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Ui a much milder fonm , except as a scourge for mibelievers * " What then I is it pushing religious zeal too far to say that innocent fellow-creatures ought not to be left in a perpetual hereditary Slavery ? that unoffending men .
women , and children , ought not to be deprived of all civil and humau rights , and condemned to toil for life ^ like cattle , under the whips of the drivers ? Is it enthusiasm , to hold that a Slavery so rigorous as to have destroyed thousands and tens of thousands of its victims in our
Sugar Colonies , and which is still so fatal that the most prolific of the human race cannot maintain their numbers in it , ought to be lenified by law ? Is it fanatU cism , to regard a bondage imposed by
acknowledged crime , as one that cannot he rightfully protracted , and fastened on the progeny for ever ? Then let religion and wrong , religion and cruelty , religion and murder , shake hands .
"To such of you as are deeply impressed with the truth and importance of the doctrines peculiar to Christianity , and zealous for their propagation , and to such of you as are accustomed to observe and recognize the hand of Divine Providence in
the government of the world , there is much more that I could wish to say . I might appeal to the principles you hold most sacred , for the duty of lending your aid to reform an impious systjem which shuts out the light of the Gospel , an % violates in the grossest manner all its
precepts ; which keeps in a cruel thraldom the minds , as well as bodies , of its unfortunate victims ; and adds to its other enormities anti-Christian persecution . I might shew the inconsistency of the charitable efforts you are making to convert your fellow-creatures in the most distant
and uncivilized regions of the globe , while you suffer your fellow-subjects to be kept in pagan darkness , and the vilest moral degradation , not by choice , but by compulsion , through a domestic tyranny which your own power , within your own territories , impiously upholds . I might prove
to your entire conviction how hopeless it is that the poor Slaves in general should be made Christians , in more than name , by any means that have been adopted , or can be used , without raising their temporal condition .
" Many of you also , I doubt not , might be strongly impressed by a clear and comprehensive view of that wonderful chain of events , which indicates , as plainly as events unexplained by Revelation can indicate , to human eyes , the hand of Divine Providence avenging the wrongs of the poor enslaved Africans , and favouring , I trust , our feeble efforts for their deliverance . The < signs of the times * are
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in this respect well worthy of the . cai'efql observation of every pious mind ; and it is no presumption to deduce ftfpHf them , not a new rule of conduct , but eonfetaafction and encouragement in a purpose prescribed to us by the clearest principles of Christian duty .
" But I think it best to abstain at pre ? sent from these important and interesting topics . To do any justice to them here , would be to extend too far the length of this address . My views on some of them are already , though partially , before the public ; and I hope ere long to present to the religious friends of our cause , in a
separate publication , a defence of the Bible against the foul charge of its countenancing Colonial Slavery ; to which I propose to add a summary of those very extraordinary facts and coincidences that indicate , to my firm conviction , a purpose of Divine Providence to avenge , and I trust also to deliver , the long-oppressed African race . ' *—England Enslaved , pp . 65—67 .
Already the call has been heard and obeyed * Hundreds of petitions in favour of the negroes have been poured , and are still pouring ' , into the Houses of Parliament ; many from large towns ,
some from corporations , and a few from counties . Many more will , we doubt not , attest to the legislature and the world the inextinguishable hatred of slavery which is native to the hearts of Englishmen .
The Dissenting Ministers of the Three Denominations have presented unanimous petitions in concurrence with the general feeling . The Deputies from the Dissenting congregations have at least talked of petitioning . The Committee of the more active " Protestant
Society" have resolved on petitions , and published their resolutions ; they have also recommended to congregations , in connexion with them , to send up separate petitions , of the expediency of which we have some doubts . The question is , how the greatest sum of influence is to be obtained . And
we cannot but think that the proper answer is , ' * Go to the legislature in large masses , or with the authority of recognized bodies . This is not a measure that belongs to Churchmen or Dissenters , or Catholics ; it belongs to Aii ^ , Unite in the purs ui t of it , for this very union will be strength . "
Some of the petitions may , and probably will , be unwise ; so we , at least , should denominate any which may pray for immediate emancipation , or overlook the claims of the planters to
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Remeixs . ^^ Stephen vn NegrcSlatofry . 117
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1826, page 117, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2545/page/53/
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