of any
kind, have a tendency to bias the judgement and to deprave the mind. And it
is obvious that the future welfare of these poor slaves, who are now in
bondage, is generally too much disregarded by those who keep them. If their
daily task of labour be but fulfilled, little else perhaps is thought of.
Nay, even that which in others would be looked upon with horror and
detestation, is little regarded in them by their masters,--such as the
frequent separation of husbands from wives and wives from husbands, whereby
they are tempted to break their marriage covenants, and live in adultery,
in direct opposition to the laws of God and men, although we believe that
Christ died for all men without respect of persons. How fearful then ought
we to be of engaging in what hath so natural a tendency to lessen our
humanity, and of suffering ourselves to be inured to the exercise of hard
and cruel measures, lest thereby in any degree we lose our tender and
feeling sense of the miseries of our fellow-creatures, and become worse
than those who have not believed.

"And, dear Friends, you, who by inheritance have slaves born in your
families, we beseech you to consider them as souls committed to your trust,
whom the Lord will require at your hand, and who, as well as you, are made
partakers of the Spirit of Grace, and called to be heirs of salvation. And
let it be your constant care to watch over them for good, instructing them
in the fear of God, and the knowledge of the gospel of Christ, that they
may answer the end of their creation, and that God may be glorified and
honoured by them as well as by us. And so train them up, that if you should
come to behold their unhappy situation, in the same light, that many worthy
men, who are at rest, have done, and many of your brethren now do, and
should think it your duty to set them free, they may be the more capable of
making proper use of their liberty.

"Finally, Brethren, we entreat you, in the bowels of gospel love, seriously
to weigh the cause of detaining them in bondage. If it be for your own
private gain, or any other motive than their good, it is much to be feared
that the love of God and the influence of the Holy Spirit are not the
prevailing principles in you, and that your hearts are not sufficiently
redeemed from the world, which, that you with ourselves may more and more
come to witness, through the cleansing virtue of the Holy Spirit of Jesus
Christ, is our earnest desire. With