To all of which, worthy of answer, it may be well to apply the sentiment which he attributes to Dr. Fuller, that the New Testament is not silent on the subject of slavery; that it recognises the relation; that it commands slaves to obey their masters, and gives reasons why they should do so. And it may be steadily affirmed, if slavery be a sin, that such commands and counsels are not only a _suppressio veri_, but a _suggestio falsi_; not only a suppression of the truth, but a suggestion of what is false! * * * * * If it shall be said that God merely sanctioned or permitted slavery in the time of the patriarchs, who will say that he did not enjoin it in the time of Moses? A repeal of this injunction demanded a countervailing revelation of no equivocal character, clear and decided, without the admission of a doubt. “And God spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying, * * * But thy bond-men and bond-maids which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bond-men and bond-maids. Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy and of their families, which they beget in your land; and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance, for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession: they shall be your bond-men for ever.” _Lev._ xxv. 1, 44, 45, 46. Mr. Barnes has adduced no proof that this law was ever repealed; nor do the holy books contain any evidence of such repeal; yet he has denied the existence of slavery in Judea, at the time of the advent of the Saviour. See pp. 228, 242, 244, and 249, before quoted, and, we trust, sufficiently refuted. But we now add, that at the time Jesus Christ and his apostles were on the earth, Judea was a province of Rome. Now, since it was clear that slavery was inculcated by the Hebrew laws, unless it was forbidden by the Roman, we could not come to the conclusion that slavery did not exist in Judea at their time, even if Jesus Christ and his apostles had never alluded to it. But,—see _Matt._ xxvi. 51: “Behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant (δοῦλον, _doulon_, _slave_) of the high-priest,” then some suitable but different word would have been used, as in the following: “And the servants (δοῦλοι, _douloi_, _slaves_) and officers (ἱπηρέται, _hupēretai_, _attendants_, _persons who aid_, _assistants_) stood there,” _John_ xviii. 18; proving the fact that both slaves and other attendants were present, and that the _slave_ was named distinctly from such other attendants. There can be no doubt about these facts; and in proof that slavery was not forbidden by the Roman laws, we quote from Mr. Barnes, page 251: “In Italy, it was computed that there were three slaves to one freeman; and in this part of the empire alone, their numbers amounted to more than twenty millions.”