EXAMINATION, &c.
THIS gentleman professes to treat the subject seriously, and to submit his opinion to the decisions of revealed religion. No man has a right to dispute his sincerity, as far as his own way of thinking is concerned; but few serious people will peruse his extraordinary positions, without having their reverence for their Creator shocked, and their benevolence to their brother affected. The Scriptures, from which he draws his conclusions, we believe to teach, that all men are equally dear to their Creator, and that we owe love and good offices to each other. But if his deductions be fairly made, we must no longer entertain this opinion; for one part of mankind is to be kidnapped, evil intreated, oppressed, murdered, to indulge the avarice of another; and, page 76, Corol. 3d. “He doth not believe the Scriptures, who is not persuaded that this doctrine is taught there.”
But the author stumbles at the very threshold. Our Saviour (John v. 39.) bids the Jews to search the scriptures; “for in them ye think ye have eternal life; for they are they which testify of me,” the Saviour come to free men from the bondage of sin, into the glorious privilege of the sons of God. But it seems something else is meant. We are to search the scriptures (see title page) for a commission to Leverpool captains for fitting out ships, and loading them with powder, shot, and cutlasses, to set the Africans on to assault, kidnap, and enslave each other; to be transferred over to them; to be murdered by bad air, thirst, and famine, in the passage to the West-Indies; where the poor remains are to be set to hard labour, without food, without cloathing, without rest, sufficient to support nature.
It is true (preface, page 5.) he, with all the other advocates for slavery, declares himself “an enemy to injustice and oppression.” But the design of his book is to shew, that the ill-treatment of slaves is not an object of divine animadversion; for (p. 16.) Sarah was permitted without censure, “to use cruel oppressive treatment to Hagar;” and (p. 26.) Joseph is approved of by God for the cruel manner in which he enslaved and exchanged the abodes of the Egyptians. Which of these is to be believed; his general assertion, or his particular application? Or may we conclude, that he reserves to himself the feelings of humanity, and sells tyranny and oppression to his friends of Leverpool.
In the scriptures servants are frequently mentioned; but, in this dissertation, they are transformed into “slave trade.” The places, where traffick in slaves is related, are Joseph’s brethren (Gen. xxxvii.) selling him to the Ishmaelites, who sell him to Potiphar; the Tyrians (Ezek. xxvii. 13.) who had a market for the persons of men; and Babylon, the mother of abominations, (Rev. xviii. 13.) who exposed to sale, slaves and souls of men. I hope none of these instances are proposed to the imitation of the “ancient and loyal town of Leverpool;” for a black mark is set on them to prevent them from being followed.
Now there is some difference between dealing in slaves as a branch of trade, and buying the service of a domestic; even as it is not every man who eats meat, that is or could act the part of a butcher. In the case of the Jews there was something particular. They were obliged to admit their slaves to all the national privileges, to circumcision, the passover, and other solemn feasts, and to instruct them in the true religion (Gen. xvii. 13. Exod. xii. 44. Deut. xvi. 11. and xxxi. 12. Josh. viii. 35.) In buying them from the Heathen around them, they recovered them from idolatry; they gave them a weekly sabbath. In their treatment they were commanded to remember, that they themselves had been slaves in Egypt. When they are threatened for their sins, the ill treatment of their slaves makes a capital part of the charge against them. But modern masters think that nothing of this sort concerns them.
The Jews were intended to communicate to the world the knowledge of the true religion. He who brings good out of evil made use of the slavery, in practice, to extend this knowledge to persons, whom it could not at that time have otherwise reached. But nothing in the bible countenances a trade in slaves. Even the transferring them in ordinary cases is checked as in that of wives and concubines (Exod. xxi. 11.) Their ill treatment was guarded against, by that law which gave them freedom if their master had struck out a single tooth.