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allowed to Christians . The Jewish dispensation was calculatedto render Jews a more moral people than the Heathens were,
. and the Christian dispensation is calculated to render Christians apeculiar people, more zealous of good works, than either theHeathens or the Jews were. To Christians , My Lords, therebelongs a badge, by which they are or ought to be distinguishedfrom every other description of men: there is inscribed on thisbadge a new commandment, —Love one another. — But in whatcorner of an African ship is this badge to be found ? In whatWest India slave-market is this badge exhibited ? To what whipof a Negro gang-driver is this badge appended ? It is related ofthe Emperor Alexander Severus , that he showed great kindness toChristians on account of the benevolent maxims of their religion;and that he ordered the precept, Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri nefeceris, to be inscribed on the gates of his palace, and on otherpublic edifices in Rome . We, My Lords, are on this day emulat-ing the magnanimity of this Emperor. We are writing on theexpanded sails of our African slave-ships, — “ Whatsoever ye•would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” We arewriting this summary of what the law hath commanded, or theprophets have taught, with a pen, plucked from a wing of thecherubim, shadowing the mercy-seat of Heaven: the inscriptionwill be read with tears of gratitude throughout the continent ofAfrica: it will be read, to our honour, by every nation in Chris-tendom ; and it will sooner or later induce them all to follow ourexample: in a word, it will tend to humanise, to civilise, and ulti-mately to christianise the whole earth.
“ But suppose that other nations should not immediately followour example, we shall have the solid satisfaction of having done