prophecies, reaching from remotest ages past, to the remotest ages of futurity 22; a chain, no link in the continuity of which has yet been broken, and parts of which (as, for example, the present condition of the Jews*, or, to come nearer to the subject in hand, the immemorial character of the Arabs,) are, at this day, visible to all observers: a religion without those internal marks of truth, which arise from the exaction of a strict and pure morality, with a religion, whose code of morals, taken alone, affords fair presumption of a divine origin: a religion, in conclusion, which openly resorted to every human means to ensure its success, and which is avowedly indebted for its original promulgation, to the power of the sword, with a religion which rejected all ordinary human means, and which, to all outward appearance, rested, for its triumphant propagation, solely on the voice of persuasion, and on the spirit of peace.23 By the very attempt, therefore, to institute a comparison, as on the same footing, between the religion of Mahomet, and the religion of Jesus Christ †, the institutor stands selfconvicted of dishonest and disingenuous motives;

* This standard link of the evidences has been powerfully touched by a living writer. See Davison on Prophecy, pp. 224, 225.

The futility of this attempt has been no where more ably exposed, than in the important work of Mr. Davison. See Discourses on Prophecy, pp. 41, 42.

D

and whatever ability he may display in the capacity of a controversialist, leaves a deep and indelible stain on his character as a man.

But, if the spirit of scepticism has seduced one class of writers, altogether to overstate the pretensions of Mahometanism, the prejudices of an honest zeal may have led another class, both to underrate its real merits, and to undervalue the unquestionable difficulties it presents. In In many and main essentials, of the contrast which the Christian advocate has drawn between Mahometanism and Christianity, his argument, indeed, is unanswerable, and the triumph of the Gospel perfect. But some remarkable features of Mahometanism there unquestionably are, to which, however undesignedly, our best and ablest defenders have failed to do justice. Causes, too, have been assigned for several of the results, which, it may be feared, have no real connection with them. And conclusions unfavourable to the Mahometan system have been too frequently deduced, under the palpable influence of groundless, and sometimes contradictory, impressions. Common justice to the general argument for the Gospel, as well as common fairness to that for the Koran, demands some examination of these errors. 24

The permanency of the religion of Mahomet

is certainly the most surprising and inexplicable trait of that fatal apostasy. No one feature of it more deserves, or stands more in need of, explanation. On reference, however, to what has been already done, or attempted, on the right side, towards the elucidation of this confessed difficulty, it will be found to remain substantially unsolved. Either the point is silently pretermitted by the Christian advocate, or made stronger by the weakness and inconclusiveness of his explanation. The first reasoner of our own times, the judicious and excellent Paley, in his masterly sketch of Mahometanism, and of the causes of its success, fairly exposes the circumstances which favoured its original promulgation; but leaves this point of its permanency unnoticed. The attempt to explain away the difficulty has been made by Professor White of Oxford: and the failure of this acute and elegant controversialist may serve to account for the silence or reserve of others. "Of the continuance of Mahometanism, when thus established," observes the Professor," and of its existence to the present times, various causes might be assigned 25, whose joint operation would be sufficient to account fully for the effect, without having recourse to any miraculous or particular interposition of Providence. Of these causes, one

only shall be mentioned in this place, and that because it appears to be of peculiar force and importance. In almost all those countries which acknowledge the authority of Mahomet, so intimate is the connection, so absolute the dependence of the civil government on religion, that any change in the latter must necessarily and inevitably involve the ruin and overthrow of the forThe Koran is not, like the Gospel, to be considered merely as the standard by which the religious opinions, the worship, and the practice of its followers are regulated; but it is also a political system; on this foundation the throne itself is erected; from hence every law of the state is derived; and by this authority every question of life and of property is finally decided." *

mer.

The argument is just and forcible, but it stands alone, and its value obviously depends on the universality of its application. Now, so far from being universally applicable, it is good only so far as it applies to countries where the state is Mahometan ; and where, consequently, the alleged connection subsists, between empire and religion. But here its pertinency is further limited by the remarkable fact, that the creed of the Koran has repeatedly survived its empire:

* Bampt. Lect. p. 80.

that where Mahometan states have been subverted, the Mahometan religion has remained. In some instances it has preserved its integrity amidst the fires of persecution 26; in others it has withstood for ages the influence of the reigning faith while signal examples are not wanting of the progress of Mahometanism among nations who never felt its sword27, and of the national conversion of those Pagan conquerors before whom its empire fell. Thus, the Moors of Spain preferred death or exile to the adoption of Christianity; the Turkish tribes yielded a willing obedience to the teaching of peaceful missionaries of the Koran; and the Pagan hordes of Tartary, who, from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, overran and desolated Asia, universally embraced the confession of their despised Moslem slaves.*

But, to whatever extent this account of the permanency of Mahometanism may apply in other parts of the world, the reasoning of the learned Professor is wholly set at nought by the phenomena of this arch-heresy, as it exists in the interior of Africa. Insulated amidst the solitudes of the Great Desert, surrounded by the rites and votaries of a gross idolatry, the Arab of Western

*"As, in Europe, the Christianity of the Roman empire proselyted its German conquerors, so, in Asia, Mahometanism, the spurious progeny of Christianity, gained a similar triumph over the Paganism of Tartary.”. Philosophy of Modern History, vol. i. p. 263.