decidedly pointing to a higher origin, and shewing the derivation of many of their religious opinions from those primeval traditions which were common to all mankind.

But these instances of similarity between the Mosaical and Hindoo records, and especially of the agreement between many of the Jewish and Brahminical ceremonies; a circumstance which cannot fail to strike the most inattentive observer, and which caused the learned Hyde hastily to pronounce, that Brahmà was no other than the patriarch Abraham, has given rise to another opinion, that the Christian and Hindoo codes of faith may claim an origin equally divine; that Christ, the only-begotten of the Father, has probably appeared, at different periods of time, in different parts of the world, under various denominations, and in different forms of humanity. And while these pretensions have been industriously supported by the blind admirers of oriental superstition, they have been ostensibly acknowledged by others, who equally disbelieve whateyer bears the name of Divine revelation, but who, by elevating Paganism, endeavour to depress Christianity. To support this opinion, the principles of morality, which the Brahminical religion

Hyde Vet. Rel, Pers. p. 31.

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 defects and abuses to every other revelation which professes to be derived from God, the great body of their institutions has been represented as containing the essence of the most comprehensive wisdom and refined policy.

It is a fact which deserves attention, that while those abuses, which have been introduced into our religion, through the unworthiness of its nominal professors, are often reprehended with the most intemperate acrimony, and unfairly attached to the religion itself; the more flagrant enormities inseparably connected with polytheism, and committed under its express sanction, have been sometimes defended by the most futile arguments, and rarely chastised with the severity which they deserve. That this conduct 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 practical effects of Paganism are so far removed, as only to excite curiosity and those calamities on which curiosity can pause to speculate, seldom give birth to violent emotions. Superstition is a spectre, whose deformity like all others diminishes by distance. Her icy touch petrifies, and her features on a minute inspection 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 specious expression of awful majesty. Thus, the unnatural penances of the inhabitant of La Trappe are never mentioned, but with secret contempt, or with sarcastic ridicule while the equally absurd, and more painful austerities of the Indian devotee, have been venerated as acts of exalted heroism, and of sublime piety. We are fired with indignation at the cruelties of inquisitorial tyranny, or the impurities which have been practised under the mask of monachism; but who recoils with equal horror, or whose cheek flushes with equal resentment, when memory recalls the shrieks of the victims in the wicker image of Woden, or the licentious rites which have been celebrated in the caverns of Salsette and Elephanta?

A habit of thinking so natural, but so erroneous, 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 effects, which the Brahminical system is calculated to produce on the moral character. 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 surrounding darkness; but it is requisite to take an enlarged view of the system, in its direct and necessary tendencies.

This view may properly be ranged under three distinct heads: the first, will comprehend those doctrines, 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 directed to the influence of their religious institutions on the intellectual faculties: the third, will include their effects on the social feelings, and their tendency to promote universal benevolence.

The conclusions, which must necessarily result from this investigation, while they collaterally display 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 Christianity, is neither the cunningly devised fable of political artifice, nor the feverish dream of enthusiastic idiotcy; but a conviction, founded on rational grounds, not only on the divine promise, but on the wisdom and benevolence of God.

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 doctrine of the Gospel, that the blessings of redemption are extended to all mankind, even to those who have never heard of their efficacy, is the only satisfactory reason, which can be given for this seeming partiality in the ways of Providence. But the ways of

Providence are more fully vindicated by a belief, that ignorance and error shall, hereafter, be banished from the earth; that the whole human race shall not only enjoy the benefits, but be made acquainted with the terms of the Christian

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