d. But,
believing as they did, that it was some of _Adam's race_, then called
_men_, they stumbled on a translation that _not one_ of them has been
satisfied with since they made it. The propriety of this assertion in
regard to antecedents _controlling_ the proper rendering, will be
readily admitted by all scholars. The rendering, therefore, of the exact
_idea_ of the sacred historian, would be this: "Then _men_ began to
profane the Lord by calling on his name." This is required by the
_Hebrew_, and the antecedent facts certainly demand it; otherwise we
would falsify the Bible, as Adam and his sons had been calling on the
Lord ever since the fall; therefore, the men referred to, that then
_began_ to call, could not be Adam, nor any of his sons. This logic of
facts compels us to say that it was the negro, created before Adam and
by him _named man_, for there were no other _men_ on the earth. That the
calling was profane, is admitted by all of our ablest commentators and
Biblical scholars, as may be seen by reference to their works. See Adam
Clark, _et al._ The Jews translate it thus: "Then men began to profane
the name of the Lord."

But we have this singular expression in the Bible, occurring about the
flood: That it repented the Lord that he had made _man_ on the earth,
and that it _grieved him at his heart_. Now, it is clear that God could
not refer, in these expressions, to Adam as the man whom it repented and
grieved him that he had made; for Adam was a part of himself, and became
so when God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became
a living soul, immortal, and must exist, _ex consequentia_, as long as
God exists. God can not hate any part of himself, for that would be
perfection hating perfection, and Adam did partake of the divine nature
to some extent; and therefore the _man_ here referred to could not have
been Adam's posterity; and must have been, from the same logic of facts,
the _man_, negro, the beast, called by God, _man before he created
Adam_. Now, it must have been some awful crime, some terrible
corruption, that could and did cause God to repent, to be grieved at his
heart, that he had made man. What was this crime? what this corruption?
Was it moral crimes confined to Adam's race? Let us see. It was not the
eating of the forbidden fruit; for that had been done long before. It
was not murder; for Cain had murdered his brother. It was not
drunkenness; for Noah, though a preacher of rig