"Lord and head of all the human race," that all his successors have the same power, that one of these pontiffs, as lord of the world, had made a grant of the West India islands and the continent of America, to the king of Spain, and that the islands had submitted; the proclamation proceeds thus: "Therefore I now entreat and require you to consider attentively what I have declared unto you. And that you may more perfectly comprehend it, that you take such time as is reasonable, in order that you may acknowledge the church as the superior and guide of the universe; and likewise the holy father, called the Pope, in his own right, and his majesty by his appointment, as king and sovereign lord of these islands, and of the Terra Firma. And that you consent that the aforesaid holy fathers shall declare and preach to you the doctrines above mentioned. If you do this, you act well, and perform that to which you are bound and obliged; and his majesty, and I in his name, will receive you with love and kindness, and will leave you, your wives and children, free and exempt from servitude, and in the enjoyment of all you possess, in the same manner as the inhabitants of the islands. Besides this, his majesty will be stow on you many privileges, exemptions, and rewards. But if you will not comply, or maliciously delay to obey my injunetion, then, with the help of God, I will enter into your country by force; I will carry on war against you with the utmost violence; I will subject you to the yoke of obedience to the church and the

king; I will take your wives and your children and make them slaves, and sell or dispose of them according to his majesty's pleas ure; 1 will seize your goods aud. do you all the mischief in my power, as rebellious subjects, who will not acknowledge or submit to their lawful sovereign. And I protest that all the bloodshed and calamities which shall follow are to be imputed to you, and not to his majesty, or to me, or to the gentlemen who serve under me; and as I have now made this declaration and requisition unto you, I require the notary here present to grant me a certificate of this, subscribed in proper form." Vol. i. p. 471.

In this manner papists proceeded to convert the South American natives to what they called the christian religion; and as the natives were not prepared to submit to a foreign sovereign, or to embrace a religion at a venture, without knowing what it was, or whence it came, the most shocking scenes of barbarity ensued. Thousands after thousands of the unhappy natives were sacrificed to the rapacity and fanaticism of the invaders.

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Those military invaders were accompanied by priests to preach the gospel. But the priests were divided in opinion as to the lawfulness of subjecting the natives to slavery. The dominican friars strongly opposed the ure, and "even refused to absolve, or admit to the sacrament, such of their countrymen, as continued to hold the natives in servitude." The franciscan friars were of a different opinion. An appeal was made to the king. After

consulting with the most eminent characters, he at first decided in favor of the dominicans; but afterwards he issued the following decree: "That the servitude of the Indians was warranted by the laws of God and man; that unless they were subjected to the dominion of the Spaniards, and compelled to reside under their inspection, it would be impossible to reclaim them from idolatry, or to instruct them in the principles of the christian faith; that no farther scruples ought to be entertained concerning the lawfulness of the repartimientos, as the king and council were willing to take the charge of that up. on their own consciences; and that therefore the dominicans and monks of other orders, should abstain for the future from those invectives, which, from an excess of charitable but ill informed zeal, they had uttered against that practice." p. 250.

Thus we have seen what a sanguinary custom once prevailed of making proselytes to the christian name. We may now ask, what christian in our country would not be shocked at such proceedings, should they be repeated in our land for the conversion of the Indians? What would be said of ministers, if they should propose to lead an armed force to compel the natives to embrace the gospel? Would they not be regarded as more fit for a residence in a mad house, than to act the part of christian missionaries?

But why is this sanguinary custom now disreputable? Can any better reason be given than this, that the progress of light

has produced a change in popu lar opinion? May we not then confidently hope that a day will come, when the custom of deciding national disputes by war, will fall into universal abhorrence among christians?

As plausible reasons were urged for propagating the gospel by violence, as are now urged in favor of the present custom of war. Let any one put this question to his own conscience: Why is it not as just and reasonable to kill part of a nation, to induce the survivors to embrace a just and benevolent religion, as to kill innocent people, to induce their rulers to do justly?'

In the passages quoted from Dr Robertson, there are two things worthy of special notice

While wickedly invading a people who had never done them any harm, the Spanish officers could, "protest, that all the bloodshed and calamities that would follow," would be imputed to those they were making their enemies. This is the com. mon artifice of warmakers. Every one can see the absurdity of it in the case of the Spanish invasion. Will not posterity see the absurdity of all such pretences of the present day. It may be easy for rulers thus to delude men, but God will neither be deluded, nor mocked.

The Spanish king professed that he and his council were willing, to take the charge upon their own consciences of all the guilt that would be imputed for enslaving the Indians. An intolerable burden this, if God took them at their word! Are war makers of the present age

THE love of God is placed in the scriptures at the head of human duties; and the principle of love itself, exercised towards God and man, is declared to be the substance of religion, and the fulfilling of the law. The love of God is to be manifested by its influence on our lives; and we are to judge of its intensity, not by ardent expressions of attachment, but by holy and generous obedience to the will, and active cooperation in the benevolent designs of the Most High.

The man who loves God, cannot deliberately offend him, or injure the humblest of his off. spring. He is penetrated with sorrow when he has failed in any returns of gratitude, or has long forgotten his benefactor in heaven. He loves what God loves, and is most happy when he has the strongest sense of his obligations to his heavenly Father.

I know it is difficult to free this affection from all suspicion of enthusiasm, in the opinion of those who have not God in all their thoughts, or who would make religion a inere exercise of reason independent of the heart and affections. Still it is hard to believe that a man who has any sense of goodness or excellence, should be unable to answer the question Why should we love God?

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Men should love God, because they alone of the creatures of this world are capable of loving him. The lower orders of creatures receive, according to their capacities for enjoyment, as many blessings as we do with all our rational prerogatives. But they cannot rise to the conception of a God; they cannot understand that it is he who feeds and comforts them. Yet as far as they can see the hand that cherishes them, they love their visible patron, and lick the hand which has fed them, even when raised to shed their blood. But it is man, and man only, that can form the vast and beautiful conception of goodness without bounds, of purity without stain, of wisdom without imperfection, of benignity without a shadow of ill will.

Look up, O man, if there is yet in your heart a sentiment of undepraved goodness-look up from these miserable objects which enthral and sink you, and see the GOVERNOR of the world, arrayed in all the beauties of holiness, in all the light of truth, in all the mild lustre of unmingled goodness. See in him all that you admire, all that you reverence, all that you honor, all that you aspire to, all that you can love in the good beings you have already known, all

that you have felt with compla. cency in yourself-see all this concentered, and infinitely exalted, diffused through all nature, and subject to no change, no period nor limit. This is God! This is the Being of whom you ask, shall I love him? How low must a man have sunk ere a doubt could have suggested itself.

But you say, "I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him." O strange perversion of reason! Is it not enough that he is omnipresent, and fills all worlds, all space, but you must have his form defined and your senses affected, as they are by the imperfect, unsatisfactory objects which you love so unreasonably on earth? This is not worthy of a creature who is able to form the vast, the unparalleled conception of a God, in whom we live, and move, and have our being.

But do you not discern his influence? Look round upon na~ ture, crowded with proofs of God's goodness. When you know that the powers of any human being, sage, patriot, or benefactor, have been devoted to the production of happiness, though he may have lived in a remote age, a distant country, and entirely out of the reach of your personal knowledge; yet if you see or hear of the fruits of his exertions, you become interested in such a character, you love and admire him, for the happiness he has produced, even though you have no immediate share. Extend these ideas to God, the great Author of all the felicity there is in the world. Should

not your hearts leap to embrace

the inexhaustable fountain of the happiness of creation, a fountain always full, always overflowing with delight!

Do you ask for illustrations of this character of God, whose mercy endureth forever? See then in the system he has estab lished, how evil is made subor dinate and subservient to goodhow temporary sufferings re dound to happiness, and are of ten made beneficial even to the sufferers. If God had given no other proofs of the ineffable sat. isfactions of virtue, the invita tions held out in the christian dispensation of grace to repent ing sinners, and the spiritual blessings which spring from re ligion and the promises of the gospel; we should have abundant cause to admire the wonderful goodness of the Most High, who, as a father, pitieth his children.

But we see the whole earth full of his goodness. We see it in the curious frame of nature, in the course of his providence, in the productions of the earth, the vicissitudes of the seasons, the fruits of industry, and the advantages of commerce. serve how the same general laws every where operate-how the most important blessings are every where the most common, and the really necessary, seldom any where denied.

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But the earth is full of enter. tainment as well as comfort-of beauty as well as use; and domestic, social, friendly pleasures are superadded to those of sense, Remark also the power of habit which reduces the inconveniences of life, and the wonderful disposition to hope and antici

pate good, which makes life a blessing that we dare not and cannot throw up in despair.

Do you still ask, why you should love God? Love him on your own account. It is the voice of nature that we should love those by whom we are beloved; and surely it is not necessary to produce produce farther proofs, that we possess not a blessing for which we are not indebted to the love of God. If you will but examine the circumstances of your situation with a view of enumerating the mercies you receive from God, you will find the number swelling above any thing you could imagine without such inquiry.

It is under the shadow of his wings that we dwell securely. From him proceeds the daily supplies of life. He is the God of all consolation to us, to our friends, to all. Let him but withdraw his arm, and we and all nature vanish together. Let him but withhold his spirit, and this animated clay crumbles into its original dust. What is it which preserves this curious frame of ours from dissolution? It is but for a few particles of dust to change their dispositions, and a breath might do it-then all the living men on earth would go down together to the grave. Let God but speak the word, and all the present tranquillity of your minds would be changed into horror. Did he not continually feed it, the lamp of reason would be extinguished in your minds. Let him but disturb for a moment the

arrangement of the tender structure of the brain, and your minds would be a rioting hall of wild imaginations, distressful thoughts and agonizing fears-and if he please, so it must be forever. If he were to withhold the light of reason and the joys of a good conscience, all the pleasures of an improved understanding might give place to the horrors of remorse, or the dreary quiet of idiocy.

Will you not then love him, who keeps you from evils like these, which the motion of an atom in the sunbeams might bring upon the finest intellect and the happiest disposition.

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And why does God continue to us these essential blessings? Is it because he owes it to our obedience? because we have deserved them for our services, or by our gratitude? The most depraved conscience can hardly say this! If then there is any light in your understanding, any remains of love to friends, of gratitude to benefactors, of affec tion to parents, or of reverence for the great and good among men; shall God, the Supreme Friend, Father, and Benefactor, have no place in your affection!

Although it is so obviously the duty of mankind to love the Author of their beings and the source of all their comforts, yet some care on our part is requisite to keep ourselves in the love of God. The means of doing this, will be considered in a future Number.

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