that the "reason or life of the law" is against them; and, consequently, that none of these texts, relating to Christian servants, are capable of affording them the least excuse for their selfish pretensions. They will find also, upon a more careful examination of the scripture, that they themselves are as much bound by the gospel to bear personal injuries with patience and' humility, as their slaves. Because the benevolent principles of the gospel of peace require all men, freemen as well as slaves, to return good for evil." "Bless them that curse you," said our Lord, "and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak, forbid him not to take thy coat also," &c. Luke vi. 28, 29. But, though submission and placability are thus unquestionably enjoined to the sufferers in all the cases above recited in the text, yet surely no reasonable man will pretend to allege, from thence, that tyrants and oppressors have thereby obtained a legal right, under the gospel, to curse others, and use them despitefully; or that the unjust oppression of strikers and robbers is thereby authorized or justified! In the same light exactly must we view the slaveholders claim of private property in the persons of men, whenever an attempt is made to support it on the foundation of any such texts as I have quoted, wherein servants or slaves are exhorted to submit with passive obedience, &c. to their masters; because the right (as it is improperly called) or pretension of the master may with the greatest propriety be compared to the pretended right or authority of oppressing or robbing others, which is too often exercised by imperial tyrants and despotic princes, as well as by their brethren in iniquity of a lower class, viz: pirates, highwaymen, and extortioners of every degree! The gospel of peace cannot authorize the oppression of these lawless men, though it clearly enjoins patience, submission, and acquiescence, to the individuals that are injured, whether freemen or slaves! The placability and absolute submission, commanded by the last cited text, to Christians in general, are manifestly founded on the very same principles
