The works of the Rev. William Thom, late minister ... - waughfamily.ca

SERMONS. 143punillied for it, and, from tliis fiction, the injured failupon the fuhjecls of the injurious prince by fea andland, and either kill them, or (Irip them of all theyhave. This is at prefent, and hach long beqn, foraught I know, the univerfal pra£lice ; aiid yet ii appearsto be unjull. Have we not been ilruck with afenfe of this injuflice, on feeing French merchantscarried prifoners along our ftreets, who, having acquireda fortune in the Indies, and knowing nothingof any hoftility between France and England, werereturning peaceably home, and were,, on the openfeas, fallen upon by our privateers, and robbed ofevery farthing they had got ? And I believe the humaneamong the French are (truck in the fame manner,when they fee carried into their prifons any Britiihmerchants who had been captured and robbed bythe privateers of France. It is jult that the injurer,and not the innocent, fliould fufl'er. Would it notbe right, and agreeable to what nature didtates, thatkings or their minifters ftiould fight it out, and, intheir own perfons, finifli the v/ar which they haveprovoked ? Should they not feel and fpeak the noblefentiments and language of King David, when, for aparticular offence of his, a great plague was to comeupon his innocent fubjefts : Here, I think, David exprelTesa ftrong aiKl a proper fenfe of juflic'e -, herethe generofity of his foul appears as iiiullricus as itdoth in any other prayer, or pfalm, or fptech, or inany aiftion ofTiis life. David faid unto God, " Is itnot I, even I it is that have finned, and done evil indeed; but as for thefe fheep, M'hat havi; they done ?Let thine hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be onme, and on my father's houfe, but not on thy peoplethat they fhould be plagued." So delicate a fenfe ofjuftice isfurely rare.But I am to fpeak of the rules, the reflri£lions,which, in all ages, have been agreed upon to moderatethe fury of parties at -war^ and which Chriftians