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Show 156 LIBERTY AND ST. AVERY. property-laws among the Hebrews, would have surely been enjoined. But, be that as it may, the language of the tC>.1; puts it beyond a doubt that the servant is a foreigner, and has fled from a heathen master. This entirely changes the complexion of the case. The IIebrcws were God's chosen people, and were the only nation on earth which worshipped the only living and true God ..... In case a slave escaped from them (the heathen) and came to the Hebrews, two things were to be taken into consideration, according to the views of the J cwish legislator. The fust was that the treatment of slaves among the heathen was far more severe and rigorous than it could lawfully be under the Mosaic law. The heathen master possessed the power of life and death, of scourging or imprisoning, or putting to excessive toil, even to any extent that he pleased. Not so among the IIebrews. Humanity pleaded there for the protection of the fugitive. The second and most important consideration was, that only among the Tiebrews could the fugitiv~ slave come to the knowledge and worship of the only living and true God." Now this view of the passage in question harmonizes one portion of Scripture with an- ARGUMENT FROM TilE SCRIPTURES. 157 other, and removes every difficulty. It shows, too, how greatly the abolitionists have deceived themselves in their rash and blind· appeal to "the divine law" in question. "The reason of the law," says my Lord Coke, "is the law." It is applicable to those cases, and to those cases only, which come within the reason of the law. IIencc, if it be a fact, and if out· Northern brethren really believe that we arc sunk in tho darkness of heathen idolatry, while the light of the true religion is with them alone, why, then, we admit that the reason and principle of the divino law in question is in their favor. Then we admit that the return of our fugitive slaves is "contrary to the divine law." But if we are not heathen idolaters, if the God of the IIebrcws be also the God of Southern masters then the Northern States do not violate th~ precept in question-they only discharge a solemn constitutional obligation-in delivering up our "fugitives from labor." § II. Tlie argument from tl.e New Testament. The New Testament, as Dr. Wayland remarks, was given, "not to one people, but to the whole race; not for one period, but for all time." Its lessons are, therefore, of Jtni- H |