strange and unaccountable, on the supposition of their having different originals.

All nations resemble one another in their birth, growth, decay, and dissolution. They all come into the world in the same feeble and helpless condition. While infants they are wholly dependent on others for sustenance and protection. Their growth is very slow and gradual. They are many years in coming to maturity of size, strength, and activity. They are continually liable to fatal casualties and accidents. Or if they escape these, old age infallibly brings on a dissolution, and reduces them to the dust of death. Now since mankind resemble one another in so many important respects, it is natural to conclude, that they have derived their origin from one blood or common stock.

2. It will farther appear, that all nations have sprung from one and the same source, if we consider the ignorance in which they have generally been involved for many ages past. According to the account that ancient nations have given of themselves, they were once in a state of profound ignorance and barbarism. They had no written laws, nor civil compacts. Common usage or custom was their only rule in their civil and public concerns. And after they began to have some few laws, they were not written, but promulgated only by their bards or poets, who were their principal legislators. Nor were they less ignorant in arts, than in laws. The Egyptians, Persians, Phoenicians, Greeks, and several other nations, acknowledge that their ancestors were once without the use of fire. In consequence of this, they lived on raw flesh and the natural productions of the earth, having no household utensils by which they could dress their food. Not knowing the use of fire, they could neither refine brass nor iron, nor any other metals, nor make instruments to cultivate the earth. They could not raise grain, nor convert grain into meal, nor meal into bread. They were necessarily ignorant of all the useful

And they were still longer ignorant of the sciences. There were no regular physicians till after the time of Moses. The Egyptians had a custom of exposing the sick in places of public resort, where every person was required to acquaint himself with the situation of the sick, and tell what he knew to be the best remedies in such cases as appeared. The sciences of philosophy, astronomy, and even common arithmetic, were almost unknown. The most ancient nations could not count farther than ten; and this they learnt by counting their fingers. Hence all nations have counted by tens, for which no other reason appears, but their learning to enumerate by their fingers.

Having considered the ignorance of ancient nations, let us now consider the slow progress they have made in knowledge, learning and civilization. It is more than four thousand years since the Flood; and in all that time mankind have had opportunity of making improvements in all kinds of knowledge. But in all that long period they have brought neither laws nor government, neither arts nor sciences, very near to even human perfection. And many nations are still sunk in gross ignorance, notwithstanding the great and rapid advances some more modern nations have made in every species of the useful and elegant arts and sciences. This slow progress of knowledge in the world, affords a strong presumption that all nations have sprung from one single family. It must have been a work of time, and of great labor and difficulty, for mankind to spread over almost the whole surface of the earth. While any people are removing from place to place, and at great distances, they cannot cultivate the arts and sciences, but rather lose some of the knowledge they had before removing. And this will appear still more evident, if we consider the manner in which the knowledge of arts, laws, and government has spread among different parts of the world. No one nation can boast of having originated all their own arts and literature. These have been gradually handed down from age to age, from one nation to another. We derived our knowledge in letters, laws, and the arts of living, from Britain. Britain derived her knowledge from France and other nations. France, and indeed all Europe, derived their knowledge in the arts of life and literary improvements from Rome. The Romans we know derived their learning and refinement from Greece. And the Greeks derived much of their knowledge in the sciences and arts from the Phoenicians and Egyptians. Cadmus carried the alphabet from Phoenicia into Greece. In a word, letters, laws and arts may be traced up to the Chaldeans, Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Chinese. These undoubtedly were the first nations after the Flood, that formed themselves into a fixed and civilized state, and had leisure to make improvements in the arts of living. Now, if we put all these things together, we must see reason to conclude that all nations are but so many branches of one and the same family. Nor can we account for these things, if different nations are different species, and derive their origin from different sources. On this supposition, we might have expected that they would have differed much more from one another in their civil, literary and moral improvements, than we find they have done from time immemorial. If they had actually sprung from different originals, we might have expected that some would

have been vastly older than others; that some would have been acquainted with many things which others were totally ignorant of; that some would have originated all their own arts and sciences; and that some would have kept themselves entirely unconnected with the rest of the world. This leads me to observe,

3. That it is evident that all nations have originated from one blood, because the farther back we trace their origin, the more they become blended together and mixed into one. There is no nation but the Jews that appears unmixed. The English, French, Spaniards, Germans, and indeed all the nations of Europe are so blended, that none of them can trace out their national origin. Our nation will be soon mixed with almost every other nation on earth, and then it will be very difficult to trace the origin from whence we sprang. All tradition, monuments and history, unite in reducing all nations to one original family; nor is there a possibility of proving more than one original stock from whence all nations have proceeded. If different nations have originated from different sources, it is very strange that not one of them has been able to retain the knowledge of their distinct origin. But if they are all of one blood, it is not strange that every nation has lost the knowledge of the distinct branch of the great family from whence they descended. They separated gradually; sometimes of choice; sometimes for convenience; and sometimes of necessity, being captivated by a foreign nation, and necessarily mixed among them. It is by no means strange that they should not mark, nor remember the various means and causes of their gradual separations. But if different nations are different species, and have derived their origin from different sources, it is strange that they have not been able and disposed to retain the knowledge of their different originals, and that they are now obliged to acknowledge their relation to each other, and are incapable of disproving it. This amounts

very nearly to demonstration, that they are all of one blood, and the offspring of one and the same family. Though nothing more needs to be said to establish this fact, yet since some have denied it and raised several objections against it, I will examine their weight and pertinency.

Some have said it was impossible for one family to spread over all the world, as we find the nations of the earth have done. To this I reply,

1. That it was easy for one family to scatter into any inhabitable parts of the earth where they could travel by land. The natives of this country can travel hundreds or thousands of miles, as individuals, or tribes, in a very short time. The

Goths and Vandals and other rude nations spread from the northern regions, and overran the Roman empire in a very few years. God divided the earth in the days of Peleg, and directed the descendants of Noah's three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, to disperse and go to the several and distant places of their destination. And though the children of Ham at first disobeyed the divine direction, yet they were afterwards compelled to disperse into distant parts of the world, like the other branches of Noah's family. After this first dispersion, it is easy to see that they might gradually spread into any parts of the world where they could go by land.

2. As to those nations who have inhabited Iceland and this western continent, we can conceive of various ways by which they came to these places. It has been conjectured, and not without some probability, that many islands were once connected by some small isthmus to the main land; and that this was the case in respect to the continents. If this be true, then the difficulty is entirely removed. But if this be not true, it is easy to suppose, that those on the continent could devise means to get to the nearest islands. And as navigation was early discovered by this means, they could get to remote islands and continents. The Phoenicians were the first nation that learned the art of navigation, and though they were destitute of the compass, yet they made long voyages, even to the pillars of Hercules at the Straits of Gibraltar. And though it is not probable that the ancient nations made long voyages in order to discover new islands or new countries; yet as they were very liable to be cast away, so it is very natural to suppose that they were often cast away, and thrown upon new islands, and even upon the coasts of this western continent; or at least upon some of the islands near it, from whence they could easily find their way to it. So that the peopling of America and the islands, affords no solid objection against the truth of fact, that all nations belong to one and the same large family.

Some nations presume to carry their antiquity several thousand years higher than others. The Babylonians, Egyptians and Chinese have been guilty of this folly, for folly it is.

1. Because they have no history or monuments to prove their great antiquity. Their state of ignorance can be clearly ascertained, and to have continued much longer than that of other nations. If they were really so much older than other nations, as they pretend to be, it might be expected that they could prove it by their great knowledge in their arts of living, and by authentic histories of their ancient greatness, glory and refinements. But this is out of their power.

2. It is folly for them to claim such high antiquity, since the most ancient and faithful historians bear full testimony to the contrary. And even their own historians never claimed such extraordinary antiquity, till after the days of Alexander, when learning had risen to a considerable height, and there was light enough to refute their vain pretensions.

It is farther objected that the great diversity in the customs, manners and complexions of different nations, is inconsistent with the supposition of their all descending from one original stock.

It is easy to answer that all these things may be accounted for by the different circumstances in which different nations have been placed, and the different climates in which they have lived. We know that different circumstances have great influence in forming the customs and manners, and even moral habits of mankind. It is natural to suppose that nations which have long been placed in different circumstances, should form different customs, manners, and habits, when left to the sole guidance of the dim light of nature. As to the diversity of complexions, this may be chiefly owing to the different climates in which they live. Warm climates have a tendency to darken the complexion, and cold climates to lighten the complexion. Besides, a multitude of accidental causes may concur to form. this distinction among different nations. And after all, it is not, perhaps, more difficult to account for national differences in the respects that have been mentioned, than to account for family differences in the same respects. The truth of fact against which there can be no solid reasoning is, that all nations are of one blood, and descendants of one original stock.

1. If it be the truth of fact, that all nations are of one blood, then we may justly conclude, that the Bible is the word of God. This important truth is denied by multitudes among the different nations of the earth. They presume to call in question the inspiration and authenticity of the sacred scriptures, and represent them as a cunningly devised fable. But this one plain fact which has been, perhaps, sufficiently established, that all nations are of one blood, completely refutes, in various ways, all their subtile objections and sophistical reasonings against the Bible. The plain and simple fact, that all nations are of one blood, confirms the certainty of the principal facts and events, which we find related in the sacred scriptures. It confirms the plain and rational account, which the Bible gives of the first and great event, of the creation of the world. Some have denied that the world ever was created. The greatest pagan philosopher supposed the earth was eternal and