hown from the Scriptures, that slavery existed with Abraham and
the patriarchs, with divine approbation, and having shown from the same
source, that the Almighty incorporated it in the law, as an institution
among Abraham's seed, until the coming of Christ, our precise object now
is, to ascertain whether _Jesus Christ has abolished it_, or _recognized
it_ as a _lawful relation_, existing among men, and prescribed duties
which belong to it, as he has other relative duties; such as those
between husband and wife, parent and child, magistrate and subject.

And first, I may take it for granted, without proof, that he has not
abolished it by commandment, for none pretend to this. This, by the way,
is a singular circumstance, that Jesus Christ should put a system of
measures into operation, which have for their object the subjugation of
all men to him as a law-giver--kings, legislators, and private citizens
in all nations; at a time, too, when hereditary slavery existed in all;
and after it had been incorporated for fifteen hundred years into the
Jewish constitution, immediately given by God himself. I say, it is
passing strange, that under such circumstances, Jesus should fail to
prohibit its further existence, if it was his intention to abolish it.
Such an omission or oversight cannot be charged upon any other
legislator the world has ever seen. But, says the abolitionist, he has
introduced new moral principles, which will extinguish it as an
unavoidable consequence, without a direct prohibitory command. What are
they? "Do to others as you would they should do to you." Taking these
words of Christ to be a body, inclosing a moral soul in them, what soul,
I ask, is it?

The same embodied in these words of Moses, Levit. xix: 18; "thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself;" or is it another? It cannot be another,
but it must be the very same, because Jesus says, there are but two
principles in being in God's moral government, _one_ including all that
is _due to God_, the _other_ all that is _due to men_.

If, therefore, doing to others as we would they should do to us, means
precisely what loving our neighbor as ourself means, then Jesus has
added no new moral principle above those in the law of Moses, to
prohibit slavery, for in his law is found this principle, and slavery
also.

The very God that said to them, they should love him supremely, and
their neighbors as themselves, said to them also, "of the heathen that
are roun