Correction, instruction or, a treatise of afflictions

One way or other, even Christians themselves, and such as are truly so called, are more or less guilty of the sin of the Gentiles; ¹without natural affection, unmerciful, without bowels, without compassion.

1. 1Rom. 1.31 [Greek or Hebrew], & [Greek or Hebrew].Rom. 1.31 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, & 〈non-Latin alphabet〉.

Hence you may find, that it was one of the errands upon which God sent Israel into Egypt, that in the brickkilns there their hard hearts might ⟨p. 7⟩be softened and melted into compassion towards strangers and captives. Therefore when God had turned their Captivity, that was one of the first lessons of which he puts them in mind, Thou shalt not oppress a stranger, there's the duty; which, though negatively expressed, yet (according to the Rule of interpreting the Commandments) doth include all the affirmative duties of mercy and compassion: and the motive follows, for you know the heart of a stranger: How came they to know it? seeing ye were strangers in the Land of Egypt. As if God had said, I sent you on purpose into Egypt, that by the experience of your own sufferings and miseries you might learn as long as you live to lay to heart the anguish and agonies of strangers and captives, that whensoever you see a stranger in your habitations, you may say, O here is a poor Sojourner, an Exile, I will surely have mercy upon him, and show him kindness, for I my self have been a stranger and a bondslave in Egypt; ⟨p. 8⟩