PART II.

CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAMISM CONTRASTED.

INTRODUCTION.

All false creeds, of comparatively modern date, endeavour to show that they are connected with the beginning of time, and that they have been preparatively introduced in by-gone ages. Nor could Islamism hope to prosper in the world without resorting to a similar expedient; it was therefore convenient and indeed necessary for Mohammed to rest his new creed upon the Jewish and Christian dispensations, and to do this consistently, he was compelled to admit their divine origin. As the Jewish dispensation was of a temporary character being superseded by Christianity, so the Christian religion, according to Mohammed, was only to be in force till Islamism should appear to supplant it! There is however a strange inconsistency in Mohammed's claim to succession,

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1 Möhler's gesammelte Schriften Vol. I. pag. 350.

since it involves an entire change and abrogation of the previous dispensations. The immutability of Judaism and Christianity are asserted in the Koran, 2 yet we have seen, in the first part of this work, that they are both virtually ignored and abolished. The change which we recognise in the succession of the Christian to the Jewish dispensation, is analogous to that which takes place between the laying of the foundation of a building and its completion. The Jewish Church was the ground-work of that temple, of which Christ is the "head-stone". If change there be, it is this; in the Old Testament we have prophecy, in the New, fulfilment. The bud gives place to the blossom, and the blossom to the fruit. have a change, but only such as God had promised and foreshadowed. Nothing was abrogated by the Gospel, but the ritual ordinances and the ceremonial precepts, which being of a typical character, were necessarily transient." Looking upon the whole Mo

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We

2 "Wherefore be thou orthodox, and set thy face towards the true religion, the institution of God, to which he hath made man

there is no change in what لا تبديل لخلق الله ;kind disposed

Allah created." Sur. XXX. 30.

- Zech. IV. 7. That this refers to Christ who shall build and complete the temple, see chap. III. 8.

* Ουκ ἦλθον καταλῦσαι τὸν νόμον ἢ τοὺς προφήτας· ἀλλὰ πλη oooo. Matt. V. 17. Zwar ist das alte Testament in der Einheit des Heilsbeschlusses und der Thatsache der Offenbarung mit dem neuen eines, aber nicht einerlei, sondern dieses verhält sich zu jenem wie die Vollendung zur Vorbereitung, wie die Entschränkung zur Beschränkung, wie das Unmittelbare zum Mittelbaren. Nigsch.

5 "Abrogatae sunt leges ceremoniales, exhibitio Messia, et forenses, sublata politia judaica; moralis non item. Lex moralis Mosaica

saic constitution with its personal and impersonal types, and with its figurative ceremonial, we find everywhere "a shadow of things to come;" the body of which was Christ. Every single hieroglyphic figure had its meaning; every historic character, event, and circumstance, down to the very items of the drapery and the ornaments of the temple, so minutely recorded, were divinely chosen symbols for conveying truths of lasting interest to the whole human race." Whilst we recognise unity of purpose and harmony of design in both dispensations of the Bible,' in Islamism, we find a creed, which is radically different from the Old and directly opposed to the New Testament. If the Koran had merely abrogated a few ceremonial observances of the Christian religion, and if this abrogation had been predicted in the Gospel, as an event which would take place in a succeeding dispensation, then, there might have been less cause to dispute the claims of Islamism. But unhappily for the creed of Mohammed, we have nothing typical in the Gospel. There is no shadow in Christianity for the substance and body of which, we might have to look in a subsequent dispensation. On the contrary, our expectation is

seu Decalogi eadem est cum lege Christi; illam enim a Pharisaicis corruptelis purgavit et rectius declaravit, non precepta moralia plane nova dedit fidelibus." Baier. Compare also Article VII, "Of the Old Testament."

6 "Theologia typica, quae futurorum praedictionem, ex intentione Dei sub rebus, personis factisque latentum in V. T. scrutatur et explicat. Tyрus, oα, vлоdeуua, est adumbratio, praefiguratio, praesignatio." Carpovius.

7 Novum Testamentum in vetere latet (velatum est) vetus in novo patet (revelatum est). Augustine.

from heaven, "from whence also we look for the Saviour;" being taught "to wait" for Him from heaven.

Instead therefore of having the fulfilment of type or promise in Islamism, the most essential truths of the Old and New Testament are denied and rejected. To assume that God is the author of Islamism, is to assume that He decreed yesterday, what to-day He abolishes; that He established the old and new dispensation, but, that after more mature consideration, He determined to give the world a better religion; that His legislation for mankind was imperfect, since He found it necessary to revoke what He before had solemnly ordained. That after the Gospel was preached and attested by signs and wonders, in various parts of the world, according to God's will and command, this very Gospel was recalled and God promulgates through a certain Mohammed of Mecca, doctrines and laws directly opposed to it; and this changeableness of mind and purpose is to be proclaimed, if we may believe the Koran, not only to mankind but even to demons! If this principle of succession or rather abrogation be defended, as it is, on the ground of Christianity becoming unsound; we reply, that a distemper in the body or a disorder in any of its members does not of necessity prove fatal to existence.

8 Πορευθέντες εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἅπαντα, no exception being made: κηρύξατε τὸ ἐυαγγέλιον πάσῃ τῇ κτίσει. Mark. XVI. 15. That the novуua penetrated Arabia, is proved by the existence of an Arabian Church prior to Mohammed.

قل أوحى الى انه استمع نفر من الجن فقالو انا

Lists Life Lian Sur. XXXII. 1. See also XLVI. 30. 31.

Neither the moral corruption of the Christians at the period of the rise of Islamism, nor the heresies which then infected the Church, could make the abrogation of the Christian religion requisite. It was foretold by Christ Himself, that there would be a mixture of good and evil within the Church, to the end of time; and that heresies would spring up, was predicted by the Apostles.

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The chief charge, brought by Mohammed against Jews and Christians, as the representatives of their respective dispensations, and for the sake of which, both were to be superseded, was that of corrupting the Old and the New Testament. 11 That Christians had altered the New Testament, Mohammedans profess to prove from their holding the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, but most of all from their rejection of Mohammed, though required by the supposed original Gospels, to receive him. In order to justify their alleged errors and their rejection of Mohammed, the Christians are accused of having expunged from their Scriptures all that related to the prophet, and of having made such additions, as they deemed necessary. This objection, is constantly urged in religious disputations, and naturally falls first in our way when about to

10 Matt. XIII. 24-30. 47-50. XXIV. 5. 11. 24. Act. XX. 29. 30. 2 Pet. I. 1.

11 The suppression of Scripture passages, which were favourable to the cause of Mohammed, and the crime of corrupting them, are frequently censured in the Koran. Sur. II. 73. also 176-178. III. 188. V. 17. where it is fully stated that they "knowingly hide or conceal certain passages;" "pervert or dislocate the words out of their places," and corrupt the "signs of God for vile gain."