upon the Children of Ifrael, put them in mind, that God loveth the ftranger, in giving him food and rayment. Love ye therefore the tranger; for ye were ftrangers in the land of Egypt, Deut. x. 18, 19. The Widow, the Stranger and the Fatherlefs are ufually mention'd together in Scripture, as being jointly the care of God's more peculiar Providence, and he recommends them to the charity of his People; and to opprefs the Stranger, is reckoned the highest aggravation of wickedness: They flay the widow and the Stranger, and murther the fatherless: yet they fay, The Lord fhall not fee; neither fhall the God of Jacob regard it, Pfxciv. 6,7. The people of the land have used oppreffion, and exercifed robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy; yea, they have oppreffed the Stranger wrongfully, Ezek. xxii. 29. And to the fame purpose, Pfal. cxlvi. 9. Jer. vii. 6. and xxii. 3. Zech. vii. 10. Mal. iii. 5.

Though their Bond-men and Bond-women were not to be of the native Ifraelites, but of the Heathen that were round about them, and of the Strangers that dwelt amongst them, Lev.xxv.44. yet an Ifraelite might fell himfelf to a Stranger, and become his Servant; but he might be redeemed again, either by himself, or by his near Kinsman ; and was to be released at the Year of Jubilee, ver.47. The Cities of Refuge were provided for the Stranger and the Sojourner, Num.xxxv.15. Job.xx.9. The Judges were particularly commanded to

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execute righteous and impartial Judgment to the Stranger, Deut.i. 16. A caution is given, that neither the Edomites nor the Egyptians were to be abhorred by them, but their Children were to be received into the Congregation of the Lord, in the Third Generation; that is, after any Edomite or Egyptian had lived amongst them as a Profelyte of the Gates, their Children of the Third Generation might be capable of Circumcifion, and be admitted to the Obfervation of the whole Law,ch.xxiii.7. And though the Ammonite and Moabite were excluded, even to the Tenth Generation, from the Congregation of the Lord, by reafon of their inhumanity to the Ifraelites, at their coming out of Egypt, ver. 3. yet neither were they of the preceding Generations debarr'd from becoming Profelytes of the Gates, and undertaking the Obfervation of the Precepts of Noah.

A Promife is made, that the Stranger fhall rejoice in the good things of the Land, chap.xxvi. 11. and the Ifraelites are threatned, that upon their Difobedience, the Stranger fhould be more profperous than they, ch.xxviii. 43, 44. King Solomon, at the Dedication of the Temple, makes fuch particular mention of the Stranger, in his Prayer, as fhews both the defign of building it, and of all the Jewish Worship to be fuch as that other Nations might fhare in it, and withal, he foretells what the event fhould be: Moreover, concerning a

Stranger

Stranger that is not of thy people Ifrael, but cometh out of a far countrey, for thy names fake; (for they fhall hear of thy great name, and of thy Strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm) when he fhall come and pray towards this houfe: Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the ftranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Ifrael, and that they may know that this houfe which Ihave built, is called by thy name, 1 King. viii, 41, 42, 43. 2 Chron. vi. 33. This was the House of Prayer for all people, la. lvi. 7. Mar. xi. 17. And the Prophets, in their Prophecies concerning the return of the Jews out of their Captivity in Babylon, and in their Predictions of the Meffias, did not omit to infert peculiar Expreffions of God's Love and Favour to Strangers and Profelytes, to fhew that the Promifes did extend to them, as well as to the Native Jews themselves, Ifa. lvi. 3. Ezech. xlvii. 22, 231

From all which, it is evident, that Strangers were equally capable of the Privileges. and Advantages in the Jewish Worship, as the Jews themselves were; and that they were debarr'd of very little in their Civil Rights: and all Encouragement imaginable was given to Strangers to come and dwell amongst the Jews: The Law joins them together with the Natural Ifraelite, both in the Curfes it denounces, and in the Bleffings it promifes; it feverely threatens all that fhould opprefs or G 2 defraud

面

defraud them; it commands the fame charity towards them, as towards the Fatherless and Widow, the greatest Objects of Humane Compaffion, and of the merciful Care and Providence of God: And the Prophets, with the utmost feverity, rebuke the Jews for any oppreffion or abuse of them. The Profelytes were not excluded from their Sacrifices, their Prayers and Sacraments; and if they refused to take upon them the Obfervation of the whole Law, yet they had free leave and great encouragement to live amongst them, believing only in the True God, and obeying those Precepts which were given to all the Race of Mankind after the Flood: They might share in all the Rites of their Religious Worship, and were invited to do it; but if they would not fubmit to this, yet they were not therefore rejected, but might partake of their Civil Privileges, and live under the protection of their Government: And it is observable, that where the fame Laws are repeated in feveral places of Scripture, the Stranger is no where omitted; but what relates to him, is conflantly repeated with the reft, as a neceffary and effential part of the Law. So that never any Government had fo particular regard for Strangers, or was fo peculiarly contrived for their encouragement to live under it. Other Governments, as thofe of Sparta and China, have been fo jealous of Foreigners, that, by their Original Conftitution, they have forbid

any

any Dealings with them, and would not fuffer
them to abide in their Cities. And the Ro-
mans (1) had fome Laws to the fame effect; (1) Full.
which Tully, indeed, fays was an inhumane offic. 1.3.
thing. The Freedom and Privilege of a Ci- !·
tizen of Rome was purchafed at a great Price,
Act. xxii. 28. and in their Leagues (m) with (m) Tull,
pro Balba.
divers Nations, the Romans inferted this ex-
prefs Condition, That none of them fhould be
made Free of the City. The Athenians (n) had (n) Menag
a Tax call'd Melolov, to be paid Yearly by all Diog. Laert.
Obferv. ad
Foreigners, both Men and Women; and they in Xeno-
were fo fevere in exacting it, that those who
were unable to pay it, were fold. But the
Jewish Government, on the contrary, was fo
adapted and contrived for the reception of
foreign Nations, that if they would but com-
ply with their Laws, they made little or no
diftinction between the Natives and Stran-
gers; and the owning the True God, and pro-
teffing to obey and ferve him, entitled them
not only to all the Rights of Humanity and
Kindness, but to a more peculiar Care and
Providence of God himself.

If the Jews did not always fhew fo much
Humanity to Strangers as their Law required,
this is to be afcribed wholly to their own
fault; and it is not the only Law which they
were too prone to disobey yet in the cor-
rupteft ftate of the Jewish Church, the Gentiles
had a Court to worship in at the Temple :"
And the Jews always taught, That it was

G. 3

their

crat.