The whole position, therefore, that the pacific commands and prohibitions of the Christian Scriptures do not apply to our conduct as subjects of a state, appears to me to be a fallacy. Some of the arguments which are brought to support it, so flippantly dispense with the principles of Christian obligation, so gratuitously assume, that because obedience may be difficult, obedience is not required, that they are rather an excuse for the distinction than a justification of it—and some are so lamentably vague and indeterminate, the principles which are proposed are so technical, so inapplicable to the circumstance of society, and in truth, so incapable of being practically applied, that it is not credible that they were designed to suspend the obligation of rules which were imposed by a revelation from Heaven.
The reputation of Dr. Paley is so great, that, as he has devoted a chapter of the Moral Philosophy to “War and Military Establishments,” it will perhaps be expected, in an inquiry like the present, that some specific reference should be made to his opinions; and I make this reference willingly.
The chapter “On War” begins thus:—“Because the Christian Scriptures describe wars, as what they are, as crimes or judgments, some men have been led to believe that it is unlawful for a Christian to bear arms. But it should be remembered, that it may be necessary for individuals to unite their force, and for this end to resign themselves to a common will; and yet it may be true that that will is often actuated by criminal motives, and often determined to destructive purposes.” This is a most remarkable paragraph: It assumes, at once, the whole subject of inquiry, and is an assumption couched in extraordinary laxity of language.—“It may be necessary for individuals to unite their force.” The tea-table and the drawing-room have often told us this; but philosophy should tell us how the necessity is proved. Nor is the morality of the paragraph more rigid than the philosophy, “Wars are crimes,” and are often undertaken from “criminal motives, and determined to destructive purposes;” yet of these purposes, and motives, and crimes, “it may be necessary” for Christians to become the abettors and accomplices!
Paley proceeds to say, that in the New Testament the profession of a soldier53 is nowhere forbidden or condemned; and he refers to the case of John the Baptist, of the Roman centurion, and of Cornelius; and with this he finishes all inquiry into the Christian evidence upon the subject, after having expended upon it less than a page of the edition before me.
These arguments are all derived from the silence of the New Testament, and to all reasoning founded upon this silence, no one can give a better answer than himself. In replying to the defences by which the advocates of slavery attempt to justify it, he notices that which they advance from the silence of the New Testament respecting it. He says—It is urged that “Slavery was a part of the civil constitution of most countries when Christianity appeared; yet that no passage is to be found in the Christian Scriptures, by which it is condemned or prohibited.” “This,” he rejoins, “is true; for Christianity, soliciting admission into all nations of the world, abstained, as behooved it, from intermeddling with the civil institutions of any. But does it follow, from the silence of Scripture concerning them, that all the civil institutions which then prevailed were right, or that the bad should not be exchanged for better?” I beg the reader to apply this reasoning to Paley’s own arguments in favor of war from the silence of the Scriptures. How happens it that he did not remember it himself?
Now I am compelled to observe, that in the discussion of the lawfulness of war, Dr. Paley has neglected his professed principles of decision and his ordinary practice. His professed principles are these: that the discovery of the “will of God, which is the whole business of morality,” is to be attained by referring, primarily, to “his express declarations when they are to be had, and which must be sought for in Scripture.”—Has he sought for these declarations? Has he sought for “Resist not evil,” or for “Love your enemies,” or for “Put up thy sword,” or for “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal,” or for “My kingdom is not of this world?” He has sought for none of these; he has examined none of them. He has noticed none of them. His professed principles are, again, that when our instructions are dubious, we should endeavor to explain them by what we can collect of our Master’s general inclination or intention.54 Has he conformed to his own rule? Has he endeavored to collect this general inclination, and to examine this general tendency? He has taken no notice of it whatever. This neglect, we say, is contrary to his ordinary practice. Upon other subjects, he has assiduously applied to the Christian Scriptures in determination of truth. He has examined not only their direct evidence, but the evidence which they afford by induction and implication—the evidence arising from
