will again become thus powerful, nay, that it will be extended to the whole world, every believer in the plain literal prophecies of the Old Testament must consider as certain; and on these prophecies are founded some of the surest evidences of the Christian revelation. But in our own country, with the exception of one sect, and that sect inconsiderable in point of numbers, Christians appear to "care for none of these things."

Rather than engage in war, as I shall hereafter have occasion to show, the early Christians, at the expense of their fortunes, their liberty, and their lives, bore a noble testimony to its unlawfulness under the Christian dispensation. Shall Christians, then, of the present day, who are exempt from such severe trials; who, at the most, have little to encounter beyond the coldness of old friends, or the sarcasms of injudicious or unfeeling opponents; shall men, bearing the Christian name, from the mere dread of shame, or the apprehension of being thought singular, desist from "professing a good profession before many witnesses ;" and forfeit the glorious privilege of being called "the children of

* See Letters ix. and x.