We

and assisted continually with the influence of God's holy Spirit, we must feel unbounded astonishment and gratitude to the Almighty who has done so great things for man. must join in the sentiments so eloquently expressed by David; "O Lord, when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour."

קי

Some however have regarded the heavens with very different feelings. Struck with the magnitude of the universe compared with the works and dwellings of man, they have urged the improbability, that a being so insignificant in the general scale of the universe should be so favoured, as to have an express revelation made to him of the will of the most High. And they have dwelt upon the arrogance of man who, among all the various creatures which we have reason to believe people innumerable worlds, conceives himself to be selected as the peculiar care of God.

But surely to reason thus, is to reason both

P Psalm viii. 3, 5.

presumptuously and unwisely. Who shall say, except he should be enlightened with wisdom from above, by what laws of moral government it may have pleased the Creator to govern the universe? Who shall say that this world alone has been favoured with a divine communication? We presume not to draw aside the veil which separates us from the dealings of the Almighty. But any reasoning must be entirely inconclusive, which rests upon an assertion itself incapable of proof.

Besides, such reasoning controverts every analogy which can be drawn from the things which we see. The eyes of the Lord are over all his works. The most minute parts are laboured with the same scrupulous accuracy as the most extensive. Objects too small for the unassisted human sight are finished with the same care, provided for with the same wisdom, as those which to us appear the most important. It is plain, from mere observation, that all distinction of small and great respects created beings only. In the works of God no such distinction exists. And when we conclude that man may be overlooked, or treated with less attention, because he occupies a relatively small portion of the visible universe, we reason from the affections of our own minds to the dealings of Him who "fainteth not, nei

ther is weary:" we confound the feebleness of man with the unlimited power of God.

III. A further objection has been sometimes brought, not against revelation in general, but against the particular revelation with which man has been favoured. From astronomical principles conclusions have been drawn respecting the antiquity of the world, which it is pretended are incompatible with the Mosaic history.

1. The much controverted question respecting the antiquity of Chinese astronomy, however curious in an historical and scientific point of view, is but slightly connected with the truth of the Jewish records. The annals of the Chinese empire record, among many others, two astronomical phenomena: the one a conjunction of five of the planets, said to have been observed two thousand five hundred years before the commencement of the Christian era: the other an eclipse of the sun, said to have been also observed about two thousand years before the same period. The truth of each of these observations is extremely doubtful.r But even if they were actually made, the period to which

Isaiah xl. 28.

See Montucla, Histoire des Mathématiques: Part. I. Liv. IV. §. 3. Delambre, Astron. Ancienne, Liv. 11. ch. i.

the earliest of them refers is still many years subsequent to the deluge, according to the chronology of the Septuagint. The difficulty is therefore reduced to that of reconciling the differences in point of chronology between that version of the Scriptures and the present copies of the original: a difficulty which, however embarrassing, by no means affects the main truth of the sacred history."

2. There are, however, other pretensions, founded upon astronomical calculations, which if true, are directly opposed to the Scriptures. Among the nations of the East there are chronological systems which suppose a knowledge of astronomy in ages of a most profound antiquity. The observations upon which the computations are founded have been acquiesced in, both by those, who have been anxious to establish their own fanciful theories respecting the progress of science among the human race, and by those, who gladly embrace every opportunity of impugning the certainty of our holy religion.

The æra of the flood according to the common copies of the Septuagint is 3028 B.C.: according to Grabe, 3246.: according to Penon, 3617- See Note on Nare's 5th Bampton Lecture, p. 221.

t

The Surya Siddhanta, one of the most celebrated systems of Astronomy, purports to have been written by divine inspiration at least two million of years before the Christian æra. See Appendix, Note (B).

The exceeding absurdities, to which their statements, relative to the supposed antiquity of the world, lead, and the gross fictions with which they are united, are themselves sufficient to shew how unfounded the supposition is. But it is to be regretted, that the want of accurate information, and of a sufficient acquaintance with the works of Indian writers, for some time prevented a complete investigation of the precise nature of their claim. That want has been recently supplied. The original documents, upon which the claims of the Hindus to so remote an antiquity are founded, have been examined with care; and their errors detected. One individual, especially, lately brought to the task unwearied diligence and great sagacity; and succeeded, not only in proving how unfounded the claims of the Hindus are, but in discovering, as well by historical testimony as by internal evidence, the very time at which the fraud was introduced. This he effected, by the application of a very intelligible and convincing method of reasoning, followed out into detail by a deduction of numerous particular instances, which all lead to a similar result.

u

The method by which this author" proves

Bentley, Historical view of Hindu Astronomy, 1825. See also two papers by the same author on the antiquity of the Surya Siddhanta in the 6th and 8th vol. of the Asiatic Researches.