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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.