5 says: “The law of ceremonies came from God, Moses had commandment to commit it unto the sacred records of Scripture, where it continueth even unto this very day and hour ; in force still as the Jew surmiseth because God himself was the author of it. .... But (that which they in the blindness of their obdurate hearts are not able to discern) sith the end for which that law was ordained is now fulfilled, past' and gone ; how should it but cease any longer to be which hath no longer any cause of being in force as before.” God’s moral law endures though institutions change, and “ thou shalt not covet” will be in force, when and where no “ man servant,” or “ maid servant” exists to be coveted. But let us turn to the Bible narrative, and see whether it sustains the Bishop’s proposition. In the ninth chapter of Genesis the sacred writer says : “ God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply .... and the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast, etc............ Into your hand are they delivered,” and again, vv. 8, 9, “ God spake unto Noah and to his sons [no exception is made] with him, saying, Behold I establish my covenant with you and with your seed after you.” Thus from God’s holy Word we see that the Almighty blessed Noah and his sons, and made a covenant with them and with their seed after them ; and that blessing we are justified in believing continues unto this day. In vv. 21-25 of the same chapter Noah’s drunkenness and Ham’s offence are narrated, and the curse pronounced on Canaan as previously quoted. No revocation of God’s blessing previously bestowed is hinted at, no censure is passed upon the other children of Ham ; there is not the slightest authority in the Bible for any such unwarrantable inference as the writer draws that all. Ham’s posterity passed under the curse. In chapter x. 6, we are told that the sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim and Phut and Canaan; in vv. 15-18, the children of Canaan are enumerated, but we will first follow the other sons of Ham in the Bible narrative, and then trace the posterity of Canaan, and we will thus clearly see that the latter alone were under the curse. Without entering into any of the ethnological or linguistic speculations in regard to the people of Africa, but taking the
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