tions; and the word Jyee, which is translated isles, cannot be confined to such a signification. It means countries, which are far remote beyond the sea, and these countries may be either islands, or continents. Jer. xxv. 22. and the kings of the Jyee, COUNTRIES which are beyond the sea. But the countries of Europe are not beyond, or divided by the sea from the land of Canaan where the patriarchs resided; therefore Europe cannot be meant by the word Jyee, countries, which are beyond the sea.

The descendants of Ham settled in the country of Palestine, including Babylon; the descendants of Shem in the most eastern part, including Persia, ́Arabia, India; and as Africa is divided by the Mediterranean sea, and the Red sea, from Europe, and the land of Canaan, which joins Egypt, it must be allowed that the descendants of Japhet were the first settlers in Africa. This is confirmed by the prophet Ezekiel, xxxii. 26. where Meshech, and Tubal, the sons of Japhet, whose names distinguished their descendants as nations, are mentioned as being a considerable people in Africa, when Pharoah was threatened with destruction.

Mitzraim, the second son of Ham, was also the father of a mighty nation. His descendants settled in Egypt, which in Hebrew is called by his name MITSRAIM, and not Egypt. It is also said, from

him came the Caphtorim. The word means to interpret the solution of difficult things; properly the priests of the most ancient order. The priests of Apollo were so called, from the pretended oracular predictions, and prophetic qualifications of their God of wisdom. Bochart, v. i. p. 666. This will account for the representative worship of the Egyptians. For as the descendants of Ham introduced the worship of their progenitor, who established the order of the ante-diluvian worship, when it had sunk into idolatry, but which, in its pure state, was sacredly figurative, and representative; so Mitzraim his son would naturally fall into that kind of worship, which was observed in Egypt at the time of Moses.

The descendants of Japhet then, it appears unquestionably, were the first settlers in Africa, which land was well known, before the flood, to the patriarch Noah, who, on account of its proximity to the land of Canaan, assigned these divisions to his posterity. From which we are authorised to draw this conclusion; that as Japhet worshipped the true God, so he must have established this worship among his descendants in Africa, exclusive of Egypt, where Mitzraim established the worship of Ham. The worship of the ancient Ethiopians appears to have been retained in its purity longer than in any of

the other nations of Africa. For when the Queen went to visit Solomon, they had the knowledge of the true God; they used most of the Mosaie ceremonies, many of which were like those of the first patriarchs; and the eunuch of Queen Candace was acquainted with the Hebrew scriptures in the days of the Apostles. The Christian religion florished in Africa, at the time of the council of Nice in the fourth century: but at this day, agreeably to the best information, ignorance and superstition have spread their baneful influence over the greatest part of this once enlightened country.

MODERN AFRICANS.

The religious professions of the modern Africans are three: PAGANISM, MAHOMETANISM, and CHRISTIANITY. The Pagans are those who do not receive the Bible, Koran, or books esteemed sacred by any nation. Those who have travelled among them give a description of their theology, more consistent with reason than has been defined by writers in general.

They inform us that, the "intelligent Pagans believe in the existence of one Supreme Being; that man shall rise again after death, and that there are

rewards and punishments after this life; this belief is universal among the African Pagans. They have exalted ideas of the majesty of the Deity, and believe that the superintendance of things in this world is under the direction of invisible beings, to whom God has committed it. Respecting a future state they speak with great humility, and conclude that this state of things will be far better suited to our inclinations and final happiness than the present. Negroland, upper and lower Guinea, Caffraria, the land of the Hottentots, and Ethiopia-inferior, universally profess Paganism. Egypt, Barbary, including the empire of Morocco, Nubia, Biledulgerid, or Zaara, profess Mahometanism. And the people of Ethiopia-superior, or Abyssinia, profess Christianity.

PAGANISM.

The word PAGAN is derived from the Hebrew y Phagang, which means to approach, to intercede. But when the descendants of the ancient Pagans became an ignorant people: ignorant with regard to the true worship of God, it was used by

the Rabbies to mean a rustic, a barbarian, or one uncultivated, or untaught in things appertaining to religion, and was written Pagan, with nun, instead of Oin, or ng, as it is now written PAGAN.

From the original meaning of the word, we are naturally led to conclude, that the first pagans were not worshippers of idols, but of the true God. They understood that a mediator, an intercessor was promised, which knowledge they must have received from the primæval people, who believed in the coming of the Messiah, the redeemer, and who looked on things in outward nature as representing, according to their properties and propensities, the passions and propensities in themselves. But in process of time, the images of these things were placed in their temples; the original understanding and application was first neglected, then lost, and they worshipped God through the images, which were originally representative only; hence began idolatry.

This kind of worship by images and figures, now pervades many of the nations of Asia and Africa, Great Tartary, China, India, almost the whole of the back settlements of North and South America. But whether all these populous nations, containing by far a greater number of inhabitants