Page:A memoir of Granville Sharp.djvu/140

136 English word nations) the Israelites were expressly directed to drive out, kill, and destroy without pity (Deut. vii. 16,) and to make no covenant with them (Deut. vii. 2.): and I hope I have also proved that the remainder of these particular wicked nations, thus expressly doomed to destruction, were undoubtedly "the heathen" (or nations) "that dwelt round about" the Israelites, and "the children of the strangers" whom (and whom alone) it was lawful to hold in perpetual bondage; for otherwise that permission cannot be reconciled to God's positive commands, given in the same law, to love the stranger. "The Lord your God is God of Gods, and Lord of Lords, a great God, a mighty and a terrible, which regardeth not persons" (so that this was apparently a general law, or rule, of conduct, towards all persons, except the people of those particular nations which were expressly, by name, condemned to destruction by the hands of the Israelites, in other parts of the law, for their abominable wickedness) "nor taketh reward: he doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. LOVE YE THEREFORE the stranger," (and the almighty inculcates a sympathetic concern for the welfare and happiness of strangers, by reminding the Israelites of their own unhappy situation formerly in a strange country,) " for ye" (says the text,) "were strangers in the land of Egypt." Deut. x. 17 to 19. See also Levit. xix. 33, 34. "Thou shalt love him," that is (the stranger,) "as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt."

National wickedness, from the beginning of the world, has generally been visited with national punishments: and surely no national wickedness can be more heinous in the sight of God, than a public toleration of slavery and oppression! for tyranny, (in whatsoever shape it appears,) must necessarily be esteemed a presumptuous breach of that divine command, in which "all law is fulfilled" (Gal. v. 14.) viz. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Levit. xix. 18. The histories of all nations, indeed afford tremendous examples of God's vengeance against tyrants; but no