Of the Principles and Evidences of Mahometanifm compared with thofe of Chriftianity. PART I. They are of the world: therefore fpeak they of the world, and the world heareth them.Hereby know we the Spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. I JOHN iv. 5. AS things are fet in the clearest light by means of contraft, or a comparison with their oppofites, I propofe in a series of difcourfes to compare the conduct of Mahomet, with respect to his pretended divine mission, with that of Jesus. And as very few Chriftians have given much attention to the subject of Mahometanifm, which, at this dif tance from the profeffors of it, does not obtrude itself upon us, it is probable that the difference between the conduct of Mahomet and that of Jefus, being a circumftance but little known, may ftrike fome persons with peculiar R 2 peculiar force. very Unbelievers must see that these two men conducted themselves in a different manner, and therefore that they must have acted on different principles, and have had a different confcioufnefs with respect to their pretenfions; and therefore, that if one of them was an impoftor (as Mahomet in this part of the world is univerfally acknowledged to have been), the probability is, that the other was not. All, however, that I would fay is, that the confideration of the history of Mahomet furnishes a probable argument, of the internal kind, for the truth of the Christian religion; the hiftory of Jefus with refpect to the promulgation of his religion having been the reverse of that of Mahomet. Also as but few, either of unbelievers in Christianity, or of Christians, give themselves the trouble to read the Koran, I fhall produce pretty copious extracts from it, that you may form a better idea of this celebrated work than can be given by any defcription of it, or any account of its contents in other words than thofe of Mahomet himself. The tranflation I fhall make use of is that of Mr. Sale, which no person will fufpect to be unfavourable to the original. With respect to the character and difpofition of Mahomet, very extravagant things have been advanced both in favour of him, and against him; but I think it is not very difficult to hit upon a pretty just medium between them, and one that will account for all the facts in his hiftory. He was evidently a man of confiderable natural ability, and had much in his perfon and addrefs to recommend him. He had alfo, I doubt not, originally a serious turn of mind, and for the greatest part of his life was not addicted to any irregular indulgence. He was never charged with intemperance in eating or drinking; and though at the age of twentyfive he married a widow of forty, he lived with her to the age of fifty without being fufpected of any commerce with other women; and all the children he had, except one, was by her. It was not till he had acquired a confiderable degree of power that he yielded to the impulse of luft or cruelty, from which hardly any perfon of much confequence in the Eaft ever was exempt. Had he never attained to this degree of power, he would probably have preferved through life a character for religious aufterity and mortification, which feems to have been all that he originally aimed at. Mahomet was trained both to commerce, and the art of war, under one of his uncles; and he learned fomething of the state of the neighbouring countries in two journeys to Syria, performed in caravans, fuch as are used for the fame purpose to this day. In his fecond journey he visited, and had fome interviews with, Boheira, or Sergius, a Nefterian monk, who is fuppofed (but I do not know on what authority) to have given him fome inftruction in religion, and afterwards to have affifted him in the compofition of his Koran. Modern Univerfal Hiftory, Vol. I. p. 30. It is not at all probable that, as is commonly fuppofed, he had at that time laid the plan of his impofture, and much less that of the Saracenic empire, from seeing the weakness of the Roman and Perfian empires, and the divided state of the Chriftians, and of the profeffors of other forms of religion. |