2. There never was a more abominable or more absurd heresy propagated, than the assumption that the public safety would be jeoparded by an immediate compliance with the demands of justice: yet it has obtained among all orders of society. Even ministers of the gospel, who are bound to cry aloud, and spare not,--to lift up their voices like a trumpet, and show this guilty nation its sins,--to say to the holders of slaves, 'Loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, _and break every yoke_,'--even they fly to this subterfuge, and deprecate a general emancipation. On this subject, 'they know not what they do;' they reason like madmen or atheists; they advance sentiments which unhinge the moral government of the universe, and directly encourage the commission of the most heinous crimes. How long would any one of their number retain his situation, if he were to preach in explicit terms to his congregation as follows?--'My dear hearers, if any among you are daily oppressing the weak, or defrauding the poor, do not cease from your robbery and cruelty at once, as you value your own happiness and the welfare of society! Relax your tyrannous grasp gradually from the throat of your neighbor, and steal not quite so much from him this year as you did the last!'--But they emphatically hold this language whenever they advise slaveholders not to repent _en masse_, or too hastily. The public safety, they say, forbids emancipation! or, in other words, the public safety depends upon your persistance in cheating, whipping, starving, debasing your slaves! Nay, more--many of them, horrible to tell, are traffickers in human flesh! 'For this thing which it cannot bear, the earth is disquieted. The gospel of peace and mercy preached by him who steals, buys and sells the purchase of Messiah's blood!--rulers of the church making merchandize of their brethren's souls!--and Christians trading the persons of men!'[I] 3. The system of slavery is full of danger, outrage, desolation and death--'a volcano in full operation'--a monster that is annually supplied with sixty thousand new victims, devoured as soon as born--and yet the Colonization Society 'properly enough stands aloof' from it!! It utters no lamentations--makes no supplications--gives no rebukes--presents no motives for repentance!