Foreseeing, as I have before related, that this cause might demand my
attention to it for the greatest part of my life, I had given up all
thoughts of my profession. I had hitherto but seldom exercised it, and
then only to oblige some friend. I doubted, too, at the first view of
the thing, whether the pulpit ought to be made an engine for political
purposes, though I could not but consider the Slave Trade as a mass of
crimes, and therefore the effort to get rid of it as a Christian duty. I
had an idea, too, that sacred matters should not be entered upon without
due consideration, nor prosecuted in a hasty, but in a decorous and
solemn manner. I saw besides that, as it was then two o'clock in the
afternoon, and this sermon was to be forthcoming the next day, there was
not sufficient time to compose it properly. All these difficulties I
suggested to my new friends without any reserve. But nothing that I
could urge would satisfy them. They would not hear of a refusal, and I
was obliged to give my consent, though I was not reconciled to the
measure.
When I went into the church it was so full that I could scarcely get to
my place; for notice had been publicly given, though I knew nothing of
it, that such a discourse would be delivered.
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