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Show 244 ON TilE SLAVERY AND COMMERCE things, which were made for his own uft and convenience; he mlfll inflantly ce'!ft to be accountable for his atlions, and his authority as a parent, and his duty as a fin, mlfll be inJiantly no more. Neither does it efcape our notice, when we are (peaking of the fatal wound which every facial duty mull: receive, how confiderably Chrifiianity fuffers by the conduCt ?f Y?u rectivers. For by proft;cuting this ~mpwus commerce, you keep the Africans 111 a ftate of perpetual ferocity and barbarifm; and by profecuting it in fuch a manner, as mull: reptefent your religion, as a fyftem of robbery and oppreffion, you not only oppofe the propagation of the gofpel, as far as you are able yourfelves, but throw the moll: certain impediments in the way of others, who might attempt the glorious and important tafk. Such alfo is the effeCt, which the fubfequent flavery in the colonies mull: produce. For by your inhuman treatment of the unfortunate Africans there, you create the fame infuperable impedim~nts to a converfion. For OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 245 For how mull: they deteft the very name of Chrijliam, when you Chrijlians are deformed by fo many and dreadful vices? How mull: they detefl: that fyfl:em of religion, which appears to refifl: the natural rights of men, and to give a fanCl:ion to brutality and murder? But, as we are now mentioning Chrifl:ianity, we mufl: paufe for a little time, to make a few remarks on the arguments which are ufually deduced from thence by the receivers, in defence of their fyfl:em of oppreffion. For the reader may readily fuppofe, that, if they did not he!itate to bring the Old Teftament in fupport of their barbarities, they would hardly let the Ne"v efcape them. St, Paul, having converted Onifimus to the Chrifl:ian faith, who was a fugitive flave of Philemon, fent him back to his mafl:er. This circumfl:ance has furnifhed the receivers with a plea, that Chrifl:ianity encourages flavery. But they have not only ftrained the paflages which they produce in fupport of their alfertions, but are ignorant of ~iftorical faCts. The; benevolent apoftle, in the \et~er which he wrote to Philemon, the mafter ct_3 o( |