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the foregoing section, by saying, that the Hindoo Shasters contain various accounts of wonderful and astonishing miracles, which have been wrought by their Moonies and others; and therefore the evidence for the truth of both religions stands upon the same foundation. To this objection I reply, that although such accounts are contained in the Hindoo Shasters, yet they are deficient in proof as to the truth of the facts recorded; i. e. the fact of such miracles having actually been wrought is not sufficiently authenticated; and therefore we cannot in justice be charged with a breach of charity when we assert, that as the accounts of these miracles cannot be substantiated, they are, we have reason to believe, merely vague' statements, which have no foundation in truth*. It was

* The New Testament professes to have been written about 1800 years ago, and the fact of its having actually been written at the time specified is confirmed by the testimony of various contemporary historical writers, some of whom were friendly, whilst others, and especially those who wrote in the earliest ages of Christianity, were decidedly hostile to its interests. In the various works of those profane authors which were written before that period, we have no account or allusion whatever to the existence of such a book. But from that time down to the present day, we find them, in the various works which in successive generations they have been constantly writing, referring to, and in many instances quoting the express words of the New Testament. By these histories, therefore, which have been successively handed down to us, the authors have unintentionally proved, that it was written at the exact period specified; and also, so far as they have quoted its contents, have borne their testimony to the truth of its histories. But if we examine into the origin of the Hindoo Shasters, we shall find that they are totally destitute of any correspondent testimony of this kind to support the truth of their historical statements. We are required to believe the facts therein recorded upon the bare statement of the Shaster, destitute as it is of all intrinsic evidence, and of any thing, either direct or collateral, to support the truth of its records. As it respects the majority of their Shasters, the characters of the persons by whom, and also the period when they were written, is altogether unknown; and, exclusive of what is derived from their own contents, on which no dependance with propriety can be placed, no evidence whatever can be brought forward in confirmation of the truth of their histories. We are, therefore, from the doubtful nature of their contents-their deficiency in internal marks of truth-and their being totally destitute of any evidence arising from the testimony of collateral writers, sufficiently warranted to reject their historical records as fabulous, unsubstantiated statements, which cannot be depended on.

extremely easy for any person, placed in the circumstances in which the Hindoo legislators and other noted characters among them are represented to have been when they wrought their miracles, to impose upon an ignorant populace, and make them believe that a miracle was wrought, when no such thing was actually the case. The people before whom these miracles are said to have been wrought, were extremely ignorant; they highly venerated their legislators; they were entirely devoted to their interests; they implicitly relied on all their instructions, and were inclined, without examining for themselves, to believe the whole of what these legislators told them : and the legislators, being undoubtedly men of abilities, and conscious of the prevailing credulity, could for the better establishment of their own authority, easily take the advantage of it by thus imposing upon the people. Impositions of this kind have frequently occurred in Roman Catholic countries. The people in these countries are generally very superstitious, have a high veneration for, and are entirely under the dominion of the priests: and the wicked priests, taking the advantage of these circumstances, have frequently imposed upon their credulity, and repeatedly deceived them by a variety of pretended miracles. It is satisfactorily proved, from the state and conduct of many of the inhabitants of this country in the present day, that the senses of a weak and credulous people may in various ways be easily deluded. We see them make an idol of stone, or wood, or clay, which is, as every man of understanding will allow, nothing but a mere senseless block; and yet many of them actually believe, that by the ceremonies of consecration and incantation, life is imparted to this idol. The spirit of the god, they say, after these ceremonies, takes up his residence in it: and this delusive idea, operating upon their fancy, actually leads them to believe, that whilst engaged in acts of worship, they can see the idol's features change-his limbs move-and signs of sorrow and of joy, of approbation and disapprobation, &c. in his countenance and in various other simi

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lar ways do they suffer themselves, through the influence of imagination, to be deceived and imposed upon, contrary' to the evidence of their senses.

The accounts of the miracles which are said to have been wrought by the Hindoo legislators and others, will bear no comparison with the accounts of the miracles wrought by Christ and his apostles, which are recorded in the Christian Scriptures. The Christian miracles were not wrought before a credulous people—a people devoted to the interests of those who wrought them, and inclined to believe all that they asserted. If we diligently peruse the evangelical history, we shall find that it was quite the reverse: they were wrought, as we are there informed, before the most inveterate enemies—a prejudiced people, and a persecuting government and priesthood, whose great object was to overthrow the cause which the men, by whose instrumentality these miracles were wrought, had espoused. But all who are said to have witnessed the Hindoo miracles were friendly to the cause which their legislators and other celebrated characters, the pretended workers of these miracles, designed to propagate. The Christian miracles were also wrought, at the introduction of the gospel into the world, with a design to effect its establishment, when no person believed it, but when all classes, from the highest to the lowest, were opposed to and inclined to persecute it. But the Hindoo miracles (if any such miracles ever were wrought) were wrought not to establish that religion, but after it was established, and had gained a firm footing in the world. The miracles of Christianity were wrought to establish a religion which none were desirous to receive :—those of Hindooism, when that religion was established, and all had received it. The former were all of the most benevolent and holy kind---were never wrought for display, or to effect any private end, and were therefore in every respect worthy of their great Author :-but the latter were wrought upon very different principles, and for very different purposes,-in revenge, for display,

or under the influence of some interested motive:-not, as the Christian miracles were, to save men's lives, but to destroy them. They are also, as it respects the majority of them, connected with some kind of obscenity or another; whilst others are ridiculous and childish, and of such a monstrous and absurd nature, that they are utterly unworthy of the divine interposition, and therefore no possible credit reasonably can, or ought to be attached to them*.

For these causes therefore, I am, on the ground of reason and common sense, necessitated to avow my utter disbelief of every thing which is recorded in the Hindoo Shasters, as to the miracles said to be wrought by their legislators and other celebrated characters, to whom they attach so much veneration. Admitting, however, that such miracles actually were wrought, Hindooism gains nothing by them; because they were wrought, as before observed, merely in display or revenge, or from some other unhallowed and improper motive, and with no design whatever to establish the truth of its divine authority. But on examining the miracles of Christianity, we find them both altogether distinct in their nature from those of Hindooism, and likewise established on the most indubitable testimony, of which evidence the latter are entirely destitute. These miracles were moreover wrought in attestation of the divine authority of the Christian religion. Whilst, therefore, the miracles of Hindooism leave (on the admission of their truth) that religion as totally destitute of evidence as it would be without them, those

* We are told, that one of the Debtas with a plough threw Delhi into the river. Others churned the sea, using a serpent instead of a rope, and a mountain for a churning-pole. The seas of which the Shasters speak were all, it is said, dug by the sons of one man. One Debta drank all the water of these seven seas, and left them completely dry; and another drank all the water in the Ganges. A variety of other miraculous stories of a similar nature are recorded in the Shasters, so inconsistent and ridiculous, that our compassion is excited towards deluded people who, refusing to exercise their reason, are so weak and credulous as to believe such monstrous absurdities.

of Christianity, being established on the most solid basis, form around this holy religion an impregnable barrier; and attest its truth in a manner so convincing and satisfactory, that all the arts of reasoning which sophistry and malice have hitherto brought against it, instead of undermining, have only set in a more striking and prominent point of view, the certainty and glory of its divine original.

CHAPTER II.

OF PROPHECY.

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Of the Argument derived from Prophecy.

Prophecies are revelations of those future and distant events which, according to the common course of things, must ever be kept secret from mankind. These events, being as they are contingent, and immediately under the control of the Divine Being, must, previous to their accomplishment, necessarily remain in obscurity, unless some favoured individual receive a communication from God relative to them, accompanied by a permission to make them known to the world. If therefore any man (or body of men) write a book full of circumstantial accounts of such contingent future and distant events, and say that he received his information from God, and was authorized by him to write these prophetic records; and if the events, as they occur, in every particular answer the predictions, and exactly harmonize with what he had previously written on the subject ;-I am undoubtedly bound to acknowledge the truth of his declarations, and believe that he wrote, according to his own assertion, immediately under the influence of a divine inspiration. This illustration is applicable to the prophecies contain

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