would be the utmost temerity to say, we have now any hope.

It cannot, however, be expected, that all the testimony of modern writers, of piety and distinction, against the custom of war, has ever met my eye, or that it would be expedient to republish all that I have seen; for this would require volumes. I shall, therefore, only take an instance here and there from authors generally known and respected in this country. I commence with

Jeremy Taylor, A. D. 1642.-As contrary as cruelty is to mercy, tyranny to charity, so is war and bloodshed to the meekness and gentleness of the Christian religion. I had often thought of the prophecy, that in the Gospel, our swords shall be turned into plough-shares, and our spears into pruninghooks. I knew that no tittle spoken by God's spirit, could return unperformed and ineffectual, and I was certain, that such was the excellency of Christ's doctrine, if men would obey it. Christians should never war one against another."

Grotius, 1645.-"If, by the Jewish law, an involuntary murderer was obliged to flee

to a place of refuge,-if God prohibited David from building a temple to him, because his hands were defiled with blood, though his wars might be called religious contests,if, among the ancient Greeks, persons who had defiled themselves with slaughter, without any fault of theirs, required expiation,who does not see, especially a Christian man, how wretched and ill-fated a thing war is, and how earnestly even a just war should be avoided.'

on.

Fenelon, 1715.-"War never fails to exhaust the State and endanger its destruction, with whatever success it is carried Though it may be commenced with advantage, it can never be finished without danger of the most fatal reverse of fortune. **** Nor can a nation that should be always victorious, prosper; it would destroy itself by destroying others; the country would be depopulated, the soil untilled, and trade interrupted, and what is still worse, the best laws would lose their force, and a corruption of manners insensibly take place. Literature will be neglected among the youth the, troops, conscious of their own importance, will indulge themselves in the most pernicious li

eentiousness, with impunity, and the disorder will necessarily spread through all the branches of government.

Rollin, 1742.-" It is related that Alexander, upon Araxarchus the philosopher, telling him that there was an infinite number of worlds, wept to think that it would be impossible for him to conquer them all, since he had not yet conquered one. Is it wrong in Seneca, to compare these pretended heroes, who have gained renown, no otherwise than by the ruin of nations, to a conflagration and a flood which lay waste and destroy all things; or to wild beasts, who live merely by blood and slaughter ?"

Thomas Hartley, 1756.-" How long, ye potentates, will ye continue to lay heavy burdens on your people, and add poverty to war? How long will ye give cause to Turks and Indians to say, Fie on these Christians, how do they delight in blood! We can

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not be unacquainted with the names of certain potentates, now living, who would hang a poor man for stealing a cow, whilst they themselves share a kingdom amongst them, acquired by rank usurpation. O for a Na

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than, this day, in every court in Christendom, to take up his parable, and, as the application should require it, to say even to the most puissant monarch, "Thou art the man !"

It is undeniable that had the sentiments above quoted been universal or even general at the time they were penned, wars would have ceased long ago. The love of glory, which is the same as love of applause, is the chief incentive to war. It is this which has induced many, who were by nature benevolent and humane, to forget their natural benevolence, and commit acts of cruelty and injustice. Let the detestation of mankind follow injustice, cruelty and oppression, and their applause be conferred only on the benevolent and humane, and then those who are ambitious will leave the art of war, for the arts of peace. To bring about this change, is the object of the friends of peace, and who can refuse to wish them success ?

NO. 18.

SENTIMENTS OF PIOUS EMINENT MODERN WRITERS, ON THE SUBJECT OF WAR.-Continued.

I continue extracts from writers of the above description, not only because they have written better than I can ever hope to write on the interesting subject, which has engaged my attention for some time past, but also to shew, that the good, and truly great, have always been on the side of peace, and if they have not had that effect on the public, which their talents deserve, it is because they did not act in concert.

The following quotation is from the pen of Soame Jennings.

"It is not a little surprising, that mankind have, at all times, so much delighted in war, and that, notwithstanding all the miseries it has brought upon them, they should still continue to rush into it, with as much alacrity as ever; the true, though secret, reason of which is certainly this: there is implanted in human nature, corrupt as it is, an approbation of virtue, that however determined men are to indulge their inclinations, they