the Almighty had condemned the Gibeonites, had it not been lawful in itself, on other accounts, to reduce the innocent as well as the guilty to the condition of Slaves; the fentence of perpetual bondage pronounced by Joshua, ought, one would imagine, to have extended no farther, than the persons of the Gibeonites then living, any more than did the fentence of death, in lieu of which that of perpetual bondage is faid to have been substituted. The flavery then of their innocent pofterity, at least, cannot be faid to have been in lieu of death, to which certainly they had never been condemned.

Ir being therefore evident from the uniform tenour of the Sacred Writings, that neither the reduction of the Gibeonites then living, nor that of their guiltless defcendants, yet unborn, to perpetual Slavery, was ever condemned by any mark or intimation whatever of God's difpleasure, but manifeftly ratified in the fequel by feveral undoubted affurances of his divine approbation; it is eafy to conclude, whether the reducing of the innocent as well as the guilty part of our fellow-creatures to the condition of Slaves, or even to hereditary bondage or Slavery, be in its own nature licit or illicit, criminal or just.

XI. As a mark of the Almighty's undoubted approbation of Joshua's conduct in the tranfaction just before us, we find in the continuation of this hiftory (), that He even fecured to his People the poffeffion of these Slaves, and their pofterity, by a moft fignal. victory, which he enabled them to obtain over five Kings of the Amorites; who, in confequence of the Gibeonites having made a league and a treaty of peace with Jofhua and his People, joined all their forces against them, and made a vigorous attempt to invade this

(/) Joh. c. 10.

this new acquifition of the Children of Ifrael. The exertions of his divine power for fecuring to his People this new acquired property of Slaves were fo wonderfully great, that he even fought in Perfon against the invaders; for "The Lord, fays the Sacred Writer, "difcomfitted them before Ifrael, and flew them with "a great flaughter at Gibeon, and chafed them along "the way that goeth up to Bethhoron, and smote them "to Azekah, and unto Makkedah, And it came "to pass, as they fled from before Ifrael, and were in "the going down to Bethhoron, that the Lord caft "down great ftones from heaven upon them unto "Azekah, and they died: they were more which died "with hailftones, than they whom the Children of "Ifrael flew with the fword (m)."

AND, in order to render the victory ftill more complete, and the part he took in defending the rights of his people over the Gibeonites more vifible to the whole world, he even wrought a miracle of the most fingular kind; for, barkning, as the Sacred Page expreffes it, unto the voice of a Man, that is, of Joshua, who, in the heat of action, ordered the Sun to ftand ftill upon Gibeon, and the Moon in the valley of Ajalon, he stayed them both about a whole day, until the People bad avenged themselves upon their enemies (n), for attempting to deftroy the inhabitants of Gibeon their bond-flaves.

XII. IF these wonderful atchievements of the power of God in favour of his chofen People in the very cafe. of protecting the perfons, whom they had fo lately reduced to perpetual and hereditary bondage, are not to be confidered as fo many evident teftimonies of his divine approbation of the immediate object of the SLAVE-TRADE, and a pofitive fanction to the licitnefs

(m) Josh, c. 10. V. 10, II.

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(n) Joh, c. 10. V. 12, 14.

of

of it, but are still confiftent with any intrinfic moral turpitude inherent to the nature of that Trade; the abettors of this opinion muft neceffarily maintain, that the Supreme Ruler of the Univerfe, in direct oppofition to his own effential attributes and perfections, in manifeft contradiction with his own moral laws and commandments, and in vindication of ill-gotten property, difplayed to the World the most extraordinary exertions of his Omnipotence, and difturbed the very courfe of Nature to make it fubfervient to the vileft of purposes, injuftice and oppreffion.-As the inference is as blafphemous as it is neceffary, the very mentioning of it will, I flatter myfelf, be fufficient to determine the judgement of any religious and candid Reader in favour of the inherent moral licitnefs of the SLAVE-TRADE.

XIII. I HAVE, I think, fufficiently proved from the Scriptural Paffages I have produced in the feries of this SECOND PART, that the SLAVE-TRADE has the pofitive fanction of Divine Authority in its fupport, and is perfectly confonant to the Principles of the Mofaic Difpenfation delineated in the Sacred Writings of the Word of God.

I HAVE, however, this one thing to obferve before I proceed to the THIRD PART, in order to preclude every avenue to groundlefs objections; that there is not a Place in all the Writings of the Word of God, whether of the OLD or of the NEW TESTAMENT, that does fo much as infinuate in the moft diftant manner, that the Slaves bought either within the period of the Law of Nature, that of the Mofaic Difpenfation, or that of the Chriftian Law, were to ferve during a certain number of years and no longer, except the Hebrew Slaves; who, for reafons peculiar only to that People, and not applicable even to Chriftian Slaves, were to

ferve no longer than fix years in the capacity of BondSlaves. In every other cafe, the words BOND-MAN, BOND-WOMAN, BOND-MAID, BOND-SERVANT, Servant UNDER THE YOKE, imply, in the Scripture-language, perpetual and unlimited bondage, bondage for life, both of the male and female reduced to that condition, and even of their pofterity or children, if they had any. Nor is there one inftance to be met with in the Sacred Volumes, of the manumiffion or emancipation of a Slave of either fex, except of the Hebrew race, who ever obtained release from bondage, on account of having ferved any determinate number of years.

THE difmiffion of Hagar, bond-woman to Abraham, from her Master's house, is fo far from being an inftance of this kind, that every circumftance attending her discharge feems to prove the very reverfe (0). She was fent away by Abraham, at the earnest folicitation of his wife Sarai, whofe counsel the Almighty ordered him to follow: but the reluctance he fhewed to turn her out of his house, when it was first proposed to him by Sarai, for the thing was very grievous in his fight (or, according to the Original, The word was very bad in the eyes of Abraham), and the reafon of her difmiffion, evidently fhew that her discharge was not in confequence of any contract whatever, by which she was bound to ferve a determinate number of years and no longer, there being not the leaft intimation given in the Sacred Hiftory of any such contract or agreement, but because her fon's behaviour to Ifaac, the promised and right Heir of the Family, was exceedingly odious and very alarming to Sarai; who, dreading the confequences of Ifhmael's perfecution of young Ifaac, for fo the Apostle ftyles it (p), infifted on his being caft out together with his mother Hagar.

(0) Gen. 21. v. 9—14.

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XIV. THE

(p) Galat. c. 4. V. 29.

XIV. THz Scriptoral acceptation and extent of the word BONDAGE, and the relatives to it, being thus Exed and accertained from the very letter and uniform tenour of Scripture it, no arguments whatever, grounded on the true and real ene in which that word and its relatives are tied in the Sacred Page, will ever evince, that a Slave, within the period or any of the Three Difpenfations of true Religion mentioned in the Sacred Annals of the Word of God, not born an Hebrew, was ever bound by contract or otherwise to ferve only a limited number of years, at the expiration of which he obtained his freedom, and was left at liberty to chufe for himself.

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