by their Vitiousness Vncleanness Intemperance Violence and Oppressions both to Man and Beast whom they have had the Government over fallen into great Disorders Distempers Losses Crosses Troubles and Vexations so that their Children that were kept so fine and choice that they would hardly suffer the Air to blow on them or their Legs to carry them whilst they lived in Prosperity are many of them come to nothing some forced to work hard for their Bread others have taken worse Courses and have been immaturely cut off 'T is true the Evils both private and publick are sometimes more tollerable also the good Life and Prayers of some sober People that live in a Town or Country do interpose and in some degree withstand or mittigate the poysonous kindled Wrath so that the Judgment is sometimes deferred and with-holden as for two or three Ages according to the degrees of the awakned Evils and the intermingled Virtues Therefore since we have obtained the favour to plead our own Cause we will be bold to tell our Masters that these things cannot be otherwise it being the eternal Law of God in Nature that whatever Evil Violence or Oppression is committed either by Superior or Inferior if not repented of there must be a time of Retaliation either in this World or that to come according to the Nature of the Evil for as there is such an Affinity between man and man that they can move each other either to Love or Hate so there is a proportionate Similitude between him and the Coelestial Bodies and Elements Man being not only the Image and Likeness of God and Nature but the Horizon of both Worlds in whom the superior and inferior Natures are conjoyned and have their Intercourse for he is the Off-spring of the Stars as well as the Sun of the Earth Therefore let us praise and magnifie the Lord Creator of this wonderful Nature which is surpassing humane Understanding and Number For there is no Religion or form of Worship in the World so noble and well-pleasing to him as for mankind to imitate him by living in and under the power of the eternal Principle of his Light and Love which will lead all that hearken to the Voice of Wisdom into all Innocency and Well-doing and thereby as naturally attract or draw down the sweet and pleasant Virtues out of all things as the Loadstone doth Iron But on the contrary our Masters have built their Babel and fortified themselve with the Poysons of Saturn and Fierceness of Mars and made Gluttony their Trade and Violence their Study whence proceed all our Miseries and Oppressions which at long-run recoyl back upon themselves with Interest destroying all their peace of Mind health of Body and outward Estates For are not most of those that thus violate our Creator's Law in Nature miserably afflicted with many cruel Diseases as the Stone Collick windy Distempers Palsies Cramp Leprosies Kings-Evils Gout dry Belly-Aches Dropsies Consumptions and an hundred other Evils of this Nature which they also intail on their Prosterity so also are they plauged with Vexations and Discords between Man and Wife and with disobedient and rebellious Children Rot and Murrain amongst their Cattel their Crops blasted or spoiled by unseasonable Weather Losses and Disappointments in their Trading even to the consumption of their Estates All which are the Iudgments of God and just Rewards that follow Oppression Violence and Cruelty and of spending the Blood and Sweat of their poor Slaves in superfluous Wantonness for they make nothing to squander away Talents in Courtly Vanities and value not Money in the way of Gluttony then it shall go by whole Sale But if a poor Slave breaks but a Glass or miscarries in any little inconsiderable thing then presently the livid Poyson of Saturn is raised and the flaming Thunder-bolts of Mars are let fly in the greatest Fury and Fierceness imaginable and the best word that comes out of their Mouth is Dog Devil damn'd Dog Bitch and the like hellish Expressions not to mention their horrid Oathes Curses and Execrations which lewd Words are followed by inhumane Blows for they fall upon us with Whip and Spur till the Blood come and we are almost killed with their Cruelty And though they boast and speak excellent things of the Christian-Religion and contemn us for being ignorant of it yet 't is plain they never design that we should know and embrace it for why else do they make it loathsom in our Eyes by acting so contrary to its Genuine Nature and Principles Why do they dress up that which is the greatest Beauty and the most amiable thing in the World in the shape of a frightful deformed Hag or terrible Fury that seems good for nothing but to Bite and Scratch and Prog for its Paunch and wallow in Uncleanness like a Swine Were they in earnest or desirous to make us Christians and save our immortal Souls they would remove out of our way all Stumbling-Blocks of Scandal draw us with the Cords of Love and Meekness they would set us Examples by their blameless Lives and holy Conversations they would be at pains and charge to teach us the Foundation Principles of Christian Religion and to read the Bible and would in those and other Exercises of Virtue and Piety bring up our little Ones But so far are they from any of this that they act the direct contrary and desire and endeavour to keep us Heathens that we may continue their Slaves and thereby are Guilty not only of oppressing our Bodies but as much as in them lies of damning our Souls But our God is more merciful and expects a Return but proportionable to the Talent he hath intrusted his Ways are the Paths of Love and all his Out-goings are Compassion he hath not left us without a guide even a Light shining in a dark place to the conduct whereof if we give heed we shall do well Nor do we in this Complaint intend to tax all our Christian Masters for we must acknowledge that there are some few of them more Just and Merciful unto us for though under them we labour hard yet we have our Food in some order both as to Quantity and Quality and have tolerable Rest which gives us Life and Vigour in our occasions neither do they lay upon us Burthens greater than we can bear besides they often speak kindly to us which chears and comforts our Hearts and Spirits they call us no evil Names which is well liking unto us They allow us the usual time each day to rest in and eat our Food They treat our Women more kindly and allow them better Accomodations when they bring forth their young Ones And though sometimes some of this better sort will command our young Women to be their Concubines yet then in such cases if they prove with-Child they will have some regard to their own Seed and respect to the Women And it is also observable that all such as deal any thing
brisk lively Spirits which will also render the whole Body and Mind lightsom Strong and Healthy besides it would cut off all Superfluity and Wantonness in the bud and gain time which being well improved becomes a great Blessing 3. Not only abstaining from Wine ought to be minded but also in Foods great care must be observed for those People that live mostly upon clean innocent Foods are brisker more lightsom and Airy and their minds better disposed and there does naturally arise in them Praises and Thanks to God for what they have be it never so mean As I remember one assured me that after a little time of living on mean Foods was more apt to give praise in his Heart to God for a piece of Bread than before for the highest delicacies 4. Whensoever any Persons of Quality or men of Estates shall in private Quarrels commit Murder or kill a man if the Friends of this Murderer shall obtain a Pardon from the Prince or Governour of the place or Country then let it be a custom for his whole Estate if Childless to be forfeited and given to the Poor and a good part of it to the use and Children of the killed Person but if the Murderer have Children then but one half of his Estate By which means in a few years there would be yearly Revenues for the Poor Old Blind and Lame of most Countries and Cities besides it would in some degree put a stop to such vile Practices and render such Savages uncapable of committing the like offence for the future The End of the First Part. THE Negro's Complaint OF THEIR Hard Servitude AND THE CRUELTIES Practised upon them By divers of their Mâ—sters professing Christianity in the West-Indian Plantations The Second Part. COmplaints and Lamentations are the natural Language of the Miserable 'T is some kind of Easement to Hearts swell'd with Grief and almost broken with the Rigors of Oppression to tell the sad Stories of their Woes and when they have lost all other Liberty to bemoan themselves with Freedom More especially since Nature does not so readily furnish us with Tears the usual Expressions of Sorrow we hope we may be allow'd to make our Groans articulate and declare in words how intollerably we suffer by the deeds of unreasonable men But alas what Language is suitable for such a purpose What Expressions will be able to equal our Afflictions Or to whom shall we address our mournful Appeals If to our Country-men the Inhabitants of those Lands where we first suckt in vital Air and unhappily saluted the Light they are too remote to hear us as well as unable to help us nay more many of us owe the original of all our Miseries to some of their unnatural Cruelty Revenge or Avarice Shall we present our dolesom Narratives to Strangers They will scarce be able to credit us when we set forth nothing but certain Truths and woful Experiences such superlative Inhumanity amongst Nominal Christians will surpass all Belief and the Extremity of our Calamities making them seem Romantick debarrs us even of Pity and Commiseration those general Slaves of helpless Misery Shall we then fling our selves at our Masters feet and with universal Cries importune them to Compassion and Charity Alas those Vertues are Plants that scarce grow in these Islands nothing thrives here so fast as poâ—sonous Tobacco and furious Pride sweet Sugar and most bitter ill Nature A false conceit of Interest has blinded their Eyes and stopt their Ears and rendred their Hearts harder than Rocks of Adamâ—nt more Remorseless than hungry Bears or Tygers in the Hercanian Wilderness To Sigh they interpret to Rebell and if we do in the least complain 't is with them a sufficient cause for addition of Stripes and encrease of ill Usage Beset thus with thick-coming Sorrows and without Prospect of Help or Relief from men to whom can we apply our selves but to the Fountain of Mercy and Goodness from whom we and all other Creatures derive their being To thee therefore O thou Eternal and Infinite unknown Parent of Angels and Men who numberest the Sands of the Shore and didst pour forth the Ocean-Sea who formedst the glorious Sun and endued all the Stars with their Lustre in comparison of whom Princes are Vanity and Kings but animated Shadows who art gracious in thy Goodness to the Poor and Oppressed and whose Vengeance shall be terrible to the Proud and the Cruel To thee the only Refuge of the Distressed we direct our Complaints By thy holly Power Heaven and Earth and all things therein were made and by the same preserved and sustained Thou hast formed Man in thy own Likeness and given him dominion and government not only over the inferior Creatures but also over each other in Clemency and Well-doing but instead thereof he hath turned away the Eye of his Mind from thy Counsels and hath precipitated his Imagination into the Centre of Wrath and Fierceness thereby defaming his Noble Birth and depraving that innocent Paradisical Estate he was created in So that whereas he was made a sociable Creature and intended for the well-ordering of the inferior Beings and the help and comfort of those of his own Species by mutural Acts of Benovelence Courtesie and Charity he is now become a Tyrant a Plague a professed Enemy Hunter Betrayer Destroyer and Devourer of all the Inhabitants of Earth Air and Water and to those of his own kind no less fierce and cruel so instead of cherishing assisting and relieving one another they fight and tear each other like Tygers and he is the bravest Fellow that can invent the most mischievous Weapons and Engines of Destruction The stronger and more subtle murder enslave and oppress the weaker and more innocent and simple sort at their pleasure and pretend they have a Right because they have got Power so to do Nor is this only amongst us and those People called Heathens but even those who call themselves by thy Name and boast the Title of Christians are no less active in these Exploits and Practices than any other We find and feel by sad Experience the fatal consequences of this Apostacy from the Dignity of the humane Nature We had never been snatcht from the Lands of our Nativity never travers'd Liquid Mountains nor journied through the Hazards of vast Seas to be cast away on Land never been brought in Fetters into new Worlds nor made perpetual Slaves in Regions which neither we nor our fore-Fathers ever heard of before if we had not first forsaken and violated that Law of our Creator which he had planted in us and entred with our Wills into the Root of Bitterness and the fierce Wrath whereby the Savage Nature got the dominion in the hearts of us and our Ancestors so that Fury Revenge Covetousness Pride vain Glory and Intemperance is never satisfied Hence Fewds and Wars are set on foot in our Native Countries and those that are strongest and most numerous kill slay and
Plantations which have drank up our innocent and unrevenged Blood cry unto the Lord the righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth for Justice and Retaliation For divers of our Country-men have been Butcher'd this way and little more notice taken of it than if we were Fleas or Gnats or Wolves or Bears Nay some of us have been Burnt for running away and yet we were therein justified by the Law of Nature for who would not escape if he could out of Slavery and this too although their Mistrisses and Masters might have sold them to be transported elsewhere but their Envy Passion and Revenge was so great that they prefer'd it before their Gain one Widdow Woman above all the rest as we have heard burned her Negro for running away and saying that Where-ever he met her he would Kill her So when she caught him she was Judge Jury Executioner and all though at the same time she might have sold him to be Transported to Mevis Here was as doubtless 't is true Revenge in the highest degree If she had only threatned him as he threatned her she had been even with him but nothing would satisfie her Malice but to Roast him O thou most just and eternal Lawgiver and Perswader of all Creatures Do these things taste or favour of Christianity Have they any such Examples left them by thy Primitive Servants Or did thy eternal Son the Saviour of the World preach any such Doctrine or set any such Example in his meek and holy Pilgrimage on Earth If not by what Authority or by what Dispensation against his divine Law do you practise these things Is it not from the power of the Serpent and the Dragon viz. the devilish fierce wrathful hellish Nature Undoubtedly if they Repent not of these their cruel Crimes though they call themselves Christians never so much the Christ of God will say unto them Depart from me I know you not ye bloody Workers of Iniquity By what right or on what pretensions is it O you nominal Christians that you take upon you to make us your Slaves to over-labour half starve beat abuse and kill us at your pleasure Is it because we are not of your Religion and Belief Hath God any where given a Commission to those that profess Christianity that they may when they list fall upon any Persons whom they call Heathens and dispossess them of their Lands or lead them away Captive and make Merchandize of them and use them in all respects as Beasts or rather much worse This was not sure the way by which Paul and Peter and the other good men of Old whom we often hear you speak of and practise did convert our Heathen Ancestors to your Faith We have heard some of our Christian Masters say That Christ whom you pretend to follow as your Prophet Lord and King is Son of the Eternal and most Merciful God his Right-hand and his eternal Love in which he reconciles himself unto mankind even all those that shall live in this Love-Principle from which proceeds nothing either of Wrath Anger Violence Malice or Oppression but altogether the contrary as Patience Courtesie Good-will Compassion Charity and the like to all the World This if we mistake not is the true Christian Doctrine which most of you do acknowledge in Words But how does this consist or agree with the Violence Injustice and Oppressions which you exercise upon us Or is your Religion one thing in profession and another in practise This we are sure of though your Tongues may be Christian your Hands are Heathen nay most times your very Language is contrary to your before-mentioned Pretensions for how else comes it to pass that you Rant and Rave and Swear and Curse and call devilish Names so fast upon the least thing wherein we displease your Humors But perhaps you will say That not by virtue of your Religion but by some super-excellent or higher Dignity of Nature above us you claim a Right to make us your Slaves and Vassals But pray have you this Prerogative from your Descent or Pedigree Or from some different Fabrick of your Bodies Or from your extraordinary Endowments of Mind As for the first do not the Oracles of your Religion oblige you to believe that the great God created the Man whom you call Adam and that from him came all the People that ever since were or are in the World And if so are we not of as good Parentage as ancient a Family as noble a Descent as the best of you Ought you not then to love us as your Brethren descended from the same common Father or at least respect us as your Kinsmen and of the same Lineage Are not our Bodies of as proportionable a Frame and as well furnisht with useful Limbs Are not all our Senses as good and quick as yours Nay are we not naturally obnoxious to fewer Diseases than you though now indeed by your harsh usage our Days are often shortned and our Health impaired but this is not the fault of our Constitutions but of your Severities which bring upon us those Weaknesses and Disorders which we were never before acquainted with For any Exercises of Running Leaping Swimming and the like which of you can equal us As for the blackness of our Skins we find no reason to be ashamed of it 't is the Livery which our great Lord and Maker hath thought fit we should wear Do not you amongst Furs prize pure Sables as much as Ermins Is Iett or Ebony despised for its Colour Can we help it if the Sun by too close and fervent Kisses and the nature of the Climate and Soil where we were Born hath tinctur'd us with a dark Complexion Have not you variety of Complexions amongst your selves some very White and Fair others Brown many Swarthy and several Cole-black And would it be reasonable that each sort of these should quarrel with the other and a man be made a Slave forever meerly because his Beard is Red or his Eye-brows Black In a word if our Hue be the only difference since White is as contrary to Black as Black is to White there is as much reason that you should be our Slaves as we yours Lastly as to our Souls you dare not deny but they are Immortal as well as yours consequently capable of as much Bliss and Happiness being as well as yours created in the Image of God and of an heavenly Original Have we not the same Faculties Understanding Memory and Will Are we not endued with a reflex Power whereby to condemn or approve our own Actions as they are either good or evil Are we not if we had the advantages of Education altogether as docible and apt to learn Arts and Sciences as any of you witness Averves Avicenna and others of our Country-men who were famous Physitians Philosophers Astrologians and the like For in us as well as you are contained the true Natures of all Elements the Seeds of all Sciences and an hidden
Tarts Sweet-Meats and a thousand Novelties brought from forreign Regions of themselves more than sufficient for a sober and temperate Meal not considering the Injuries they thereby do both to their Bodies and Minds nor regarding in the mean time the starving condition of us their poor Slaves that would be glad of the Crums that fall from their over-spread Tables and yet 't is from our sore Labour and grievous Sweat and pinched Bellies that what they thus wickedly waste upon their pampered Lusts is extracted Alas how few of our Christian Masters do ever consider or endeavour to put into practice either Abstinence or Sobriety though their own Prophets and Apostles commend those Virtues as the surest Bulwarks and Fortifications against Temptations and Viciousness and such as render the Body pleasant and healthful fit to discharge all its Functions and prepares the Mind to be the Temple of the Lord. But these are things too sublim for our gorbellied Christians to consider of when a number of them gather themselves together to the Burial of a Swine which they will Roast or burn it whole and then bury it in their ungodly Paunches and make them swim in their foolish Hogshead accompanied with drunken Healths and roaring Huzza's where one or two of these Epicurean swearing roaring Christians will destroy in Superfluity as much as an hundred of us poor Vassals can get with our hand and sore Labour But why O ye Christians do you thus violate the Commands of our Creator and withstand and walk contrary to the pure innocent Laws of Nature and by your Intemperances and Oppressions contemn the great Law of Love and doing unto all their fellow Creatures as they would be done unto Consider these things impartially and count us no longer Dogs nor hide the Pearl any longer in your ungodly Earth and be as studious and careful to look for it and find it as you have carelesly lost it and you shall see and know the Errors of your wayes and above all know this that every Master must give an Account of his Stewardship to the grand Master of Heaven and Earth and that there must be Retaliation made either in this World or the World to come But alas what likelihood or hopes are there of our Relief Ease or Refreshment from those Oppressions and Burthens under which we languish when these we complain of are become so unnatural that they deal as hardly and cruelly with their own Seed even the Fruit of their own Loins as with us For do not our Masters to gratifie their raging Lusts sometimes take our Women and make them their Concubines viz. either our Wives or our Daughters which best pleaseth them For Adultery is accounted no greater a Crime amongst many of them than Fornication both of them but Venial Sins Tricks of Youth or Modish Gallantries upon whom they beget mungril Children that are neither White nor Black but between both which therefore are called Molatto's and when these poor Women in compliance with such their brutish Heats have conceived by them and brought forth yet the Fathers being without natural Affection though they are their own Seed do expose them and make them perpetual Slaves both they and their Posterity Now what can be more hellish Cruelty or greater Baseness then for men to afflict their own Seed to beget Children in their Drunkenness and Paroxisms of Lust and then not to care what becomes of them nay to make themselves Authors of their Miseries as well as of their Beeing and instead of providing for and well Educating them to enslave and tyrannize over them and leave them in that wretched condition to all Generations There cannot sure be a greater Sin against Gods pure Law in Nature Do not the whole Hosts of the four Worlds condemn this and will not the very Beasts of the Earth rise in Judgment against such vile hard hearted Wretches and Nature disown and spue them out as abominable For as the Cruelties and Oppressions of our Masters are our Plagues at present so they will certainly draw down Judgments on themselves in time if not prevented by Repentance and Reformation for their Violence awakens the center of dark Wrath both in the internal and external Nature and by a secret and sympathetical Power these awakened poysonous Properties do strongly excite the malignant Influences of the Coelestials and attract their Male Configurations for every particular Quality in Nature has a Key in it self to open the Gate of its own Principle whence proceed many Calamities according to the degree of the Sin or Evil committed there being a certain Secret by powerful sympathy between the Coelestial and Terrestrial Bodies by and through whose evil Influences mutually working on each other Plagues and Vengeance and Calamities are engendred as on the other side by their benigne Influences sweetly clasping and embracing each other in Harmony Peace and Plenty Health and Security do proceed For this cause it is in point of Self-Interest a thing of dangerous Consequence for our Christian Masters to be so severe towards us for the groaning of him that suffereth Pain and Torment is the beginning of Trouble and Misery to him that is the cause thereof And it would be well for them and happy for us poor Vassals if our Masters would but be so sober as to consider and be sensible of this Truth that their fierce Wrath Violence and Oppressions to us do clearly demonstrate that the poysonous Wrath is awakened does predominate in them so that let them call themselves by what name or title they please His Servants they are whom they obey the dark fierce Spirit has overcome the good Genius in their Soul and all the pure Virtues as Temperance Compassion Fellow-feeling Courtesie Humanity Iustice and Charity are clapt under Hatches just as we were when we were brought Captive out of Guinnea into the Land of Bondage And then this irritated Wrath or poysonous Spirit does powerfully penetrate all Elements and Bodies and where-ever it finds matter capable or disposed to receive its malignant Rayes they incorporate For the All wise Creator has endued every thing in all the four Worlds with an attractive and influential Virtue and therefore the Sons of men by their Vncleanness Violence and Oppressions do first awaken and stir up the wrathful Spirit in themselves which kindles the Wrath in the Coelestial Bodies and attracts their ill Influences and if whole Nations or Countries live in the irritated Wrath then there are showered down Epidemical Diseases as Pestilence War Famine and the like all according to the nature of the Evils committed or Properties of Nature that were awakned The same is to be understood when any particular Person or Family has awakned the poysonous Wrath it doth powerfully attract the male Influences whence Sickness waste of Estate and many other great Troubles Miseries both to the Body and Mind follow the truth of this daily Experience doth testifie how many of our great Masters have
lewd Practices And thus in defiance to the Laws of your Religion and to his own Personal hurt one great over-grown Christian shall spend as much in one Day to gratifie his Lusts or Vanity as an Hundred or Two of his poor Slaves can get by their sore Labour and Sweat And as for Exercises there is rarely here in this Island any of the Christians that will labour except pure Necessity constrain them to it but you lay heavy Burthens on us and as your most illuminated Prophet saith will not touch them your selves with one Finger So that you make it a Genteel Quality and honourable to break and violate that great Command of the Creator in the beginning which I have heard is recorded by a most famous Prophet of the Iews and whom you also receive viz. That Man should get his Bread by the Sweat of his Brows which yet amongst the more Noble Christians as you call your selves is counted a poor low Base and shameful thing What Heathen People as you call them are there in the whole World that more pamper their Carkasses and indulge themselves like you with things that are not needful nor convenient Do you not invent an hundred Superfluities and needless Toys to gratifie your own and your Childrens Pallates and Sensuality the Wind forsooth must not blow upon them and as if the Earth were not good enough to bear them nor their Legs made to carry them you provide Horses and Coaches for them or we poor Slaves must lugg them about who are as well able to go as we For your Garments Houses Furniture c. who can exceed your Pride and Vanity One of your Women shall wear at once as much in value as would clothe an hundred poor People in modest Rayment each far better than hers to defend them from the Injuries of the Elements which is the chief end of Cloathing Add to this your great Palaces and sumptuous chargeable Buildings and all kind of rich superfluous Ornaments and Knick-Knacks in your Houses wherein you study to out-try and exceed each other meerly for State Pride and vain Glory and to be honoured of men which extravagancy is attended with another sore Evil for that it cannot be maintained but chiefly by great Oppression of Men and Beasts for those that spend Talents daily must lay about them for a continual Supply so that rather then they will be without those chargeable Vanities they care not how cruelly they use their Servants and inferior Creatures They will scourge their Slaves for a Penny and kill their Beasts with over-labour and at the same time spend Pounds in base depraved Wantonness and feasting of the Rich c. 4. You mention the avoidance of Evil Communications as another duty of your Religion which we Heathens do acknowledge and therefore we have a Proverb amongst us when any use lewd Discourse to bid them Wash their Mouthes with Water but we have observed that amongst the Christians there is nothing more frequent than Evil Communications whensoever any Number meet together are not your Discourses vain idle and frothy and oft-times such as no modest Ear can hear without tingling forth Horror and Indignation Most of it tending to Debauchery or injuring the good Name of Persons absent Iesting Lying Vapouring or speaking of Things and People they understand not nor have any thing to do withal Nay a man cannot pass the Way or Street but his Ears shall be grated with horrid Swearing and ungodly Speeches so that 't is evident you walk in the greatest opposition imaginable to his command 5. You say You are required to observe Purity and the natural Rules of Cleanness and to avoid all appearance of Evil Which indeed is no inconsiderable point in Nature and Religion but as far as we have been able to observe you practise the quite contrary for not only your Words are very unclean for the generality but also in your Foods and Drinks you make no distinction but rich provoking Food in excess and all strong intoxicating Drinks you desire with greedness which over-heats the whole Body and irritates the fierce wrathful beastial Nature whence all wanton vain and unclean Thoughts and Imaginations are generated Also you make as little distinction between clean and unclean Beasts as we nay not so much as some of our Country-men and you eat Blood though I have been told there is not any one thing more frequently expresly and plainly forbidden in all your Bible than that besides you make no distinction of the Times and Seasons of the Year when Beasts are subjects to Surfeits and other Uncleannesses neither are your Preparations and cooking of your Food so clean proper and natural as they ought to be and instead of abstaining from all appearances of Evil we see you court and improve them on all occasions For do not you appoint set Meetings and make great Feasts to which you invite the Rich that will invite you again where you drink to Drunkenness and eat to Gluttony roaring all the while like mad Bulls and mixing your Food with horrid Oaths and vain Discourses the fear of the great Creator being banisht from your Hearts nor any pity shewn to us your poor Vassals that endure the Heat of the day and are ready to fall and faint under those heavy Burthens laid upon us and would rejoyce to partake of the Crumbs that fall from your Tables which you will not afford yet spend our Sweat and the Labours of our Hands in all kinds of Wantonness and Superfluity by which many of you contract such grievous Diseases both to Body and Mind that they become themselves more miserable then us their poor Slaves 6. You say that the next great point of Christian Doctrine is to free your selves from Envy Strife Malice Back-biting and Slander which is also contradicted by your general practice for what is more frequent amongst you than Envy and Revenge And though in your Prayers you formally use those Words Lord forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us yet at the same time Envy lies lurking in your Hearts and the very next moment shall erect it self for do not many of you keep your Neighbours and Brethren in loathsom Prisons for some very little offence or in truth for none at all but only to shew your Power and gratifie your devilish Fury And as for the Gentleman called Strife he rides the Fore-horse and is Quarter-master-General amongst you what Fighting Swearing Damning Railing c. is there in every House between Fathers and Children Brothers and Sisters Relations and Neighbours ready to destroy and murder one another and all about Things not worth a wise mans Thoughts What swarms of Lawyers Clerks Pettifoggers and Idle-men does your Strife and unjust Contention maintain And how many are yearly with their Families utterly ruined thereby I 'll not leave him worth a Groat cries one I 'll make Dice of his Bones swears the other Let him not
in Goal says a third This is your Christian Charity and Remission of Injuries And for Backbiting and Slandering even Eating and Drinking is scarce more universally practised amongst you almost every man speaks Evil or slighting of those that are not present though to their Faces he Complements and Flatters them Calumny is the Sawce at your great Feasts and Reproaches scandalous Stories the Entertainments of your Clubs and Visits so that scarce any honest man is free from the Lashes of your invenom'd Tongues or from having large Furrows plowed upon his Back his good Name wounded and his Reputation unjustly blasted or called in question by your false Stories and malicious Suggestions whereby many are daily ruined there being nothing more base and unmanly than these whispering Doemons nor is there any Practice that more opposes Christianity and the pure simple Law of God in Nature and therefore is a Sin to be condemned forever and banisht the Society of all good men 7. Not to judge and speak of things they understand not is a very excellent Precept yet nothing is more common among many Christians than to judge censure and condemn Things and Persons though they understand them no more then a blind man can distinguish Colours or the Deaf judge of Musick but right or wrong without any true sight or comprehension they will pass their Verdict and shoot their Bolts for they count their Tongues their own and think they may say what they list and so call Evil good and Good evil and abuse their own Consciences and their Neighbours so greatly are many of the Christians depraved 8. The eighth Point you mentioned was That the Lord beholds all mens Wayes and Doings and that unto him and his Divine Eye there is not any thing hid Which without all doubt is a most certain truth which neither Christian nor Heathen dare to deny for as your own Prophet saith It is he that searcheth the Heart and tryeth the Reigns But how can we perswade our selves that you do in truth and in earnest believe this since we daily find that you stand more in awe of Mens seeing or knowing your Wickedness than of God's beholding and revenging of it and therefore you love to seem and be counted Honest and Iust and Merciful but scarce a Soul of you seriously endeavours to be so 't is the Name and the Credit you look after not the Thing which shews that you seek to please and be well spoken of by Men but regard not the righteous Judgment of God who looks through the Fig-Leaves and requires Truth and Purity in the inward parts This Hypocrisie of yours is notorious and every one almost taxes his Neighbour for it and yet all generally practise it and each huggs himself therein as one of your own Poets complaineth If my foul Deeds of Darkness may Be wrapt in Clouds as black as they If being ugly I can Paint And act the Devil yet seem a Saint Cheat and Oppress Forswear and Lye Yet scape the Law and Infamy I mind no further Honesty 9. On the contrary to believe and know as you say That the Lord will Retaliate every man according to his Work is a most true and necessary Principle but if Christians did so surely they could not nor would do as they do For what kind of Rewards and Returns do or can you expect for all your Oppressions to us your poor Vassals For do not you oppress us at your pleasure beat whip over-labour and half-starve us and many of you scruple not to Kill us for a small Offence and possibly for none at all but in your Drunkenness to satiate your fierce devilish Passions Nor do our tender Children and dear Wives escape your Violence Now if Retaliation be one point of your Christian Doctrine and every man shall be rewarded according to his Works then what a sad Reckoning will you have to make when God shall arise to visit for these things And you would not certainly adventure upon those things which you must pay so dear for either in this World or that which is to come if you were sufficiently sensible of the Compensation that must be made for the same 10. 'T is a noble Truth that men should walk according to the divine Principle and forsake all Vngodliness and worldly Lusts But the generality of Christians take contrary measures for the Gospel of Truth neither inwardly nor outwardly doth teach any to compel others by outward Force to believe and do as they do be it right or wrong but advises all to do as they would be done by and to let their Moderation be known unto all men and to bear with one another in Love Whereas you impose upon one another and tye up other men to your own Conceptions and without any Compassion or Charity fall upon such as will not go your way and do as you do though you have nothing to object against their Lives and Conversations And whereas you acknowledge the Doctrine of Christianity where-ever it is entertained in the Love thereof will bruise the Head of the Serpentine Nature that is of Lust and Uncleanness and all Ungodliness yet we see you daily wallowing in all those Pollutions so that you do not only contradict this holy Doctrine which you boast so much of but some of you do also severely persecute others for obeying the same and submitting to its guidance And as for brutish Vncleanness Adulteries Whoredoms c. they are but your Sports and Pastimes things that many of you glory in and to be Chaste and Modest is to be an object of your Scorn and Derision 11. How well you regulate your Passions which is another thing you say Christian Doctrine teaches you all the World sees and we often feel the Sea when agitated with contrary Winds it throws up Dirt and Sand from the bottom of the Deep and spits its froth up towards towards Heaven is not more disorderly or dangerous to come near than you are when the least thing happens contrary to your Minds your Souls are in a perpetual Tumult your Lusts duel one another Covetousness fights with Luxury Wantonness jostles Ambition and Revenge is opposed by Cowardize Sence gets above Reason the Man is ridden by the Beast and when in this hurry Conscience gets leave to be heard then presently there is nothing but Furies and Dispair Is not all this as contrary to that Calmness and Stillness that Peace and Serenity of Mind which true Christianity both requires and gives and is delighted in as Light is to Darkness 12. 'T is as great point and as true that men should not be too resolute confident or conceited of their own Wisdom or Knowledge but ought to have regard to the Lord in all their Thoughts Imaginations and Conclusions and to eye the divine Hand of Providence in all things it being better to Fear than to Boast But tell us O Master who do violate this Rule more than the generality of Christians
him there is nothing hidden 9 thly To believe and know for a certain truth that the Lord will Retaliate and Reward every one according to his Works 10. To live according to the Gospel and divine Principle by denying all Vngodliness and worldly Lusts and Vncleanness as Whoredom Adultery filthy Speaking yea even all unchaste Desires for so our Lord teacheth us That he that looketh on a Woman and lusteth after her commits Adultery 11. To regulate our Passions and Affections and to abandon all Wrath Anger Malice Envy vain or immoderate hopes as also dispair and all perturbations of Mind to shun and avoid Covetousness that Root of Evil Pride Ambition and all Vncharitableness And on the contrary to walk Humbly and Meekly towards God and towards man and to practise Patience mutual Forbearance Moderation Kindness and Commiseration in all our wayes 12. That we be not too confident nor conceited of our selves or our own knowledge but to have regard to the Lord in all our Thoughts Imaginations and Conclusions and in every thing to have an Eye to his Providence 13. To return God the Praise and Glory of all the good things we enjoy as Health Strength Food Rayment Knowledge Vnderstanding and the like acknowledging them all to be the free Gifts of his Bounty and when we are in any want trouble distress or danger to relie upon the same God for help succour and relief and with earnest hearty and faithful Prayers to implore the same of him only 14. To be merciful to all the inferior Creatures and to use them gently and with Moderation avoiding all kind of Oppressions Violence hard Heartedness or Cruelty either to Men or Beasts These Sambo are some of the Principles or Rules of the Christian Religion the Doctrine which it teacheth and the Practices it requires Negro Master Christian I give you a thousand hearty Thanks for this account of your Religion Philosophy which no doubt is the best and noblest of all others Therefore if these be your Christian Principles I am already a Disciple but I beseech you be in good earnest and tell me the truth Mast. I do assure thee they are the Principles of our Lord Christ the Son of the living God that he preached to the World when he was on the Earth and which his Apostles recommended and left them on Record in the Bible and which he still continues to Preach by his Spirit in the Hearts of all that are his Negr. Since these things are so I cannot but at once be surprized and as it were amazed with two different Objects of Wonder Mast. What are they prethee Negr. First I admire the Excellency of your Doctrine and the wonderful Mystery contained therein it undoubtedly surpasseth all other Religions in the World as much as the Sun's Light doth that of a Glow-Worm It seems to me to be an open Gate into Paradise and a Leaf of the Tree of Life so agreeable to the Nature and Glory of the great God so suitable to the condition of weak Man no wise Person can make any scruple of the things you have delivered they command assent for they proced from a true Root But then I cannot but also much wonder and admire that you Christians live and walk so wide from and contrary unto all those undeniable Truths and holy Rules so that what you preach with your Tongues you pull down with your Hands and your daily Conversation gives the Lye to your Profession Mast. You now grow Sawcy thus to upbraid us we have indeed our Failings but I hope we do not walk so Retrograde as you talk of What Instances can you produce to maintain so general a Charge Negr. I intended not to upbraid you but to satisfie my self for perhaps you may have some Reason that I do not know of why you act contrary to what you teach nor do I say that all and every Christian does so there may be Hundreds and Thousands that I am not acquainted with and there are some that I know of whom I cannot say but that in a very great measure they live according to that righteous Doctrine but for the generality or major part I must say That in all and every of the aforesaid Points by you mentioned the whole Tenour of their Ways and the continual Practice of their Lives is directly contrary to the same And since you command me to instance Particulars I shall endeavour it in some of the chief 1. You say that Christian Religion teacheth to Fear the Lord that created Heaven and Earth The truth of this we make no doubt of but how can we believe that very many who go under the Name of Christians do obey this Voice of Wisdom since they so lightly and vainly use the Name of God in their Triffling and wicked Talk and boldly Swear by it and that for the most part falsly too in their ordinary Conversation contrary to his express Commands nay not a few will commonly challenge the great God to Damn or Confound them with divers other Blasphemies And do you call this Fearing the Lord 2. To be Merciful and do as you would be done by you in the next place assign as a grand and important point of Christianity but where shall we find it We cannot perceive any thing of Mercy to dwell in your Hearts for you commit Oppression with Violence and that which you call Trade or Traffick as 't is manag'd amongst you is little better than an Art of Circumventing one another and you practise all sorts of Cruelty not only on the inferior Creatures but also on those of your own Kind else what makes us your Slaves and to be thus Lorded and Tyrannized over by you In a word not only We but the whole Creation groans under your heavy Burthens yet you tell us of your Mercy and good Nature and boast of your Christian Charity 3. You acknowledge this divine Religion requires of you to be Sober in Meats and Drinks c. and not to indulge Nature with things Superperfluous But does it not appear by your Conversation that you never regard its Counsel since your Wayes are directly opposite Do not we see it a common Practice amongst the Christians to drink to Drunkenness and eat to Superfluity and Gluttony even of those that seem most reserved scarce any that have wherewithal but will indulge themselves great variety of rich compounded Foods and Cordial-Drinks that contain too great Nourishment beyond not only the Necessities but even the Power of Nature and the digestive Faculty of the Stomach which produces many evil Effects for besides the waste of the good Creatures and a most Vngrateful abuse of the Creator's Mercies it heats the Blood makes it thick hot and sharp and causeth all the Members to glow with an unnatural Heat makes both the Body and Mind uneasie and disables each of them from performing its Offices as it ought and also sets open the Gates of Venus to many