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tion » did I not conceive that such false , and I may add , in their tendency , immoral opinions , promulgated in a religions work devoted to the interests of civil and religious liberty , require an exposure suited to the moral and intellectual
advanceineat of the age . The author of them must learn , that the time is gone by when declamation will pass for reasoning , or prejudice be mistaken for wisdom ; and that a pure and benevolent system of Christianity is now prevalent , which its advocates are both ready and able to defend against all the assaults of those who would stop the tide of human improvement , and darken with their
delusions and vulgar errors the minds of those who are emerging into clearer light . Can any sophistry , for instance ,, be compared to the following ? " War is doubtless productive of many evils ; but as God , who has power , wisdom , and goodness , sufficient to prevent it , has thought proper to permit it , we cannot Irot regard his permission as equivalent
to his -appointment . " So , on such reasoning , if we are to suppose that God approves of our doing every thing that is permitted , there is no atrocious evil we might not justify , for God permits robbery , and murder , and treason , and the sacking of cities , and the misfortunes of the good ; but are we therefore to say that robbery and murder and treason are
justifiable ; or that he has in permitting them given us a license to do them ? What says St . James on this subject 1 € t Let no man say when he is tempted , he is tempted of God , " &c .: but really this sort of reasoning is too weak to merit much discussion ; it lays waste at once all moral obligation if granted , and is a wicked misrepresentation of the great and good Author of our being . * m C MM fWs \ JM ++ / a Va * ^ t Vk * - # AJ * + M . n * X w f * Si ^> ^» a .. »¦> H ^ 3 _ ^ * . ad . ? _ _ * M ^ " Morality and reli forbid in it
. _ gion war s motivoeS ) enduct , and consequences' * \ if such be the voice of revelation on this subject , of a revelation proceeding from the Divine Being , with what propriety can we suppose that war , or the exercise of the worst passions , and most cruel propensities of our nature , is the subject of his approbation , and that his " permission of it is equivalent to his appointment ** ? And if , on the contrary , as the gospel iuculcates , it is entirely opposed
* Our correspondent has here made several citations , which we must take the liberty of abridging his letter by omitting , from Erasmus , Watson , Knox , &c , on the incompatibility of war with Christian principles . Ei > . - | : Dr . Kb ox ' s Essays .
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to benevolence and justice , and to the divine law as laid down by dwr Saviour , with what propriety can any man professing Christianity come forth in its defence ? Then , what shall we say to one who not merely advocates war itself , but the selnsh and tyrannical use made of it by Napoleon ? A man who , with great powers and immense resources , employed them in the subversion of the liberties
of his country ; who betrayed the interests of human nature , and made them all subservient to his own personal aggrandizement ? Were Napoleon ever so amiable in temper , or kind in disposition , it has nothing to do with bis public conduct ; he enslaved his own and other countries , and he slaughtered his thousands and his tens of thousands . It may
lessen his crime iu the view of the politician , that his victims made a voluntary surrender of their lives ; but the present inquiry is by the moralist of 1828 , and the Christian philosopher who examines the motives which invariably govern the individual , and traces actions to their consequences . Hence we assert that Napoleon created an idol which he worshiped ; and persuaded his deluded followers to sacrifice to false glory all the
ties of domestic society , and all the finer sympathies of their nature . The character of Napoleon was Influenced by one purpose alone ; where did he exhibit those traits enumerated by his defender , when they could diminish either civil or military power ? Popularity was indispensable to the hero of the people ; but let a man be so daring as to cross any purpose he had planned , and he would have little reason to love him , as some of his own family experienced .
Are policy and morality so much at variance that a man may be politically right and morally wrong ? This doctrine cannot be recognized by a Christian philosopher . What then can be said of the conduct of Napoleon to a wife , faithful and devoted through life to his interest and his happiness ? Or what shall we say to the humanity of a man who could devote to certain destruction an immense
multitude of his fellow-creatures in the bloom of youth and life , for the sake of gratifying his own caprices ? Who in his Russian campaign obstinately led them against ail remonstrance to death , and evils far worse than death , to fire , famine , and insanity , because he could put no control oit his own restless and insatiable ambition ; because the cravings of his vanity must be gratified , and his opinion must not be opposed ; yet we are to be told , " he was particularly careful
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34 G Miscellaneous Correspondence ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1829, page 340, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2572/page/44/
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