ce, to make himself known in his essential perfections;
second, in his moral character; third, in his relation to man; and
fourth, to make known those principles of action by the exercise of
which man attains his highest moral elevation, viz: supreme love to God,
and love to others as to ourselves.

All the law is nothing but a preceptive exemplification of these two
principles; consequently, the existence of a precept in the law, utterly
irreconcilable with these principles, would destroy all claims upon us
for an acknowledgment of its divine original. Jesus Christ himself has
put his finger upon these two principles of human conduct, (Deut. vi:
5--Levit. xix: 18,) revealed in the law of Moses, and decided, that on
them hang all the law and the prophets.

The Apostle Paul decides in reference to the relative duties of men,
that whether written out in preceptive form in the law or not, they are
all comprehended in this saying, viz: "thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself." With these views to guide us, as to the acknowledged design of
the law, viz: that of revealing the eternal principles of moral
rectitude, by which human conduct is to be measured, so that sin may
abound, or be made apparent, and righteousness be ascertained or known,
we may safely conclude, that the institution of slavery, which legalizes
the holding one person in bondage as property forever by another, if it
be morally wrong, or at war with the principle which requires us to love
God supremely, and our neighbor as ourself, will, if noticed at all in
the law, be noticed, for the purpose of being condemned as sinful. And
if the modern views of abilitionists be correct, we may expect to find
the institution marked with such tokens of divine displeasure, as will
throw all other sins into the shade, as comparatively small, when laid
by the side of this monster. What, then, is true? Has God ingrafted
hereditary slavery upon the constitution of government he condescended
to give to his chosen people--that people, among whom he promised to
dwell, and that he required to be holy? I answer, he has. It is clear
and explicit. He enacts, first, that his chosen people may take their
money, go into the slave markets of the surrounding nations, (the seven
devoted nations excepted,) and purchase men-servants and women-servants,
and give them, and their increase, to their children and their
children's children, forever; and worse still for the refined humanity
of ou