a minister of Christian truth,--alas! thus made inferior to that of the heathen who _preferred the unjustest peace to the justest war_.[58] [56] Discourse before the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, by A.H. Vinton. [57] Earl of Abingdon, May 30, 1794: Hansard, Parl. Hist., XXXI. 680. [58] "_Vel iniquissimam pacem justissimo bello anteferrem_" are the words of Cicero. (Epist. A. Cæcinæ: Epp. ad Diversos, VI. 6.) Only eight days after Franklin had placed his name to the treaty of peace which acknowledged the independence of his country, he wrote to a friend, "May we never see another war! for, in my opinion, there never was a good war or a bad peace." (Letter to Josiah Quincy: Works, ed. Sparks, Vol. X. p. 11.) It is with sincere regret that I seem, by a particular allusion, to depart for a moment from so great a theme; but the person and the theme here become united. I cannot refrain from the effort to tear this iron branch of War from the golden tree of Christian Truth, even though a voice come forth from the breaking bough. Well may we marvel that now, in an age of civilization, the God of Battles should be invoked. "_Deo imperante_, QUEM ADESSE BELLANTIBUS CREDUNT," are the appropriate words of surprise in which Tacitus describes a similar delusion of the ancient Germans.[59] The polite Roman did not think God present with fighting men. This ancient superstition must have lost something of its hold even in Germany; for, at a recent period, her most renowned captain,--whose false glory procured for him the title of Great,--Frederick of Prussia, declared, with commendable frankness, that he always found the God of Battles on the side of the strongest regiments; and when it was proposed to place on his banner, soon to flout the sky of Silesia, the inscription, _For_ GOD _and Country_, he rejected the first word, declaring it not proper to introduce the name of the Deity in the quarrels of men. By this elevated sentiment the warrior monarch may be remembered, when his fame of battle has passed away. [59] De Moribus German., Cap. 7.