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universal practice ; and yet it appears to 
be unjust. Have we not been struck 
with a sense of this injustice, on seeing 
French merchants carried prisoners along 
our streets, who, having acquired a for- 
tune in the Indies, and knowing nothing 
of any hostility between France and Eng- 
dand, were returning peaceably home, 
and were, on the open seas, fallen upon 
by our privateers, and robbed of every 
farthing they had got? And I believe 
the humane among the French are struck 
in the same manner, when they see car- 
ried into their prisons any British mer- 
chants who had been:captured and robbed 
by the privateers of France. It is just 
that the injurer and not the imnocent 
should suffer. Would it not be right, 
and agreeable to what nature dictates, 
that kings or their ministers should fight 
it out, and in their own persons finish the 
war which they have provoked? Should 
they not feel and speak the noble sen- 
timents and language of King David, 
ewwhen, for a particular offence of his, a 
great plague was to come upon his inno- 
‘ent subjects: here, I think, David ex- 
‘presses a strong and a proper sense of 
justice ; here the generosity of his soul 
appears as illustrious as it doth in any 
‘other prayer, or psalm, or speech, or 
an any action of his life. David said 
unto God, ‘Isit not I, even TL it is, that 
-have sinned, and done evil indeed; but 
as forthese sheep, what have they done? 
Let thine hand, I pray thee, O Lord my 
God, beon me, and on my father’s house, 
-but not on thy people, that they should be 
plagued.’ So delicate a sense of jus- 
‘tice is surely rare.” 
‘Again, in page 150, it is further added, 
» War is so horrible in its aspect, and so 
desolating in its progress, that it is not 
-to be gone into from a sudden fit of pas- 
sion, but after long, and calm, and se- 
-rious, deliberations, after every method 
-to procure, to buy, peace, hath been 
tried, and tried in vain. And it should 
not Le begun on account of any transient 
or frivolous ‘act of injustice, nor should 
cit be begun at all, unless the prince who 
- begins it is rich, and strong, and power- 
ful, and is in a manner certain of success. 
Indeed Providence oftentimes confounds 
‘the proud and mighty, raises the spirits, 
and increases the strength, of the weak ; 
and the battle is not always to the strong. 
Even this consideration will render a 
cautious prince, or a wise minister, slow 
» to enter into war, One would think that 
rinces, rather than drench the nation in 
~wlood, should meet aud finish their sense- 
- a 
on the Folly and Inutility of War, 
425 
less differences by friendly conference, 
or compromise them by arbitration, or 
by casting lots, or even, as I hinted be- 
fore, finish them by single combat; which 
last, however wrong it is in private quar- 
rels, is surely a far less evil than to thin 
the human species by a desolating war, 
which the rulers have, from arrogance 
and a spirit of domination, hastened to 
commence. Indeed, if the subjects have 
foolishly approved of the rash steps of 
their rulers, and have even loudly encous 
raged them by fomenting their arrogance, 
and publicly calling upon them to enter 
into and to continue in coercive, violent, 
and sanguinary, measures, offering to 
spend their lives and fortunes in the war, 
it seems but just in Providence that they 
should be made to suffer for a long time 
the calamities of war. Alas! it is come 
monly tiie grandees of a country, who, 
for selfish ends, do thus slavishly beat 
time with the rash measures of their 
rulers, and the bulk of the people are 
made to suffer. If war may be in some 
sort just, yet it may be very imprudent 
and inexpedient to enter into it.” : 
Tn page 152, he says, ¢¢ Whilst we fast 
and pray for success in this tedious and 
lamentable war, let us, let our rulers, and 
commanders, examine whether there be 
not some unjustifiable steps which we 
have already taken.” And, in page 158, 
it is added, ‘*We have fasted several 
times before. We have prayed for suc- 
cess, and that this inglorious war might 
soon come to an end; but hitherto things 
continue just as they were. It is well if 
our condition be not worse than when we 
commenced the war: we looked for 
judgment, but behold oppression; for 
righteousness, hut behold a cry. Stili we 
look for righteousness, but there is none ; 
for salvation, but it is far off, One year 
_of this tiresome war, a second, a third,a 
fourth, hath gone over our heads, and 
another year of it is begun. The harvest 
is past, the sumimer is ended, and we are 
not saved. May not this be a presump- 
tion that Heaven is displeased with our 
aim, and, by repeatedly counterworking 
our efforts, intimates to us that abundance 
of biood is shed already? I sincerely 
wish, that the fomenters of this war, on 
both sides of the Atlantic, may be of this 
mind. Iremember that when Otho, in 
his contest against Vitellius for the Ro- 
ian empire, had lost a battle, but had 
still zreat resources, and, in the opinion of 
his friends, great cause to hope for suc- 
cess, he chused at once to take the des- 
perate step of a Roman death, ont 
- tian 
