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Show 246 ON THE SLAVERY AND COMMERCE of Oncjimus, addreffes him to the following effetl: "I fend him back to you, but not in " his former ·>apacity, * 11ot tzow as a.Jer" vant, but above a jervmzt, a brother be-loved. In this manner I befeech you to receive him, for though I could e11join you to do it, yet I had rather it lhould be a c' matter of your own 'lvi/1, than of necff}ity." It appears that the L1me Omjimus, when he was fent back, was no longer a }lave, that he was a miniller of the gofpel, that he was joined with 'I'ychicus in an ecclcliaflical commiffion to the church of the Colqjjiam, and was afterwards bifhop of Ephifus. If language therefore has any meaning, and if hillory has recorded a faa which may be believed, there is no cafe more oppolite to the dotlrine of the receivers, than this which they produce in its fupport. It is faid again, that Chrillianity, among the many important precepts which it contains, does not furni!h us with one for the abolition of flavery. But the reafon is obvious. Slavery at the time of the introduc- • Epift. to Philemon. tion or TilE H uMAN SPECiES. 247 tion of the gofpel was univerfally prevalent, and if Chrillianity had abruptly declared, that the millions of !laves lhould have been made free, who were then in the world, it would have been univcrf<tlly rejetled, as containing dotlrines that were dangerous, if not dell:ruCl:ive, to fociety. In order therefore that it might be univerfally received, it never meddled, by any politive precept, with the civil inll:itutions of the times: but though it does not expref,ly fay, that "you " fl1all neither buy, nor fell, nor polfefs a " !lave," it is evident that, in its general tenour, it fufficicntly militates again!\: the cull:om. The firll: doCl:rine which it inculcates, is that of brotherly love. It commands good will towards men. It enjoins us to love our neighbours as ourfelves, and to do unto all men, as we would that they lhould do unto us. And how can any man fulfil this fcheme of univer£1! benevolence, who reduces an unfortunate perfon againfl his 1vill, to the mojl infupportable of all human conditions; who conftdcrs him as his private property, and treats him, not as a brother, nor as one o( |
