THERE ARE TWO OBJECTS OF CURIOSITY, THE CHRISTIAN WORLD, AND THE MAHOMETAN WORLD: ALL THE REST MAY BE CONSIDERED AS BARBAROUS. DOCTOR SAMUEL JOHNSON. MAHOMETANISM UNVEILED. SECTION I. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF GOD'S TWO-FOLD COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM, IN BEHALF OF HIS SONS ISAAC AND ISHMAEL.* THE patriarch Abraham first appears in the book of Genesis as the subject of a great prophetic promise on the part of Almighty God, which should afterward be fulfilled in his pos terity. The primitive annunciation of that promise is contained in the twelfth chapter. "Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, and from thy * The descent of the great Arabian family from the stock of Ishmael is the foundation-stone of the present work. The fact of this descent comes authenticated to the whole Christian world by the unvarying testimony of the entire canon of the Hebrew Scriptures. As, however, the authority of the national pedigree, incautiously questioned even by some Christian scholars, has been industriously assailed by infidel writers, who seem to have made the claim of an Ishmaelitish origin a favourite subject of cavil, the necessity is forced upon us of examining the proofs of this origin, supplied, on the one hand, by Scripture and Jewish history, and, on the other, by profane history and Arabian tradition. Not to interrupt the order of the work, the statement of these concurrent evidences has been reserved for the Appendix, No. I. I kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation; and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." This original covenant, regarded independently of any declarations which follow, manifestly branches into two distinct parts: it conveys, in the first place, the clear promise of a lineal blessing on the posterity of Abraham, expressed in the words, "I will make of thee a great nation ;" and, secondly, the mysterious promise of a social blessing on the whole family of mankind, through the posterity of Abraham, intimated in the words, " in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." * The original covenant was twice renewed to Abraham, while the patriarch remained still childless t; and it is remarkable, that, in each instance, the renewal is restricted to the first branch of it, which respects exclusively the lineal increase and aggrandisement of his literal descendants. It is repeated, subsequently, for * See Bishop Sherlock on Prophecy, Discourse V. p. 109, &c. 6th edition, London, 1755. + Gen. xiii. 14-17. xv. passim. the fourth time, to Hagar, the handmaid of Sarah, on the eve of her giving birth to Ishmael, Abraham's first-born son *: an event in which God's covenant, in its former part, received a first, authoritative, and apparently complete, accomplishment. The promise so far confirmed to Ishmael, is, however, presently followed by a further opening out of this part of the covenant. In the course of the year which preceded the birth of Isaac, there occurs an extension of the lineal blessing. In plain enlargement of the terms of that original promise, "I will make of thee a great nation," Jehovah now declares to Abraham, that he shall become "a father of many nations;" that He would "make nations of him," and cause 66 kings to come out of him." + This declaration stands as the introduction to a fresh discovery of the divine counsels. The birth of a legitimate son, by his wife Sarah, is now, at length, specifically foretold ; and to this, his only son Isaac," (as the sacred text emphatically designates "the child of promise,”) together with full participation in the lineal blessing, hitherto solely in question, is exclusively given and confirmed the mysterious + Gen. xvii. 5, 6. *Gen. xvi. 7-10, &c. Gen. xvii. 16. |