they shall not be sold as bondmen."—How much more ought Christians to esteem their brethren, as the peculiar servants of God on account of their being freed from the more severe bondage of our spiritual enemy, (of which the Egyptian bondage was only a type) by the inestimable price of Christ's blood! and, surely, we may therefore say, " they are God's servants" whom Christ hath redeemed with his own blood, as much as the Jews of old, who were on that account expressly enfranchised from worldly bondage, "they are my servants, they shall not be sold as bondmen;" for this application of the text is entirely to the same effect as the apostle's expression to the Corinthians—"Ye are bought with a price, be ye not the servants of men." 1 Cor. vii. 23. Dr. Whitby, indeed supposes that the words "ye are bought with a price," refer only to a pecuniary price given by the primitive Christians, to buy their brethren out of slavery. But the authority of Justin Martyr and Tertullian, which he cites, by no means proves his interpretation of the text, though it may sufficiently prove the primitive practice of redeeming slaves; which also furnishes a new argument against the legality of slavery among Christians, so far as the example of the primitive Christians is concerned. But scripture is best interpreted by scripture, and therefore the most certain means of ascertaining the true meaning of the words τιμης ηγορασθητε "ye are bought with a price," is to have recourse to the very same expression (ηγορασθητε γαρ τιμης, the words being only transposed) in the preceding chapter 20th verse, where we shall find that it can refer to nothing less than the inestimable price of Christ's redemption: "What! know ye not," says the apostle, "that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's," (1 Cor. vi. 19, 20,) and, consequently, it is the duty of a Christian legislature to vindicate the Lord's freemen from slavery, as all mankind are included in the same inestimable purchase, for it is not only their souls but even
