argument here insinuated from the permanency of Mahometanism obviously aims to affect the parallel argument derivable from the permanency of the Gospel dispensation. And while the correspondence of the rival systems is thus shown to be complete in so capital a feature of the evidences, the inviolable purity of the sublime doctrine and simple ritual of the law of Mahomet is further brought into artful contrast, on the one hand, with the idolatrous deflections of Israel from the faith and worship of Jehovah, and on the other, with the gross corruptions which so early crept in to disfigure the purity of Christianity. The object of the sceptical historian is plain for once, however, it is easier to perceive the disingenuousness of his purpose, than to deny the validity of his reasoning. In every prior stage of this controversy, the fallacies of scepticism have been sufficiently confuted and exposed but the validity of the argument arising from the permanency of Mahometanism, and the preservation of its doctrines and rites in their original severe simplicity, may seem established by the silence of the ablest champions of Revelation. The admission implied by this silence is the more remarkable, as it leaves unexplained those characters of Mahometanism,

which most impress the mind as mysterious and inexplicable.

The suspicious zeal of infidelity in the investigation of the Mahometan religion, has not been allowed to pass unobserved by the guardians and defenders of Evangelic truth. To the popular argument in favour of Mahometanism, founded on its success, it has been summarily and fairly replied by Christian writers," that success alone is no sufficient criterion of the truth and divinity of any religious system." This sound first principle being taken for the basis of their general reasoning, they proceed next to examine the human means possessed and resorted to by Mahomet, for the advancement of his imposture; and profess to discover in these means, seconded as they were by the favourable concurrence of the times, the whole secret of his success.

The means chiefly insisted on, are, the birth and family-connections of the pretended Prophet, which threw, at the outset, the weight of personal interest into the scale; the consummate art and prudence with which he conducted his design, which gave the strength and solidity of system to each step of his progress; the merit of the great doctrine of the UNITY, with which he set out, and which was already immemorially known and acknowledged by the various tribes

of Arabia *; his appeal, in alliance with their most cherished prepossessions, to the Ishmaelitish descentt, and patriarchal religion ‡, of the Arabs; the artful accommodation of his creed to the diverse classes of his countrymen, by which he contrived to draw Jew, Christian, and Idolater equally within its sphere; its skilful adaptation at once to the most deeply-rooted prejudices, and the most powerful passions; the general plainness and simplicity of the doctrines inculcated; the gross ignorance of the people to whom these doctrines were addressed; the cogent and opposite motives by which the mission of Mahomet was enforced, the most awful penalties present and future being denounced against infidels, while the most seductive pleasures were promised to the true believers, both in the present world and in the life to come; and, lastly, his conclusive appeal to the sword, made to the raised enthusiasm of a warlike people, enthusiasm doubly fortified, by the constraining tenet of fatalism, and by the most animating hopes and the most alarming fears that religion could hold out, to the uncultivated minds, and the undisciplined imaginations, of the migratory Bedoweens.

* See Koran passim, especially as cited apud Appendix, No. I.

† Appendix, No. I.

Ibid. No. II.

§ White, pp. 49—69. and pp. 78, 79.: compare Paley, Evidences of Christianity, part iii. sect. iii.

In the joint agency of these various and diversified means, the advocates of Christianity discern the principal causes which conduced to the success of Mahometanism: especially when taken in connection with certain collateral causes, growing out of the state and circumstances of the times wherein Mahomet appeared.

The miserable and distracted state of the Christian church in the seventh century, is placed foremost among these concurring causes.* The heresies which divided, and the corruptions which disgraced Christianity, are represented, at this period, to have risen to the height; and to have presented an open and inviting field to the aspiring views of Mahomet. 19 Ignorance and immorality, the ascertained and unfailing accompaniments of an unsound state of religion, by their universal prevalence, conspired with heresy and schism to prepare the way for any gross and novel imposture. The collateral provisions for the triumphant ascendancy of Mahometanism were completed by the contrast which obtained, between the political and religious state of Arabia, and the internal condition of the rival empires of Rome and Persia. "The condition of Arabia," it is urged," occupied by small independent tribes, exposed it to the progress of a firm and

* White, p. 49, &c.; Hotting. Hist. Orient. pp. 222–224.

resolute army. And as its political divisions facilitated the establishment of a new government, so its religious divisions made the way easy for the introduction of a new faith. It already numbered among its inhabitants, Jews, Christians, and several denominations of idolaterst; and thus familiarised with an almost endless variety of religious opinions, it was incapable of combined or systematic resistance to the pretensions of a conquering creed. At the period, too, when Mahomet arose, while the once formidable empires of Rome and Persia were crumbling in the last stages of decay, Arabia, it is alleged, notwithstanding her internal dissensions, was in an eminently prosperous and flourishing condition. The inference is, that, at home, he found every inducement and encouragement to enter on a career of conquest; and, "after the reduction of his native peninsula, the weakness of the Roman provinces on the north and the west, as well as the distracted state of the Persian empire on the east, facilitated the

* Paley, Evidences, p. 550. ed. Dublin, 1794. But see Oelsner, Effets de la Religion de Mohammed, pp. 48, 49.

+ The diversity of religions in Arabia, with the facilities thereby afforded to Mahomet, is accurately noted by Roderic Ximenes, Archbishop of Toledo, in the 13th century :-" Cum Arabia et Africa, inter fidem Catholicam, et hæresin Arianam, et perfidiam Judaicam, et idololatriam, diversis studiis traheretur," &c. Hist. Arab. cap. i. p. 2.