ws and convictions, as revolting as they may be to
Northern men and Free-soilers, even among us. We believe that the
primitive Christians held slaves in bondage, and that the apostles
favored slavery, by admitting slaveholders into the Church, and by
promoting them to official stations in the Church. And why do we believe
all this? Because we are sustained in these positions by uninterrupted
historical testimony!

Well, for the information of abolitionists and other anti-slavery men
dispersed throughout the South, we assume that the fact of the apostles
admitting into Church fellowship slaveholders, and promoting them to
positions of honor and trust, shows that the simple relation of master
and slave was no bar to Church-membership. Masters and slaves, in the
days of the apostles, were admitted into the Church as brethren: they
partook in common of the benefits of the Church: they held to the same
religious principles: they squared their lives by the same rule of
conduct: acknowledged the same obligations one to another; and
worshipped at the same altar. This was true of the first and succeeding
centuries, when the relations of master and slave, and the practice of
the Church in reference thereto, were very much like they are in the
Southern States of our Union at present. But to the proof that
slaveholders were admitted into the apostolic Churches:

1. Historians all agree that slavery existed, and was general throughout
the Roman empire, at the time the apostolic Churches were instituted. We
have at our command the authorities to prove this, but to quote from
them would swell this discourse beyond what we have intended. We will
cite the authorities only; and anti-slavery men who deny our position
can examine our authorities. See Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire," vol. i. See "Inquiry into Roman Slavery, by Wm. Blair,"
Edinburgh edition of 1833. See vol. iv. of "Lardner's Works," page 213.
See vol. i. of "Dr. Robertson's Works," London edition. Other
authorities might be given, but these are sufficient, as they show that
slavery was a civil institution of the State; that the Roman laws
regarded slaves as _property_, at the disposal of their masters; that
these slaves, whether white or colored, had no civil existence or
rights, and contended for none; and that there were _three slaves to one
citizen_--showing something of a similarity between the Roman empire and
our Southern States! Gibbon says that slav