numbers must have given false accounts, while these three or four historians, or these eleven disciples, can alone be relied on as faithful reporters? May God, if it be his will, bring all to the knowledge of the truth!

The Padre proceeds, (p. 122), "The reason why Christians believe Jesus to have been the last Prophet, is this, &c." (to the end of the paragraph).

We reply, the obvious scope of the passage, namely; "The Law and Prophets were until John," appears to be this, that, as Jesus had, like Moses, been sent to the Israelites alone, prophecy should cease among that people with the mission of John; and that it should then be removed to the house of Ishmael. As to the passage, "Behold, I am always with you, even to the end of the world," the meaning is, that Jesus would always be present in the Spirit with his people; which has always been the case with respect to the former Prophets, and, is still so with respect to the saints and the followers of God. In this point of view, then, the passage cannot be cited as proving the continuation of the mission of Jesus till the consummation of all things; and further, because he himself has also said in the Gospel,* "I go away; and it is better

* The passage alluded to is probably has already been referred to in p. 327.

John xvi. 7, which
The sense in this

as

FF

And

for you that I go; for, until I depart, the spirit of truth and the paraclete will not come. he is better for you than I am.” The reader also knows that this can, by no means, relate either to the angel Gabriel, or the Holy Ghost, as the Christians will have it.

Let praise then be ascribed to God from first to last, secretly and openly; and may the benediction of God rest upon Mohammed and all his house. Lead us, O God, by thy guidance, and keep us under thy care and protection.

as in most other instances, is erroneously given: nor have I found in any one, that the original Greek has been referred to, or the version of Mr. Martyn cited.

THE QUESTION

DISCUSSED IN THE PRECEDING PAGES

RESUMED BY THE TRANSLATOR.

PREFATORY

REMARKS.

In resuming the question discussed in the preceding tracts, it has not been thought advisable to follow the line of argument adopted either by Mr. Martyn or his opponents; because, however the particular topics discussed by them might be vindicated or refuted, the general question at issue may nevertheless not be advanced by such a method; and the reader, reduced perhaps to the mortifying consideration, that time and pains had. been thrown away, may at last ask, To what purpose has been this waste? It is our intention, therefore, to take a different line of argument; and to endeavour to arrive at a conclusion, which will tend to place the subject before us in a profitable point of view, adverting occasionally to the arguments which have been given in the foregoing pages, as the nature of our subject may require.

Situated as Mr. Martyn was in Persia, with a short Tract on the Mohammedan religion before him, and his health precarious, the course he has

taken was perhaps the only one practicable: but, as an elaborate reply to him has now appeared, in which the principal arguments generally urged in favour of Islamism are to be found, it becomes a duty to examine them at some length, not merely to refute them, but to enable ourselves to propose a more rational and profitable creed, with the greater probability of success.

It must have appeared from what has already been detailed, that the arguments of a Mohammedan are not quite so easily to be met as it has sometimes been supposed. In addition to the opinion that our copies of the Scriptures have been corrupted, and, therefore, unworthy of credit, the professor of Islamism has fortified his system by metaphysical disquisitions, difficult to be understood, and more difficult to be refuted; not because they are true, but because a system of erroneous reasoning is also to be set aside, and documents, now believed to be authentic, to be proved unworthy of credit. In addition to this, we have to assail a system of mysticism, of almost too indefinite a nature to be made the subject of analogical enquiry.

In this, the Deity is not only considered as one, in opposition to polytheism, but as the only being in existence, from whom all that is seen, felt, or heard, is but the merely ideal emanation, which in a short time shall again be absorbed in his mysterious essence. Hence pain or pleasure, sin or

holiness, action or rest, are looked upon as the mere modes of existence necessarily entailed on all the imaginary characters introduced to this theatre of temporary being; and a state of stupor, which a moderately taught Christian would consider as little short of real madness, is considered as the highest degree of mental perfection to which man can aspire, and from which he shall glide into that union with the Deity, of which he is most. desirous. In this state, the devotee considers the voluptuous paradise of his Prophet, as pointing out those spiritual provisions for the soul which await him in the higher stages of his progress:that Jesus and all the Prophets have trodden this mysterious path :—that idolatry and faith are all but one thing,-all being God, and verging towards that state of union with him, at which, finally, they shall all arrive.

Whatever may be said of the approach of the Mystic to the truths of Christianity, and something like that is discoverable in the preceding tracts, the fact is, the real principle by which he is actuated, is that of heathenism. The Koran, which contains many things in common with the Scriptures, is mostly cited in a sense, of which, it is extremely probable, its author never dreamt: and hence, however the Mohammedans may be supposed by some to be a sort of heretical Christians, the truth seems to be, that, as far as mysticism prevails among them, they are much more nearly