doing the fullest justice to the phenomena of Mahometanism, the phenomena themselves are singularly interesting and mysterious. The origin and rise of this heresy, its rapid and wide diffusion, with the whole train of circumstances attending its first promulgation, are extraordinary facts. Its dominion over the human mind, and power, both as conquering and as conquered, to change the characters of nations, are facts still more extraordinary. Its progress, in quarters where it resorted only to the arts of peace and persuasion 50, is unexplained. Its permanency, and inviolable preservation of its original pure theism, are inexplicable on any ordinary grounds of reason or analogy. While, by the mysterious concurrence, unexampled save in the history of Christianity itself, of causes and events conducing to favour its introduction and establishment, the mind is naturally led to seek the explanation in the only adequate source, the interposition, for some wise and gracious, though inscrutable end, of the special and superintending providence of God.*

* "The existence of heresy is not merely permitted, but ORDAINED for a particular end." Bishop Kaye, Ecclesiastical History of the Second and Third Centuries, p. 340.—" What we loosely term chance, is but the work of his (God's) will, and the operation of his power, in the ordinary course of human events.' Sermons by the late Rev. Thomas Rennell, p. 38.

51

The admission which thus seems forced upon us by the facts, is obviously exposed to very serious objections. The bare reference of Mahometanism, to a strictly providential origin "1, would appear, on the one hand, to annex a dangerous importance to this arch-heresy; and, on the other, to impugn the divine justice and goodness themselves. 52 Yet the insuperable difficulties which are confessedly inherent in this question; the failure of every attempt to meet these difficulties by arguments resting on any ordinary basis; and the sense of this failure, still entertained and avowed by men not less distinguished for the strength and soundness of their judg ment, than by the firmness of their attachment to the interests and honour of Christianity; these powerful considerations irresistibly unite to produce the conviction, that the success of Mahomet, and the phenomena of his religion, can be satisfactorily accounted for only by a principle, which shall trace them, beyond causes merely human, to the agency of a controlling and directing Providence. 58

53

The acknowledged difficulties which thus cling to this important question, and which have raised in some minds a painful feeling of doubt and dissatisfaction, produced in the mind of the present writer a very different effect. The case

of Mahometanism had long presented itself to him as a subject of the highest interest; and with the conviction that the question of its success was still unsettled, the persuasion gradually arose, that it ought not to be suffered to remain So. From the resistance of the phenomena to any theory which would reject the notion of a special providence, his conclusion was, that a special providence had interposed, and might possibly be discoverable, in their production. The train of thought to which this conclusion gave birth, naturally led him into the field of Scripture history, the most ancient and authoritative source of historical information. The country of Mahomet forcibly recalled the Abrahamic origin of the Arabians. And from the recollection of their origin, the transition was direct to the existence of a promise from God to Abraham, concerning his son Ishmael, and of a prophecy respecting the future fortunes of his descendants, singularly parallel with the great prophetic promise concerning "his only son Isaac." On comparing the fortunes of both sons, in the history of their descendants, the Jews and the Arabians 54, and in the positive and relative influence of these kindred nations upon the general history of mankind, with the terms of the original twofold promise concerning

them, there arises a beautiful and surprising proof of a designed connection, in their respective fulfilments, between the parts of that promise 55, from the exact and appropriate parallel which obtains between the historical events and ".circumstances. From Abraham, by his sons Isaac and Ishmael, went forth a twofold progeny, and a twofold promise. In each progeny the promise of Jehovah has, in point of fact, had a double accomplishment, a temporal and a spiritual. Isaac, the legitimate heir, through Judaism and Christianity, has given laws and religion to a great portion of the inhabited world. Ishmael, the illegitimate seed, through the primitive Arabians, and the variously incorporated Moslems, has given laws and religion to a still larger portion of mankind. Isaac newmodelled the faith and morals of men: first, through his literal descendants, the Jews; and, secondly, through his spiritual descendants, the Christians. Ishmael effected a corresponding revolution in the world: first, through his literal descendants, the Arabs; and, secondly, through his spiritual descendants 56, the Turks and Tartars. In the case of Isaac, the change was wrought by the advent of Jesus Christ; a person uniting in himself, by divine appointment, the offices of prophet and apostle, of priest, lawgiver,

and king; and whose character and claims are equally unprecedented. In that of Ishmael, the change was effected by the appearance of Mahomet; a person professing to unite in himself the same offices, as by the divine appointment; and presenting, in this union, the only known parallel to Jesus Christ and his typical forerunners, in the annals of the world.

Throughout the two cases, the force of the parallel is heightened by the appropriateness of the contrast. The blessing promised by God to Abraham in behalf of his sons, was necessarily a divided portion, since "the son of the bondwoman could not be heir with the son of the freewoman. .” The division, it is observable, is apportioned with strict regard to this grand distinction, both in the wording of the two promises, and in the matter-of-fact accomplishments. The promise to Isaac is eminently a promise of a spiritual blessing and it issues, accordingly, in the establishment upon earth, through his offspring, of a purely spiritual kingdom. 57 The promise to Ishmael is predominantly a promise of a temporal blessing and it, accordingly, appears to issue in the establishment upon earth, through his offspring, of a temporal as well as spiritual dominion. 58 The birth of Isaac was the subject

* Gal. iv. 30.