chosen people to their country. For in the first year of his reign he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, saying. * "All the kingdoms of the earth hath the "Lord God of heaven given me, and he "hath charged me to build him an house "in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. "is there among you of all his people; the "Lord God be with him, and let him go up."

Who

These public and solemn testimonies to the majesty of the God of Israel, must have contributed materially to check error and idolatry, in a country where the form of the government rendered the examples and the opinions of the monarchs so powerful and operative. They must have gained the Jews even in their captive and degraded state, much consideration and attention; and as such a state led them to take pride in their religious superiority, the only superiority now left them, and to exalt the di

vine original and wisdom of their religion;

so these events must have given their representations weight and credibility.

* Ezra, i.

It

It is scarcely possible for us at this remote period, and in this distant region, till lately very ignorant of, and still but imperfectly acquainted with the history and literature of the East, to estimate the full effect of the divine interpositions, in the Jewish system, from the calling of Abraham to the close of the Babylonish captivity, in checking the progress of error and idolatry, and diffusing the knowledge of the divine existence and the divine dispensations, in this primeval seat and source of civilization and philosophy.

One remarkable instance however of the

diffusion of the principles of true religion, by the instrumentality of the patriarchal and the Jewish revelations, occurs in the history of the Magian religion, or that of the ancient Persians, which is venerable both for its antiquity and purity, as well as important from the number of its professors; and which, if we may credit the most learned and industrious writers, *

appears to have

been

* Consult Hyde's Religio Veterum Persarum: The Religion of the Persees by Henry Lord: Prideaux's Connection, Vol. I. from p. 299 to 331: Universal History, Vol. II. Book

I. ch.

been originally derived from the instruc tions of Abraham, and to have received its great reformation by Zoroaster from the communication of that religious knowledge which the Jews in their captivity disseminated through the East.

We have strong testimony to prove that the Persians had corrupted that purity of faith which they had received from their pious ancestor Elam the son of Shem, by the errors and superstitions of the * Zabian idolatry; but that probably instructed by the Patriarch Abraham, † they had thoroughly reformed their religion and restored its pu

rity

I. ch. xi. sect. iii. p. 69: Pocockii Specimen Historiæ Arabicæ, ex Abulfaragio, p. 54: Maurice's History of Hindostan, Vol. II. Book IV. ch. iii. from 275 to 322: Hottinger's Historia Persarum, p. 172.

*Hyde, ch. i.

+ Hyde Relig. Persarum, ch. ii. and iii. passim, particularly p. 36, " To return," says Hyde, " to the ancient Per"sians, by their declaration in the book called Pharhangh "Sururi, the religion of the Persians is termed the religion "of Abraham and Zerdusht, or Abrahamo Zerdushtensis; "for they maintain, that Abraham was of the same religion "with Zerdusht who succeeded him long after, and that the

66

religion of Zerdusht was derived from Abraham: and by "the religion of Abraham the Persians understand that "which (rejecting the first interpolation of the Sabians) "teaches the worship of the one only and true God, exclud"ing all false religions,' &c.

1

rity. In process of time that purity was again corrupted, if not by gross idolatry, in worshipping the heavenly bodies † and the elements of nature, particularly fire; yet certainly by paying them an excessive and superstitious reverence, and above all, by admitting the doctrine of two independent principles of evil and of good, so hostile to the glory and the worship of the one great Jehovah, the universal Lord and King. From these corruptions this religion was again purified by the celebrated Zoroaster, who is represented by those writers who seem best informed in oriental literature, to have been cotemporary with Daniel, * and if not a Jew,

* Hyde, Cap. iv.

yet

+ Prideaux, Vol. I. p. 301. Hyde, cap. xxii. p. 298, and cap. xxiv. de Vita Zoroastris, and Maurice's History of Indostan, Vol. II. p. 280.

Warburton with his usual humility of opinion and urbanity of manner, calls all those who believed the fact of such a reformation in the Magian religion, as I have here ventured to suppose, * "bewildered men," and considers the Zoroaster of Hyde and Prideaux as a mere imaginary personage, the production of modern Arabian fictions. However notwithstanding the probability of my being numbered amongst those bewildered unfortunates, I cannot help assenting

* Warburton, Vol. IV. p. 180.

yet perfectly acquainted with the Jewish Scriptures, to which the distinguishing fea

tures

assenting to the testimonies collected by Hyde, who could read and understand the original sacred writings of the Persians, and study the original Arabian histories, which Warburton certainly could not; and who appears to have spent a great part of his life in the investigation of this subject, with great patience, learning and sagacity. He expresses himself in the following manner. *The ancient Prophet "of the Persians, Zerdusht or Zeradusht, (by the Grecians "6 erroneously termed Zoroaster) wrote several books on dif"ferent subjects, as we have proved in the proper place; all "written in a language ancient, and in most places now ob"solete. These remain as sealed up treasures, which the 66 eyes of the learned have never examined. These works in "manuscript (isti codices) are still extant, preserved by the "followers of that religion with the greatest care; a cir"cumstance which may scarcely be credited by such as are strangers to these things, and who do not even dream, "that the old Persians have always had a well regulated † "church, which preserved its ancient memorials; and that "it flourished in splendor to Yesdegherd, the last (of that

name), who reigned about 1000 years ago; and that it has "continued from that time to this, though with less splendor. "These books of Zoroaster are almost strangers in Europe,

(unless perhaps they lie somewhere unknown;) but some "of them, relating to theology, (that I may not appear to "have made these assertions without evidence,) are in my possession, written in an ancient language and character. "I procured

66

* Vide his Preface, p. 4 and 5.

+ Vide Hyde, cap. i.; in which he adduces arguments to prove, that the ancient religion of the Persians had retained the worship of God from the earliest ages to the present day, though intermingled with some superstitious observances, which the Greeks and Mahometans misunderstanding and misinterpreting, had falsely charged with direct idolatry. On the constitution of the Persian church consult Hyde, cap. xxviii.