At a meeting of the General Committee of the Baptists of Virginia, in 1789, the following resolution was offered by Eld. John Leland, and adopted:-- "_Resolved_, That slavery is a violent deprivation of the rights of nature, and inconsistent with republican government, and therefore we recommend it to our brethren to make use of every measure to extirpate this horrid evil from the land; and pray Almighty God that our honorable legislature may have it in their power to proclaim the great jubilee, consistent with the principles of good policy." METHODIST TESTIMONY. John Wesley, the celebrated founder of Methodism, says:-- "Men buyers are exactly on a level with men stealers." Again, he says:-- "American Slavery is the vilest that ever saw the sun; it constitutes the sum of all villanies." The learned Dr. Adam Clarke, author of a voluminous commentary on the Scriptures, says:-- "Slave-dealers, whether those who carry on the traffic in human flesh and blood; or those who steal a person in order to sell him into bondage; or those who buy such stolen men or women, no matter of what color, or what country; or the nations who legalize or connive at such traffic; all these are men-stealers, and God classes them with the most flagitious of mortals." One of the rules laid down in the Methodist Discipline as amended in 1784, was as follows:-- "Every member of our Society who has slaves in his possession, shall, within twelve months after notice given to him by the assistant, legally execute and record an instrument, whereby he emancipates and sets free every slave in his possession." Another rule was in these words:-- "No person holding slaves shall in future be admitted into Society, or to the Lord's Supper, till he previously complies with these rules concerning slavery." The answer to the question--"What shall be done with those who buy or sell slaves, or give them away"--is couched in the following language:-- "They are immediately to be expelled, unless they buy them on purpose to free them." In 1785, the voice of this church was heard as follows:-- "We do hold in the deepest abhorrence the practice of slavery, and shall not cease to seek its destruction, by all wise and prudent means." In 1797, the Discipline contained the following wholesome paragraph:--