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crificial rites in which so much of ancient pagan religion consisted, the corruption of mankind was admitted, and means of expiating their guilt were attempted to be devised. 3dly, That a future state of retribution was received as a religious tenet. And, lastly, That the practice of morality, according to the best conceptions of it which the heathens entertained, was considered, especially by their philosophers and philosophical poets, as the most effectual means of conciliating the divine favour.

Grossly absurd, however, as ancient paganism was, in all its institutions and notions of deity, it seems to bear no comparison, in this respect, with the polytheism of the Hindoos, nor to have been so fatal to all that has the smallest resemblance to true piety, and its necessary effect on the morals of men. What shall we say of three hundred millions of gods? What more horrid than the worship that is offered to them, and the opinions entertained of their characters? What more degrading to human nature than the implicit subjection to their Brahmins endured by these Indians, or more detestable than the purposes to which this despotic power is applied by its possessors? Such abject obedience on the one hand, and such tyranny on the other—such ignorance of all that has any connexion with the

a See Ward's View of the History, Literature, and Religion of the Hindoos.

very first principles of religion, and such prostitution of all morality proceeding from this sourcecould take place only in conjunction with that weakness of character, and that effeminacy even of corporeal constitution, by which the Indians have always been marked, and compelled to submit to every invader of a more vigorous frame than their own. Thus are the grossest perversions of the religious principle punished, even by the lowest temporal debasement of our nature.

CHAP. III.

era.

OF MOHAMMEDISM.

MAHOMET, or Mohammed, began to publish his imposture in the year 608 of the Christian About the same time, the bishop of Rome, in virtue of a grant from the weak and tyrannical emperor Phocas, first assumed the title of universal bishop, and thus to arrogate to himself the supremacy which his successors in the

a This name signifies, in Arabic, the celebrated, or famous. See Venema Instit. Hist. Eccles. vol. v. p. 80.-See also Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 9; and in the note.

Romish see have ever since endeavoured to usurp over the church of Christ. Both Mo-. hammed and the possessors of the see of Rome having conspired to found an empire by imposture, their adherents and followers have uniformly attempted to establish and extend it by the same means, namely those of fraud and violence." Thus, Antichrist, in the right sense of the term, implying an opposition to all that can be called pure and vital religion, seems, from this period, to have placed one of his feet on the eastern and the other on the western extent of Christendom. To what degree this destructive monster was enabled to violate, and ravage, and suppress true and vivifying Christianity, succeeding ages deplorably experienced, till the blessed Reformation emancipated from papal usurpation a considerable part of the western church.

Mohammed gave to his new religion the name of Islam, a term signifying resignation, or submission to the service and commands of God." It is used as the proper designation of the Mohammedan faith, which its professors maintain to be, at bottom, the same with that which was embraced by all the prophets from Adam, through succeeding generations. The Mohammedans assume, as a title peculiar to themselves, the

C

a Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 9.

b See Sale's Preliminary Discourse to his translation of the Koran, sect. iv. p. 92, 8vo edition. c Ibid.

designation of Moslem, which imports persons resigned to God. This word has, by Europeans, been corrupted into Mussulmen.a

Although Mohammedism made its appearance so long after the introduction of Christianity, I wish to state its general complexion, and to make some observations on it, before I lay before my reader a brief sketch of the latter; because, after having discussed the forms of false religion, and the dispensation preliminary to the gospel, the supereminent and incomparably moral tendency of this last will, when viewed after all these, leave a stronger impression on the mind, a circumstance greatly conducive to the grand object of this work. All that I intend in this chapter is, to state as briefly as possible, the leading tenets of the Mohammedan creed; to offer some general remarks in regard to its peculiar origin and nature; to indicate the immediate causes of its diffusion, and to show that whatever it possesses of real religion, has been derived from Jewish and Christian sources, though in polluted streams.

The design of Mahomet, or Mohammed, the author of the Koran, seems to have been to unite the professors of the three different religions then prevalent in the populous country of Arabia, who lived promiscuously without any common

a Sale's Koran, chap. ii. note h.

direction. The far greater number of these were idolaters; and the rest were Jews and Christians, both of whom professed a spurious and corrupted form of their respective religions. All these he wished to convert to the profession of one common faith, the basis of which was the knowledge and worship of one eternal and invisible God, the sole author, the supreme governor, and judge, and absolute lord, of the creation. This religion was to be established under the sanction of certain laws, celebrated by certain ceremonies, partly of ancient, and partly of novel institution, and enforced by rewards and punishments both temporal and eternal. Mohammed himself, as the prophet and ambassador of God, was to be its founder, to propagate and establish it by force of arms, and to be acknowledged chief pontiff in spiritual, and supreme governor in temporal matters."

This astonishing impostor proceeded on a fundamental principle, which is certainly true, that the essence of all genuine religion has been the same in all ages of the world, and must continue to be so to the end of time; consisting in the belief and acknowledgment of one only true God, and in obedience to his eternal and immutable laws of rectitude. He further justly asserted, that the Supreme Being has, from time to time,

a See Sale's Preliminary Discourse, sect. iii. quoting from Golius.

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