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reclaim and purify and strengthen one family, namely, that of Abraham; and we know again, that the legitimate descendants of this family were only kept within the bounds of their duty by the same especial interference, that is, by miracles and by warnings, which it pleased God to give them, and by punishments which he was pleased to inflict upon them from time to time.

We are enabled fourthly, to confirm from the same pages, if confirmation were wanted, the truth of that declaration of St. Paul, "that God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth;" Acts. c. 17. v. 26. for whatever difference there may be in the colour of the skins of men, as they now live scattered over the different parts of the earth, they are all of them either the descendants of Shem, or of Ham, or of Japhet. This difference therefore must have been entirely accidental. And we are warranted again in saying this, for we have seen that a whole nation, which can be proved to have sprung from Cush, one of the sons of Ham, had become black in the time of Jeremiah, "Can the descendant of Cush change his colour or the Leopard his spots, then may ye also do good who are accustomed to do evil." (Jer. c. 13. v. 23.*

* For an elucidation of this see the Appendix.

Another argument, but of a very different nature from that which has been just used, may be collected from these pages to establish the same truth; namely, that all mankind, however they may differ one nation from the other in language, customs, or colour, sprung from one and the same stock. We have already seen that God in his intercourse with Adam ordained worship by sacrifice. Now how can we account for the fact, that this custom, the custom of sacrifice, should have obtained among all the nations of antiquity both before and in our Saviour's time, as well as among all the newly discovered people since? Can we account for it by saying, that the custom was natural or agreeable to reason? No-for nothing could have been more unnatural or unreasonable. I wish for instance to obtain mercy from God for my past sins. But what do I do to procure it? I do an unmerciful act myself by taking away the life of a poor animal, which I had no plea for killing, either because I wanted food or because I feared any injury from it. In fact the difficulty can only be solved by admitting the Bible-account to be true, namely, that the different nations of men, which are now, or which have ever been upon our earth, sprung from two parents, and that God commanded sacrifice to be offered by these. This having been admitted,

the custom must have gone down from our first parents to Noah, and from Noah to his descendants on the plain of Shinar, where it must have prevailed at the time of the dispersion, from which time it is easy to see how it could have been spread over the whole world.

END OF FIRST PART.

APPENDIX.

The descendants of Cush spoken of by Jeremiah were probably the Cuseans or Cushites of Abyssinia, though they might have been the Arabians, who were a dark-coloured people, and descended from Cush also. But this change of colour was not confined at that time to these two nations. The Egyptians of the Nile according to Herodotus had dark faces also, and likewise woolly hair. Many also of the descendants both of Shem and Japhet are now black, who originally found their way into India, where their posterity have remained since. The ancients considered this change of colour to have been produced by climate; for the Greek word rendered Ethiopian means the man with the sun-burnt face. I am

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