90 Oriental Literature. 



furnished new evidence in favour of those precious 

 doctrines which are connected with it, and which 

 are fully brought to light in the gospel. 



Similar references to the Fall of man, and the 

 Deluge, have also been found by discoveries in the 

 east, as well as allusions of the most remarkable 

 kind to the mission and character of the Messiah; 

 all tending to support the idea of a common faith 

 having descended by tradition from the family of 

 Noah to their posterity; and thus to furnish a new, 

 and, considered in all its relations, a most powerful 

 argument in favour of the authenticity of the sa- 

 cred history. 



This tendency of literary and scientific discove- 

 ries in the east, to confirm the sacred history, has 

 been ably displayed by Sir William Jones, and 

 other contemporary writers whose inquiries appear 

 in the Asiatic Researches ; but by none so exten- 

 sively, and in a manner so convincing and popular, 

 as the Reverend Mr. Maurice, of Great-Britain, 

 who, in his Indian Antiquities, and his History of 

 Hindostan, has presented a view of the subject, sg 

 incontrovertible and satisfactory as to place him 

 among the most meritorious defenders of Revela- 

 tion which modern times have produced. 



The illustration of sacred scripture by means of 

 circumstances incidentally mentioned in books of 

 eastern travels, is a most interesting and instruc- 

 tive field of inquiry, both to the philosopher and 

 the Christian. Services of this nature, more rich 

 and valuable than ever before, have been rendered 

 to biblical criticism, during the eighteenth cen- 

 tury. One of the most useful writers on this sub- 

 ject which the age produced, was the Reverend 

 Mr. Harmer, of Great-Britain. He published an 

 extensive and learned work, in which, by means 

 of information derived from voyagers and travellers 

 in the east, he placed many passages of scripture 



