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Mahomet, or, as the name would be more properly spelled, Mohammed, the founder of this false religion, was born at Mecca, a city of Arabia, in the year 569. He was of the family of Koraish, the most illustrious in that country, who traced their descent, in a direct line, from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. He lost his father at the age of two years, and at eight his mother also; but his uncle, Abu Taleb, a man of great wealth and influence in the city, received him under his care, and employed him for several years in his commercial dealings in Egypt, Syria, and other neighbouring countries.

Mahomet, though of high birth, inherited no possessions; but nature had endowed him with extraordinary abilities, and with a person and manners extremely captivating. Ambition formed the principal fea ture in his character, and at an early age he appears to have resolved to exalt himself to eminent distinction.

SfAfter passing the first 25 years of his life under the protection-of Abu Taleb, he entered the service of Cadiga, a rich widow, being employed as her factor; but at the end of three years he had the ad dress to persuade her to marry him, and thus became master of all her wealth. Being now possessed of means to enable him to carry into execution the plan he had long contemplated, he began to open a part of his design, and soon won over Cadiga and others of his family to second and support his pretensions. He declared to them he had been visited by the Angel Gabriel, who informed him that the Almighty had chosen him to be his prophet-to deliver a new revelation to n mankind, and thus restore them to the knowledge of the true God. He now laid aside all his former habits, and retiring to the Cave of Hira, in the neighbourhood of the city, devoted himself to the most rigorous ab⚫ stinence, where he was to be seen constantly occupied in prayer and meditation. Meanwhile he secretly employed his utmost influence, through the medium of his relations, in gaining to his interest some of the most considerable men in the city, and at the end of two years came forth to the public, preaching the new faith. He delivered to them the Koran, which he professed to have received chapter by chapter from the hands of God's appointed messenger, declaring it contained all that was requisite to their belief. This book (which has become the Bible of the Mahometan) is composed of numberless passages stolen from the Bible, mingled with the most absurd inventions of Mahomet. Perceiving that the true religion was too firmly founded to be entirely overthrown by his utmost efforts, he built up his strange system by uniting his doctrines with those of the Mosaic and Christian dispensations. The Koran declares, that Mahomet is to be received as the true Messiah, and that Jesus was but a prophet like Moses, and those who followed after him. Great skill was employed to render it acceptable to his disciples. It allows them the gratifica tion of their most licentious appetites-and declares that eternal pleasures like these are to constitute the reward of the faithful in Paradise.

Notwithstanding the alluring offers of the Impostor, and the strength'

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of his interest in the city, so little was he at first encouraged that the people mocked at his preaching. The real Christians exposed his falsehood, while the Jews rejected his pretensions with indignation, and the rulers of Mecca took alarm lest the antient idolatry of Arabia, by which they held their influence over the people, should be brought into only to tempt; at the end of the fifth year his proselytes amounted JWhen challenged to give some direct proofs of the divine authority of his mission, as our blessed Lord had done by his miracles, he ad mitted that Christ indeed performed such supernatural acts, but that he himself was not permitted to give this satisfaction to the world be cause of their unbelief, though he appealed to the Koran itself as the greatest of miracles, declaring that human wisdom was utterly und equal to the composition of a work so perfect. As this singular pert formance is written in a style of elegance, undoubtedly superior to the state of learning which then existed in Arabia, the industry of his Christian opponents has traced out the source from whence he derived the necessary assistance. Mahomet became familiar with many of the doctrines and opinions both of Jews and Christians, in his frequent journeys into Palestine, from whence it is said he obtained the aid of two persons fully qualified to furnish what else was wanting: one of these was Abdallah Ebn Salem, a Persian Jew, from whom he derived the most ample knowledge of the Mosaic dispensation; the other was Sergius, a Christian Monk, who having for some great crime been expelled his order, fled to Mecca, where he was received into the house of Mahomet, whom he assisted in framing his imposture; and so soon as the work was completed, the unhappy man is recorded to have been privately despatched, lest the secret should be divulged. His wife, Cadiga, being now dead, he took no less than three wives at once; and, in order to strengthen his interest, chose them from the three principal families in Mecca, and then secured the whole weight of their influence in promoting his ambitious project. Notwithstanding the powerful influence of these connexions, the opposition of his enemies at Mecca became e at length so violent, that he saw the necessity of removing to a more favourable position. In the tenth year of his pretended mission, Medina (then called Yathreb), a town lying at the distance of 270 miles from Mecca, was agitated by the contentions of the Jews; and, with a large body of heretical Christians who had established themselves in that place, Mahomet contrived to employ such artifices among them, that he prevailed on the latter party to adopt his Pns. And here it may be remarked how surely contentions in the Church open to the enemies of Christianity the most effectual means of assailing its interest. The Impostor's attention was first attracted by the view of these disputes. They first suggested to him the scheme which he afterwards pursued with so fatal an hostility to the Christian faith, which might have defied all the assaults of its enemies, had its disciples been true to themselves, and true to the Divine Master whom they professed to obey.

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No sooner had Mahomet secured the alliance of these false Chris

tians, than he determined at once to quit the scene of his first preaching; he suddenly removed to Medina, in a manner so mysterious as to make his followers believe it to have been miraculous. This "flight," denoted in the Arabic language by the word hedjira, thenceforward became the great æra of his followers, who still calculate their year from this period.

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One of the first steps he took on establishing himself at Medina, was to marry Fatima, his only child, to the celebrated Ali, the most distinguished person in that city.

Having now made himself master of a town which afforded him a secure asylum, he proceeded to unfold a further part of his design, He pretended a new revelation from the Almighty, by which he was commanded to unsheath the sword against all the enemies of the true faith; and thereupon commenced a vigorous and successful warfare upon all who denied his mission or resisted his authority. In his military conduct he showed equal skill and valour; and though at first his operations were necessarily limited to acts of plunder, in a short time his followers increased so rapidly, that he was enabled to undertake enterprizes of more importance.

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To encourage those who enlisted under his banner, Mahomet next introduced among them the doctrine of predestination, assuring his followers that as the hour of death was already ordained to all, they truly incurred no greater risk of life in the field of battle than in their private chambers; he pronounced, that all who fell fighting in his cause should be translated in an instant to that voluptuous paradise which the Koran describes in such glowing colours. His proselytes flocked to his standard in vast numbers; the new faith extended itself in all quarters; elated by victory, and enriched by plunder, his fol lowers overcame all opposition. When at any time they experienced a check, as at the battle of Ohud, where he himself was wounded, and his army suffered a great defeat, his presence of mind never deserted him; he declared that this was permitted by the Almighty as a punishment for their want of faith, and thus put to silence the doubts which were entertained as to the divine authority of a prophet who seemed unable to secure himself from such disasters...

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In the 7th year of the Hegira, Mahomet laid seige to Caibar, a city possessed chiefly by Arab Jews, and carried it by storm. On entering the place he took up his quarters at the house of Hareth, whose daughter, Zainoh, placed before him a dish of poisoned meat, on partaking of which one of his officers instantly died, and though Mahomet ate but a mouthful he never recovered its effects. Zainoh, when questioned as to her motives for this desperate act, declared she had employed it as a trial of his pretensions, for if a true prophet the poison could have no effect, but if it destroyed him the world would be well rid of such a tyrant.

Towards the close of his life Mahomet made a last journey to • Месса, which his followers call the pilgrimage of Valediction; and after lingering three years from the effects of the poison, he died at Medina, in his 63d year, twenty-three of which were occupied in his pretended

mission. He was buried in the chamber of his favourite wife Aesha, at Medina. The whimsical story of his tomb being formed of iron, and suspended in the air by the attraction of loadstones placed in the walls, is a fiction, probably founded on an attempt of that kind said to have been made by Dinocrates, the architect of the temple of Arsinöe, at Alexandria.

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Before his decease Mahomet had made himself master of all Arabia, and several adjacent provinces. When Mecca fell under his authority he immediately ordained a yearly pilgrimage thither by all his fol lowers, a practice which has continued to this day. He sent lieutenants govern in the more distant provinces, assuming to himself all the ensigns of royalty, together with the dignity of priest and prophet, and transmitted this united authority to his successors, who reigned after him by the title of Caliph, a word which signifies deputy, and bears a near resemblance to the assumed title of the Popes, who claim to be considered Christ's vicars upon earth, or rulers in his stead. Abubeker, the father of Mahomet's wife Aesha, succeeded to the sovereignty; after him Omar, Othman, and at length Ali, the son-in-law of Ma homet, successively became Caliphs, under the latter of whom the Mahometan power became greatly extended, for he was a man of extraordinary talents and learning. He was assassinated after reigning little more than four years; and the governors of the provinces gradually usurped the authority which had been deputed to them; so that after a few successions the Caliphs were deprived of the whole of their temporal dominions, being degraded to mere priests, and within cay short period even their title was totally abolished. Meanwhile the Mahometan faith spread throughout all the adjacent countries. The antient idolatry was superseded by this specious religion, which afforded to its votaries the most unbounded indulgence of their pass sions, and rendered it acceptable wherever vice and ignorance reigned uncontrolled by a purer faith. Nor was this mighty revolution limited to religious opinions. The arms of Mahomet and his successors extended his temporal sovereignty throughout a large portion of the countries of the East, the sword of the Conqueror compelling the people to receive the Mahometan faith as the condition of life and freedom. The three largest kingdoms of the East, namely, the Turkish, Persian, and Mogul or Indian empire, arose from the ruins of the sovereignty of the Caliphs, and maintain the faith of the Im postor to this day.

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The astonishing extent of this false religion has been frequently: adduced by the enemies of Christianity as an argument to weaken its authority, by placing our holy religion upon a footing with Mahometanism. When the miraculous spreading of the Gospel of Christ is shown to be conformable to the prophecies of the Old Testament, as well as to the declarations of our Saviour and his Apostles, the infidelov is ready to assert that these may equally apply to the extension of the Mahometan faith. But the same Scriptures which have declared that the Gospel of Christ shall be preached throughout all the world, have

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also foretold the rise of this false religion, together with the usurpation of the Church of Rome; and have as distinctly predicted their downfall, and the complete triumph of the true faith.

The indications of their approaching dissolution are already perceptible to those who look with earnest attention to the progress of human affairs. After a long reign of the darkest superstition, the rays of Christianity begin to enlighten these benighted regions. As As knowledge and civilization advance, the zeal of real Christians has excited them to more earnest and more successful endeavours to propagat propagate its doctrines among those nations who never heard the name of our blessed Lord, but as a subject of reproach and contempt. These pious exertions, now discreetly directed towards the conversion of those longneglected nations, have lately been rewarded with distinguished success; and we confidently anticipate the period when the impostures of Mahomet will be silenced by the powerful voice of truth, and the idle. dreams of the Koran will vanish before the holy light of the Gospel. We have been familiar with the habits and customs of some e of those nations of the East which profess the faith of Mahomet; in and 19E mon with all others of our countrymen who have travelled into those regions, we have been struck with the lamentable debasement which it never fails to produce.

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The great success and long continuance of the Mahometan doctrines are at once explained by this view of their character and condition. All who have adopted this creed are uniformly distinguished by their gross ignorance and brutal habits. The genius of the religion of Ma homet is directly adverse to all improvement. It operates as an absolute barrier to all sound knowledge, independent of the prohibition which the Koran pronounces against the diffusion of learning. Christianity, on the contrary, has ever made the surest progress where education has most effectually expanded the minds of the people. The map of the world laid before our readers will show, at a single glance, the truth of this observation. All the civilized nations upon earth are professed Christians, while all who still maintain the errors of Mahomet are plunged in the most dismal ignorance.

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A remarkable contrast may also be observed as to the first. gation of the doctrines of Mahomet, compared with those of Chrispromul tianity. He was a member of the chief family in Arabia, supported by rich connexions, whose wealth and power were employed in maintaining his pretensions. On the contrary, our blessed Lord, at the commencement of his ministry, appeared before the people unsupported by any such pretensions. "Is not this the carpenter's son?" said they in derision of his preaching. nolgies plod wwe quosiq

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Mahomet, after trying the success of preaching alone, found it hopeless without the aid of power. Notwithstanding the allurements of his voluptuous creed, he could gain few proselytes till he compelled them by force to adopt his doctrines, and embrace his service; the religion he staught was adopted by him only as the means of gratifying his boundless ambition. as the me ng bd Hade deinde

But, on the other hand, our blessed Lord assumed no temporal

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