OF LANCASTER COUNTY. 259 



and punish the guilty invaders— as in Judges v. 2S,— Curse ye Meroz 

 {said the angel of the Lord,) curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof: Be- 

 cause they came not to the help of the Lord^ against the mighty: And Jere- 

 miah XLVIII. 10 — Cursed be he that doth the tvorh of the Lord deceitfully; 

 and cursed be he that keejyeth back his sword from blood: And in Luke 

 XXII. 36 — Jesus Christ told his Disciples to arm themselves against ap- 

 proaching danger. — And he that hath no sivord let him sell his garment and 

 buy one. 



And since our Lord did not allow the Disciples then to defend them- 

 selves by their weapons, for when Peter cut off Malcus's ear he imme- 

 diately healed it, and bid Peter to put up his sword, to let them know, 

 and the enemy also know, that he was Lord of life and death — and that 

 the Disciples were safe with such a person as Jesus, while the age of 

 miracles continued ; I say, since this was the case then, we must under- 

 stand the passage to intend, that it is both lawful and a duty, for the' 

 followers of Jesus Christ, in a time and age when we are not to expect 

 miracles, to arm ourselves and use our arms for our own preservation 

 against any invading enemy. 



Also, it must of course follow, that where our blessed Lord enjoins 

 us, when smote on the one cheek, to turn the other also, he does not 

 mean to forbid us to use lawful and proper means of self-preservation. 

 But the meaning must be as the phrase is proverbial, that we should at 

 no time discover a revengeful or unforgiving disposition ; but should be 

 ready to put up with a good deal of ill-usage, before we would create 

 disturbance, yea that we should do anything consistent with our own 

 safety. Again, where our Lord enjoins us to love our enemies — he can't 

 possibly mean that we should love them better than ourselves — that we 

 should put it in the enemy's power to kill us, when we had it in our 

 power to save our own life, by killing the enemy. I say, this cannot be 

 the meaning; for that exposition will thwart the original first great law 

 of self-preservation. The meaning therefore must be, that we do not 

 cherish a spirit of hatred towards the enemies, and would be willing to 

 be reconciled again — and would be desirous, the enemy would be con- 

 vinced of his evil sentiment against us, that we might be again on 

 friendly terms, that we can be sincere in our prayer to God, to bring 

 such a desirable event to pass. Again, 



That a self-defensive war is lawful, I will prove from the conduct of 

 Jesus Christ himself. If civil government is necessary to self-preserva- 

 tion, and war is necessary, at times, in government, as has been already 

 proved ; then it will follow, that those who support civil government, do 

 support war, and so of consequence approve of war. But Jesus Christ 

 did pay his tribute money, to the Emperor Tiberius, Matthew xvii. 27, 

 and those who are acquainted with the life of Tiberius Cicsar, know that 



