English
' 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.