of the good prophet's coming back, they gave him a thousand years

more.

Abu Bekr put a period to the controversy respecting his exit, by proving out of the Koran, that the prophet of God behooved to die. They were also divided in opinion as to the manner and place of his interment; whether his remains should be conducted to Mecca, and there deposited with his ancestors in the place of his nativity. This was likewise managed by the influence and address of his uncle, who commanded a grave to be dug in the place where Ayesha's bed stood. Here was Mohammed buried, and over his grave a mosque or place of worship was afterwards erected. It is not true the the Arabs were required to pay divine honors to him in the grave, for the pilgrimages of his followers were directed to be made to Mecca, whereas his tomb is at Medina, two hundred and seventy miles from it. We must also reject those ridiculous accounts which have been circulated, probably by Christians, of his being suspended between heaven and earth in an iron coffin, by the power of magnets, since the Mohammedans themselves never attempt to prove any such thing.

Thus have we endeavored to draw the character of Mohammed, and the various methods adopted by him to establish his imposture in the world, from the period at which he assumed the title of the Prophet of God, to the time of his decease. Lust and ambition were the two powerful motives by which he was actuated, and he reckoned no sacrifice too expensive to accomplish his aim. We have seen the various arts by which he insinuated himself into the good opinion of many, making them converts to his cause, and how respectable he became in their estimation, by the help of his wit, presence of mind, and consummate address, before he had recourse to his last expedient of giving mankind his religion at the point of the sword. For ten years his life exhibited nothing but highway robbery, plunder, and bloodshed, in which, considering the number of his forces, and the extent of the theatre upon which he acted, he exceeded in atrocity even Alexander the Great. To undertake such a task as that of the Arabian Impostor, required a mind an almost utter stranger to fear, in addition to those qualities of which we have already found him possessed. A palpable discovery of his perfidious designs would be the forerunner of an ignominious death, and even to be vanquished before the completion of his wishes, no less hazardous. Yet, in spite of every discouragement which deliberation must have suggested, without a rational argument, or the shadow of a miracle to support his impious claim, he subjugated a larger portion of the globe, than the heavenly and philanthropic religion of the Lord Jesus Christ has yet enlightened. This is a phenomenon in the history of moral revolutions, which will beggar the whole world to produce such another. It is not, however, so astonishing, that his imposture should have gained a footing in the seventh century, among igno

rant barbarians, to whose lusts it promised to administer everlasting fuel, as that the progressive improvements of reason have not long since been its grave. The free exercise of reason will be its destruction at last; but while it continues to be crammed down the throats of mankind, it will not on a sudden give its dying groan. It is the religion of India, Persia. Turkey in Asia, Turkey in Europe, Arabia, Little Tartary, Little Bokharia, and various

other countries. India is two thousand three hundred and twen. ty-two miles long, and two thousand one hundred broad.

Russia alone, only one empire of Europe, is more than twentyfive times as large as England; yet the religion of Mohammed infects and enslaves more of the globe than six times the whole of Europe taken together!

That the unbounded gratification of his lusts was one primary object to be gained by his perilous undertaking, is clearly evinced by the multitude of his wives. Such as appear desirous to lessen their number, admit that he had no fewer than fifteen, while others (which appears nearer the truth) inform us that he had twenty-one. Five of the number died before him, among whom was Khadijah, whose fortune enabled him to begin his projected plan; other six, it seems, he divorced, either from unaccountable caprice, or because of incontinency, and ten of them were living at the time of his decease. Besides these he had many concubines. Ugly and deformed as this picture is, and consummately wicked as it represents him to have been, it were well if we had no authentic documents for making him still worse. But Mohammed not only gives the reins to his appetites, and breaks down every barrier which nature itself has erected, but lays claim in his Koran to the divine approbation, and represents a holy God as chiding him for his diffidence in being afraid to avow any passion, which he had commanded him to gratify. Let us hear no more of the crimes of Francis Spira, Julian the Apostate, or Judas Iscariot; of the bloody temper of Nero, or the sullen barbarity of a Caligula or a Domitian; for all these were pious saints or immaculate angels, in comparison with Mohammed, and must be ashamed to associate with him, even in the regions of the damned.1

1 Some people lay claim to such an excessive degree of benevolence, that in order to represent the Deity as merciful in their opinion, they make him unjust. To such it will perhaps sound harsh to call Mohammed a more wicked wretch than Judas Iscariot, Nero, Caligula or Domitian; but the

It will not bear dispute, that his ambition was ungovernable, since every action of his life tended, either directly or indirectly, to the acquisition of supreme authority. No man ever hazarded so much to obtain fuel for his appetites, and absolute dominion over his fellow-creatures; and he shines conspicuous above the whole human race for unmingled wickedness, as to the means he adopted. He has both men and devils fairly outdone; for although some may have been almost as wicked, yet he is the singular individual who could venture to make Almighty God the partner of his crimes, and give currency to all manner of vice by a patent from heaven. These things duly considered, we shall not wonder to find many of his followers entering the lists in his defence, and writing treatise after treatise to free him from censure; for although the Koran is sufficient to satisfy the faithful, yet infidels will always be finding fault, even with such a spotless life as that of Mohammed! If you ask his deluded followers why their prophet could be guilty of such an horrid act of injustice, (besides the impiety of it in making God commend his conduct,) in marrying such a number of wives, be not afraid that you shall go without an answer. It was that he might beget a multitude of young prophets, it being a thousand pities that the genuine breed of such a man should ever become extinct! But, oh, what an unlucky reply, when it is well known that not a woman in his whole seraglio had a child to him but Khadijah, his first wife! She bare him six, and they all died before him, except Fatima, his daughter, who was married to his cousin Ali; and it does not appear that she was any way remarkable for a prophetic spirit.

Setting aside altogether the impiety of calling God in to justify such conduct, there are very few men to be found who will attempt a vindication of polygamy, even upon rational principles. The primary design of marriage, with all the duties consequent on the union of the sexes, plead for monogamy in the strongest terms, which is further strengthened by the almost perfect equality in the number of males and females up and down the earth. The proportion taken in many places with the greatest accuracy, is as 13 to 12, or 26 to 24. The God of nature seems wisely to have intended this surplus in the number of males, to provide for those accidents and dangers to which their more active and enterprising life exposes them. The man, therefore, who is guilty of polygamy, nay, even of bigamy itself, commits as glaring an act of injustice against the whole human race, as if he spent his lifetime in acts of robbery and theft. It is of consequence impossible to vindicate the conduct of Mohammed in this respect, even admitting that his polygamy had not been rendered more shocking by his own dreadful single circumstance of making Jehovah support his debauchery will justify the charge. Even Judas repented, but Mohammed went to the grave, in so far as we know, without a pang of remorse, although he had been the instrument of damning myriads.

blasphemy; and to crown all, the supposed object of such deport ment never was obtained. I say the supposed object, for notwithstanding his adherents endeavor to extenuate his guilt on the forementioned grounds, it does not appear that the Impostor looked any farther than the glutting of his appetites. Young prophets or no prophets he considered as of little consequence; and indeed his voluptuous course of life was inimical to procreation.

His votaries have likewise been much perplexed how to defend his conduct in propagating his religion by the sword. To gain the assent of mankind to the truth of any proposition, it is necessary that it be supported by convincing arguments, since the human mind has it not in its power to believe without evidence, no more than it can reject what is matter of fact, and demonstrated to be so, whatever it may pretend. Hence every species of persecution for conscience' sake is the most flagrant injustice, the highest insult which can be offered to the Almighty, and a tacit acknowledgment that the cause thus supported will not bear examination. For if it will, why are not men permitted to examine it with the utmost attention, since the native beauty of truth is such, that to see and admire it are inseparably connected. Jesus Christ was so diametrically opposite to Mohammed in this, as well as in everything else, that he seemed afraid lest mankind should believe him with too much precipitation. "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not."That is, if raising the dead, giving sight to such as were born blind, and feeding thousands with the food of a few individuals, do not demonstrate the power of Jehovah, and exclude the possibility of fraud and deception, I beseech you to turn your backs upon me, as in duty bound, and reject me as an impostor. But as Mohammed had nothing to offer which would bear inspection, he considered it as the most effectual method to make an appeal to the heart; and surely nothing can touch the heart so feelingly as the point of a sword! The learned amongst his followers, (for learned men are not always proof against delusion,) have undertaken a defence of him in a very singular manner They observe that as there are a variety of attributes in the divine essence, God has sent different personages in different periods of the world, to manifest, sometimes one attribute, and sometimes an other. Accordingly they say that Jesus Christ was sent to manifest the righteousness of God; Solomon to exhibit his wisdom, glory, and majesty; Moses his wonderful providence and amazing clemency; but that it was reserved for Mohammed to show forth his fortitude by the power of the sword. That is to say, God appointed him to unman the human race, to reduce them from rational beings to necessary agents, to render them no longer accountable to their Maker, and compel them to do evil. The divine attributes are no doubt many and various, but it is utterly impossible that any one of them can ever be magnified at the expense of the rest. God is essentially consistent with himself, and the manifestation of one

attribute can never be the destruction of another. He who says that Jehovah is so merciful as not to punish the workers of iniquity, exhibits him as unjust; and to affirm that he is so just as not to pardon the sincere penitent, on his own terms, is to charge him with tyranny. In like manner to assert that God will ever force a man to believe anything by external violence, is in effect maintaining that he is sorry he has given him such faculties, by which alone he is capable of discriminating between the operations of his own hands and the shifts of a deceiver. This hint of forcing men to believe has been borrowed from Mohammed by the Church of Rome, and to do her justice she has faithfully improved it. It may be proper to observe, for the information of those who are not qualified for abstruse speculations, that the criminality of compelling men to believe, does not entirely depend on the falsity or wickedness of the proposition to which their assent is demanded. It is cruel and unjust to say to any person, you shall believe that it is proper to worship the devil, or that his ghostly holiness can pardon iniquity. But it is equally base and tyrannical to force a man to believe with a dagger at his breast, that the providence of God extends over all; that the soul is immortal, or that the three angles of any triangle whatever are equal to two right angles; for till the understanding is enlightened, and the conscience persuaded of the propriety of a man's conduct, his reception of truth itself is, under such circumstances, morally evil as it relates to him, although it be not so in the abstract. If, then, it be unjust to compel a man to believe truth, since he thereby for the present flies in the face of conscience, it must be infinitely more so to force him to believe a lie, especially if that lie assumes the venerable garb of religion. Let it not be imagined, however, that this will justify any man in remaining ignorant of such truths as nearly concern his present and future happiness, when he enjoys the rational means of being better informed; for God will only consider that ignorance as innocent which is clearly invincible. Neither will the above reasoning justify the inference, that it is cruel in any Protestant govern ment to impose certain restraints; for example, on Roman Catholics, because such a step is not designed to make them believe anything, but only to prevent that moral, and especially that political mis chief which would unavoidably follow from their uncontrolled action upon the principles they believe already.

God forbid that Protestants should ever persecute, and thereby make a formal renunciation of the spirit of Christianity; but we trust they will ever discover the vigilance for which they have hitherto been so famous, in guarding their native land from the worst of all tyranny.

It being agreed on all hands that Mohammed was extremely gnorant, in so far as that expression is opposed to education, could he accomplish his designs without any assistance? This is an important inquiry, because he could neither read nor write, the com