An History of Muhammedanism

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Chap. i. reasonable belief of the unity of God. By the promise of a paradise, filled with gratifications tof the senses and the imagination, he endeavoured to captivate the fancy of a people, attached, above all others, to the charms of women and nature. His discourses on religion, formed, when collected,...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Chap. i. reasonable belief of the unity of God. By the promise of a paradise, filled with gratifications tof the senses and the imagination, he endeavoured to captivate the fancy of a people, attached, above all others, to the charms of women and nature. His discourses on religion, formed, when collected, the body of that volume, distinguished by the appellation of tne Koran. Progress of The work of conversion advanced with tardy gion. Steps. When he argued from the excellency of his doctrine to its divinity, when he dwelt upon the inimitable beauty of the language of the Koran, the people called aloud for miracles. The prophet told them, that though Moses and Jesus had proved the heavenly origin of their missions, by the exhibition of supernatural powers, yet that the world was lost in unbelief, and that miracles were fruitless. Let the angel Gabriel make delicious gardens for us '' in the midst of the desert, said his taunting enemies, let the powers of heaven transport us and our merchandize in a moment to the fairs of Syria. No, said Muhammed, though a Koran were revealed, by which '' mountains could be removed, or the earth travelled as quickly as the wish was formed, or if the dead should be commanded to speak, it would be in vain. . All things are are in my power, he continued, but in- MAfr. credulity to the evidence of miracles is art c unpardonable offence: my affection for you exceeds my wishes for your conversion, and will not permit me to risk the salvation of your souls, by offering you a testimony, which your present sceptical habit of mind makes me think, it is possible you may reject. Still the people were importunate: and the apostle of God, though he had too much policy to endanger the credit of his cause, by...