LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 209 



worship, which he undertook to purify from the 

 alloy it had unhappily contracted among a frail and 

 degenei-ate race of men. was the Unity of God. 



A principle thus simple and obvious, which no sect 

 had ever denied, and which presented to reason 

 nothing that it could not easily conceive, was a 

 broad foundation for a popular and universal reli- 

 gion. — an advantage which ]Mohammed fully appre- 

 ciated. With the Jews, who clung to their abro- 

 gated ceremonial, he maintained the authority of 

 the Pentateuch, and the inspiration of the prophets 

 from Moses to Malachi. With the Christians he 

 admitted the Divine mission of Christ, and the truth 

 of his Gospel ; for he made the revelations both of 

 the Old and the New Testament a basis for his ovm 

 pretensions.* But as the Arabs were the more im- 

 mediate objects of his imposture, he took more than 

 ordinary pains to conciliate their affections. While 

 lamenting the madness and folly of the idolatries in 

 which they were plunged, he showed an extreme 

 indulgence to their prejudices. Their popular tra- 

 ditions and ceremonies — such of them at least as 

 favoured his owm views — he retained, and even ren- 

 dered more attractive, by adding the sanction of 

 Heaven to customs already hallowed by immemorial 

 usage. 



But the most pleasing of all his doctrines, and the 

 most captivating to the human heart, was the felicity 

 promised in another world. The Mohammedan 

 paradise is one of the richest and most seductive 



* For the Author of Christianity the Mohammedans are taught 

 to entertain a high reverence. "Verilv," says the Koran, 

 " Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, is the Apostle of God and his 

 Word, which he conveyed into Mar^' : honourable in this world 

 and in the world to come, and one of those who approach near 

 to the presence of God "—(Chap. lii. iv.) Yet they consider him 

 a mere mortal, and allege that a criminal or a phantom was sub- 

 stituted for him on the cross.— Koran, ib., and Sale's Notes. Ma- 

 racci, in Alcoran, tome ii. p. 113, 173; and Prndrom. part iii 

 p. 163, 



S 2 



