The Bible and the Sword:
We subjoin here, by way of postscript to the above letters, an extract f45 from a small pamphlet published soon after them, and entitled, “THE BIBLE AND THE SWORD, &c.”
THE BIBLE AND THE SWORD:
OR,
THE APPOINTMENT OF THE GENERAL FAST VINDICATED; IN AN
ADDRESS TO THE COMMON PEOPLE.
______
THE royal proclamation, which has been lately issued out, shows that the hopes expressed in a late publication f46 were well grounded. The heart of every good, unprejudiced man, must rejoice at reading this truly Christian decree: - “We, &c, command that a public fast and humiliation be observed throughout England, upon Friday, December 13, so that both we and our people may humble ourselves before almighty God, in order to obtain pardon of our sins; and may in the most devout and solemn manner send up our prayers and supplications to the Divine majesty, for averting those heavy judgments, which our manifold sins and provocations have justly deserved; and for imploring his intervention and blessing speedily to deliver our loyal subjects,” &c. The sovereign acts herein the part of a Christian prince, and of a wise politician. As a Christian prince he enforces the capital duty of national repentance; and as a wise politician he averts the most formidable stroke which Dr. Price has aimed at his government. May we second his laudable designs by acting the part of penitent sinners and loyal subjects; though mistaken patriots should pour floods of contempt upon us on the occasion.
It would be strange if an appointment, which has a direct tendency to promote piety, to increase loyalty, and to baffle the endeavours of a disappointed party, met with no opposition. If we solemnly keep the fast, we must expect to be ridiculed by the men who imagine that liberty consists in the neglect of God’s law, and the contempt of the king’s authority. The warm men who have publicly asserted that his last speech from the throne is full of insincerity, daily insinuate that his proclamation is full of hypocrisy, and that it will be as wrong in you to ask a blessing upon his arms, as to desire the Almighty to bless the arms of robbers and murderers. Nor are there few good men among us, who think that it is absolutely inconsistent with Christianity to draw the sword and proclaim a fast.
Lest the insinuations of such patriots and professors should cast a damp upon your devotion, and make you leave the field of national prayer to our revolted colonies, I beg leave to remind you of a similar case, in which God testified his approbation of a fast connected with a fight; yea, with a bloody civil war.
We read in the book of Judges, that “certain sons of Belial,” belonging to the city of “Gibeah,” in the land of Benjamin, “beset a house;” obliged a Levite who lodged there “to bring forth a concubine to them, and they knew her, and abused her all night” in such a manner, that “she died” in the morning. The Levite complained of this cruel usage to the eleven tribes. “All the men of Israel were gathered,” on this occasion, “against the inhospitable city of Gibeah, and sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you? Now, therefore, deliver us the sons of Belial, who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin [instead of condescending to this just request] gathered themselves together unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel,” Judges 19:20. Let us apply this first part of the story to the immediate cause of the bloodshed which stains the fields of British America, and we shall have the following state of the case. Certain sons of Belial, belonging to the city of Boston, beset a ship in the night, overpowered the crew, and feloniously destroyed her rich cargo. The government was informed that this felonious deed had been concerted by some of the principal inhabitants of Boston, and executed by their emissaries; and being justly incensed against the numerous rioters, it requested the unjust city to make up the loss sustained by the owners of the plundered ship, or to deliver up the sons of Belial who had so audaciously broken the laws of the land; and a military force was sent to block up the port of Boston, till the sovereign’s just request should be granted. The other colonists, instead of using their interest with the obstinate inhabitants of Boston to induce them to do this act of loyalty and justice, gathered themselves together unto Boston, to go out to battle against the sons of Great Britain, and by taking up arms against the king to protect felons, made themselves guilty both of felony and high treason. Return we now to the children of Israel, and let us see if God forbade them to bring their obstinate brethren to reason by the force of arms, and considered the prayers made to him on this occasion as improper and hypocritical. “The children of Israel (says the historian) arose and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to battle against the children of Benjamin? And the Lord [instead of blaming their design] said, Judah shall go up first.” In consequence of this direction, Judah marched up to the enemy. But, alas! the righteousness of a cause, and the Divine approbation, do not always insure success to those who fight in the cause of virtue. Judah lost the day, and 22,000 men. The children of Israel, greatly afflicted with this misfortune, went up and wept before the Lord until even, and asked counsel of the Lord, saying, “Shall I go up [a second time] to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother?” And the Lord said, “Go up against him,” Judges 20:23. However, they were as unsuccessful in the second engagement as they had been in the first. “Then all the children of Israel, and all the people went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat before the Lord, and fasted that day until even. And the children of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the Lord said, Go up, for to - morrow I will deliver them into thine hand.” And accordingly “the Lord smote Benjamin before Israel,” Judges 20:26, &c. And the few Benjamites that escaped the edge of the vindictive sword, lamented the obstinacy with which their infatuated tribe had taken up arms for the sons of Belial, who had beset the house in the inhospitable city of Gibeah.
To return. From the preceding Scriptural account, it evidently appears,
(1.) That God allows, yea, commands the sword to be drawn for the punishment of daring felons, and of the infatuated people who bear arms in their defence, as the Benjamites formerly did, and as the revolted colonies actually do.
(2.) That, in this case, a sister tribe may conscientiously draw the sword against an obstinate sister tribe; much more a parent state against an obstinate colony, and a king against rebellious subjects.
(3.) That Providence, to try the patience of those who are in the right, may permit that they should suffer great losses.
(4.) That while the maintainers of order and justice draw the sword to check daring licentiousness, it is their duty to go up unto the house of God, and to weep and fast before the Lord.
(5.) what God makes a difference between the enthusiastical abettors of felonious practices, who fast to smite their brethren and rulers with the fist of wickedness, and the steady governors who, together with their people, fast to smite the wicked with the sceptre of righteousness; and that, while God testifies his abhorrence of the former fast, he shows that the latter ranks among the fasts which he has chosen, the end of true fasting being to repress evil without us, as well as within us. And lastly, that, although no war is so dreadful as a civil war, yet, when God was consulted three times following, all his answers show that the most bloody civil war is preferable to the horrible consequences of daring anarchy: and that it is better to maintain order and execute justice, with the loss of thousands of soldiers, than to let the mobbing sons of Belial break into ships or houses, to commit with impunity all the crimes which their lust, rapaciousness, and ferocity prompt them to.
Now if fasting and drawing the sword of justice be duties consistent with Scriptural religion, it follows that praying and using that sword are compatible ordinances. To be convinced of it, you need only consider the following scripture: “Moses said to Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek. Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur, went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass when Moses held up his hand [in earnest prayer] that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands were heavy, and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said to Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book,” Exodus 17:9, &c. “But supposing war and bloodshed were allowed under the Jewish dispensation, are they not absolutely forbidden under the Gospel? Is not Christ the Prince of Peace, and his Gospel the Gospel of peace? And is it not said that men shall neither hurt nor destroy in God’s holy mountain? How then can we suppose that drawing the sword, and fasting on that occasion, can be evangelical duties?” This objection is specious, and deserves a full answer.
1. Our Lord, who said to his apostles that a kind of raging spirit goeth not out but by fasting and prayer, said also to them, “He that hath not sword, let him sell his garment and buy one. And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords: and he said, It is enough,” Luke 22:36, 38. I grant, that when “Peter drew his sword, and [rashly] struck a servant of the high priest, Jesus said unto him, Put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that take the sword [to use it rashly, as thou dost, without any order, and without the least probability of success] shall perish with the sword,” Matthew 26:52. From the whole of this evangelical account, it appears that our Lord allows his followers the use of the sword; and that he only blames it when it is precipitate, and likely to answer no other end than that of throwing the triumphant friends of vice into a greater rage.
2. If, indeed, all men were Christians, and every nominal Christian was led by the Spirit of Christ, there would be absolutely no need of the sword; for there would be nothing but justice, truth, and love, in the world. But reason dictates, that so long as the wicked shall use the sword in support of vice, the righteous, who are in power, must use it in defence of virtue. The Lord of hosts, and Captain of our salvation, who girds his two - edged sword upon his thigh, or causes it to proceed out of his mouth to devour the wicked - this righteous Lion of the tribe of Judah will never suffer Satan and his servants so to bear the sword as to engross the use of it. This would be letting them have the kingdom, the power, and the glory, without control.
3. The Psalms and Revelation are full of prophecies concerning the righteous wars which the godly will wage against the wicked, before iniquity be rooted out of the earth. When the place of the ungodly shall know them no more, and righteousness shall cover the earth as the waters do the sea, Isaiah’s prophecy shall be fulfilled. “It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and all nations shall flow unto it. The Lord shall then judge among the nations, &c, and they shall beat their swords into plough shares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more,” Isaiah 2:2, 4. But till this happy time come, whenever one nation, or one part of a nation, unjustly rises up against another, as the men of Boston did against our merchants, it will be needful to oppose righteous force to unrighteous violence. It is absurd, therefore, to measure the duty of Christians who live among lawless men, by the duty of those Christians who shall live when all lawless men shall have been destroyed.
4. If Michael and his angels fought in heaven against the dragon and his angels, I do not see why General Howe might not fight on earth against General Lee. And if the congress unsheathe the sword to protect felons, redress the imaginary grievance of an insignificant tax, and to load thousands of the king’s loyal subjects with grievances too heavy to be borne, it is hard to say why he and his parliament should not use the sword to redress these real grievances, and to assert the liberty of our American fellow subjects who groan under the tyranny of republican despotism.
5. St. Paul, who knew the Gospel better than English mystics and American patriots, asserts the lawfulness of using the sword in order to maintain good government and execute justice. Hear his doctrine: - “The ruler is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, [of that God who says, ‘If ye be obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye rebel, ye shall be devoured by the sword,’ Isaiah 1:19, 20, and, of consequence, he is] a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil,” Romans 13:4. Hence it appears that the king is entrusted with the sword, and that if he do not use it to execute wrath upon criminals, he bears the sword in vain, and defeats one of the capital ends of his coronation: for “governors are sent by God for the punishment of evil doers,” 1 Peter 2:14.
6. Some people rejoice that we have watchmen to guard our streets, constables to apprehend house breakers, jailers to confine highwaymen, and executioners to put them to death. And yet they blame the use of an army. Is not their conduct, in this respect, highly unreasonable? For, after all, what are soldiers but royal watchmen, royal constables, royal jailers; and, if need be, royal executioners? If it be lawful to place watchmen in long white coats at the corners of our streets for public security, why should it be unlawful to place there watchmen in red coats for the same purpose? If it be right to send an unarmed constable, with a justice’s warrant, against an unarmed outlaw, or a defenceless debtor; can it be wrong to send thirty thousand armed constables, with the sovereign’s warrant, to disarm a countless multitude of lawless men, who assume the supreme power of the sword with as much propriety as the pope does the power of the keys of heaven and hell? Again: if it be not contrary to Christianity to put under a jailer’s care a number of dangerous men, who have already disturbed the public peace, and who seem lent upon doing it again; why should it be deemed contrary to Christ’s religion, to check, by a military guard, a dangerous city or province which has forfeited its former liberty, by adding the guilt of felonious and treasonable practices, to that of daring licentiousness? Once more: if the king, by signing a death warrant, can justly, commission a sheriff, and an executioner to take away the life of a house breaker, or a man who has presented a pistol to you on the highway; why can he not, by the advice of his council and parliament, give to his generals and soldiers a commission to shoot lawless men who have broken into a ship, to destroy the property of his loyal subjects, or have taken up arms in defence of the men that committed this crime; and who, instead of presenting a pistol to an individual, to rob him of a few shillings, have brought large trains of artillery into the field, to kill the embodied officers of justice, who bear the ruler’s sword, and to rob the king himself of some of the brightest jewels of his crown? If you attend to these hints, you will not find fault with our sovereign for showing that he does not bear the sword in vain: and you will praise him if you consider, that the first commission, which he has given to the commanders of his forces, is a commission to offer gracious terms of peace to those very men, who, by wantonly shedding the blood of his loyal subjects, and by repeatedly pouring floods of contempt upon his sacred person, have forfeited all just pretensions to his royal favour.
7. Soldiers, like watchmen, jailers, and executioners, are a needful burden upon the public. I heartily wish we were virtuous enough to do without them: but as this is not the case, they are a strong, bitter, and costly remedy, which is absolutely necessary to prevent or cure our licentiousness. So long as human bodies shall want to be preserved by the amputation of painful, mortifying limbs,:we shall want surgeons: and so long as political bodies shall be in danger of being destroyed by the moral corruption of their members, we shall want soldiers to do bloody operations. May the Lord grant us a constant succession of wise, conscientious, mild, and yet steady rulers, who may never bear the sword in vain; and who may never use it but with the same tenderness with which a surgeon uses his knife when he cuts a mortified limb from the body of a beloved child. His heart bleeds, while the dreadful operation is performed; and yet his judicious, parental affection makes him consent to sacrifice a part of his son’s body, in order to prevent the destruction of the whole. As punishing is God’s strange work, so should it be that of governors, who are his political representatives. Wo to the man, who, to show that he has power to use a knife, wantonly cuts his own flesh! And wo to the ruler, who, to make appear that he bears the sword, butchers his loyal subjects, and wantonly cuts off the sound limbs of the political body of which he is the head! A crime which no candid person can lay to the charge of our mild sovereign.
To conclude: if Christianity had prohibited fighting for the execution of justice, the continuance of peace, and the support of good government, when penitent soldiers asked John the Baptist, “What shall we do?” he would undoubtedly have intimated that they should renounce their bloody profession as soon as they could. But, instead of doing it, he charged them to “do violence [or injustice] to no man, and to be content with their wages;” a direction which amounted to bidding them to continue to serve their country, by helping the ruler not to “bear the sword in vain.” Nor was our Lord of a different mind from his fore - runner; for he praised a centurion, or captain in the Roman army, declaring “he had not found such faith in Israel,” as he discovered in that Gentile; and he parted from him, as Peter afterward did from Cornelius and his devout soldiers, without giving him the least hint that his profession was unlawful. From the whole I infer, that if Christianity allow a man to be a soldiers it allows him to fight for the maintenance of order. And, if it be lawfu1 to fight for this purpose, it must be lawful, nay, it is highly necessary, “to fast and pray,” before an engagement. For the greater the temptation of soldiers to indulge uncharitable tempers, the more earnestly ought they to pray that they may fight in the same spirit of love in which Christ was, when he uttered his last wo against rebellious Jerusalem. “He beheld the” obstinate “city, wept over it,” and pronounced its awful doom: “Thine enemies shall lay thee even with the ground, and shall not leave in thee one stone upon another.” Nor should soldiers fast and pray alone. We ought to bear a part in the solemn duty; because our sins have helped to fill up the measure of the national guilt which has provoked God to permit the colonists to rise against us. We owe much to the gentleness of the fleet and army. While they lift up the sword, which lingering justice has reluctantly drawn; while they stand between us and the desperate men who break into our ships, set fire to their own houses, tar, feather, goog, f47 and scalp their captives; whip, cut, and torture their slaves; and while they expose their lives, by sea and land, for our protection, or (which comes to the same thing) for the defence of the government that protects us; it is our bounden duty to feel for them, and to bear them on our hearts. Nay, we shall be guilty of inconsideration, uncharitableness, and base ingratitude, if we do not hold up their hands, by lifting up our own to the Lord of hosts in their behalf, and by asking that neither profaneness, lewdness, intemperance, nor cruelty, may stain their laurels; and that they may all be endued with every virtue, which can draw the love of their enemies, and fit them to live or die as faithful soldiers of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Nor should we fast only with an eye to ourselves, and those who fight our battles. We ought also to do it out of regard to our American brethren. If they act at this time the part of enemies, does not our Lord say, “Love your enemies, and pray for them that despitefully use you?” Should we not remember that British blood flows in their veins - that they are not all guilty - that many of them have been deceived by the plausible and lying speeches of some of their leaders - that the epidemical fever of wild patriotism seized multitudes before they were aware of its dreadful consequences - and that numbers of them already repent of their rashness, earnestly wishing for an opportunity of returning with safety to their former allegiance? If you consider these favourable circumstances, you will be glad to have an opportunity of solemnly approaching the throne of grace in behalf of your unhappy brethren: you will intercede for them with hearts full of forgiving love, and Christian sympathy. You will ardently pray that God would open the eyes and turn the hearts of the congressmen, and their military adherents; that he would fill the breast of the king, and of all who are in authority under him, with every virtue which can render his steady and mild government acceptable to the most discontented of his subjects; and that, on both sides of the Atlantic, all persons in power may cheerfully use all their influence to promote the speedy reconciliation and lasting union we wish for.
Should piety, loyalty, and charity thus animate your prayers; our day of fasting and humiliation will infallibly usher in a day of praise and general thanksgiving; and the eloquent senator, who, in the house of commons, lately condemned the religious appointment which I vindicate, will himself partake of the universal joy, and be sorry to have declaimed against a royal proclamation, which so justly deserves his assent, concurrence, and praises. I am, my dear fellow subjects, your obedient servant,
JOHN FLETCHER.
LONDON, December 6, 1776.