1 Massacre in Lancaster Couuty. of all laws human and divine, and, to the eternal disgrace of their country and their colour, then mounted their horses, huzzaed in triumph, as if they had obtained a victory, and rode off unmolested! "The bodies of the murdered were then brought out, exposed in the street till a hole could be made in the earth to receive and cover them. But the wickedness cannot be covered, and the guilt will lie on the whole land till justice is done to the murderers. The blood of the innocent will cry to heaven for vengeance." "But these people, being chiefly presbyterians, seem to think they have a better justification-nothing less than the word of God. With the Scriptures in their hands and mouths, they can set at nought that express command-Thou shalt do no murder,' and justify their wickedness by the command given to Joshua to destroy the heathen! Horrid perversion of Scripture and religion! to father the worst of crimes on the God of love and peace!" The name neither of the writer nor the printer was given with this Narrative, but the Historian says they were "supposed to be as nearly connected as FRANKLIN and HALL." As this horrid massacre took place in Pennsylvania, and as it is known that the religious principles and pacific policy of William Penn had occasioned peace for 70 years between the white people and the Indians; it will 227 be natural for many to askHow came this peace to be interrupted? To this inquiry it may be answered, that several causes cooperated to produce, the deplorable result; but the principal cause was this-an inundation of foreign ers came into the province with the principles and spirit of war, and excluded the Quakers from that share in the government which they had formerly possessed. The presbyterians, who murdered the harmless tribe, are represented as deluded fanatics. Under the influence of a malignant enthusiasm they destroyed their poor Indian brethren as an acceptable sacrifice to the FATHER OF MERCIES. But how dreadful is that delusion which led professed Christians to believe that God could be pleased to see them engaged in murdering his heathen children! this delusion however was not confined to the 57 murderers of the Conestogoe tribe, it was spread in a greater or less degree over the other provinces. It became, also, a kind of hereditary disease, which perhaps has not been wholly exterminated to this day. There are now not many of our countrymen who would approve the massacre in Pennsylvania; but is it certain that the wars with the Indians in our own time will appear less abhorrent to future generations, than the massacre of the friendly tribe does to us? We blush for deluded men who could so wantonly exterminate a harmless people. Why do we not blush for the butcheries of our age? How often have rulers authorized the invasion of provinces, with as little justice and as little cause of offence, on the part of the invaded, as there was in the case of the massacre in Lancaster county! Will any plead that the perpetrators of this atrocious deed had no authority from any gov. ernment for what they did, and that this makes an Cssential difference between their conduct and the usual murders of the innocent in time of war? Let it then be supposed, that the same harm less tribe had been slaughtered by an order of some government: would this order have rendered the deed less unjust and horrible? If it would in any degree have abated the criminality of the immediate agents, would it not also have exposed the rulers who ordered the slaughto the just vengeance of Heaven, and to the abhor ter rence of all good men? Yet how many hundreds of instances might be collected from history, in which murders of the innocent, equally atrocious and inhuman, have been ordered by rulers, who bore the name of Christians, and still gloried in such horrible exploits. Wanton butcheries of the innocent, in the wars of rulers, are regarded as things of course, as unavoidable events, and always to be expected. The people of each nation have been disposed to excuse them in their own troops, or to cover them with a cloud of military glory. But such clouds will be dispersed; the Sun of righteousness and peace will shine; and the murders of war will yet appear in their true colours. Then the instigators of such scenes of barbarity and violence, will be numbered with the bewildered wretches who murdered the Conestogoe Indians, WHEREFORE DO THE WICKED LIVE AND PROSPER? THERE is scarcely any topic which has been more frequently the subject of doubtful and anxious contemplation, or has given rise to more bold and unjustifiable speculations concerning the moral govern ment of God, than the little regard which seems to be paid to personal character in the distribution of tempcral enjoyments. Men frequently indulge the sentiment, and sometimes have not hesitated to affirm, that it is utterly in consistent with the rectitude of divine government to distribute favors with a promiscuous hand to the just and the unjust. Why, say they, is not sentence against an evil work speedily executed? Why are bold offenders permitted to trample with impunity on every moral and religious right? Why is successful villainy allowed to insult the tears, and riot in the distresses of humble and injured innocence? A little reflection will convince us that there is nothing in the circumstances attending the condition of the unrighteous that can impair our confidence in the moral government of God. We do not however deny that' success frequently attends the wicked and that they thrive with all the luxuriance of the green bay tree. But it is neverthe less certain that men do not sufficiently discriminate between the means of happiness and happiness itself. A man may have all those possessions that are usually means of happiness, and yet be completely wretched. For it is the mind only which can furnish the principles of real enjoyment. Can popular applause confer any happiness on the wretch who is oppressed with the remorse and fearful apprehensions of a guilty conscience? Will the recollection of vast possessions soothe the guilty mind trembling at the near prospect of the opening tomb? Conscience will arraign the culprit at her bar, and subject him to the penalties of a spirit wounded with remorse and wrung with despair. In fact, there is scarcely any crime whose indulgence does not contain the seeds of its own punishment. The votaries of licentious pleasure purchase a transient gratification at the expense of their health and fortune. The envious man is continually wounding himself with the thorns which he has planted in his own pillow. He who indulges a spirit of pride is the most dependent of all men, being obliged to trust his happiness to the caprice of every person with whom he is connected. Perhaps he may .be endued with the robes of office and abound in the possession of wealth, and yet be liable to have the exclamation forced from him"all this availeth me nothing," merely because some Mordecai withholds his tribute of respect. Who would accept the miser's wealth, if he must also possess the miser's soul?— Doomed to suffer the most abject poverty in the midst of profusion-to be pointed at abroad, and to be distracted at home by the contending passions of desire and fear. The sons of riot and dissipation may deceive the unthinking multitude by their noisy mirth, but it is like the irrational and frenzied joy of the maniac who dances to the music of his chains. Guilty indulgencies will be succeeded by the pangs of remorse-and it will generally be found that the observation of a heathen philosopher is perfectly correct"As malefactors," he says, "when they go to punishment carry their own cross, so wickedness generally carries its own torment with it." We see then that punishment overtakes the wicked in this life, much more frequently than is usually imagined. But even admitting what is frequently asserted, that bad men do not come into trouble more than others; still we can discover reasons abún dantly sufficient to satisfy us of the propriety of delaying their punishment. Indeed if exemplary punishment immediately succeeded the perpetration of crime, the most virtuous part of society would be involved in deep and complicated distress. Society is a complicated machine, in which almost every member sustains a necessary, although perhaps a humble of fice. If you withdraw any one, even of the subordinate parts, its effect is in a greater or less degree experienced in other parts of the system. Suppose then that the moral government of the world were such that the punishment of the wicked was not delayed for a moment-suppose you were constituted a minister of divine justice, and that, in the warmth of your indignation, you were actually to call down fire from heaven on those bold transgressors, whom you esLeem worthy of instant destruction; are you certain that no one else would feel the weight of your powerful displeasure? Is the person whom you deprive of existence wholly removed from all the tender and necessary connexions of life? Are you sure you have not broken the most important link in that chain from which was suspended the fondest wishes and fairest expectations of many who are more conspicuous for their virtues, than the offender for his sins? Is it not possible the strongest hopes the most flourishing prospects and the dearest interests of an unoffending family, have been buried in the ruins of an individual? If punishment immediately succeeded the offence, life would not be a state of probation. Man could hardly advance his claims to the honour of being a free agent. Acting under the influence of immediate and tremendous punishment, his actions would be more the effect of constraint than of choice. His mind would be so agitated as topreclude the possibility of deliberation. He would have no opportunity of displaying the sincerity of attachment, or the purity of his motives by a voluntary and cheerful obedience. He could not walk by faith in the perfections of Jehovah, but by a slavish fear of of his displeasure. Instead of a tender and indulgent Benefactor, God would rather appear to him a stern and implacable Judge and Executioner. The heart would not be attuned to the tender feelings of religion, because fear would usurp the place of love. Should the Divine indignation instantly crush the wretch who disobeys, our real character would not display itself. The disposition of a man is not to be determined by a few individual acts. Good men have sometimes obscured the dignity of their real characters by a few unworthy compliances; and the most abandoned have by a few splendid deeds disguised themselves in the robes of angels of light. But God who reads the secret thoughts of the heart will judge us by our prevailing dispositions. He may discover reasons which are wholly removed from our observation, that induce him to spare those whom we should promptly destroy. They may possess correct principles which we have not been able to recognize. Possibly he who waits to be gracious perceives that by longer forbearance, by gentle and timely discipline, some latent sparks of goodness may be kindled to a flame. He who is not willing that any should perish, may prolong their existence, because, while life continues, there is a possibility of reformation. The propriety of permitting the wicked to live and prosper will further appear, if we consider that the present life is designed to be a state of discipline and improvement, to fit us for more perfect happiness hereafter. The mixed state of society is peculiarly calculated to answer this purpose. The crimes of the wicked call into exercise some of the noblest virtues that adorn the hearts of the righteous. Were it not for this, men would possess little more ex than a mere negative goodness. They would have no opportunity of displaying their sincerity, their magnanimity, patience, fortitude and forgiveness. They would lose one of the most powerful stimulants to vigilance and exertion. They could not exhibit the majesty of virtue by standing forth in the worst of times to resist the torrent of vice and immorality-to allure by their example-to reform by their instructions and reproof. Nay the very vices of the wicked may afford useful instruction to the righteous. They are enabled to avoid the dangers to which they are most posed, by observing the small beginnings and gradual progress of those vices which have ruined many around them :-By seeing this man overwhelmed with poverty and disgrace by habitual intemperance, which originated, in an unguarded indulgence of social feelings and merriment;-another abandoned to the grossest profligacy and impiety, which may be traced to a neglect of public worship and the established duties of religion-a third sentenced to make public reparation to the laws for acts of fraud and theft, proceeding from an avaricious spirit, that was probably indulged at first in trifling deceptions and petty theftsand so of almost every other crime. They stand as beacons to point out the rocks on which others have split. Not only this, they frequently render the virtuous resolutions of the righteous more strong, by eas |