owned him) what if some of my countrymen were to come here, and take away my mistress, and master Tommy, and master Billy, and carry them into our country, and make them slaves, how would you like it?" His answer was worthy of a man: "I will never buy a slave more while I live." O let his resolution be your's! Have no more any part in this detestable business. Instantly leave it to those unfeeling wretches, "who laugh at human nature and compassion!"* Be you a man! Not a wolf, a devourer of the human species! Be merciful, that you may obtain mercy! 5. And this equally concerns every gentleman that has an estate in our American plantations: yea, all slave-holders, of whatever rank and degree: seeing men-buyers are exactly on a level with men-stealers. Indeed you say, "I pay honestly for my goods: and I am not concerned to know how they are come by." Nay but you are: you are deeply concerned to know they are honestly come by. Otherwise you are partaker with a thief, and are not a jot honester than he. But you know they are not honestly come by: you know they are procured by means, nothing near so innocent as picking pockets, housebreaking, or robbery upon the high-way. You know they are procured by a deliberate series of more complicated villany, (of fraud, robbery, and murder) than was ever practised either by Mahometans or Pagans in particular by murders of all kinds; by the blood of the innocent poured upon the ground like water. Now it is your money that pays the merchant, and through him the captain, and the African butchers. You therefore are guilty, yea principally guilty, of all these frauds, robberies, and murders. You are the spring that puts all the rest in motion: they would not stir a step without you: therefore the blood of all these wretches, who die before their time, whether in the country or elsewhere, lies upon your head. blood of thy brother," (for whether thou wilt believe it or not, such he is in the sight of Him that made him) "crieth against thee from the earth," from the ship, and from the waters. O, whatever it costs, put a stop to its cry before it be too late: instantly, at any price, were it the half of your goods, deliver thyself from blood-guiltiness! Thy hands, thy bed, thy furniture, thy house, thy lands, are at present stained with blood. Surely it is enough, accumulate no more guilt: spill no more the blood of the innocent! Do not hire another to shed blood: do not pay him for doing it : Whether you are a Christian or not, show yourself a man! Be not more savage than a lion or a bear! 6. Perhaps you will say, "I do not buy any negroes: I only use those left by my father." So far is well: but is it enough to satisfy your own conscience? Had your father, have you, has any man living, a right to use another as a slave? It cannot be, even setting revelation aside. It cannot be that either war, or contract, can give any man such a property in another as he has in his sheep and oxen. Much less is it possible, that any child of man, should ever be born a slave. Liberty is the right of every human creature, as soon as he breathes the vital air. And no human law can deprive him of that right, which he derives from the law of nature. If therefore you have any regard to justice, (to say nothing of mercy, nor the revealed law of God,) render unto all their due. Give liberty to whom liberty is due, that is, to every child of man, to every partaker of human nature. Let none serve you but by his own act and deed, by his own voluntary choice. Away with all whips, all chains, all compulsion! Be gentle toward all men, and see that you invariably do unto every one, as you would he should do unto you. 7. O thou God of love, thou who art loving to every man, and whose mercy is over all thy works; thou who art the Father of the spirits of all flesh, and who art rich in mercy unto all; thou who hast formed of one blood, all the nations upon the earth; have compassion upon these outcasts of men, who are trodden down as dung upon the earth! Arise, and help these that have no helper, whose blood is spilt upon the ground like water! Are not these also the work of thine own hands, the purchase of thy Son's blood? Stir them up to cry unto thee in the land of their captivity; and let their complaint come up before thee; let it enter in y ears! Make even those that lead them away captive to pity them, and turn their captivity as the rivers in the South. O burst thou all their chains in sunder; more especially the chains of their sins: thou, Saviour of all, make them free, that they may be free indeed! The servile progeny of Ham, Seize as the purchase of thy blood! The dark Americans convert, THE END. TO THE TEN VOLUMES OF MR. WESLEY'S WORKS. The Letters refer to the Volumes, and the Figures to the Paging. Abstinence, what? count 347 and Christ, a comparison between ix how in a state of trial for all mankind Addison, Mr. what he says of Taste x 165. 167 Adrian, the emperor, his dying words does not supply the place of love vii 97 ii 282 iv 37 remarks on 282 of a poor man in distress 398 good, the understanding, holiness, what? vi 346 ii 102 ii 365 Affections, the necessity of right, in how excited by gay apparel vii 69 Annesley, Dr. some account of i 5-8. 280 Anson, a remark on his Voyages a true picture of 379, 380 a hinderance to the work of Antinomians, the difference between them and on dence 13 a remarkable saying of x 15 vii 181 the Methodists ii 44-46 Austin, St. what he said of Divine Provi- vi B vii 54 iv 201 iii 435, 436 Baily, Rev. Mr. a letter to the iv SS7 iv 338 iv 375 ii 352, 358 not the new-birth v 178. 203-206 the nature of ix 155-165 ix 155-157 ix 115 what the Quakers say of x 57 ing |