INTRODUCTION. In the following pages, the nature of the instruction, in Divine things, given to mankind, at various periods, is enquired into; and the influence of that instruction, on their religious customs and opinions, traced. Those opinions have been so various, and the modes of worship so multiform, that it would be hopeless to attempt such an enquiry within the limits of the present volume,— were it to be accompanied by an analysis, or even an outline, of each system of faith, or form of devotion, which has had its day, of adoption and of rejection, in the world. Amidst that variety, however, an intercommunity of thought has been observed, which can be accounted for by none of the ordinary causes that regulate human affairs. Much learning, often with eminent success, has been employed in tracing that coincidence; but such researches have, generally, been directed to insulated parts of the subject, incidentally arising out of other enquiries, and have rested their proofs on reasonings which could be appreciated by the practised philologist alone. To account for these coincidences, on general principles, is the main object of the present work. That object is sought for, not by instituting comparisons between the various theological and mythological economies, and tracing them back to some remote period; but by examining, in the first place, the early revelations made to man, and the mode of instruction by which these revelations were illustrated. The First Principles, so obtained, are then applied to the several great branches into which the history of religion and superstition naturally divides itself; and the proof of their correctness rests, not merely on their accounting for occasional resemblances, but on the elucidations they afford of the great and leading features of the systems. As the subject "toucheth ALL MEN," the utmost pains have been taken to divest it of abstruse discussion, and to advance nothing but what any reader of the Bible, in his own language, may judge of and investigate. At the same time, if the key given be the true one, it opens up a rich field of research to the philologist, and aids the biblical student in the most important and interesting enquiry to which his attention can be directed. It is scarcely necessary, after this, to add, that the infallibility and certainty of the Bible, on every subject, is the basis on which the whole discussion rests. |
