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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.