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Egypt was founded by a grandson of Noah, 164 years after the flood. In this short period their founder, Mizraim, could not have forgotten the Lord God of his fathers. When, now, were all these nations the most prosperous-when they knew most, or least, about Him who made them? Doubtless, when they knew most about God, and rendered the most perfect obedience to his commands. Do infidels and deists contemptuously inquire, how could they know any thing about him before the days of Moses? Look at the opportunities of correct information which Moses had when he wrote the Pentateuch. It is true that most of the knowledge of the true God, at this early age of the world, came through the medium of tradition. We shall see whether Moses did not receive his information by channels on which he might depend with the greatest confidence.

TRADITIONARY KNOWLEDGE.

The antediluvian world stood 1656 years. From the death of Adam to the flood was 726 years; and Noah lived 600 of these years, leaving but 126 years from the death of Adam to Noah.

"Adam was contemporary with

Lamech

Methusaleh

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We here, at a glance, can see how a history of past events, from the creation down to the time of Abraham and Isaac, might be preserved and given to posterity. Methusaleh and Lamech were, in all probability, well acquainted with Adam. Shem might talk with the companions of Adam, and with Abraham and Isaac. Lamech lived 93 years with Shem, and 56 with Adam. Methusaleh lived 78 with Shem, and 243 with Adam; and Shem lived 150 with Abraham and 50 with Isaac.

Now, in view of the above facts, would the supposition be improbable, that not only correct but minute accounts of all important events as they occurred were handed down by tradition, since it might be done through so few, and such individuals as above named? As Noah was 600 years old when the flood came-had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who were married; and Shem at least one hundred years old, it would seem impossible that they should be ignorant of what had happened in the old world, since all depended, from generation to generation, on traditionary knowledge. It is very improbable that after the miraculous preservation of their lives in the Ark, they would give a false history to their descendants of any important events which had happened. Noah died 283 years after Heber was born. Heber died but 256 years before Moses, or 19 years after Jacob was born. Heber, therefore, had opportunity to gain all the information his father Shem and his grandfather Noah possessed, relative to the two worlds, and to communicate the same to Jacob. So from Jacob, his children, called the children of Israel, might obtain the same facts and hand them down to Moses. At the present day, when the life of man is so short, it would be difficult thus to preserve facts in the minds of one generation, for the use of another; but not so difficult in patriarchal times. Who can suppose that Noah and Jacob were deceived in this matter, or would attempt to palm an untruth upon the nations of their day?

It was only 256 years from the death of Heber to Moses;

and the law was given to Moses, when he was 81 years old. How then could Moses, if he stated facts falsely, make the ancients believe a lie? After the death of Adam, 126 years intervened before Noah was born, who died only two years before the birth of Abraham. If Moses had then mis-stated the facts of the world's history, there would have been many to correct him. It is supposed that Noah founded the Chinese monarchy-that Ashur, son of Shem, built Nineveh, capital of the Assyriansthat the Jews and Arabians descended from Arphaxed, who also was a son of Shem. Babylon was founded by Nimrod, great grandson of Noah, in the line of Ham, about 120 years after the flood; and Cush, and the son of Ham, it is said, began the settlement of Ethiopia. Menes, or Mizraim, in Scripture, another son of Ham, it is supposed, founded the kingdom of Egypt, about 160 years after the flood.

Canaan, another son of Ham, was the father of the Canaanites, Sidonians, Tyrians, and Carthaginians.

Japheth settled the western parts of Asia, and the countries of Europe.

Is it not then more than probable, that, at the time Egypt was founded, and while she was advancing to the height of her greatness, the religion of the true God must have contributed much, yea more than anything else, to her elevation? And is there any thing impossible in our obtaining, through the channel just. mentioned, tolerably correct accounts of the creation, the flood, and other important events recorded in the Old Testament, even without the aid of inspiration? Surely there is not. But with such aid, those who have given us the history could not err.

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But to return, the Greeks and Romans, in the Apostles' day, were among the first to whom he preached the gospel; and it could not be expected that these proud masters of the world would at once become the humble followers of the Lamb. Rome, in the early days of Christianity, might have been in the objector's eye, Christian Rome, yet Nero, the emperor, not a long time after its nominal conversion, was the veriest heathen, and most wicked despot, in all the world. His heart was as hard and cruel as any that ever disgraced the human char

acter.

REV. J. MONTEITH says, “We are told that Greece and Rome were prosperous without the Sabbath. My reply is, Greece and Rome were idolatrous—they were not irreligious. Idolatry is debasing, and demoralizing, but it does not like infidelity obliterate conscience and spurn at the authority of Heaven. False religions are bad, but they are not so bad nor so prejudicial to morals as no religion. Among that half enlightened heathen nation, the weekly Sabbath was but little recognized, yet their days of rest and solemn worship were numerous, and had a powerful tendency to soften, chasten, and subdue the feelings of the heart. All their institutions, as well as their poetry and literature, were attempered by the restraining obligations of religious fear.

“Providence was more propitious to them than it will be to the reprobate progeny of a degenerate Christianity. We learn the practical maxim of Providence from the impressive language of the Son of God. 'It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment than for that city,' which abuses great privileges. The times of ignorance God winks at,—where the Gospel is not known iniquity is not so severely marked and punished. Nations in such circumstances may enjoy a degree of prosperity, which cannot be enjoyed by those to whom the true God has been made known and who have cast off his fear. That guilt which draws down the heaviest judgment, and interrupts national prosperity, is the guilt of abused light—of those who knew their master's will and did it not.’

"The History of Rome furnishes striking testimony to the ordinary maxims of Divine Providence. Her prosperity has been overrated; she was never a happy nation-her citizens were always occupied with foreign wars or intestine commotion. Her institutions were barbarous-her laws were cruel and unjust— her public amusements were stained with the blood of her sons -her domestic institutions made the Father of the family the arbiter of life and death among his children and servants. Are these the blessings of being without the Christian religion?

"The downfall of Rome illustrates the same doctrine. The steps by which she was brought to this catastrophe, may be seen in the persecutions which she carried on against the Chris

tian religion. She rejected the Christian religion-she despised its institutions-persecuted and put to death its advocates, and used her best efforts to blot out its name. Hence the fabric of her monstrous empire was, from that period, daily crumbling to ruin; and the vials of divine wrath did not cease to be poured out till not a vestige of her greatness remained.

"It is not, therefore, true, that Greece and Rome prospered, while they did not reverence the institutions of religion."

OBJECTION X.-" THERE IS NOT A MORE MORAL PEOPLE THAN THE QUAKERS, yet they observe no Sabbath, because they do not believe that the Bible requires it of them."

What can we suppose the objectors to mean, by assertions of this sort, unless it be to prove that the religion of the Bible and the Sabbath have no salutary influence in rendering nations and communities better? If they do mean this, it shows their dishonesty or criminal ignorance of the history of the world, and a wish to prejudice the minds of others against the system of revealed religion, from which we derive so many blessings, social, civil, and religious. Can any one prove that the Sabbath has had no influence in forming the moral character of the Friends? That it had no influence on Wm. Penn and his colony? Before their morality, which was commendable, can be adduced to show that the Sabbath does not, in its tendency, make communities and individuals better, it must be proved to demonstration, that Wm. Penn and his colony never were favorably influenced by the Sabbath and the Christian religion; which never can be proved. Should the objector show us a Wm. Penn, and a colony, like the Pennsylvania Quakers, in Japan, the Washington Islands of the Pacific, among the mountains of the Moon, or along the Ganges, every way as civil, moral, intelligent, and respectable as were those first mentioned, but who had never religiously observed a Sabbath, nor heard of one-who had never been informed of a revealed religion, and had never seen a man who kept a Sabbath and observed the religion of the Bible, but had been constantly ́surrounded by pagans, from time immemorial; such a fact might be adduced to show that the Christian religion and the Sabbath are not essential to the highest happiness of man in this world.

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