It is incorporated into the state of society; it is, moreover, a relation which can exist and no sin be committed under the relation; hence, it is not sin in itself, any more than the throne of Nero is sin in itself; and the Apostle speaks to the slave-holding Philemon as he would to a father receiving back a wayward son.
"'The claim of Philemon to Onesimus rests only on his having purchased him.

Who had a right to sell him?
Trace the thing back, and you come to fraud or violence, or some form of injustice to Onesimus in making him a slave.

Paul knew that this is the case with regard to every slave; yet he does not "break every yoke," even when, as in this case, he had one so completely in his hands, and could have broken it in pieces.
"'But we will suppose, with my brother, that the laws which God ordained for slavery should prevail under Christianity, if slavery is to exist.
Let every Phrygian, then, a fellow-countryman who has lost his liberty, go free at the end of six years; and at every fiftieth year, whether six years be completed or not, since the last seventh year of release, let all such go free.

This, for argument's sake, we approve.

But we must take the whole code.