ante-Mahometan Arabians, to its grand and final consummation in the successive rise and establishment of Christianity and Mahometanism.

The inquiry will embrace the descent of the Arabs from Ishmael *; the religion and customs of the ante-Mahometan Arabs t; the lights afforded by prophecy respecting Mahomet and his followers ; the historical, moral, doctrinal, and ritual parallels §, between Judaism and Mahometanism, and between Christianity and Mahometanism; a comparison of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments with the Koran; of the Jewish and Christian, with the Mahometan sects and heresies ¶; the contemporaneous rise and analogy of Popery and Mahometanism ** the providential object and effects of the Crusades tt; and a comparative view of Christianity and Mahometanism in their influences, on national character and civilization; on industry, manufactures, and commerce; and on the pro* Appendix, No. I. See sect. i. note *, p. 113. † Appendix, No. II. + Sect. ii. iii.

¶ Sect. ix.

§ Sect. iv.-vii. ** Sect. X.

Sect. viii. ++ Sect. xi. The Crusades have proved a fertile source of controversy to the learned world: views the most opposite have been taken of their effects, in many a laboured argument. Mr. Southey has done justice to the subject, in a single sentence: "But for the Crusades," observes this masterly and philosophical writer, "Mahometanism would have barbarized the world." And so unquestionably it would; for it would have extinguished Christianity; and, deprived of this light, must itself have sunk into utter and irretrievable darkness. See Southey's Life of Wesley, vol. i. p. 310.

gress of arts, sciences, philosophy, and litera

ture.

Christianity and Mahometanism, in this argument, are considered as the providential results of a twofold promise made by God to faithful Abraham, in behalf of his sons Isaac and Ishmael; by which promise, a prophetic blessing was annexed to the posterity of each; which blessings, again, linked the fortunes of their descendants, with the providential history and government of the whole human race. The Jews inherited the greater blessing of Isaac, which was mainly of a spiritual nature; the Arabians, the lesser blessing of Ishmael, which was manifestly of a temporal nature. But the Jews impiously slighted their own far better portion, and set their hearts wholly upon the temporal inheritance. Rejecting the lights of prophecy, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they coveted an earthly kingdom, administered by a temporal Messiah; and would receive nothing else as the fulfilment of the promise made to Abraham concerning them. This, however, was the proper portion of Ishmael; and the earthly crown, and temporal conqueror, which the Jews vainly thirsted after, his posterity, accordingly, obtained. Mahomet, in a word, was to the Arabs, precisely what the Jews

* Sect. xii. xiii.

fondly expected the Messiah would be to them. Notwithstanding the final disobedience of his chosen people, the word of Jehovah remained stedfast and sure: through the Gospel and the Koran, the promise to Abraham continually advanced towards its fulfilment, in the posterity of his sons, until of these two brethren was the whole earth overspread.

But the promise originally framed for such a consummation, and already so marvellously and mysteriously accomplished, evidently supposes, on every analogy of the divine proceedings, an ultimate result, adequate to the provisions made, and worthy of HIM who made them. For an approximation to this result, I would direct the attention of the reader to the relative merits of the rival systems, and to the actual state of the world as affected by their operation."9

The merits of Christianity are supreme; and wherever it has prevailed, the Gospel of Christ has produced effects upon the minds and hearts, the manners and institutions of mankind, every way worthy of its divine original.90 The intrinsic merits of Mahometanism, while utterly beneath comparison with the only true revelation, are yet confessedly superior to those of every other religious system which has obtained amongst H 4

men. The most strenuous opponents of its pretensions freely admit, that Mahometanism, with all its errors and absurdities, is, next to Judaism and Christianity", the best and most beneficial form of religion that has been ever presented to the world.* As an instrument to purify the nations from idolatry, its efficiency has been largely proved by facts, and is willingly allowed by the defenders of Christianity +: some amongst whom discover in it, further, the most appropriate collateral means, for the eventual and universal diffusion of the Gospel. +

"Doubts," Professor White remarks," have

* See Conclusion, especially its notes, for unexceptionable vouchers of the advanced state of religious feeling and principle, in Mahometan countries.

How

"Even after it (the law of Moses) had done its destined work, the vigour of the Mosaic revelation still working at the root enabled a bold impostor to extend the principle of the unity still wider, till it had embraced the remotest nations of the habitable world: so that, at this day, almost all the nations of the vast regions of Higher Asia, whether Gentiles, Christians, or Mahometans, are the professed worshippers of the one only God. much the extension of the principle of the unity has been owing to this cause, under the permission and direction of the Providence, which is ever producing good out of evil, is known to all who are acquainted with the present state of the Eastern world." Bishop Warburton, Divine Legation, book v. sect. ii. See Works, vol. v. p. 81. edit. 8vo. 1811. Compare Retrospective Review, vol. iii. pp. 10, 11.; and Michaelis on the Laws of Moses, vol. i. pp. 181, 182.

‡ See Reflections on Mohammedanism, cited by Bishop Law, Theory of Religion, p. 194.: "Wherein the author attempts to show, that Mohammedanism may have been ordained for the good of Christianity; to withstand the corruptions of it in times past, and to increase and enlarge it in times to come." P. 5, &c.

arisen with sensible men, how far the propagation of the Gospel in some countries be upon the whole practicable or desirable: whether the doctrines of it would not be imperfectly understood, or grossly misconceived, or professed to no good purpose: whether as Gentilism and Judaism infected Christianity, so the favourite and inveterate superstitions of the American idolaters would not soon debase its purity, and counteract its efficacy. But this objection does not reach with its full force to the Mahometans of the East, who are lifted far above the ignorance of barbarians, and the ferocity of savages; and a wider scope surely would be here given for instructing them successfully in the sublimer doctrines of Christianity. The savage, whose gloomy and confined theology was perhaps the growth of turbulent passion and wild fancy, might easily be persuaded to admit the existence of miracles; from the similitude they bear to the supposed interpositions of his deities; from his incapacity to ascertain the force of natural causes; and from a kind of instinctive propensity to believe in those which are extraordinary, But the Mahometans, while they admit the principle of miracles *, might be

• This particular of their belief is under-stated. They not only admit the principle of miracles generally, but prefer the authority of the Jewish and Christian miracles, to that of their own. "Les Musulmans (M.