account of two of the moft eminent Characters within the fame period, that the SLAVE-TRADE has the indifputable fanction of Divine Authority, and is in exact conformity with the principles of the Law of Nature, as delineated in the Sacred Writings of the Word of God, I fhall now proceed to demonftrate in the fubfequent Section, that it is equally conformable to the principles of the Mofaic Law.

SECTION

SECTION II.

Scriptural Researches on the licitnefs of the Slave-Trade, fhewing its conformity with the principles of the Mofaic Law delineated in the Sacred Writings.

I.

TH

HE Mofaic Law, called alfo the Written Law, and the Mofaic Difpenfation, fucceeded the Dispensation of the Law of Nature: not, as if, by the publication of the former (a), the latter had been totally abrogated, or fuffered the leaft relaxation. in any of its laws, which are of perpetual obligation; but because the Almighty willing to establish a Covenant with his Chofen People, the Children of Ifrael, added to the former obligations fuch other ftatutes, Laws, and ceremonies, as were to diftinguish them from every other Nation in the World. This Law is very frequently called, even in Scripture, the Law of Mofes (b), and Mofes is faid to have been the Lawgiver or the Legiflator of the Children of Ifrael; not because it was framed by him, but because the Almighty delivered it to them through his ministry, and he committed it to writing. How long this Law was in force from the first promulgation of it, has been the fubject of much inquiry among the Learned: but, without entering now into a critical difcuffion of this controverted point, we may fafely venture to fix that period, without either advantage or prejudice to the Subject of our Researches, to the time of the Apostles Council held at Jerufalem, in which the Law of Circumcifion and other Legal obfervances were, by an exprefs

(a) Exod. c. 29, &c.

(¿) Josh. c. 8. v. 31, 32. Ibid. 23. 6. I. Kings, 2. 3.

II, Kings, 23, 25.

Baptifm in the Chriftian Law: it was a token of the Covenant between God and his People (e), as effentially requifite in every male perfon, who hoped for acceptance with God (f, as is Baptifm in the Covenant of the New Law. If then, notwithstanding the prerogative of Circumcifion, which made the profeffors of the Mofaic Law true Children of God, true believers, and members of his Church, a free circumcifed Ifraelite was ftill fubject to the law of human bondage or flavery, and that even under the dominion of one of his own Communion and Church; from what maxim or principle of true Religion and juftice does it follow, that a Slave, once admitted into the Covenant of the New Law, acquires by his admission a right to his emancipation from human bondage? that is, a right to deprive his Mafter of his property?

IN fine; it is manifeft from the very letter of the Law juft quoted, that, even in the Cafe of an Hebrew reduced to the condition of a Slave for a limited time, the Mafter's purchase of that Slave was fo effentially juft and lawful in every part of it, that, though, by an efpecial ordinance of God peculiar to that People only, the Slave was to be releafed from bondage in the feventh year, or the year of the Jubilee; yet the right of property, acquired by that purchale, was declared by God to be io vested in the Mafter, that, if the Matter had given a wife to his Slave, that is, if the Slave had married a wife during the time of his fervitude with the confent of his Mafter, both she and her children, if he had any by her, became the Mafter's property for ever: in which Cafe, it is worth obferving, that the Slave thus emancipated, though a member of the true Church, was, ordered to go out by himfelf, and leave his wife and children behind.-A fepa-.

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(e) Gen. c. 17. V. II.

(f) Gen, 17. 14.

ration

ration this between husband and wife, father and children, well deferving the particular attention of every religious and humane advocate for African Liberty !— And can any one after this entertain the most diftant doubt on the licitnefs of the SLAVE-TRADE, so pofitively, fo unequivocally, so strongly authorized by this written ordinance of the Word of God?

LEVITICUS.

V. THE farther I proceed in my Scriptural Refearches, the ftronger the Evidences appear to me in favour of the SLAVE-TRADE. Indeed, I have everyencouragement given me in this Sacred Book of LEVITICUS to advance a step farther, and maintain, that the SLAVE-TRADE, has not only the fanction of Divine Authority in its fupport, but was alfo pofitively encouraged (I had almost faid, commanded) by that Authority, under the Difpenfation of the Mofaic Law. The following plain and explicit words of one of the laws refpecting that Trade, and registered in this Book, can admit of no other conftruction.

"Both thy bond-men and bond-maids, fays the Su"preme Law-giver, which thou fhalt have, fhall be "of the heathen that are round about you; of them

fhall ye buy bond-men and bond-maids. Moreદ over, of the Children of the Strangers that do fo"journ among you; of them fhall ye buy; and of

their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they fhall be your poffeffion. "And ye fhall take them as an inheritance for your children after you to inherit them for a poffeffion; "they fhall be your bond-men for ever (g)."

VI. IF there be meaning in language, or fenfe in words, here is certainly a Law enacted by Divine Authority, which does not only give a moft pofitive and unexceptionable

F

(g) Leviticus, C. 25. V. 44—46.

unexceptionable fanction to the licitnefs of the SLAVETRADE, but feems farther to lay, as it were, an injunction on the Children of Ifrael to profecute that Traf fic under no other reftriction whatever, but that of confining their purchases of perpetual Slaves to the heathen round about them, and the Strangers, that fojourned among them; for the words of the Law-giver evidently imply more than a mere permiffion or leave: He does not fay, fpeaking of the Heathen and Sojourners, Of them MAY ye buy bond men and bond-maids, but, of them SHALL ye buy bond men and bond-maids.

AGAIN the words of this Law, and they are the words of God, do exprefsly declare, that Slaves thus purchased from the Heathen and Sojourners among them, thall be the Poffeffion, that is, the real and lawful property, of the purchafers: a property fo strictly their own, that they fhall bequeath it to their Children at their death, as a part of their just and lawful inheritance, a part of their paternal estate, an estate for ever, for they shall be your bond-men for ever, fays the Law: that is, an hereditary estate with all the emoluments arifing from it; and, confequently, with all the children born from them, agreeably to the tenour of that Law of EXODUS, which has been explained in the IVth Number of this SECTION; for otherwife the children of a Heathen Slave or a Stranger would have enjoyed a privilege, which an Hebrew Slave was denied, though a Slave only for a limited time.

VII. FROM this moft decifive, most explicit, and irrefragable authority of the Written Word of God, vifibly encouraging the profecution of the SLAVETRADE, and declaring in the moft categorical lan guage that words can devife, that a Slave is the real, indifputable, and lawful property of the purchafer and his heirs for ever, it neceffarily follows by force of confequence,

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