An Inquiry Into the Accordancy of War with the Principles of Christianity

for the purpose of military weapons, were even intended in this passage, there appears much reason for doubting. This reason will be discovered by examining and connecting such expressions as these: “The Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them,” said our Lord. Yet, on another occasion, He says, “I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword.” How are we to explain the meaning of the latter declaration? Obviously by understanding “sword” to mean something far other than steel. For myself, I see little reason for supposing that physical weapons were intended in the instruction of Christ. I believe they were not intended, partly because no one can imagine his apostles were in the habit of using such arms, partly because they declared that the weapons of their warfare were not carnal, and partly because the word “sword” is often used to imply “dissension,” or the religious warfare of the Christian. Such a use of language is found in the last quotation; and it is found also in such expressions as these: “shield of faith”⁠—“helmet of salvation”⁠—“sword of the Spirit”⁠—“I have fought the good fight of faith.”

But it will be said that the apostles did provide themselves with swords, for that on the same evening they asked, “shall we smite with the sword?” This is true, and I think it may probably be true, also, that some of them provided themselves with swords in consequence of the injunction of their Master. But what then? The reader of the New Testament will find that hitherto the destined teachers of Christianity were very imperfectly acquainted with the nature of their Master’s religion⁠—their conceptions of it were yet gross and Jewish. The very question that is brought against us, and the succeeding conduct of Peter, evince how little they yet knew that his kingdom was not of this world, and that his servants might not fight. Even after the resurrection, they seemed to be still expecting that his purpose was to establish a temporal government, by the inquiry⁠—“Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”40 Why do we avail ourselves of the conduct of the apostles, before they themselves knew the duties of Christianity? Why, if this example of Peter be authority to us, do we not approve the subsequent example of this same apostle, in denying his Master?

Why, indeed, do we urge the conduct of Peter at all, when that conduct was immediately condemned by Christ? And, had it not been condemned, how happens it, that if he allowed his followers the use of arms, he healed the only wound which we find they ever inflicted with them?

It appears to me, that the apostles acted on this occasion upon the principles on which they had wished to act on another, when they asked, “Shall we command fire to come down from heaven to consume them?” And that their Master’s principles of action were also the same in both⁠—“Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of; for the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” This is the language of Christianity; and I would seriously invite him who now justifies “destroying men’s lives,” to consider what manner of spirit he is of.

I think, then, that no argument arising from the instruction to buy swords can be maintained. This, at least, we know, that when the apostles were completely commissioned, they neither used nor possessed them. An extraordinary imagination he must have, who conceives of an apostle, preaching peace and reconciliation, crying “forgive injuries”⁠—“love your enemies”⁠—“render not evil for evil;” and at the conclusion of the discourse, if he chanced to meet with violence or insult, promptly drawing his sword, and maiming or murdering the offender. We insist upon this consideration. If swords were to be worn, swords were to be used; and there is no rational way in which they could have been used, but some such as that which we have been supposing. If, therefore, the words, “Let him that has no sword sell his garment, and buy one,” do not mean to authorize such a use of the sword, they do not mean to authorize its use at all: And those who adduce the passage must allow its application in such a sense, or they must exclude it from any application to their purpose.

It has been said, again, that when soldiers came to John the Baptist to inquire of him what they should do, he did not direct them to leave the service, but to be content with their wages. This, also, is at best but a negative evidence. It does not prove that the military profession was wrong, and it certainly does not prove that it was right. But in truth, if it asserted the latter, Christians have, as I conceive, nothing to do with it; for I think that we need not inquire what John allowed, or what he forbade. He, confessedly, belonged to that system which required “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth;” and the observations which we shall by-and-by make on the authority of the law of Moses, apply, therefore, to that of John the Baptist. Although it could be proved (which it cannot be) that he allowed wars, he acted not inconsistently with his own dispensation; and with that dispensation we have no business. Yet, if anyone still insists upon the authority of John, I would refer him for an answer to Jesus Christ himself. What authority He attached to John on questions relating to his own dispensation, may be learned from this⁠—“The least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

Such are the arguments which are adduced from the Christian Scriptures by the advocates of war. Of these arguments, those derived from the cases of the centurion and of Cornelius, are simply negative. It is not pretended that they possess proof. Their strength consists