when the balance was struck. Were unenlightened nations punished, and punished with severity; and can the enlightened escape with impunity? Such a supposition the justice of the Almighty forbids, as blasphemy against the rectitude of heaven. Be assured, it is not the benediction of a prelate, or the proclamation of a prime minister, that will repay the blood of India, requite the wretchedness of Africa, or appease the anger of heaven.

considerations!

Serious, solemn

I ask again, Why should you, directly or indirectly, multiply, either to yourselves, or others, adventitious calamities and woes? Do you reply, We multiply the miseries of our fellow-creatures! God forbid! We, from our inmost soul, abhor tyranny and slavery. But stop. Do you what is competent for you, and incumbent upon you, in your stations and places, for the suppres sion of slavery and oppression, while you tacitly consent, and tamely submit, to that toleration, and countenance, which your respective governments give to the commerce of the African race? You are virtually guilty of the crimes, and consequently, like the nations of antiquity, will literally partake of their punishment. You say, you detest cruelty. Why, then, do you tacitly

submit to your governments and fellow-citizens? Have not cruelties and barbarities been perpetrated in both the Indies, which are unexampled in the annals of the world. Do you find in the histories of Nero, and of Cataline, or of Alexan-. der, barbaritics equal to these, which are, every year, and every day, committed by your factors, and agents in Africa, and by your owners, and overseers of slaves in the West-Indies? No, no. If we make a comparative estimate, we must pronounce the former, merciful men; the latter, monsters of cruelty.

Is not man the noblest of the works of God, in our world? In him heaven and earth, mind and matter, unite. To him was given at an early period, dominion over the beasts of the earth, the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea. But when, and by whom, was premoval power given to one part of mankind to enslave and oppress another? Such a power is utterly incompatible with the essential prerogatives, and natural equality, of men. Tyrants and despots usurp it; but heaven never granted it. Do you wish to escape the vengeance of offended heaven? Then cease not to remonstrate against it; and prevent the future execution of it. The love I bear to you, irresistibly constrains me to be

plain and importunate with you. Do not imagine I am become your enemy, because I tell you the truth. For the prosperity of your several governments and countries I pray. To the different ranks and degrees of men among you, I pay all due deference. My motives and views cannot possibly be interested or mercenary. Every such supposition, my situation absolutely forbids. For the favour of the great I will not fawn; their resentment I do not fear. I am placed in a state of mcdiocrity; having neither poverty nor riches; but, day after day, fed with food convenient for me. I possess an independent spirit. In this I glory. The man whose integrity is unshaken, who can smile at the frowns of an individual tyrant or an army of them, whose conscience approves his conduct; whether he be placed in a high station or a low, whether his condition be plentiful or scanty, I esteem. The despot, the tyrant, the oppressor, whether he be arrayed in robes of state, or covered with rags; whether he fill a throne, or sit on the dunghill; is a contemptible being; hateful to God, to angels, and to men.... In the dreadful day of retribution, whither shall the oppressor flee? where shall he hide? Will the mountains and the rocks hear his cries? will they fall on him and cover him from his judge? No, the cries of the orphans, the widows, the thou

sands, who are now enslaved and oppressed, tortured and murdered, by these merciless despots, they refuse to hear; and, therefore, in the dreadful day of retribution, neither heaven nor earth will hear them. Now they put the evil day far away. But has not God foretold its approach? Can he falsify his word? Now, they show no mercy to their fellow creatures; then, God will show no mercy to them. Recollect, ruminate on the predictions and prophecies of the old and new testaments, prophecies against nations as well as churches. Review the histories of former ages; histories of both nations and churches. Compare their situation and your own. Do you not imitate them in sin? Must you not, therefore, expect to be partakers with them in punishment? Have not all the sinning nations of antiquity, at an earlier period or a later, suffered? and how can you expect to escape? This is the season of the infliction of national judgments. It only is in this life that mankind subsist in a rational capacity; and, therefore, it is in this life only, that they can suffer in this capacity. For the very sins of which you are notoriously guilty, the nations of former times have suffered the severest calamities. Be assured, that vengeance now, as much as ever, belongs to God, and he will infallibly repay. How often was

the nation, as well as the church, of the Jews, forewarned of the dreadful calamities that were about to befal them? Did heaven tantalize and trifle with them? No. He suffered their manners many years; but the execution of his threatnings, though slow, is certain. You, as they were, are now warned to flee from the wrath to come; and, therefore, if you persist in sin, till judgment overtake you, inexcusable must you be, and fearful will be your doom! My argument I might fllustrate, and my call I might enforce, by a long deduction of examples, which the histories of former times amply furnish. I might lead you back to the antediluvian ages; I might delineate before your eyes, the examples of the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Medes, the Chaldeans, and the repeated catastrophes which befel the highly favoured Jews, particularly their final dispersion, and the abolition of both their - civil and ecclesiastical policy. The repeated, pressing, solemn calls of heaven they disobeyed. Numerous threatnings and warnings they disregarded. Did heaven suffer their disobedience and neglect to pass with impunity? No. God will not be mocked. The authority of heaven is irresistible. All parts of the vast empire of Jehovah are subject to law; and every law of heaven must be obeyed. Every part of creation belongs either