PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR AT THE WESTERN BRANCH BOOK CON-
OERN OF THE WESLEYAN METHODIST CONNECTION OF AMERICA.

1852.

US, 5265,41

1862. Mar: 15

Gift of Lewis Joppan Erg of New York.

ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, by E. SMITH, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the District of Ohio.

WILLIAM H. SHAIN,
HUDSON STEREOTYPE FOUNDEY.

PREFACE.

THE following pages contain the result of the author's investigations of what the Holy Scriptures teach on the subject of Chattel Slavery, for the last twelve years, as concisely stated as possible. He has read much in defense of the Holy Scriptures against the charge of supporting slavery, but nothing that has, in his judgment, set their teachings in the true light. He is well aware that he has taken much higher ground than has been taken by anti-slavery men, and asks a candid examination of the proof brought to sustain it, and the reasonings on that proof. He has been convinced for several years, that there never was a slaveholder in the church of God, either under the patriarchal, Jewish, or Christian dispensations, until after the days of the Apostles; and that the Great Head of the same never allowed one to be in it. The following pages exhibit the proof on which that faith rests. Slavery was prohibited by positive law in all nations, from the time of Noah until after the days of Moses, and had not found its way into Asia Minor at the time christian churches were planted there, and the epistles were written to those churches. Satisfactory proof of all this will be found in the following pages. This is all new ground-outside of all-that has been attempted on this subject, and if fully established, forever settles the question against the slaveholder's right to membership in the church of the living God.

The remedy provided by the Great Creator for this monstrous evil is also presented, and the duty of every christian and American citizen, relative to the same, clearly shown; and also the awful consequences of neglecting that duty.

These pages were first published in the Wesleyan Expositor, a small monthly, edited by the author, and the readers of that periodical urged the publication of the numbers on slavery in book form. This led to the publication at this time. The author has been partially engaged for several years preparing a work on Slavery, for the press, which contains the whole of the following pages, with much other information on other branches of the subjeet. The rise, progress and development of Chattel Slavery, among the nations of the earth, is exhibited, with the proofs; and the wrongs of different states of chattleism compared, and American shown to be "the vilest that ever saw the sun;" but has not had time, means or health to complete it, and bring it through the press; and consents to give to the public this extract from it, hoping it may aid in the great battle now being fought for the rights of humanity and the purification of the church of God, from "the sum of all villanies." That it may do good, and aid in the great struggle for the right, is the fervent prayer of the

MANSFIELD, O., June 27, 1852.

AUTHOR.

CHAPTER I.

BIBLE SERVITUDE,

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN THE SIXTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, CINCINNATI, O., MARCH 19тн, 1843.

Revised and Enlarged.

"Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."-ROMANS xiii. 10.

MUCH has been said, and much written, of man's accountability; but when all is said that can be, for or against, it amounts to this: the Creator has implanted in the heart of every human being a consciousness of his accountability. There is in the mind of every man a living conviction that he is an accountable creature, and must answer for his conduct to some superior being. This is the fact with all savage as well as civilized men. This conviction fans the flame of all idolatrous altar fires-inflames the zeal of all the worshipers of strange gods. The Scriptures reveal the nature of this accountability,the great objects to be secured; and also the nature and design of the moral government of God.