218 WILLIAM ROBERTSON, D. D.-BISHOP WARBURTON. seems to shrink into barrenness under the sweat of the slave." The same sentiments are found in Pliny and Columella, who both impute the decay of husbandry, in their time, not to any deficiency in the soil, but to the unwise policy of leaving to the management of slaves those fields, which, says Pliny, "had formerly rejoiced under the laurelled ploughshare and the triumphant ploughman." Rollin, with good reason, imputes to the same cause the present barrenness of Palestine, which in ancient times was called the land flowing with milk and honey. WILLIAM ROBERTSON, D. D. In the ancient world. . . . the persons, the goods, the children of these slaves, were the property of their masters, disposed of at pleasure, and transferred, like any other possession, from one hand to another. No inequality, no superiority in power, no pretext of consent, can justify this ignominious depression of human nature, or can confer upon one man the right of dominion over another. But not only doth reason condemn this institution as unjust; experience proved it to be pernicious both to masters and slaves. The elevation of the former inspired them with pride, insolence, impatience, cruelty, and voluptuousness; the dependant and hopeless state of the latter dejected the human mind, and extinguished every generous and noble principle in the heart.-Sermon. BISHOP WARBURTON. "From the free savages I now come to the savages in bonds. By these I mean the vast multitudes yearly stolen from the opposite continent, and sacrificed by the colonists to their great idol the god of gain. But what, then, say these sincere worshippers of mammon? They are our own property which we offer up. Gracious God! to talk, as of herds of cattle, of property in rational creatures, creatures endued with all our faculties, possessing all our qualities but that of color, our brethren both by nature and grace, shocks all the feelings of humanity, and the dictates of common sense! But, alas! what is there, in the infinite abuses of society, which does not shock them? Yet nothing is more certain in itself and apparent to all, than that the infamous traffic for slaves directly infringes both divine and human law. Nature created man free, and grace invites him to assert his freedom. "In excuse of this violation it hath been pretended, that though indeed these miserable outcasts of humanity be torn from their homes and native country by fraud and violence, yet they thereby become the happier, and their condition the more eligible. But who are you, who pretend to judge f s; that state, which each man under the guidance of his Maker forms for himself, and not one man for another? To know what constitutes mine or your happiness is the sole prerogative of him who created us, and cast us in so various and different moulds. Did your slaves ever complain to you of their unhappiness amidst their native woods and deserts? or rather let me ask, Did they ever cease complaining of their condition under you their lordly masters, where they see indeed the accommodation of civil life, but see them pass to others, themselves unbenefited by them? Be so gracious, then, ye petty tyrants over human freedom, to let your slaves judge for themselves, what it is which makes their own happiness, and then see whether they do not place it in the return to their own country, rather than in the contemplation of your grandeur, of which their misery makes so large a part; a return so passionately longed for, that, despairing of happiness here, that is, of escaping the chains of their cruel task-masters, they console themselves with feigning it to be the gracious reward of heaven in their future state."-Sermon, 1766. DR. PECKARD. "Now, whether we consider the crime with respect to the indi viduals concerned in this most barbarous and cruel traffic, or whether we consider it as patronised and encouraged by the laws of the land, it presents to our view an equal degree of enormity. A crime, founded on a dreadful pre-eminence in wickedness; a crime which, being both of individuals and the nation, must some time draw down upon us the heaviest judgment of Almighty God, who made of one blood all the sons of men, and who gave to all equally a natural right to liberty; and who, ruling all the kingdoms of the earth with equal providential justice, cannot suffer such deliberate, such monstrous iniquity, to pass long unpunished."-Sermon before the Cambridge University. THE HOLY BIBLE. MOSES. CHAP. I, verse 27. So God created man in his own image: in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. [Not tyrants and slaves.] IV, 9. And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? 10. And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground: 11. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. XXXVII, 28. And [they] sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver; and they brought Joseph into Egypt. XLII, 21. And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.-Genesis. XX, 1. And God spake all these words, saying, 2. I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 13. Thou shalt not kill. 14. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 15. Thou shalt not steal. 16. Thou shalt not bear false witness. 17. Thou shalt not covet.-[See the whole chapter.] XXI, 16. And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. 26. And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye's sake. 27. And if he smite out his man-servant's tooth, or his maid-servant's tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake. XXIII, 9. Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.-Exodus. XIX, II. Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. 13. Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him : the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. 18. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 33. And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. 34. But thestranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land Egypt; I am the LORD your God. XXIV, 21. And he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death. 22. Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God. XXV, 10. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. 35. And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee, then thou shalt relieve him; yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. 36. Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.-Leviticus. XV, 11. For the poor shall_never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land. 14. Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant, that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates: XXIII, 15. THOU SHALT NOT DELIVER UNTO HIS MASTER THE SERVANT WHICH IS ESCAPED FROM HIS MASTER UNTO THEE 16. He shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose, in one of thy gates where it liketh him best: thou shalt not oppress him. XXVII, 19. Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow: and all the people shall say, Amen. 26. Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them: and all the people shall say, Amen. XXVIII, 15. But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee. 37. And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee. 41. Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them: for they shall go into captivity. 43. The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low. 44. He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail. 45. Moreover, all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee. 46. And they shall be upon thee for a sign, and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.-Deuteronomy. JOB. IV, 8. Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. XV, 20. The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor. 21. A dreadful sound is in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him. 22. He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword. 23. He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. XX, 13. This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty. 14. If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword; and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. 15. Those that remain of him shall be buried in death; and his widows shall not weep. 18. That which he labored for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein. 19. Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not: XXXI, 13. If I did despise the cause of my man-servant, or of my maid-servant, when they contended with me; 14. What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? 15. Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb? DAVID. IX, 12. When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them; he forgetteth not the cry of the humble. 17. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. 18. For the needy shall not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever. X, 2. The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor; let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. XII, 5. For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. 6. The words of the LORD are pure words: 25. With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; 26. With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward. 27. For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks. XLIX, 1. Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world. 2. Both low and high, rich and poor, together. 7. None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him; 8. (For the redemption of their souls is precious, and it ceaseth for ever :) LXXII, 4. He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. 12. For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.-Psalms. SOLOMON. III, 1. And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David. 3. And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father.-1 Kings. VI, 38. Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as doth thy people Israel.-1 Chronicles. I, 24. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 25. But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27. When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you: 31. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. II, 3. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee; bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: 4. So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. 31. He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker; but he that honoreth him hath mercy on the poor. 32. The wicked is driven away in his wickedness; but the righteous hath hope in his death. 34. Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. XXII, 22. Rob not the poor, because he is poor; neither oppress the afflicted in the gate; 23. For the LORD will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them. 23. These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment. 24. He that saith unto the wicked. Thou art righteous; him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him: XXX, 8. Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.. 9. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.-Proverbs. IV, 1. So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter. V, 8. If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they. 18. Behold that which I have seen; it is good and comely for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him; for it is his portion. VIII, 11. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.-Ecclesiastes. 5. I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. 6. Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me; my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.-Songs. ISAIAH. I, 4. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters! they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. 11. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: 16. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes: cease to do evil; 17. Learn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless; plead for the widow. 18. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: V, 15. What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces |