His miracles are known to us. Nay, what
miracles are we ourselves, reclaimed from the service of the devil, once
the worshippers of Bacchus and of our Phrygian mother; now, clothed, and
in our right minds. The Apostle claims to speak and act by divine
authority. We must question everything, if we set aside this claim.
"'I maintain,' said he, 'that the Apostle Paul regards the holding a
fellow-creature as property to be consistent with Christianity. To
prevent all misunderstanding, however, let me declare that he insists on
the golden rule as the law of slave-holding, as of everything else; that
he discountenances oppression, that he warns and threatens us with
regard to it; and that he considers slave-holding as consistent with the
Christian character and happiness of master and slave.
"'In the very Epistle just received by our Church, and by the hands of
Tychicus and Onesinius himself, from the Apostle, we find these words:
"Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not
with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing
God; and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord, and not
unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the
inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.
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