The attitude of Massachusetts slave-owners on this problem is revealed in Sewall's "question" from the _Athenian Oracle_: "What then should hinder but these be _Baptized_? If only the Covetousness of their Masters, who for fear of losing their Bodies, will venture their Souls; which of the two are we to esteem the greater _Heathens_? Now that this is notorious Matter of Fact, that they are so far from persuading those poor Creatures to Come to _Baptism_, that they discourage them from it, and rather hinder them as much as possible, though many of the wretches, as we have been informed, earnestly desire it; this we believe, none that are concern'd in the Plantations, if they are ingenuous, will deny, but own they don't at all care to have them Baptized. Talk to a _Planter_ of the _Soul_ of a _Negro_, and he'll be apt to tell ye (or at least his _Actions_ speak it loudly) that the Body of one of them may be worth twenty Pounds; but the Souls of an hundred of them would not yield him one Farthing; and therefore he's not at all solicitous about them, though the true Reason is indeed, because of that Custom of giving them their Freedom, after turning Christians." Whether this custom be "reasonable" the writer doubts; for neither the "Father of the _Faithful_" nor St. Paul commands masters to liberate their slaves and Christianity does not "alter any _Civil Right_." In the "mean time, if there be such a Law or Custom for their _Freedom_, to encourage 'em to Christianity, be it reasonable or otherwise, this is certain, that none can excuse those who for that Reason should in any way hinder or discourage 'em from being Christians; some of whose excuses are almost too shameful to repeat, since they seem to reflect on the Christian Religion, as if that made Men more untractable and ungovernable, than when bred in Ignorance and Heathenism."[698] [Footnote 698: _Athenian Oracle_, II, 460-63: in MOORE, _Notes on Hist. of Slavery in Mass._, 93, 94.]