original, knave, degenerated into cheat. While
_servant_, which signified originally, a person preserved from death by
the conqueror, and reserved for slavery, signifies only an obedient
attendant." Now, all history will prove that the servants of the New
Testament addressed by the apostles, in their letters to the several
churches throughout the Roman Empire, were such as were perserved from
death by the conqueror, and taken into slavery. This was their
condition, and it is a fact well known to all men acquainted with
history. Had the word which designates their condition, in our
translation, lost none of its original meaning, a common man could not
have fallen into a mistake as to the condition indicated. But to waive
this fact we are furnished with all the evidence that can be desired.
The Saviour appeared in an age of learning--the enslaved condition of
half the Roman Empire, at the time, is a fact embodied with all the
historical records--the constitution God gave the Jews, was in harmony
with the Roman regulations on the subject of slavery. In this state of
things, Jesus ordered his gospel to be preached in all the world, and to
every creature. It was done as he directed; and masters and servants,
and persons in all conditions, were brought by the gospel to obey the
Saviour. Churches were constituted. We have examined the letters written
to the churches, composd of these materials. The result is, that each
member is furnished with a law to regulate the duties of his civil
station--from the highest to the lowest.

We will remark, in closing under this head, that we have shown from the
text of the sacred volume, that when God entered into covenant with
Abraham, it was with him as a slaveholder; that when he took his
posterity by the hand in Egypt, five hundred years afterward to confirm
the promise made to Abraham, it was done with them as slaveholders; that
when he gave them a constitution of government, he gave them the right
to perpetuate hereditary slavery; and that he did not for the fifteen
hundred years of their national existence, express disapprobation toward
the institution.

We have also shown from authentic history that the institution of
slavery existed in every family, and in every province of the Roman
Empire, at the time the gospel was published to them.

We have also shown from the New Testament, that all the churches are
recognized as composed of masters and servants; and that they are
instruct