| OCR Text |
Show 150 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY. the authority of these principles altogether, and of the very book which contains them, others are content to evade their force by certain ingenious devices of their own. We shall now proceed to cxamin.e some of the more remarkable of these cunningly-devised fables. It is admitted by the inventors of these devices, that God expressly permitted his chosen people to buy and hold slaves. Yet Dr. Wayland, by whom this admission is made, ~1as endeavored to weaken the force of it by allcgwg that God has been pleased to enlighten our race progressively. If, he argues, the institution of slavery among llis people appears so very" peculiar and anomalous," this is because he clid not choose to make known his whole mind on the subject. lie withheld a portion of it from his people, and allowed them, by express grant, to hold slaves until the fuller revelation of his will should blaze upon the world. Such is, perhaps, the most plausible defence which an abolitionist could possibly set up against the light of revelation. But to what does it amount? If the views of Dr. Wayland and his followers, respecting slavery, be correct, it amounts to this: The Altmghty ha~ said to his people, you may commit "a sin of appalling magnitude;" you may .ARGUMENT FROM TilE SCRIPTURES. 151 perpetrate "as great an evil as can be conceived;" you may persist iu a practice which consists in "outraging the rights" of your fellow- men, and in "crushing their intellectual and moral" nature. They have a natural, inherent, and inalienable right to liberty as well as yourselves, but yet you may make slaves of them, and they may be your bondmen forc,·cr. In one word, you, my chosen people, may degrade "rational, accountable, and immortal beings" to the "rank of brutes." Such, if we may believe Dr. Waylaml, is tho first stage in the divine enlightenment of tho human mcc! It consists in making known a part of God·s mind, not against the monstrous iniquity of slavery, but in its favor! It is the utterance, not of a partial truth, but of a monstrous falsehood! It is the revelation of his will, not against sin, but in favor of as great a sin "as can be conceived." Now, we may fearlessly ask if the cause which is reduced to tho necessity of resorting to such a defence may not be pronounced desperate indeed, and unspeakably forlorn? It is alleged that polygamy and divorce, as well as slavery, are permitted and regulated in: the Old Testament. This, we reply, proves, in |
