world, and wholly abolish slavery; and will have this effect where it is fully and faithfully preached, and cordially received and obeyed. For where this takes place, no one will forfeit his liberty, and, therefore, must have a right to it; and no man will make a slave of another, were it in his power, who has not forfeited his liberty by the sentence of proper judges; for in so doing, he would act contrary to the precepts of Christianity. The following precept of our Lord and Savior, "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them," which is included in loving our neighbor as ourselves, will set at liberty every slave who has not forfeited his freedom, or to whom slavery can be considered as undesirable and a calamity, whenever it is properly regarded and reduced to practice.

Christianity being, in the nature and tendency of it, and the particular precepts which it contains, thus opposed to slavery, did gradually, even in its most corrupt state, root it out among the nations in the Christian world, so that it was almost, if not wholly, abolished for some centuries, until it took place again, in a manner and degree which was never known before among any nation or people since the world began, in the abominable slave trade with the Africans, and their consequent slavery. That this business, which is such a gross and open violation not only of the genius and precepts of Christianity, but of the rights and feelings of humanity, should be undertaken and carried on by nations who call themselves Christians, and by individuals who bear that name, is truly astonishing. It is impossible fully to describe, or to have an adequate conception of, the crimes which have been committed in this business, or the evils which have attended it. If a man of observation, discernment, and humanity had attended this trade many years, and spent the residue of his life in the West Indies, under the best advantage to see the inhumanity and cruelty, and the various crimes, which take place in the treatment of the slaves, and the innumerable miseries which they suffer, he would, after all, have but a very partial idea and conception of the whole, and know but little, compared with all of this kind which takes place. How low and faint, then, are our conceptions of this enormous evil! The great Omnipotent alone, who will bring every work of man into judgment, with every secret thing, has a full, clear, and perfect knowledge of the whole of this great evil.

Suffice it now, in a few words, to say, that, by this trade in the bodies and souls of men, millions have been violently torn from their native country and from every thing dear to them; in the accomplishment of which, fire and sword, war and deso

lation, and slaughter of numbers exceeding our reckoning have taken place through a vast extent of country, and multitudes have been induced to betray, steal, and sell their countrymen and neighbors. Many thousands of these, thus taken from their country and all the enjoyments of life and liberty, and all their dearest connections, have died on board the ships, in their passage to the West Indies or to other countries, and the rest have been sold, like brute beasts, into perpetual slavery, with their posterity after them, where the most of them are treated in a manner beyond description inhuman and cruel, by owners, masters, and overseers, many, if not the most, of whom are hardened against all the feelings of humanity towards their slaves, and are themselves a nuisance and burden to the earth; so that the West India islands, in general, are become the greatest resemblance of the infernal regions that can be found in this world.

In this general, but very superficial and scanty view of the slave trade and the slavery connected with it, who can forbear pronouncing that they who have encouraged, prosecuted, or supported this traffic in their fellow-men, though some of them may have done it in ignorance and unbelief, — have really been the emissaries of Satan, and agents for him who delights in the wickedness and misery of mankind? And though they live in Christian lands, and call themselves Christians, and whatever plausible pretences they may make, they have all been really acting most contrary to the nature and precepts of Christianity, and doing the works of the devil; and nothing can be more dishonorable to the gospel and the Author of it than to attempt to reconcile this practice with Christianity.

This, indeed, has been attempted by some; and, among other things, it has been pretended that this treatment of the Africans was right and commendable, as it was the way to Christianize them, by bringing them from a heathen to a Christian land. But is this obedience to the command of the Savior" Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature"? Is it not directly contrary to this command? Does this direct men to go into heathen lands and take men by force from their own country, and destroy a great part of them, and reduce the rest to the most abject slavery, in order to make Christians of them? Does it not rather command us to carry the gospel to them, and to take all proper pains, in the most friendly manner, to instruct and persuade them to embrace it, without any force or compulsion, that they may be happy in their own land while they live, and be saved from sin and misery forever? Do the dealers in slaves make

any attempts to carry the gospel to Africa and propagate it there? Do they say a word to their slaves about the gospel, or do any thing that tends to lead them to embrace it? Has not their whole conduct, in their treatment of the Africans, a direct and strong tendency to the contrary? The slave trade, in the manner in which it has been carried on, tends to beget the strongest prejudices against Christianity in the inhabitants of the vast continent of Africa, and actually has done it in many nations; and nothing could have been done by those who bear the name of Christians more effectually to prevent the introduction of the gospel into that part of the world, and more directly to counteract the command of Christ to preach the gospel to them. And how do those who are brought from that country, and put into a state of slavery, and treated as the slaves generally are in the West Indies, naturally and unavoidably look upon these dealers in slaves, who are called Christians? Is it possible they should look upon them in a better light than we do the savages, not to say the inhabitants of the infernal regions? What, then, must they think of Christianity? Is this the way to persuade them to be Christians? What could be done more to prevent it? Many millions of these poor creatures have doubtless lived and died with the greatest aversion to Christianity, and even the name of a Christian, from the treatment they have received from those who have called themselves Christians. And if any have embraced the gospel and become real Christians, in circumstances tending so strongly to prejudice against it, this must be ascribed to the extraordinary, wonderful, and no less than miraculous interposition of divine power and grace; and no thanks are due to the dealers in slaves, whose whole conduct has been counteracted in these instances. And can it be believed that these dealers in slaves have carried on this unchristian, inhuman, and cruel business with a view to Christianize those whom they thus injure and oppress, or from any motives of benevolence or humanity? This seems impossible. But if this were possible, the treatment of these slaves demonstrates that no such motives exist while no proper methods are taken to instruct them in Christianity; and, in most instances, there has been not only no care taken to instruct them, but constant care and exertions to prevent it, added to the prejudices against Christianity which have been mentioned. And there is no reason to consider those many millions of slaves, who have been made so by this trade, as under any better advantages for instruction, or to become Christians, than if they had lived and died in their own country, a few instances only excepted. No; this business has

been begun and carried on from that sordid selfishness and avarice which fortify men's hearts against the truths and precepts of the gospel, and will lead them to do the work of the evil one, in order to get money and promote what they consider to be their worldly interest.

Had all those who have had a hand in this anti-Christian business, by which so many millions of our fellow-men have been murdered or treated as brutes, or both, been disposed to take as much pains, and be at as great cost to send the gospel to Africa and instruct and Christianize the many nations in that part of the world, as they have taken and expended to enslave and destroy them, and thus prejudice them against Christianity, they would probably have been the means of spreading the gospel over that vast continent, of civilizing those barbarous nations, and of the salvation of millions, and would have prevented the destruction and misery of which they have been the occasion and instruments, and would have had the reward of such a benevolent work, and escaped the guilt which now lies upon them and, the awful consequence.

This observation opens a scene to our view which is enough to overwhelm the attentive, pious mind, and must, therefore, be now only mentioned. A future judgment, an eternity to come, will unfold the whole, of which we can now have but a transient glimpse.

This enormous iniquity and wide-spreading evil - the slave trade, with its consequences, which has been carried on and advanced to such a degree for more than a century by kings and their people in the Christian world—is an evidence, among many others, and serves to confirm the opinion, that the sixth vial, mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of the Revelation, has been running during this time. It is there predicted, that under this vial three unclean spirits, the spirits of devils, working miracles or wonderful things, should go forth to the whole world, to gather them together to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

The work of these spirits is to excite men, especially in the Christian world, to extraordinary and wonderful degrees of wickedness, by which they unite in arming themselves against Heaven, and are prepared for the judgments which will follow. Who can attend to the slave trade, in the manner in which it has been prosecuted, with the extent and consequences of it, and not be convinced that the hand and power of Satan has been in an extraordinary degree exerted and manifested in it, stirring men up to a kind and degree of wickedness and mischief which was not known before?

And shall this shameful practice, this evil, which has got

such deep root, and is spread so far and wide, never have an end? Can no stop be put to those wicked men who are devouring their fellow-men who are more righteous than they? Must this gross and open violation of the rights of man, of the laws of God, and the benevolent religion of the Savior continue forever? Shall the horrid scene of unrighteousness, violence, cruelty, and misery, which has so long taken place in the West Indies and Africa, never be abolished?

Thanks be to God! He has assured us that all these works of the devil shall be destroyed, and that the time is hastening on, when all the people shall be righteous and benevolent, and there shall be none to destroy or hurt in all the earth; and what has taken place of late, gives reason of hope and confidence that this sore evil will soon be made to cease. The attention of thousands and millions has been awakened and turned to this subject; much has been written upon it, and light and conviction have had a rapid and extensive circulation. Numerous societies have been voluntarily formed wholly to abolish this evil; and,there is reason to conclude that this light and conviction, and these exertions, will continue and increase till the slave traders shall be utterly destroyed.

But why is this work still opposed or neglected by any? Why are not the cries of the millions of Africans in bondage heard by all? Why do they make no more impression on the public mind, and rouse all to feel for the wretchedness of so great a part of their fellow-men, and to exertions for their relief? Why is the British Parliament so slow to abolish the slave trade, and no more influenced by the evidence laid before them of the cruelties and murders which attend this traffic, and of the moral and political evils produced by it, and by the repeated, earnest, and powerful applications made to them?

And as to some of us Americans, what shall we say? We have reason to reflect with painful shame upon the. hand we have had in this iniquity, by which so many thousands of our fellow-men, as good by nature as we are, have been destroyed, or put into a state of the most abject slavery, in the West Indies, or brought to this continent and sold like cattle, and, in most instances, treated as if they were not men.

In the year 1774, when Britain appeared to threaten a war with us, and was disposed to deny to us some part of the liberty which we claimed, and we had a prospect of entering into a bloody contest in defence of our own rights, the slave trade, which had been practised by us, appeared so inconsistent with our contending for our own liberty, that a Congress, which then represented these now United States, made a solemn resolution, in the name of all the people whom they repre