English
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 uneonaninatedi 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.