OCR Text |
Show 108 TUE LrBEilTY n_EI,L· . e at work, potent enough to up-been for some tnn tho bottom, and to . h wnters from hoa.vo tho slugg1s tl . black mountains; . 1 s sheer over IO roll them resist cs 1 \ding among a Chris- 1 that Slave tO • the idea, name _Y•. bo tho most righteous m lo clnnmng to d tinn peep a. republican people, nml tm cr the world; among 1 based on tho ro· . . t'tutions, express y domocraho ms 1 ty as indefeasible f l"borty and proper cognition o 1 many would have us . not merely, as so rigbt.s; IS • . orum nn unfortunate incongruity, believe, nn mdec ' for which nobody . l blunder' an error' au econOJmCn some dead British · .. sponsiblc,- only living IS IC nd old acts of parliament,-but a Slavotradors a a SIN not . c . in theological language . ' wrong, a cnm ' JCO lc of such republican to be tolerated among I P d Christian professions. des· an d'd tbo Church of Rome make moro Never ' tbe grand heretical dogma pcrato efforts to suppress. t than bavo been f ·vale Judgmen ' of tho right o pn . America by the ado in tho lust twenty years m ' tbis m l . Church and State, to suppress leaders bot l lD 'fll~ Al'PltOACIIINO CIHSTS. 109 idea of tho wickedness of Slavcholding. It did indeed, when first advanced, or revived rather, after having slept for a generation or more, from the time of the revolution, receive, for a brief space, tho countenance of sundry doctors of the. ology and teachers of tho church, as well as of some learned historians, speculative philosophers, essayists, moralists, and politicians; but when presently the persecution commcncocl, very few of these felt called U!>On to suffer for it as martyrs. Like tho "great Cotton " in the days of the Ilutchinsonian controversy, whoso very name may be regarded "" typical of these times, they explained, distinguished, >nd prepared to yield. 1'he various churches, through their general assemblies, pronounced Slavcholding to bo no sin, and in no way incompatible with claims to special divino illumination, regenerotion, and sanctification. St. Paul, in virtue of his Epistle to Philemon, was re-canonized as the great prototype and patron saint of Slavo-calichiug marshals and commissioners. 10 |