.......... sion, depending upon the strength of his religion alone; and during that period, the superstition, which has since overspread the eastern world, "advanced with a slow and painful progress only within the walls of Mecca," for as yet the pseudo-prophet "disclaimed the use of religious violence:"* in one day three thousand were added to the Church by a single sermon of St. Peter; and in ten years after the passion of the Messiah, Christianity had been planted in Samaria,† Phenicia, Cyprus, Antioch, and Ethiopia,§ exclusive of Judea and Galilee. Mohammed, finding that he was likely to make but little progress if he relied upon nothing but the strength of his cause, after he had made himself prince of Medina, "assumed in his new revelations, a fiercer and more sanguinary tone, which proves that his former moderation was the effect of weakness. The means of persuasion had been tried, the season of forbearance was elapsed, and he was now commanded to propagate his religion by the sword, to destroy the monuments of idolatry, and, without regarding the sanctity of days or months, to pursue the unbelieving nations of the earth-In the first months of his reign, he practised the lessons of holy warfare, and displayed his white banner before the gates of Medina: the martial apostle fought in person at nine battles or sieges; and fifty enterprizes of war were achieved in ten years by himself or his lieutenants." Hence we may satisfactorily account for the greater rapidity with which his religion spread during these second ten years, than during the former ten years when he confined himself merely to preaching. "The sword," said he to his intrepid followers, "is the key of heaven and of hell a drop of blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting and prayer: whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven at the day of judgment his wounds shall be resplendent as vermilion and odoriferous as musk: and the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim." Thus was the power of Mo * Hist. of Decl. and Fall, Vol. 1x. p. 285, 286. † Acts viii. 5. || Acts ix. 31. Hist. of Decline and Fall, Vol 1x. p. 294, 295, 296, 297. 26 hammedism mighty, but not like the Gospel, by its own power: thus did it destroy wonderfully, and prosper, and practise.* 4. Another mark of the power, symbolized by the little horn, is, that "through his policy he shall cause craft to prosper in the land" whence we must conclude, that the power, thus symbolized, was to be no less crafty than "In the exwarlike-Let us hear the voice of history. ercise of political government, Mohammed was compell. ed to abate of the stern rigour of fanaticism, to comply in some measure with the prejudices and passions of his followers, and to employ even the vices of mankind as the instruments of their salvation. The use of fraud and perfidy, of cruelty and injustice, were often subservient to the propagation of the faith; and Mohammed commanded or approved the assassination of the Jews and idolaters who had escaped from the field of battle. By the repetition of such acts, the character of Mohammed must have been gradually stained, and the influence of such pernicious habits would be poorly compensated by the practice of the personal and social virtues which are necessary to maintain the reputation of a prophet among his sectaries and friends. Of his last years ambition was the ruling passion: and a politician will suspect, that he * I prefer this interpretation of the passage, "his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power," to that adopted by Mr. Kett. "As the kingdoms of the West," says he, "gave their power to the beast, or the papal Antichrist, so have the kingdoms of the East given theirs to the Mohammedan Antichrist. But I conceive this is not all that is here meant. The dragon gave his power to the beast, and the angel of the bottomless pit led on the Saracenic locusts; and thus the angel may be understood to say, The power of this born shall be not merely that which is common to the conquerors of the East, such as the be-goat or four beasts in the former vision; it is to be directed and supported by super-human art and strength; which shall enable it to destroy wonderfully, to prosper and practise." (Hist, the Int. Vol. 1 p. 356, 357.) The angel of the bottomless pit, who was the king of the Saracenic locusts, is not, as Mr. Kett supposes, the devil, but the prophet bimself; whose descriptive name Apollyon, or the destroyer, as Bp. Newton justly observes, " agrees perfectly well with Mohammed and the caliphs his successors, who were the authors of all those horrid wars and desolations, and who openly taught and professed that their religion was to be propagated and established by the sword." The exact coincidence even of expression between Daniel and St. John is well worthy of our netice. Daniel describes the power represented by the little born as destroying wonderfully, 35 destroying the mighty and the people of the Holy Ones, as destroying many in negligent security: St. John styles the author of Mohammedism Apollyon or a destroyer. Mr. Kett does elsewhere justly consider Apollyon to be a descriptive name of Mohammed and his successors (Vol. II. p. 72, 79, 74); which renders his former mistake the more singular. secretly smiled (the victorious impostor !) at the enthusiasm of his youth and the credulity of his proselytes.In the support of truth the arts of fraud and fiction may be deemed less criminal; and he would have started at the foulness of the means, had he not been satisfied of the importance and justice of the end."* Such is the unwilling confession even of his apologist Mr. Gibbon : nor was perfidy the exclusive characteristic of Mohammed alone: his example in this respect has been but too faithfully copied by his numerous votaries. "It is scarcely credible how far the littleness of pride is carried by the Porte, in all their transactions with the Christian princes. To support their faith, and to extend their empire, are the only law of nations which they acknowledge. Their treaties amount only to a temporary remission of that implacable enmity, with which their religion inspires them against every thing not Mohammedan. They consider the most solemn treaties in the light of a truce, which they are at libetty to break, whenever they can more effectually serve the cause of Mohammed. In this they are much assisted by the nature of the Arabic language, which they mix with the Turkish in their public acts, and which, by the various application of its terms, literal and metaphorical, enables them to give whatever interpretation they please, to the contract." "In a word, lust, arrogance, covetousness, and the most exquisite hypocrisy, complete their character."+ 5. Another characteristic, which the angel gives us of the little horn, is, that "he should destroy many while in a state of negligent security"-This peculiarity is remarkably exemplified in the whole progress of the Saracenic arms. "The birth of Mohammed was fortunately placed in the most degenerate and disorderly period of the Persians, the Romans, and the Barbarians of Europe :§ the empires of Trajan, or even of Constantine, or Char Hist. of Decline and Fall, Vol. 1x. p. 322, 323. Eton's Survey of Turkish Empire, p. 106. cited by Kett, This declaration of Mr. Gibbon affords another proof, that the pover symbolized by the Mohammedan little born arose when the transgressors were come to the full, though I conceive the commencement of the 1260 days to be peculiarly alluded to by that expression. lemagne, would have repelled the assault of the naked Saracens; and the torrent of fanaticism might have been obscurely lost in the sands of Arabia. In the victorious days of the Roman republic, it had been the aim of the senate to confine their consuls and legions to a single war, and completely to suppress a first enemy before they provoked the hostilities of a second. These timid maxims of policy were disdained by the magnanimity or enthusiasm of the Arabian caliphs. With the same vigour and success they invaded the successors of Augustus, and those of Artaxerxes; and the rival monarchies at the same instant became the prey of an enemy, whom they had been so long accustomed to despise." Let us first observe the effects of this fatal and presumptuous security in the case of Persia. The battle of Cadesia determined the fate of that empire. Three days did the encounter continue. On the last morning, "the clangor of arms was re-echoed to the tent of Rustam, who, far unlike the ancient hero of his name, was gently reclining in a cool and tranquil shade, amidst the baggage of his camp, and the train of mules that were laden with gold and silver. On the sound of danger, he started from his couch; but his flight was overtaken by a valiant Arab, who caught him by the foot, struck off his head, hoisted it on a lance, and instantly returning to the field of battle, carried slaughter and dismay among the thickest ranks of the Persians-After the defeat of Cadesia, a country intersected by rivers and canals might have opposed an insuperable barrier to the victorious cavalry; and the walls of Ctesiphon or Madayn, which had resisted the battering rams of the Romans, would not have yielded to the darts of the Saracens. But the flying Persians were overcome by the belief, that the last day of their religion and empire was at hand; the strongest posts were abandoned by treachery or cowardice; and the king, with a part of his family and treasures, escaped to Holwan at the foot of the Median hills. In the third month after the battle, Said, the lieutenant of Omar, passed the Tigris without opposition; the cap 1 Hist. of Decline and Fall, Vol. ix. p. 360, 961. ital was taken by assault; and the disorderly resistance of the people gave a keener edge to the sabres of the Moslems."* Let us next consider the effects of the same impolitic security in the case of the rival empire of Constantinople. "About four years after the triumphs of the Persian war, the repose of Heraclius and the empire was again disturbed by a new enemy, the power of whose religion was more strongly felt than it was clearly understood by the Christians of the East. In his palace of Constantinople or Antioch he was awakened by the invasion of Syria, the loss of Bosra, and the danger of Damascus. An army of seventy thousand veterans, or new levies, was assembled at Hems, or Hemesa, under the command of his general Werdan-During two successive engagements the temperate firmness of Caled sustained the darts of the enemy, and the murmurs of his troops. At length, when the spirits and quivers of the adverse line were almost exhausted, Caled gave the signal of onset and victory. The remains of the Imperial army fled to Antioch, or Cesarèa, or Damascus ; and the death of four hundred and fifty Moslems was compensated by the opinion that they had sent to hell above fifty thousand of the infidels.”—“ In the life of Heraclius, the glories of the Persian war are clouded on either hand by the disgrace and weakness of his more early and his later days. When the successors of Mohammed unsheathed the sword of war and religion, he was astonished at the boundless prospect of toil and danger: his nature was indolent, nor could the infirm and frigid age of the emperor be kindled to a second effort. The sense of shame, and the importunities of the Syrians, prevented his hasty departure from the scene of action; but the hero was no more; and the loss of Damascus and Jerusalem, the bloody fields of Aiznadin and Yermuk, may be imputed in some degree to the absence or misconduct of the sovereign."§ Most of the smaller conquests of the Saracens were, in a similar manner, achieved by surprise. "From his Hist. of Decline and Fall, Vol. 1x. p. 367, 368, 369. § Ibid. p. 418. |