(c) One of the great and leading principles of the religion of the Saviour is expressed in the golden rule: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." Matt. vii. 12. This rule he evidently designed should be incorporated into his religion as essential to the system, and it is manifest that nothing inconsistent with the fair application of it can be in accordance with the spirit of Christianity. Yet its bearing on slavery is obvious. Its influence in securing the emancipation of all those now held in bondage, if fairly applied, would be certain and inevitable. (1) No one, under the influence of this rule, ever made a man a slave. No one ever felt that in tearing him away from his home, in separating him from country and friends, in exposing him to sale, and in dooming him to perpetual bondage for no other crime than that of being

"Guilty of a skin not coloured like his own,"

he was doing that which he would wish another man to do to him. (2.) No one in exacting from another unrequited toil, or feeding him on coarse fare, or clothing him with coarse raiment, far inferior to what he himself possesses, or in depriving him of the privileges of reading the Bible, or of rising in political life, or of being eligible to office, ever did that which he would wish others to do to him. (3.) No one ever subjected a fellow-being to the operation of the laws of servitude, as they exist in this country, by the fair operation of this rule. He would not wish any one to subject him or his children to the operation of these laws. (4.) It may be added, that few or none, under the fair operation of this rule, would ever continue to hold another in slavery. Those cases must be exceedingly rare on the earth, where a man would desire that he himself should be in the condition of his slave, or that, if he were already a slave, the bonds of servitude should be riveted perpetually on him. Freedom is sweet to man; and it cannot be doubted that if a man were in all circumstances

to act towards those under him, as he would desire to be treated if in their places, the bonds of servitude would soon be loosed.

If these principles are correct, then it is clear that neither the example nor the silence of the Saviour can never be referred to as sanctioning slavery. It is one of the plainest of all propositions, that if we had had only his instructions and his example to guide us in this matter, slavery would never have been originated; and that where it had before existed, it would soon cease. The application of these principles to the system in this country, as we shall see in another part of the argument, would inevitably abolish the system.

II. THE MANNER IN WHICH THE APOSTLES TREATED THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY.

§ 1. They found it in existence when they organized churches out of the limits of Judea.

We have seen above, that there is no evidence that when the Saviour appeared, slavery in any form existed in Judea, and consequently there is no proof that he ever encountered it. We have also seen that his silence on the subject cannot be construed as any evidence that he did not disapprove of the system, and did not design that the principles of his religion should abolish it, wherever it might be found. It is of great importance, therefore, to inquire how his apostles treated the system when they encountered it, and whether the manner in which they met it can be construed as an evidence that they regarded it as a good institution, and as one which it was desirable to perpetuate in the world.

There can be no doubt that slavery existed in the countries to which they went to preach the gospel, and that they often encountered it, and were called to act in view of it in organizing churches. There are evidences of this, as we shall see, in their epistles; and from what is known of the condition of the Roman empire at that period, it cannot be doubted that

they came in contact with it, and that in preaching the gospel they would be called to address those who sustained the relation of master and slave.

It is unnecessary to enter into a proof that slavery abounded in the Roman empire, or that the conditions of servitude were very severe and oppressive. This is conceded on all hands. If any one desires to see it demonstrated beyond the possibility of a doubt, he may consult an article by Professor B. B. Edwards, in the American Biblical Repository for October, 1835, pp. 411-436. The purpose of my argument does not require me to go into an examination of this point, in detail. All that the argument does require, whatever conclusion we may reach as to the manner in which the apostles treated the subject, is, the admission of the fact that slavery everywhere abounded; that it existed in forms of great severity and cruelty; that it involved all the essential claims which are now made by masters to the services or persons of slaves; that it was protected by civil laws; that the master had the right of transferring his slaves by sale, donation, or testament; that in general he had every right which was supposed to be necessary to perpetuate the system; and that it was impossible that the early preachers of Christianity should not encounter this system, and be constrained to adopt some principles in regard to the proper treatment of it.

In order to allow to those who suppose that slavery is sanctioned by the New Testament, and that the conduct of the apostles may be appealed to in justification of the system as it exists in this country, all the advantage in the argument which can be derived from the actual state of slavery as they found it, it seems necessary, however, to advert to the form in which slavery was found when they preached the gospel. It is proper to concede that the state of things was such that they must have encountered it, and that it then had all the features of cruelty, oppression, and wrong which can ever exist to make it repellant to any of the feelings of humanity, or revolting to the principles of a Christian. It is fair that

the advocate of the system should have all the advantage which can be derived from the fact that the apostles found it in its most odious forms, and in such circumstances as to make it proper that they should regard and treat it as an evil, if Christianity regards it as such at all. It is proper that it should be seen that their method of treating it was not prompted by the fact that it was of so mild a type as to be scarcely worthy of their attention. It is to be admitted that if there can be wrongs in slavery anywhere which should rouse the spirit of a Christian man, they existed to as great an extent in the countries where the apostles propagated the gospel; that if the system as it exists in our own land is contrary to the spirit of Christianity, the system as they found it was no less contrary to it; that if now, in any of its forms and influences, and in any of the means adopted to perpetuate it, it is opposed to the gospel, it was no less so then; that if it can be regarded now as desirable that the system should come to an end, it was no less desirable then; and that if Christians now should labour to bring it to a termination, it was no less desirable and proper that they should do it then. This, it seems to me, is all that the advocate of slavery can ask to have conceded on this point.

The features of slavery in the Roman empire, so far as it is necessary to refer to them to illustrate this point, were summarily these:

1. Slavery existed generally throughout the Roman empire, and the number of slaves was very great. "Some rich individuals possessed ten thousand, and some as many as twenty thousand of their fellow-creatures," who were held as slaves.* In Italy, it was computed that there were three slaves to one freeman, and that in this part of the empire alone their number amounted to more than twenty millions. The number, therefore, throughout the Roman empire must have been immensely great; and if so, it is impossible that the apostles

* Professor B. B. Edwards.

should not have encountered it. Gibbon* says "that the slaves were at least equal in number to the free inhabitants of the Roman world. The total amount of this imperfect calculation [of the inhabitants of the Roman empire] would rise to about one hundred and twenty millions." Of course, according to this, the number of slaves could not have been less than sixty millions in the Roman empire, at about the time when the apostles went forth to preach the gospel. Respecting the number held by individuals, Gibbon remarks, (p. 26,) that "it was discovered on a very melancholy occasion, that four hundred slaves were maintained in a single palace of Rome. The same number of four hundred belonged to an estate, which an African widow, of very private condition, resigned to her son, while she reserved to herself a much larger share of her property. A freedman, under the reign of Augustus, though his fortune had suffered great losses in the civil wars, left be hind him three thousand six hundred yoke of oxen, two hundred and fifty thousand head of smaller cattle, and, what was almost included in the description of cattle, four thousand one hundred and sixteen slaves." "Scaurus possessed above four thousand domestic, and as many rural slaves. In the reign of Augustus, a freedman, who had sustained great losses during the civil wars, left four thousand one hundred and sixteen slaves, besides other property." "Slaves always composed a great part of the movable property of individuals, and formed a chief article of ladies' dowries." "It was fashionable to go abroad attended by a large number of slaves. Horacet says, "habebat sæpe ducentos, sæpe decem servos." Besides the domestic and agricultural slaves, there were the gladiators, who were chiefly slaves, and who were extremely numerous at different periods. Julius Cæsar exhibited at one time three hundred and twenty pairs. Trajan exhibited them for one hundred and twenty-three days, in the course

* Dec. and Fall, vol. i. p. 27, ed. New York, 1829.

† Lib. 1, Sat. iii. v. 11.