IV. Nor unmerci∣fully to punish him.
Yea, and to lesser punishments, as stripes and blows, &c. much of equity and fa∣vour is to be shewed to Captives and Bondmen, Thou shalt not oppress him or rule over him with rigour, saith the Divine Law concerning the Hebrew Servant; which since the coming of our Saviour, by reason of that affinity that there is between all mankind, ought to extend to all Servants: upon which Law Philo thus glosseth, Servants in respect of the goods of fortune are our inferiours, but in respect of our common nature our equals. But the rule of Divine justice, saith he, is not that which is agreeable to fortune but to nature. Masters therefore are not to behave themselves towards their Servants insolently, nor to abuse that power which the Law permits them, thereby to grow cruel. For these are signs not of a meek and calm, but rather of a froward and intemperate mind, domineering over their Ser∣vants in a tyrannical way. Priscus comparing the Romans with other barbarous Nations, tells us, That they treated Captives with much more mildness than others did, performing un∣to them rather the offices of Fathers and Tutors than of Conquerours: For as they studiously withdrew them from those things, which in respect of their own customes were unlawful; so if they did offend, they only corrected them as sons; but to kill them (as the Scythians did) they esteemed utterly unlawful. There are divers kinds of liberty indulged unto them by their Lords, and that not only whilst they lived, but at their deaths: for whatsoever dying, they ordain or ap∣point to be done, with that which is their own, hath the power and force of a Law. Philo in his second Book of Special Laws, as also St. Cyprian in his Epistle to Demetrian, high∣ly blames this severity towards Servants, If thou art not readily obeyed in all things (say they) if thy will be not executed as a Law, thou growest presently imperious and cruel; thou tormentest thy slave with whips and scourges, thou afflictest him with hunger, thirst, nakedness, and oft-times woundest him and throwest him into Prison; and yet, wretched man that thou art, whilst thou thus abusest thy power towards thy captivated slave, thou forgettest thy duty to, and thy fear of the Lord thy God. Now what can be more foolish and absurd, saith Se∣neca, than to make the condition of a Servant worse than that of a Beast: He that would skil∣fully manage an Horse, will not provoke and exasperate him with many stripes; for unless he be gently handled at the first, he grows fearful and headstrong. And again, What can be more unseemly (saith the same Seneca) than to exercise that cruelty upon a man though our Slave, which we would be ashamed to exercise over Doggs or Oxen. To restrain which brutish cruelty, it was wisely provided by the Hebrew Law, That if a Master did strike out the eye or tooth of his Servant injuriously, he was for that eye or tooths sake, to let him go