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

of fuccefs.sfeRM0N5.l^ludeed, providence oftentimes confoundsthe proud and mighty, raifes the fpirits and increafesand " the battle is not al-the ftrength of the weak •,ways to the ftrong " Even this confideration willrender a cautious prince, or a wife minifter, flow toenter into war. One would think, that princes, ratherthan drench the nations in blood> Ihould meetand finifli their fenfelefs differences by friendly con-»ference, or compromife tliem by arbitration, or bycafling lots, or even, as I hintcfd before, finifh themby fingle combat ; which laft, however wrong it is in .private quarrels, is furely-a far lefs evil than to thinthe human fpecies by a defolatmg war, which therulers have, from arrogance and a fpirit of domination,haftened to commence. Indeed, if the fubje6lsihave foolifhly approved of the rafh fleps of their rulers,and have even loudly encouraged them by fomentingtheir arrogance, and publicly calling uponthem to enter into and to continue in coercive, violent,and fanguinary meafures, offering to fpend theirlives and fortunes in the war, it feems but juft in providencethat they ihould be made to fufFer for a longtime the calamities of the war. Alas ! it is commonlythe grandees of a country, who, for felfifhends, do thus flavifhly beat time with the rafh mea-'fures of their rulers, and the bulk of the people aremade to fuffer. A war may be in fome fort juft, andyet it may, be very imprudent and inexpedient to enterinto it.2. A people who have religion, who fall and prayfor fuccefs,may continue long to bear the calamitiesof war, t>ecaufe they employ unjuft meafures in theprofecution of it. A perfon who is affaulted by anotheron the ftreet, hath a jufl claim againft that otherin a court of law -, but if he hath furioufly turned uponthe man who affaulted him^- and beaten him witht*n times more feverity than he was beaten himfelf,his claim for redrefs be