ilies of the Canaanite spread abroad." Was
not Canaan as much and no more the father of these _ites_, than he was
of Sidon and Heth? Certainly. Then why doom them and their flocks and
herds to extermination, and except the families of Sidon and Heth, his
two other sons? Were they morally any better, except as to their not
being the progeny of amalgamation with negroes? They were not. Then why
save one and doom the other? If these _ites_ were no worse _morally_
than the children of Sidon and Heth, then it is plain, that we must seek
the reason for their destruction, in something _besides moral
delinquency_? Let us see if we can find _that_ something? The Bible
tells us, that God in one of his interviews with Abraham, informed him
that all that land (including all those _ites_) should be his and his
seed's after him--"that his seed shall be strangers in a land not
theirs, and be afflicted four hundred years, and thou shalt go to thy
fathers in peace; _but in the fourth generation_ they shall come hither
again, _for the iniquity of the Amorites_" (these representing all the
ites), "is _not yet full_."

In the fourth generation their cup of iniquity would _then_ be full--in
the fourth generation God gave this order to exterminate these ites, and
to leave nothing alive that breathes. If this filling of their cup,
referred to _moral_ crimes to be committed, or to moral obliquity as
such, then it is _very strange_. If this be its reference, then these
people were, at _that_ time (four generations previous to this order for
their extermination), _worse_ than the very devil himself, as it was not
long before they did fill _their cup_, and the devil's cup is not full
yet. If this filling up of iniquity, referred to their _moral conduct_
in the sight of God, how was Moses or Joshua to _see_ that it was full,
or _when_ it was full? Yet, they must _know_ it, or they would not know
when to commence exterminating, as God intended. How were they to know
it? As in the case of Sodom they had a few Lots among them, and the
_color_ would soon tell when their iniquity was full, and neither Moses
nor Joshua would be at any loss when to begin, or who to exterminate.
Consummated amalgamation would tell _when_ their cup of iniquity was
full. The iniquity of the Amorites (these representing all) is not _yet_
full, is the language of God--in the fourth generation it will be full,
and _then_ Abraham's seed should possess the land, and these _ites_