"the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it; "and when thou beatest thine olive-tree, thou "shalt not go over the boughs again; when "thou gathereft the grapes of thy vineyard,

thou shalt not glean it afterwards; it fhall "be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the "widow *." The provifions made for the fecurity and comfort of that most useful, though too often moft wretched, part of the fpecies, flaves and fervants, are entirely worthy of a law that came down from Heaven. That abfolute and unlimited power over the lives of flaves indulged to their tyrannical masters by almost all Heathen lawgivers, a power most fcandalously abufed to the difgrace of all humanity, was effectually reftrained by the Jewish law, which punished the murder of a flave with the utmost rigour ‡. The kindness enjoined towards hired fervants is most remark, able. "Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant "that is poor and needy; whether he be of thy brethren or of thy ftrangers that are in "the land within thy gates.

At his day thou

Lev. xix. 34. Deut. Deut. xv. 7, 8. Lev. xix. 9, 19

Ex. xxi. 20.

14

"fhalt

celebrated lawgivers of antiquity. It abounds with injunctions of mercy and pity, not only to Jews, but to strangers, to enemics, and even to those who had moft cruelly and injuriously oppreffed them. "If thy brother be waxen

poor and fallen in decay with thee; then "thou fhalt relieve him; yea, though he be

a ftranger or a fojourner, that he live may "with thee. Take thou no ufury of him, or "increase; but fear thy God, that thy bro"ther may live with thee. Thou shalt not opprefs a ftranger. Thou fhalt love him as "thyfelf. Thou shalt not abhor an Edo"mite: thou shalt not abhor an Ægyptian, "If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his afs "ing aftray, thou shalt furely bring it back to "him." The difpofitions in favour of the poor are truly fingular and amiable. "Thou "shalt not harden thy heart, nor shut thy hand "from thy poor brother; but thou shalt open "thy hand wide unto him; and fhalt furely "lend him fufficient for his need, When ye.

go

reap the harveft of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field; nei"ther fhalt thou gather the gleanings of thy "haryeft; and if thou have for

"fhalt give him his hire; neither shall the "fun, go down upon it; for he is poor and "fetteth his heart upon it. Thou shalt not "rule over thy brother with rigour §." The injunctions refpecting Hebrew flaves were no lefs merciful. "If thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, be fold unto thee, and ferve thee fix years, in the feventh

year thou shalt let him go free from thee "and thou shalt not let him, go away empty; "but thou fhalt furnish him liberally out of

thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy wine-prefs and of that wherewith the "Lord thy God hath bleffed thee, thou shalt

give unto him." It fhould feem alfo, as if all other bondmen or flaves (even those that were captured in war or bought from the neighbouring Heathen nations) were to be emancipated in the year of the Jubilce; that is, every fiftieth year: for it is faid univerfally, "Ye fhall hal"low the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty

Deut. xxiv. 14, 15.

§ Lev. xxv. 43.

Deut. xv. 12, 13. Other inftances of this humanity in the Jewish law, may be feen in Deut. xxii. 6, 8. xxiv. 5, 6, 12, 13, to the end. Rouffeau himself (Emile, lib. 5. p. 6.) commends the benevolent fpirit of the law mentioned Ex. xxii. 26, 27. See alfo on this point the antient part of the Univerfal Hiftory, vol. iii. 8vo. p. 136, note b. and p. 152.

throughout

throughout all the land, to all the inhabitants « thereof *." The utmost care, in fhort, is taken throughout to guard against every fpecies of tyranny and oppreffion, and to protect the helpless and weak from the wanton infolence of profperity and power. The tendernefs of the divine legiflature thought no creature below its notice; and extended itself to the minutest articles of focial and domestic life, which, though unnoticed by less benevolent lawgivers, do, in fact, constitute a very great and effential part of human happiness and mifery.

With fuch heavenly inftitutions as these (which we shall in vain look for in any Pagan government) is every page of the Jewish law replete. It is from these we are to form our judgment of the Jews, of their Religion, and its Divine Author †; and if these had their proper

* Lev. xxv. 10.

↑ A confideration of the general temper and difpofition of law will be found of great advantage to civil life; and will supply us with very useful theory. It is reaching the heart in the first instance, and making ourselves masters of the genius of a whole people at once, by reading them in that glass which represents them beft, the turn of their civil inftitutions. There is fcarce a paffage in all antiquity more happily imagined, than that where Demofthenes tells us, that the laws of a country were confidered

as