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tlian live confined in a city ? . And are contiguous nations to be considered as natural and perpetual enemies , purely because they are neighbours , and find an interest m exporting to distant : climes the same natural productions and manufactures ?—I should be ashamed , even
as a man , to J > rop ® se these questions , if the sentiments of many who call themselves Christians , did not appear to solve them in the affirmative . But ,. as a preacher of the gospel , I am bound to inculcate a very different turn of mind , and to enforce the obligation of universal benevolence . When we look down upon the world from the lofty eminence of revelation , all its little
party divisions entirely disappear : we see nothing bu * the general connexion and symmetry of tne whole . We speak to men as the children of the Universal Parent , and not to Britons as the rivals of France . We remind you that
however temporary misunderstandings may sometimes interrupt the intercourse of nations , or the wicked ambition of princes ' plunge their subjects and neighbours in the miseries of war , ail the inhabitants of the . earth sustain a mutual
fraternal character , which neither themselves nor any human power can ever dissolve . We assert , that if you are capable of wishing the destruction of an enemy , and of rejoicing when he is deprived of the comfoits of life , you are strangers to ' the influence of the gospel principles , and are Christians
only in name . In a contest which hath gradually extended its fatal effects , and which , by a combination of singularly unfortunate circumstances , hath been pursued with an uncommon degree of passionate asperity , we are fearful that character should
even the human disappear with the \ C 6 risti */ i > and the man be lost in thej ^ hd We in trea t you-therefore , by the feelings of humanity , we conjure you , by the principles . t > f bur common faith , that you recollect the relation Which results from a
community of nature , and the duties which arise from the universal government of God . * " The reli g ion of Jesus , is the religion of tte . uUryer-ei It refers every created ibeiAg to one first cause ? it commands every rational agent to yieJcL 7 cheerful obedience t 0 one supreme Ruler , whose essence is love , andvivho-is equally concerned for the welfare of ail his offspring ; it represents the whole human
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: : i race as candidates for everlasting < J life and enjoins them * to prepare , by a patient perseverance in weli-3 oing , for a state of happiness which shall ? e disturbed ' by no interfering interest or
hostile passion . Can they then , as the subjects of the government of God , innocently interrupt the tranquillity of his dominions ? Or can they , ' as Christians , consistently envy each other any accidental advantage , when they all profess to have respect unto an inheritance which is sufficient for all their
wants and will exceed all their desires ? No , my brethren you cannot * without making shipwreck of your faith s and contradicting all the principles of the gospel , entertain a hurtful wish , or unfriendly sentiment with respect td a single human being . To be
a Christian , is to be at peace with all mankind , to be incapable , not merely of a malevolent disposition , but even of indifference to their welfare ; to be slow to anger , and ready to forgive ; to submit to injury , rather than exercise a vindictive resentment : and to be
excited to hostile action by nothing hut the urgent and irresistible demands of necessary self-defence . ** After this animated passage , he proceeds to shew , by a truly philosophical survey of the globe , that «« the world
at large is admirably adapted to the design of the gospel , to render its various tribes , howevy distant and various in language and inmanners , members one of another ; an 4 ultimately , to introduce and establish universal ^
benevolence . "—He then laments that " the blindness and infatuation of men , hath hitherto prevented this most desi ;^ . ble effect ; " he concludes , * ' in the mean time be it ours to form within ourselves the disposition with which , as Christians / we are bound to wfeh that every human brea c were inspired . Let us
make it manifest that the principles of our religion have secured Us from the madness of the times , and have raised us to the sublime height of universal benevolence . Instead of rejoicing , let " us lament over human destruction .
though , it occur in the person of an enemy . For is it not exactly the same a * jf this hand should madl y wonnd iti Fellow , or as if they were both toxoiispire against the feet ? L , et our only wi jh be for general and perpetual peace . The v , i «; h is ' virtue ; and if it should be unavailing with respect to it » immedi
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Additions and Corrections in former Obituaries . 39 $
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Rev . VT . Wcod .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1808, page 399, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2394/page/47/
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