886 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



II 



ganism were taught by Moliatnmed 

 the unity of God. He exhorted 

 them to believe with the heart, that 

 there is only one (iod, omnipo- 

 tent, omniscient, omnipresent, eter- 

 nal, and that he is spiritual. That 

 the angels are subtle, pure bodies, 

 formed of light; neither eating, 

 drinking, or sleeping; not of dif- 

 ferent sexes ; having no carnal 

 desires; nor degrees of relation- 

 ship, and are of various forms. 



Mohammed maintained that Je- 

 sus Christ was a prophet, and tiiat 

 those who believed it not were in- 

 lidels. He says, the sacred books 

 are 104, of which tlic Almighty 

 gave to Adam ton ; to Seth fifty ; 

 to Idris, or Enoch, thirty ; to 

 Abraham ten ; to Moses one, 

 which is the Law ; to David one; 

 to Jesus one, which is the Gospel ; 

 to Mohammed one, the Koran ; 

 and he asserts, that whoever re- 

 jects, or calls in question, the di- 

 vine inspiration of any of the fore- 

 going books is an infidel. He 

 says, also, tliat he who can lay 

 his hand on his heart and say, 

 *' I fear not the resurrection, nor 

 am I in any concern about hell, 

 and care not for heaven," is an 

 incorrigible infidel. 



The Mohammedans are fatalists, 

 consequently they bear all kinds 

 of misfortune with fortitude; if 

 the Moosehnin be plunged from 

 the highest prosperity to the lowest 

 state of adversity, he exclaims, 

 " God's will is supreme, there is 

 none but God!" 



Islamism or Mohammedanism, 

 lie maintains, is submission to 

 God; that all are born in Islam, 

 or in submission to Gtd, but after- 

 wards swerve through bad educa- 

 tion. 



The Mooselmin niiiintain, that 



reason without faith cannot distin- 

 guish truth from error; and add, 

 that a steady adherence to its sug- 

 gestions is the road to impiety. 



Religion and the .state are con- 

 sidered as twins, inseparable ; if 

 one die, the other cannot survive. 



The most refined and intelligent 

 Mohammedans are not, however, 

 of opinion, that God is the au- 

 thor of all good and evil ; but 

 maintain that every man who fol- 

 lows the direct or good way, has 

 the protecting eye of God upon 

 him, and that God is with him ; 

 but that, if he withdraw his in- 

 fluence from any one, then evil or 

 misfortune ensues ; not actively 

 from God, but passively from the 

 withdrawing of that protecting in- 

 fluence ; that this is an act of the 

 Almighty which cannot be easily 

 comprehended by our weak reason; 

 and that it is not willed by him 

 with approbation, but necessarily. 



The Mooselmin's ideas of the 

 Creator are grand and elevated. 

 Whatever is, exists either necessa- 

 rily and of itself, and is God, or 

 has not its being from itself, and 

 does not exist necessarily, and is 

 of two sorts, substance and ac- 

 cidents ; substances are of two 

 kinds, abstract and concrete; ab- 

 stract substances are, all spirits and 

 intellectual beings ; concrete being 

 the matter and form. 



Whenever God is spoken of by 

 the Mohammedans, as having form, 

 eyes, &c. it is meant allegorically 

 to convey the idea of some parti- 

 cular attribute. 



They deny that Christ was cru- 

 cified ; so good a man, they assert, 

 could not have been crucified ; 

 God would not permit it: but He 

 confounded the Jews, and one of 



the 



