[Sidenote: The cause of the Ethiopians blacknesse.] It manifestly and plainely appeareth by Holy Scripture, that after the generall inundation and ouerflowing of the earth, there remained no moe men aliue but Noe his three sonnes, Sem, Cham, and Iaphet, who onely were left to possesse and inhabite the whole face of the earth: therefore all the sundry discents that vntil this day haue inhabited the whole earth, must needes come of the off-spring either of Sem, Cham, or Iaphet, as the onely sonnes of Noe, who all three being white, and their wiues also, by course of nature should haue begotten and brought foorth white children. But the enuie of our great and continuall enemie the wicked Spirite is such, that as hee coulde not suffer our olde father Adam to liue in the felicite and Angelike state wherein hee was first created, but tempting him sought and procured his ruine and fall: so againe, finding at this flood none but a father and three sonnes liuing, hee so caused one of them to transgresse and disobey his fathers commaundement, that after him all his posterity shoulde bee accursed. [Sidenote: The Arke of Noe.] The fact of disobedience was this: When Noe at the commandement of God had made the Arke and entred therein, and the floud-gates of heauen were opened, so that the whole face of the earth, euery tree and mountaine was couered with abundance or water, hee straitely commaunded his sonnes and their wiues, that they should with reuerence and feare beholde the iustice and mighty power of God, and that during the time of the flood while they remained in the Arke, they should vse continencie, and abstaine from carnall copulation with their wines: and many other precepts bee gaue vnto them, and admonitions touching the iustice of God, in renenging sinne, and his mercie in deliuering them, who nothing deserued it. Which good instructions and exhortations notwithstanding his wicked sonne Cham disobeyed, and being perswaded that the first childe borne after the flood (by right and Lawe of nature) should inherite and possesse all the dominions of the earth, hee contrary to his fathers commandement while they were yet in the Arke, vsed company with his wife, and craftily went about thereby to dis-inherite the off-spring of his other two brethren: for the which wicked and detestable fact, as an example for contempt of Almightie God, and disobedience of parents, God would a sonne should bee borne whose name was Chus, who not [Sidenote: Chus the sonne of Cham accursed.] onely it selfe, but all his posteritie after him should bee so blacke and lothsome, that it might remaine a spectacle of disobedience to all the worlde. And of this blacke and cursed Chus came all these blacke Moores which are in Africa, for after the water was vanished from off the face of the earth, and that the lande was dry, Sem chose that part of the land to inhabite in, which nowe is called Asia, and Iaphet had