stab of the murderer. These are, comparatively, but the momentary evils of war. There is, also, (as all history, as well as that of our own times, will show,) a shocking moral appendage which naturally grows out of national conflict, though it may be occasionally restrained. For, instead of listening to the counsels of divine mercy, and concurring in the design of a Kingdom of Heaven set up on earth in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost;' the spirit of warlike discord tends to intomb every such idea. It rather tends to set up something like a kingdom of Hell--a reign of violence, where destruction is the grand enterprise; where the means of death and desolation are cultivated as a science; where invention is racked to produce ruin, and the performance of it is ennobled by public applause. Moloch seems once more enthroned: while ambition, revenge, and oppression erect their banners amidst groans and tears ; amidst cities desolated or smoking in their ashes.

If, therefore, we contemplate this sore judgment in a moral view, it appears to be an incomparably greater calamity than either pestilence or famine. I must, therefore, repeat the distinction already made, that, however lawful and necessary the recourse to arms may be in times like ours, yet such is WAR: and such it appears, my Fellow Citizens, you have considered it in thus forming yourselves into a band to prevent its ravages.

What is all the military toil, expense, and preparation, which I see, but your efforts to prevent what I describe and deplore? If arms, it is only to preserve peace. If you draw the. the sword, it is that the sword of an aggressor may. returned to its scabbard. You do but arrest the hand, which seizes a weapon; and from what I now advance, you will, I trust, be more ready to arrest it. We, therefore, perfectly agree in design; and may God accept, this day, our joint endeavours !

But, to pursue our subject. We shall find this day

you take

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of vengeance darken as we proceed in the examination, since it tends to eclipse the only ray of hope sent to cheer a perishing sinner. Its storms roughen his path to a better country, and deprive him of his appointed supports in the way.-Ah! heavenly RELIGION, holy, humble, benevolent, travelling to a city wherein dwelleth righteousness, where shall rest be found for the sole of thy foot whilst war is ravaging the earth ?— True Religion, like her Prophet, is 'very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts ;' but the sons of violence despise his covenant, throw down his altars, and slay his prophets with the sword:' in the mean time, she wanders a stranger; listening, after the ' earthquake and the fire,' to a still small voice, Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.? Let us thus listen, my Fellow Worshippers, in this House of Prayer, till the sword is returned to its scabbard ; remembering, at the worst that it is a sword in the hand of our Father.

You will say, “ This view of the sword is horrible, in the extreme; though such extreme cases do not always occur."

I must beg your attention, while I correct this sentiment; and prove, that the sore judgment of War has not yet been shown in the extreme.

The Prophet looked far beyond the hand of man when he exclaimed, “O thou sword of the Lord when wilt thou be quiet ?? In the hand of man, however ambitious and cruel, the sword may sometimes be resist.ed. Caprice or interest may sheath the sword of a tyrant: a moment may sink him, like Pharaoh, as lead in the mighty waters:' a moment may cast his carcase, like Belshazzar's, on a dunghill : or make him, like Herod, a monument of human pride and weakness. There was no need of an army, in his case, to prove the distinction between the sword of

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man, and the sword of the Lord: a few worms, in as few moments, did the work.

We have not considered this calamity in the extreme, till we view it as mingled with the righteous wrath of an offended God: and, when He arises in judgment,

who can stay his hand, or say unto him what doest Thou?' Hear his own declaration–See now that I, even I, am he: I kill, and I make alive: I wound, and I heal: neither is there any, that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. If I whet my glittering sword, and my hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh.'

Beholding such an adversary on his way, well might the Prophet exclaim, Othou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard : rest, and be still. Yet

how can it be quiet?? since the text leads us to consider it as,

II. AN APPOINTED AVENGER.

Scripture teaches us, that the sword is but a messenger; proceeding with a special commission to plead the cause of him, who hath appointed it. It was, therefore, that the Prophet seems like one under recollection, after expressing his compassionate expostulation. As if he had said, “I have been calling on the sword to rest and be still, but how can it be quiet? It is on its way to stop a Rebellion, which still rages, and lifts up its face against the Most High. The sword, with which I now expostulate, does but cxecute its office. The Lord ‘hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the Sea-shore: THERE, THERE, hath he appointed it."

When we hear the Most High saying concerning guilty nation, 'If I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land, so that I cut off

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VOL. II.

man and beast,' he immediately informs us, that this sword, whatever may be the evil motive of the man that wields it, is as much executing an express charge of Heaven, as any one of his other sore judgments, famine or pestilence.

But the veil that is on the heart of man prevents his regarding any thing but the visible machinery of Like the young man who attended upon Elisha, he sees, with trembling, the horses and chariots of men; but nothing of that arm of Omnipotence, stretched out in battle array, which the prophet saw. Man stops at the effect: God calls him to regard the cause. A sword is as harmless, in itself, as a ploughshare; but when grasped in anger, it assumes an aspect of terror. God, however, teaches us, that the man himself, who grasps it, is but a sword in his own hand, permitted or appointed. 'Arise, O Lord,' says the Psalmist, disappoint him: cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is THY Sword; from men, which are THY hand.'

"Therefore the daughter

have no such commission. of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn.' But, Thus saith the Lord, because thy rage against me, and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.' And who, let me ask, is that other Tyrant, for whom the same hook and bridle are reserved? He, who is now trampling on the liberties, property, and lives of Europe? verily, nothing. in himself-every thing that is dreadful, while permitted to act as a sword.

However, therefore, you may abhor the ambition, the cruelty, the falsehood, the rapacity of such a destroyer; and, as the common friends of mankind. resolutely withstand his designs-still, still, I earnestly entreat you, consider what is necessary to this end. 'Run, not as uncertainly. Fight, not as one that beateth the air.' Stand to your arms, but take firm hold of THAT HAND, which holds the sword, and which alone can return it into its scabbard. In the mean time, let us recollect, with a holy fear, that it has long had a charge against Europe; that it is still drawn; and that it is nothing short of Atheism, to look at our national resources, or at our rampart the sea, and say, "It cannot come hither!"" The inquiry should be, Whose sword is it? Who appoints it? And who can resist it when thus appointed, whether it be against Ashkelon or England?

And how can it be quiet,' whenever the Lord appoints it to plead his cause? a cause, big with reasons far beyond the ken of a mere politician.

"It continues to ravage the earth," says one, "because the ambition and rapacity of one man is insatiable." Admitted. But what (as I have just shown) did an inspired writer say of such men? Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is THY sword.?

"It continues," says another, "because the Sove