her to
himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her to a strange
nation, he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with
her.[166]

3. The slavery thus expressly sanctioned was hereditary and perpetual:
"Ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to
inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen forever." Even
the Hebrew servant might, by his own consent, become in certain cases a
slave for life: "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve;
and in the seventh shall he go out free for nothing. If he came in by
himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife
shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have
borne him sons or daughters, the wife and the children shall be her
master's, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall
plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go
out free: then his master shall bring him unto the judges: he shall also
bring him to the door or unto the door-post, and his master shall bore
his ear through with an awl, and _he shall serve him forever_."

Now it is evident, we think, that the legislator of the Hebrews was not
inspired with the sentiments of an abolitionist. The principles of his
legislation are, indeed, so diametrically opposed to the political
notions of the abolitionist, that the latter is sadly perplexed to
dispose of them. While some deny the authority of these principles
altogether, and of the very book which contains them, others are
content to evade their force by certain ingenious devices of their own.
We shall now proceed to examine some of the more remarkable of these
cunningly-devised fables.

It is admitted by the inventors of these devices, that God expressly
permitted his chosen people to buy and hold slaves. Yet Dr. Wayland, by
whom this admission is made, has endeavored to weaken the force of it by
alleging that God has been pleased to enlighten our race progressively.
If, he argues, the institution of slavery among His people appears so
very "peculiar and anomalous," this is because he did not choose to make
known his whole mind on the subject. He withheld a portion of it from
his people, and allowed them, by express grant, to hold slaves until the
fuller revelation of his will should blaze upon the world. Such is,
perhaps, the most plausible defense which an abolitionist could possibly
set up against the light