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and injurious insinuations, respecting the publick administration of justice, in your own country.

No less unfounded and injurious, is the invective which you, without reserve, excep

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tion, or qualification, pronounce against the character of a soldier: you speak of a military life as of one "whose tenour and leisure, quickly sow, in those who follow this way of life, the seeds of debauchery and vice; and connections whose society as rapidly unfold, mature, and bring these seeds to perfection." People of this description, you say, mingling with the other classes of their fellow citizens, impart to them also the blemishes which they themselves have acquired. Increasing communication produces wider contagion; immorality gradually enlarges her borders, till she obtains at length undivided dominion, and entirely obliterates from the national character all the becoming features of order, decency and virtue. So much" you add "for the consequences produced by war on the internal manners of a country."

Much indeed! and much more will I venture to say than you can prove, though you take it for granted, that it is all either proved or self-evident, and require a proof yourself that the argument of your Sermon, in support of which, you do not adduce a single fact or evidence, is not true. You demand a proof that "War is not necessarily followed by these consequences; that it does not deteriorate the moral and religious character of the country which is engaged in it; that iniquity does not abound, in consequence of the military spirit seizing upon the publick mind; that the contempt, ridicule and defiance of every thing, serious and sacred, is not more general; that blasphemy is not more commonly heard; nor drunkenness and impurity, debauchery and profligacy, more openly, shamelessly and universally displayed; that the useful classes of the community are not diverted by it from their accustomed, proper and serviceable duties, and plunged into habits of immorality and licentiousness, ruinous to their families, and destructive to their own souls." In answer to this unqualified, and

to say the truth, very indecent invective, you require a negative proof. It is pretty evident, from the words above printed in Italics, that you allude to the Volunteers, to whom alone they are properly applicable.

Of these 477,000 are now said to be in arms, in defence of their country; in which I suppose you think yourself included. These men, without a single fact, evidence, or proof, you have loaded with charges, that unfit those, to whom they are applicable, for human society; and feel sore yourself, when your invective is objected to in a publick congregation; when you claim a liberty of stigmatizing from the same place, near half a million of your fellow citizens; persons who never offended you, and who are assembled under the sanction and encouragement of the laws, which I suppose you will allow in this instance to have preserved their authority, for the defence of them, our Constitution and our Religion.

Suppose any person of the military profession, had at any public meeting, where

one half of the number of clergymen were present, as were of the Volunteers at the time your Sermon was preached, delivered an harangue, which he afterwards printed, representing the clergy, without exception, as being, from the nature and effects of their profession, men necessarily given up to indolence, gluttony and debauch; that most of the time that was spared from these indulgencies, was consumed at the gaming table or in field diversions; that their pretended concern for the souls of men, was all hypocritical; that the time they ought to employ in their studies, was wasted at a tavern, or in running about from one place of idle amusement to another; that their regard for the welfare of the sick, did not lead them to speak peace and comfort to the parting soul, but to ensure a scarf, hatband, ring, and gloves, at the funeral; and that they seldom visited their parishes, except to raise their tythes, and exact petty dues from those who were least able to pay them. I shall not recount any more of the licentious abuse which it is possible to suppose malignity might dictate

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on such an occasion, but desire to know of you, had such a charge been uttered in your hearing, if you would not have been, and with great justice, grievously offended, and have challenged the author of these slanderous insinuations, to prove his alle-gations, or to confess himself a base and scandalous traducer of character?

But the imputations against the clergy, which I have just supposed might possibly be uttered, are not by many degrees, so derogatory to morals and religion, as those which you, without any proof whatever, have alledged to be necessary accompani ments of the military character.

I should be glad to be informed what reasons (for you produce neither proofs nor reasons) you have for thinking so hardly of persons of this description. A military life certainly exposes those who follow it, to some temptations and immoralities, but on the other hand, it estranges its followers from others; and I do not think the balance of corruption, notwithstanding your studied

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