mence until the book of Exodus, and runs through the remaining four, commonly called the books of Moses.
On account of the absence of the word or term gentile, in the books of the law, properly so called (for the book of Genesis is but a narrative or history of the first ages of the earth, and no part of the law), we conclude that the word heathen, as used in the law by Moses, referred solely to the Canaanites, and to their race, the blacks or negroes in general. We are the more confirmed in this opinion, because Moses himself calls the people of Japheth, who were white men, gentiles. See Genesis x, 5.
In that chapter, namely, the 10th, Moses has given an account of three races of men, the sons of Noah, and what they were called as nations. In this account, which is the eldest of all history, at the 5th verse of the chapter above named, the descendants of Japheth are called gentiles, in distinction from the other two races, those of Shem and Ham.
In after ages, however, the terms gentile and heathen seem to have become synonymous, as referring to all the people of the globe, except the Jews. But in the law the word gentile does not occur. The word heathen, therefore, as used by Moses, referred exclusively at that time to the negro race, and to no other people: this opinion cannot be refuted.
The term heathen therefore as used in the law, referred entirely to the race of Ham, who had been judicially condemned to a condition of servitude, more than eight hundred years before the giving of the law, by the mouth of Noah, the medium of the Holy Ghost.
The law was given from Mount Sinai, which was
