vifit of the Magian philofopher to India, this author argues as follows: "Without degrading this great reformer of the Perfian religion, as Hyde has done, to the fituation of a menial flave in the family of Ezekiel or Daniel, we may yet allow it to be extremely probable, and we are juftified by chronology in fuppofing, that, in his youth, he might have familiarly converfed at Babylon, during the long refidence of the Jewish captives at that city, with one or the other of those holy men; at leaft his writings and his precepts, fo far as they are known to us, demonftrate an intimate acquaintance with the principal rites of the jewifh religion, and a diligent perufal of the ancient fcriptures of the Hebrew nation. The fame active curiofity, the fame ardent thirft of knowledge, that led him to the woody receffes of the Brahmins, would naturally, had he no other motives, impel him rigidly to fcrutinize into a fyftem of religion fo far exalted, in fublimity and purity, above the groveling fyftems of idolatrous worship that polluted the altars of furrounding nations. To this important acquifition of knowledge from its divine fource, he doubtless added all the ftores of traditional wifdom of the Noachide, that had defcended down to him through the corrupted channel of the Pagan philofophers of Afia, Thus diftinguished by the fovereigns, and thus familiar with the literati, of Afia, equally known to the Prophets of the true God, and the minifters of that falfe religion which had erected itself on its ruins, was it poffible for the friend of Darius, and the difciple of Daniel, to be ignorant of that fublime paffage, in the 7th chapter of Ifaiah, which predicts in fuch exprefs terms the miraculous birth of the Hebrew Meffiah, BEHOLD, A VIRGIN SHALL CONCEIVE, AND BEAR A SON! Or that in the 9th, which, in fo decifive a manner, diftinctly defignates his exalted character, and denominates him, WONDERFUL, COUNSELLOR, THE MIGHTY GOD, THE EVERLASTING FATHER, THE PRINCE OF PEACE! Could he poffibly be ignorant of all that long chain of astonishing prophecies fucceffively, and at that time recently, uttered by the fame Prophet, by Jeremiah, and other infpired men, concerning the deftruction of Jerufalem, and the captivity of the Jews, by the Babylonian fovereign? or of the fubver fion of the Babylonian empire itfelf by the Medes and Persians? thofe prophecies in which Cyrus himself was twice mentioned by name 150 years before he was born. Could he be ignorant of the folemn decree of Cyrus for the return and reinftatement of the Jews in their ancient domains, religious rites, and civil privileges? or, on the retardation of that event by their determined enemies, of the confirmation of the decree of Cyrus, by his patron Hyftafpes, in the fourth year of his reign? Thefe important national events, befalling a people of fo peculiar a theological caft, could not have paffed unnoticed under the very eye of one who united in his character at once the courtier and the theologue; and it is probable that he even befriended them in their fecond application for renewed permiffion to rebuild their temple. The confpicuous rank and station of Zeratufht in the Perfian empire, and on the great theatre of Afia, added to the celebrity of his learning, gave him an unbounded influence and authority over all the fubordi, nate nate claffes and colleges of the ancient Zopo dispersed over the Eastern world, among whom the Brahmins must be enumerated; and an author of high repute, from Oriental fources, informs us, that he absolutely predicted to his Difciples, that, at no very diftant period, a SACRED PERSONAGE bould iffue from the womb of an immaculate VIRGIN, and that his coming would be preceded by a brilliant STAR, whofe light would guide them to the place of his nativity*." P. 281. · The evident refult of the whole argument is, that primeval traditions of a future Redeemer were the bafis of the mythological part of Creefhna's exalted character; that thofe traditions were confirmed by the series of events above related; and that by the preaching of St. Thomas, and other Apostles in Parthia, and the Indian peninfula, added to the wide circulation of the fpurious Gofpels, in the first century throughout Afia, of which no fewer than eighty are enumerated by Fabricius; the Brahmins were induced to interpolate the life of Creefhna, with fome of the more remarkable facts recorded of the true PRESERVER, that is to fay, his humble birth; the onfet of the Magi, the confequent maffacre of the infants, his miracies, his defcent to Hades, and his afcenfion. Having thus amply replied to M. Volney's infinuations, as well as to other fceptical objections, Mr. M. proceeds to vindicate the two first chapters of St. Matthew, which contain fome of the important facts above recited, from the charge of fpurioufnefs brought against them in Mr. Williams's Free Inquiry into their Authenticity." He obferves, that he is compelled to inveftigate this fubject, as otherwife the Life of Creefhna, now fubmitted to the public, might be thought to ftrengthen the caufe of the adverfary, and tend to eftablish that fpurioufnefs. "It would be an unmanly line of conduct, and argue a difingenuousness totally unworthy the exalted subject we are engaged in difcuffing, to conceal from the reader that the two first chapters of St. Matthew, relating these folemn facts, and tracing back the genealogy of Chrift, have themfelves, by certain writers not in other refpects fceptical, been attacked as purious. The circumftance has arifen principally from fome magnified difficulties in the genealogical hiftory in the first chapter, and from the aftonishing nature of the facts recorded in the fecond; the journey and adoration of the Magi, and the fubfequent maffacre of the infants by Herod. Thefe writers found the argument for their fpurioufnefs, on a very abfurd and chimerical bafis. They affume (and it is mere affumption, without any kind of proof) that St. Matthew wrote his Gospel in the Hebrew or «Vide Abulfaragii Hiftoria Dynaftiarum, p. 54, edit. Oxon, 1673." Syriac language only, and that the author of the Greek verfion added the initial chapters in queftion. It is an opinion, however, fanctioned by very high authority in antiquity, that the Apoftle was the author of both Gofpels, and was induced to write them in two different dialects, for the more extenfive propagation of the facred truths contained in them: the first, written, a very fhort time after our Lord's afcen. fion, for the benefit of the Jewish converts; the latter, fomewhat later, for the inftruction of the Gentile profelytes. Thofe holy and confiderate perfons who admitted the Greek Gofpel, which has defcended down to us among the canonical books, had, in all probability, feen the Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew alfo, and could easily have de tected the forgery, had it really been one; and no doubt can be enter tained but that all the facred books thus admitted underwent a moft rigid fcrutiny, and that their authenticity was first incontrovertibly eftablished. "Although I conceived it would be difingenuous wholly to omit noticing a circumftance fo well known to the learned as the fpurioufness attempted to be fixed on these chapters, yet this is not the place for entering into any extended difcuffions on the fubject. Indeed, it is rendered in a great degree unneceffary, as well by the futility of the objections themselves as the laborious investigation of preceding writers, who may be confulted". What is here offered is of a general nature, and retrofpective on correfponding events in the annals of India; I fhall, therefore, briefly obferve, that, what foever difficulties there may be (as fome there certainly are, though none infuperable) in the former of thefe chapters, that treats concerning the genealogy of our Saviour, the ftrong connecting chain of evidence produced above, both collateral and pofitive, relative to the continued expectations of the whole Gentile world, and particularly of the Eastern Zopor, with whom all the traditional wisdom and venerable predictions of their ancestors for ages had been treasured, renders the fact recorded in the fecond, of the journey and adoration of the Magi, extremely probable, if not indifputable. The favage cuftom too of Eastern def. pots, in deftroying a whole generation to make themselves fure of a fingle victim, demonftrated alfo above to have been fometimes practifed in Afia, will remove much of the improbability refulting from the horror of the deed; efpecially when it is confidered, that Herod bimfelf was at once the most profligate and fanguinary of tyrants, and not long before had put three of his own children to death, on the bare accufation of their having afpired to his crown, which drew from Auguftus that well-known farcafm, "that he would choose rather to be Herod's hog than his fon;" a reproach, which might also have an "See two pamphlets on this fubject; the one entitled, "Free Thoughts upon a Free Inquiry into the Authenticity of the First and Second Chapters of St. Matthew's Gofpel;" the fecond, "The Authenticity of the Firft and Second Chapters of St. Matthew's Gofpel vindicated;" and that "Free Inquiry" itfelf; all published about the year 1771." afpect afpect towards the maffacre of the infant-children at Bethlehem, probably not unreported by his enemies at the court of Rome. For my own part, I am inclined to think, that the relation of these circumftances, with all the particulars by which they are accompanied in St. Matthew, has a far greater tendency to establish than to invalidate the genuineness of the chapters in queftion, as well as the reality of the events recorded; for, would indeed any perfon have had the audacity, fo foon after thofe events as the Gofpel of St. Matthew (I mean the Greek Gofpel, nearly as old as the original in Hebrew, and which, under the apoftolical fanction, has defcended unmutilated down to out own times) is known to have been promulged, to infert a relation which, if not founded on real facts, could so easily have been confuted? Or, waving for a moment all debate on the authenticity of thefe chapters, would the Apoftle himself, in the face of the whole Jewish nation, in the moft decided manner, have affirmed, that these amazing tranfactions took place, had they not been actually performed? Were there no Jews at that time living, whofe immediate ancestors refided in Jerufalem and Bethlehem, while these momentous fcenes were acting. and who certainly wanted no incentive to expofe any false statement of the early Chriftians with refpect to the Meffiah? "But farther I am of opinion, that an indubitable teftimony, in favour of their authenticity, may be drawn from a quarter inveterately hoftile to Christianity. Celfus, the most learned and able of its affailants, wrote his invective fo early as the middle of the fecond century; and would Celfus, with all the fources of genuine information in his power, have alluded to these folemn facts, as related in this Evangelift, which he evidently does, if cited correctly by Origen*, with a view to fubvert the doctrine of Chrift's divinity founded upon it, unless ic formed at that time a part, and that an undisputed part, of the faid Gofpel? It was extremely important to the purpose of the laboured argument of this celebrated Epicurean philofopher, that, in his attack upon Christianity, he fhould accurately have diftinguished between the genuine and the imputed doctrines of its firft profeflors. Any fuppofition to the contrary would be at once a degradation of his understanding, and a fubvertion of his hypothefis. But, in truth, there scarcely exifted a poffibility of error on fubjects fo public and fo notorious. That publicity is in the strongest manner intimated throughout the whole narration of St. Matthew. No part of this awful drama is reprefented as having been acted in the privacy of folitude, or in the fhade of obfcurity: every particular of the wonderful ftory is related with a dignified fimplicity that bids defiance to the fevereft fcrutiny. On the arrival of the Magi at Jerufalem, they speak of the star, and of the new-born King of the Jews, as things of public notoriety, as things known and feen by all: Where is he that is born King of the Jews; for, we have feen his ftar?" And the immediate convoking of the Sanhedrim by Herod, as well as his fubfequent order to destroy the children, must have greatly added to that notoriety. Again, Celfus, or « Vide Origen contra Celfum, lib. i. p. 45, edit. 1658.” at at leaft the Jew in Celfus, reproaches the Chriftians with the flight of their infant God into Egypt, as if a God were not able to protect himfelf from the cruel perfidy of man*; which argument, however abfurd and futile, yet, as referring to what is related in the fecond chapter of Matthew, affords another proof that it then ftood where it now does. There are alfo other allufions in Celfus to this chapter, which demonftrate that it must then have been in exiftence; and, as that learned writer was well informed in all matters relating to Chriftianity, was not regarded in the light of an interpolation, but as the genuine writing of the Evangelift, and as containing a fundamental part of the Chriftian code. But the most important and fatisfactory refult of the whole inquiry is, that thofe events are only fcoffed at and ridiculed by Celfus and his fceptical affociates; they are not denied, nor are they, any more than the miracles of Chrift, attempted to be difproved. The filence therefore of one of the most learned and determined adverfaries of Chriftianity, on a point fo momentous as the preceding, may juftly be deemed no unimportant additional teftimony to the truth of the awful facts under confideration." P. 360. As it is upon this Oriental ground of attack that our Gallic, and we may add, our Anglo-Gallic foes, have principally advanced their battering engines against Christianity, we have allotted a more than ufual portion of our Review to the confideration of its defence, on the fame ground, by this ingenious and indefatigable author. His Indian labours have now reached 'their clofe; and with an extract or two in our next, from this curious life of Creefhna, and a fpecimen of his hiftoric ftyle, when detailing the claffical accounts of Alexander's celebrated invafion of that region, we fhall alfo conclude our strictures on a work, to which we have uniformly wished that decided fuccefs which the cause defended, and the zeal and perfeverance of the author appeared to us to deserve. (To be concluded in our next.) ART. X. A Companion and useful Guide to the Beauties of Scatland, to the Lakes of Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Lancafhire; and to the Curiofities in the District of Craven, in the Weft-Riding of Yorkshire. To which is added, a more particular Defcription of Scotland, efpecially that Part of it called the Highlands. By the Hon. Mrs. Murray, of Kensington. 8vo. 396 pp. 7s. Nicol. 1799. THE title-page well and truly announces the character of this volume, which cannot fail to prove a very useful guide, and agreeable companion to every traveller who shall think * 6 proper |