I 1. BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Stents m. Sage Cornell University Library BR45 .B21 1809 3 1924 029 180 698 olln A VIEW OF THE BRAHMINICAL RELIGION, IN ITi CONFIRMATION OF THE TRUTH or THE AND IN ITS INFLUENCE ON THE iHotal Character; m A SERIES OF DISCOURSES, FKEACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD IN THE YEAB 1809, AT THE LECTURE FOUNDED BY THE LATE REV. JOHN BkMPTON, M. A. CANON OF SALISBURY. By the Rev. I. B. S. CARWITHEN, M. A. LONDON: fRINTED FOR CADELL AND DAVIES, STRAND J FOR J. M. .GUTCH, BRISTOL; AND FOR J. FARKEft, OXFOR~D^' 1810. { 10^ Bristol s printed ir }• M. C«tcli> TO THE MOST NOBLE » RICHARD MARQUIS WELLESLEY,K.G. ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S PRINCIPAL SECRETARIES OF STATE. MY LOBD, Though the inability mth whrich the following Discourses are executed, may bring on me the charge of presumption in selecting a name of such high authority on every question, connected witTi the history and science of the eastern world; yet the motives by which they .were suggested, may, in some degree, recommend them to the ap- probation of Maf quis Wellesley. — To no one, my Lord, could -they be addressed with so much propi-iety ; sincej among tht! many claims, which a vigorous aiidispleiidid admihistra- tipn; in Ii^d^;ha^^ptaile4 q« p^Mie esteem and gratitude, it is impossi- ble to forget the obligations, which your Lordship's' patronage has con- ferred on oriental literature. > " Your Lordship needs not to be informed, of what every scholar must know, tha^, in a work, con- fessedly intended for popular use, but on a subject so recondite and difFusiye, it was impossible to a,void all^isions to many points, on which a wide diflPerence of opinion has excited much intemperance and acrimony. That the ensuing i dis- cussion of some of those points, is so temperate,*^ as to^ compose all differ- ence of opinion,! it would be arrox gant to :hope : but no objector to the principles supported will have rea- son to complain; that'his sentiments have been disguised by misrepre- sentatidli, or distorted by prejudice!* 111. In the composition and publica- tion of these (discourses, the great object has been, to establish those sound principles, which, while they include the interests of religion and morality, are the basis of all true policy ; principles, on which the British constitution in Church and State is founded; and to which alone we must look for domestic peace and security, and for the preservation of empire. I have the honor to be, with the greatest respedl, My Loed, Your Lordship's most obliged. And most devoted Servant, LB. S. CARWITHEN. MERE, WILTS, March 31, 1810, ADVERTISEMENT. The author wishes to "observe, respeBing r the few 'Notes attached to' the present work, that they are principally designed for readers unac- quainted with Asiatic literatttre. They might have been-adoafitageously extended, but the Author was imwiliing to add 'more thdnwere absolutely neces' sary, until the sense of the public on the value of his perfdi>fhance should be ascertained. He cannot dismiss the volume without acknow- ledging his o'bligcttions to DoSior FoRT), thePrin- cipal of Magdalen Hall^ and Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic, for many valuable remarks i and also for a comjnunicatiqn transmitted in the most condescending manner by the learned Bishop OF Glocester. Extra6tfrom the last Will and TeslUment of the late Rev.-John Bampton, Canon of Salisbury. — — — *' I give and bequeath my Lands and Estates to the • ' Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University, of Oxford for f ever, to have and to hold all and singular the said Lands Or Estates *' upon trust, and to the intents and purposes hereinafter mentioned ; " that is to say, I will and appoint, that the Vice-Chancellor of the •' University of Oxford for the time being shall take and receive all *• the rents. Issues, and profit^ thereof, , and (after all taxes, reparations, " and necessary deductions made) that he p^y all the remainder to the " endbvmient of ^ieh.t Divinity Leflure Settaons, to be established for " ever in the said University, and to >be rperformed in the manner "following: " I direS andapppint, that, upon the first Tuesday in Easter term, a •' Leflurer be yearly fhoaen t>y the Heads of Colleges only, and by no " others, in the room adjoiiiing to the Pripting-House, between the " hours of ten in the morning and two in the afternoon, to preach eight " Divinity LeQure Sermons, the year foU&wing, at St. .Mary's, in " Oxford, between the comm^nqemeiit pf the last month in Lent Term, << and the end of the third week in A3 Term' " Also 1 1 direSand appoint, that the eight Divinity Lefture Sermon* "shall be preached upon either of thefoUow'ng sobjefls — to confirm , "and establish the Christian Faith, and to confute ^all heretics ai;d " schismatics— 'upon the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures — upon " the authority of the writings of the primitive Fathers, as to the faith « ' and praftice of the primitive Church — upo;! the Divinity of our Lord " and Saviour Jesus Christ — upon, tlje Divinity of the Holy Ghost-^ " upon the Articles of th^ Christian Faith, as corap!x:hcnded in the " Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. " Also I direft, that thirty copies of the eight Divinity Lefture " Sermons shall be always printed, within two months after they arc " preached, and one copy shall be given to the Chancellor of the " University, and one copy t6 the Head of every College, and one copy " to the Mayor of the City of Oxford, and one copy to be put into the " Bodleian Library ; and the expence of printing them shall be paid " out of the revenue of the Lands or Estates given for establishing the " Divinity Lefture Sermons ; and the Preacher shall not be paid, i nor " be entitled to the revenue, before they are printed. " Also 1 dire& and appoint, that no person shall be qualified to preach " the Divinity Lefture Sermons, unless he hath taken the Degree of " Master of Arts at least, in one of the two Universities of Oxford or " Cambridge ; and that the same person shall never preach the " Divi;iity Le£lure Sermons twice." ERRAtA. Page 25, line 6, for Purdnas read Puranu SO, 7 , fir their rcai its 33, 10, fir idiotcy read idiocj SS, Note, jor Bhag^ret read Bhagavat 91, line 17, fir Kasbup rw Every Valley; iriust be exalted^ and every inbuntain and hilL must be linage lovf, the aberrations of' the under- standing, and the obliquities of the will', must be reftified, before "truth shall 'flourish in the earthi and righteousness descend from heaven." ;> lAgainst this claim of universal extension how- ever j on which the Gospel so peremptorily and steadily insists, objeftions are frequently opposed, that it is both doubtful as a question of expe- diency, and falssi as a matter of faft. ^ While some have strenuously denied this apti- tude in Christianity , tor assimilate every age and country to! itself, and its efficacy in counterafling. the effefts of natural temperament, of climate, and df education; others have . adduced its; present very limited and Ipartial establishment, as a proof, that thispreiensio'nmnsfcbelfoundedona strained interpretation qf allegorical passages, jather than on any solid conclusions, dtawn from reason and experience. Although such a 'persuasion may. 9 it is thoughti "be harmlessly indulged, when per- mitted to. vent itself in the deep, but quiet aspirations of devotional abstra£tion ; 'yet when sufficiently powerful to operate on practice, and to animatfe'exertion, being founded on err6*, it ^ must, Jike every other error produce evils, pro- portioned to its magnitude; An exclusive attach- ment to a particular mode of faith, in a state of quiescefice generates the overweening reserve of the anchorite ; but stinjijlated into a£tioni and armed with authority, kindles the boisterous zeal; and Sanguinary fury, of the Bigot; 'These objeftions, which ar'e always eagerly espoused by unbelievers, 'who are in the habit of classing the Christian Religion with the various delusions, which hdve successively captivated the! 'public mind, have been supposed to derive ad- ditional weight, from a survey of the religious opinions prevalent throughout the eastern world. Divided* irild empires of vast extent and grarHfe'ur, inhabited by an immense population^ its conquer-^ ers have always preserved and still contiriue to preserve, their superiority; rather by the expedients «f pblitica;} wisddm, than by the force of arms. But if its inhabitants iriust yield' the palm of Jnte'Hedtual strength, in many of the arts of refine- nlent they have mai?ftained'a decided superiority^; 10 and wherever European power has enslaved their bodies, the European mind itself has generally received a bias, and European habits have taken their Complexion, from the^ fascinating and luxu- • rioffl|§ m,anners of Asiatic climates. On subjects conriediiieid with legislation and government, the liberal spirit of European policy has often been contra£led, and subdued, by the refinements of Eastern d,espol;ism. Ii:i matters of religious belief, which must always hg-ye a powerful influence on the moral character, this result has been still more conspicuous; and the pure and simple faith of the western world, has been too frequently weakened and confounded by the imposing dogmata of oriental superstition. , The various forms of religion predominant in 4he east have also acquired a higher degree of importance, and occupied a greater share of at- tention, frojn their connexion with the history andfcicience of a people, who^e interests-are so ♦Intimately blepded with thpse of \h& British em" pire ; a people, vfho while they have for ^ series of ages borne with unresisting apathy tl\e yoke of servitude, uqdpr so many different masters, have stubbornly repelled ^ny attempted innova- tion, and every imposed restri£lion, on those peculiar tenets which they have so long revered. 11 That the; warlike tribes, of Arabia and Tartary, who have sent out from their bosom, conquerors to'invade, to subdue, or to convert the rest of the earth, should have retained vestiges of their ancient c:u?toms and traditions, might be reason- ably expefted ; bu,t that th,e peaceful natives of Hindoostan,, ynder the mast sanguinary peisecu- tions, as well as under the milder influence of persua^on, should have preserved the prpminent features of their ancient chaVafiter pnworn by this " attrition, is a fa£t,,whigh while it causes admira- tion, mu§t afford an ample field for speculation and research. To the expedition of Alexander, who opened the knowledge of India to Europe, we are natu- rally prompted to look, fonthe earliest information respefiting the manners of its inhabitants. "W^hatever defe£ts niay be found in the Grecian historians, >vithc respe£t to theii*~ geographical knowledge, dfifejSs, arising both from their diffi- culty in obtaining local information, and from the strufliure of their language, which caused them to rejeQ: many fcreign terms, as barbarous and .dissonant ; yet to their faithful accuracy in the delineation of manners, the experience ftnd obser- vation of modern times, have afforded abundant and honourable' testimony. 12 In those authors who have recdrded the afitions of the Macedonian conqueror, and particularly in the works of Arrian, which, although written after the declension of Attic taste and elegance, are not unworthy of a purer age ; we recognize many of those distindHve iflarks, which, at this daycare attached to the followers of the religion of Brahma. We are also informed that. even at a period so remote from the present, their reli- gion exhibited proofs 'of long establishment. Their division into separate tribes or castes, by which a community in religious worship, as- well as in. social intercourse, was restrifted, 'together with the peculiar imniunities arrogated by the sacerdotal order, are described vvith a clearness and precision, which it! might be thought impos- sible - for ignorance to misapprehend, or for ingenuity to pervert. ' But in the representations which are given of the simplicity of their worship, and particularly of • their total abhorrence from idolatry, there is not less, reasoii to conclude, that their faitlv has suffered some remarkable deviations from its original purity, f!' ■ >;■ From the tfme when the successors of Alex- ander ceased to maintain an immediate commu- nication with India, a wide chasm occurs in it^ history. 13 It tv'as during tins interval however, vthat a wonderful change was-efFefted in the opinions of mankind by the introduction of a religion, of which, if the purity of its do£trines attested by incontrovertible miracles prove the divine origin, its propagation by means so utterly inadequate, and to human reason conteraptible, no less de- monstrates the intervention of divine agency. The command which its divine author gave to his disciples : " Go ye into all the world and preaclj " the GoSpel to every creature^" was so punc- tually fulfilled, if not in the letter, yet as to the" spirit and design^ .that in comparison with the triumphs, obtained by a few artless and illiterate men, not only without the assistance of all human power, but 'in direft opposition to it, the con- quests of the Macedonian hero, either in magni- tude_ or difiiculty, ■ shrink into insignificance. Within the short period of fifty years from the death, of Christ, the sound of his Gospel haid, almost literally, " gone forth into all lands-, and " its words unto, the ends of the world." It had been heard -in the porticos 'of Athens, and in the pagodas of India. It had been enabled by its native strength to -subdue the fierce andrinhospi- £) • table Parthian, and combat the \yit and 'eloquence qf the Roman court. Itvwas equally successful, whether opposed to the metaphysical subtlelies u of the philosopher, or to the grosser and more palpable absurdities of vulgar superstition. In that division of the distant portions of thfc habitable world, which was made by the Apostles at their separation,; the immense provinces of the greater' Asia extending eastward from the Euphrates to the Indus, were assigned to the ministry of Saint Thomas. The tradition which selates, th'at his pious labors were extended be- yond this boundary, and which is confirmed by the testimony of the best ecclesiastical historians, tliough rejedled by some-modern writers, has been placed by subsequent research still farther beyond the reach of contradifilion or rational doubt.'. From recent information however, supported by the concurrent voice of past ages, we are warranted in drawing the conclusion, that the Gospel was preached in India, during the first and purest ages of the Church. For the follow- ing fa£ts we have undeniable evidence ; that, in the middle of the fourth century, Frumenlius was appointed by Athanasius Bishop of India, where he found the doftrines of the Christian faith understood, and praftised by a great number y and these are fepresentedi, in thp fifth century, to ^ S«t on this wbjetA, Care Ssc. 3, in Manewi 2; 15 , have considerably increasied in wealth and im- portance.' But the primitive purity of the Christian relfgiohwas soon afterwards corrupted, by the introduftion of the Nestorian hsresy from Persia, and iin the course of a few ages, the principles of that sefit became almost universally prevalent. To what extent the pure tenets of the Dhfislian •faith ihcji^ht have been professed in Hindoostan, or wha't latent iefFefts its corruptions, and the introduftion of the various apocryphal Gospels, .which, found their way into the east, might bave pi*oduced on the religion of theiiihabitants, it >would be inconsistent with the brevity of this historical sketch to discuss. We are now reluct- antly conipelled to turn our eyes to a different pifilure. We are now called on to mark the progress of a religion, not, like the former, pur- suirtg acdu^e sileftl and tranquil, observable only by the blessings which it dispenses ; but, like a torrent, over'whfelm'iiig every obstacle that op- posed its fury. The useful labors of the Christian- saint, scarcely find a place in history, and they are chiefly recalled to our recolleftion, ' by the strains of a Poet equally conspicuous for piety of sentimdnt alffd sublimity of 'diflion.*' Biif -the * Busebxl. 3. c. 1. Sozomen. ll S. c. 24. Socrat. 1. 1. c. S9. ' See the jLutMd of Camoens, B. 10. Id " Star, of Islamism" is too banefiilly portentous t6 be forgotten. The triumphs of the Arabian impos- tor are indelibly written in ch^rafters of blood. r In the seventh century, his followers first attempted to plant the Mohammeckn faith, in the country of Hindoostan ; in the south, under the mask of friendship; in the north^ by the iierror of the sword. : Through the whole course of their conquests, whether conduced' by the insatiable avarice of Mammood, or by the fero- cious coutage of Timur, we behold the same wan- ton insult, and licentious barbarity, i Religion, was the pretext, and plunder the . dbjeft, by which they were impelled, and both co-operated in the work of destruftion. What could not tempt the rapacity of the one, was sacrificed to the zeal of the other. While the possessions of the unoffending inhabitants were ravaged, and their persons, I violated by- brutal lusj, their tem- "ples were polluted, and ; their altars overthrown, by the relentless hand of blind fanaticism. To the rsign of .the, illustrious Acber, which forms the only truly brilliant • epoch in the Mus-^ sulman empire of India, we must ilook for a different sjtsterti of policy, adopted both from expediency and inclination. By him i^ was first 17 discovered, that the security of his governmieiit, and the happiness of his subjefts, could never be promoted, but on the basis of universal tolera- tion : and thus, while his desire of knowledgCj incited him to examine, and to compare the different forms of religion, which had been estab- lished iif his extensive dominions, his nioderation taught him equally to protefii: the ex^cise of all. But the period had now arrived, when, the Mohammedan power, which, during the space of more than eight centuries, had exerted the most despotic tyranny over the Eas,t, and had become formidable to the whole world, was to receive a check, by the discovery of the maritime passage to India; a discovery, which not only opened a new direfilion to Asiatic Gommerce, but, which as has been remarked, with a warmth of expression not exceeding the soberness of truth, preserved the liberties of mankind.* In reviewing the history of those important events, which have decided the fate of empires, jind of those Splendid achievements which have ultimately contributed to general happiness .and prosperity, we have often reason to lament, that they have been' effe£ted by means at which c 18 humanity revolts. We mysl be compelled to acknowledge, that the soil in which " the vine and the fig tree" have afterwards flourished in the greatest luxuriancy, has been fertilized by blood. But the voyage of Gama is one of those occur- ' rences, on which the mind dwells with more unmingled pleasure. When the kingdom of Portugal first establish- ed its settlements in the East under his direftion, its conquests were marked by none of those enormities, which have so often disgraced those nations, who from motives of avarice or ambition have planted distant colonies. The earliest mis- sionaries also, who laboured to convert the natives of India, were a£luated by the purest intentions, and prosecuted them by the most laudable means.'. It was not till about fifty years afterwards, when the Jesuits undertook the task, that a dif- ferent method was pursued. The lust of secular power was the motive which influenced all their attempts ; and to this, the precepts of their religion were made to yield. While they compelled the Christians whom they found established in the southern parts of Malabar to abjure the tenets of their ancient creed, and to acknowledge the ' rarticularly Cubilonez tbe confetior of Guni. 19 authority, of the Papal see ; they; sought to acqxiire an ascendancy over the followers of Paganism, by a ready compliance with their faVQUrite prejudi- ces. Whithiersoever ; they came, their principa,! care was, to discover the popular objefts of fear and adoration ; and thus by contradifting none of these, they insured a temporary success. If the sun were iesteeroieji, the fountjain of , life, and the source rfirdni which all human blessings were derived; they represented Jesus Christ, as de- scended from thqit luminary, and: themselves as his younger brethren, sent to give light tq thf ignorant. If their idol^trffus hearers were 151 dread .of exorcism, ^d o-fthe machinations pf evil spirits y thjeyideclared rthat th^ sole objeft of the mission of Christ, was to destroy demoniacal agency J that jhe had subdued its influence in Europe, andi th^t they were sent by him into the East, to complete his benevolent design. Thus by a literal application of that favourite maxirn pf their political fouiid^er, distorted frpptijt^e meaning of St. Paul, " to the clean al> things are clean ;" — innumerable proselytes of tb^ lowest castes were gained, whose tenets were composed of some of the peculiar and mysterioug do6trines of the Gospel, engrafted on their own iipipure and fanciful mythology. c2 20 But although the empire of the Portuguese in Indiaj was originally established on those prin- ciples of equity and moderation which alone can ensure stability and permanence ; yet ' to these succeeded a deliberate schenie of rapine and extortion, which led to its desjtruftion. At the commencement of their enormities, it was pointedly ohserved of them, that they were " among men what lions were among beasts, and for that reason nature had appointed their species to be equally few." But when luxury began to enervate their manners, these sentiments were changed. " They now conquer Asia, but Asia will soon conquer them," was the consolation of an Indian prince ; a predi£tion, which the event fully justified. The jealousies and dissensions which weakened their internal government, as well as their external means of defence, afforded to other nations an opportunity of participating in those advantages, to which the Portiiguese claim- ed an exclusive right ; and at length transferred to the British empire, the possession of one of the most fertile parts of the habitable globe. Under the dominion of all these different powers, the design of controlling the religious opinions of their colonial subjefts, and of super- seding their present tenets, has been prosecuted 21 by different means, arid with different degrees of ardor^ The spirit of conversion has sometimes burst forth in the well-intended, but mistaking, ej(Forts of wild enthusiasm : it has sometimes, though rarely, glowed with the warmth of genuine piety J it has sometimes, almost entirely, subsided in the effervescence of worldly interest and poli-' tical contention. " ' From this short view of Indian history, as it stands conne£led with religion, we are naturally led to inquire more minutely, into the nature of that system, which has thus preserved some of its niost striking peculiarities, amidst so many and calamitous revolutions. We have seen it brought into contaft with Christianity, under every form, in a state of purity, and iii a st'ate of ' corruption. "We have seen it assailed by all the virulence of Mohammedan bigotry, a religion, we might suppose, still more palatable to the slothful and luxiirious. Yet its most striking lineaments still remain unchanged. That it has experienced some alterations and corruptions, there is no ropm for doubt, when we advert t6 the accounts which ancient history has given of its tenets ; but they are such changes as must have been almost unavoidably introduced into, arty system of faith, in which the sacerdotal order is c3 22 the only, depositary of the saored ora'cleSj and possesses the sole arbitratioti of all differences in reJigious disputes. While the Brahmins continue a seft, those motives which invariably aftuate human nature under similar circumstances, a zeal for their own privileges, and a regard for national honor, will prompt them to irhpose such doftrines on their followers, and to gloss over their philoso- phy when laid before strangers, in the manner best adapted to promote their interested designs. In forming a general idea of the Brahminical system, the first circumstance which strikes the mind of the enquirer, is, its difference from every other forni of oriental Paganism, Its tenets essentially diversified from those of the Zoroastrian school, with which they have sometimes been improperly confounded ; and not less diversified from those of the religion of Boodh, from which they afterwards received an admixture, present a subjeO:, for contemplation, at , once novel, and interesting, To aid our researches in this enquiry we are furnished with singular advantages. The doc- trines of Brahminism are not to be estimated solely from the comparison and concentration of foreign testimony, which may be prejudiced, or 23 frem the evidence of oral tfaditioiij which inust be uncertain j but its principles are more fully developed in the great body of Sanscrit literature. This literature has been celebrated by the philo- logist as being written in a language of wonder- ful copiousness, and of exrquisite refinement ; it has been studied by the metaphysician, as con- taining an elaborate system of abstruse philo- sophy ; it has been adn^ired by the moralist, for the elevated tone and impassioned sublimity of its ethical maxims. In each of these different points of view this grand source of oriental know- ledge must be interesting; and we must consider it, hot only as the parent of most of the diale£ls of Asia, but as having extended far beyond the confines of the eastern world-. But its value is enhanced;, when we refleft that this language is esteemed of celestial origin, and that its charac- ters have been appropriated to convey to distant ages those sacred oracles, to which the Hindoos •refer as a formulary of faith, and as a rule of moral conduft. .^c! With respe£l to the authenticity and antiquity of those records, and to the degree of credit which they may claim, various and contradiftory opini- ons have been entertained. While in the true spirit of fidlion and romance, they are represented c4 24: by the Brahmins themselves as having existed before the creation of the world ; and while they are supposed by many Europeans to be of an earlier date than any history now extant, they have been unwarrantably stigmatized, by others, as the forgeries of modern artifice, and even their existence has afforded a subjeft of debate. That the sacred volumes of the Hindoos are genuine, that those compositions, which are now received under the title of the Vedas, are the same with those which have beep received as such, for a number ot ages, we. have the best of evidence to prove : that species of evidence which is generally deemed conclusive in determining the credit of any ancient produftion ; that species of evidence to which we ourselves confidently apr peal, whenever the genuineness of our own scrip- tures is called in question. In the recitation of them, the metre is preserved with scrupulous exactness, though the sense be apparently neg- lefted, a practice which effeftually secures them from interpolation : they are explained, and com- mented on by a multitude of annotators of dif- ferent ages, whose extrafts agree with the original text as it now stands : they are quoted by writers on subjefts, not prdfessedly religious, but in treatises on law, mfedicine, astronomy, and gram-. 25 mar : and what Is still more decisive to the pur- pose, the writings of heretical .sefts exhibit quotations from them, which admit their genuiae- ness, although they ' deny their do£trine's and ■authority. ' The authenticity of the Purdnas, and of the other sacrfed writings of the Brahmins, which, ■ though not esteemed of the same transcendent excellence as the Vedas, are yet acknowledged by them to be of divine Origin, cannot be Said to rest on the same immoveable foundation. But, although in some instances, additions and inter- polations may have been detefted, there are still sufficient proofs to shew, that they are a Compila- tion from valuable materials, which now no longer exist, or from traditions of unquestionable antiquity* For, determihittg the exa£l period when the Hindoo records were written, or even when their different portions were colIe£ted into one. body, no fafts have yet been established which can lead to a certain decision. Attempts have been made to ascertain this point from the few detach- ed hints which they supply respefting the po- sition of the constellations in. the heavens, at the sera, in which they profess to have lieen written. ^6 It has been, still more unsuccessfully, atteraptedi by the unauthorised assumption, that the varia- tions in all languages, and therefore in the Sanscrit language have taken place in times very nearly proportional ; and that by ascertaining the age of some modern produftion, we may be enabled to fix the age of another more ancient, by retrograde calculation. The date of these records has however, not without plausible reason, been placed at a period, anterior to any other written monuments of profane history; and has indeed been carried, by some, far beyond the time of the Jewish legislator. But whatever sentiments may be entertained, re^pefiting the comparative antiquity of the Brah- minical records, and of that history which we believe to be the produftion of inspired truth, these can in no degree afFeft the credibility of the latter. The priority of time is not a question .worthy of controversy; but we turn with an anxious eye to discovefr how far these venerable monuments of eastern literature, confirm, or dis- prove, the narrative, which our own Scriptures give, concerning the early periods of the world. And here, with pleasure we observe, that additional light has been refl?£ted on the Mosai- 11 cal history, and its cbrreftness and fidelity have been more fully vindicated. The coincidence and corroborative testimony are also perfe£tly undesigned, and such as could not have taken place, if they had been occasioned by interested, forgeries. They have been found to ekist like- wise, in instances, where infidelity had expefted to gain a signal triumph by wounding Christianity through the sides of Judaism. In attempting to fulfill the design, ^hich the Founder of this Le£lure appears to have con_ templated ; that these annual Discourses should supply a. refutation of some popular objeftioiis ag-ainst the Christian faith, no subject perhaps, could be sele£ted, more important, and, at the present crisis, more generally interesting, than that which is now proposed for discussion. Infi- delity continually changes her weapons <)f an- noyance, and therefore the Christian champion varies his mode of defence ; and by watching with solicitude the fluftuation of prevailing opi- ijiion he is better enabled to counteract both 1 speculative error and vicious praftice. It will be the design of the former part of the following Discourses, to collet some of the prin- cipal, and more obvious, proofe, which the Brah- 29 minical records have afforded. In confirmation of the Mosaical writings ; and as the whole code of our national religion, has been asserted-to depend on the truth of the eleven introduftory chapters of the Book of Genesis, ariy additional evidences in support of their credibility, cannot but be deemed an important acquisition to our common fsith. The first objeft which will claim attention, in the prosecution of this enquiry, is, the chronology of the Brahmins, drawn both from their astrono- mical calculations, and from their history : and it will be shewn, that their scheme, far from invali- dating, will confirm the sacred chronology. Ad- vancing from negative to positive proofs, a dis- quisition win succeed, oh the striking correspon- dence of the Sancrit records, with the Mosaical account of the deluge, and on the peculiar cir- cumstances, which render this coincidence of more than common value. The next objeft worthy of regard, is the Mosaical account of the origin and settlement of nations, which will be corroborated' by the' geography of the Piiranas, joined with testimonies incidentally colle£led from other anci- ent writers. This investigation will finally condufil us to those traces, which may yet be discovered ia the corrupted mythology of the Hindoos, 29 decidedly pointing to a higher origin, and shew- ing the derivation of inany of their religious opinions from those primeval traditions which were common to all mankind. But these instances of siitiilarity between the Mosaicial and Hindoo records, and especially of the agreement between many of the Jewish and Brahminkal ceremonies ; a circumstance which cannot fail to strike the most inattentive observer, and which caused the learned Hyde hastily to pronounce, that Brahma was no other than the patriarch Abraham,* has given rise to another opiniorl, that the Christian and Hindoo codes df 'faith may claim an origin equally divine ; that Christ, the only-begotten of the Father, has pro- bably appeared, at different periods of time, in different parts of the world, under various deno- minations, and in different forms of humanity. And while these pretensions have been industri- ously supported by the blind adniir^rs of oriental superstition, they have been ostensibly acknow- ledged by others, who equally disbelieve what- ever bears the name of ^Divine revelation, but who, by elevating Paganism, endeavour tp depress Christianity. To support this opinion, the prin- ciples of morality, which the Brahniinical religion 5 Hyde Vet, P.c!. Vets. p. 31. 30 inculcates, have been extolled, as calculated to produce the most ■ sublime virtue, and the purest felicity. While those absurdities, which could not be entirely concealed, have been defended by attributing similar defefts and abuses to every other revelation virhich professes to be derived from God, the great body of their institutions has been liepresented as containing the essence of the most comprehensive- wisdom and refined policy. It is a fa£l which deserves attention, that white those abuses, which bave been introduced into our religion, through the unworthiness of its nominal professors, are often reprehended with the most intemperate acrimony, and unfairly at- .tached to the religion itself; the more flagrant enormities inseparably conne£ted with polytheism, and committed under its express sanQion, have been sometimies defended by the most futile arguments, and rarely chastised with the severity which they deserve. That this conduft has, in every instance, proceeded from disingenuous motives, would be a harsh assertion. The cause may rather be discovered in that propensity, which exists in human nature, to swell those evils which come immediately under its notice into a false appearance of magnitude. The fatal con- -sequences resulting from an abuse of Christianity, have approached us near enough to cause alarm. The prafitical effe£ts of Paganism are so far removed, as only to excite curiosity : and those calamities on which curiosity can pause to specu- late, seWom give birth to violent emotions. Syperstitipn is a spefctre, whose deformity like all others diminishes by distance. Her icy touch petrifies, , and her features on a minute inspe£tion inspire disgust. But when she recedes farther from the view, or is seen by a fainter light, the rigidity of her countenance insensibly softens, and even assumes a spacious expression of awful majesty. Thus, the unnatural penances of the inhabitant of La Tfappe ' are never mentioned, but with secret contempt, or with sarcastic ridi- cule : while the equally absurd, and mpre painful austerities of the Indian devotee, have been venerated as a£ls of exalted heroism, and of sublime piety. We are fired with indignation at the cruelties of inquisitorial tyranny, or the im- purities which have been prafitised under the mask, of monachism ; but who recoils with equal horror, or whose cheek flushes with equal resent- ment, when memory recalls the shrieks of fhe viftims in the wicker image of "Woden, or the licentious rites which have been celebrated in the caverns of Salsette and Elephanta ? 32 A habit of thinking so natural, but so er- roneous, has, when applied to the religion of the Hindoos, been indulged to an extent highly alarming. It is proposed therefore, in the latter part of these Discourses, to state the effefts^ which the Brahminical system is calculated to produce on the moral chara£l:er. In order to judge accurately of these, it is by no means sufficient to cull out a few detached fragments of sublime morality, from the voluminous mass of puerile detail, to mark the scattered scintillations which occasionally gleam through the surround- ing darkness ; but it is requisite to take an enlarged view of the system, in its direft and , necessary tendencies. This view may properly be ranged under three distinft heads : the first, will comprehend those doftrines, which the religion of the Brahmins inculcates, concerning the Deity, operating on man both as a preservative of moral purity, and as a source of happiness : the second, will be direfted to the influence of their religious insti- tutions on the intelleftual faculties : the third, will include their 'effefts on the social feelings, and their;, tendency to promote universar bene- volence. 35 The conclusions, which must necessarily result from -this investigation, while they collaterally displiay the superior excellence of that revelation, which professes to have the " promise of the Life that now is, and of that which is to come," will also assist in demonstrating, that the universal extension, which true believers claim' for Christ- ianity, is rielther the cunningly devised fable of pblitical artifice, nor the feverish dream of enthu- siastib idiotcy ; but a convi£lioni founded on ra- tional grounds, not only on the divine promise, but on the wisdom and benevolence of God, "^''^ ■ . • . bi :, : 'to Irreconcileable indeed will it appear to'these attributes of the Deity^ from any conclusions of natural reason, that so large a portion of his creatures should be excluded from the knowledge of him. -The fundamental do£lrine of the Gospel, that the blessings: of redemption are extended to all mankind, even to thpse who have never heard of their efficacyi'is the only satisfa£tory reason, which can be given for this seeming pa/tiality in the ways of Providence. But the ways of Providence are more fully -Vindicated by a belief, that ignorance and error shall,' hereafter, be ba- nished from the earth j that thp whble human race shall not only enjoy the benefits, but be diiade acquainted with the tefnis of the Christian 34 covenant; and that ".the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Iliord as the waters cover the sea.". In what manner this great revolution will be effe£led, or how far it will be efFefted by human means, it is not oui" province to determine : it • should be rather our firm persuasion that this event will take place in spjte of human oppo- sition. Whether the powers of this world ^^Y be eager to diffuse the blessings of religious truthj or solicitous to repress them j whether regardless of petty and partial interests they may labour to disseminate useful knowledge, and thereby aug- ment the sum of human happiness ; or whether guided by a cold and , timid policy they may endeavour to stunt the growth of the intelle^ual powers, and to,ere£l their empire on the ruins of hiiman reason, is of small importance, . It is of importance indeed to themselves considered as moral and apcountable agents, but not as it regards the accomplishinent of the divine will. It should be our firm conviftion, that he who pauses the fierceness of man to turn to his praise, can render even a crusade of infidelity an instru- ment of propagating his word. It should be our unshaken belief, that all th^- revpbtions in thi§ 35 lower world are preparatory to that eventful period, when the kingdom^ of this world shall " become the kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ." It should be our confident eypeftation, that the time approaches when the Son of God will exalt his banner the cross, and behold all nations bow before it ! The ark of the covenant does it homage ; the crescent of Mohammed falls prostrate ; the statues of Paganism bow their heads and crumble into dust. Under every part of Heaven the incense of grateful adoration ascends to the throne of divine grdce unclouded by superstition and error, and " a pure biFerihg" is then offered on the altar of Him, who shall command " a willing people in the day of his power," the pure offering of sincere & unreserved obedience, that offering which constitutes the nature of our spiritual sacrifice, of that sacrifice which is declared to be our only " reasonable service.' Da DISCOURSE II. ON THE CHRONOLOGICAL SYSTEM OF THE BRAHMINS, IN ITS CONNECTION WITH THE SACRED CHRONOLOGY. Early Proficiency in Astronomical Science — Antiquity ofNatioiis, or of the World not ' determinable hy the gradual Progression of Knowledge — The Brahminical Chronology shewn to be of modern Invention — External Evidence — Intei'nal Evidence' — Origin of , the Zodiacal Signs— Astronomy not an infal- lible Criterion when applied to Chronology, DISCOURSE II. ON THE CHBONOLOGICAL SYSTEM OF THE BKAHMlNS, IN ITS CONNECTION WITH THE SACRED CHRONOIJOGY. . Job, c. 38. y, 31, 32,33, Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his seasons, or canst thou guide ArSlurus with his sons ? Knowest thou the ordinances of Heaven, canst thou set the dominidn thereof in the earth ? W HEN man was first formed after the image of God, to him was granted the distinguishing prerogative of elevating his views towards those regions, which have been emphatically styled the residence of the Deity ; not;that the pireseilte'of the Supreme Being is citoimscribed : or 'confined to any place, but that the Heavens more conspi- cuously display the impalpaibk splendor of the divine majesty, and the" iniijiteask^^^wf' creative powers iol i.rrniT'wa ij Kfn'sono d4 Xhe contemplation of the heavenly bodies has therefore constituted both the delight and the employment of mankind from the' earliest times j nor can the period be pointed out, when their operations were either unknown or disregarded. Whatever difference of opinion maybe entertain- ed concerning the precise age of that dramatic poem the Book of Job ; yet universal consent has determined it to be a produftion of high antiquity j and in the passage now selefted, out of many pthersj there are evident traces of the proficiency which, then obtained in a^t^o^onqical speculations. Objefits must have become generally familiar, be- fore Poetry could have seized and appropriated them to herself: for without.^ a long revolution in the mind, scientific images cannot acquire that polish, which renders them capable of adding bril- liancy to language, and that duftility, by which . they readily yield to the powers of the imagination. In the countries of the Eastj where the serenity of the climate is peculiarly favourable . to :the observation of the celestial luminaries, we might naturally expeft to discover an early attenticMi to their magnitude and their motions, It was by their periodical revolutions indeed, that the neces- sary concerns of human life were formerly ,regu- 41 feted. The constellations were not only in aftier- times rendered subservient ;to the purposes of a blind and trembling, superstition j they were not only regarded with emotions of fear or transport, as they were supposed to bear an aspefil malignant or auspicious to the interests of man ; but they were originally instrumental to more useful and more noble ends : they direfted the course of agricultufal labours and of maritime adventure. Astronomy instead of being the offspring of soli- tude, leisure and contemplation," may be termed more properly the child of necessity and of nature. The simple occupations of pastoral life, nqt less than the uninterrupted repose of philosophical abstraftioh, the plains of Chaldaea, as well as the observatories of Egypt, were favourable to its cultivation. From this intimate acquaintance with some of the most abstruse parts of mathematical science, which we ; know to have .obtained in a period so remote^ a popular objeftibn has been raised against the very limited " duration, which the Mosaic history assigns to the age of the world. These eminent acquisitions are thought to be inconsist- ent with society in its infant state : they must t C'fiBt 1ft science du repos, de la solitude et de la jouissance de loUmenije. Sailli bistoire derestronomie Micienne, p. 2, 42 have resulted from Ipng and diligent obsiervatioit, and from gradual improvements 6n former. dis- coveries. "Whenever we attempt to remove this difficulty, by replying that man^in his original state, as formed by his Creator, was alike distinguished by intelle£bual and corporeal excellence ; or, that the extended term of antediluvian existence vras singularly favourable to geometrical and astro^ nomical researches ; the solution however satisfac- tory, is derived from fa6ts, which our adversaries will Infuse to admit. We must therefore examine the validity of the objeftion itself, and of the principle on which it is founded. ,< And here, if we may be aUo\!ved to argiie from the history of those nations which are best known, we may be fully justified in the assertion, that no criterion is more fallacious in determining their antiquity, than any calculations which can be drawn from the gradual and successive improve- ments of ;science. Knowledge has never been known to increase according to s any fixed rule of -progression^ at any two given periods of equal duration. Even the finer arts, which are sup- posed to be inseparably connected with the progress of civilization and refinement, have been 43 cultivated with an astonishing degree oF success in very distant ages. Neither have they been perfe£ied by slow aiid measured advances ; but the efforts of some happy genius, or a coincidence of other fortunate .circumstances,; has generally given thetn an energetic and instantaneous growth. Sculpture and painting' were suddenly raised to excellence in Greece, by the taste of Praixiteles and Apelles ; arts, which thefr im- mediate predecessors found rude, and destitute of grace. Who can trace the infancy of epic poetry i In Homer we see it at once elevated to full maturity and vigor. * But the perfe£tion of the fine arts, and of many other branches of knowledge, if not demonstrative of the precise antiquity of any particular nation, may yet be considered as affording an indication of the existing state of society and manners. The intricate subtleties of- juridical distinction can have no place, unless where a complex system of property has been introduced. The artificial rules of eloquence would never have been formed, unless in a state of society, where the art of moving the passions had t)een found advantageous. In many of those branches of knowledge ■however, which depend on geometrical science. .44 even this Criterion fails. As the pfinci|)les on which they are founded are immutable, there is less room for improvement. More than any others, they appear to be the effefts of intuitive perceptipn ; and sublime as they are, our experi- ence may convince us, that the greatest eminence has been attained in them, by minds, which had received no illumination from the knowledge of others, and which in other respe£l;s, were rude and uncultivated. Neither can we allege any cause why the most profound discoveries should be made at one time, more than at another. We can assign no reason why the law of gravitation might not have been discovered by Archimedes, as well as by Newton ; though we can assign a reason why the pleadings of Isaeus,or the orations of Demosthenes, could not have been composed, but in an acute and.'enlightened age. If indeed the instruftion, which the Deity has afforded: to man, were a matter of probable proof, and not of certain observation, it would, in mariy instances, be reje£ted as incredible. That the general laws of matter, and that the operations of the heavenly bodies, should be so much better known, than many otlier subje£ts with which human life seems more nearly concerned ; that we should be able to upfold the secrets of the- 45 skies, while tfeie most impenetrable veil covers the whole. process of vegetation, is a fa£t, which, although we maybe unable to resolve it, is too evident to admit of controversy, and may be sufficient to shew, how little we are qualified to estimate the nature and the extent of the intel- leftual powers. ' . , ' ' ' Admitting then, from what experience has taught concerning the mental faculties, that this eafjy proficiency, in geometrical science may be easily reconciled, j we shall find without surpirize, that, among the < various, celestial phsenomena, whjch engaged attention, the slow revolution by which the fixed stars coniplete their circuit, forms' a discovery in the ancient history of astronomy. This motion was clearly ascertained by the oldest observers of the heavens, however they might differ from their successors in their computations concerning the.time in whidi this revolution was performed, or wha,teYer might be the cause of that difference. This presumed sera, as it constituted the basis on which raanyof the eastern nations have founded their prejtensions ,to antiquity, has also given rise to a number of religious dogmata, resulting from an allegorical interpretation of the fa£t. H,ence the old Egyptian notioUj that at the Qjxd of; tjjijpty-six thpusandl y^rs, every ipan was 4# to resume &ir the circumstances of his present life, whidh were to happen exafilly the same in every cotitingency. Hence the opinron of a- moral renovation of the world, and the restitution ' of' all things to theif' original purity. Hence those fifilJtious seras of the Brahmins and Man- darins, their periods of millions of years, and' the worlds which they assert are already past, and will'succeed each other in endless rotation. The vanity, incidental to all nations, of claiming a celestial descent, has induced them toconceal theit^ origin in unfathomable antiquity ; and this dewre has- been aided by nothing so much, as by conclusions drawn from these- faiicrful calcula- tions; ' When the light of true history becomes indistinfti and when even the fertile stores whicb mythology has supplied, are exhausted ; it is by these, that periods of immense duration are form- ed, which increase the amount of time to an extent, as boundle'Ss as the human imagination. That these periods' are too artificially constructed to be real, hafs been almost uhivefSaHy admitted ; and few* have attempted to carry them to that extravagant height, which can only be reconciled: with the Idea of the' eternity of the world. Btit some of these' epochs ' have appeared to be so clearly established, ^ and to be founded on such' 47- indisputable, authority, as to furnish a strong ground of obje£lioh against the : chronological system, which the Mosaical history establishes, and which other historical fragments of profane antiquity, corrobdrate. Different degrees of Cre- dibility have also been attached to the computa- tions of different nations. While the cakulatioris of the Egyptians, and of the Chinese, have been generally given up, as untenable, many of the astronQ|aical jeras of the Indian Brahmins have been supposed to display an accuracy, which could not have taken place, unless they had been founded onaftual observation. The astonishing progress of the ancient Indians in science, frotn which their descendants have so far degenerated, appears to indicate the superior accuracy of their system. Their astronomy is found to be more correft the higher we ascend, and its inferiority is the most evident, as we approach- the present times : in its original perfeftion it claims a decided superiority over the system of any other oriental nation. To any,a;ssumptions of superior knowledge, or of early civilization, which India may make, the advocates for the.truthof the Mosaical history are by no means disposed to objefl: : because, wheh understood with proper limitations, they afford 4S the strongest confirmation of its veracity." They shew that we must look for the first dawnings of intelle£lud light, in the countries adjacent to the spot, which the concurrent voice of history and tradition represents, as the first abode of man, and the theatre on which the memorable events, that occurred in the infancy- of the postdiluvian world, were trajisafted. They demonstrate the arrogant, and unfounded preterisionsof the Greeks and Romans, who represent their ancient pro- genitors as the immediate descendants of heaven; and who arrogate to. themselves the honor of being the inventors of science, as well as the arbiters of taste. The falsehood of these preten- sions is clearly discernible, from the history of the progress of knowledge, and from the early refine- ment ef oriental philosophy. If Greece could once boast of her Athens, India still preserves the remains of her Benares, where the doftrines of the Egyptian school were, perhapSi understood and taught, long before they were heard from the lips of Pythagoras and Plato. In the Institutes of Menu we discover traces of enlc^rged policy and legislative wisdom, which would not disgrace the laws of Solon, and iLyCurgus ; and these were promulgated at a time, when the Grecian states were hordes of wandering barbarians. It is to the East that we are indebted for the grand ^9 ©utlines of Ihose metaphysical and political theo- ries, whichi: being transfused into the writings 'of the Grecian sages, are still perused with avidity and regarded with veneration^ But while we thus willingly concede the palm of priority 'to oriental science in point of time, a different estimation must be formed^; concerning its present comparative importance in i point of Teal utility. Though the learning and diligence of/ Europeans have been long emplpyedin un- ravelling the mythology of the East ; yet nothing has been found , in it, which should induce us to prefer the fables of the Hindoos, to the fables of the Greeks. They have confirmed what was before known ; they have illustrated what was before obscure ; they have reduced, to greater certaihty, what was before doubtful : but; it is difficult to explain in what respefil they have added to the stock of original information. . ,; [ On^the astronomical systems of any eastern nation still less reliance can be, placed. Wbere- ever their calculations have been applied to ascertain dates, a:nd to the reftification of chro- nological errors, they have been discovered to b^ either false, or so interwoven with allegory, that l^tlQ credit can be attached to any dedu£ti@ens, "E 80 "which depend solely on their authority. Neither have they been found to contain any new dis- coveries, which can deprive the Grecian sages of their merited celebrity. The earliest observations of any accuracy, which were made in Egypt, were those taken by the Greeks of Alexandria, less than three hundred years before the Christian asra ; and yet it is this nation which pretends, that during the immense period of its existence, the stars have four times changed their courses, and that the sun has twice set in the East. Even the account of the astronomical observations, which Calisthenes is reported to have transmitted to Aristotle from JBabylon, has been reprobated by many eminent writers as fabulous. If the calculations of the Indian Brahmins appear more exaft, yet they are not sufficiently correft to establish any certain conclusions, and still less to invalidate the authority of the only autheiltic history of the world. The Grecians were the first praflical astronomers to whose observations we are indebted ; and the science of the Egyptian, of the Chaldsean, or even of- the Indian school, would have been involved in enigma and ob- scurity, if it had not been refleOied to us, by the labors of Ptolemy and Hij^archus. Since however the Brahminical chronology ap- 51 pears to be more speciously fabricated than any other scheme; since the reality of some of' its seras has been Supported /by the ■ most elaborate aTgumieiits ; and since its general authenticity has been defended with a view to ■ weaken the foundations of the> Christian ' faith, it will be proper to enquire wHat degree of credit may fairly be attaehdd to their computatidns. ■ It may be lUseful'^to distinguish between those aerasi which are allowed to be formed by retrogfiade calculation from an assumed period, and those which are asserted to be^ founded on afitual ob- servation. It may be necessary tb examine what arguments may be deduced, first from external, and then from internal evidence, to prove the credibility of their present system;- or whether a strong presumption does not arise, that their ancient chronology has suffered a material altera- tlon, and is of comparatively recent origin. • If the journal of Megasthenes had been pre- served entire from the ^reck of time, a valuable accession of information would have been sup- plied, to that which we already possess, on the science and literature of the ancient Brahmins. From a long iTesideric'e. in the centre of India, his opportunities of acquiring intelligence must have been considerable j while the history and aii- e2 ~ 52 tiquities of Jhe ; inhabitants w^re the peculiar obje£ts of his attention. Those Grecian writeiSj who have written i on Indian affairs, have amply availed theniselves ; of :,hig, labors > and indeefd appear to }>ave done little more than transcribe his expressions, r His diligence in collefting, and his veracity in reciting, what he learnt, are tinim- peach^d. If he should be found in some instan- pes to have reported contradiftions, and impos- sibilities, i they are not to be. imputed to the invention of fancy, nor tjo the suggestions of deliberate falsehood. They are fables, which he received from the Brahmins themselve;s, as un- dowbted truths j and however the serious repeti- tion of: them may be thought to take from his judgment,. jit still leaves him in possession of his fidelity. From the few scattered fragments of his works, which have been preserved in the writings of otheriauthors, it a^ppears, not only that he is en- tirely silent respeifting the present extravagant scherae.ofBrahminical chronology ; but he dis- tin£tly. affirms, that the Indians did not, at that time, car'ty back their antiquity from their reign- ing nionarch to their original founder farther than above six thousand years before the invasion of Alexandcr.i, The Veracity of Megasthenes, as he ' Arrian. Indic. c. 9. 53 is thus cited by, Arrian, h the mqre strongly con- firmed, since his statement i^ not conveyed in terms of loose apui unsupported assertion, hut, he specifies the exa£l nunpber of sovereigns who go- verned India during this period. If tljjeHindoos had ajjserted the same claims to jinfathomable antiquity, as they alledge .at present, is it iiot highly probable that they ; wo!*ld hawe bjeen as eager to proclaim them, as they are at this day ? Is it not probable^ that among the various an- cient, writers who have treated on India, there W0uld have been some intimation of a chiionolo- gical scheme, which, however, it may ^exceed the bounds of sober belief, would have been too xe- markable to be passed over in silence? While the accounts of ancient and modern, .writers agre^ in so njany points, why do they ;differ in this ?— WhUje the portraiture ofBrahminism is (delineated with singular corre£lness by the, Grreciao hi^to- rians, not only in its broad outldnfis, which nuight be obtained .friOffi a dastajjt a©d, indistiii£t view, -tbtit in those nice and <}^lica^ touches, which ^miUiSt have been the effeft of ijitimate acquaint- ance, and of aceufate discritxiinaitiop, is it wot .extraordinary, /that, what now constitute^ so prO' ioiioent a feature in the Hindoo chajaflier, shoyld entirely disappear, or rather shonld appear in a coloiiring .50 totally different ?;,., 54 But here an objeftion may be urged, that a detached fragment, from a mutilated werk, affords but a feeble support to this conclusiori j and that, if the entire journal of Megasthenes were in our ^possession, some admission might be found which would set' aside the inference attempted to be^ 'drawn frorh this solitary passage. , To, obviate this obje£lion, and to corroborate what has now been advanced, a passage is literally transcribed from Megasthenes by Clemens of Alexandria,' in which he' asserts,* that the Jewish and Indian nations professed to entertain the same ideas. Concerning the creation ' of the world and the origin of things." ' This similarity cannot be supposed wholly to refer to the doftrine of the Vedanti schoo],'that an universal chaos formerly existed^ that wSterwas the primitive element, and the first work ofCrea- 'tive power,' dofilrines equally maintained both by Indians and by Jews. There must, at that time, have subsisted some obvious and evident corres- pondence between the^ chronological systems of these two nations, which are now widely 'dis- ' similar and contradictory,' to have produced 'such a total agreement in their physiology. Indeed tbe ^ Clem. Ales,. Strom. 1. 1. See also Eu^eb. Frs|k. EvanS' 55 physiological tenets, and the extravagant calcu- lations of the Hindoos, afe insep^ifably, '.blended. If this latter passage from Megasthenes be com- pared with that cited by Arrian ; if six thousand years before the invasion of Alexander were the utmost limit ;^to which they ; then' attempted to trace their origin j iind should this method of stating the argument be just; the conclusion which necessarily results, while it shews that the religion of the Brahmins has suffered some mate- rial corruptions, not less cleijrly proves the agree- ment of 'all authentic records with the narrative' of the sacred historian* Thus then the external evidence, as far as it reaches, is decidedly adverse to the astronomical systeiri supported by -the modern Hindoos ; and the testimony, which has now been quoted, must be allov?ed to be unbiassed: it was given with no design to: support any favourite opinions, and therefore cannot be liable to any well-founded suspicion. This testimony indeed would not be conclusive, if contradifiled by the internal , evidence of the system, but, if that be examined, its authenticity will appear equally questionable. E 4 56 Thougli a difficulty may occur in fixing the precise period, when the reveries of fancy and fi£lipn were substituted by the Hindoos, in the place of historical truth ; yet it is certain, on the authority of a celebrated astronomer', that before the ninth century their chronology was as com- plete,- or perhaps entirely the same, as we find it at present. The principle on which this extravagant and romantic scheme is founded, consists in a division of the age of the world, into four grand periods of astonishing duration, each decreasing from the last in a regular progression. In each of them, as the human race has degenerated in piety and virtue, so the term of human existence has been proportionably diminished by' the divine decree. In each of them, the Divinity has been supposed to have manifested himself to the world, at diffe- rent times, under various forms j ,but far from appearing actording as the vices and necessities of mankind called for his interposition, his com- munications with' man have been less frequent, since man has been immersed in misery and sin_ When the present age of corruption has rolled through its circle, the age of ptirity will re^com- ' Albumazar. 37 mence, and thus these four periods will revolve in continual rotation, as they are supposed to have, often revolved before. On the principle of. this division, it has been judiciously observed, that the disposition of these ages is too artificial and regular, to be natural or even probable; and that men do not become reprobate in geometrical progression, or at the termination of regular and distin£l periods. The cohstru^ion however, seems to have been formed on ide^s, similar to those which dictated the four principal ages in the mythology of the western natipns ; ?0d it is a, striking proof of the unaHrer- sality iQf the tradition, however obscuced and corrupted, thi^t the human race was once piaeed in a happier stqt§» and that an inseparable connexion ejfisted between moral depravity and physical evil. With respeft to: the reality of the three first of these periods, in whiqh the gods descended from heaven in the }ik«sness of man, or rather when man In bodily stature and in mental attainments might aspire to the tftle pf d.Jvine ; the boldness of mo- dern hypothesis has never attempted to substaniti^ ate their reality : but has justly assigned their in-* vehtioa to that warmth of imagination, and lux- 59 uriance of fancy, which charafterise the fi£tiotig of the eastern world; Concerning the authenticity of the fourth sera'y ^ or the commencemeht of the present age of de- gradation, and which is, said to have taken placd about three thousand years* before' the birth of Christ, whatever difference of opinion might have Formerly prevailed on the subje6t, there now scarcely remains a doubt^ that its origin was not derived froni aftual observation, any more thart our Julian period. All that can be deduced from it is, that the inhabitants of Hindobstan have in- herited from .'their ancestors^ tolerably perfe£t rules for the calculation of the motions of the sun and planets : although they have lost all know- ledge of the principles on which they were found-' ed. , It is universally admitted that the Brahmins have formed, from retrograde calculation alone, another sera, decidedly fi£titious, and extending to more than twenty thousand years before the beginning of this fourth age ; "which affords a convincing proof of the facility with which these artificial periods may be ' constru6led, so as to describe the state of the heavens with a consider- able degree of correftriess. But, even if the reality of this sera be gratuitously ffi.C. 3102. •59 "admitted^ the admission cannot, in the slightest degree, afFe£t the truth of the Mosaical history .--' This sera will exceed by very little the Samaritan, and will fall short of the Septuagint computation from the 'flood, f«' The chronological system of the Hindoos has indeed been vindicated, with singular infelicity, by thosefwho are so forward to ridicule the evils arising" from credulous superstition ; as if credulity would, in any case, be more ridiculously palpable, than when, with a grave and philosophical air, it embraces computations that know no iliraits, iand interprets literally the fidlions of oriental astronomy, y- i-y.ildm But whatever opinion may be formed concern- ing. the degree of credit due to these calctilations, but which j even if admitted to the extent which the warmest advocates of Indian antiquity desire, would not afFeft the truth of the Mosaical history ; still it has been insinuated, that there are other certain and evident proofs that the science, of astronomy must have been cultivated at a period far anterior to any, which will agree with ;the Scriptural history of the age of the world. ■'.:'■■'■'■'. ' \a:l? It is observable, that the Indian astronomers 6o i^ivide the Zodiac into twelve sigtis,, whose names, in their language, with a little variation, express the same symbols, with those which, we have received from the Greeks I who in their turn bor- rowed them from the Egyptians, While this circumstance incontestably shews, that there has ,.been a mutuation of science, as well as of lan- guage among the nations of antiquity; it also proves how very early the attention of mankind was direfted to the contemplation of the heavens. On what a slight foundation the presumed an- tiquity of these signs has been called in, to aid the cause of infidelity, it would be needless to mention. A subje£i; of regret may naturally oc- cur, that, in opposing these groundless assertions, we can but set conjefture against conjefture ; conjefture indeed more strongly fortified by pro- bable argument, as well as by positive fafts ; but, certainly not amounting to l^at strifltness of de- monstration, wbich is necessary to satisfy a cold scepticism, and still more to subdue an interested unbelief. But it is sufEcieiit, if, in an enquiry, so abstruse in its nature, and so difiasive in its extent, we can arrive at probability. Simple inspeftion would incline us to determine, that ,at whatever period, or in whatever country. 61 the zodiac was inventedi it Was at first nothing more than a rural calendar^; and we might reason- ably expefit to discover, in its nomenclature, a de- scription of the successive phjenomena of the year, and a catalogue of the agricultural labors prac- ticed where the. invention originated. It mu5t have been the corruption of succeeding ages, which made astronomical speculations the basis of a compTicat6d mythology, embodied the celes- tial luminaries, and converted the elements into divinities. To what nation must be attributed the honor of this invention, authorities will not enable us to decide ; or rather the testimony of the wrlteife of antiquity Is so equally balanced; that it is un- . certain whfch is entitled to the preference. Pliny asserts, th-at the invention of astrOndmy was ascribed by some to the Chaldseans, and by otRers to "the Egyptians'" ; while Cicero decidedly pomts to Chalda;a as the region where the science was first cultivated." It is dertain ho#ever, that the Greeks received their astronomical knowledge immediately from the Egyptians; and on that account, they would be inclined to favoui»>the " Plin. lib. 7. ? (;ic. de Oiyin. I. \. e. 3* 62 claims of that nation, to which they were theni- selves indebted for instruftion. But one circum- stance is observable, that although Herodotus" ascribes to their invention the division of the year into twelve months, -he is silent as to the origin of the zodiacal signs. Where then the external testimony is thus defeftive, recourse must be had to internal evi- dence. The hypothesis, that Egypt was the country from which astronomy radiated, has been warmly contended for, by those who assort, that since their first invention, the equino£i:ial precessions have carried on, by seven signs, the primitive order of the zodiac ; because, on that supposition, the whole appears to be an almanac suited to the clitiate of Egypt and to no other. A second hypothesis, that, on the supposition of a more reoent and specific date, this invention may be assigned to India, has been supported by ■oio feeble arguments. The suggestion has been hazarded, that as India can now indisputably assert her title t(j the invention of the numerical ; Herodot.LS. c. 82^ figureSj which had once been attributed to an Arabian origin, she will hereafter be found to have formed the first zodiac, which is generally supposed to have proceeded from Egypt. Could the point be more unequivocally ascertained, what objects the different emblems were first designed to represent, this supposition would have the highest claims to belief. The order of the sign? would be found to confirm the idea, that they were formed in Hindoostan about nine hundred years before Christ. « But no fa£ts have yet been established pufficient'^ to overthrow the conclusion, which the authority of the Mosaical history warrants us tO assume, that *' the praftice of observing the stars began with *' the rudiments of civil society, in the country of *' those, whom we call Chaldseans j" from whbn* it was propagated, both in Egypt, and in India ; that different nations might vary their systems, in order to make them accord with their religious superstitions, or with their natural climate ; and that, in those countries, where they did not agree with the natural climate, they would be veiled by allegory, and disguised under symbolical rC' presentations. This last observation, more tha» any other. 64 nvill preclude an adoption of the hypothesis which infidelity has laboHred to support, that Egypt was the' centre froni which astronomy radiated. Of all the oriental, aqd other ancient spheres which hfeve been preserved, the Egyptian dlterisms are the most mythological. They have deviated, far more widely than any others from those appropriate and intelligible symbols, which marked the most important periods of the rural year. Nothing can afford a stronger argument, that the sphere of the Eg^yptians is a secondary sphere ; that finding the order of the ^gns did not correspond with the natural order of their seasons,, they mixed their own peculiar mytho- logy with the rural calendar of thq country, from ■ywhich thpy derived their astrononay. 4. The fa£ls which have now been stated will ten^ to establish the following important conclusions,: that the strongest presumption arises, both from the testimonies of ancient authors, as far as they can becolle,fted,as well as from internal evidence, that the chronological system of the Brahmins has suffered a material change : and that their present scheme is of comparatively modern invention; that in earlier times, this system had some obvious and striking similarity to that of the Mosaical history 3 that even if the reality of the ?era from 66 which their present age commences, and which is now generally supposed to be founded on retro- grade calculation, were established, this admission could ncrtj in any degree, af&£t the truth of the sacred writings ; and that the only probable origin, which can be assigned to the invention of the primeval zodiac, expressly contradifts the unwarrantable assumption of an Egyptian sphere, formed at 'the immense distance of sixteen thou- sand years before the present time. The question may now naturally be stat€(J, what historical records the Brahmins possess, which establish the idea of their high and remote origin, and confirm those pretensions which they urge with so great confidence, and which their advo- cates receive with undistinguishing assent ? It is on this ground, that infidelity is always unwilling to meet us ; because it is here that difficulties arise, which the most wilful blindness cannot overlook, and which the most artful sophistry finds it impossible to evade. To what cause can it be assigned, that in all the historical documents which have hitherto been brought to light, they should ascend to nearly the same point of time, and then becomec enveloped in obscurity, and degenerate into fable ? Whence 66 Jhappens it, that these fables in nations the most distant and dissimilar, however they may be disguised by difference of language, however incumbered by the adhesion of foreign circum- stances, which the diversity of national charafiter may have engrafted on them, should still retain Such an evident similarity as to be clearly traced to the same source ? What cause can be assigned, that the whole fabric of Pagan mythology, whether surrounded by the gaudy, but misshapen ornaments of eastern magnificence, x)r rising in the graceful elegance and exa£t syinmetry of Grecian taste, or frowning terror in the ponder- ous and massfve grandeur of northern architefiture, should be raised on the same foundation, however the superstructure may be modelled or varied, by the influence of national manners ? If this globe had been inhabited by nations of a separate and ifldependent origin, could this uniformity in their traditions possibly have existed ? If mankind had reached that perfefitioii, both in science and refinement, which is pretended, would there not have occurred some distinct and diversified events, which would have clearly characterized these periods, and would have-found their way to future generations 3 The transaftions of a barbarous tribe may be 67 forgotten, not only from w^nt of splendour- to attraft attention, -but from want of variety to impress themselves on the memory. We are informed, that the vigorous raind of our great poet sunk under the task -of reciting the feuds and wars of the Saxon heptarchy, as deserving no other enumeratiori than the contentions of wild beasts and birds of prey, But, among civilized nations, there is a continued and con- •nefted recurrence of marked events, which force themselves on the notice of posterity. If it should 'be said, that long intervals of succeeding ignorance and depression, may have .obliterated eve,ry vestige of these, transaflions, we can reply, ,that such an idea is contrary to the whole course of our experience. The trans- 'a£lions of the age of Augustus, or of the age of Pericles, are yet viyid in the memory of the 'present age, though followed by the long night . of Gothic barbarism and Papal superstition. At no period has intelle£lual light been so totally obscured, as not, to shed its beams on some remote part of the world ; whence, in a happier season* it has again diffused a general illumina- tion." The great master of Lyric song, might •indeed, consistently, lament, that oblivion had -thrown her veil over the- worthies of antiquity, "f 2 68 because they wanted a genius to celebrate theif exploits : for who will refuse to a poet the prrvelege of' drawing *' his philosophy froni his art" ? But we well know that poetic fervor is kindled by the same causes, which excite advenr turous curiosity and ardent heroism. If the antiquity of India were to be determined by her own historical documents, her pretensions would indeed be slender. For almost all the information, which we at present possess, con- cerning her early state, we are indebted to her Grecian or Mohammedan conquerors, joined •with the indefatigable researches of the modern nations of Europe. The few real occurrenpes, which are interspersed in the dramatic writings of the Hindoos, are sO mingled with fable, that they would be unintelligible, unless compared with foreign testimony. Even the genealogy of the Kings of Cashmire, and which is the most valuable historical fragment yet discovered, re-? cords, at the beginning, but little more than the names of their sovereigns, without assigning the length of their different reigns. Whether there be a probability, that many of their genuine histories have been purposely destroyed, with a view to promote the designs of religious ini- posture, and rivet more firmly the chains 6f superstition, is a point not here to be determined. 09 While from a review of the subjedl which has now been discussed, a conclusion may justly be formed, that the exuberance of national vanity has prompted mankind to impose on themselves and others, in a degree exa£tly proportioned to the poverty of their historical evidence j another conclusion may also be suggested, that astrono- mical calculations when applied to ascertain dates, are not so infallible a criterion as many are inclined to imagine.. That they have not, in some instances, successfully elucidated obscurities in ancient chrbnology, it is impossible to. deny. They may have enabled an eminent astronomer to correft an important error with respe£l to, the battle of Salamis, and the illustrious Newton to settle with probability the time of theArgonautic expedition. But. whenever we attempt, by this . torch, to explore the doubtful abyss of profane history, let us beware, lest by attrafting the vapours which issue from it, this feeble light should itself expire, and involve us in palpable and impenetrable gloom. The question proposed by the venerable sage, here recurs with singular propriety, •" knowest thou the ordinances of heaven, canst thou set the dominion thereof in the ezirth" ? Is it for the finite comprehension of man to ascertain, precise- f3 79 ■ lyj the laws by which the heavenly bodies are governed, or to say, whether that Power whichr at first formed them from nothing, may not alter; or suspend their operatioiis ? It is yet undecided, whether the Course of the equinoftial precessions which forms the basis of these computations^ proceeds with a slower niotion than in former times, or whether the difference in the calculation of ancient astrono- rners, originated in their own defe£live observa- tion.' It is yet undecided, since the true length of the solar year is of .comparatively recent dis- covery, -whethei: the difference in the calculation qf past ages, resulted from their ignorance, which, if we consider the early perfeStion of astrdnomical ; science, is not very credible ; or whether this difference should be assigned to some concussion, which our planet has suffered, and which may have occasioned a variation in its annual revolu- tipn." ,, While these difficiilties rem^ain unresolved , (and is human wisdom competent satisfafilqrily to resolve them ?) astronomy can be safely applied to ancient chronology, then. only, wh'en better criteria fark . * Aceording to the supposition of M. Le GentiL i ^ .According to the supposition of Wbitton, 71 With still less success have these computations - been applied to invalidate the only historical narrative, which, indeptendently of the stamp of divine authority, presents a rational account of the formation of the universe, of the creation of man, and of the infant state of the world ; which, in accurapy of description, not less than in sub- , limity of language, stands unrivalled. In vain have they b^en applied to invalidate that everlast- ing covenant, which was established before the foundations of the world were laid, before "the" morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." In vain have they been applied to invalidate that covenant, which, as it had a retrospe£l to the period before creation existed, shall receive its full and glorious ac- complishment when creation shall be no more j when. the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall withdraw her shining, and the stars shall fall from* heaven : for thus it's Almighty author has declared concerning it ; " heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away," DISCOURSE III. •ON tHE CdERESPONDENCE OF THE BRAHMINICAL EECOKDS, WITH THE MOSAICAL ACCOUNT OF THE DELUGE. The former subje3 resumed — Positive proofs of the agreement of the Brahminical records, with the Mosaical History — Generalproofs of the Deluge in India in common witA other nations — In the Three first Avathra's -. — The History oj Cashmire — Proofs (fthe Deluge in India as diversified from those if other Nations — Vindication of the Pu- ranasfrotn the charge of Interpolation by Christians. DISCOURSE III. ON THE CbEEESPONfiENCF OF THil BRAHMINICAL BECOEDS, WITH THE MOSAICAL ACCOUNT OF THE DELUGE. , »■ Genesis, c. 7- v, 25, And every liping creature was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle, and the creeping things and the fowl of heaven, and they were destroyed from the earth, and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. OOME observations were offered In the pre- ceding discourse, by which the pretensions of the Hindoo nation, to an antiquity, far beyond the limits which any records of authentic history assign to the age of the world, were shown to be groundless ; and by which the sacred chronology was vindicated froni those objeftions, which have been raised against it, from a literal inter- pretation of the fiftitious calculations, contained in the aystems of orierital astronomy. The false- hoodof these pretensions has been exposed, on a 76 general view of the subjeft, by arguittents fami- liar and intelligible to all, without entering into minute detail, or bringing forward those scientific proofs, which are too abstruse to admit of popular illustration. To have introduced such a disquisition, may;, zt firsts appear an unneeess&ry task ; since weak indeed must that cause be, whose ^ advocates designedly recur, for its support, to arguments, which from their nature must be founded on an yncertain basi?. Conscious must those advocates feel of their own danger, who shelter themselves under the security which darkness affords, before they point their weapons at that fabric which they labour to subvert, and who owe their safety only to the difficulty of dete£lion. But since objeftions drawn from this source have been urged by every art of subtle insinuation, since they have been> fortified by the naost elabo- rate ve^soning,. and recommended by novelty of illustration as well as boldness of conje£lure, an attempt to demonstrate their fallacy cannot he deemed useless or unseasonable..' Hitherto indeed those opponents of the sacred biatory, , who have chosea their place ot attack on It the hoUoW and trfeacherbuS ground of the Sanlcril records^ have found no reason to boast of thei^ success : since far frpm discovering a situation advantageous to their operations, as they fondly expe£ted, it has proved insecure and haaardt)us to themselves. The partisans df infidelity, who,, with all the ardour which sanguine hope and fcertainty of success inspire, had triumphantly anticipaftd that the foundations of the Mosaic and Evangelipal histories would be weakened by. the discovery of this unexplored mine of ancient literature, have experienced, to their mortification and regret, that it forms a part of that impenetra- ble rock on which the fabric of Christianity is raised, and against which, the secret attacks of tmbelief, or the violent assaults of pei-secution, ■sb^ll never prevail. The predi£tion, which they some years since, uttered with the most unr^erved confidence, that the Christian faith cbuld nev# survive another century, unless strengthened by some nev^ proofs, a predi'ftion founded on a principle equally false and flattering, has been entirely defeated by the evetot. Nor ca,n vefe- forbear to refer to the gracious intention of divine providence, that this additional and donvincing evidence from oriental literature, should be dis- covered, at a period, when our religion has been assailed under every larai which invention c^ 78 supply; both by grave arid systematic opposi-r tion, and by the lighter weapons of sarcasm and ridicule, , From the nature of the subjeft which was discussed on a preceding occasion^the arguments, which were urged in support of the scriptural history, could b^ only negative. They tould only prove, but they prove most'irrefragably, that the romantic dreams of astronomical mythology can never affeft the truth of a narrative, so remark- ably consistent, as that of the Hebrew historian. They clearly tend to demonstrate, that we can have no other certain guide to direft our steps through the otherwise inextricable labyrinth of ancient chronology. They shew, that all the l;iistorical fragments, and all the traditional ac- counts of profane antiquity, in their purest state, ftgree with the fa£ls w^ich he has related ; and that they, do not agree, but deviate farthest from him, wherever they have been corrupted by iiation^l vanity/or obscured through length of 4ime. They shew, that with respefit to events, supposed to have taken place in Asia and Egypt, ^ not more than ', two thousahd years before the ' Chfistian aera, the historical page . teems with doubts and contradiftions : that with respefl; to .events, which may have,vpassed in any other past 79 of the world, it presents an unmeaning blank ; and the indubitable conclusion resultitig from this fa£t is, that the greatest portion of the globe was then either uninhabited, or cbntained' only a few scattered' tribes of wandering barbarians. They shew, that although before this limited period, the licentious pencil of eastern mythology has attempted to delineate, imaginary scenes, •shifting i,nf»infinite succession ; yet that the aftors in them are likewise imaginary personages, dif- .fering in all their properties from the present race of mortals, and whose exploits, for this reason, can claim no plape in the history pf the human species, The objeQ: of our present enquiry will exhibit proofs in confirmation of the sacred history more direfit and positive j but though more direfit, yet not less unsuspicious. In the present discourse it will be shewn, that ^the fables, as well as the chronological computations of the Brahmins, bear a particular reference to t^at gteat convulsion of nature recorded by Moses, when the windows of heaven were opened, and the fountains of the great deep were broken up, when, on account of their impiety, the whole hutnan race, except otie family, ' was swept away from the . face of' the earth, ^Rd 9, new ppvenant was established be- 80 tweeft the Creator of the universe and the renow vated world. With perfeft unanimity can We assent to the prbposition, that in the same degree as any fa£t appears contrary to the ordinary course of nature, the evidence in order to induce belief must be completely adequate to its supposed improbability'. But in this indisputiable truth, we are enabled to find the reason vvhy any event, which from its singularity or importance contradifts experience, and excites astonishment, is always, and will be always, more strongly corroborated than any other. The general assertion is not too bold, that no common occurrences are so clearly au- thenticated, as those which we call prodigies or miracles. That if a general destruftion of the iivorM by a flood, an event so stupendous in its nature, so universal in its concern, and so interesting in its consequences had really happened at the time which is fixed by Moses, it must have excited, in the minds of those who survived, and also of their immediate descendants, a lively remembrance of its effefts, is a supposition so perfeQly rational, and so accordant to previous calculation, that we cannot wonder if we find some traces of it in the mythology of evety nation. That these traces should be more vivid, and more distinctly marked, in the countries situated nearest to the spot wh,ence the renovated race of man first migrated; is a supposition equally rational and indisputable with the former. Still farther : that .those traces should be longest preserved among those nations, who from their insulated.situation, or their religious institutions, have enjoyed little intercourse with the rest of the world, and wh,o, on that account, have retained many of their ancient traditions uncorrupted, is an assertion capable of the same incontestable proof. But that if the event of a general deluge be found recorded in the monuments of Indian and Egypt- ian antiquity, as well as in the narrative of, the Jewish historian, the latter should have borrowed his materials from the former j pr that the former should be more ancient, and better entitled to credit ; or that the testimony of all should be disbelieved, as relating to some national and transitory destruftion, is a conclusion, 'that can on no legitimate princijile of reasoning be dedu- ced. An event which, from the circumstances that attended it, could not ,but be universally knowm, and could not fail of producing an indelible impression, might certainly be related by different persons, at different periods of time. and in different parts of the world, and who had no connexion or communication with each other. We are expressly assured: indeed, that Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians : their sciences, whatever they might be, were familiar to him : but the knowledge of. a plain historical faft, unconnefted with any views of national vanity, must be derived not only to Moses and. the Egyptians, but to all mankind from the same source. The very variety of the fables to which this awful event has been accommodated, the diversities in the narrative, adapted to local prejudices or to theological opinions, prove that they are taken from uncommunicated fragments of some original tradition. The incident is re- corded, not by construftors of philosophical theories, but by simple narrators of fa£ts. It is also observable, that the accounts of a deluge still to be found, among the more eastern nations are as strongly marked by truth, and are equally conformable to the history of Moses, as those which are preserved in Egypt. But although the concurrent voice of antiquity thus loudly, responds to the testimony of the Hebrew historian ; though the memorial* of an event, so interesting to the early world, rnust have been treasured up with care, and recollected witli , sentiments .of awe and gratitude; though they have been recorded on the tablet of the skies, and shadowed out in hieroglyphic sculpture in monuments on the earth ; though the comljined powers of fancy and erudition have been success- fully employed, iii referring to this source, man^^^ of the Pagan symbols, and devbtional ceremonies ; yet vague and unsati'sfafilory would all these- evidences appear, if they had -not been illustrated , and confirmed by that narrative, of which all other records are but faint adumbrations. If all the solitary fragments scattered throughout the voluminous- mass^ of oriental inythology, joined with those which the nations of the west havfe .retained, were collefited and. concentrated, their united testimony Would be insufficient to establish the reality of this calamitous prodigy. It is not on the exa£l coincidence of sacred and profane history, that we attempt to prove the truth and assume the superiority of the former ; but that the one is perspicuous and full, where the other is obscure and defe£tiye : the one is concise where amplification would be unnecessary,or would tend to no other purpose than the gratification of avain curiosity : the other, by those additions which the artifice or conceit of man has interwoven, has sometimes suppressed the truth by concealment, and sometimes weakened it by expansion. g2 S4- With respeft to the Mosaical account of 'the jjeluge, if it had been composed to aid the designs' of any interested imposture, the construftion would have been more artificial ; if it had been nothing more than a fabulous representation, the narrative Ijl^oiild have been emblazoned w^ith a richer dis- play of imagery. While the general texture of the relation appears perfeftly simple, it discovers, in some parts, a minuteness and accuracy of detail, V(^hich excite our admtration. Its'consistency bas been tried with the most critical exaSness, its possibility has been brought to the test of geome- trical calculation ; and it has triumphed over the most specious hypotheses, which fanciful theorists in natural philosophy have attempted to oppose. While all ancient testimony indisputably corrobo- rates the faft, the deduftions of scientific observa-' tlon, when fairly and honestly applied, are equally clear in attestation of its reality. Of the proofs, which Indian literature has af- forded in confirmation of the Mosaical account of the deluge, there are some, which it possesses only in common with the other nations of the east ; but there are others which are more than com- 'monly forcible, and peculiar to itself. In common with other nations, the Hindoos • " 65 _ have retained the primary existence of a chaos, its gradual redu£lion into order, the original darkness, " undiscernible and undistinguishable," which involved the universe as in a profound sleiep : out of which, at the command of the self-existept in- visible God, issued forth light, together with the separation of the;waters, which at first overspread the surface of the earth. In common with other nations, the Hindoos attribute the creation of all visible^ things, in six distin6t periods, the successive formation' of all terrestial animals, and finally of man, to one Su- preme God. In common with all other nations, they have also preserved some indistin£l remem- brance of the antediluvian generations, and, the antediluvian personages mentioned in the Jewishr Scriptures. pi But the first great and important event, which they attest clearly and unequivocklly, is the awful catastrophe of a general destru£tion of the world by a flood ; and therefore it is from that point, that the monuments of profane antiquity are properly called in, to confirm the trut^ of the sacred history. - ( Jr^' Among the innumerable interpositions of Pro- G 3 8& I vidence in the affaifs of men, whicli the Hindoos believe to have taken place for "the preservation.' of the just, the destru£lion of the wicked, and the establishment of virtue";' they compute ten principal descents, or incarnations, of the Divinity, during the current period of their four ages. Thq order in which they succeed each; other is too artificial to be consistent with reality ; • but the three first must evidently have a reference to some stupendous convulsion of our globe from^ the fountains of the deep, while the fourth exhibits the, miraculous punishment of pride and impiety. Their first incarnation of the Divinity pres,ents him assuming the body of a fish, for the purpose of recovering the sacred Veda " in the water of the ocean of destru£tion, placing "it joyfully in the bosom of an ark fabricated by him." The following is the substance ' of what is recorded concerning this event in one of the Puranas, or sacred books of the Hindoos, which treat pf creation, and the genealogy' of their Gods and Heroes, and which are supposed to rank, in age and authority, next to the Vedas themselves. This Piirana informs us, that at the close of the ' Bhagalrat Qeeta, p. isi; 87 last of their grand periods of time, or as others more rationally suppose, immediately before the commencement of the present age, there was a general destru£tion of mankind, occasioned by the sleep of Brahm^ ; whence his creatures in different worlds were drowned in a vast ocea,n, Brahma being inclined to slumber, desiring repose after a lapse of ages, a strong daemon came near him, and stole the Vedas which had flowed from his lips. The incarnate God Vishnii, willing to preserve a monarch, eminent for his piety, from the sea of destrudtion, caused by the de- pravity of the age, infbrms him by what means he was to escape, and thus addresses him : " In seveh days from the present time, O thou tamer of enemies, the three wotlds shall be plunged in an ocean of death, but in: the midst of the destroying wavesj a large vessel sent by me for thy use, shall stand before thee. 'Then shalt thou take all medicinal herbs, all the variety of seeds, and accompanied by seven saints, encircled by pairs of all brute animals, thou shalt enter the spacious ark, and continue in it, secure from the flood, in one immense ocean, without light, except thfe radiance of thy holy compani- on^. When the ship shall be agitated by an impetuous wind, thou shalt fasten it with a large G 4 ss serpent on my horn j for I will be near thee, ' drawing the vessel with thee, and thy attendants ; and will remain on the ocean, O thou chief of men ! until a day of Brahma shall be completely ended. Thou shalt then know my true greatness, rightly named the supreme godhead ; by my favor all thy questions shall be answered, and thy mind abundantly instrufted," The event falls out as this divine personage had predifted, while the pious monarch, waiting in humility for the time, and conforming to the direftions which had been given, miraculously escapes from the universal dpstrufilipn. Distinguished as the whole of this recital is, by that mixture of the puerile and sublime, which so eminently charafterizes the exuberant fertility of an oriental fancy ; yet we cannot fail to dis- cover in it, evident traces of the more simple arid succinft account, transmitted to us in the Mosaical history. The cause of this signal dis- play of divine vengeance 5 th« number of persons who wer6.: miraculously preserved from this con- vulsion of nature ; the manner by which Omnipo- tence interposed to effeft their deliverance, are all clearly defined, and remarkably correspond with, what we are accustomed to consider, ^s the words of inspired truth. 8© At the . same time, this passage affords an evident proof, that whatever claims to antiquity the vanity pf the Hindoos may have prompte'd them to assume : that, although the Brahmins, in their loose computation of time, have placed the the three first of these incarnations of VishnQ, at a period of immense distance: and as they are stated to have happened in their Saturnian age, or age of ti»uthj a difference pf opinion has existed respefting the event which these descents were designed to point out, whether that of an original emersion of the earth from water, or of its reno- vatipn after a, flpod -, yet the remarkable cqinci- dence of circumstances decidedly shews, that they cannot be referred to any other transafition than a deluge, : and that, under a different form, they designate thstt important catastrophe, But there are other circumstances, still more jyorthy of obseryation, which relate, not only to the certainty of the faft, but what is of still greater importance, will tend to reconcile this apparent anachronism in Indian mythology. These will shew, that thq period when their last destrufition of the wprld happened, will nearly coincide with that of the Mosaical deluge. An obje^ioji has sometimes been urged, that 90 in all the historical documents which have been preserved among ancient natioris, there are tra^ ditionary accounts of different destructions of thi& globe by water ; which could not have all happened at the sarrie time. The conclusion which has been attempted to be established on this fa£t is, that there are some of a date far anterior to any which' are preserved in the annals of mankind. That of Deucalion is said to have occurred about fifteen centuries, and that of Ogyges about eighteen centuries, before the Christian aera. Thfe deluges of Armenia and Egypt, the memory of which has been preserved by the Hebrews and Egyptians, though they occurred about five centuries before either, are still more recent than some, of which the remem- brance Is now lost ; and that all of them, however memorable, must be regarded merely as local and transitory inundations. But, in reply to this objeftion, it may be ob- served, that in the records of all the eastern nations, and particularly in those of India and China, the time of one of these inundations is fixed at a period very nearly correspondent to that, which is recorded of Noah by Moses; 'Though from the best and most authentic in- 91 fprmatIon> derived from an accurate investigation of their chronological scheme, we have the strong- est authority for asserting that the Indian a;ra, which forms the commencement of their present age, is founded on retrograde calculation ; yet whenever it was formed, it had a particular refe- rence to this ev6nt : for the Brahmins themselves assure^ us, that the beginning of the present cor- rupted ag^of the world, was immediately preced'^ ed by an universal deluge. To this maybe added, that the ancient tradi- tional histories of Cashmire, as we find them de- tailed by theSecretary of Acber, affirm, that the spacious and delightful valley which is surrounded by its lofty mountains, remained for many ages submersed in water, ahd that a celebrated Brah- min, called Kashup, led thither a colony of Brah- miris to inhabit the valley, after the waters had subsided. This very singular fa£l is rendered still more worthy of regard, by the additional account which the same authority gives us, thst although no Hindoo nation, but the Cashmirians, have left kny regular histories in their ancient language ; yet, that the civil history even of Cashmire goes no farther back th,an about four thousand years, when 92 their founder, a man remarkable for the austerity of his manners, conduced his colony thither.'. It is not meant in this place to determine the exaft degree of credit, which is due to this relation in the Ayeen Akbery ; though probably^ it wasi taken from a careful examination of the ancient records of the Cashmirians : it is only cited to shew, that the Indians, like every other nation, entertain a belief, and have preserved the remem- brance of, an universal deluge, which began the present age ; and that the present age was pre- ceded by a happier state : but bolder than any other nation they have attempted to fix with pre- cison the aera of this deluge. It may also be rea- sonably ipferred, that this sera, though founded on some imaginary connexion, rather than on real truth, is not widely distant from the true period* and that the Hindoos have placed their deluge, according as tradition had vaguely fixed th^t me-! morable event. To pursue this subjeft farther, to point'out those traces of this memorable catastrophe, which are to be discovered, in many of the symbols and re- ligious ceremonies now in use among the Hindoos, ! Ayeen Akbery, v. 2, p. 179k - -- 93 to shew that the event, which is thus presefved in their sacred records, was also sculptured in their temples, and engraven on their coins, would em- brace too wide a field. Though these symbols cannot be so rationally illustrated on any other ■supposition ; and though great ingenuity and learn- ing have been employed in referring them to their true origin ; yet to insist on them would be foreigp to the prdlent purpose. "Where proofs of the most indubitable nature exist, the strength of which depends on no forced interpretation, there is less occasion to scrutinize others, which leave so much room for unsupported conjecture, and in which the rfeveries oF fancy have too frequently blinded and perverted the judgment. From a similar reason, and because the investi- gation would be attended with less advantage, it is unnecessary to advert to any objections, raised from those theories in natural philosophy, whicli have been constructed with a professed design of ^demonstrating the impossibility of this fa£t j but which, like every other fa£t, must at last depend on thei v^ue and consistency of the testimonies by which it is tonfirmed. These theories, with what- ever ingenuity they may have been formed, or however adapted to attraCl admiration by their novelty, have generally proved of too slight a tex- 94 tare, npt only to stand the test ^pf rigorous investi- gation, but to stand the test of time. They have frequently crumbled into nothing by their own weakness, and have been rememberfed no more, even before they have been supplanted by other theories,' equally amusing, but equally fallacious. They have only served to demonstrate this im- portant truth, that to point out how worlds might be or may have been formed, as well as to. form worlds themsebres, is the prerogative of omnipo- tence alone. They have served to shew, that what is above the power of manto accomplish, is equally beyond the power of man to explain. They are always in contradiftion to each other, they are often at variance with themselves, but they all assert the same claim to infallibility. Though they profess to be guided by this fundamental principle, that all testimony is to be disregarded, and that it is nature alone who must be interrogated on her age; yet the oracles of nature, as delivered by her interpreters, have been found ambiguous, variable, and contradifliory, while the general, voice of tra- dition must at kast be allowed to be clear, uni- form, and consistent. Among the other historical proofs concerning . the catastrophe of the deluge, those which India and the Brahminical recordb have supplied, have i05 now been adduced. But in the light in which they have hitherto ,been considered, they can be re- garded only as an accumulation of evidence, to that wfiich was before sufficient ; as an additional con- firmation of that which was before incontroverti- ble. There are some circumstances however which render this evidence of more than common value, which essentially distinguish it from that of all other nationSj and which will therefore be en- titled to a separate consideration. It is, in the first place, peculiarly valuable, as confirming a fa£t, which the modern Brahmins are solicitous to ponceal or deijy. It was also the confident assertion of infidelity, that in India no traces of the deluge could be discovered; and that ^ careful examination of the literature of that country, would shew that the concurrence of the traditions of profane antiquity with the Mosaicftl history, is not so exaft, as jts advocates have been led to suppose. It may, on this account, be reason- . ably presumed, that ^very proof which had a re- mote tendency to illustrate or confirm this event, would be studiously kept back by the Brahmins themselves ; or at least that none would be unne- cessarily exposed to view ; that some would be entirely suppressed, and others weakened or ex- plained away. The evidence then is entitled to 95 credit, as coming from those who are interested in withholding it, & therefore given with relufilance. But the evidence is not-only thus extorted frfem those, who must be anxious for its suppression, it is in itself undesigned ; &nd therefore has stronger claims to belief. If the Sanscrit records had related the event of a deluge in precisely the same terms, as those which are used by the Jewish historian j if the similarity tad been so obvious as to shew that they were exadl copies from each other ; the coincidence would have been unimportant. If the shades of difference had been so artificially blended, as to induce a belief, that they had been purposely Siperaded, the better to contribute towards de- ception, the agreement of the other parts would not only have been unimportant, but would have led to a conclusion, precisely the reverse -of the present. A natural suspicion would have been excited, that both accounts might have been fabricated from some interested motive.' But, in the Hindoo mythology, this event is shadowed out in fables, which appear to have no reference to it J in ceremonies^ which, although they can be satisfaftorily derived from no other source, qre too ambiguctus and too obscure^ to have been m instituted to serve amy particular end. The iincamation« of Viahnfir (jould never have : be^o engrafted on the Hindoo sUfperstitionj for the purpose of confirniing the Mosaieal! history qI the deluge. The testimony, above every other reaison^ is entitled, to- credit, as proceeding from a people, wh'Q have 'preserved' their faithi and the volumes which contain it,, not perhaps entirely free from corruption aud innovation ; but who have scrui- pulouisly reje£ted the tenets of every other foria of relig'ioini ; a peopJ4 who, as far a& can' be determined from their history, have equally des&- pised the 4'0^™€S of the Gospel, th©Taitnud» and the Koran ; a people, whose litesatuce is as singuilai!, and as diversified from that of other nations, as- their religion, or ti:ieir manneFfe ThiS' assertion has laot however been received withi unqualifietd assent :, some circumstances have occurred, , whfeh have excited an* apprehen- sion that Sanscrit literature is not so pure and uneon«a«ninatedi aa it& warm- adiair-ers have at- tempted tiG)< iasinual^e., It has beea alleged, that forgeries and i3iitierpolbtieMaa< haive. been practised smce the chrdstiaa xts.^, and those likewise in reg^d to essentfel poinSSi, and! in <^du to support H 98 particular opinions.- It has been also alleged, that by the confession of the Brahmins them- selves, their sacred books have suffered some material alterations ; and that, these will sensibljr detra£l from the weight of their testiniony. **' As these additions and interpolations have been thought to affe£t the authenticity of the Puranas in particular ; as they consequently must have an express reference to the evidence, cited in this discourse, in proof of an universal deluge.; and as they involve in them a subjeft of consider- able importance, not less than the integrity of the whole body of Indian literature ; it will not be improper to close the present subjeft with some refleftions on them,; to enquire in what degree these supposed interpolations niay weaken the force of any passages, which have been cited in this discourse ; and also, how far as a general question^ interpolations, in particular cases, affe£t the testimony, which profane antiquity affords, in support of the christian faith* From some passages in the Puranas, which are, thought to be of modern insertion, and especially from a similarity which has been discovered in the Bhagavat Purana, between the life of Crishna the Indian Apollo, and the life of Christ j a. 99 similarity which has caused a modern infidel to draw an impious parallel between them ; it has been conj^ftured, not without some appearance ■of probability, that the Apocryphal Gospels, which abounded in the first ages of the christian church, might have found their way, into India ; and that the Hindoos had engrafted the wildest, parts of them, on the adventures of their own divinitie's. *Any coincidence therefore which may be discovered between the Sanscrit records, and the Mosaical or Evangelical histories, is more likely to proceed from a communication through this channel, than frpm ancient and universal traditioii. On this opinion it may be remarked, that both the name pf ' Crlshna and the general outline of his story are long anterior to the birth of our "Saviour ; and this we know, not on the presumed antiquity.pf the Hindoo records alone. Both Arrian and Strabo assert, that the God Crishna was anciently worshipped at Methura on the. river Junna, where he is worshipped at thjs day. But the emblems and attributes essential to this deity are also transplanted'into the mythology of the west. In the Indian God, who, with a train of celestial nymphs, " dances gracefully, now quick, now slow on the sands just left by the m2 100 dal]ghter of the sun;" we recognize that still njore beautiful Mion, which ascribes natural light and poetic illumination to the same divine origin. In the next place it should be observed, that those features of resemblance, which are said to exist between the Hindoo God and the Saviour of the world, are not so exaft as some have insidiously suggested, and as others have been incautiously eager to admit. Most of the inci- dents in the life of Crishna more strongly remind us of the life of Cyrus than of Christ. But it should be particularly remetnbered, that those passages which display a striking and verbal affinity ; an affinity, which, without vio- lence to probability we cannot suppose to be purely accidental, are ndt to be found in the PuTi^faas, or in any of the authentic records of the Brahmins. The resemblance is disco'vered in some passages of the Apocrjrphal Gospel of the Infancy, which was widely circulated on the coast of Malabar, and wl^ich was originally known n Asia by the title of the Gospel of St. THdmas, -and between those legends which were repeated by the Hindoos to Baldxus, and which he has recorded in his narrative. But of this resemblance, a more satisfactory account may be given, than that which is founded on the supposed mutilation of the Brahminical records, or the, incorporation of Christian heresy with Hindoo superstition. Of the Apocryphal Gospels which have descended to the present time, the principal portion originated in the east. That they were written; from observation, and that thejfc contain many events which really occurred in the life of Christ, is a supposition which has been inconsiderately adopted. They are so essentially different from the sober colour- ing and dignified simplicity of the genuine gospels, that they could never refer to the same charafter. Whoevet was the author of the Gospel of the Infancy, it is certain that he was intimately acquainted Avith the Magian and Zoroastrian doctrines, together with those other superstitions, which have been long prevalent in the east, and particularly in Hindoostan. The presumption may be more reasonably entertained^ that the marvellous adventures of the Indian Deity have been applied to the author of the Christian Religion, than that these incidents were invented, to designate the life of a personsge to whom they are entirely inapplicable, and that they yvere afterwards adopted by the Hindoos, to the general complexion of whose religion the origin of ^hem is more congenial. H 3 102 From this vindication of the genuineness of Hindoo literaturfc in a particular instance, we- may be enabled to repel the general insinuation, that the corroborative testimony, which the re- cords of profane antiquity' afford in fjivour of our Religion, is derived from passages, either of doubtful authority, or which have been proved to be interested forgeries.' Wherever any dis- crepancy, real or apparent, subsists, between sacred and profane literature, that difference is generally interpreted to the disadvantage of the fprmer : wherever any striking harmony is dis- covered, the passage is scanned with a jealous perspicacity, fearful that it might have been intruded by some bold artifice of Christian zeal. That interpolations for the purposes of decep- tion may have been sometimes praflised, and that they may have been suggested by what .is falsely called pious fraud, is a fa£t too evident to admit of' dispute ; but it may safely be asserted, that they have been probably less ffe<|uent and cer- tainly less successful than has been industriously proclaiined. Wherever they have taken place, deteftiop and disgrace h^ve been almost uniform- ly the result. Still less is the common opinion consistent 103 ■ With truth, that periods of barbadsm and mental depression are peculiarly favourable to this spe- cies of imposture ; that it is the produftion of what is termed the darker ages. 'Literary for- gery is the offspring of literary refinement. The incitements to this kind of deception are mofie .powerful, when a general diffusion of ktiowledge contHbutes to their success, than at a time when even success could bring neither advantage nor applause. But that the truth of any of the evidences of the Christianfaith is implicated in'these suspetted passages, or jthat the Christian religion stands in -need of their support, is an idea still rhbre unsup- iported and extravagant. Never were any fabri- cations contrived with less wisdom, or with less releyancy tO' the motives which dommonly in- ifluencethe sinister designs of human condufcl, than those, which, It has been alleged, a misguided zeal has' officiously and compulsively thrust info the venerable monuments of ancient learning. If all thcj passages iin profane authors favourable to Christianity, which either'the sagacity of legi- timate criticism has discovered toTj^ interpolated, or which the uaagenetous vigilance of ihfidelity has 'Suspe£ted>to be so, be given up, to What will they amount, or inwhat degree will their absence > h4 104 ; affeft the truth of our religion ? They enforce ^no - particular doftrine, they prove no essential fafit. " I " ■ ^ - If the .^dulogy of Ldnginus on the energetic ■ dii^ion and terse sublimity of the Jewish law- giver be the insertion of ffaudj ' will the subtrac- tion of this encomium diminish- any thing from the .veracity or even from the style of the Mosaic history? If the attestation, which the same author is said to bear to the oratorical powers of Paul of Tarsus, be contained in a fragment con- fessedly spurious; can the impressive dialeftic of the Apostle to the Gentiles ; can that eloquence which struck terror into the breast-of,a Jloman Governor lose its animated; vigour, because un- noticed by the critic of Palmyra? If some qf those composifionsy. which have descended to us upder the, name of the Sybiiline oraclesi; be unworthy of credit, and branded as the awkward ; contrivance of some Christian in the second century; can/ we find no , other proofs of the predominancy of the expeftation of a future deliverer throughout the ancient world ? If the digression which; Josgphus has introduced into his history, to. celebrate the immaculate charafter of Jesus, be, distrusted j will the divine mission of Christ be a subjefit of uncertainty, while the historian himself ha§ unwittingly indeed, but une- 105 •quivocally, vindicated his more tii'an human pre- science ; while the pen of a Jew has circumstan- tially detaileti in the destruftion of Jerusalem, the tremendous aecbrtijilishmerit of the most explicit,^ and' importahf'prophecy 'that 'eVer was* uttered ? Siieh testimonies, and the passages which haVe incurred 'Suspicion are' "simifar to these, we can willingly resign. They ' 'are never set fdrward by our apologists with prominent display and pompous dilatation; they are neither 'ex;hibited as signals' of 'defiance, nor sought as a shelter from attack. Let systems of faith, formed by hunian agents and for Human ends bie thus defended ; ' 1^1 them secure the favourable opinion of distaht ages by a c'ai^eful accumulation of conteinpbrary praise ; Christianity cin do niore. She can 'derive her stro'rig'est support froin tfie Telu£tant but unexceptionable^ admissions of her enemies,'' who although " they mieaht it not, neither dU' tHSIr heart think' so," have been the witnesses and isserters of her truth. Porphyry shall be odr' commentator oh' the prophecies of Daniel ; Julian shall attest the miraculous pbWers of the first Christians. We will readi/y' accept the inappropriate epithet of mischievous i^iiperSti- lion, with which Tacitus has vilified the Christum io6 faith.; wlxH^, he recordstheejcistence and, igno- minious^ death of its Founder. We regard -not thci unfeeling ridicule which the Roman satirist has thrown, on the obstinacy of the primitive ^martyrs ; while he[);)iasdi§tin£lly detailed their un- exampled sufferings and their unmerited wrongs. We will cheerfully allow every partial, every malignant insinuatbn, which the inveterate hos-J tility of ancient scepticism has Qpposed> but which even the hardihood of modern infidelity has never attempted to revive ; while we, claim the benefit of its admissions, which the disingenuous cau- tion of modern infidelity in vain labours to deny. As has been shewn on the present occasion, we can prove the reality of ^ an univer,sal deluge, not, from (the Jewish, oracles which relate the event in. its connexion with their natipnal his- tory ; not from the, phaenomena of the natural world, which are in harmony, with those oracles.; ,not from the nations of ^^rshia. andTartary who have preserved many of the faQ:s i;€:iated in the Jewish history, but who also regain a, veneration for the Jewish, Law-giver ; but froin, the arrogant and presumptuous Bralunin, who .(disclaims all kindred with the Jess favoured ..n^^ions of the earth ; who regards his own country as the spot on which the Divinity has displayed a petuliar manifestation of his presence, as the centre of 107 terrestrial creation, and the " land of virtues ;" and who views with a consciousness of superior sanQlty the professors of that faith, which hip own records have shewn to be historically true ; thus vindicating the propriety of that apost^jphe, which we sometimes apply to our religion: " Through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies be foi^nd liars unto thee." DISCOURSE IV, ON THE COKRESPONDKNCE OF THE BRAHMlNICAt KECORDSj WITH THE MOSAICAL ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN AND SETTLEMENT OF NATIONS. Accuracy of the Mosaicat Geography — 2'he , following Discourse confinid to tlie illustra- tion of the ' Origin and Settlement of those Nations more immediately conneSted with India — Of India or the inner Continent of Cush — Of Ethiopia or the outer Continent of Cush— Of China-^Of Egypt — Defence of those Writers who have illustrated the sacred Geography, DISCOURSE IV. ON THE COKRBSPONDENCE OF THE ' • ' BRAHMINtCAL EECOEI)S,WlTH THE MOSAICAL ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN AND SETTLEMENT OF NATIONS. I * ' ' ( Ge'^esis, c. 10;v. 32. . • Tliese are the families, of the soni of Noah after their generations in, their nations, and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the food. If the truth of the Mos^ical history were made to 'rest on any single point, and if any particular part were selefted, by which its credibility might be brought to the most satisfa£tory test ; the Chap- ter from which the words of the Text are quoted, would prob ably be adduced as the most decisive. Of' all methods, which the authors of fiftitious narratives have adopted in order to render them attra£live to the popular' taste, there is none more unlikely to be attempted^ none more difficult in thC' execution, and, when executed, norie more tmfavourable to the purpose of deception, than an excursion into the tedious and barren path of 114 genealogical detail. By superficial readers such a digression would be either entirely passed over, or carelessly perused,, without producing any of those efFe£ls which imposture would aim at j and whenever investigation should take place, no kind of imposture would be so difficult to be sustained with consistency. An accuracy in topographical description, or an intimate acquaintance with the manners and cus- toms of antiquity, have often been successfully called in, to heighten the fi£lions of poetry and romance, by conferring on them a greater sem- blance of reality : but they never can be consider- ed as just criteria of historical truth. The place of action may be described from personal obser- vation, the correspondent, decorations may be disposed with the striftest propriety, while the personages,, who animate the drama, may be only phaintoms of the imagination, who have never moved but on ideal ground. If for instance, we were to seleft the most forcible proof, that the Iliad was founded on real fafts, we should be in- clined to fix on the unvarnishedi catalogue, which its. author has, given,, of the different nations en- gaged in the contest, rajther than to insist on his «xai£iness in marking out the course of the Sana^is and the Scamandtr, ox his minut© delineation, of 113 the domestic labors of Andromsiche. Neither would the veracity of Moses be impressed with equal force, from the seemingly artificial precision with which he has specified the scite of Eden, or from the chaste and natural colouring, with which he has depi£i:ed the simplicity of patriarchal life, as from this unadorned but circumstantial enume- ' ration of the diiSerent founders of the kingdoms of the postdiluvian world, But if the Grecian poet has also been dignified by Straboj with the appellation of the first andw greatest of geographers, because he has recounted the names of a few petty tribes, engaged in a tem- porary alliance for the execution of a military en- terprize ; which he alone has drawn forth from obscurity, and rescued from oblivion, but which are now vanished from the earth and whose *' place can no where be foiind;" with what sen- timents of admiration must that historian be re- garded, who recurs to the original founders of the most celebrated empires in the history of the world, and who at once records both the cause, and the period, of their establishment ? But this valuable remnant of ancient geography, pot only affords a presumptive argument in favor pf the veracity of the Jewish Lawgiver i w? may Ii4 not only safely allfege the Ihiprbbability that a de- tail so particular and minute should be a fanciful invention ; but we havte, at this tihle, data, by which we are etiabled to ascertain and estimate its truth. The identical names by which thie histo- rian has distinguished' the different colonies, aife, even now, preserved, 4mong those tribes, whose rernote situation has precluded the en- croachments of military conquest, or whose warlike habits have enabled them to preserve their ancient institutions, and their original independence. — ■ Many of them have been adopted, with little varia- tion, by the Greeks, and inserted in their systems of geography. The labors of the etymologist, the antiquary, and the naturalist, Wherever they have been fairly applied, have served more fully to illus-; trate the authenticity of this record. Thtough all the revolutions in empires, through all the inno- vations in religion, through all the fluftuations in language and in manners, which the woirld has experienced, during a. period of more than fonr thousand years, there are even nov*: traces suffi- ciently plain, to sheWj that this pi£ture, when originally pourtrayed, must have been drawn with the pencil pf truth. Among the variety of fafils, which have been froUefted to prove that the different nations of the ill earth were really descended from three diatJn^ families, it may be difficult to seleft th6 itmit forcible, and to arrange them in proper order.-** There can be no necessity^ for shewing, that an obscure account of this triple division was pre- served by the ancients, ampng their other fables : and that this arrangement was supposed to have been rhade, accordihg,to the express appointmeht €>f the Deity.' Such a tradition would be entitled to little credit, unless supported by mofe probable arguments. But such arguments there are, and they have been urged with a force, which scepti- cism herself cannot resist. She has attempted'in- discriminatel'y to reprobate them by the epitheiof fiihciful, but by this evasion has contributed tcJ fefetablish their solidity. To pursue the various directions, in which thi Ihree distin£l races of mankitld h^v6 diverged from a common centre, to subdue and people- the earth, would be a task inconsistent with the design, as well as the liiftits of the pfesent undertaking ; but it win be the obje£l of the present Discourse, td condense those scattered rays of light, which thfe Bfkhtninical records have reflef^ed on this inte- resting patt 6f the sacred history. Such as they ■are, they cannot but be esteemed of singular value v* Sie Homer, llia^. « v. 187, Hii Flats inherit. I2 and importahce. Should the genealogical tradl' tionsofthe Hindoos, and those of the Tartarsi who are separated by an, immense distance from India, agree with each other, and both coincide with the Jewish Lawgiver; this correspondence must give a strong san£lion to the veracity of the last. This agreement will afford another decisive objeftlon against those unfounded pretensions to antiquity, which the Indians, in common with other eastern nations, have asserted with so much confidence, and which h^ve been defended with so much ingenuity. The subject then of the present enquiry, will naturally be limited in extent. It will be con- fined to the Hindoos themselves, and to those other nations, who can be proved to have im- mediately descended from them, or who preserve any, remarkable coincidence with them, in theiy jnythplogy, ' In , determining concerning the probability, that any two different nations are branches of the same parent stock, ' the most incontdistable proof is that which arises from any authentic and un- suspicious historica.1 testimony, As fafts are in history, what experiments are in philosophy, these inuBt be paramount to all, conjectures, libwevej' plausible, and to all arguments however ingenuous. But whenever historical documents either totally fail, or contradi6i each other, three cri- teria have been laid down., by which our research- es may in some measure be. guided ; a similarity in the complexion, in the Ihieaments of the counte- nance, arid in the formation of the human body; a similarity in language, that is in its general strufture/'and in the radical parts of it ;' and lastly, a similarity in religious ceremonies, or in those civil institutions, which derive their origin more immediately from religious sanffions. f - The first of these criteria is the least tote depended on, though most obvious to a; common observer, unless it could be precisely ascertained what influence a change of iclimate, and a dif- ference of aliment "may produce on the human frame, in a lOng, succession of time : the second is more satisfa£lory, but frequently, fallacious, on a:ccount of the fanciful resemblances, and arbi- trary dedu£tions, which : have been made by ad- venturers in the field of etymological speculation ; the third and last is the most positive and certain, since the religious creed and ritual of most ancient nations inculcate doftrines, and prescribe,customs, which could' not have been of native growth ; and 'these have been found to survive conyulsiona i3 in governmentSj iinprovfiments in m^nnera^ fluc- tuations in language, and- influeaee qf climate. ■ Biit in tb^ application of these criteria they mult all agree in-order- to produce entire conYiftioB, Qor must they oppose the teatimony of fcisiory. Our cdnsiderations then will be oiuefly applied to the direO: proof arising from historical evidence, joined with that which may be drav^aa from similarity in religious ceremotyies and institutions:. The other incidental proofs bein,g of less imports ance will consequently claim less of our atteation. : In entering on tiie discussioja of this subj€£t, it is natural to. iadvert to a question which has been long agitated, and dfifencfed, on either side, with equal ingenui^ and learning ;— ^whether the airk, which had been miraculously preserved f«an the general destruftionof the w.oiild, _ at Iqagth rested on the Indian Cacucasus, or qn Mounit Ararat' im Mesopotamia. The solution of this question in- volves another point of still greater importance :-r^ the ascertaining of the spoti &om which the ge- neral dispeiisiotv of ^cuikind took place. If this point were to be determined on tradt- tional authority, we should instill be unable to •decidci The centre from which the^difFeFeirf; 11^ actions of the earth diverged, not I§?§ than the situation of paradise, has been varioysly representr ed. It should npt however he forgotten, that 3^5py of the ancient fathers ^assert vvith undoubted- confidence, but with what pretensions to truth cannot now be ascertained, that the remains of the sacred ark were, in their days', to be disQflfter'- ed pn %\ie movintains, of Armenia,". The fortner siippositipn which assigns the )q[iov}ntains of C^iicasus, as the spot from which the postdiliiviap fatnijif s migrated, has boasted of npRierous ^dvoc^tes ; and aniong other important ye^sgi^s ,fpr thP adoptipn of this hypothesis, the f^stoni^hi^ig, population of Jpdia, above all other CQVtntries, a^d its early njatVirity in civilizationi have bepn forcibly insisted , an. To this, the .te^tiriqony of modern and anqjent times certainly accords in the mpst decided manjier. However an injudicious partiality may have induced many pf i^$j admirers to ejcalf! Indian science, aiid the Indian chara£ter; yet those who have been-in- cHped to estimate them at' the lowest rate, have been obliged, relu£tantly to confess, that while many vestiges remain, discovering their intimate acq^aintai^pp with metaphysics, and the more j^bstruge parts of geometrical ^c|f!ia<;e : , jthqir f iSee TheoiOiil. ad Autol, 1. 3 ; and Chry.sosfoni>die nerfec Cb^rit, ^V.6,t>.748, ed.Savil. ' J4 120 treatises on legislation, which provide against every possible exigence of civil government, indicate a more artificial struflture of society, than is consistent with the idea of their late colonization. But against all these arguments, however plau- sible, maybe safely opposed the express language of our own sacred books, taken in its literal and obvious sense, from which it is never safe to depart. The civil history of mankind contained in the fragments of the earliest annalists which time has spared, are likewise in harmony with the narrative of Moses. They concur in placing the theatre of the first memorable events, that hefell the human race, within the limits of Iran^ understood in its true and extended signification, between the Oxus and the Euphrates, the Arme- nian mountains and the borders of India. "What howeVei' Is still more decisive to the present purpose, and confirms the superior accuracy of the Hebrew historian, is the cir- cumstance, that the literature of India, lately ex- plored; records the establishment of the Brah- minical religion in Iran, previously to its adoption in Hihdoostan. We are informed that a mode of faith and worship, essentially different from that 121 of Zoroaster, was anciently professed in Persia, and continlied to be secretly entertained by many eminent men, long after the general predominance of the latter. That subt^ system of metaphysical theology, which inculcates the doftrine that nothing exists absolutely but God, and that the human soul is an emanation from his essence, notions now so conspicuous in the religion of the Brahmins, have been long professed, and even now prevail in Persia, though in some measure subdued by the influence of the Zoroastrian tenet of two coeval principles. The same aversion from mari- time voyages, which now prevails among the Hindoos, was also enjoined by the religion of the ancient Persians j an aversion which they carried so far, that there was not any city of note built upon their sea coasts. • • From the same authority we learn, that a powerful monarchy was estsiblished in Persia, long before the foundation of the Assyrian power. This monarchy was established on principles, iexa£lly similar to those, which afterwards regu- lated the polity of the Brahmins. It is related that their first monarch of the present age, who ir Ammun. Mwcel, 1, S3, c. e. 12f governed Iran and the whole earth, divided the people into four orders ; the religious, the mili- tary, the eominercial, and the servile ; to vi^hich he assigned names, unquestionably the same ^s those, which are now applied to designate the four primary classes of the Hindoos. We are a}sp assured that this monarch received from the Supreme Being, foy the use of niankind, a book of regjil^tions, which comprehended every lan- guage, ^nd every science. Tjie sapie accov^nt asserts, that -after him, arose thirteen other prophets, who. taught the same religion^ §nd adopted the same institutions ; every successive revelation corroborating the first. Now it ip ^(V^ell known that the Brahmins believe in precisely the same numbei of eelgstial personages, one of whom promulgated a code of laws, which they hold to be of equal authority with the Vedas themselves ; an^ that the histories of Chaldea and of Persia have been engrafted on the Indian history, is a {^% too well known tp require- additional illi!,gtration.=<_ From these circumst^^nceg, yve are authorised to conclude, that the ^rahpiinical faith, in its grand outljfies, though sot in those a^ditiians and POrruptions which it may have suffered dttring » * See Oiejiil^tsia, tr^Stlateirby Qladwio, Sec. Z. J33 long course of time, was the first despaartate^from. the pure and primeval religion of" mankind, tliat it was imported, at a vary early peijcM, from Mn inftQ India ; that the tribes; who migrated thither, carried with them some scattered remains of their religion in writing, from which the Vedas and • the Sastra were comptleid ; that these books sieem tQ Hay-e been founded on ancient symbols badly understood, and misinterpreted ; and that what remains of them consists of extravagant allegory, ©f which little can now be decyphered. That Iran, undejjstQod in its true andenlarged signification, was the country from which the tiiree original and distinQ: races of men first separated, is rendered still more probable, from ^ts central situation. It was from this part of the globe that the adventurous progeny of Japftiet eould best transport themselves to those countries, pbieh, Qn account of their being separated fronj Judeaby *he sea, are emphatically styled in the writings csf Moses, " the isles of the Gentiles," in contradistinQiian to Asia, which to Palestine wa's stri£yy continental. It was nearest to this quarter that the peaceful descendants of Shem fettled, themselves in Arabia, where so itoany of ' iheir names may now be discoYereci; and it was from tJiis quajeter,; that ihe.dQMfioniaA'raQe, so 114 femed fof daring exploitSj subdued the vast and fertile countries of India, Ethiopia, and the coun- tries situated on the Nile ; where they have left? so many' vestiges of their scientific' excellence, and of tiieir martial prowess. Having thus endeavoured to ascertain, from the concurrence of historical testimony, as well as from other probable -proofs, the point, from which the general dispersion of mankind took place, our researches become more confined. It is now sufficient to mark the progress of that particular family, whose history and settlement are more intimately connedted with that nation, the religion • of which forms the subject of our present enquiry. It is an idea in the highest degree probable, that a partial migration of the different races of tnankind might have happened, sometime before that remarkable and general dispersion occurred, m consequence of the presumptuous attempt of a particular colony to raise a fabric of immense height in defiance of the divine power. Neither is it necessary to suppose, that the principal founders of the different colonies led -jiheni' all, in person, to those regions, in which 125 .thejr afterwards, settled. It is on the contrary to be expe£ted, that subordinate branches of the parent stock would retain the name of their original progenitor, and afterwards pay divjne honors to his memory, though they might have be^n immediately led to settlement or to conquest, not by himself, but by one of his descendants. Among the most adventurous and enterprizing of all the Ammonian race, the names of Misr, Rama, and Cush, yet remain unchanged in the East, to shew to posterity the greatness of their achievements, and the high veneration, which they must have im^re^sed, on the mipds of distant generations. Itinay indeed appear won- derful, that any single family should have extend- ed itself so widely, and have formed settlements, in so many parts of the world. Their usurpations pre said to have reached as far as India one way, and in the countries called Ethiopia, as far as Mauritania on the other. Differing from the toving nations of Tartary, who have been styled ** the foundery of the human race," but who, with respefit to science and letters, were buried in the most deplorable ignorance, the descendants of Ham have widely diffused those arts, in which they peculiarly excelled, and by which they may, ^t M^ dayj be djso^rped. Their u^irivaUed. %2<5 superiority ill jUanufaQure, theif Iftaghificeiit struftures, so chara£leristical of their laold and ardent temper, the complexion of their religiouS ceremonies, are all too stfongly ftlafked to be mistaken. < .;*i - In 'all the researches ^Vh^ch have been made into the mythology of India, additional evidence has been adducedj to strengthen the conjeSture, that either Cush himself, or one of his progeny assuming his name, led , the first colony from Shinaar eastward, and peopled the country of Hindoostan, or as it is styled by themselves in their sacred geography " the Continent of Cush." The express words of theit own books, the genealogies of their heroes and demigods, -^hich rank this personage among tlieir number, asl well as their peculiarity of religion, and their eminence in scientific pursuits, would ifidisputably prov6 them to belong to the Ammoriian race. But positive and tlnsuppoTted assertidfls of this kind would possibly pass unnoticed, and would certainly fail in producing a complete convidtioM, that a descendant of the Patriarch had really founded the Indian colony ; if the geographical part of the Puranas bf the Hindoos, had not also satisfa£torily pointed out those other iepons, H7 whfebe difFertttt bi^ncfees of th6 same falftily hiie fixedr their feisidence. This hds been effected .with strch i^emarkablj^ accuracyj as not only to farnish a pterspicuous commentary on dtt interest- " ing part of the Mosaical ■sirritings^ but also to confirmj in a striking manner, those testimonies on the subjeft, which are incidentally scattered in the works of several profane wfitefs. The similar*ity between the Indian raeej and the Eastern Ethiopians of Africa, is a circum- stance which seems to have particularly eftgaged the attentiori of the anciept poets, geograjjhei's, and Historians. When Homer condufts Neptune into Ethiopia, he places him in the centre be- tween two nations, both black, but essentially differing >from each other : and he adds, that they inhabited the two opposite extretnities of the world.' Herodotus has marked the differ- ence, which Homer has omitted to specify. He mentions the Eastern Ethiopia, who were con- sidered as Indians ; and that th^y were distin- guished from those of Africa, by the straithess t>f their bait.? Arrian informs liS, that the Ihdiatis differed very little ftoni the Ethiopians of Africa, especially from those of the South, being of the y Odyss, 1. « V. 22. ^ Herod, b, 7, p. 498, Ed. Tranc. 1^8. 128 'Same dark cpniplexion, ajid that those who lived in the North more resembled the Egyptians.* Strabo describes them in the same manner, and very strongly insists on the Jikeness between the southern Indians, and the natives ^ }30 derided its .pretensions to antiquity and to civili- zitiuon, has been not less differently represented wif:h regard to its origin. Among the various opinions^ which have 43een advanced ,on tjhjs subr jeO:, that of the Brahmins^ is not .the, least arbi- trary: and if ,t}ie question were to be settled on their a|ijtbority, it would be decisively proved, that the Chinese, proceeded from the Indian stock. ; They assert that the Chinese were for- merly Hindoos of the military class, who, aban*- doning the privileges of their order, waiidered, in largfe bodies,, to the north-east of Bengal: and forge(;ting gradually the rites and ; institutions of tbeir ancestors, established there separate princi- palities. This is not only ]^e opinion of the modern Brahmins, who ttiight be induced to support it from motives of national vanity^ but is the unsuspicious testimony of the institutes of Menuw Nor is this aopinion wholly unstjpported by the authority of other aiicient historians. Pausanias gives a very interesting account of this people. He takes notice of the Indians under the deno- mination.'of the Seres, and describes two different lifltions, who were distinguished by this appel- lation. The first was situated on the great Erythrean or Indian ocean, or rather upon the 131 ^Ganges, being a province inclose^' by the branebes of that river. The other country of the Seres was farther removed, towards the East. It is the same as China, though spoken of byPausanias as an island, and it lies opposite to the island ofi Japan.* In attempting to confirm this opinion, by a comparison of the religion and philbso|)hy of the Chinese, tvith' those of India, various obstacles oppbse themselves. Their popular religion is known to have been iihported from India, at a period comparatively modern : and of their at- tainments in knowledge a learned traveller boldly asserts, that " the Chinese had no sciences," that is to say none 'which they had not received from other nations.' " ' v But thexe are, even yet, traces, though indeed jjnperfeft, in the names of the Beities, both of China and Japan, and in the mythology, with which they are attended, sufficiently clear to point Out the country, from which they were originally derived. , There is precisely that af- -iijiity, which favors the adoption of the opinion aupparted by the Brahmins, that the "Chinese -were apostates from the Brahminical^faith.- Aa ' Pausan. 1. 6. * k^nandot. >^ 132 author who cannot be accused of partiality iia favor of the sacred writings, after a Ibrig and Jaborious investigation, was led to think that '" the; puerile and absurd stories of the Chinese fabulis.ts contain . a remnant of ancient Indian history, and a faint sketch of the first Hindoo ages."* From which a conclusion may fairly be : drawn, that they were originally the same people ; :but that the Chinese have corrupted their lan- guage and their religion, by. a mixture with the Tartarian blood; while the Hindoos have preserv- ed both, by keeping their races uncontaminated. It now remains to point out the conne£lion between the inhabitants of India and that nation, which has disputed with them the palm of su- periority in speculative science and in pra£lical art; in those pursuits, which elevate and expand the mind, and in those institutions, which heighten and refine the enjoyoients of social life. - From an accurate survey .of the Brahminical religion, as we find it established in Indla^ it is impossible not to perceive its essential identity with that of the Egyptians, and therefore that both must have eraajiated from a common origin. . 1^3 Both nations were distinguished by a division- into various orders, of which the philosophers were the. most honourable'/ Each tribe adhered' to #he profession of its family, and never invaded the department of another. The fundamental |)rinciples of their iastroAomfical systems, woultj also : incline lis to suppose, that their sciences were derived from the same source. lUtn-j {isJaitj J,-, ,> li'i. ■ / - -.-ij j! ind: ; •M.-bas '' To explain this fa£l twa hypotheses hav^been adopted, and defended, with equal warmth, Th^ first, that the religion and sciences of Hindoostafl" were transported from that country' ihtb'Egypt j the second, which supports the; cohvc'rsecf this proposition, andi-.maintains, < that' the^ religidbs tenets of the Brahmins were brought -into liiSi^ from Egypt, at a comparatively recent period. It has been allegdd that in the remotest ag^S'to i^i^hich-'history reaches", we find the'Brahminidal religion established iin /.'Egypt ; but that /subduedi ^ndf. neatly ifextirpaiif dig by tb©' pref)(^n4erating^influence ,of BfkjimLnisin,:"!??,^ "''■* «'" If the first of th^fese-hypotheass eannot-bfe-fisJIy substantiated, 5 ;yet^ from :thp WSes iexf ■ es^IdattGe whi^h has beep 4idd«ii6«;d? W6 •am'jiisUfied Ja vadi K3 cinding that the ancient Brahmins possessed a. knowledge of the countries situated on the bor^ 4ers of the Nile, and that an intimate connedrioi* once subsisted between India and Egypt. ->iiOrt gtill less satisfa'Sbry grounds has the cd'ntrary opinion been maintained. That the firahminic^ system, with'its division of castes, had been com- pletely established in India, at the time of Alex^ ander ; that it universally prevailed throughout all the,coUntries .situated between the Indus and ihe Ganges, are positions fotmded on the con-^ Currence of v historical testimony, whose force fjQuld not be resisted, even if a survey of the TeUgious edifices in India, and of the sculpture vrhjich adorns them, did not tend to corroborate their truth, 1 : : . f rThat by the Misra of the.Pur^nas must be intended Egypt> is a supposition which scarcely admits a doubt, when we know fhat;this coulitry \i3S so long retained, throughout the Easti the name of its original fovmder. It is related in the geography of the Brahmins^ that the coitolny of Egypt was peopted by a mixedjcace, consisting of various, tribes, who though living fOr their convenience in thersaroe regiotf, kept themselves distinct, and were perpetually disputing «!bout \ their boundaries^ or whati»iaiOxe iprobable ^bojjt i las their religious opinions. This; account of thi miscellaneous origin of the Egyptians is^erfeQly consistfent with modern observation." Aceordibg f to the o|pinion of an emment anatomist,* the Egyptians may ibe divided into three distin^ classes ; the first, that of the Ethiopians in Africa ; the second, that of' the Hindoos ; and the last partaking of the nature of both. -A mixture so igerieral imust prove the accession of Hindoos to the Egyptians, and thstt in considerable numbers. Even if the islender evidence which has been brought to support the ' contrary opinion, that a colony of Egyptians had settled themselves " in i*HiijxJopstani; be admitted, yet we .may ^^fely conclude, that they visited the sages in India, as they 'themselves were afterwards visited by the sagfesJof Greece " rather to acquire than to impart knowledge 3 nor is it likely that the self- anifflcifent Brahmins would J have received them as their preceptors.* ,.gu jfil o'ni4(^^-gd. fi.-jFrom' a comparison, of the'se different fe£ls, ":^e,:fQU9wing will appear to be the . result r at jthe time of the general dispersion of ma'Akittd, some tribes migra&d^.ct^ards the Ei^ fai 'India, whlleaithdrst diyargedlb'WaFds the WefstW Egypt, '■• :!:?no-) ei tOoi'Cfi ai.ij\qv ■■''3. Qiii-''-iO .!',&,'< J Sf-i-i ^J &C a Paper byDr.BIum«njj4ch,ii>/toMtIivol,of *ephaosoph.T«iM*a f SirW. lonei on tbe gods of Greece, Italy, and India. K.4 136 and some still remained in their original settle- ments in Chaldffia, Egypt therefore we might expeft to find the source; of knowledge i for^ the westerrii and India, for theeast^rn parts of the globe. The ifew general traditions, which they had received, from thfiir ancestors, it is reasonable to imagine, would find a place, in the religious systems of ^11. , These traditions would remaia unaltfired, chiefly in countries like Indiajinsulated from (the rest of the world by continued ' and al* most impregnable barriers. iFtom the unrestraiii- ed intej-course, which so long subsisted between Ifidia and Egypt, itis probable, that a communis- cation might hayp taken place, on subjefts.'of religiori and science j that we have thestrringe^ je^spn, to conclude that large bodies of Offindoos have s&ttled themselves in E^ypi:; but that.th'ere is no reason to imagine, that the /Brahminical system was transported, at a recent periodj from Egypt into India, , ;q -liari .! l^hisr opinion jsinot less ■ reconcileablev with prob^bili^yi than with the express language of Scripture. "W^hatever thei most ancient profane historians relate; conceriMng the. early civilization, ^nd high att^inmppts of the-^ncient Indians,^.no less than of the Egyptian nation, is confirmed Isy various passages of the s^cre^' volun^p. '^Th? 137 description whtdhr is given of the wisest'of men is^ that": his ^vrisdoni'excelled all the wisdomof the East country, and all the wisdom of Egypt." To enter into a discussion of any farther con- firmation, which the geographical records of the 3rahmins, joined with the testimony of: 'other historians, have afforded to the Mosaical account of the origin and settlement^ of nations, would lead into too extensive a field- of ;argument. It might indeed be gratifying 'to the . ctirious, to pursue the followers of Brahmji, to trace their religion, their language, and their sciences, through the vast range, of country, which they havei pervadedj in different degrees, and under various .modifications. ^.It might be particularly interesting : to discover the, iBrahminical religion prevailing in itji full vigOB throughout the British isles, to penetrate the recesses of the Druidical groves, to draw„their mysterious cereSionies to light, anditQ follow them- upl td the fountain, from which' they were originally ddcived. ' But such ' 3,,jdiscussioin w-ould ; bear but; a remote applLqatiop to.ithe design ofj {these idiscom^es, and the, proof? would be less satisfa^oiyithan . those ■v^hicl\ havenow been whaJE:raay be; eflfe£led: with better fabidifies, arid on a more enlarged plan, than cbuld possibly be , here adopted ; and : if : it shall i tend, to . rshew, that although so little respe£l has.been paid to the genealogies iof; the. sacred histoajy iby:many writCT5 of the present day, yet that a more, carefiil invpstigation would lead to a contrary judgment, itsdesign will be completely answeredi.' j;. .sojo-... ■ ' ./ ■ ■' ' '■^df ,no'- '■-■ ; Soe6£ observations will however be' ha^ardied on the labors of those, who have -Undertaken this arduous, task, which may serve tdidefendf theih from thoJse indiscriiriinaie and unmerited Censures, Jjy.whichitheyhave been attacked^' The time of that man woUld indeed be ,mis- , employed, i which "Was spent in atte^|)ting to :vindic&te those writers, who have devoted *heir lalents to -the elufcidation of the' symbols 'and ,cerfimoriies:of Pagan mythoiogyi fi^hi a propensity itoform groundless theorielsi and to dieduce arbi- trary and unsuppbrted conclusions'; a charge awhich has been sOmetiiries' urged with aidegriee .of swpeQty far beyond what the kol^tfil ddhainded. 13a ;5(nd ^ometiiflBS with isarcasm and ridicule to. ^hich no subje^ can be less appfofoiate. But if on the one hand it may be^ -admitted,' that this coridemflatiow has -not been ;entiretyf ilinfounded j yet, in many instances;, it has; been equally 0ftjust and ungenerous^ the resull of wilfiil perversion or 6f ignorance. ^Ai»g»fti6Ms' arising frem etymological Analogies, from a cgm- pafison of archite£tural monuments, from an elucidation of hieroglyphical soUlpture, as they are of a distinfil and ' pebiiliar nature, so they require a pbculiar turn of ■ 'mind and peculiar studies to tindiei'stand them : such arguments the generality of readers are little qualified to com- prehend, and dtill less to appreciate, -They cer- tainty cannot fearry with them that conviftion which arises from demons^F^t-ion, neither will they admit 'of, thoise decorations arisitvg iiom imagery and fascinati&n of style, by wbidh many ether theories 'in philosophy^ 'equally absurd^ visionary, and impious, have eiaptivated the po- pular taste* If 'however gratuitotis assumption aihd'fafidiful theory 'are to be thus indiscriminately-and IfafsMy condettined ; the -charge mily'be Safely ^toifted on those' who have^ bada ' ^tHe rapst -forward tq y.tt allege.it. 6, If arbitrary and uasupported assertion: must be. .thus^seyerely. stigmatized, Bailli is far more obnoxious to censure than Bryant. If the,, one, amidst thati rich: variety of infermatioh which he has amassed, may have colle£ted some of; dubious; authority : if, in attempting to unravel the origin of ancient mythology, and the primitive religion of the iVmrooniap race, he may have fancifully^ explaineid , sqme hieroglyphics, and. wrested some fables fjgnj their obvious significa- tion ; the other \yill still more justly, deserve the> epithet of visionary, who has ascribed the origiH' of eastern: sciertfie and ^uperstitiqn to • the North, who has. placed: the^gardesjis of Hesperus aiid the, groves of Elysium in the dreary regions of Scythia, and> who ihas fixed the Ast spot of civilization ia a country uridefined by geographers, of which we know not the existence. If it be reprobated as an absurd chimera,] pr, a ridiculous legend^ even upon the authority . of all historical evidence, th^t the whole globe' was originally peopled from a particular spot, it^ is still more j. visionary to assert, in defiance of all historical evidence, that the countries of the East must have been peopled by northern tribes, merely be<^ause the -soiithera ■nations haye been unfit for conquest or fpr distant: expeditions ; when we know, that in the. earliest peripd's.of Asiatic history, all its invasions ;wet« ^itota. the South'; \^^Hen melancholy ** ex!p6nence has evinced,' that not only the fabled toriqufests of Badchus,' SeiiiJramisj^and Sesostris, hut the conijVieSts; of ' the Arabians' under Mohammed, the most rapid, the most extensiv^i' and 'the; most calamitous, which the world ever saw, pointedly contradifil the assertion. If the»fa€ts which have been collefted in this discourse, should be allowed to carry any weight, they will amply vindicate the labors of those, who have employed their ingenuity an4 learning in the illustration of this, and other parts of the sacred geography. Nor should it be forgotten, in a disquisition designed to promote the ends of practical piety, that whatever degree of rtierit may be allowed to their different conjedlures, on their intentions there cdn exist no contrariety of opinion. No .hypothesis can be lightly esteem- ed, which has for its obje£t the confirmation of revealed truth j nor can the philosophy of that jpian ever be useless, which brings him nearer to Godj which either strengthens his faith, or animates his piety. It has for its reward what is far more valuable than " the praise of men ;" that reward which shall remain when " tongues shall cease and knowledge shall vanish away;" which indeed can only receive its full accora^ 142 plishment when oijr present Hmitfj^ ifittainments shaU be ripeAed intp pe^rfp^ion, when hppe shall l)e. recompensed by enjoyment, and when our capacities shall be fitted for thei comprehei^siott o;f infinite truth. DISCOURSE V. ON THE CORRESPONDENCE OP THE BKAHMINICAL SYSTEM, WITH THE PRIMEVAL RELIGION OF MANKIND. Preliminary cautions in judging concerning the- traces of general traditions in Pagan Mythologies — What traces of primitive revelation discernable iA the Brahminical system-^The Unity. of God — The^Blil of Man— 'The Custom of sacrificial oblations ^-The oblation of a Divine Personage for the sins of mankind— Recapitulation. DISCOURSE V. ON THE COEEESPONBENCE OF THE BEAHMINICA.L SYSTEM, WITH THE PRIMEVAL EELIGION OF MANKIND. .Psalm 147, v. 19, 20. He sheweth his ways unto Jacob, his statutes and his prdinances unto Israel i he hath not dealt so with any nation, neither have the heathen knoioledge of his laws. It was the dbjeQ: of the preceding discoufse to point out the manner in which the principal nations, connefted with the Indian race, separated from their parent stock ; and ,by degrees turning aside from the worship of the true God, were at length plunged into the grossest polytheism' and idolatry. The arguments, which cbuld be adduced to prove, that any two remote and independent nations were derived frbm' a com- mon origin, wer6 shewn to be reducible undeir three distinfl: classes ; first, similarity in ' the ■ formation of the human body ; secondly, simila-^ rity in the stru£lure of language 5 and lastly, that which furnishes tjie most incontrovertible proofj ]40 similarity in religious opinions, and in those civil institutions which owe their existence to religious san£tions. , The design of the present discourse, is to retrace the path which has already been pursued, and to enquire, whether any impressions may yet be discovered in their corrupted mythology of a purer faith, >yhich was coeval with the creation, revealed to man immediately by the author of his existence, and which may be pro- perly termed the primeval religion of mankind. "What might have been the religion of man in a state of purity and perfeftion j whatknowlege he might have possessed of the essence and attributes of the supreme Being ; what might have been his obligations, and what his duties, it is equally impossible for us to comprehend with clearness, or to define with accuriacy; On this subjeft nothing can be found to gratify curiosity, ar^d conjefture is equally vain and unprofitable. Such an enquiry can have no re- ference to the present state of human nature, and is therefore wisely rendered fruitless. We are only interested in considering what revelation of the divine will was afforded to mankind, immediately after that order of providence com- 147 menced, which we now experience. This state is indeed variously represented, according to the temper of diiferent individuals ; and the repre- sentation will principally differ, whether it be considered as a state of final compensation, or as connected with another, and preparatory to a future state of perfe£tion. But to the following definition few will be inclined to objeft : that it is a state "in which there are evident marks of beneficent design, though those designs are often counterafted, and prevented from taking eflfett ; a state in wnich man is endued with a desire of happiness, though complete happiness is absolute- ly unattainable ; a state in which good and evil are never entirely separated, but frequently pro- duced out of each other. Whether under this condition of human nature a divine revelation were expedient or necessary ; whether such a revelation would improve the present state of mankind, and might therefore be expefted from a Being, who according to any reasonable cpnceptions must desire the hap- piness of his creatures ; whether this revelation should have been proposed to all men alike, and when proposed should have produced irresistible conviftion; these are questions, Which, though capable of a rational solution, would lead us too 1 3 143 far from the ob}e£l of our present enquiry* This will' be confined to the more obvious questbnj whether any proofs exist, to shew that any pro- mulgation of the divine will was originally vouch- safed. "When the passage recited in the text, and there are various other passages in the Old Testament which speak the same sense, records the intimate Gohne£l:ibn which subsisted between the Deity and his peculiar ,people, it is to be understood as referring ' chiefly to the visible display of the divine favoh, which was manifested under thfe Jewish dispensation. It accurately describes that polrtyj vrherein the line of duty was marked out by the finger of God, and in which the interposition of Omnipotence extend- ' ed, even to temporal concerns, and obedience was enforced by temporal sanfitions. It cannot be understood to imply,' that the other and far greater, part of mankind had never received, from the supreme Being, ariy intimation cf his will. The Jewish revelation, itself professes to be built, on the ifoundatioh of another, and prior covenant, established! between the Creator and the whole human race. The declaration made to Abraham, " in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,',' conveys some additional 149 iiiform^^tion to what was before known. It can- not be reconciled with reason, if considered as an insulatdd passage, and unconne£led with a pre- vious and universal communication, that through the seed of a woman, salvation should be obtain- ed and effefted. But although the Jewish dispensation was founded on a forn>er covenant of more general concernment, yet we are not to imagine that it was nothing more than a republication of pro- mises perverted or forgotten : nothing more than a renewal of what is called the primeval religion of mankind. The positive declaration of the Psalmist, that the dealings of God with his chosen people were essentially distinguishfed from those with the other nations of the earth, obliges us to draw a different conclusio». It mayna- turally be expefted, that every new communica- tion of the divine will, must discover some new and important relation between God and man, and must impose on the latter some additional obligations, resultinjg from such a discovery. Revelatlon'then, if we would form an accurate idea of its design, must be considered, first^ as a connefted 'Scheme, which cannot be properly comprehended, unless viewed in its several parts l3 150 and dependencies ; and secondly, as. a progres- sive scheme, every successive addition to the strufture being not oniy cemented with the pre* ceding, but conferring an accession of strength, utility, and beauty, on the whole. Although these observations may be too evi- dent to admit of dispute, and have been too frequently irisisted on to bear even the appear- ance of novelty j yet they suggest this important corollary, not sufficiently insisted on : that there is no relation of God to man revealed to the primitive race of mankind, which is not more fully revealed under the Jewish, and still farther under the Christian dispensation ; but that there are maqy discoveries in the two last, which we shall in vain cxpefit to find in the former. It is the more necessary to advert to this con- clusion, because the oldest, and what has been boldly termed the noblest and purest religion, that religion which prevailed throughout the world before the imaginations of men became corrupted, and they transferred to the creature the worship which is due only to the Creator, has been represented as nothing more than a refined deism, This religion is described to consist in " a firm belief that one supreme God made the 151 world by his power, and continually governs it by his providence j a pious fear, love, and adora- tion of him ; a due reverence for parents and aged persons ; a fraternal affeftion for the whole 'human species, and a compassionate tenderness even for the brute creation." '^ This definition may be true, as far as it extendsj but falls thort of a cbmplete description. The oldest religion of mankind was the same in es- sence, though not in degree, with the Jewish and Christian dispensations which succeeded. Man at that time, standing in the same relation with respeft to God as at present^ had peed of the i^me promises to animate his hopes, and the same sariftions to enforce his obedience. We are therefore authorized to conclude, that in this • primitive revelation were contained thp outlines, though the outlines only, of that comprehensive plan, which it was the lot of the patriarchs to behold afar off, but which it is our happiness to seein its full accojuplishirient. "With what degree of -clearness and precision,- Ihose promises, which have received their com- vpletion under the 'dispensation of the rjGrpspel, might have been revealed to the progenitors of the hitman race, it is no less difficult, than import- x4 151 ant, to determine. If on the one hand, their religion has been reduced by some to a pure deism, it has been exalted by other's, to a more perfe6]f knowledge of the divine economy, than perhaps was really given. The concise account which the Mosaical records have supplied, of the religion of the early world, may lead us to imagine, that the historian has only related what was absolutely necessary, and has. left us to fill up the imperfeft sketch which he has delineated. ' But whenever we attempt this task, it is requisite to guard against the suggestions of a warm imagina- tion, and the idea that mankind, at this remote period, possessed a clearer view of the , future condition of their posterity, than was vouchsafed. We may be allowed to admire the lofty genius of Milton, who from the scanty materials which the sacred history has furnished, could raise from the fertile stores of his own imagination a stru£lure, not less admirable for the nice adjustment and exaft proportion of its particular parts, than for the splendid efFe£t of the whole. But in laying down principles, from which to deduce Argu- ments, such a method, however ingeniously pur- sued, will be found treacherous and unsafe. It must be difficult, and perhaps impossible, fqr those who have lived under the refulgence of the " perfect day," to form an accurate judgment 153 of the situation of those, who saw only the early dawning of revealed light. General and succin£l: hbwever, as is the infor- mation contained in the sacred history, and dan- gerous as it might prove implicitly to follow the vivid, but, illusive light of the imagination, there is yet another source open to us, which will sometimes supply the' defefil. There are still remaining, in the mythology of every nation, some general traditions which could never have been diftated by natural reason j some customs which could never have originated in any other cause, than in positive institution ; which^ however perverted and obscured, may be clearly traced up to a common source. By connefting these with the fafts, which our own written oracles supply, we may be sometimes enabled to form arguments, which if they will not amount to the striftness of demonstration, may yet claim a very high degree of moral probability : a pertinent example may b?st illustrate the truth of this remark. When immediately after the first and fatal transgression of man, a promise was given that " the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpenti but that the serpent should bruise his heel " however obscure these expressions 154 may be, yet we may fairly interpret them to signify, that a future deliverer should appear, assuming a double charafter, both suflfering and triumphant : so far we may be allowed to go, but no farther. We may imagine it probable, that some additional information was given con- cerning this extraordinary personage ; but we have no right to argue that there really was. We have no right to assume, that the promise extended so far as to predift, that this personage should be divine, or rather the divinity itself j still less that any intimation was given concerning the time of his appearance^ or concerning -the place where he should appear. But if it be found that the incarnation of the divinity, by his own will and pleasure, was a doftrine of universal extent, and unquestionable antiquity ; if this do£lrine be found generally current throughout the East, and forming a leading article of their popular creed ; if it be found also diffused throughout the western world, and taught by those philosophers who had acquired a knowlege of oriental learning j if it be also discovered that this opinion was more than ordinarily predomi- nant at the time of the appearance of Christ j if it be proved that the Jews vwere, at that time, in such a state of depression, as to be the con- tempt and derision of the nations around them j 155 and that if the rumour had entirely originated from them, it would have neither been entitled to any credit, nor would have been imputed to any other motive than national vanity ; if above all it be found that all these distindl circumstances are transmitted to us, not by <3hristians, but by some who were indifferent, and by. others who were hpstile, to the Christian cause ; if we conne£t all this iiifofmation with the'written promise con- tained in the history of Moses, we may fairly and reasonably infer, that the written promise was pnly the substance of what was more fully com- municated to the early world, and which, com- munication traditional authority has thus contri- buted to preserve. , » But in this method of reasoning, however 'corre£t the general principle may be, there is a pecessity for caution in its exercise and applica- tion. Of all authority, traditional authority is the most equivocal and least satisfactory. As infor- mation, conveyed through this channel, is always liable to corruption, by the addition'' of foreign circumstanc-es, it must on that account, be dif- ficult to trace the original truth through the mazes of error. That all Pagan mythologies are founded on 15« real revelation, is a position, which though gene- rally true, is true only to a certain extent : this assertion must be understood with several import- ant and interesting limitations. In no instance have learning and ingenuity been more unsuc- cessfully direfted, thati in unravelling their intri- cacies, and especially in referring them to one cause. To explain every hieroglyphical symbpl, to reconcile every physiological solecism, to reduce every poetical hyperbole, and to unravel > evexy astronomical enigma, with the avowed design of discovering through those shadows, some important ^reality ; even if the principle were in itself just, coujd never be executed in such a manner as to command a reluftant assent, and still less to enforce a rational convifilion. Much of the antient Pagan creed and ritual is doubtful in its origin, much is absolutely inex- plicable, and much, if it were capable of expla- nation, would perhaps be found to have its rise in causes trivial and absurd, Neither will the gre?it truths and mysteries of the Christian Revelation ever gain credit, by such an injudicioils mode of defence ; but on the contrary, its utility and its necessity will be less conspicuous, and may even appear problematical. Let us not, through a blind zeal, to prove that 157 all false religions are shadows of tlie true, confer on the aerial form the substance^ the sinews, the vitality, and the vigor which are the property of the living original : let us not make the true religion itself nothing; rnore than an unmeaning _ replicate of. the false. All that . we should in fairness contend for, because all that Ve can salisfaftorily prove is, that, .a few prominent features af the true religion are visible through the mask (if deformity, which polytheism , has superinduced ; with this^additional circumstance, that these lines must be more clearly discernible in the countiiieg. situated nearest , to the seat of primeval tradition. ' This preliminary view of the subjefl was absolutely necessary, to enable us to enter into the discussion ; proposed J and will supply us with some necessary cautions, in aid ; of our judgment^ when we ;attefnpt to delineate those proofs, still; to be discovered in the Brahminical system, and which point to a higher and uncor- rupted original. ' The first grand do£trine of prihieval revelation prevalent in all the mythologies of the Heathen world, though not generally insisted on, and seldom considered jn its-true light, is that which 158 constitutes the basis of every true religion, the doftrine of the Unity of God. However the forms of Paganism may be varied, yet in asserting this important truth they all agree. " From all the properties of man and nature" (is the- language of an eminent writer) " from all the various branches of science, from all the deduftions of human reason, the general corollary admitted by Hindoos, Tartars, and' Arabs, by Persians and Chinese, is the supremacy of an all-creating and all-preserving spirit, in- finitely wise, good, and powerful ; but infinitely removed from the comprehension of his most exalted creatures."! While the universal voice of tradition proclaims that the religion of the primitive world was something more than pure deism, the same au- thority attests that this religion was nothing difi'erent from the worship of the one true God j and fully rebuts the notion^ that polytheism and idolatry were the oldest religion, on which the doftrine of the Unity of God was a refinement. If this had been the case, the opinion might have found its way into the systems of speculat ive I SirW.JonM, 159 philosophers, who might be supposed to entertain exalted conceptions concerning the divine nature ; it might, have animated the language of their poets, who in the sutjlimity of their conceptions, frequently rise higher'' than their philosophers themselves j but would never have fiarmed a leading article of popular belief, would never unexpeQiedly' appear in those very writings, which in other placesinculcate the most degrad- ing and licentious ideas of the divine Being, and which prescribe a mode of worship, in direft co!ntradi£lion to his unity and spirituality. The doftrine of a pure and invisible Spirit is so totally abhorrent from idolatry, and yet is so frequently expressed and acknowleged in those writings, which inculcate the grbssest idolatry, that it is impossible to consider this tenet as belonging to them. It is a tenet so entirely incongruous, that it must have been derived from a source foreign and extrinsical: it is like a solitary figure in a painting, which differs from the rest of the groupe, and betrays the hand of a through ':the different operations of nature j and the distinfilion, of these diversified powers, at length led to a separation of them. The observation is not vvithout its force* that the Unity of God may be an idea, too sublime for the human mind to dwdl on; and it was therefore natural to view, in its several parts, and to observe in ite various eflPefls, what, in the whole, was an objefil too vast for mental contemplation. Still however it must be allowed, that as all our speculations concerning the attributes 6i God, must, from our limited capacities, be liable to uncertainty, the marks of primeval tradition, on' this article,, may not be so evident. A dif" ficulty may occur in distinguishing (between what might have been reasoned out by the iutelle£tyal faculties, and what must have been communicated by express revelation. We may imagine it im-j probable, that man would ever have arrived a^t any just conceptions of the supreme Being by his own unassisted reason ; nay, we may perhaps pronounce it absolutely impossible. We can proceed, however; with more confidence to the second article ; which from the nature of God, descends to the condition of man. The next proof of primitive tradition discernible in every m2 i64 mythology of the; ancient world, and piarticuiarly ' in theJ^ahiia^aical-systemjis thepALL of Man.. The f^I of man then, may. be considered either as a i barrea fkft. ifti the history of the hxim;4n: species, coming down to us attested by the same evidence as any other fefil ; or as an 'article of^ religious faith, and conneQied with, other opinions necessarily arising from it., It will be sufficient in this place, to consider it in the former point of view, as a matter of faft, without entering into a discussion of the various and contradi£i:ory opinions, which -have been, entertained concern- ing. its.eHFefts. , The idea that man was originally placed, bjc bis Creator, in a state of perfe£t enjoyment, which he forfeited by some transgression of his own, would scarcely have suggested itself with- out! a i foundation in reality. Such an event is the most unlikely, solution which human reason, wduldi have devised, to account for the origin of evil. It is prob^blythe last conclusion which the huriian ,mind, on a survey of the a£luali condition of the universe would be likely to. embrace. On a candid review of the general harmony which prevails throughout the ■order of nature, of the marks of J)eneficent contidvance. 165 •of the adapftation of ^agents to eftds, and on a xdnaparison of the gadd^and^evii tviMchiafe blended in it, we caiitiot forbear dfawing the ciftidusioni that the preponderartce is decidedly in faVor of the formed. " It is 'a happy world after all," we should be obliged to exclaim -^^h •an amiittble Christian moralist. But even if the iooBce^sLEtn shouM fere- made,/; that iiiiarirhas a propensity 't© magnify, beyond its jast 'proportion, the sum of natural atad rnoral evil,i!'or)'that there really exists a: considerable sumusfiobotti; still the conclosion that either the onpforthe other, is a just punishment iinftiEted on miani by hjs Creator, on haccount of sometrahfijgnessicmcorrt- mitted in a former aivd happier s'ttate^'wbMll'd; never havei>een drawn. The remark may perhaps bfe hazarded, without danger of cdntradiSKpni that •ibe-most, probable sOflutidnfWihich the IWiMhan 'mindi^^unaided by the light of leveiatjioij, -wdatd r adopt, if not at onde enveloped: in the ^tocnflffjef atheisnii would, be that 'which •ha^ptevkiled ^o wdSly throughout the eastern world j the MasM- chean cBci£ti'tn^ 'of two opposite ^rinrcipies' of equal force.^and alternately oontroliiilig the affatrs -©f the world, , Jn^. ,163 ^^t,, ..(( j1 I,) Bvit yfet wefind, that thenrost!cdmi5?toi5r«iethod jof accounting for'the loiagin of '^J.?isfth'e dege- M 3 ' , 106 neracy of man frona a state of purity to a state of corruption : a doftnne which has retained a place in the popular creed of every nation. Of Brahniiftism iti may be almost said to form 'the basis. It is this idea, which has regulated its elaborate scheme of chronology ; it is this idea, which causes its followers to submit to the most excruciating penances, in order to purge the soul from the stains wbich she bas contrafted, during her abodfe; in. this polhatied body. They have indeed corrupted and obscured this doftrinej they haveengrafted on it additions which do not properly belong to it j they have carried, it so far, as to inspire them with a hatred of life, arid a-dereliftioa of every worldly enjoyment ; they have continually placed ! before their' eyes the accomplishment of that pielancholy period, when a total dec^ of bodily strength, as well as an entire degeiieracy of morals shall increase the sum. of present misery-j but these deviations from the.truthcouldnever have happened, unless they had truth itself for a foundation. These are phantoms of the iniagination, which would never have existed, if they had not been derived from sojjie correspondent re?tlity. From the fall of man we are naturally led to the consideration of a positive ordinance, im^ i67 'mediately conneSed with it, and springing out of itj THE CUSTOM OF SACRIFICIAL OBLATIONS AS AN EXPIATION FOR, SIK. In whatever point of view this custom may be regarded, whether as eucharistical or propitia- tory, ^Vhether originating in the idea that it was a proper mode of expressing sentiments of grati- .tude to theJDeity, for the enjoyment of the boun- ties of nature, or as a proper atoneraentfor guilt ; still a rite so peculiar and so universal, must have received its san£tion from some positive command, and could never have beeu the dictate of natural reason> The oblation either of the fruits of the ground, or of, the choicest produce of the flock, could ■never be supposed any proper method of demon- strating gratitude, , or appeasing the wrath of the supreme £eing.- **Thinkest thou that I will eat bull's flesh, or drink the blood of goats," is a question, which 4vould have-suggested itself, though it had not proceeded from the mouth of God. " Shall I offer tlfe friiit of my body for, the sin of my soul," is a sentiment of natural reason, which, with reverence be it mentioned, geems not to require the stamp of divine authority, m4' m .An opinion has indeed been maintained 'with some 4)lausibilityj that animal sacrifices might have deFi^^eci their -osrigin (from the hieraglyphrcal language of former times ; and that it was customary to typify vices, by animals, whose propensities were airalogous to thejii. To the ignorant and uninformed li^ultitudte,. such*' an hieroglyphic would iseem to pi-escribe the a£fcual sacrifice' of the an^raaal. But in what respe£l does this; analogy hold good ? /Is there any cort:espondence, in hieraglyphicaManguage, be- tween the qualities of -those domesHc animals which supplied man with sustenance, and those depraved appetites which were supposed to be thus offered up to the Deity ? Was the tender lamb, which is well fcpown to, havfe been the favourite victim, not only jind'ei; the Jewish theocracy, but throughout the heathen wbfM, an apposite .emblem, pf pridcj of lust,- of revenge, pr of any of those vices which debase.thehuman heart? Can the period be pointed '6ut:when sacrificial victims were seJeftedj, with any re- ference tQ the qualities which: they I'epresented in hieroglyphical langfiage? Ih^ishdtt this rite, as we find it prafilised xihder 'cvei-y form of > ancient religion, cannot be reconciled with the idea of a spiritual God, uijess it had ^jeen sanftioned by hisexpress injun£tionr That this custom does not, at present, find a very prominent place in the religion of Hindoo- staHj'Was at first thought an anomaly iathehistory of Pagan mythology, difficult^ to be, explained, and which strongly opposed the supposition of its. divine and positive institution. But in the earlier periods- of the Indian; history, it is certain thati both bestial, and also human, sacrifices were praftisad. Although the predominant in- fluence of the dofilrines of Buddha in Hindoostan, has greatly contributed to repress these sangui- nary rites, and although the general mi|dqe$|,of the Hindoo,chara£ter: has: in.duced spme writers, to.deny th^t they ever existed ; yet thfir vestiges arei still visible, though they have never be^^, re-established in their pristine vigor with the reviving authority of, the Brahminicg,! system. The, Vedas the^nselves, on some occasions, enjoin the oljl^tjon of men, a,s vyell as ^ii|iaIS, and that the , sacrifices of the latter were. anciently praftis.ed, we have' the . authority of Strabo and Arrian."'; It is also vvell known that one ia(f the incarnations of Vishnu, , that of Buddh?i; himself,, is described by the Brahnjins, as having taken place for the purpose of abolishing the sacrifices enjoined in the Vedas ; and whatever difference i , .. ' ^ Straboj lib. r^. ArrUn ini^dlcisr 170 of opinion may be entertained concerning the time, or the genuineness of this descent, it is a decided proof, that the custom of sacrificial ofFer- ipg must haye been universally prevalent. The universal praftice of stacrificial oblations will at length condu£t us to that memorable event, which they were designed to prefigure ; THE OBLATION OF A DIVINE PERSONAGE FOR THE SINS OF MANKIND. And here, if the subject be of more than common importance, the tradition is more than ordinarily explicit. In other instances, tradition- ary evidence glimmers with a faint, a partial,: a doubtful light, but hfere it bursts forth in full and transcendant splendor. Whither can we turn our eyes on the religion and philosophy of the ancidnt world, without discovering an ardent expeftation of a future deliverer, who should, by his sufferings and example^ expiate sin and render virtue more lovely ? It is not the decla- matory language of national vanity ; it is not the hyperbolical rhapsody of 'poetic fervor j it is but the sober narrative of unornamented truth, when the Psalmist thus speaks of him in a prophetic spirit : " They that dwell in the wilderness shall kneel before him, his enemies shall lick the dust j in the kings of Tharsi's a&d of the' isles shall bring presents, the fcing* of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts ; all kings shall fall down before him ; all nations shall do him homage.'^ If we turn our eyes to the Persian legislator, we shall find him prediSing the appearance of a personage, who should establish a religion pure and inor mutable ; that kings should be obedient to him ; that, under bis empire, peace should prevail and discord cease. If we turn to Confucius, we shall hear him attesting the same event, and proclaiming that " in the West the Holy one should arise." If at length we approach the followers of, Brahma, ■ the sages of the Vedanti school, we shall find them putting hito the moiith of their ^ne^rSjajlje -God, of that. divinity, whom they consider, as invested with the fullness of celestial glory, this remarkable declaration, *^ I am th'e sacrifice, I am the vi£l:im." If we advance in our researchesj to the Gothic mytho- logy, we there find their middle divinity repre- sented as obtaiinJHg a victory ov,er death jlnd sii} ^ but at the expence of his, own life. ■ Shall we pursue this notion fronj th^ East to the West, from ithie siagfs of Hindoostan to the sages of Greece ? We shall find Plato, imbued with all the learning of the East, and with aJI the learning of llgypt, describing,- his righteous itnan^ who m ■ should end a life of ; unrivaHed goodness, by a death of unexampled ignominy.. Shall we finally attempt to discover this idea in the religion"^ of Pagan Rome? There also it appears. While it. lurks in the magnificent but mysterious imagery of Virgil, it meets us openfy in the full and unreserved confession of Tacitus. Thus then, those grand truths on which the Christian scheme is founded, may, all of them, be traced up to the source of primeval tradition ; they form the substance of what is termed the ptinjitive religion of mankind. The important do£trine of the existence of an invisible and spiritual God, in opposition to the pra£tice of polytheism and idolatry ; the fall of man j the custom of sacrificial oblations as an atonement for siti ; and these intended to prefigure the great sacrifice of the divinity by his own will and pleasure, for the offences of the world : all these may be clearly discerned among the generdl corruptions of Paganism, and particularly in the religious system of Hindoostan. And these are sufficient. Other instances of correspondence' might be adduced which decidedly point' to some original and universal communication, and which might be satisfaftorily provedj without infringing on any of those, important canons, by 173 which the, coincidence of traditional evidence ought to be determined j but these are seLefted, as being the most unequivocal, and as compre- hending subjefts of infinite importance. These observations will close the view of the Brahminical religion, with Tespeft to the. con- firmation which it has afforded, to the truth of the Mosaical history ; and this confirmation cannQ): but be deemed highly important, when we recapitulate the different arguments in their connexion and dependency. We here behold a system of religion', subsisting at the present time, in the same form, by which it has been known since the earliest period of authentic history. We have taken a review of its do£trines frond a comparison of foreign tes- timony with its own sacred records; and these have afforded mutual illustriation ; and the one proves the veracity of the other. We have seen the regal government, which was established under thisi religion, long since overthrown ; we have seen its hierarchy partaking in the same destru£tion ; but even in this disjointed state, . retaining those inherent seeds of vitality, .which have preserved its dominion over a vast and : refined population. We have, in the first place^ 174 shewn on what a baseless faiindatioti thtfse claims to unfathottiable antiquity, which its pro- fessors assume, must at length rest ; that there is the strongest reason to suppose that theif chronological scheme, in its pure state, was not widely different from the moderate coinputation, which the Mosaic writings give, concerning the age of the world ; that before this limited period we see nothing but cycles of artificial construc- tion, and an immense space o(. unocQupied vacuity. We have seen ^that the first eventi which its records clearly and unequivocally attest, is the renovation of the present world from de- struftion by a flood, and that the modern Hindoos, however solicitous, to conceal or (deny the fa£t, can never rationally ex^laia many of their fables, but by an allusion to this catastrophe. In the sequel of our researches a striking coinci^ dence has been discovered, between' the geogra- phy of the Puranas, and the MoSaisal account of the or4gin and settlement of nations, branching from three, different stocks ■: and the geography of the Puranas, however disfigured by wild allegory, is in many instances, strikingly CDnfirni- ed by the Grecian hjstorian.s an^ geographers. In the last place we have -attempted to shew, that man "was never left by his Creatca*, ivithoiit some revelation to dire£t his steps j and what 175 that revelatiou was, What, promises. at unfoldKl,. and what doftrihes itiwaa.cjQsigned to inculcate^ may, be colle£ted from itbsi Concise Unfopnatidni contained in the tjjjstory of Moses, compared with thpsis .traditions, which are yet to, be: di's- coyer0^,j ifi all thie, mythologies of the .ancient w;orld. f'l-,7 ,■ ;L- ,.t .:/!!qoaoiinx; ix:' . ... ' 'lo i.:ji}ub V,! K^-^-j" 3fiJ rHiw :tii)£qmoon' vll", _. /jr^e: jrf!5n'ajpit)g part ©f; the; proposed, design w,ill beidi,reQ:e4 to a djflfexent, obje£l. We have itherto regarded this system; of ancient super- stition, venerable in its ruins, with resp'eft to its origin ; it is now to be viewed in its effetls on the character. We are now to examine that theory of .morals, which has been celebrated as bearing evident marks of divine inspiration ; which has been ?aid to contain every precept, which can preserve the virtue and advance the happiness of man : which some have praised from a transient and superficial view, and which others have admired from the fastidious taste of a depraved appetite. Nor can this latter circum- stance excite surprize. For as to an understand- . ing relaxed by indolence, or vitiated by improper studies, the false ornaments of style will dazzle, where genuine eloquence will be disregarded j a splendid and specious paradox will confound, where the. native force of truth willfail to con- 176 vlnce ; so there is a sickly morality,' the hectic of^ an inflamed imagination, which consumes, not the genial warmth of i true benevolence wliich- invigorates .the mental energies; a morality, which contributes to form the suspicious- cha- ra£ler of a grave sentimentalist, and not that of a rational philosopher ; a moralityj which is' totally incompatible with the necessary duties of human life considered as a state of discipline, and as A preparation for a state of eternal hap- piness and perfeftion. DISCOURSE VI. m ' ' ■ ON THE b"RAHMINICAL KEPRESENTATIONS, OF THE DEITY OPERATING AS A PRESERVATIVE OF MORAL PURITY, AND AS A SOURCE OF HAPPINESS,, , ContradiSiion in the 'Hindoo character ex- plained — Of the mystic Worship' of the Hindoos and their licentious Rites— -Of the Do&rine of the immortality of the Soul, how converted into a source of misery-^ Of the effedis of a System of Metaphysics operating on the Superstition of the Vulgar — Of the Influence of Cli- mate on national CharaSer, DISCOURSE VI. ON THE BRAHMINICAL EEPEESENTATIONS OF THE ITEITY OPEKATING AS A PRESEllVATIVE OF MORAL PUllITY, AND AS A SOURCE OF HAPPINESS. Exodus 34, v. 5. 6, ^nd the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant iii goodness and truth. An eminent '^ writer has observed, that the indistinftnesSj produced by the association of abstraft ideas, is often a soilrce of the true sub- Jime. The reiiiai"Tk: is in no case so well illus- trated, as in those r^pVesentaitions of tKe Deity, with which the Hbly'Scriptures abound : repre- sentations, which whille they exclude form and body, aJfFe£l the soul with the most awful sense of infinite power, majesty, and glory, manifested .? .Edmnnd Burke, n2 . 180 in ijifinite mercy and goodness. The mind of man, utterly incapable of comprehending the objeft, shrinks back within itself, at the contem- plation of the y high and holy one who inhabiteth eternity," and hurnbles itself, in unutterable aspirations, before the Lord God Almighty. If he who " was caught up into the third Heaven," knew not, even, when the rapture was past, whether he had been " in the body or out of the body : if he was unable to utter the things which, he had seen and heard: if the positive, the experimental knowledge of " the things which God hath prepared for them that love him," could be represented by an inspired Apostle, only in negative' and, indistinft terms ; well may we -be assured of the insufficiency of language to describe Huvr who is the author of them all : and of whom the human imagination can conceive nothing more than the shadows of his perfeftions ; the out-skirts of his gloj-y,- That man, unassisted by revelation, is capable of forming any notions worthy of the Alpiighty, may safely be denied ; because most certain it is, that all the proper no- tions which any people on earth ever did form concerning him,- may be traced to their sources, , either in primeval tradition, or in the ^written theology of Moses. 181' But insufficient ' as man must ever be to ^p^ak or to think of the eternal Majesty, " with the , Jionour due unto his name," still man is capable of knowing Him, so far as lie has condescended to reveal himself; because the terms of such revelation must of necessity comport at once Vvith the Divine nature, and with the capacity of the creature to whom the revelation is made. When the G«d of the utiiverse x\o longer hideth himself in thick darkness, he allows us to recog- nize him as the God of man, as the Lord, the Lord God', merciful aiid gtacious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. Again — what- eVer peculiar attributes such revelation ^hould display as inherent in the divine essence, those attributes must be analogous to the ideas or them, with which man ' is coriveTsant. The archetypal wisdom, and pow'er, and goodness, and 'patience, cannot be different in nature, though' infinitely different in degree, from the siame qualities in a created being ; because a regl difference in their nature, would not only render a revdation of the divine' natiire totally inqorhr prehe'nsible' as a truth ; but every deduftion from its principles -would defeat all proprie:ty and justness of religious sentiment, and all order in religious obedience. Whensoever therefore the Divine Being should' have imparted to his rational N 3 ■ 182, creatures the knowledge of himself, that know- ledge must be at* once proportioned to their intelleftual capacity, and to the purposes for which the knowledge is imparted. But the intclle£tual powers of man, however capable of pursuits and attainments, transcendently higher than his present state of existence demands, are, with respe£t,,to "the things of God," merely dormant faculties, till awakened into aftion by a divine call, and dire£ted by a divine rule ; and the duties prescribed by that rule, must be con- sonant to the nature and to the authority of Him who gives it. But the spiritual nature, and the inherent dominion of the Lord God, must of necessity, to be intelligible by man, be adum- brated by representations to which man's faculties are equal, because it is impossible for man to understand them as they really are j and the religious duties towards Him who is without parts or passions, must be conformable to the intellectual powers of the creature who is to fulfil them ; and in terms, of which, so far as they go, his conceptions are clear and just, however inadequate to the essential dignity of the Lord ' OF ALL. Most of those terms, by which the Holy Scrip.- tures represent the attributes of the Supreme 183 Being, are, in a strift sense, inapplicable to Him : they are derived from qualities and relations appli- cable to MAN alone, for whom language was in- tended, & whose wants it was designed toexpress, !|But yet those, notions which are philosophically erroneous, may be rendereid pra£lically useful. Though in condescension to the weakness, and in conformity to the capacity of man, the'Al- mighty is sometimes described as sifFe£ted' by human passions and subjeftto human infirmities; yet these representations carry with them no pra£tical error. They are such as no blindness can misunderstand, and no base passion misinter- pret, .On the contrary they are such as are adapted to produce the happiest influence on the conduft. Whenever occasions present themsdves, when a more appropriate idea of the Divinity is essentially connefted with the revelation of any important truth, or with the injun£lion of any parti- cular precept, he always appears in a manner cal- culated to impress sentiments of the purest vene- ration: he is then divested of every passion which belongs to humanity, and is exhibited in awfulj but indistinft grjancieur. And if under the Jewish law, where the conditions of obedience were more strict, the N 4 134 penalties ofinvoluntary error or of wilful rebellion were proportionably severe : yet/ even then. Almighty Power is tempered isy mercy j though the formalities with which' the Jaw, was intro- duced, wer^ designed to impress terror, yet th^ precept itself was only love. The Governor of the universe is, indeed,. represented, as punishing a violation of his commands on distant geripra- tipns; but -when he prqmulgates that code of moral duty of which rigorous justice i? the charafteristic, he desicribes himself as " gracious,, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth*'' The -same design was preserved through- out the old covenant, which is still more con- spicuously displayed under the Christjan.dispen- satlon, that of placing the Divine Being in such a point of view, as, while it may operate on the on^ hand in ^he most forcible manner, sfs a preservative of inoral purity, may, on the other hand, afford, to^ man a.sourc:e of rational happiness. In the general delineation of the Brahminical system, in its influence on, the moral charafler, the first place was assigned to the ideas which it inculcates concerning the Divine nature ;; but, before a particular discussion is attempted of their praftic^l effefils, it wilt be proper to state the irresistible influence, which these ideas rausthiave. 183 on the general complexion of every religion, and consequently on the fprmatioti of the chara£ler. It has been frequently stated, that, although the religion of the Hindoos, on a superficial view, appears to consist in the rnost extravagant polytheism; yet that it is, in fafl, the worship of the one true God. According to their own expla- natioui they ^ave, " in their temples, many statues, " both of superior and inferior divinities, before *' which they prostrate themselves, and present *' them with offerings ; nevertheless they do not be^ "JLeve that the statues are the divinities them-, "selves, but only their image or representation; " and that they honour them only on account of " the beings which they represent ; that they are *' placed in the temples only to furnish the " ^people with some visible obj eft of attention; ^' ^nd that when they pray, it is not to the « statue, but to him whom it rfipres^nts."' This indeed has been the apology for idol-, atrous wot-ship in every, age; but on this very ajccountj w^ assume the superiority of the; Jevvish and of the Christian revelation, over the-, dreams of Pagan superstition. In each we are oqcasJDnalljr ^ Sketches eftb^Hindoosi 186 afFefted by sublime descriptions of the invisibility of the Supreme Being; in each the Supreme Being is brought nearer to the human compre- hension, by being invested with the relations and qualities of human nature. But, it is perhaps necessary that he should most frequently appear in this latter point of view ; because this viev^r will have the most powerful influence on the character and conduft of man. We can readily admire the raagnificent description of the Pagan Jupiter, causing the universe to tremble at his nod J but this description could have little influence on the mind of his worshippers, : to whom he more frequently appeared wallowing in the impunitieis of sensuality and lust ? Whenever we peruse the history of the va- rious superstitions which have prevailed in the world, we find, that they have ' deprived their origin from the sentiments and opinions, which were at that time, generally popular. On this account, by observing the complexion of ancient mythologifes, by an acquaintance with the attri- butes and adventures of their deified heroes, by marking those particular passions, which were thought worthy to animate those celebrated personages, whether those of ambition, cruelty or lustj we can, with some degree of certainty. 187 determine concerning, the state, of society and manners, at the period in which they took their rise. We may easily judge of the moral condition of the world, at the time which rendered , the labors of Hercules meritorious and even necessary, and of the turbulent anarchy, which suggested the fi£lion of the various and successive incarna- tions of Vishnu. But if ancient , mythology derived its origin from the prevailing state of society and manners, in process of time the state of society and manners was determined by the prevailing mythology. And as the charafter must be in- fluenced by the complexion of religion, so the genius of every religion is determined by the light, in which its peculiar Divinity appears. The total exclusion of a superintending provi' dence from the afFairsof men, will either generate indifference, and indisposition to mental exertion, or an intemperate love of sensual gratifications. On the other hand, the predetermination of the minutest events by an irresistible decree, will necessarily give rise to abjefl: fear and gloomy apprehensions of inevitable woe. Nay it has been insidiously asserted, with no friendly re- ference to the Christian religion in particular, that a belief in the Unity and Spirituality of the ■ 188 Divine nature, brings with it li pra£iical con^se- quence not generally regarded. It engenders a spirit of inflexibility towards the errors and prejudices of others, which is raraly to be found among the followers of polytheism.' This however is certain, that iil the same proportion, as the cloud which veils the divine splendor, appears to the human vision in lighter or deeper shades, in the -same degree will the human intellefl: be enlightened or obscured, and the human passions will be elevated by confidence and hope>or depressed by doubt and despondency. "The pillar of fire", which is beautifully fepre- ■ sented in the sacred history, as proving ^' a cloud and darkness" to the Egyptians, while it afforded alight to " the camp of Israel," is an illustrative symbol of the pra£tical and efficient difference between the worship of Jehovah, and of. the Gods of the Heathen. ' In contemplating the moral character of th6 Hindoos,- as taking its complexion fVom their religion, we observe, that as their superstitious ritual presents a straiige rhixture of images sanguinary and voluptuous, art intimate union between obscene mirth and austere devotion j so ■ ' i ' Hume, »'■ 189 the manners df its fqllowers have been aSuated ' by contending and confradidtbry principles ; a circumstance which has excited much wonder, and given birth to much erroneous and unprofita- ble speculation. While, on the one hand, the native of : Hindostan, has been represented, as shuddering at the sight of human " blood : as carrying this terror to the most troublesome excess: to an excess^which prevents him froih destroying the most noxious animals, or of partaking of such as were designed for the use of man ; and while he has been repriesented as sunk in the most degrading ina£livity ; on the other band the same charafter is. distinguished by such afts of deliberate cruelty, of undaunted resolution, and of painful. and continued exertion, as sometimes astonish, and sometimes disgust ; such afle as sur- pass all credibility, and eyen exceed description. This union so unnatural and discordant, can never be. distin£tly explained nor understood, but by tracing the steps which led to its formi Atioja ; by shewing in what manner the different kinds of superstition have been so blended with each other, as, at length, to cQmpdse^ one con- fubed whole. \ . * . : ' • When the hieroglyphics, whiph we may sup- igo pose at first innocently intended, to represtat the attributes of the Deity, ceased to be consider- ed as mere symbols, and were converted into distinft personages ; then mankind divided them- selves into particular se£ls, attaching themselvesy each to the exclusive worship of the idol of his choice, ' The same spirit which led them to personify the powers of nature, led them to distinguish between the efficacy of those powers. The seEt of Brahma, who worshipped the crea- tive power or supreme Lord, at first claimed a pre-eminence for the objedi of their adoration. The se£ls of Vishnu and Siva, who worshipped the preserving and destroying powers of the Deity, combined against the followers of Brahma, and obtained so decided a viftory over them, , as totally to abolish their worship. Each of these two last, afterwards, contested the superiority ,with the other. The se£t of Vishnuj which worshipped the preserving power of the Deity, had been always addifted. to the celebration of obscene rites. It had indeed" been united with that of SiVa iri the league against the seft of Brahma, and that union appears to have continued till the time, when the- conversion of an emblem of an abstraft idea into an object of worshipj introduced a revolution in 101 religion, which had a sensible and extended influence on the manners of mankind. It was then that a species of superstition arose, which , rapidly spread its deadly influence ; a superstition, which degraded the Deity into an implacable tyrant; which prescribed the most dreadful penances, and filled the minds of its votaries, with. th,e most excruciating terrors. If the former superstition were calculated to vitiate and corrupt the mind, the latter was not less adapted to enslave it. The sfe£l of Siva, having at length totally separated itself from that of Vishnui: introduced those cruel praftices and sanguinary rites, which, in after times, were extended over so large a portion of the world. These rites were acknowledged, and practised by remote nations, who were ignoraijt of both their 6rigifi and significancy ; and to this cause may be attributed that mixture of images, gloomy and gay, cruel 'and lascivious, which charafilerised the religious fi£tions of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Their ignorance of the symbols which they had borrowed, caused them to supply their want of information by fables corigenial to th^ir national temper, and gave rise to a mass of irreconcijeable contrarieties. 1£^2 ' By the conjunflion of these two opposite kinds of worship, the Hindoo icharafter has been always aftuated ; and still retains the marks of these diiFerent irapressiotis. , But as this account com- prises only a. general view, it will be necessary to take a more intimate survey; and to specify those particular articles of their religious faith, which debase the moral charafter of the Hindoos ; classing them- under tlie two general divisions, already laid down, as they operate In preserving the purity, or in promoting the happiness of' man. ,, ' • In attempting to unfold the pra£tical efFe£ls" of the mythology of the Hindoos, and to estimate the purity of their moral code, it is of little importance to advert to those particular passages in their sacred; writings, represent the Deity in those colours, in which he always appears to a .mind divested pf guilt and prejudice, and unclouded by^superstltion. To what source these sentiments should' be attributed has been intimated in another place. Such passages may justly claim the admiration of those, whom a purer faith has taught, duly to appreciate their value, and forcibly to feel their beauty. Who for instance can refuse the merited praise of sublimity, to the following simple, but energetic, invocation of the divine' Being ? 103 *' Let us adore the supremacy of that divine sun, the god-head, who illuminates all, who recreates all, from whom all proceed, to whom all must re- turn, whom we invoke to dire£l our understand- ing aright, in the progress towards his holy seat."' Again, what sentiments can be more exalted, and more Worthy of the diviiie iiature, than the following? ' ^ "As God is immaterial, he is above all con- ception i as he is invisible, he can have no form ; but from what we may behold of his wdrks, we may conclude that he isr eterhfll, omnipotent, and present eyery where."" , From such passages an undeniable conclusion must be formed, that, although the religion of the Hindoos, in its praflical tendency, leads to the most extravagant polytheism ; yet it was originally the worship of the one true God ; since it teaches, that there is one great and supreme Being, who is distinguished by the title of Brahme, or the great oke, and that from him even the inferior deities themselves have proceeded. ! Cayatri or holiest verse of tbe V^das* . ." Geeta. e 194 But it will now be seeiij in what, manner the conceit of man has been employed> in con- , vertipg this noble doQirine into a prolific source of error. The reverence paid to this GO0 of Gods, is not that veneration which is a regulating princi- ple of a£tion, which is efFeftually calculated to produce purity of heart, and refilitude of conduct j but that mysterious reverence, which springs from superstitious fear, and which has always proved the destruction of the moral principle. The worship paid to him is said to be purely spiritual, consisting chiefly in devout meditation.. The following is considered as the wish of genuine piety. - " May that soul of mine, which mounts aloft in my viraking hours, as an ethereal spark, and which, even in my slurtiber, has a like ascent, soaring to a great distance as an emanation from the light of lights, be united, by devqut medi- tatiouj with the spirit supremely blest, and su- premely intelligent."; But this worship, although chiefly consisting " ExtraA from tbe V^das. 105 in abstra£led devotion, is sometimes expressed' by the siuppresSed utterance of the mystic word OM; a word never to be used by the devout Hindoo, without a particular preparation. The solemnities, which ought to precede the utterance of this, word, are carefully prescribed by their divine legislator. " If he have sitten on culms of sacred grass with their points tow;ards the East, and be purified by rubbing that holy grass in both his hands, and be farther pre- pared by three suppressions of breath, equal in time to five short vowels, he may then fitly pronounce OM."" It Is' not intended, in this place, to shew what resemblance these previous solemnities may bear ^ to the occult worship of the Egyptians, or to the cabbalistic mysteries of the Jews ; but the quotation is made to shew that this pra£i:ice, once so general throughout the world, of covering religious doftrines under the veil of mysterious secresy, bas always proved the bane of nioral virtue ; and has ever been applied to vicious and interested purposes. In every religion myste- ries must exist, or rather there are moral difiicul- ^ Menu, c. 2, v. ,75. 02 196 ties, inseparable from the present constitution : of the world, which religion cannot remove. But when the peculiar do£trines of any revelationVare jealously guarded by a favoured few, from the unhallowed tbucla of tlie vulgar, they become a source of absurdity and error. They are then converted into engines . of tyranny, or into in- struments . of licentious pleasure. In process of time they become obnoxious to the just condem- nation, which'the Apostle has bestowed on the rites of the 'Heathen world ; " it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret." Mysticism in science has always proved an infallible method of perpetua- ting the reign of ignorance : mysticism in religion ^has proved a method, n"6t less effectual, of fosteifing the seeds of immorality. They havei always disappeared, and disappeared together, ^wherever the light -of true learning and genuine piety have dispelled the mists of error and of barbarism. An awful veneration for the majesty ofj heaven, is not better preserved, by thus shrouding it in obscuritv, concealing it from cbmmon' obsetva- tion, and removing it to so great a distance, from the hopes and fears of man. By trye devotion it is always regarded without servile dread. No preparatory rites, no preliminary of 197 initiation is requisite, to raise the. devout spirit to God; no time, no place can exclude it from communion with him. Accordingly, by thus removihg the Supreme Being so far beyond the reach of ordinary con- templation. He is ahiong the Hindoos seldom the obje£t of any religious honor, and. Still less of religioiis adoration. He is now considered as an obsolete Deity, who has no interference in the affairs of the world. «.,',, From this statement, it will appear, that the; dbftrine of the Unity and Spirituality of the Divine Being, has but little influence on the moral condufit of the Hindoos ; nor indeed is this coritended for, even by their warmest apologists. But it remaiqs to point out the praflrical effefls of their polytheistic worship, on which the opini- ons of miankind have been widely at variance. Experience has amply proved, not only that the bias of human nature, has uniformly tended to polytheism and idolatry, during times of ignorance; but also, that in an age of learning and refinement, the same bias has had the same tendency : since the writings of the most distinguished philoso- o 3 108 jihers in modern times, alike eminent for delicacy of taste, and strength of reasoning, have display- ed an unequivocal partiality in their favor. They have found apologists in the piety and erudition of Bacon'', as well as in the metaphysical acute- ness of Hobbes" and the cold scepticism of Hume. The latter has thus declared his opinion concerning their praftical influence. *' Where the Deity is represented as infinitely superior to mankind, this belief, though altogether just, is apt, when joined with superstitious terrors, to sink the human mind into the lowest submis- sion and abasement ; and to represent the monk- ish virtues of mortification, penance, humility, arid passive suflFering, as the only qualities which are acceptable to him. But where the Gods are supposed to be only a little superior to mankind^ and to have been advanced, many of them, from an inferior rank, we are more at our ease in our addresses to them ; and may, even without profaneness, aspiTe sometimes to a rivalship and emulation of them. Hence afitivity, spirit, courage, magnanimity, love of liberty, and all the virtues which aggrandize a people.".' * Advancement of Learning, b. 1. c. 7. '' Leviathan, ciS. * Hume, Natwal Hist, of Religion, ie&. 1ft ^99 "Without discussirig the general accuracy of this statement;: without contending that the qualities,, which the world has thought proper to deify, have been rarely such as to deserve emulation ; the religion of the Hindoos, may be fairly tried by this rule ; and we may be enabled to discover' how far their multiplied representations of the Deity, agree with this test; how far they are, adapted to produce energy qf mind, of to preserve purity of condutt. ' Although, in the Brahminical system, the original source of creation is ascribed to "the great soul" which animates the universe; yet this Sovereign essence, by his own thought or will, created another being, who diffused its a£tive powers. But even this secondary being has long since been divided into three, to express the creative, preserving, and destroying powers of universal nature. The chief objefts of adorations hdwever, at present, artiong the Hiiidoos, are^ now confined to the preserviiig and destru£tive povvers of the Divinity ; the creative power being seldom the objeft of their fear, or of their regard. But this separation of the different powers, soon led to a personification of them, by synibols expressive o 4 200 of their nature. That this distinfllon was made at a Very early period, is, plain, from the Vedas themselves : as well , as from the Institutes of Menu. To this succeeded ijiat distinftion be- tween the efficient and efFefiiiye powers of the Divinity, which at length, so essentially contri- buted to corrupt the mind. To unfold the, gross enormities, which, in after- times, arose from sentiments so degrading of the Divine nature, to disclose those licentious rites, which have been Celebrated under the name of religion, but which equally insult the common understanding of mankind, and are offensive to common decency, would be not less useless and improper, than disgusting ; neither would they have been hinted at, if sentiments had not been entertained, contrary to sound reason, and false in fa£l, that these rites, however abhor- rent from the sentiments of men instrufted in the principles of a purer faith, and accus. tomed to, notions more worthy the, Supreme Being, may yet have been pra£lised, without producing any pernicious efFefts on the cha- rafter of their yotaries ; that the .frequency of their repetition tends to diniiiiish their hurtful effects on the mind j and that objefls which are rendered thus familiar to the view, are at length regarded with indifference. 201 It will indeed be allowed, that aftlons, by con- stant repetition, become habitual, and produce a different effe^ on the chara£ler, f^om those which are indulged in for the momentary gratification of desire. Neither can it be xJoubtetJ-, that satiety and langour are the necessary consequen- ces of pleasures, strained beyond their proper limits, when they have been pursued rather; from custoi^ than inclination. But that the efFefts on the moral sense are less pernicious, when that sense is blunted and become incapa- ble of fa,rther incitement, is a dangerous error. Jt is with the mental as with the bodily consti- tution. That irritable temperament, in which the slightest touch ;thrijls through, every pore, and vibrates on every nerve, is less radically danger- ous, than that morbid apathy, that insensibility to external impressions, which is the constant har- binger of decay and dissolution, and the most lamentable state of perishing humanity. From observations which have; been made on the moral chara£ter of the natives of Hindoostan, this remark cannot but acquire new confirmation. , The Hindoos possess not that inflammatory tem- per, which prompts to excesses, dangeroiis indeed, but generally transient. They live in that total subjeftion of the mental faculties, which precludes 202 the necessity, and even the disposition, to exertion. They are properly described to " exist in a state of subordination, which knows no resistance, and to slumber in a voluptuousness, which knows no wants?' If the physiological part of -their Worship pos- sess so little to- elevate the. mind; that part, which consists in the worship of deified heroes, is far from favourable to anj of " those virtues which aggrandize a people." These are, indeed, what their sculptured representations declare therry to be, monsters. Of all the sources of mythology, that which was derived from the apotheosis of heroes falsely so called, has produced the greatest praftical evil. The honors of-deifical- tion have always been decreed, by the most fallacious and dangerous appreciation of worth. In the infancy of society, they were usurped by lawless power, and brutal libertinism ; in subse- quent periods they were offered by gpveling adulation to impotent grandeur. When the ad- vocates for idolatrous worship recommend it to proteftion a;id favor, as powerfully calling forth emulation j and when, in support of their opinion, they mentibii Alexander, who was animated to * Orme. 203 prosecute his expeditions, by a desire of rivalling Herculesv and Bacchus, whom he at length pretended to have excelled ; we maj freely allow them the use of such an example. Such virtues, may, indeed fitly be learned in the pantheon : such may also be found in the Hindoo my- thology. But it is very difficult to find examples which contribute to the repose of the world, and to the advancement of human happiness : it will be difficult to prove that such qualities have ever attained the reward of celestial ho- nors, or even that gratitude which should await them. These are the effefts, which the Brahminical representations of the Supreine Being, are calcu- lated to produce on the, moral chara£ter. These effefts may be couhterafted by other causes ; but they are sufficiently visible in the Hindoo charac- ter, to justify the truth of the principles laid down in this Discourse. AVe are now to consider the influence of the Brahminical representations of the Divinity^ in another point of view ; in their tendency to prq- mote the rational happiness, and to gratify the natural desires of man. 204 . That happiness cannot possibly be, separated froni refilitude of conduft, and that it is ihcon- consistent with the' indulgence of corrupt inclina- tions, there is no necessity to prove. But there are tumultuous pleasures, and there is a supine' inaftivity, in which happiness is vainly supposed to exist ; a happiness unworthy of the name, ever transient and unsatisfafitory, and totally different from that pure felicity, vvhich has beea rightly termed " the siin^hine of the mind." ' But even here, the representatiops which the Brahminical system give of the Deity, form a pic- ture the most gloomy and repulsive. The popular religion of Hihdoostan is not, like that of Greece, captivating though corrupt, in which taste dis- playfid.all its resources, and pleasure all its charms. It is neither calculated to excite tumultuous mirth, nor to promote temperate enjoyment j but the de- spondency of settled melancholy, or the frantic ravings of despair. When Heaven itself is repre- sented as a place of discord, can earth be consi- dered as a seat' of happiness? When the atmos- phere is suffused with dark and impenetrable clouds ; when every breeze wafts, pestilence and death ; can the most beautiful scenes of nature be enjoyed with their proper relish ? 2a5 The same religion, which has generated a gross and licentious worship, which has given bfrth to all the disgusting enormities already mentioned, has been equally produftive of the most deliberate cru- elty, and ofthemostabjeft stiperstition. The same Divine Being, vi'ho is represented as delighting in all the impurities «f sensual lustj delights also in the blood of human viftims. Though the in- carnation of tiie humane Buddha was expressly intended, to abolisb the sanguinary sacrifices which the Vedas prescribe, rites which have never prevailed in their former vigor since the reviving influence of the Brahminical tenets ; yet the secret immolation of human viftims, and the voluntary oblatitn of , enthusiastic devotees is still praftisedj and deemed rneritorious,. The infant is still offered up to appease the wrath of Heaven., and to procure the blessing of a numerous pro- geny ; the aged and expiring are still exposed on the banks of the sacred river, as the most honour- able method of ter^ninating an existence too long protrafted, and thus ensuring an indisputable title to the enjoyment of future, bliss. ' :i The do£trines of , the immortality of the ;souL and of a future state, which, when pure "^nd unsophisticated, are equally adapted , to secure the general welfare of Society, and to promote 206 individual happiness, have, by the refinements of Brahminism, been rendered instrumental, both in repressing the exertions of th'e mind, and in aug- menting the miseries of life. Though it is a fundamental tenet in the religion of the Brahmins, that the soul is incorruptible, and is itself " a ray from the infinite spirit," yetj in that re-union of the human soub with the Divine ethereal sub- stance of the universe, which it is imagined wilt at length take pl^ce, all personal consciousness of immortality is excluded ; and consequently all personal consciousness of happiness. But before the soul can possibly be absorbed in the Divine essence, to which state it is progressively tending, it must undergo various transmiyations, in order that it riiay be completely purified from tjie taints of evil, contra£led in this present life. Hence, while this notion has been the cause of that ridiculous veneration, entertained by the Hin- doos for the most loathsome & noxious parts of the animal creation,it has also embittered their present happiness, by recalling to their recoUeftion the idea of an existence, in some former state, of more exalted purity, and .of more refined pleasure. " Perhaps" (is the language of one of their dra- matic- pOems) " the sadness of men, otherwise happy, in seeing beautiful forms, and listening to ap7 sweet melpdyjari^e^jfroiQ somie f?ii[utrqmein]braf|ce of past joys, aji4e measure, taking the complexion of their national character from its influence : living in that state of oscitancy, which arises from natural imbecility, or oppressed by that lassitude, which proceeds from intemperate gratification. But we also see the same people, when the force of religidus impressions stimulates their natural indolence, displaying instances of self- denial, of laborious andpainful exertion, which alpiost exceed belief. "We may behold the native of Hindoostan, whose form is naturally of a tender texture^ and p 210 whose body is enfeebled by age, patient of fatigue, careless of d?inger, taking his long and painful journey from the Ganges to the Volga, to offer up a prayer, at the shrine of his God. We ^ may behold him, at another time, relinquishing evelry worldly conneftion, subduing every feeling of self-love, and all the sympathies of social life, " motionless as a tree, and fixing his eyes on the solar orb," till exhausted nature sinks, or despair prompts him to devote himself to the fury of the flood or fire. But, what is still more decisive to the purpose, and what shews the irresistible force of religious impressions, we may perceive the followers of the religion of Mohammed, and the professors of the Brahminical faith, living in the same country, breathing the same atmosphere, and therefore subjeft to the same effefts from climate ; each still retaining those remarkable peculiarities, which the genius of two religions, so diametrically opposite, inspires. In some of their institutions, such ^s those which prohibit the indulgence of inebriating liquors, or which permit the almost unrestrained gratification of sensual desire, they assimilate ; but even the common observer may distinguish the discriminating lines, which mark Ihe difference of their faith. 211 The force of religion can, of itself, combat the influence of climate, or counteradt the want of bodily strength. It can form th^ Ascetic and the Devotee, under the burning rays of an eastern sun ; it can form the Sybarite under the invigora- ting influence of a temperate clime. And chiefly that part of religion, which ex- clusively consists of our ideas concerning the Supreme Being, and the nature of our devotion to him, will be instrumental in forming the eha- • rafter. That course of life which is deemed the most acceptable to him, will be pursued and persevered in, however repugnant to all the feelings of nature, however detrimental to the interests of society, however painful in its execu- tion, or however useless in its tendency. Happy then are they, who live under the benign influence of a religion, in which the Deity is represented, not as a stern and inflexible tyrant, delighting in the sufferings of his slaves : but as a kind and compassionate parent, who rejoices in the happiness of his offspring j in which human life is represented, not as a state of ^servitude, but as a state of discipline -, in which the Almighty does not address himself to man in the accents of terror, but speaks to him in the P2 212 same consolotary voice, in which he once pro- claimed himself- to his chosen people of old : "The .Lord, the Lord God, merciful and graci- ous, long suffering, abundant in goodness and truth." DISCOURSE VII. ON THE BEAHMINICAL SYSTEM IN ITS OPERATION ON THE INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES, The Causes which contribute to depress the intelleQual Faculties of the Hindoos deri- ved from their Religion — The Division of Society into Castes— The comprehension of Science in their Scheme of Revelation— The Incorporation of their Civil Institu- tions with their Religious System. Their •Chronological Scheme — Superiority of Europe over Asia, attributable to the Genius of the Christian Religion. DISCOURSE VII. ON THE BEAHMINICAL SYSTEM IN ITS OPERATION ON THE INTELLECTUAL FACDLTIES. Romans 14, v. 17. « The Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink, but Righteousness, and Peace, and Toy in the Holy Ghost. ' XO form a just estimate of the comparative excellence of Christian morality, and of its in- fluence on the human charafter, it is requisite to consider the precepts of the Gospel, not only in a positive, but also in a negative view. Some. ! duties and obligations are enforced with a degree of stri£tness and precision, to be sought in vain clsewhlere j but the Christian revelation does not 'fiK what should be left indeterminate, and has always declined to interfere in those cases, where interference .would be sometimes unnecessary, and sometimes prejudicial. And it has efFe£ted this purpose, not only by disregarding many of those qualities so highly applauded by the world, and some of which have been thought J 4 216 essential to the existence of political society ; it not only neglefts to form the Patriot and fire the Here, but, satisfied with laying down a few com- prehensive rules of condu£l, it never directs their application to particular cases. Though it com- mands, in the most unequivocal terms, the obser- vance of temperance and self-denial ; yet it has not defined the exaft limits where rational enjoy- ment ends, and criminal excess begins. Though it inculcates the fundamental principles of equity and justice ; yet it never descends to discuss them with forensic prolixity, or forensic minuteness ; nor does it specify exceptions and limitations to plain and indubitable rules of praftice. Though it dire£ts, that some part of human life should be employed in the necessary occupations of secular industry, and that some part should be devoted to religious meditation ; yet it does not ascertain, with rigid and undeviating formality, the precise jquantity of time requisite" for •each ; but leaves the question, to be decided by'existing circufn- stances, and by the conscience of the individual. Contented with giving a right impulse to the , motions of the heart, it does not pretend to regulate them, with the exa£l:nessof mechanical oscillation ; but leaves them to be biassed by external causes ; by causes which will sometimes acceleratej and sometimes retard their ordinary 217 course ; by causes, which it is not less easy to -foresee, than impossible to control. Should this distinguishing charafler of Christian morality, appear to merit no higher praise, than that 'of maintaining a decorous and consistent reserve, concerning the ordinary concerns of life, which badly accord with the awful grandeur of religious sanations; yet this negative excellence may claim a higher commendation, and is produc- tive of more important advantages. The first advantage is, that the morality of the Christian religion, being* contained in a short compass, is always ready for use in the conduft of life. Of the Mussulman code we are informed, that it consists of not less than seventy-five thousand traditional precepts ; and of the sacred literature of the Hindoos, it has been , said, that " the longest life would not be sufficient for the perusal of hear five hundred thousand stanzas in the Puranas, and a million more perhaps in other works."" Moral precepts, applied to such, a variety of cases, and on such a variety of subjects, myst perplex, rather than enligflten ; must leave room for cavil and evasion, rather than- afford a * Sir W. Jonet, 218 specific direftion, in any emergetfcy of moral doubt. The next excellence of Christian morality, and which essentially distinguishes it from every other mode of religious faith, is, that this silence on many points of " doubtful disputation," renders Christianity " the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Had its injunftions been contained in a code of jurisprudence, or comprised in a regular compendium of ethical maxims, they would have received a tin£l:ure from the opiniops and customs of the country wherein they originated. But Christianity, being an historical religion, although it abounds in references and allusions to the theatre, on which the events which it records were transafted j has nothing of that locality, which could confine its progress, or limit its duration. Though the tree was first planted in Judea, yet it stretches out its branches unto the " sea, and its boughs unto the river j" it flourishes not in any peculiar soil, but in climates the most remote from the spot, where , it first arose to overshadow the world. It is on this account, that the Christian Religion is the only faith capable of universal extension j for whatever variations may take place in the ,219 course of worldly affairs, it Is not In the least affefited by them. At it lays down no particular form of civil government, or system of political economy, it survives the dissolution of states and empires : or ,assimilates itself to any alterations and improvements which wisdom or expediency may suggest in their administration. As it dic- tates neither theories in philosophy, nor axioms in science, it hps left mankind free to adopt im- provenaents and discoveries in either: As it prescribes no regulations With respeft to the customs of domestic life, or to the different modes of social intercourse, it p^ermits those cha,nges Twhich constantly take place in them,' from the Innocent love of novelty, and the progress of refinement. Thus it is not a fabric, which though composed of durable inaterials, may, in a series of ages be rendered less beautiful or less com- modious, but is equally calculated to resist the assaults of external violence, and to withstand the silent decay of •time. But the highest conjmendation of Christian morality, derived from its negative excellence, is the unconstrained exercise, which it allows to the intellefilual powers of man. Christianity has left the mind free. While the perfeftion of the mental faculties in ^ futijre state, is pro-. 220 posed as an encouragement to exertion ; it has opposed, in the preset^ state, no obstacle to impede their progressive improvement. In proof of this assertion, we may allege, that if Christianity be the only religion capable of universal extension, it is also the only religion, ■which, if confined to a single nation, woulH allow and enable that nation to preserve a neces- sary intercourse with the rest of the world, and 'to maintain its rank in the political scale, without violating any of its fundamental precepts or departing from its genuine spirit. This cannot be said of- any other religion ever promulgated. Experience must have taught us how frequently nationSj not professing the Christian Religion, have been obstrufted in their necessary exertion, either of precaution- 'ary defence, or in the cultivation of many ,of the arts of peace. But " the Kingdom of God" is not confined to place, nor bounded by the barriers of the earth or ocean. It has not restri£ted the spirit of inquiry and adventure, the pursuit of knowledge, or the prosecution of commercial industry : nor has it fixed a river, or a chain of mountains, as the limit, beyond which to pass, is an aft not only of danger, but of 221 impiety. Of many forms of religion we may almost say, that they are indigenous. They derive their efficacy, and even their substance^ from some local peculiarity ; and are like any other natural production of the soil. But "the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink," it is connected with no national ordinances, which prohibit, the use of any of the bounties which nature has fg^ely dispensed, but they are left to be enjoyed as expediency may dire6t, or as choice may dictate. And, if a single Christian nation could preserve a necessary intercourse, with others of a different faith, without violating any.injunftipn of Christian morality, ; so a single individual professing the Christian faith, might Jive, in any part of the world, with any seft, under any climate, under any form of government, without tranS'gressing any command of his, own religion, without any privation of necessary enjoyment, and without any sacrifice of integrity. The method by which all other religions have established their authority, and preserved, their influence over the minds of their votaries, has been exaftly the reverse. They have begun by binding, under religious saaftions, what might 222 properly be left to the regulation of human laws. They have included every obje£t, either of specu- lative science, or of pra£tical wisdom. They have even modelled the forms of social inter- course ;' and, from regulating the disputations of the schools, they have descended to prescribe the beverage of the banquet. Thus they have con^ tributed to fetter the mind, by confining the exercise of its powers, by fixing , limits to its pursuits, and impeding its free exertions. Form- ed to meet the present exigency, and without any prospeftive view to the condition, the inte- rests, and the wants of distant generations, they have marked out a state of society which is to admit of no change or improvement. They have always opposed, with inflexible obstinacy, any attempt to alter those stationary manners, which they had originally introduced. Thus many Pagan liations are, at the present time, what they have ever been, since the earliest periods of authentic history : the state of India in the time of Alexander, is, with little varia- tion, its present state. The same distinftions in society take place ; nearly the same objefits of worship are holden in veneration ; the same arts are cultivated. With the progressive improve- ments of the world, either in natural philosophy. 323 or in 'inord and political wisdom, the inhabitants of India have had no concern. The light which has been reflefted on them, by their intercourse with those nations, whom avarice, ambition, and curiosity have allured tp their shores, they havie endeavoured as far as possible to resist ; and the very slight variation, which has arisen in their manners, from their contaft with their different conquerors, may be said to proceed from a neces- sity almost physical. In the preceding discourse, some of the defefts, inherent in the Brahminical system were pointed out, with respeft to the pra£llcal influence which their ideas, and representations, of the Supreme Being, were calculated to produce on their nation- al charafter. It yet retnalns to consider the in- fluence of their religious Institutions on the intel- le£lual faculties, and on the social afFe£);lons. The present discourse' will be confined to the former of these subjefts, reserving to another oc- casion the consideration of their efFe£ts on thq af- fe£tions of the heart, and their tendency to promote private happiness, and universal benevolenee. Without discussing the question, whether man- kind may be -gradually though slowly increasing in wisdom and virtue, with the age of the world : 22.4 or whether the world may be in a perpetual revolution from ignorance to knowledge, and from barbarism to refinement ; it is certain, that a variation in local circumstances has caused, in different periods of society, a different application of the intelleftual powers of man. They cannot without violence be continually dire£ted to the same pursuits. Perhaps the difference between one age and another, consists, rather in the diversity of the objefts to which the mental faculties have been applied, than to any diflference in the natural powers of the mind itself. If, for instance, a knowledge of the powers of mecha- nism, has, in former ages, been applied, to raise the massive column, to ereft the, lofty pyramid, and to form those vast struftures, which seem to deride the pigmy efforts of more degenerate days ; in the present times it has been more successfully dire£led, to augment the comforts of domestic life, to operations^ which, though more minute are not less useful; which demonstrate equal fertility of invention, and equal comprehen- sion of genius. But this difference in the appli- cation of the intelleOiual powers, is, perhaps necessary, to prevent their total stagnation ; and eminence in either science or art, has never been attained, but by the free exertion of the mind, uncontrolled by civil regulations, or by the more powerful sanftions of religious opinion. 225 The first institution then, in the Brahrainical system, which more than any other, contributes to check this necessary freedom, , and to depress the mental energies, is that artificial line of divi> sion, which has been drawn between the different orders, of society } a line of separation, which it is impossible to pass j and which is not only guarded by the prescriptions of law, but fortified by the < adamantine and impregnable barriers of the divine decree. At the creation of the world, cach.of the four primary casjtes, is said to have procefeded immediately from -the Divinity ; and to mingle, or to confound, what He has thus originally separated, must be a deed of the most daring impiety. To enquire minutely into the: numerous sub- divisions, which have branched out from these primary orders, an^ to ascertain the different mod^cations of caste, which have taken place ' throughout Hindoostan, might present a subjefil worthy of attention. But the effefts of such an institution can be argued, here, only on a general view. . : ^" Unnatural and arbitrary as this division has eventually proved, and favourable, as it must necessarily be,, to the exercise of despotism, it 226 has, not unfrequently,heen defended, as singular- ly adapted to secure the end, which must have been in the view of those, who first formed it. It has been said, that the human mind accom- modated itself, without a murmur, to tbe^ law of necessity j that the native of Hindoostan patiently acquiesces in an institution so repugnant to our feelings ; and that thus knowing, from his birth, the station allotted to him, and the duties peculiar to that station ; as the obje£l:s which relate to these, are the first and sole presented to his view, he has no other to inflame his desires. He is there- fore a stranger to the fatal effe£ls of inordinate ambition. It has been also alleged, that this division is the most undoubted proof of the early and high civilization of the Hindoos, and of their perfeftion in the art of government; and that the arrangements of government are judiciously made, not for the Few, but for the Many ; not for individual convenience, but for public advan- tage. It has been finally asserted, that to this institutioh may be attributed the astonishing pierfe£iion i of the inhabitants of India in their manufaftures, which exhibit a dexterity, unrivalled by Europeans, with all the advaiitages of superior science. .r ' If we may be allowed to assign a cause for 227 an Institution so singular, we may Imagine it to have been, at hs commencement, nothing more than a necessary division of labor, among the diiFerent orders of society. It might, at first, have been morally innocent, as well as politically useful. It must have been long, before the different gradations in society, could have been hnmutably fixed, i and rivetted by the chains of an inexorsblte superstition. But, that in its pre- sent state, and its present state is the necessary result of sucha regulation, it can have a tendency to increase national prosperity, is a position that equally contradifts reason, and experience. From the time when our acquaintance with ' the history of India begins, its inhabitants, so fair frdm possessing any political importtoce, have ever groaned under the dominion of a foreign yoke. They have dragged the chains^of an igno- minious servitude' for ages, under a people, whose numbers have scarcely exceeded a tenth part of their owin population. In a country, where an order of men is -set apart, expressly for the-p*o- t«£tion 6f thfe'rest ; a class, whom the enthusiasm of some historians has represented) to be " mighty in martial de^ds;" it musfr af^ear wonddrfiri, that this spirit could be k) completely extinguish- ed. It must appear wonderful)^ if this ijistitutibn q2 228.. of castes, were really 'as beneficial as is con- tended, that in a mode of life, where superi- ority is generally the result of skill, and where skill is derived from experience, the warriors of India should so long have slumbered in supine indifFetence. That an order of men, like the sacerdotali order, to whom is entrusted the care of science, as well as of religion, should, in modern times, have so far degenerated from their antient pre-eminence, is another proof of thfe impolicy of this regulation ; plainly demon- strating, that where knowledge is not permitted generally to expapd, knowledge is itself diminish- ed ; when it is, at first, from interested motives, confined to a few^ itis, at length, negleSJed by all. That the inhabitants of India jnay have excelled in the labors of the loom,- and that their manu- faftures are so remarkable for delicacy of texture, is not to be imputed; to the institution of a com- mercial caste, but to the suppleness of their frame, to the formation of their bodies, and above all, to the remarkable configuration of their hands. But, whatever superiority may be visible in their execution of many useful arts, the exercise of others is absolutely prohibited by their religion ; ' and the scrupulous adherence, with which they follow the praftices of their ancestors, has entirely checked the spirit of invention. 239 The fa£t is, that this fexample, drawn from the history of the Hindoo nation, will considerably tend to solve the problem so long debated — how far the powers of industry and application can supply the want of natural genius^ and also to ascertain that important question in political philosophy' — ^how far it is prudent to warp the . natural bent of the mind, by the artificial regula- tions of civil government. From this example it will appear, that to prevent the intelleftual powers from exerting their native strength, and from following those objefts to which the impulse of innate genius would prompt them, will soon bring on an indifference to every pursuit^ and at length leave the mind in total oscitancy. Whatever external force, and mechanical adrdit- ness can effeft, will be comparatively trivial, when put in competition with the elastic power of unconstrained and voluntary exertion. The charafter of the Hindoos, from their being thus fixed, from their birth, in this unalterable state, from which no efforts of their own, and no casualty of fortune can possibly remove them, iff marked by nothing of that vigor and decision, inseparable from competition in pursuits' and collision of interests. Hence this fevourite maxim, which they constantly re{)eat,' seems to ' govern Q3 230 , their condu£l. " It is better to sit than to Stand, to lie down than to sit, to sleep than to wake, and death is the best of all." In those occupa- tions, which require perseverance without exer- tion, and which demand only that degree of attention, which' permits the current of thought to glide on in uninterrupted indolence, they excel ; but they uniformly shrink from attempts of hazard and of enterprize. They prefer a lazy apathy to the agitations of .aSive life, and think it sufficient to pass through existence, with the negative merit of having neither disturbed their own repose, nor that of the world, by intemperate ambition. . But, that this regulation in the religion of the Hindoos, is lamentably inefficient to pro- du<^e the ends originally designed, la farther evident, from the deviations, which they have been compelled to make, from Its literal inteirpre-^ tation : from the injudicious attempts which they have made to soften its inflexibility, and tO moderate its rigor, Their law has permitted the mixed classes, , which have sprung from the intermarriages of the four first, to gain a subsistence by agriculture, eommerce, or menial service. The same law 131 has 4lso permitted, with a few limitationSj such, as cannot pfocure a subsistence by following the duties and occupations of their own classj to pursue those of another. Yet even this seemingly wise provision, a provision which might have been used to better purposes, has been converted, by the Hindoo priesthood, to their own interested designs, to gratify their avarice ; a passion which takes deep root in their minds, and' which always preys on minds not stimulated by nobler obje£t"s. It has enabled the Brahminical order to follow their inordinate love of wealth, by insinuating themselves into offices of trust and emolument. It lias enabled them to administer to their interest, without derogating from their sacred chara£ler, or injuring their reputation in the eyes of their followers. But this provision has proposed no incitement, it has not even given pertnission, to the subordinate castes to aspire to eminence. The sacred order, to which is entrusted " the ikeyofknowlege" must be preserved unpolluted i into that, none of the inferior classes can enter. When to this is added, that the Brahminical order alone is permitted to read the sacred oracles, that the military class is only permit- ted to hear thent recited, and that, to the lower castes, who compose the greater cumber, even 0,52 this privelege is denied, it may easily be perceived, that while the mind is enthralled by arbitrary tyranny, the moral char^fiter will be proportion- ably sunk, as being entirely dependant on the caprice of the same despedic influence. And, if the religion of the Hindoos has a natural tendency to depress the mental faculties, by assigning, to each individual, the sole objefts of his legitimate pursuit ; it has still farther con^ tributed to this eflfeft, by making science itself a subjefl: of divine revelation. "WTien we revert to the periods of Papal ignorance, and find the celebrated GaliJe^a subjefted to a rigorous con- finement for his astronomical discoveries, we are strongly impressed with the futility of com- prehendingi under religion, matters, entirely irrelevant to its design. But, in the religion of the Hindoos, every fine art is declared to be revealed from heaven ; and all knowledge, speculative or praftical, is traced to its source in the Vedas. A revealed code of morality, and a revealed science, both agree in this respeft ; they equally preclude all change or improvement But it is not less necessary for the happiness of , mankind, that the first should be unalterably fixed, than that the latter should be enlarged by inven-. i^ipp, and cprref^ed by experience, •i33 Another circumstance, conne£led with the former, which tends decidedly to check the pro- gress of knowledge among the Hindoos, is, the peculiarity of incorporating their civil code of laws, with their other moral and religious institu- tions. It was this peculiarity which rendered the Jewish people, what, for wise reasons, they were designed to be, a people separated from the rest ofc the world j a people, who while they were " men in religion, were children in every thing else." It is the same peculiarity which renders the Hindoos so hostile to improvement j and to this may, in a great degree, be imputed, that singularity of manners, which they have so long retained. As theif lavva are supposed to be derived immediately from Heaven, they are of eternal and immutable obligation ; as they were really the produftion of human wisdom, though they might be sufficiently adapted to the time in which they were first promulgated, yet the regu- lations which they enjoin, are often absurd, often prejudicial, and often imprafticable. They some- times disgust by their puerility, and sometimes shock by their unnatural rigor. The most trivial duties of ordinary life, are discussed with the greatest gravity ; the succession of property is regulated by maxims, which no change in ex- ternal circumstances must alter; contrafts are 234 Specified according to, every imaginable, or per- haps, possible case ; the regulations of com- mercial intercourse are prescribed with the most circumstantial exactness. Thus the civil code of the Hindoos, far from resembling the jejune brevity of the twelve tables, has been celebrat- ed as bearing a comparis:on with the digest of Justinian, in the number and the variety of the subje£ts which it discusses ; and it has assumed, what the code of Justinian never assumed, the authority of divine, and imnmtable sanftion. While the one, being modified by the vaiying circumstances, and more liberal spirit of modern times, is a valuable repository of legal knowlege, and is still beneficial for* the purposes of equity j the other has been converted into an engine of mischievous superstition, and has become perni- cious in proportion to its duration. It appears, indeed to have been the intention of Providence, that the course of Nature should be subje£l to'flu£luations, though the fundamental Laws, by which the world is governed, are im- mutable ; and that, in political governments, nothing should be fixed, but those eternal barriers of justice, which no length of time can alter, no art of man can destroy. With respeft to all institutions, merely human, it seems to have 235 been the design of Heaven to mock the pride of man, who wishes to dire£t the afitrons of j^osterity as well aS those of his contemporarieSj and endea- vours to make his own wisdom the rule of pondu£l for future generations. Such arrogatit pretensions Time always confutes j and the vain, though laudable, artifice, by which the Athenian legislator attempted to secure perpetual obedience to his laws, has been frustrated, not only by the ficklj^ disposition of his countrymen, but by the revolution of Time, who has laid in ruins Athens ' herself, and rendered her polity, her wisdom^ and . her eloquence merely themes of curious speculation, or subjects for declamatory praise. To the causes already mentioned, arising from their religious and civil institutions, which operate towards the mental depression of the Hindoos, may be added another, which contributes to increase their natural inaftivity. This may be found in the mortifying and melancholy prospeft, which their chronological scheme gives, of the future condition of the human race. It is sup- posed by the Brahmins, that Man is in a progres- sive state of mental degeneracy, as well as of diminution of bodily stature, and bodily strength. That happy aera has long since rolled away, when the life 6f man was extended to myriads 236 of years ; when peace and innocence resided on the earth 5 when the mind of man could compre- hend every material objeft, and every moral truth'; and when his corporeal strength could remove *mountains.- In the present degraded condition of man, nothing of this kind is; to be expe£ied, or hoped. But the time will arrive, when even the present degeneracy of the world shall becpme greater: iwhen every species of depraivity shall more and more abound t^; and when, together with the decay of his inteliefiiual powers, the stature of man shall be so lessened, ■ that he shall not be able, by his natural strength, to pluck the smallest plant from the earth. , It may easily, be perceived, that a prospeft, thus gloomy, must powerfully operate on minds easily terrified by religious impressions : and that it must afford every encouragement to thaj: love of indolence, which invariably; adheres to the Hindoo charafter, To be able to attain no hi,ghef eminence than the feeble consolation of being the first among a race which is continually" growing worse ; to feel a convi£tion, that the highest exertions- will be insufficient to prevent this deterioration of posterity ; to refleft, that each returning day brings with it a fresh accession to the sum of human corruption and of human 237 misery ; -while sucli a convifilion must, on tlie one hand,' inspire a hatred of existence in the present state, it must also produce that disinclination to exertion, which is, of itself, sufficient to render life insupportable. * These then, are some of the primary causes which necessarily paralize the intellea, and con- sequently 'depress the charafiter. These causes are not remote and contingent ; they are immedi- ate and irresistible. These articles of belief, which have been specified are inseparably incor- porated'with the religious system of the Brahmins, and indeed form its substance. But it yet remains to shew, that these causes have really produced their correspondent efFefts : that they have afliually forwarded the mental subjugation of the inhabitants of Hindobs'tan, In the first place, their tdtal abstinence from animal food, and their veneration for some of the most noxious parts of the animal creation, have, in their general efFefts, proved strong impe- diraerits to agricultural improvement, and, in many instances, have aggravated, if- not caused, the miseries of famine. 233 Their dread of shedding human blood, has prevented them from studying the anatomy of the human frame, and from applying this science to the purposes of medicine. Their total abhor- rence from maritime voyages, arising from religi- ous prohibition, has prevented them from enjoying a general intercourse with distant parts of the world, either for purposes of commerce, or for the gratification of useful curiosity; and they have seldom seen the face of a stranger, btit to recog- nize in him an enemy. In short, there is scarcely an art which embellishes life, or a science which strengthens the faculties, which is not, in some manner, brought under the domination of their superstition, and is not either prohibited, or re- strained, or controlled,, by their religious, creed. If, in addition to the arguments, which have: been already urged, to prove the inseparable connexion between mental ignorance and moral degradation, and the powerful influence of i;ellgioii on the removal of both, any exemplification should be thought necessary; this may be fairly instanced, in the superiority of Europe over Asia^ a superiopty acquired, and retained, , by intellec- tual strength :, and this intelkftual pre-eminence, arising from the profession of a religion favourable tp the progress of knowledge. And, if there be 239 any truth in the popular apophthegm, that " know- ledge is power," its propriety and its justice will here be forcibly asserted. That a diversity formerly subsisted, in the manners of the inhabitants of these two different parts of the world, the voice of history abundantly testifies. It is well known tojhave been the chief wish of Alexander, among his other vast proje£ts, to reconcile this remarkable dissimilarity. After his death, there was found among his tablets or commentaries, a design, to build several new cities, some in Asia,' aiid some in Europe ; to people those in Asia with Europeans, and those in Europe with Asiatics : that by intgr-marriages, and by the constant interchange of the common offices of social life, the inhabitants of these two great continents might be gradually moulded into a similarity of sentiment, and become attached to each other, by mutual affection. Biit, whatever this diversity might have once been, it was not such as we find at present. The rich and powerful empires of the Asiatic conti^ nent, might once have disputed, with the gi;eatest kingdoms of the western world, pre-eminence, either in science, or in martial prowess, or in political wisdomi There was aothiog of that 240 complete subjeftion on the one hand j and of that unqualified superiority on the other, which is now felt and acknowledged. The boast of the Athenian poet* that Asia was formed to be the hand-maid of Europe, was far distant from sober truth, at the period when it was uttered. It was not true, when the Indian monarch, gigantic in mind as well as in stature, defended with noble intrepidity, his territories, against the insatiable ambition of Alexander ; and preserved his courage undaunted, both in defeat and in captivity. It was not true, at a subsequent sera, when the whole vvestern world was torn by feuds and religious dissentions, and when the followers of Mohammed brought their proud independance, and their romantic chivalry into Spain, and estab- lished the most absolute authority, from the con- fines of Tartary and India, to the shores of the Atlantic ocean. It was not true, at a still later period, when, by the arms of the Mogul dynasty, the globe itself was shaken from China to Poland, and the Ottoman power became the scourge and the terror of Europe. . But it has been reserved to these times, to see this boast completely verified. It has been reserv- ed to these times, to see the haughty potentates of the East, with the countless myriads under Ml their dominion, acknowledging the superiority and yielding to ths sway of the natiotis of the western world : tacitly admitting the excellence of their civil institutions, and of their religious faith. This 'superiority began to be felt and acknow- ledged, when the pure doftrirtes of the Christian faith were separated from the additions of human craft, or human folly : when the eyes of mankind were, at IShgth, opened to the errors and super- stitions 6f the Romish Church, by vv-hich they had been so long enslaved ; and religion and science re-appeared ' together, to bless and to eftlighten the World. It was then, that the be- nign influence of the genius of the Gbspel, was sensibly felt; and if Asia be hovv indeed the handmaid of Europe, Europe has attained do- minion, by c6nquerlng lindei: the banner of the cross. The elegant and rational Jortin, vvith a warmth which the subje'ft justifies, and which, if the professors of Christianity have any cause for glofy, ot if Christianity were capable of inspiring ostentatious vanity, might be enlarged on with greater fofce, and emblazoned with greater eloquence — has enumerated many of those advantages, for which the vvorld is indebted to the christian Religiori; arid which have, in more 242 senses than one, proved the ;assertion of its divine author to be true, " I am the light of the world." In the same spirit, and with the same success* may we apply his observation to the subjeQ: which has now been under contemplation, the superiority of the European to the Asiatic continent. ; We may boldly ask, by whom was the design first formed and attempted, of encountering thtf fury of distapt seas, when , navigation w^s yet in its infancy, with the laudable desire of rescuing the commerce of the eastern world, frprn the despotic influence of Mphammedism? — by Christ- ians. By whom was this influence at length subdued? and by whom were the riches of Asia, diverted from the Persian Gulph, to the shorjes of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean ? — by Christ- ians. In spite of the exaggerated aspersions of prejudice, of ignorance, or of party, on the Europe- an charafiler in the East, we may again confidently ask, where in. the records of history, shall we first behold the faftorial establishment of a com- mercial nation, ereftilig an absolute empire over a population' of more than sixty millions ; while the best security of that establishment is founded on the opinion which the inhabitants entertain of , the superior wisdom and integrity of foreign 243 Settlors ?— atttong a natioti of ChtlstlatiSi ' Fforrt whom did the htlrtikhe' and libefal idea ori- ginate, that the natives should be governed by those laws which they have so long revered as /divine, and Whieh alone they are qtialified' to appreciate, ' while at the same timcj the sterii code of Menu should be Softetted by that spirit, which dictated the institutions of Alfred ?^ — front Christians.* Where shall we first see the singular speftaele of the fefined Asiatics, willingly flying for protection to the arms of strangers ; seeking redress for injuries in their courts of justice ; following them to the field of battle, with a confidence in their invincible strength ; tacitly owning the benefits of their administration ; and proving that, if the Aristotelian maxim be true, that "the Asiatics are born to be slaves," yet sub- jugation itself may become a blessing, when abso- lute power is exercised by freemen? — in a colo- nial -establishment, formed by Christians. Finally, where shall we see an European nation, differing indeed as to the means, but agreeing as to the end, endeavouring with parental care to meliorate the condition of a vast empire, which the inscrutable destinies of Providence have committed to its protection, not indeed by sudden innovation and wild theories of reform, but by that cautious and gradual propagation of truth, which is r2 244 requisite to ensure its . ultjmate and complete success'? — in a colonial establishment,' forn^ed by Christians. , Let us indulge a pious gratitude for the enjoy- ment of the blessings of religious truth :, for these are, the .triumphs of , Chtistianity ; let us feel a pious exultation as Britons ; for these triumphs are our's. , ;: DISCOURSE VIIL ON THE BRAHMINICAL SYSTEM IN ITS OPERATION ON THE SOCIAL AFFECTIONS. Difference between the exclusive Pretensiotis of Christianity to a Divine Origin, and the Indifference of Paganism to the specu- lative Opinions of other Nations — Peculiar , Tenet in the Brahminical System— The Srahminical Religion intolerant— Defence of the Christian Tenet of universal exten- sion, in its tendency to promote universal Benevolence. DISCOURSE VIII. ON THE BRAHMINICAL SYSTEM IN ITS OPERATION ON THE SOCIAL AFFECTIONS, * ' COLOSSIANS 3, V, 11. There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free ; but Christ is all and in all. XT has been frequently cbjeflied by the enemies of our religion, that while Christianity professes to inculcate a benevolence undistihguishing and universal, many of those sentiments, which ex- pand and refine the social feelings, are regarded with an eye of indifference, if not of hostility. — That the virtues of patriotism and of private friends ship, if not prohibited, are passed over without their due commendation. That the morality of the Gospel encourages a passion, which, although it may dazzle, can never warm; a passion, which can only evaporate in empty declamation, & can never be efficacious in the condufil of life : while it has R 4 248 negle£led to enforce that less exalted but more useful sympathyj which proves its benevolence to all, by its kindness to a few. While these objeflions have been insinuated with a design of depreciating Christianity in the estimation of those who regard it merely as an en- gine of state policy, and who hold everV form of religion in equal indifference, as having no other objeft than to preserve the good order of society ; another obje^ioii, the reverse of the former, has been urged, with still more plausibility and suct cess, to degrade it in the opinion of those who assume a more enlarged liberality, and a philo- sophy' elevated above the prejudices of vulgar superstition. It has been said that this doftrine of Universal - Bei^evolence, of which the Christian religion boasts, .though extended beyond those limits which might render it produ£liye of local benefit, is contrasted by others, which prevent it from promoting general utility. Though this benevo- lence easily surmounts every barrier of national distin£lion, though it professes to cherish with equal affe£tion the inhabitants of every climate and country, yet it has drawn another line of separation equally arbitrary, and equally impass^ 249 able. Though in the chart of Christian philan- throphy, the geographical division of a chaia of mountains,ofariver,oroftheoceanareobliterated, yet there is another boundary marked out, which all the selfish passions of the heart will more vigilantly defend. If the "superstitious follower of Brahma trembles at the thought of crossing the sacre'd river, lest, by setting his feet on unhallowed ground, he may contraft pollution ; the believer in Christianity sees before his eyes " a great gulph fixed" which, like the boundaries of heaven and hell, can never be passed. Though the Gospel has levelled every distinftion bet\Veen "the Jew and the Greek,barbarian, and Scythian, bond and free ;" yet it has preserved another distinftion, still more -invidious, between the be- liever and the infidel. This distinfition affords ample room for all the unsocial passions of the human heart to display themselves. Partialities arising from country arid kindred however strong, may be countera£led by a general intercourse with mankind ; and the patriot may be taught to consider himself a citizen of the world ; but, the affefitions and antipathies arising from religious opinion} who can surmount ? Though Greece could stigmatize the inh'abitants of all other countries with the epithet of barbarians, yet even Greece has enrolled the Scythian AnacharsJs , 250 ambng the number of her sages. But where shall we find a counterpoise against, the supercili- ous bigotry, which the following harsh injun6lion of a religious teacher is adapted to excite? "Be ye not unequally yoked together with un- believers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness, and what concord hath Christ with Belial, or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel, and what agreement hath the temple of Goth with idols ?" In order to place these allegations in a stronger light, intolerance to the religious opinions of other nations has been represented as charafterising the professors of the Christian faith, and has often been contrasted with that liberality and forbearance on speculative points, which are said to form a strik- ing feature in the history of the nations professing polytheism. If their own tenets were absurd, yet they nev^r attempted to obtrude them on the belief of others ; if the tenets of other se£ls ap- peared to them erroneous, yet they treated them with respeft, or at least suffered them to remain unmolested. This temper of accommodation to igiiiorance aqd prejudice, was admirably fitted to preserve the peace of society, and to prevent those feuds and animosities, which have distrafted the world since the introduftion of Christianity. 251 On most other points, whenever the morality of Paganism, and the morality of the Gospel are compared together, it has been the praftice of those who would depreciate the latter, to assimilate them as far as possible ; to shew that in many in- stances, where the Author of the Christian faith professes to give "a new commandment," that new commandment is nothing more than what has been previously ♦enforced by the sages of antiquity. Thus, if the Christian precept of forgiveness of in^ juries, anc^ of love towards enemies be adduced, the same duty is said to be enforced in that beau- tiful couplet of the Hindoos, which pronounces *' the duty of a good man^ven in the moment of his destruction to consist not only in forgiving, but even in a desire of benefiting his destroyer ; as the sandal tree even in the moment of its overthrow sheds perfume on the axe that fells it." But in those precepts which prescribe the degree of benevolence due to those who differ in matters of religious opinion, it is here that Pagan liberality is set in opposition to Christian intolerance, to that contracted disposition which fixes the stand- ard of truth to the size of its own opinion, and by the measure of this opinion, deals out its beneficence. It was the observation of an acute adversary of 252 the Christian faith, that " the most refined^ systems of faith have always been the most intolerant j" and when Francklin dilated his celebrated para- ble oh persecution, he seems to have ^t^ritten with a view of inculcating the sameJdea. The insinuation, if it were true, might tend to establish a conclusion very different from that, whicti they who allege it, either wish pr are aware of. A system of deistical philosophy divested of all positive ordinances, and of all revealed precepts, would probably be pronounced by its advocates the most refined ; and it would hence follow that the Deist must be the most intolerant of all men ; a consequeoce which the history of past times shevvs not to be entirely without foundation. , But it will now be shewn how far this insinua- tion is applicable towards proving the superiority of Pagan benevolence. Among all the different modifications of Pagan- ism, which have been exhibited and praised, as inspiring this benevolence and forbearance, the Brahminical system has been the most highly commended, for the liberality of its sentiments, and for the toleration which it so frequently,' and it cannot be denied, eloquently enforces. " God is" by them declared to be ** the God 1^5:3 of all mianlqn(J. The Pagan and ihe Mussulman are equally in his presence. DistinSions of color are t of his ordination. To vilify the re- ligions or customs of other men, is to set at nought' the pleasure of the; Almighty. When we ^efa^e a,pJ!£)aire, we naturally incurthe resent- ment of the Painter;, and justly has the Poet said — presume not to ; arraign or scrutinize the various WiG#1s;§ of power d^Vine."' Jt ha& indeed been, asserted by one whdimight bpj thought, qualified to judge oh the subjeft, that if ever superstitidii (produced a universal good, it is in Hindoostan, v^here '^e see it made th,e foundation of ufliyersal benevolence. Thpre,. will be no difficulty in shewing, that tbe^e indiscriminate comfn^ndations, which have been bestowfed on the tolerance and liberality of polytheism, eifher in ancient or in modern times, have beePi afdmitfed- wil3i;:little icoritroversy, only because, they have ifeepn urged with unbounded confidence;. . They have ^hpen adopted from dis- tiarjt and partial views of the subjeft, by-no means from an accurate investigation of ;tbe ;piaSical efFefts of Paganism. Thefbrbearance wliid|iis said to charadlerise the Religion of Pagan Greece or Rome con- sists in positive assertion, and not on any con- clusions drawn from historical fa6ts. These will support rather a contrary opinion. It rs not from that spirit of persecution which coiiid condemn Anaxagoras or Socrates to death, that we selefit a solitary example to prover a broad assertion: but fr6m' regulations which decidedly shew their whole religious constitution to have been founded on intolerance. We shall hear Mae- cenas though polished by Augustan refinementancj enervated by Epicurean indifference, giving the following advice to the EfAiperor of the civihzed worlds "perform divine worship in all things exa£lly according to thepraStice of your ancestors, and compel others to do the same ; and as for those who niake innovations in Religion, detest and punish them, and that not only for the sake of the Gods, but because they who introduce new Deities, excite others to ihake changes in civil affairs." The faith of the ancient world, was loose rather than" comprehensive ; its forbear- ance proceeded from a spirit of indifference j but its rigor was- exercised with capricious and un- relenting severity. < The Brahminical system has'indeed one tenet, which some have thought highly favourable' to the 255 cultivation of universal benevolence. It admits of no converts. While it vigilantly guards against any innovation from foreign sources, it equally precludes any extensiopof itself. , Qne great source of religioiis discord, that of controlling f he opinions of other nations, is therefore necessarily removed. I It may j«stly however be'i questioned whether this absolute prohibition bf? all intercourse with the professors of other fornis of religion, and the indifference to their tenfets resulting from this prohibition, can properly be honoured with the praise of liberality. Liberality consists in yield- ing to the errors and infirmities of others however repugnant they may be to our own convi£tion or interest, but to yield, when forbearance is not opposite tOi our inclinations, as it calls for 'neither exertion nor self-denial, can never be accounted a virtue. A form of religion founded on this princi- ^pleofexclusipn, absolutely precludes the exej"cise of some of the noblest sentiments of our natUrCiil ■■' b-jf Toleration and forbearance arising from true liberality, may be considered under two different points of view. First, with respe£l to diversity of sentiment among those who profess the same faith J secondly vyith respeO: to the professors of different modes of faith. 256 •It will be the objeft of this discburse to shew, in what manner the Brahminical system operates in promoting benevolence among them- selves : in wha;t manner it tends to cement and strengthen that peculiar strufiture of society v^rhich Brahminism has established. On a former occasion it was shewn, that the arbitrary division of society into distifl£t castes among the Hindioos, had a powerful influence in contracting the intelleftual faculties ; but it yet remains to shew how far this division operates in conttafting the social affeftions. In the one case, its pernicious effefts, have been iUcreased, by the corruptions introduced into the institution, during a long course of time ;iii the other case^ its efFefts must have been iinmediate and irriesistible.- The mental powers duftile in their nature, elastic in their force, will sometimes surmount every tie which the pressure of civil institutions has formed to prevent their free exercise and expansion. But: the aflfeftions of the heart, when once chil- led by a cold and unfeeling superstition, re- main in that inertion, which no pciwef can call intoaQion. Were we indeed to judge of the Brahtoinical system from the precepts of benevolence which 257 it contains, there w^uld be sufikient cause: for admiration. Although an insurniountatle.jbaf- rier has been placed bet\yeen the diiffe rent orders of society ; yet " God" says the sacred Veda, ''having created the four classes, had not yet completed hi^' work; J but in additjpn ;fe itj Je:St "the royal and' military class-shpuldi become insjir- mountable on accp'unt of their power and ferocity, he producedthe transcendant body of law ; since law^ia the King of .Kings, far more powerful $nd rigid than they, r Nothing can: be mightier than Law,. by whose; aid, as by ;thaft.o|!:th^ highest monarch, the' weak prevail oyer the, strongi"f«s;i ' '-.A- ■ ' •■' : ■' fi ■ ' .:■■.: 3->fr • ■ < .-.■ To t^is sentence it iS: impossible; to; deny)the praise of sublimity, as well of the inost inflexible justice ;;, but nugatory are such professions, in an institution, whiph is foundedj on oppression. ,In those countries, where a purer religion has intro- duced a more liberal spirit of government, thd gradations bet weeiat the di^iient orders of society, however distant, are not impassable. Hence, as the lowest are aniihated by hope/ and. incited to exertion, so there is a powerful restraint on despotisni. in the highest. The ties which bind society are then equal in their pressui-e, "and the •laws impartial in their application^ M ; IColebrobkfe, Digest of Hiiidbcr Law, • S 358 But, in a country, where the superior orders have repressed every hope^ and precluded even the possibility of advancement in those below them, where indolence may be indulged without any call to aftivity, and where tyranny may be exer- cised without fear of resistance, it is impossible that there shduld not be on the one hand, capri- cious rigor, and on the other hand ignorance and servility. Though such a variety of opinion on religious subje6ts is prevaleiit throughout Hin- doostan, and though even the Brahminical hierar- chy itself is, at the present time, nothing more than an oligarchical form of government, yet its power is not less arbitrary because its operations are desultory and partial. Its influence is felt in a greater or less degree throughout India ; and wherever it is felt, it is converted into an instru- ment of evading just demands, or of enforcing immoderate ^xaftions. Nor let it be supposed, that the Brahminical system has repressed all religious animosity, to- wards those'who are not subjefted to its authority. The Brahmins are sard to speak of the foljowers of Boodh "with all the malignity of an intolerant spirit." If the governmerit: of India established under the Brahminical priesthood, were at the present time, subsisting in its ancient vigor, we 259 should behold k not less domineering' in its cxternial deportment, than severe in its' internal ^tOTtotny. ' ' ' '' Thus far we have taken a Vieviridf the institu- tions of Brahminism, as they tend' to expand 'and refifie the social affefitioris, in the' different Ordei'^ of society among THEMstLVEs; it yet remains to shtevv; iri*what manner they operate in their ih- tfei'conrse with- other nation^ j how far they promote a disposition of universal benevolence. It has been said 4hat' the principle of exdlusioii^ ^hich is^a fundainidntal 'tenet in' the Brahniimcsil religion, has not doMfafted their b^neficence'or limited iheir jihilahthrOphy. Kindness to'^ stran- gers is a leading maxim of their faith/ and' enjoin- ed' ifl the strongest tennis. ' ' " ■^ire is ^he siiperior of'ifhe B^ahmirisi'the'B'rahihirii's iW ^iipefiotoi the tribes, the iitisb^ritf^is''the 'superior "dfwbnien; but the Strah^e¥ is' the superibi''Gf ali.'^^ banqq/; But thatithe'se predepts can have an|)r'c,; ^.^Stprn^ipf;, degifadajtifinj , ;wf)iich th^y , ll^y,^ applied to d!?si|gn3^,,(fijr^t,,jitheir. Grirqcian,; a^rid afterwards, their Mohammedan conquerors. A HindppjjthpyglVjpppressqd by the sharpest penury, with i^qa^q-fjij' gUfl^ciejat.to tsijpply.the^ cr^;vring?,pf huflgeri,. wb^W rhe jpdakes bijs scanty meal, draws a pirele rpyji^ihim,, 5Kllich he wpuld thinlqpplluted, if the greatest potentate on earth should presume to enter. s6i The religious • system then 6( the Brahmins, considered as it affetts those who are subje£ted to its authority, is, in tlie Highest degree, intokraiit; as it regards the inhabitants of other countries, and the professors of other religions, it is repulsive and unsocial. In its internal economy, it possess- es all the properties of Inquisitorial tyranny, though its power is liot concentrated, nor its e>pefatiotfs*'dire£ledj by a common head ; in its external deportinent,' it assumes the contrafted spirit of Judaism, though not like that, softened by the liberal views of its proplietic writing's, which proclaim universal acceptance to all the 'Uations of the earth. Like the Jewish law, while the iBrahminical religion has restricted the inter- course of its professors with the inhabitants^ of all other countries, it has superadded to- the reserve of its cautionary restriftiOtiS, personal aohorrence and con'^empt, - It maiy' indeed be doubted whether the unqua- llfil^d praise of beheyolprice, which sorjie Europe- ^aiis are eager Vo claim for the iHin^po chara£ler, may riot be attributed to the absolute submission, ^'Whiffi the native of Hindoostan pays to his con- queror, froni, a motive of fear. But therens an essential difference between the passive acqui- . c^C^jnce arising from indolence or terror, and s 3 262 thfitdisinterqst^^ forbearance which compassion- ates while it copd^mns; which, though it discri- minates between jth^ merit pf individuals, yet never insists on that, merit, as a preliminary to its beneficpnce, But since this indifferepce to the speculative opinioris of others, hqsbeenrepresented as consti- tuting one of the inost amiable features in the Hindoo religion, and has been, insidiously con- trasted with the aftive zeal, for proselytism, which distinguishes Christianity; it may not be improper to discuss the question, how far this desirei of extending itself, detrafts from the beneficial ten- dency of the Gospel ; oj- wbether it be not rathiCr an indication of its divine origin, and have not been of considerable efFeft, in promoting .the happiness of mankind. If the Christian rehgion had confined its bene- fits to any parti9ular nation, or to any particular description of men ; if it had formed- an insur- mountable barrier of exclusion to the greaier part 6f mankind ; if it had indiscriminately condemned all who were thus invplunt'arijy excluded ; it might in some degrefe hay^ deserved those accusations of intolerance, with which it has been sometimes Stigmatized by its enemies. If it had pjrphibited 263 its professors from extending its doftrines ; if it had consigned to eternal jnisery all who were ignorant of them, it might have engendered ar- rogance and cruelty. But Christianity . is not founded on such principles. Even that doftrine which has been assailed with the greatest viru- lence, the doftriae of the atonement, is, in its pra£tical efFefts, calculated to produce sentiments of the mosbt unbounded philanthropy. It teaches that the benefits of this sacrifice are unlimitted in their efficacy ; that they have a retrospe£tive influence in sanftifying the virtues of those who saw the, promises afar off; and that they have an influence in sanctifying the virtues of those who were never acquainted with the conditions of the Christian covenant. If any superior priveleges are annexed to the knowledge of the Gospel of Christ, they are conferred on a condition of obedience to the evangelical declaration ; ** to whom much is given, of him shall be much required :" and among the most important of the duties which are thus imposed, is the communica- tion of divine truth by every rational method. When indeed Christianity claims loutself the title of being the only true revelation^of the will of God, of being " the way, the truth, and the life," it claims no more than every religion S4 264 must assume which pretends ta be of divine origin. The idea that, the Supreme Being is pleased, with a variety of religions, and with different modes of v worship, is a supposition willingly entertained by the votary of super- stition, because it affords a palliation for those errors which he is unable to defend. This supposition is also warmly applauded and insidi- ously defended by the infidel, because it amounts to a tacit confession, that all pretensions to revela- tion rest on the same uncertain basis. But the notion is, perhaps, of all others, the most irrecon- cileable to the attributes of God ; it is the most destru£live of sound morality. It would not only level all distinfitions Jjetween truth and error, but wquld justify every crime committed under the mask of sanSity. If an impartial estimate be formed concern- ing the effefts, which have, resulted from that desire of extension inseparable from a true faith in the promises of , the Gospel, they will be found in a high degree beneficial. It has been justly remarked, that " it is well for the inhabi- tants of Hindoostan, that they did not fall ,un4er the dominion of Europeans at an earlier period, before the influence of knowledge and-philosophy badi dispelled the gloomy bigotry of the western Qi65 world,; and rendered it less incapable df forbear- ance to opposite opinions."' There can be no doubt, that, under the pretence of disseminating Christianity, the greatest ' enormities have beeri committed, 'and the most unjustifiable ' methods have been adopted. ' > : It may be justly questioned however, whetber a wish of coifVe?rsion has been the true cause of these atrocities. : The love of national aggrandisement, or of private interest, has proved a fertile source pf calamity, as well since the introduftion of Christianity, as before ; ^and this passion has often disguised itself under a zeal for feligioni But Christianity is not chargeable with these evils, , nor can they be justly imputed to the desire of extending the Christian faith. On the contrary, not only are such methods . of; pnopagation in -dire£l (Opposition to the precepts of the Gbspel, rbut these precepts have .opierated sensibly, in checking this intolerant spirit, even intheVorst of times. The atrocious : c?-ueJties infliflied "by Spain on the inhabitants of the New World, are never recalled to our recolleftion, unaccorap&ijied by the thought that they were inobiy'resistedi and eloquently exposed, by the piety ' of a Christian ? Ur. Tennaat. 266 missionary.* In modern times, since the principles of Christianity have been better understood, the tendency of this disposition in its professors to diffuse its doftrines, has been less equivocally-^ displayed. Though, an unfeeling stoicism has attempted to deride its efforts as visionary, and though enthusiasm has often afforded occasion for the ridicule of affe£led prudence j yet the propagation of the Gospel has not only dif- fused the blessings of civilization, but has es- sentially distinguished the colonial policy of modern nations, from that of ancient times. Where in the history of Athens or of Rome, shall we look for any tenderness or solicitude, respefting the welfare of provincial settlements? They were regarded merely as Jnstruments> to facilitate schemes of conquest or of plunder j the power of the parent state was frequently ex- erted to restrift, but seldom to proteQ; or to foster. How could anxiety for the melioration of the moral chara£ler, be consistent with that destitationof fixed princjples which amalgamated all religious opinions ? $iich a wish can never be formed, such a plan can never be rationally executed, but on the basis of Christianity ; which with, inilexible striftness 'inculcates that, there is but " one faith," but with genuine benevolence * Lej Caws. 267 teaches that " God hath iftade of one blood all nations, fot to dwell on all the face of the earth." It would be, pursuing the subjeft too far, to enter linto a discussion of those other defefts in the Brahnjinical system; which contraft laenevo- lence, and weaken the foundations of all moral obligation. It should however be mentioned, that this aystem inculcates the pernicious doc- trine that it is presumption in the lower orders, to attempt the performance of ' those virtues, •yvhich exclusively belong to the higher ; a tenet which strikes at the yery existence of society. This religipn also permits the praftice of some present evil, for the purpose of obtaining a remote good ; and it proceeds on that principle, insepa- rable from all false religions, that the exa£t per- forinance of e3ctemal ordinances is a sufficient compensation for the negleft of moral duties. A; survey of the various evils resulting from a code ol .morality so defe£live and unsound, extorted, fropi a writer, who cannot be accused , of bigotry, the follpwing aniriqiated eulogy, n , " Christianity vindicates all its glories, all its honors, and all its reverence, when we behold the most horrid impieties committed amongst the !?68 nations on whom its influence does not shine, as a£tions necessary in the common conduct of life ; I mean poisoning, treachery, and assassina- tion, among the sons of ambition ; rapine, cruelty, and extortion, among the , ministers of justice. I leave to divines, by more san£lified reflexions', to vindicate the cause of their religion and'their God."i This vindication has been attempted in' the preceding discourses; and whateVeJ maiy be their imperfeftions in many other respe£ls, let itnot be said, in depreciation of any ^arguments which have been offered, that the represeritation of the Brahminical system has been dravvn with a; partial hand; that its disagreeabfe- features have been invidiously protuded; that the deformities inherent in it, are nothing more than deviations from its^ original perfection ; -and that the breath of vulgar superstition has sullied an otherwise beautiful theory of morals. The effe£is on the moral cha- rafter, which have been here 'pointed' out, are the natural' and necessary' conseqnences of the Brahminical creed ; some of the^se defle£liohs from the sound -principles of morality, are ex- pressly enjoined in the Hindoo code ; others'are Orme. a^9 tafiitly aljowiei;; arid all of them are in perffeft con- formity with the jgiijniBd&e: spirit of the Hindoo religion. . To jliQSe who are in.«%ed't0 entertain a' high opinion QfJiwlian morality, and of the; Indian charadter, but who af e nevertheless, willing to, admit the- indisputabler :tru;th, that the national charaSiSr iS»d(Btehmned! by the national religiori, and that iinational) prosperity is. inseparably: conn nested with; Rational -virtu^,ya short, but, sati* faftory, r answer rha^- be given. If there be any man, who i has. passed the < early peidodi of ' his lifbcin an Asiatic climate, and particularly in India,, who i from a few soIitaryiinstanc.es, has formed adjudgment of the Asiatic chara^r, and who re-ivisits his native shores enonapurdd of Asiatic government, and of Asiatic superstition t, tb.sufah. a man, it may Hij. fearlessly replied-, that be has returned with his discovery too 'late ,- that the whole course of Oriental history is against him ; Eknd.that ;history, furnishes a more certain criterion of manners and morals, than any Specious opinions/ derived from partial and prejudiced observation.. The pathetic invocation which the Florentine Secretary once uttered in b^halfiiof Italy, would 270 be strictly applicable to India, if a native of India were capable of feeling the depressed condition of his country. '* If," says this able politician, *^ for the mani- festation of the courage of Moses, it was necessary that the Israelites should be captives in Egypt ; for discovery of the magnanimity; of 'Cyrus, that the Persians should be oppressed by the Medes ; and- foi: the illustration of the excellence of Theseus, that the Athenians should be banished and dispersed ; so. to demonstrate and evince the necessity of an Italian spirit, it- was necessary that Italy should be, reduced to its present condi- tion i that it should be in greater! bondage than the Jews ; in greater servitude than the ;Persians j and in greater dispersion than the Athenians ; without a head, without order, harrassed, spoiled, overcome, overrun, and ^ overwhelmed with, all kind of calamity."" No words can convey a more faiithfulidescrip- tion of India, not only of its present state; but of its past condition;; and this description will tend to counteraft the unjust insinuations, which have been urged against the conduQr of European t Macbiavellii II, Principi c. g& in i^atiotis in the East. They have been accused of introducing into the territories subjefl: to their empire, those evils which they found there : they have been accused of fostering 'those seeds of anarchy, which are the spontaneous .produ£Hon'of the soil. But European conquest, far from ag- gravating, has tended to mitigate the calamities of India ; and it is a pleasing consolation to refle£t, that the period will arrive,' though ■ srbwly yet necessarily will arrive, when it will be seen how much she is indebted to the enterprising spirit of the riations of the! West. The time will arrive when the rays of intellectual light,;which we have so lon^i enjoyed, though late in their approach, shall again visit the Eastern world. i.,i Nos primus e(ii>i?;orii^ns.afllavit?inhelisj ; j ' .. Illic sera vubens accendit lumina vesper.' To hasten this happy azra must be the wish of every heart adldated by Christian benevolence. But the duty of communicating, instrufition of any kindi as it must be prosecuted by human means, fpust be undertaken in that manner, which accord- ing to.prohable calculation, will be attended with success. This duty is binding, only, where such a i Virgil Georg. Lib. J, v, 2Sa 272 prospe£l is affordedfj and on this account, every effort should' be direfted, with an ardor propor- tionable to the, wants and the wishes of those, whom we propose to; instruft, as well as jto our own powers -and opportunities of conuniinica,t}ng instru£ti6nk .- ■ .. Thus, if the case be stated concerning the differ- ence between the Africans I an who have dealt in mystery and miracle, in their attempts at proselytism, so much as t|jie Roman- ists? If the virtues of the primitive Christians were so eflfeftual towards the conversion of the Pagan world, but which virtues are represented as con- sisting in unnecessary mortification, in abstinence from the innocent enjoyments of nature, in ab- straftion from the world, in a disregard and con- tempt for the duties of social life : where have those qualities been more conspicuously visible, than in the followers of the Church of Rome ? Lastly, if Unity in the government of the Church, could once prove so effeftual in extending its limits : what Church was ever so strongly organ- ized, so systematic in all its operations, so careful to preserve uniformity of sentiment, arid to pre- vent defeftion from its ordinances, as the Church of Rome ? But we have seen, that all these causes have been insufficient to make any lasting im- pression on Oriental superstition. The proselytes, which have been made,have been chiefly nominal ; gained at first by undue compliances, and either pr'eserved by the same artifices, or permitted to relapse into their former errors. 283 Should an objection here arise, that the. state of the eastern world is widely different from, the state of the Roman empire at the first propagation of Christianity; and that to this circumstance maybe imputed the failure of^ modern mission- aries : it may; be replied, that there are causes, whose potency is irresistible, and whose efficacy is universal, which have contributed towards the conversion of thp idolatrous inhabitants of India. It is not the Church of Rome solely, which has direfted her efforts towards the subversion of Oriental. Paganism ; the task has been attempted not by one sefit ,, of Christians, or by one nation, but by sefts widely discordant in opinion, and ' by nations eminently differing in chara£ter. The experiment has been tried by men of warm pas- sions and weak judgment, and by men , whose learning and piety ./have ^adorned their native countries ; but which they have voluntarily relin- quished for the npble purpose of disseminating that faith, the consolations of which they them- selves so piowerfully felt. The objetl has not been hastily espoused, and then as suddenly forgotteii ; but has been tried, during the space of three Centuries, sometimes more languidly, sometimes more vigorously, byt never entirely given up or kept out of view. 184- While however the faith of the believer in the miraculous eBtablishment of his religion, is strongly confirmed by the disappointment in the attempts of those, who have been destitute of this super- natural assistance j his benevolence is sometimes led to lament the failure of these labors of love. For, on a candid review of the progress of the Gospel in the East during these latter ages, his mind is irresistibly led to adopt one of these two conclusions ; either that the design of introducing Christianity among the natives of India, is, by any hitman means, totally imprafliicable, and that all futbre attempts will be attended with similar consequences to those, which have been already made ; or that, although so many different plans have been projedled and executed, th6re may be some other, as yet untried, which would probably be attended with success. Or thirdly, might not a rational and benevolent mind, shrinking from the hard necessity of assenting to either of the two former conclusions in a rigid and unqualified sense, recommend a line of conduft drawn from a partial admission of both ? Might it not infer, that the undertaking is surrounded by difficulties, which should repress any too sanguine expeQ:- ations of their removal ; but that, if any other mode may hereafter be pointed out both safe and prafticable, it should be adopted, though its success be uncertain. 285^ That among all the plans, whkh Baay be formed, after so many have been already defeat- ed, there should be any so totally different from the preceding;, as to promise. immediate efficacy, is higWy imprflibabJe ; and therefore we must it lengjhi bf icompielled. toi aequiese in this opinion, thflit the undertaking is opposed by obstacles^ which it is extremely difficult to remove, and which at tba di^tanee. It is pethaps- impossible fou U8 entiafely to eo»prehend. In.this sittuatioii,>anid under these disadMantag^s* iltr is natural tfr enquire,, whether tbrougb this eager desire of acscsoroplisluag an ©bj:e;£l* whii:h, however worthy! of pursual. Seems to be at a» iimneiase distance ; another obje£t. of equal im- portance,, an objfifl: easy in its attainment, and which if attahmd,: might ultimately, though te- motelyif lead to the event so ardently wishedi has not been' negle£tedl» Th© first propositioni tlten,; which; may be safely laad dowQfonithe! suigtefifc,. is the fallowing : that the corwepiipn' of! the Hindoos should fee: the objeQi of our second care ; that: ibshouldj be our ItCBti concern, as; it is our most solemn and indis- pensable duty, tO'primde fonthe comfflnumication of religious ingtru^ioni and Sort theJ)reSjErvation 266 of religibus kriowledgCj atriong our own countty- men f&sident in Indta< In the midst of all the! zeal, \ any adtiantages, wfech ^ivast vari^y of se£ls prevalent through Hindoos- tan, many of the natives, are entireSly out of the pale of the Br^hminical '^faith ; arid there are numbeFs, the offspring of Europeans and A'siaties, who are insurmountably excluded from all participation in the. ireJigious institutions lof Ijbeir country. 1%ese compose a body, already powerful, and which may hereafter become for- midable. Among these, the labors of a Protestant Clergy mighi ifee adivantageously and ^fllsKually •exerted. It is well known that in one presidency alone,* there are more fhaa foiir hundred thousand J Fort St. George. VA 296 French Papists, all aftive in disseminating their religion,; anditogether with their religious tenets, theSr political, 'principles. , If an agreement in external ceremonies, be, a ground of union in matters of faith, many of the Hindoos would: be more likely to be convserted by the ChUfeh of Rome, than by any other Church. Nor is this a vague surmise. The vfenerable Swartz Was heard to lanientj that many of his Indian converts, disgusted at the simplicity of his mode of worship, , embraced an early opportunity of. going over tc i the Romish ..Communionj allured and conge- nially gratified by the pageantry and splendor of its ordiuances. While our enemies, and while the dissenters from our establishment, are thus unweaHed in their exertions, it is not for us to be . indifferent. If England had long since planted a 'Church in her Indian^ possessions, that Church ; would now have fornipd the strongest bulwark of £,:Jher power; would have preserved the Hindoos j, from "being ;irritated by the goad of fanaticism ; and would have preserved thousands of British subjefts from the worst of evils, infidelity. , The third proposition w.hieh.,inay be laid down on this subje£t is, that no attempts; at coiiverting ' the; Hindoos can be safely prosecuted, unless, under a conviftion, that their eflScacy will be slow. 2^7 This is not a jpjroposition which demands only a cold assent; it shodld regulate every movement.'; It is not statfed : with i a view to repress*any well directed 'aftivity ; but to prevent that relaxation of afilivity, which alvvays follows the disappointment or delay of visionary expect- ation. If atiy man can be led to imagine, that an edifice, vvhich has resisted the, impetuous attacks of Mohaaimedan bigotry, and the undermining approaches of Jesuitical craft, is to be suddenly or speedily razed to the gfound ; his benevolence must be praised at the expence of his discretion. We^may on this occasion learn a useful lesson from our enemies, "Let Christianity," said the infidel rulers of France, when they restored at least the nominal profession of it, "descend slowly and silently to the tomb : it is not possible at once, or by violent measures, to extirpate the religion of eighteen centuries." They were per- feftly right. They were right according to what they conceived the Christian Religion to be, and what the Brahminical system really is, a strufture firmly cemented by interest on the one hand, and by terror on the other. ' .It • It is not possible, we may also say on the present occasion, at once, or easily to subdue a religious system, which we know to have subsisted izgs tiiider nearly ihe same form, more than tihree thousand years. Whatever progress can be made in the work, must be made by gradations almost imperceptible ; and let us not rudely attempt to force an effe£l, which, if ever produced at alJ, must be matured by the utmost delicacy, patience, and discrimination. The Hindoos are already, ki some degree, influenced by the prevaileiace of Eu- ropean customs, in the ordinary comimerce ©f life : they already own the salutary efiefts of British le- gislation ; many of their cruel and pernicious rites, springing out of igheir superstition, have been restrained by the iSmeJy interference of British power; more may hereafter be gradually and gently abolished. But as for their religion, we may be assured, that it is the kst thing which diey will relinquish ; that they will retain many of its outward ceremonies and positive instito- tions, when their utility Shall be no^^geT acknow- Jedged, and when tbfeir sigriificancy shall be no longer under&tood. In contentplating the causes, which oppose the conversion of the Hindoos to Christianity^ there are some, which have been eiilSrely disregarded ; and othtfrs, which have been stated in a manner, diametrically o^osite to truth. In the first place, we have heard it asserted. 299 ' that tliere is a maulfest analogy; betwteen some fundameartal tenets of ibe. Christian faith, and the leading dpftrines of Brahminisra. The dofilrines of the Trinity, of the Incarnation, and of the Atonement, have been particularly specified ; and a couclu^on has thence been drawn, that this resemblajice between the two systems, will pre- dispose the miads of the Hindoos^ towards the reception ivine "Word J yet these instruments were power- ful indeed, when; wielded by, the arm of Omnipo- tence. But the first. establishment of Christianity, philosophical sceptiqism jtself must allow to be, an anomaly : religious piety will feel no hesitation in calling it amirade. With this miracle however vvehaye nothing fartther tp do, than to use it as a mean for* the irivigomtion of our fa:ith, not fpr the regulMiiw of our pra£iice. As far as we can pretend .to judge, it appears to be the will of God, that the only expedients left to us for the propagation of his word, are the same prudence antd fpresigjst, which are requisite for the attain- ment of any othef objeft. If then because the early preachera of the Gpspel were destitute of human accomplishmentSj but were supported by supernatural assistance, we should, in the present time, gel^Sl for the wrakmen devoid of .l(?^^ning, butj who )ppssess none of these extraordinary ^nd^wmisnts ; may vye. not justly expeft thal^ God will ! popish pur presumption ? If, becaiise the Gospelit^elf w^as first, preached, thougli Elot ex-. cliisi^ely, yet peqaliarly tp the poor, we should 304 address ourselves entirely to the lower castes of the Hindoos, in defiance of the Brahminidal order : may we not expe£t that a flame will be kindled, which we shall in vain endeavour to extinguish ? Such a procedure is not only imprudedGe, but impiety ; it is nothing less than to t|empt Gfod. But when we hear the language constantly echoed and re-echoed among those self-appointed teachers of Christianity, and observe their entire contempt of all the maxims of ordinary prudence, we must conclude either,'that they believe thern-^ selves already to possess, or confidently expeft^to be favoured with, supernatural aid. * Their at- tempts according to bumsin cjilculation must be attended with defeat ; success would be — 1 speak without a sarcasm — miraculous. These refleftions at any other period^ might appear irrelevant, because they would be undis- puted j but the aspeft of the present times will fully justify the propriety of their insertion. Neither shall I appear unnecessarily to linger, if^ from a wish to impress more strongly the arguments offered on the present occasion, I veature to fortify them under the authority of a chara6iter, dear to England ; which, in his earlier years was adorned by his virtues and his talents ; 305 endeared, in a peculiar manner, to thi? University, which he ever regarded with the warmest affec- tion to the last moment of his valuable life ; but esteemed almost sacred by Indiai where his en^ nent attainments and virtues were so%setully and so honourably, displayed. His, opinion- on *the question of Indian conversion, haS often been set forward in the conspicuous light which it de- serves ; his expressions have been dilated and tortured, in order to make them speak a sense which they will not bear; but no unprejudiced mind can reflet on them, without perceiving his decided convifilion, that jt|ie attempt,*' was ppposed by difficulties almost insuperable.' Let it' be observed, that this is not an hypothesis, whidh, however ingeniously defended* by supe- rior learning, an inferior mind might possibly subvert ; but the deliberate opinion of an accu- rate; observer of the human charafiler, on a subje£l, wherein above any other, that knowledge is indis- pensabla. It is also the opinion of a man, conr cerning whom it would be a cold commendation to say, that no considerations of secular prudence, no motives of contra£led policy, could warp, his judgment, and check his. benevolencef'^lJ3''ho could be more feelingly alive than he* to the blessings of liberty ? but he knew (to use Jjis owja WQfds) that ^' the Asiatics must and wiU be vv 306 governed by absolute power." "Who -could bft more forcibly impressed by the historical truth of the Christian.Religion, and -by the transcendant purity of Christian ethics ? but he saw the dif- ficulty of ^grafting them on the sickly morality of the Hindoo. His useful labors may well be proposed for imitation in the direftion of our's, as their success may prove a powerful incite- ment. In him we shall see the maxim studiously defended by men of moderate acquirements, that superior minds are unqualified for the aftive duties of life, completely refuted. In him we shall find, that the voice of the student, even in the retirement' of his closet, will sometimes be heard amidst the din of camps, and will influence the deliberations of contending councils ^ and we may learn, that present applause and posthumous fame, the objefcls after which human ambition pants, may be obtained, without pursuing them through ,the field of blood, or the labyrinth of intrigue. • Let his example be followed by us in our attempts to improve the condition of our Indian subjefts. iJfet the cautions and gradual propaga- tion of truth be the r\ile of our conduft : the |xcell^ce of which rule, may be exemplified by the praftice even of an inspired Apostle ; 307 " I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither, yet now are ye able." The general conversion of the Hindoos appears, under present circumstances, at an immense dis- tance. This is an event, which, although we have reason to suppose it may take place in the course of ' God's Providence, seems beyond the achievement of human wisdom. This is a day, which like the Patriarchs of old, we may behold afar off; but, like them, we can behold it only , with the eye of faith. It must be reserved for future generations, to witness the happy period, when " the household of faith" shall comprise the universal offspring of that beneficent Parent" of whom the whole family in " heaven and earth is named," and be admitted to receive " the adoption and inheri- tance of the children of light." Sotes. NOTES. P. 12. 1. 1. [Their division into separate tribes and.casl^.'] — Both Arrian and Strabo have divided the Indians into sevtn classes or tribes, ino-t J» rm h^mi leXyi^o? ei; ivra ^Sfti Ji>ip»i m)).mf kte ^onvsviyy (jte |o»vc« ci^uxt, £useb. Prsep Evang, J^.6. C. 10. 312 '•■' 1*. 14. 1. Q. [the tradition which relatm^thal his pious labors ^ were exteMed to [ndiaj] After the third century of the Chris- ' tian aera, so universally was it aoknowledged th^ St. Thomas liad visited India, and preached the Gospel there, that the femous Manes, who gave himself put for a second Messiah,, ind chose his own Aposjjes, sent out one of them to India, named Thomas, in order that he might be confounded with theilsciple of'our Lord. 2.. 14. I. 14. [has been placedby subsequent researchtl Some ■writers, and particularly La Croze, have altogether rejefted th^agpount ofltheApcistl© Thomas having preached the Gospel in India. They have confounded the dreams and fables of the Romish missionaries, with the true history of the life and hiar- tyrdom of that Apostle. But the, number of native Christians now in India, unattached to the church of Rome, are a living evidence that the Christian Religion must have been introduced there in the first and , purest agS of the Church." The Saint Thqme Christians, who do not belong to the church of Rome, have been stated to be 7(\fit SO,(XX), and the Syrian Chris- tian^ in communion with that church at 90,000. P. 17. !• 10. [opened a new direction to Asiatic cominerce.']—. The following is a description of the commerce, and the chan- nels through which it flowed, before the arrival of the -Portu- guese in India, taken from Faria y Sousa. Before these our discoveries, the spicery and riches of the Eastern world, were ,.brp}ightto Europe with great charge, and immense "trouble. — : The merchandise of the clove of Malucca, the, mace and nut- ^raeg of Banda, the sandalwood of Timor, the camphor 'of BorneD,, the gold and silver; of Lucohia, the sfrices, drugs, 'dyes, and pertumes, and all the various riches of China, Java, Siam, and the adjacent kingdoms, centered inthe city of -Ma- Uca in the Golden Chersoncsus. Hither.all the traders <^ tlie countries as far west as Ethiopia, and the Red Sea, resorted, and bartered their own commodities for those which they received : for, silver and 'gold were esteemed, as the least va- luable articles^ . By this trade, the great cities , of Calicut, jCambaya,, and Aden were enriched, nor was Malaca the only -source of their wealth. The western jcegions of Asia ha4 full possession of the commerce of the rubies of Pegu, the siSs of Bengal, the diamonds of Narsinga, the cinnamon and rubies' of Ceylon, the pepper and every spicery of Malabar, and whatever on the eastern islands and shores, nature had' lavished 313 of her various riches. Of the more western commerce, Or- muz was the grand mart, for, from thence the commodities were conveyed up the Persian Gulph to Bassora, on the mouth of the Euphrates, and from thence distributed in caravans to Armenia, Trebisond,, Tartary, Aleppo, Damascus, and the port of Barut, in the Mediterrane^fc. Suez, on the Red Sea, was also an important mart. Here the caravans loaded and proceeded to Grand Cairo, from whence the Nile conveyed ' their riches to Alexandria ; at which city, and at Barut, some Europeans, the Venetians in particular, loaded their vessels with the riches of the Eastern world, which at immense prices they distributed throughout Europe. P. 20. 1. J,6. [the jealousies and dissensions. '\ A king of Persia, asked a Portuguese captain, how many of the Indian viceroys had been beheaded by the kings of Portugal. *«N6ne," replied the officer." "Then," returned the Per- sian, " you will not long, remain masters of India." ' P. 24. 1. 10. [under the title of Vidas.] The writings of the highest authority among the Brahmins are the Vedas, a word signifying- in the Sajiscrit, knowledge. These writings are believed to have been revealed immediately from Heaven to Brahmi, but to haVe been coUedied and arranged i^i their present order by a sage, who thence obtained the name of •Vyasa, that is, the compiler. He is said to have distribated them into foiir parts, which are entitled -Mch, Yajush,- S^man and Afharvand. The first of the Fidas, is called the Rigveda. It principally ponsists of prayers, which for the mos-t part are encomiastic. It also treats of the science of divination: and is said to contain a very particular account of the- formation of the world. . The second Fida is distinguished by the title of the Yajur veda, and is divided into two parts, the White Yajur veda, and the Black Yajur peda. They principally treat of oblations and other religious ceremonies, such as fests, fes- tivals, purifications, and. penances. The third Feda^k the ' Samateda. This book treats of moral and^eligious duties, and a peculiar degree of holiness is attached to it by the followers oi Brahma; the derivation of its name indicating its efficacy in removing sin. The fourth Feda is ^he Afharva^veda, con- taining the whole science of theology ahd metaphysical philo- sophy. Doubts were entertained by Sir W. Jones and Mr. Wilkins, whether this last is not more modern than the other three ; and several remarkable passages from other Sanscrit 314 writings of antiquity, have been brought to support this opi- tiion : but Mr. Colebrooke has shewn, that the true reason why the three first f^Sdas.are often mentioned without any no- tice of the fourth, may be discovered in their different use and purport. Tlie three first are constantly used at religious cere- monies ; whereas the fourth consists of prayers employed at lustrations, at rites conciliating the deities, and at imprecations on enemies, .and is therefore essentially different from the other three. '* The Ffdas," say the Hindus, " are in truth " infinite ; but they were coUefted by Pyasa into their pre- " sent nurpber and ord^r." A copy of the four Vedas hgs been obtained by Colonel Poller, and has been deposited by him in the British Museum. P. 35. 1. 2. [the writings of heretical sects.'] " I have met, *' with such quotations in the books of the/ajniw, unattended by " any indication of their doubting the genuineness of the origi- "nal, though, they do notreceive it? doftrines, nor acknowledge " its cogency. I owe this to Mr. Speke among pther fragments " coUefted by the late Captain Hoare, and purchased at the " sale of that gentleman's library." — Colebrooke .0n the Ve'dof. Asiat. Res. vol. S. P. 25. 1. 6. [the Puranas.] The Puranas are eighteen in number, derive^ from a word signi^ing in the Sanscrit lan- guage, ancient. ^ The Brahme'm define a Purana to he " a " p6em treating of five subjefls ; primary creation or creation *' of matter in the abstrad ; secondary creation, or the pro- " duftion of the subordinate beings, both spiritual and mate- *'rial; chronological account of Sieir grand periods of time, " called Manwantaris; genealogical rise of particular families, " especially those who have reigned in, India ; and lastly, his- " tory of the lives of particular families." P. 25. I. 7- ['Ae otf^^ sacred writings.'] Among these may be reckoned the Institutes oi Menu, a colleftion. of sentences, comprehending the principles of Hindu law, Thfse institu-* tions are of divine force: and the 'work is thought by Sir W. Jones to have been compiled above thirteen eentilriei before the Christian asra. The Gita is also a metaphysical treatise of great value, forming an episode to thq epic poem, called the Mahg^arut, 315 P. 26. 1. 2. [by the unauthorized! assumption.'] This was advanced by Sir W. Jones in his Preface to the Institutes of Menu, He says that the Sanscrit of the three first Fedas, that of the Manava Dherma Sastra, and that of the Purdnas, differ in pretty exaft proportion, to the Latin of Numa, that of Ap- pius, and that of Cicero, or of Lucretius, where he has not af- fedted an obsolete style. He therefore assumes that ttie several changes took place in times very nearly proportional ; that the Fedas must hav© been written 3P0 years before the Insti- tutes of Menu, and those Institutes 300 years before the Purdnas. iP. 45. 1. 17> [however they might differ in calculations con- cerning thetime,'] As the earth is not a perfcft sphere, the- quantity of matter is greater at the equator. Hence the earth turns on her axis in a rocking motion, revolving round the the axis of the ecliptic. This revolution, which causes the stars to appear to shift their places, is" calculated by Newton to proceed at the rate of a degree in-^i years; according to Which all the stars seem to perform their revolution in the space of 25,030 years : after which, they return to exaSIy the same situation as at the beginning of this period. The philosophers of the Egyptian and Greek schools believed, that the precession of the equinoxes proceeded after the rate of one degree in a century, and that the whole revolution of the fixed stars would not be completed under the period of 36,000 years. The Indian astronomers computed the precession of the equinoxes to be after the rate of 5* seconds in a year.' From this motion they have evidently formed many of their calculations. They have a cycle, or peripd of 60 years, another of 3,600, and ano- ther of 24,000. But there is the strongest presumption, that the more early race of Indian astronomers were of the same opinion with those of Egypt and Greece : since, ac^rding to Mr. Reuben Burrow, the life of ^prahmd himself consists of. 36,000 df his dayd, that is cycles, which, in fad, constitutes the presumed perjfd of the .long Efvolution of the heavenly bodies, the Annus Magnus of antiquity. Mr. Colebrooke, in the 9th volume of the Asiatic Researches, mentions a passage from Bhdscara, from, which it appears, that though the more corredt opinion^f a revolution, of the equinoftial points has been advanced, by some ;a\ithors, yet it .has not obt^njed'^hc general suffrage of writers on Hindu astronomy, j .31-6 P. 52. 1. 26. [aiove fix thousand years from^ the invaiion of ■ jilexander.'\ Atto jhev Js , Aiovutra, ^aa-iTicaf npjS/tsov IvJdt es AvJfo- xorotf fpEi;,' xai 'ffiVTnxovTa, xat sxwtoV irioc h ^o, ■ kou Tura-Oi^Kana KM Eiajcia-x'^'*"— Arrian in Indicis. P. 54. 1. 26, [a passage is Uierally quotediby Clemens ofAhx- andria from MegUsthenes.^ MEyosuflEVJif, o aviy^ai^ivq ra} tiXanan Tw NixoiToft o-Uju/Ss/Siuxiof, Ev Tn TfiTJi T(»» I>iJut(o» wJe y^ai^Ej. A5ra.»T«' jiEV riEPI OTSEflS uf-njiaa wag* to(5 ajx*""S> ^sysTai x«i ffaja toij Ta S'Ej ev t*j I^fpiix UTQ rm ko-Ku^svuv IaSto6*wv.— Clem. Alex. Strom* 1. 1 . Part of this passage is also quoted in the Prseparatio Evangelica of Eusebius. P. 56. 1. 9- [The principle on which this extravagant scheme is/ounded.} The followingskefch of the chronological scheme of the Brahmens may not , be unacceptable to those who are unacquainted with Indian literature. • The age of the world is divided by them into four grand periods, which they call Yugs, the Satya Vug, or the age of purity and truth; the Treta Vug;- or the age in which the third part of , mankind be- came reprobate ; the Dwapar Yiig, or the age in which half the human race became depraved; and the present age, or Call Yjig, in which the whole of mankind' became depraved or lessened. In each of these Yugs the length of human life is diminished, in a subdeouple ratio, from a hundred thousand years j in eaoh, the number of avatars, or descents of the Divi- nity, decreases arithmetically, and the number ■ of years de- creases geometrically ; and altogether constitute the extrava- vagant sum of four million, three hundred and Iwenlty thou- sand years : which aggregate, multiplied by seventy one, is the penod in which every Menu is believed to preside over the world. The reign of fggrteen Menus constitutes a day of 3rahma ; €aoh Manu, the^snppose, transmits -his empire to his sons and grandsons -^uring a period o£ seventy one divine ages ; and such a period they name a ManwarUarft; but since fourteen multiplied by seventy orle are not quite a thousand, we must conclude that six divine ages are allowed for intervals between the Manwantaras, or for the twilight of Brahma s day. 'Thirty «such Whether the accpunt of the Gospel of the Infancy be worthy of belief or not, is foreign to the question. The express words of ^rrian, who wrote so long before the birth of Christ, decidedly prove, that, the birth-place of CV;.s&^a could not have . b^en fixed at Methura, frpin any similarity between that word and Matarea^ With respefl; to the circumstance of Crishnc^^ trampling on the serpent, . it is well known, that the sculpture4li£ure in the . cavern of Elephanta representing this fadt, is far older than ,thc Christian aera j whether this proceeded from tradition, or from any other source, it^is not material to enquire, j^s, for; the whole account of Crishtia's birth ; the warning which was given to his fat:hec Cahsa, that his; son should be\ his destroyer; the alarm •wijich the father felt in consequence of thi| intelligence ; the resolution wljich he formed ^o, destroy the child as soon as born } the manner in which the infant was.preserved, by being entrusted to the care, of a herdsman : all tliese circumstances, so far from proving that the Bhagavat Pur^nd has been . inter- polated lyith passages from the spurious or the genuine Gospels, are^ yitha little variation,, )the same as the bistory of Cyrus re- Jated; in ..Herodotus. Tb^se circumstances clearly shew, that the history pf India has b^sn mixed with that pf Persia,^ With jresped^ to the second question,; in what, manner thp resemb- lance has happened between, the legends of t^e Hinfiif^ as given byBaldaB,us,,and thespuripa^Gosppls, a difference 'of opinion will probably arise. This resemblance is undpubtedly too ex- 322 aft to be acddental. It is not determined, who was the author of the Gospel of the Infancy, which ha^ been sometimes as- signed to Maries. But as Ii'ensBu^j long before the time of Manes, had noticed and condemned this production, it must belong to some other author^ It "has been distinguished by the title of. The Gospel of St. Thomas ; and although reprobated by the ancient fathers as unworthy of his name and character, we may fairly suppose it' to have originated in some of those countries, in which that Apostle had planted the Christian faith. But if Manes was not the author of this production, it was no doubt circulated by him. ^ The heresy t>{ Manes, was com- pounded out of the Zoroastrian and Magian superstitions, to- getljer with certain perverted doctrines of Christianity. He ptropagatcd the notion of a relation between the character of Christ, and the mediatorial Mithras of the Persians ; declaring him to have been the presiding genius over the visible world, and his throne to have been from eternal ages in the Sun. It is not therefore to be wondered at, that he should have wrested fobles belonging to the Apollo of the Pagan world, and which could only relate to him, and have applied them to tlie author of the Christian Religion. I have al'ways been induced to think, that the apocryphal Gospels bear evident marks of a design to engraft the adventures of Pagan Divinities on the Life of Christ : and that no actions recorded of Christ in the spurious Gospels, are to be accounted worthy of credit, unless supported by the authority of those which are esteemed canonical. The soberness of narration which charafterises the latter, affords one of the strongest proofs not only of their veracity, but of their inspiration. ' - P. 122. Note, [the Dabisthn.] The Dahistan is a lite- rary curiosity of great value. " It has," says Sir W. Jones, «' thrown such light on the ancient history of Irani and of the *' human race, as I had ever despaired of obtaining;" The author himself, in {lis Preface, gives the following concise and simple account of it. " This book comprehends some- " what of the learning, philosophy, and religious opinl- " nions of divers ancient societies of men. I have everywhere " endeavoured t6 distinguish the form of things from the sub- " stance, and as it made nO part of my design, to overthrow *' any particular doctrines, I have not been induced through " any improper^ias, to deal either in exaggeration or detrac- " lion." The Dabistan is divided into 12 chapters, or sec- tions. Cap. i, Of the Religion of the Parsigt. Cap, 3, Of 323 the Hindu Religion. Cap. 3, Of the Religion of the Tibetti- am. Cap. 4, Of the Jewish Religion. Cap. 5, Of the Chris- tian Religion. Cap. 6, Of the Mohammedan Religion. Cap. 7, Of the Sect called Jaifj'Aj/a/i. Cap. .8, Of the [/nj/an'a?o. Cap. 9, Of the Sect called Roshenians. Cap. 10, Of the Divine!. Cap. J 1, Of. the Philosophers. Cap. 12, Of the Susis, Concerning the life of its author, Mohsan, but distin- fuished by the assumed surname of Fani, or Perishable, we ave but few.accounts. ' It is understood that he was of the sect of the Siisis. His deatli is placed in the year of the Hejira loai. P. 134. 1. 6. \That the Brdhminical system,"] The testimony of all .the Gfreek writers is decidedly in favor of the priority of the religion of the Vedas-, to that of the heterodox Hindus. This is clear, because it was well known to the Greeks, that other classes existed in India besides the Brahfmns. Strabo asserts (lib. 15) that there were two classes of philosophers or priests, the Brachmanes and the Germanes; but that the Brach- manes were holden ip the highest estimation, because they were most consistent in their doctrine. But the account of the diffe- rent religious systems prevailing in India, is still more clearly stated by Clemens of Alexandria, AitIoh h rmmt to ysvof, oi )u£v Xci^HatM oUiTtuv, 01 Ss BpaJ£;u.avai KsXs^pEVOt, aeu tm ^^nMm oi A^^a.• Jio( 7rjO(7ayo{Euojuiw», sti sroAsif oixbotv, bte sreyas tp^atwy, ^B^gm h (tju^iEyvvvrai fXoiot;, neu «Hjo$;va o-iTUvTai, xosi vau^ t«(; X^?"^ '""' Hint' syctjuov, u wat&meoilXtV irao'iv, ucneif ot vuv JEyx^urwrM xoiXi^jitEvoi. fio-i h rm ItSm oi ntf Barla ttsiSojuhoi ijra^.ayfi^in.oiait' ov ^i ursfffoW rE/^voTnTofw; 0Eoy TETiftnx^^'i— Stroni. Lib. 1. / P. 134. I. 13. [even if a survey of the religious edifices in India.] See a Paper by Capt.Mackeiizie and MK Harington in the, 6th Vol. of Asiatic Res-earches, of a temple near Qali- ture. This temple exhibits part of a very ancient edifice built entirely In ihs Hindu style, and- decorated with SGUlptural' fir gures-of the Divinities of the Brahme'ns; and upon. this ed^ce a structure, comparatively modern, has been raised in a stylis of architecture totally different, and surrounded with emblematical representations of £uf2f2^a. P. igo. 1. 20. [the sect of Vishnu.] The sect of Fishnu appears to have joined in the phallic worship, with the sect of Siva, until the latter introduced the worsiup of Cali, and ths tan^nary rites that attended it, i'i •32-1 P. 195. 1.. 3. ' [The Mystic word Om."] The three mysterious words of, Kcyl, 0/*j n«f, which were used at the conclusion of the mysteries of Eleusis, have long baffled all attempts at explanarion.. They are interpreted by Le Clerc to signify " Watch and abstain from evil." These words are now found to be pure Sanscrit, and are used at this day,' by Brahmins at the conclusion of their religious ceremonies. The significancy of their connection, will not however,' even npw, appear very clear. They are thus written in the^language of the Gods, as the JBindus call rhe Sanscrit language : Canscha, Om, Pachsa. Canscha signifies the object of our most ardent wishes :. Om is the famous monysyllable used at the beginning and conclusion of a prayer : Pacfoa exactly answers to the obsolete Latin word Vix; it signifies change,' course, place, fortune. It is Used particularly after pouring water va. honor of the Gods and Fiiris. P. 223. 1.22. [The remarkable configuration 0/ their hands, 1 The same instniments which an Indian employs to make a piece of cambric, would, under the rigid fingers of an Euro- pean, scarcely produce a piece of canvas. — Orme, P. 230. 1, 3. [In those occupatioTis which require perseverance without exertion."] It is common to see the accounts of a huck- ster in his stall, who does not exchange the value of two-rupees in a day, as voluminous as the books of a considerable merchant in Europe,— 'The peculiar patience of the Gentoos in bengal, their affection to business and the cheapness of all produc. tions, cither of coinmerce or necessity, had concurred to ren- der the details of the revenue, the most minute, voluminous^ and complic'ated accounts, which exist in the universe: inso- much that the Emperor lehangire (altliough the Mohammedans had been sovereigns of the country for three centuries) says in his note book, that the appUcation often years was requisite to obtain a competent knowledge of them. — Orme. ' P. 254. 1.10. [fVe shall hear Mteceniis.'] Gihhon, mhlci by his admiration of the tolerant spirit of Paganism, seems to think that Dion Cassius, from whom this passage is quoted, has put these sentiments into the mouth of Mgscenas, to whoso character they are by no means accordant. But Suetonks in- forms us, that Augustus enacted a law founded on this very principle. Sapxit ut priusqaapi consuleret quisque^ thure' ac mero supplicaret, apud aram ejas Dei incujus templotoirctw, — Sueton. Vit Augus. c. SS. ' . 325 P. 282. 1. 26. [gained at first by undue compliances.']—— Urbano Cerri, in his account of the Cathilic Religion, men- tions a Jesuit named Robertus de Nobili, who taught that every one should remain in his own caste, and by this policy made many converts. He also proposed to erect a seminary or Chris- tian Brahmms. But the Sec of Rome disapproved his design, and defeated his labors. ' P, 305. 1. 6. [His opinion on the subject of Indian conversion,] We may assure ourselves that neither Mussulmans, or Hindus, will ever be converted by any mission from the Church of Rome, or from any other church j arid the only human mode perhaps, of .causing so great a revolution, will be to translate, iaio Sanscrit Sind .Persian', such chapters of the Prophets, par- ticularly of Isaiah, as are indisputably evangelical, together with one of the Gospels, and a plain prefaratory discourse, containing full evidence of the very distant ages, in which the predictions themselves, an,d the history of the divine person predicted, were severally made' public: and then quietly to disperse the work among the well-educated natives ; with whom, if in due time it &iled of producing very salutary fruit by its natural influence, we could only lament more than ever the strength of prejudice, and the weakness of unassisted rea- son.-w'Sir W. Jones on the (jQds of Greece, Italy, atid India* THE END, ;ii 'is* ji ' n^H