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The expedition of Abram to effect the release of his brother Lot, has been adduced as a case in point against your argument in a late address to you; and I think you will find it difficult to explain it away, except you alledge that self-defence was allowed under the Jewish, but refused under the Christian dispensation. But this is absurd; if it was morally wrong to defend a man's person and family against robbers and invaders four thousand years ago, it is so still, and vice versa-The principle on which Abram acted is inherent in human nature, and without a general change in our system, cannot be taken away. You will perhaps say, that Christianity was instituted to correct our passions; this is very true, but there is a wide difference between correction and extirpation. Christianity was not instituted to extinguish our passions, but to animate them in the cause of virtue.

The profession and calling of a Soldier which you reprobate as inconsistent with Christianity, is spoken of in very different terms in the sacred writings. St. Luke in

the Acts of the Apostles, speaks of a pious or devout soldier, not as an extraordinary circumstance in that profession, but simply in the course of the narrative; he does not however say that the Soldier was enjoined to abandon his calling, or that he had any scruples concerning its lawfulness. St. Matthew and St. Luke both bear testimony to the worth, piety, and other valuable qualifications of the Centurion, whose servant our Lord healed at Capernaum; and this was confirmed by a higher testimony, that of our Lord himself, who announced to those around him, that he had not found so great faith, no not in Israel.

It appears also that this military character was sensible of the necessity of the duty of public worship, as he is said to have builded a Synagogue, a public benefit not experienced often from private hands, even in peaceable times, when, as Dr. South, rather with too great levity though not without truth, observes, we should nearly as soon expect stones to be made into bread, as made into churches.

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Let us now recal to your memory the character of Cornelius; is he not said to be a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house; which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway?" What character in any profession can exceed the one here given, and the proof that we are not mistaken in our conjectures concerning its excellence, arises from the assurance of the Angel, that his prayers and his alms were had in remembrance in the sight of God. Yet neither the Angel, nor St. Peter, to whom Cornelius was referred for farther instruction, say a word respecting the illegality of his profession, or give him any directions to quit it. Surely if his profession had been as you have represented, the first Gentile convert would not have been suffered to continue in the exercise of so obnoxious a way of life. The influence and example of this pious soldier appear to have extended their good effects to his family and household. We are told that he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier that waited on him continually, and sent them to Joppa to receive

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St. Peter, according to the vision which had been communicated to him.

It is not foreign to the purpose here to remark that St. Luke mentions the humane and benevolent behaviour of Julius the Centurion to St. Paul; which is expressed in our translation courteously, but the word in the original has a much stronger* signification.

I shall speak in this place of the answer of John the Baptist to the soldiers, who came to him with the noted question

And what shall we do?

To words so pointed and which admitted of an answer so apposite, as one which advised them to relinquish their profession altogether had it been deemed unlawful,

Η φιλανθρώπως.

↑ A literal translation of St. Luke, Kai nueis ti toinooker ;

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John replies in terms which evidently imply their continuance in their military capacity. He utters no invective against their profession, but cautions them only against violence, false accusation, and discontent on account of their wages. This authority, as it is expressly in point ought to be decisive. It comes from the forerunner of the Messiah, the prototype of Elias, and the greatest of all the Prophets !

Let me again ask if St. Paul would have drawn his figurative expressions, of the character he recommends, from a profession fraught with all the mischief you represent? Would he have advised his dearly beloved Son in Christ, to endure hardships as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, had he regarded the profession itself as odious and unbecoming? Surely not.

The last instance I shall appeal to, is as follows:-The first Gentile convert, and that by no less authority than the interposition of an Angel, was a man of the profession you so much reprobate. The first Gentile who

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