A Serious Address (First Edition) - 3
MADNESS in any Society of People is generally a Fore-Runner of their Destruction. For, before the Almighty destroys a Nation or People, he permits them first to be so infatuated as to run into Extravagancies, which by natural Consequences, bring Destruction upon them. The Massacre of the Indians at Lancaster, and the too general Approbation it has met with, are Evidences of very great Madness: And that Calamities, by Occasion thereof, are impending over us, will appear from the following Considerations, viz.
To put any Man to Death (tho’ in open War) when he may be made a Prisoner, is contrary to the Laws of Nations.
UNDER the Mosaic Dispensation, we find the Jews, who were under the immediate Direction of GOD himself, observing and performing their Treaties with great Punctuality.----- Thus the Gibeonites were spared, because of the Publick Faith of the
