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is a most remarkable feature of the constitution, that the judicature and police proceeded, strictly speaking, from the midst of the people (Deut. 1: 13). The people thus, as it were, guided and judged themselves through the agency of men whom the Supreme Suffetes [Judges] not even excepted their confidence elected. They had no functionaries appointed, according to rank or wealth, by some central power of the government. Nor did their officers serve for pay; but free, without emolument, unapproachable by bribes, venerable with age and patriarchal influence, they were selected from among the people, to administer the judicial and other functions.1

ARTICLE VII.

SACRED TRADITIONS IN THE EAST.

BY REV. E. BURGESS, RECENTLY MISSIONARY OF THE A. B. C. F. M.

AMONG all the people of the earth, the religious sentiment appears to be stronger in none, than it is with the adherents of Brahmanism. At least, there is no people with whom religion is more connected with all the affairs of life, than it is with them. From the moment of birth, till death, and after death, the Hindû is subjected to religious ceremony. Probably no language, previous to the invention of printing, possessed so large an amount of literature, as the Sanskrit; and that literature was almost all religious. The most important of the Sacred writings of the Hindûs, are among the most ancient, if they are not the most ancient, writings extant at the present day. Sanskrit scholars make the first of the Vedas to be at least as ancient as the books of Moses, and

1 The statements made in this paragraph are made more manifest in the succeeding chapters of the work.

admit the strong probability, that they were at least parts of them, written some centuries earlier. And from the time of the Vedas, some 1400 or 1500 years B. C., to the last of the Puránas, some 1000 years after, there originated in India, a vast amount of literature, mythological, scientific, and religious. In some respects the literature of the Sanskrit Language surpasses that of the Greeks. Its Mythology is more exiensive, and not much more absurd. If its science is not as correct, it is more volumnious. Its poetry is equally elaborate. It enumerates some 150 kinds of verse; some of its poems are said to consist of 100,000 stanzas. Its schools of philosophy outnumber those of the Greeks, and for subtlety and refined analysis, some of the works of the Brahmans are not a whit behind the most subtle and refined productions of Plato and Aristotle.

A mere statement of the names and number of works in the principal departments of literature and science is somewhat formidable. There are the four Vedas written some 1200 or 1800 years B. C.; the Laws of Manu dating some five or six centuries later; the Epic poems, the Mahábhárata and Rámáyana, written probably five or six centuries before our era; then after Christ, there are the eighteen Puránas, or modern mythological religious systems; the eighteen or twenty Sietháhantas or astronomical treatises, with treatises on logic, grammar and philosophy, all constituting a body of literature, probably not surpassed in extent before the revival of learning in Europe, by the literature of any language on earth. And it is not, likewise, surpassed by any other literature in that which is absurd, and which indicates a degraded state of mind among the people to whom it belongs; yet there are some redeeming qualities.

The religion and literature of the Hindûs are interesting

In reference to some Hindû books it is evident that a portion of the mate-' rials of which they are composed existed centuries before they were collected and put together as we now have them. Prof. Wilson remarks respecting one of those above mentioned: "The weight of authority is in favor of the thirteenth or fourteenth century B. C. for the war of the Mahábhárata."— Vish. Pu. p. 485, note. Yet the present compilation may have been later, and some of its materials may be of comparatively modern origin.

to the philosophical student of history in two respects: viz., the fact that they belong to about one-fifth of the human race, and because they possess some of the most ancient records, and most ancient religious ideas and philosophical systems that have come down to us from antiquity. This last consideration, especially, clothes the systems of Hindû philosophy and religion with an interest they would not otherwise possess. And this interest is increased by the fact, that we find some decided indications of a direct connection between those records and systems and the primitive ideas and religion of man, as shown by the Christian Scriptures. This suggests the particular subject of this Article, Sacred traditions in the East, or,

A presentation of facts, ideas and customs, from the religious literature and habits of the Hindus, which indicate for those habits and that religion, a connection more or less direct with the true religion as taught in the Christian Scriptures.

The evidence of a connection with, or derivation from, the religion of the Christian and Jewish Scriptures, will be more or less distinct; it sometimes consists in marked resemblances to Jewish or Christian doctrines, and sometimes even the contrast is of such a nature that it suggests for doctrines a common origin.

We begin with the ideas of a Supreme Deity, as the cause of the existence of the universe.

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The philosophy and religion of the Brahmans, unquestionably, do recognize the existence of one supreme, selfexistent, spiritual cause of all things. "This," says Prof. Wilson of Oxford, "is, with the exception of one school of Philosophy the Sankya- the received doctrine of the Hindûs." Though when they come to particulars, there is a great variety of opinion in regard to the attributes of their Deity; so much so, that it would be easy to prove from almost any of their systems, Pantheism, Dualism, Materialism or any other religious or philosophical absurdity, that ever entered the depraved heart of man to conceive. It is not our design to speak at all of these various isms, our object being simply to notice the fact of their recognition of the true doctrine with its proof.

Says Prof. Wilson:" The Vedas are authority for the existence of one Divine Being, supreme over the universe, and existing before all worlds;" and he gives the following passage: "In the beginning, this all" (the universe) "was in darkness. He (the supreme) was alone, without a second. He reflected, I am one, I will become many. Will was conceived in the divine mind, and creation ensued. (Oxford Lectures, p. 43.) In the Mosaic cosmogony the language is: "And God said let us make man in our image after our likeness."

In the Vishnu Purána, it is said: "That which is imperceptible, undecaying, inconceivable, unborn, unexhaustible, indescribable; which has neither form, nor hands nor feet; which is almighty, omnipresent, eternal; the cause of all things and without cause; permeating all, itself unpenetrated, and from which all things proceed; that is Brahma." (Vishnu Purána, Prof. Wilson's translation, p. 642.)

The word Brahma, is a neuter noun, denoting the abstract Supreme Spirit. The masculine form, Brahmá, denotes the active Creator; of which we shall soon speak. Again (p. 642—3) it is said: "That essence of the Supreme is defined by the term Bhagavat. The word Bhagavat is the denomination of that primeval Eternal God. The word Bhagavat is a convenient form to be used in the adoration of that Supreme Being, to whom no term is applicable, and therefore, Bhagavat expresses that Supreme which is individual, almighty, and the cause of causes of all things.”

"He dwelleth internally in all beings, and all beings dwell in Him. He, though one with all beings, is beyond and separate from material nature. He is beyond all investing substance; he is the universal soul; glory, might, dominion, wisdom, energy, power, and other attributes, are collected in Him, Supreme of the Supreme, in whom no imperfections

This neuter form is pronounced Brumha, the final a being short, like the final a in America. The masculine is Brumha, the final vowel being long, has the long Italian sound. And hereafter, in proper names, the á (or a with the accent) has the long Italian sound, and a (or a without an accent) has the short sound as above. In some instances the accent may have been omitted.

abide, Lord over finite and infinite, visible and invisible, omnipotent, omnipresent, almighty. The wisdom, perfect, pure, supreme, undefiled, and one only, by which he is conceived, contemplated and known, that is wisdom." (Id. p. 644.)

Many passages of similar import, describing the attributes to the Deity, might be cited from the Vishnu Purána, and many likewise of a different import, honesty in regard to the subject requires us to say, are contained in the same work, which teach pantheism. We cite a single example (p. 216). "This Vishnu is the Supreme Spirit (Brahma), from whence all this world proceeds, who is the world. He is primary nature, He in a perceptible form, "is the world. He is the performer of the rites of devotion; he is the rite. He is the fruit which it bestows, he is the implements by which it is performed. There is nothing besides the illimitable Hari." (Vishnu.)

Such passages, too, are not unfrequent, and the pantheistic theology which they teach, is very prominent in the popular mind.

The next topic which we shall consider, is their account of creation. The cosmogony of the Hindûs is given, with some variation, in the laws of Manu, in the Mahábhárata, and in most, if not all, of the eighteen Puránas, and in other books. The differences are not essential. We take the account given in Manu, which is not only the most concise, but the most ancient, being written, probably in the seventh or eighth century before Christ.

Manu, it may be well to remark, is the personification of Brahmá, the creator, the progenitor of mankind, and from this root through the Gothic, is derived the word man. The work, from which we quote, is regarded by the Hindûs, as a revelation from Brahmá.

"(5) This universe existed only in darkness, imperceptible, undefinable, undiscoverable by reason, undiscovered, as if it were wholly immersed in sleep. (6) Then the self-existing power, himself undiscerned, but making this world discernable with five elements, and other principles, appeared with undiminished glory, dispelling the gloom. (7) He, whom the

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