Blest with a parent, whose prudence and piety raised him above this vulgar error, the author's earliest impressions respecting this people, were those of benevolence, pity, and veneration,-benevolence due to all the descendants of our common Father,-pity excited by their moral degradation,-veneration inspired by the miracles of their ancient history, and the prophetic visions of their future glory!"

MAHOMETANISM.

Mahometanism is the religion of Mahomet, who was born in 571, at Mecca, a city of Arabia, and died at Medina 631. Though Mahomet was descended from an honourable tribe and from the noblest family of that tribe, yet his original lot was poverty. Upon his father's death, five camels and an Ethiopian female constituted the entire property left for the support of the mother and her infant son. Under his uncle Abu-Taled he was employed in commercial pursuits, and became acquainted with Asia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. He afterwards married a rich widow, and became equal to the most opulent citizens of Mecca. Fifteen years of his life were passed in the obscurest retirement, in a lonely cave, where his scheme of a new religion was no doubt planned, and which he afterwards so ably executed. His system is a compound of Paganism, Judaism, and Christianity; and the Koran, which is their Bible, is held in great reverence. It is replete with absurd representations, and is supposed to have been written by a Jew. The most eloquent passage is allowed to be the following, where God is introduced, bidding the waters of the deluge to cease:-"Earth, swallow up the waters; heaven, draw up those thou hast poured out: immediately the waters retreated, the command of God was obeyed, the ark rested on the mountains, and these words were heard-Woe to the wicked!""

Lust, ambition, and cruelty, are the most prominent

traits in Mahomet's conduct; and Voltaire has written a fine tragedy on this subject. The great doctrine of the Koran is the unity of God, which, together with the mission of Christ, is strongly insisted upon by the prophet. "There is no God but he the living, the self-subsisting; neither slumber nor sleep seizeth him; to him belongeth whatsoever is in Heaven and on earth." Indeed he persuaded his followers that he was the Paraclete, or comforter which Christ had promised his disciples. In this respect the Mahometan religion constitutes a powerful collateral proof of the truth of Christianity. Nor has this circumstance, suggested to me by a worthy friend, been sufficiently considered by Christians. Thus we may extract good from evil, and it is our duty to avail ourselves of every thing which tends to augment the evidence of our holy religion. It is remarkable that the Koran, or Alcoran, was dealt out slowly and separately during the long period of twenty-three years! It was communicated, says Mahomet, by the ministration of the angel Ga- briel, who appears to have been liberal to him on these occasions. His angel of death, whose province it is at the hour of dissolution to free the departing spirit from its prison of flesh, and his vast ideal balance, in which at the last day the actions of all men shall be weighed, have in them a sort of romantic sublimity calculated to impress the fervid imagination of the eastern nations; and his sensual paradise hereafter must, in their opinion, have imparted to it the highest degree of perfection. The meanest in paradise will have seventy-two wives, besides the wives he had in this world: he shall have a tent also assigned him "of pearls, hyacinths, and emeralds !" Dean Prideaux has proved, in his letter to Deists, that there are seven marks of an imposture; that these all belong to Mahometanism, and that not one of them can be charged on Christianity. See Sale's "Koran," Prideaux's "Life of Mahomet," Dr. White's "Sermons at the Bampton Lecture," and Dr. Toulmin's "Dissertations on the Internal Evidence of Christianity," and on "The Character of Christ compared with that of other Founders of Religion or Philosophy." Mr. Gibbon, in his Roman

History, gives the following curious specimen of Mahometan divinity—for the prophet propagated his religion by force of arms:-"The sword," says Mahomet, "is the key of heaven and of hell; a drop of blood shed in the cause of God, or a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting or 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; the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubims!"

From a Catechism said to have been lately printed at Constantinople, I will present my readers with the young Mussulman's Creed: "I believe in the books which have been delivered from Heaven and the prophets. In this manner was the Koran given to Mahomet, the Pentateuch to Moses, the Psalter to David, and the Gospel to Jesus. I believe in the prophets, and the miracles they have performed. Adam was the first prophet, and Mahomet was the last. I believe for the space of fifty thousand years the righteous shall repose under the shade of the terrestrial paradise, and the wicked shall be exposed naked to the burning rays of the sun. I believe in the bridge Sirat, which passes over the bottomless pit of hell! It is as fine as a hair, and as sharp as a sabre. All must pass over it, and the wicked shall be thrown off. I believe in the water pools of paradise. Each of the prophets has in paradise a bason for his own use; the water is whiter than milk, and sweeter than honey. On the ridges of the pools are vessels to drink out of, bordered with stars. I believe in Heaven The inhabitants of the former know no want, and the houris who attend them are never afflicted with sickness. The floor of paradise is musk, the stones are silver, and the cement gold. The damned are, on the contrary tormented with fire and by voracious and poisonous animals!"

and they are and in Hell.

Mahometanism distributes itself into two general parts, Faith and Practice; the former containing six branchesbelief in God, in his angels, in his scriptures, in his prophets, in the resurrection and final judgment, in the di

vine decrees: the latter relating to prayer, with washing, alms, fasting, pilgrimage to Mecca, and circumcision. Indeed the system of Mahomet has no symmetry or beauty of parts; it is a heterogeneous compound of the various religions then existing, and artfully accommodated to the prejudices and passions of the Eastern regions of the world.

Dr. Joseph White thus concludes one of his discourses on Mahometanism :-" What raises Christ and his religion far above all the fictions of Mahomet, is that awful alternative of hopes and fears-that looking-for of judgment, which our Christian faith sets before us. At that day, when time, the great arbiter of truth and falsehood, shall bring to pass the accomplishment of the ages, and the Son of God shall make his enemies his footstoolthen shall the deluded followers of the great Impostor, disappointed of the expected intercession of their prophet, stand trembling and dismayed at the approach of the glorified Messiah. Then shall they say, 'Yonder cometh in the clouds that Jesus whose religion we laboured to destroy-whose temples we profaned-whose servants and followers we cruelly oppressed! Behold, he cometh, but no longer the humble son of Mary-no longer a mere mortal prophet, the equal of Abraham and of Moses, as that deceiver taught us, but the everlasting Son of the everlasting Father-the Judge of mankind-the Sovereign of angels-the Lord of all things, both in earth and in heaven!""

If we suppose, according to the usual estimate, that the inhabitants of the world amount to eight hundred millions, then the whole may be thus divided:-Jews, two millions and a half; Pagans, four hundred and eighty-two millions; Christians, one hundred and seventyfive millions and a half, and Mahometans one hundred and forty millions. The Christians again may be thus distributed, into Greek and Eastern churches, thirty millions; Roman Catholics, eighty millions; and Protestants, sixty-five millions and a half. Or thus, in round figures, which may make a more permanent impression on the mind of the rising generation:

Christianity, to which Judaism was introductory, is the last and most entire dispensation of revealed religion with which God has favoured the human race. It was instituted by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who made his appearance in Judea near two thousand years ago. He was born at Bethlehem, brought up at Nazareth, and crucified at Jerusalem. His lineage, birth, life, death, and sufferings, were minutely predicted by a succession of the Jewish prophets, and his religion is now spread over a considerable portion of the globe. The evidences of the Christian religion are comprised under historical testimony, prophecies, miracles, the internal evidence of its doctrines and precepts, and the rapidity of its first propagation among the Jews and the Gentiles. Though thinking Christians have in every age differed widely respecting some of the doctrines of this religion, yet they are fully agreed in the divinity of its origin, and in the benevolence of its tendency.