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to mention the Jewish) has had a much larger propagation than ever Mahometanism has had; and has at all times been taught in more Parts of the World, and even amongst Mahometans themselves. And the Alcoran it self asserting the Divine Authority and Miffion both of Mofes and Christ, serves in some measure to propagate the Faith of the Old and New Teftament; so far, I mean, as to give an advantage and opportunity for Men to make enquiry into them, and become acquainted with them. Divers Books of Scripture are received by Mahometans, the * reading whereof has been the means of bringing over many Persons of great Note to the Christian Faith, especially among the Persians, where Disputes in Matters of Religion are permitted; and † it has not been without the like effect in Turkey, where such Disputes are forbidden, on pain of Death.

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The want both of Prophecies and Miracles in the Mahometan Religion.

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Ahometanism is grounded neither upon Prophecies nor Miracles. Mahomet indeed calls himself Prophet very folemnly, but we have but this one instance of his Prophetick Spirit : a When the Prophet. went to visit one of his Wives, God revealed to him, what she desired to say to him; he approved one part, and rejected the other: When he told his Wife what was in her will to speak to him, she demanded of him, who had re

* Sanson état du Royaume de Perse, p. 237.
† Ricaut's Hift. of the Ottom. Emp. lib. ii. c. II, 12.
Alcoran, c. 66.

Cc 4

vealed

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vealed it to him? He that knoweth all things hath revealed it to me, that ye may be converted: your hearts are inclined to do what is forbidden; if ye act any thing against the Prophet, know that God is his Protector. Here is not one circumstance to make the Story credible..

Mahomet pretended to no Miracles: But when he has raised that Objection, (as he often doth) That the World would not believe in him, unless they saw fome Miracle; he anfwers, bo I am not fent but to preach the Word of God. The afterwards he mentions that ridiculous Story of the Moon's being divided, in these words; The Day of Judgment ap proacheth, the Moon was divided into two parts; nevertheless, Infidels believe not Miracles when they see them; they say that this is Magick; they lye, and follow but their Paffion, but all is written. Here is no proof, nor any pretence to it, but only a confident affertion of a thing ridiculous. And yet unless we will believe this Prophecy, and this Miracle, there is nothing in the whole Alcoran, either of Miracle or Prophecy, to give it any Authority, except that must be accounted one, which he so often boasts of, viz. its wonderful Doctrine and Eloquence; for dhe challenges all the World to produce any thing like it, protesting that he could neither write nor read, and therefore must needs have it by Revelation. He f tells a fabulous, monstrous Story, of a Journey which he took one night into Heaven; and he introduceth God, fwearing to the Truth of the Alcoran, almost in every Chapter: And this is all he offers, in answer to the Sufpicions which he so frequently suggests Men then had of his being an Impostor.

b Alcor. c. 13.

Ib. c. 54.

d Ib. c. 10, 11, 16.

c Ib. c. 7.

f Ib. c. 17.

CHAP.

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The Alcoran is false, absurd, and immoral.

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HE Alcoran is falfe; ; as when it makes a the to Aaron; when it asserts, that Christ was not crucified, but one like him, in contradiction to the teftimony of Jews, Christians, and Heathens; and that Chrift prophefied of Mahomet by name, without the least proof or ground for it, but against all the evidence that can be to the

contrary.

II. The Alcoran contains things abfurd and ridiculous; as in that Story of the Sleepers, & The Infidels fay they were five, and that their Dog was the fixth, they Speak by opinion; but the true Believers affirm them to be Seven, and their Dog to be the eighth. And in the Story of Solomon's Army, composed of Men, Devils, and Birds; of the Queen of the Pismires; and Solomon's Difcourse with the Bird cail'd the Whoop, who brought him tidings of the Queen of Sheba.

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III. The Doctrines of the Alcoran are impious and immoral. Mahomet makes all the Angels worship Adam, in several parts of his Alcoran; and his senfual Paradise is well known, and his allowance of many Wives; but perhaps his Injustice is not so gen nerally taken notice of, in permitting the Profeffors of his Religion to take away their Slaves Wives from themog

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The Law of Mahomet proceeds from a savage and cruel Spirit, obliging those that embrace it, to destroy all that are not of it; however, the Mahometans have not always acted according to the cruelty of their

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a Alcor. c. 19. d Ib. c. 18.

b Ib. c. 4. e Ib. c. 27.

c Ib. c. 61.
f Ib. c. 4. & 23.

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Religion, human Nature not being always able to act so much contrary to it self. But this is Mahomet's Doctrine, & God loveth not the unjust, he forgiveth fins to those that believe, and extirpate Infidels. If they forfake it, (the Law of God, pretended to be fet down in the Alcoran) kill them where you find them. Be not negligent to pursue the Infidels. Of this the Faquirs, at their return from Mecha, are very mindful, with a furious zeal killing all they can that they meet, who are not Mahometans, 'till they are kill'd themselves, and then they are reputed Saints, and Prayers are made at their Graves.

dea

Such is the Alcoran as we now have it, and yet it is not now as it was at first written by Mahomet; k many Alterations have been made in it, by inserting some things, and striking out others, and taking some of the Abfurdities away: Mahomet the Second, particularly, is faid to have made great Alterations and Additions 1. But the Persians, the Followers of Hali, charge Abu-Beker, Omar, and Ozman, whom the Turks follow, with falfifying the Alcoran.

I cannot but here observe, that fome learned Men have of late fufpected, that the Christians of former Ages have misrepresented the Mahometans, with whom they liv'd, and against whom they wrote, and have charged them with Errors which they never maintained. But I refer it to the confideration of any impartial and judicious Man; whether it be not more probable that fome Sect of Mahometans did maintain the Tenets alledg'd against them, tho' they may now have long been laid aside and forgotten, than that Christians have objected imaginary and feigned Absurdities, when there are visibly so many

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g Alcor. c. 3.

hIb. c. 4.

i Tavern. Voyage d' Ind. lib. iii. c. 24. * Sandys's Travels, lib. i. p. 54.

Ricaut's Hift of the Ottom. Emp. lib. ii. c. 10.

real

real ones, even in the Alcoran it felf. Christians applied themselves to the confutation and conviction of those with whom they conversed, or against whom they difputed; and they might sometimes perhaps mistake that for a received and common Tenet, which was peculiar to some one Sect or Party.

And thus the Gospel of Hieronymus Xaverius might probably pass, among Mahometans, for the Gospel profess'd by all Christians, and they might reply to it under that Notion. Xaverius indeed wrote and putlish'd it, at the command of an Emperor of Perfia: but if his Book had been privately disperst, whoever had gone to confute it as the Gospel of Chrift, would have been thought very ignorant, or very malicious. Tho' now, whatever Mahometan has alledged the Gofpel of Xaverius as containing the Doctrines of the Christian Religion; should not be thought to deal infincerely, but by mistake to apply that to Chriftians în general, which concerned only an erroneous and very corrupt part of them.

D

The learned Writer of the Life of Mahomet informs uso thatmos Al Gazali, a famous Philosopher of Tufa in Perfia, wrote many Books in defence of the Mahometan Religion; and one of more efpecial Note, intituled, The Destruction of Philosophers, against Alfarabius and Avicenna, and fome others of "the Arab Philosophers; who, to folve the monstrous 49 Absurdities of the Mahometan Religion, were for turning many things into Figure and Allegory, which were commonly understood in the literal " fenfe." And he before observes, that "As the "Interest and Defigns of the Impostor varied, so was the forced to make his pretended Revelations to "vary alfo. Which is a thing (fays he) so well "known to those of his Sect, that they acknowledge it; and therefore, where the Contradictions are

Dr. Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 170. n Ib. p. 155.

" fuch,

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