for disallowing that he referred to the negro race at all, and shall contend that his remarks and reproofs, referred to such Hebrews as held their own brethren in slavery, beyond the stipulations of the law of Moses, and to such only. The law of Moses allowed of the sale of Hebrew debtors, to pay their debts, as well as of children, owned by poor Hebrew parents, and also of criminals, as thieves, &c. See Lev. xxv, 39, 47, 48, 50, and Exo. xxi, 7, 2, and xxii, 3, where all these cases are set down.
But the wicked Jews, in the time of Isaiah, as well as at many other times, broke over the boundaries of that law, by keeping their own brethren, thus sold and bought beyond the years of release, and the Jubilees making of them perpetual slaves, both parents and their children, as they did the Canaanites. In case a Hebrew was sold to a Hebrew, the law of Moses strictly forbade their being oppressed, as bondmen were, enjoining it upon those who bought them, to treat them as they would a hired man. See Levit. xxv, 39, 40, and many other passages to the same effect. And besides this, they were commanded to furnish them liberally out of the threshing floor and the wine press, and their flocks, at the times of their release, or at the Jubilees, so as to enable them to begin the world anew. See Deut. xv, 14, which immunities were never extended to a Canaanite slave.
But all this in the time of Isaiah, was deeply and horribly infringed upon, wherefore, Isaiah told them, the Jews, that their fasts and other acts of worship, could not be accepted of God, while injustice to their
