evidence to us, that God would have the more notice taken of it, and has laid the ftrictest Obligation upon all to obferve it. But we find exprefs mention made of the Stranger at the Appointment of the Yearly Feast of Atonement, Lev. xvi. 29. The Stranger was obliged to bring his Sacrifice to the Door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation; and in the Prohibitions of eating Blood, he is particularly forbidden it, chap. xvii. 8, 9, 12, 15. All the Laws relating to Marriage, and concerning unlawful Luft, are equally enjoin'd the Stranger and the Ifraelite, chap. xviii. 26. he was to be stoned, if he gave any of his Seed unto Moloch, chap. xx. 2. and he was obliged to all the fame Laws concerning Sacrifices, chap. xxii. 18. and was to be stoned for Blafphemy; and for Murther, Hurt, or Damage, the Law made no Difference between Strangers, and Native Ifraelites. Te shall have one manner of law, as well for the Stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the Lord your God, chap. xxiv. 16, 22. The Sabbath was appointed to the Stranger within their Gates, Exod. xx. 10. and xxiii. 12. Lev. xxv. 6. Deut. v. 14. And the Feasts of Pentecoft, of Tabernacles, and of Atonement, as well as the Paffover, were enjoin'd him, Deut. xvi. II, 14. Lev. xvi. 29. The Feast of Tabernacles is restrain'd to the Ifraelites born, Lev. xxiii. 42. only as to their dwelling in Booths feven days. The Stranger was to hear the Law read in the Solemnity of the Year of Release, chap. xxxi. 12. And the Covenant is exprefly made with the Stranger, chap. xxix, 12. Josh. viii. 33, 35.

And as the Strangers or Profelytes were thus join'd, in the very Design and Inftitution of the Law, with the Native Ifraelites themselves, as to all the Acts and Privileges of Religious Worship, when once they had receiv'd Circumcifion, tho' they were not oblig'd to be circumcifed, but were left to their Liberty, undei no Obligation, but to worship the True God, and

obferve

obferve the Precepts of Noah: fo God had a particular regard to them in their Civil Statutes and Or-' dinances, to free them from Oppreffion, and every thing that might give Strangers any difcouragement from living amongst the Ifraelites, and becoming Partakers of their Religion with them: Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor opprefs him; for ye were ftrangers in the land of Egypt, Exod. xxii. 21. Alfo thon Shalt not opprefs a stranger; for ye know the heart of a Stranger, feeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt, chap. xxiii. 9. It feems, one reafon of their being fo long detained in Ægypt, was to teach them humanity and compaffion to Strangers: Thou shalt not oppress an hired fervant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy ftrangers that are in thy land within thy gates, Deut. xxiv. 14. And care is taken of the Stranger, that he be not brought into want, or fuffered to perish in his distress; for the Gleanings of the Harvest and of the Vintage were his portion: Thon fhalt leave them for the poor and the ftranger: I am the Lord, Lev. xix. 10. and xxiii. 22. All manner of Kindness and Affection is in most exprefs and ample terms commanded towards all Strangers: And if a Stranger fojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him: But the ftranger that dwelleth with you fhall be unto you as one born amongst you, and thou shalt love him as thy felf; for ye were ftrangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God, Lev. xix. 33, 34. And Mofes, repeating the peculiar Favours which God had bestowed upon the Children of Ifrael, put them in mind, that God loveth the ftranger, in giving him food and rayment. Love ye therefore the ftranger; for ye were ftran gers 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 reckon'd the higheft aggrava

tion

tion of Wickedness: They flay the widow and the ftran ger, and murther the fatherless: yet they fay, The Lord Shall not fee; neither fhall the God of Jacob regard it, Pfal. xciv. 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 ftranger wrongs fully, Ezek. xxii. 29. And to the fame purpofe, 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 himself to a Stranger, and become his Servant but he might be redeemed again, either by himself, or by his near Kinfman, and was to be releafed at the Year of Jubilee, ver. 47. The Cities of Refuge were provided for the Stranger and the Sojourner, Num. xxxv. 15. Joh. xx. 9. The Judges were particularly commanded to execute righteous and impartial Judgment to the Stranger, Deut. i. 16. A caution is given, that neither the Edomites nor the Ægyptians were to be abborred 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, chap. xxiii. 7. And though the Ammonite and Moabite were for ever, that is, by a perpetual Decree, excluded even to the Tenth Generation, from the Congregation of the Lord, by reason of their inhumanity to the Ifraelites, at their coming out of Agypt, 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. xxvi1. and the Ifraelites are threatned, that upon their Difobedience, the Stranger should be more profperous than they, chap. 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 design of building it, and of all the Jewish Worship to be fuch as that other Nations might share in it, and withal, he foretels what the event fhould be: Moreover, concerning a stranger that is not of thy people Ifrael, but cometh out of a far country, for thy name's fake; (for they fhall hear of thy great name, and of thy ftrong hand, and of thy ftretched out arm) when he fhall come and pray towards this houfe: Hear thou in heaven thy dwellingplace, and do according to all that the stranger 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 house which I have built, is called by thy name, 1 Kings viii. 41, 42,43. 2 Chron. vi. 33. This was the House of Prayer for all people, Ifa. Ivi. 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 Expressions 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, 23.

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 defraud them it commands the

fame

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 severity, 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 thofe Precepts which were given to all the Race of Mankind after the Flood: They might fhare 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 obfervable, that where the fame Laws are repeated in feveral places of Scripture, the Stranger is no where omitted; but what relates to him, is conftantly 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 Dealings with them, and would not fuffer them to abide in their Cities. And the Romans had fome Laws to the fame effect; which Tully, indeed, fays was an inhumane thing, and it was the cause of the Bellum Sociale, or the War raised against the Romans by the feveral States of Italy. The Freedom and Privilege of a Citizen of Rome was purchased at a great Price, A&t. xxii. 28. Of this Dio, as well as St. Luke, informs us, fpeaking of the Times of Claudius; and in their Leagues