of it, as satisfies my own mind. The Bible is the fountain from which we are to draw, not only our religious doctrines, but our rules of duty. "I have always observed," said an able and wise divine, "that when people become better than the Bible, they are very apt to be wrong." We certainly cannot depend upon the reasonings of men, however plausible their arguments, as we may depend upon the decisions of God. All our notions of property, all our abstract reasonings upon the rights of man and his natural freedom and equality, all our principles of moral science and in all their varied applications, must be ultimately brought to the infallible standard revealed from heaven. God is our teacher. It is not for man to sit in judgment upon any of the truths which he has made known. "God never left his works for man to mend." His wisdom is unerring; nor is there any greater presumption than for us to refuse to make the Bible the standard of our duty, and be satisfied with that standard. Have we a written communication from heaven, whose author is a being of universal charity, boundless knowledge, and eternal truth? Then from this source, and this source alone, are we bound to derive our opinions and our instructions on every subject on which it addresses us. Not more truly "would an infidel be labouring in his vocation" in charging errors upon the inspired penmen of this sacred book, than in relying upon his own reason as the ultimate standard of moral duty, and in taking upon himself to

teach the inspired writers, rather than suffer them to teach him. It is an unhappiness that the public mind is in such a state of febrile excitement in relation to slavery, that it is difficult to speak the whole truth in relation to this subject without giving offence. But we may not forget, that this state of feeling has nothing to do with our application of the great principles of moral duty as revealed from heaven. It decides nothing; is variable and fluctuating; while truth and duty, as God has revealed them, remain the same.

Slavery has been defined by Dr. Paley, to be, "the obligation to labour for the benefit of the master, without the contract, or consent of the servant." This relation has existed in a great variety of forms, and degrees of severity. Very often it has been a condition marked by injustice and cruelty, attended with no adequate remuneration for labour, great civil disabilities and personal suffering, great domestic wrongs, and great intellectual and moral degradation. And there are instances, as facts show, in which it has existed unaccompanied by any of these evils. These are evils that have been wickedly superinduced by the cruelty and cupidity of men, rather than evils which necessarily and essentially belong to the relation itself.

Long before the Bible was given to the world, slavery had an extensive prevalence throughout the oriental nations. So far from introducing the evil, it found the earth filled with it, and has silently

and gradually so meliorated the relation between the master and the slave, that in the progress of its principles and spirit, it must ultimately either abolish this relation, or leave it resting upon a basis of the purest benevolence, and the source of mutual advantage. This, we purpose to show is the appropriate influence of the Bible upon slavery. Nor do we design to extend our remarks beyond this single point. What is the legitimate influence of the Bible upon slavery? This is the only question which falls within the range of appropriate discussion in these lectures.

We cannot take an intelligent view of this question, without a glance at the condition of slavery in those countries where the influence of the Bible has never been enjoyed. The great antiquity of the Assyrian empire, extending beyond the period when letters were invented, leaves the customs of the ancient Assyrians in great obscurity. Five of the Canaanitish tribes were the vassals of Cherdorlaomer for twelve years, and obtained their liberty by an open revolt. Abram was an inhabitant of Assyria, and at the time of his recovery of Lot from Cherdorlaomer and his allies, he was the proprietor of several hundred "trained servants, born in his house." From the predatory nature of their wars, it is probable that the condition of slaves in Assyria was not essentially different from the condition of the same class of men in the surrounding countries. The manner in which slaves were treated among the Babylonians, the Persians,

and other nations of remote antiquity, was such as "excluded them from every privilege of society, and almost every blessing of life." They were dependant on the caprice of imperious masters, and were unprotected by the laws. They might be tortured, maimed, or put to death, at the arbitrary will of their masters. In these early ages, in times of great public calamity, men often sold themselves for slaves. While Joseph was the prime minister of Pharaoh, and during the seven years' famine, the people came to him and said, "Buy us and our land for bread; and we will be servants unto Pharaoh." Joseph granted their request, and said unto them, "Behold I have bought you this day, and your land, for Pharaoh." Before this time, Egypt was a limited monarchy. The people were free, and had lands independent of the crown. Now they became vassals, feudatory tenants, and the government despotic. The condition of slaves in Egypt we know was sufficiently abject and degraded. We need no greater evidence of this, than Pharaoh's treatment of the children of Israel, and more especially his cruel order to the midwives. Nor were they enemies, nor the children of enemies, who were subjected to this severe servitude, but the descendants of a family who had been the saviours of Egypt, and the builders up of royal power. Nations whose unmixed ferocity and thirst for revenge were more generally satiated by the indiscriminate butchery of their enemies; who denied them even those

common funeral rites, which in the opinion of the times, were necessary to the repose of the soul after death; who directed even their captive kings to be taken to prison and slain; regarded it as a mitigation of the laws of war to substitute slavery for death. Adult males were usually put to the sword, and the women and children captured and enslaved. A distinguished writer on the principles of political law, remarks, "In former times, it was a custom almost universally established, that those who were made prisoners in a just and solemn war, whether they had surrendered themselves, or were taken by main force, became slaves the moment they were conducted into some place dependant on the conqueror. And this right was exercised on all persons whatever, even on those who happened to be in the enemy's country at the time when the war suddenly broke out. The prisoners themselves and their posterity were reduced to the same condition." In some countries, insolvent debtors were sold for slaves. There were periods in the Roman history, when if the debt were not discharged within thirty days after a number of citations, by the direction of the prætor the public crier proclaimed in the forum, "Let him be punished with death, or sold beyond the Tiber!" In the institutes of Justinian, slaves are said to become such in three ways-by birth, where the mother was a slave; by captivity in war; and by the voluntary sale of himself by a freeman. In