The Gentoo Religion in Hindostan.
REMARKS
ON
MR. H.’S ACCOUNT OF THE GENTOO
RELIGION IN HINDOSTAN. 40
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1. SOME years ago, a gentleman published “An exact Translation of the Koran of Mahomet,” with a design to contrast it with the Bible; to show how far preferable the Mahometan Bible was to that of the Christians; and, by a plain inference how great the pre-eminence was of Mahometanism above that of Christianity.
2. As this had not the effect which the writer desired, another gentleman has since published an exact translation of the Indian Koran, that is, the Shastah of Bramah, undoubtedly with the same charitable design, — to contrast this with the Bible, and to show how great is the preeminence of Paganism above Christianity.
3. Letting alone a thousand wonderful assertions scattered up and down his work, I would only at present, l. Give the substance of this curious book, in the words of its admirer;
2. Examine what he says concerning the antiquity of it, and concerning the nations that receive it as sacred;
3. Observe some instances of this writer’s esteem for the Bible; and conclude with some cursory remarks.
4. And, first, I would give the substance of this curious book, in the words of its admirer: “The rebellious angels groaned in hell for six millions of years. Then God relented. He retired into himself, and became invisible to all the angels for five thousand years. Then he appeared again, and said, ‘Let the fifteen regions of purgation and purification appear, for the residence of the rebellious angels; and let them be brought from hell to the lowest of these regions.’ And it was so. And he prepared bodies for their prison, and said, ‘Herein they shall undergo eighty-seven transmigrations, for their punishment and purgation. Then they shall animate the form of a cow, and, afterward, the form of a man. This is their eighty-ninth transmigration. If they now repent, and do good works, they shall pass hence into the second region of punishment and purification; and so successively through the eighth, and then through the ninth, even the first region of purification.’
“The souls, accordingly, that animate every mortal form of man, beast, bird, fish, or insect, are fallen angels, in a state of punishment for their rebellion against God.”
“When God began to create the world? he fought with two giants for five thousand years. Then he commanded his first-born creature, Birmah, to create the fifteen regions of punishment and purgation. And Birmah straightway formed a leaf of betel, and thereon floated on the flood Chaos. Then Bistnoo, his second made creature, transformed himself into a mighty boar, and, descending into the abyss, brought up the Earth on his back. Then issued from him a mighty tortoise, and a mighty snake, and he put the snake erect on the back of the tortoise, and put the Earth on the head of the snake.
“Time from the creation was divided into four ages; the first, of 3,200,000 years; the second, of 1,600,000; the third, of 800,000; and the fourth, of 400,000; six millions in all. The world will continue 359,126 years longer.”
5. Such is the substance of this wonderful book! Doubtless fit to be paralleled with the Bible! As to the origin of it, it thus bears witness to itself: “Above four thousand eight hundred and seventy-four years ago, an angel, having received the laws of God, written in the language of angels, came down to Indostan; and, assuming a human form, translated it into the language of the country, calling it Chartah Bhade Shastah of Bramah; that is, ‘the Four Scriptures of the mighty Spirit,’ which he promulged as the only means of salvation.”
I am, in the second place, to examine what Mr. H. says concerning the antiquity of this book, and concerning the nations that receive it as sacred. As to its antiquity, it bears this testimony: “For a thousand years the Shastah remained pure; but then some of the Bramins corrupted it; and still more about five hundred years after, which was 3,374 years ago.”
6. But what proof induced Mr. H. to receive, and to give, this amazing system to the world? Why, says he, “This account we had from some of the Bramins, and from the most learned of the laity. And in the earliest ages the Bramins were famed for their virtue and wisdom, by the concurrent testimony of all antiquity.” “Testimony of all antiquity!” Pray cite a few of those testimonies, with the names of the authors that lived four or five thousand years ago. You know there are no such in the world. Is there a line extant of any author before Moses? Or can we prove that there were any letters in the world before him? And he lived little above three thousand years since.
7. But “Pythagoras and Zoroaster visited them as early as the time of Romulus.” I doubt the fact. But how early did Romulus live? Not six-and-twenty hundred years ago. As to Zoroaster, a learned man has clearly proved him to be no other than Moses himself.
8. Equally doubtful is the antiquity of those nations who receive this book as sacred. Nay, “Indostan,” you say, “by their own accounts, was peopled as early as most other parts of the known world. And the first invaders of it found the inhabitants a potent, civilized, wise, and learned people.” Doubtless “their own accounts” affirm this; but what authors confirm these accounts? I know none. Therefore I rank them with the “Tales of the Fairies.”
9. But by what nations are they received as sacred? “They were universally professed,” says Mr. H., “by all the nations of Gentoos some thousand years before Christ. The metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls, in particular, which runs through their whole divinity, was holden in the most early ages by at least four-fifths of the inhabitants of the earth; and the Gentoos were eminently distinguished in the most early times. Their great antiquity is proved by the perpetuity of their doctrine through a succession of so many ages; “that is, the antiquity of their doctrine proves its antiquity!
10. I am, in the third place, to observe some instances of Mr. H.’s esteem for the Christian Bible. “I profess myself,” says he, “an unworthy, though zealous, subscriber to the pure, original Scriptures.” But for fear you should not understand him, he immediately adds, “and propagate no system, but what coincides with every religious creed that has been, or is now, professed throughout the known world.” “With every religious creed!” Nay, if it coincides with Paganism, or Mahometanism, it certainly does not coincide with Christianity. For both of these, you well know, are irreconcilable with that book which the Christians receive as the word of God.
11. Let us observe more particularly what esteem Mr. H. has for Moses, the Law, the Prophets, and the New Testament.
As to the first, he avers, “The detail which Moses gives of the creation, and the fall of man, is clogged with too many incomprehensible circumstances, to gain our belief that it can be understood literally.” Hence arises his anger at what he calls “Milton’s diabolical conceits;” because Milton has shown that detail to be not only simple, easy, and comprehensible, but consistent with the highest reason, and altogether worthy of God. Again: “To suppose the Indians less the care of God than the Israelites;” that is, to suppose he ever had a peculiar people, whom he regarded more than other nations, which, it is certain, Moses everywhere supposes, — “This is to arraign his justice.”
12. As to the law of Moses, he decently affirms, “Nothing but the devil himself could have invented bloody sacrifices, so manifestly repugnant to the true spirit of devotion, and abhorrent to” (abhorred of) “God.” This is a home-thrust both at the Mosaic law, and at St. Paul, who asserts, that “without shedding of blood there is no remission.”
13. As to the Prophets, he cuts them all off at a stroke. For “God’s prescience of the actions of free agents is utterly repugnant and contradictory to the very nature and essence of free agency.” If so, either man is a mere machine, or there never was any prophecy from the beginning of the world. Consequently, Isaiah and all the Prophets were mere impostors; yea, and Jesus of Nazareth too. This strikes at the New as well as the Old Testament; for it contains numerous prophecies. So here the mask quite falls off. Accordingly, he laughs at “the reveries of Paul;” and tells us, in express terms, that “only the words of Christ are the pure, original Scripture.” Nay, and not all of them; for some of them are predictions of the actions of free agents.
14. And, lest you should draw any argument in favor of Christianity from the death of the martyrs, he tells you, (and they may believe it that can,) “The contempt of death is the character of the Gentoo nation. Every Gentoo meets death with a steady, noble, and philosophical resignation.” But how can we reconcile this with the character he gives of them elsewhere? His words are, “The Gentoos in general are as degenerate, crafty, and wicked a people, as any in the known world; if not eminently more so.”
15. To finish all, and to complete the full contrast between the doctrines of the Bible and the Shastah, he adds, “The fundamental points of religion were impressed on the heart of man at his creation. The principles of these primitive, original truths, graven on the souls of all men, are these:
1. The being of a God, who is the Creator and Preserver of all things.
2. The existence of three prime created beings.
3. The creation of angels.
4. The rebellion of part of them, and their fall from heaven.
5. The immortality of the soul.
6. A state of future rewards and punishments.
7. That man is now in a state of punishment, for sins committed in a prior state.
8. That one angel tempted the other angels, and is now the tempter of men.
9. That one or more mediators are necessary to bring men back to God.
10. That there is an intermediate state of punishment and purification between death and heaven.
11. The existence of a golden age, wherein men used no animal food. And,
12. The ministration of angels. These were the primitive truths revealed by God to man, and the only ones necessary to men’s salvation!”
16. What a strange hotchpotch is here! What a wonderful jumble of truth and falsehood together! Are these twelve articles of his creed “the fundamental points of religion?” And are they all so “impressed on the heart of every man, as never to be effaced?” Why, they never were impressed on my mind yet: Several of them I no more believe that I do the Koran. I never met with an American Indian who believed half of them; nor an uninstructed Affirmed who believed one of them: Unless, perhaps, the being of a God. And is the belief of these Propositions unnecessary to man’s salvation?” I cannot but repeat the observation, wherein experience confirms me more and more; namely, They that do not believe the Bible will believe anything. They may believe Voltaire, or the Shastah. They may believe that a man is able to put himself into a quart bottle!