Throughout the prophecies in question, the design was, to foreshow Popery and Mahometanism under the one aspect exclusively, namely, as antichristian powers; there is, therefore, a total suppression of their better and happier features, and they are prefigured by their antichristian characters alone. If, then, we can discern no relief in the colouring, it behoves us to recollect, that it was not the object of prophecy, to present either picture on its bright side.

On a retrospect of the predictions from both Testaments, which have been considered in this, and in the preceding Section, the conclusion, we trust, may now be safely drawn, that, under the kindred and coeval apostasies of the Papacy and Mahometanism, antichrist is pourtrayed in Scripture, in his eastern and western heads: while, so similar are the prophetical descriptions of the two powers, that it has been found scarcely possible to discriminate between them. The result is melancholy in the extreme, as it affects the Roman Catholic superstition. But Mahometanism is clearly a gainer by it: for, by the simple fact of its being thus classed and contrasted in Scripture with a Christian tyranny, it is raised to the rank of a Christian heresy.

In this light, accordingly, the religion of Mahomet has been regarded, by several of our

own soundest and ablest Scriptural critics. The learned and exemplary Mede, in particular, affirms, that the Mahometans are nearer to Christianity, than many of the ancient heretics; the Cerinthians, Gnostics, and Manichees. It may be added, that they approach more nearly to the Gospel, than Socinus, or his imitators and outrunners, the modern Unitarians: since Mahometanism strenuously maintains several prime articles of the Catholic Faith, which those presumptuous innovators strenuously deny. To use the words of Joseph Mede, "Mahometism began as a Christian heresy, acknowledging Christ for a prophet, a greater than Moses, born of a Virgin, the word of God." Instances even may be adduced of Mahometan sects, who further held the great Christian verities, of our Lord's pre-existence, and of his participation in the divine nature. Mahomet himself implored the mediation of Jesus; owned him to be the Messiah; and resigned to him, as his unalienable prerogative, the final judgment of the world. It would be an easy task to enlarge the proof of its correspondence with Christianity, were this the proper place for such a discussion; or had not their correspondence been sufficiently set forth, for our present purpose, by preceding writers. "Hence," proceeds the venerable authority just

quoted, "Mahometism has been frequently accounted a Christian heresy; and, as it had its origin in Christianity, so to Christ it looks in the end. For, according to the creed of the Mahometans, Jesus is expected to descend to earth, to embrace the religion of Mahomet, to slay antichrist, and to reign with his saints." *

On the whole it appears, that the analogy between the original covenants of Isaac and Ishmael is carried on, and the ecclesiastico-political character of this analogy elucidated, through a full, clear, and consistent, prophetical parallel, foreshown in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and fulfilled in the related and mutually opposed systems of Christianity and Mahometanism; religions incontrovertibly emanating from those two brethren.

In the great antagonist apostasies of Popery and Mahometanism, at once connected and hostile perversions of the one true revelation, Isaac and Ishmael are to be seen, at the same time, linked with, and enlisted against, one another : while the proof of a designed spiritual connection between their covenants is thus preserved,

*For this genuine article of Mahometan belief, see "Mishcat-ulMasabih, or a collection of the most authentic traditions, regarding the actions and sayings of Muhammed.' Calcutta, 1810. Translated from the original Arabic, by Captain A. N. Matthews, Bengal Artillery. Vol. ii. p. 551.

through a period of twelve hundred years, in the history of a twofold antichristian tyranny, catholic and heretical, which, branching out at precisely the same point of time from the true Church, has continued to afflict Christendom, in the East and in the West, from the commencement of the seventh century to the present day.

The concurrent rise, and the parallel progress and decline, of the eastern and western branches of antichrist, here imperfectly delineated, will be more fully examined in another place.*

See section x.

SECTION IV.

HISTORICAL ANALOGY OF MAHOMETANISM WITH

JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY.

THE inquiry proposed in this section, into the historical analogy subsisting between the Mahometan apostasy on the one hand, and the Jewish and Christian revelations on the other, properly begins with a review of the historical parallel which subsists between the founders of the three religions. For, if a pre-ordained and providential connection really obtains between the religions themselves, there can be no doubt that this connection will be apparent, in the first instance, in the history of the respective founders, Moses, Christ, and Mahomet. Moses was the great type of Christ, the true Messiah; which relation pre-supposes some signal correspondence in their prophetic characters: and Mahomet, who, in the argument of this work, stands to both in the antithetical relation of the eastern head of antichrist, or a spurious