Page images
PDF
EPUB

A N

ADDRESS, &c.

Brethren, Countrymen, and Fellow-Citizens,

RELIGION has always confidered war as one of the fcourges of Heaven, and the fource of numberless fcourges and crimes. Men may arm their hands in defence of life and property; but their hearts fhudder at the thoughts of a field of battle which can fcarce afford graves to the armies that difpute it, covered with the mangled bodies and fcattered limbs of thoufands of Chriftians, who never faw nor provoked each other before; and whofe only fault was obedience to their princes! which obedience cannot be imputed to the foldier as a crime. The peaceful cottage deferted at the fight of an approaching enemy! Famine and

diftrefs

diftrefs closing the fcene, and filling up the measure of calamities! Such are the misfortunes infeparable from war,-misfortunes which induced the great St. Paul to exhort the Chriftians in the following manner: "I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, fupplications, prayers, "interceffions be made for all men, for kings, "and all that are in authority; that we may "lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness " and honefty." "* And fuch fhould be the con

66

[blocks in formation]

But what, my brethren, if the enemy's fword glittered in our streets, and that to the licentiousness of a foreign foe we added domeftic diffenfions! If the found of the enemy's trumpet would be drowned in the cries and fhrieks of the injured neighbour whom we ourselves would be the first to opprefs! Would not war itself lofe its terrors, when compared to such outrages? And the calamities we would bring on ourselves, would not they furpass those which would pour in upon us from foreign nations? Such, nevertheless, are the fears that haunt us. Both Proteftants and Catholics declare, that in cafe of an invafion, the common people are the greatest cause of their alarms; not from dread of your fuperior power, but from the fad neceffity they would be under, of punishing those whom

1 Tim. chap. .

whom they are willing to protect, and the general confufion that would difturb the peace and tranquillity of the rich, and draw down inevitable deftruction on the poor. For in fuch an unfortunate juncture, every Catholic poffeffed of a feather bed, and commodious habitation, would join his proteftant neighbour in their mutual defence. The aggregate body of them would not be a match for regular forces, yet, they would be an over-match for you. They would unite in one common caufe; you would be divided amongst yourselves, expofed to each other's encroachments, and overpowered by all parties.

Such, my brethren, would be your fituation, fhould you be unhappy enough to ftrike from the path of a peaceable and Christian conduct. Forbid it Heaven, that it should be ever your cafe! I conceive better hopes of you. Your unshaken loyalty under the most trying circumstances the calm and quietnefs that reigned in your peaceful huts fcattered up and down the extenfive counties of Cork and Kerry, where the Catholics are poor and numerous, whilft other parts of the kingdom were infested with Houghers, White Boys, Hearts of Oak and Steel, and alarmed at the continual fight of judges, chains and gibbets-the quiet and peaceable manner in which you behaved on a late occa

fion, when you imagined the enemy at your doors; all these circumstances are pledges of your loyalty and good conduct, and happy omens of your steady perfeverance in the fame line.

Your bishops and clergy have enforced the doctrine of peace, fubordination, and loyalty from the facred altars, where the leaft lie would be a facrilege, and crime of the firft magnitude. The Catholic gentlemen have fet forth the example to you. Both have bound themselves to king and government, by the most facred ties. They have fouls to be faved, and would be forry to lose them by wilful perjury: they who would be on a level with their Proteftant neighbours, if they took but the qualification-oath against the conviction of their confciences.

But the doctrine and example of the learned, prudent, and better fort of your profeffion, fhould be the only rule of your conduct; for in all countries, the generality of the common people are ill qualified to judge or determine for themselves. They are easily governed by the fenfes, hurried by their paffions; and misled by a wild and extravagant fancy that intrudes itself into the province of Reafon.

Far be it from me to fufpect you for any defign to avail yourselves of the calamities of your nation,

Is

nation, or to commit, in time of war, a robbery which you would deteft in time of peace. the crime lefs heinous, because it is committed against a neighbour, who is doubly miserable from the terrors of a foreign foe, and the outrageous affaults of a treacherous fellow-fubject?

When the foldiers asked St. John the Baptist, what they should do? He defired them, "to "do violence to no man; not to accufe any

[ocr errors]

one falfely; and to be content with their wages. "Hence all divines are agreed, that the empire of justice is fo extensive, that war itfelf must acknowledge its authority. Kings, in declaring war, make a folemn appeal to the tribunal of Heaven, for the juftice of their cause. The foldier cannot, in confequence, plunder or opprefs the merchant or husbandman in his enemy's country: he muft ftrictly abide by the orders of his commander. If juftice, then, in certain circumftances, muft fheath the enemy's fword, how much more forcibly must it not reftrain the citizen's hand from invading what he cannot enjoy without guilt here, and punishment hereafter ?-A punishment the more to be dreaded, as perhaps there would be no time for reftitution and repentance!-Indifpenfible obligations, to which every robber is liable, and without which he has no mercy to expect. But if a robbery committed on a private man, de

St. Luke, chap. vIII.

« PreviousContinue »