Wesley Corpus

I would desire those gentlemen who are so very severe upon the Israelites for killing the children of the Canaanites, at their entrance into the land of Canaan, to spend a few thoughts on this. Not to insist, that the Creator is the absolute Lord and Proprietor of the lives of all his creatures; that, as such, he may at any time, without the least injustice, take away the life which he has given; that he may do this in whatsoever manner, and by whatever instruments, he pleases; and consequently may inflict death on any creature by whom he pleases, without any blame either to him or them;-not to insist, I say, on this, or many other things which might be offered, let us at present fix on this single consideration: The Israelites destroyed the children for some weeks or months; the Greeks and Romans for above a thousand years. The one put them out of their pain at once, doubtless by the shortest and easiest way; the others were not so compas sionate as to cut their throats, but left them to pine away by a lingering death. Above all, the Hebrews destroyed only the children of their enemies; the Romans destroyed their own. O fair pattern indeed ! Where shall we find a parallel to this virtue 2 I read of a modern, who took up a child that fell from its mother’s womb, and threw it back into the flames. (Pure, genuine human nature !) And reason good,--for it was the child of a heretic. But what evil, ye worthies of ancient Rome, did ye find in your own children? I must still say, this is without a parallel even in the Papal history. 16. They were implacable, unmerciful. Witness (one or two instances of ten thousand) poor grey-headed Hannibal, (whom, very probably, had we any other accounts of him than those which were given by his bitterest enemies, we should have reverenced as one of the most amiable of men, as well as the most valiant of all the ancient Heathens,) hunted from nation to nation, and never quitted, till he fell by his own hand. Wit ness the famous suffrage, Delenda est Carthago; “Let Car thage be destroyed.” Why? It was imperii aemula ; “the rival of the Roman glory.” These were open, undeniable evidences of the public, national placability and mercy of the Romans.