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as well as the principle from which it proceeded: the intercourse of the Christians of the different portions of the Roman empire would soften and level prejudice; and an increasing jealousy and dislike of the Jews, no longer the depositaries of truth, would lead the Eastern Christians to desire to obliterate any traces of community of sentiment or practice which had prevailed. A feeling of jealous contempt for the Jews is probably alluded to by St. Paul (Rom. xi. 15 and seq.); and indeed one may almost imagine that we can observe, in the heretical notions of the East and West, a kind of struggle between the two principles of confusion and communion, and separation and distinction. The Gnostic heretics, in all their ramifications, seem to confound good and evil, by deducing the origin of the latter from some. Æon, or emanation from the supreme Fulness of the Deity. They considered Jehovah (see Tertullian, adv. Hæres.), the God of the Jews, as a distinct being from the Great God, and as by no means entitled to our regard. This confusion in right and wrong they practically followed up, and there is a remarkable analogy between their notions and the mythology of the Hindoos; whereas the Manicheans asserted the eternal existence of the two distinct principles of right and wrong, and the connexion of this distinction with certain

earthly symbols of perpetual repugnance and incongruity. Whether this be correctly stated or not, there is yet reason to believe that Christianity, as regards Arabia especially, was placed in an unfortunate and unnecessary state of opposition to the Eastern prejudice. The Abyssinians, indeed, who boasted of their descent from Solomon, and who had long practised many of the Jewish ceremonies, readily received the Gospel; but their remote situation left them at liberty in the profession of their semi-Judaized Christianity, undisturbed by the opposition of Western zeal. The Arabians were under different circumstances. The proximity of Palestine-the resort of Western pilgrims no doubt often produced occasions for the excitement of mutual scorn and pride: the tribes of Jews who dwelt among the Arabs contributed to renew and maintain the feelings and traditions already so powerful; yet, to embrace Judaism, involved the acknowledgment of national inferiority, and the deprivation of the eldest-born of Abraham of his legitimate supremacy-to change their ancient Kaaba for Jerusalem. Some of the Jewish tribes, also, are said to have been cruel persecutors of the Christians, and perhaps others, in their proselytizing zeal. There were then feelings and prepossessions in the mind of the Arabs, which precluded a cordial reception either

of Christianity or Judaism. It is not therefore surprising that their country should have been fertile in heresies. The divinity of Christ, the doctrine of the Trinity, and of the Atonement, were occasions of offence, and subjects of error. All was distasteful that implied universality, and appeared to disappoint the lingering hopes, that were still cherished, of spiritual importance and superiority.

May we not, then, regard Muhammadanism as a grand and opportune reaction of the Eastern principle, in its Ishmaëlitical form, as a systematic incorporation of opinions which only needed some rallying-point to combine and coalesce as an ingenious and popular heresy? The heretics of the ancient Church stood, in the strictest sense, upon separate unconnected ground. They often rejected or mutilated all that the Church had taught or received from the beginning-the Scriptures inclusive. Muhammad was not a greater heresiarch than Valentinian (of whose whimsical notions an account is given in the latter part of Tertullian adv. Hæres.); but the assumption of the title of Prophet by the Arabian, in addition to that of Apostle, was a proof of great foresight and acumen; so much so, that the non-assumption of

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See Note.

this title, long before, by some pretender, is surprising, unless, indeed, Muhammad's stories about the people of Ad and Thamud, and the prophets Hud and Saleh, may refer to some tradition of an unsuccessful attempt of the kind. The Koraish knew enough of the miracles of our Lord and his Apostles, to perceive the value of miraculous attestation, and to demand it of their kinsman. As a prophet, however, he might, without too palpable an acknowledgment of want of power, elude and refuse this. It is difficult precisely to define the nature and privileges of the prophetical office of the Jewish Scriptures. It would seem, however, that the prophet's message was not confined to the Jewish nation, and that miracles were not of necessity demanded or expected of him. He made use of known principles, but did not profess to introduce original ones. His warnings and threatenings presupposed a knowledge, in those he addressed, of Him in whose name they were presented; and his mission therefore needed not that confirmation by miracles, which are necessary to insure the credibility of the author of a new dispensation. It was to this persuasion that Muhammad wished to bring, and in the end did bring, his countrymen. His mission and doctrines were, in their estimation, antecedently, probable and flattering. In such a

case miracles (he said) were superfluous, and the pretensions to them presumptuous: the Prophet's message afforded its own internal proof-the proof which prejudiced haughtiness regarded with complacency. When Muhammad, therefore, once obtained a footing, he soon succeeded in his designs he soon transformed visions into miracles, and found followers to guaranty them.

His

object was to gain over some of the wise, more of the weak, and, by their united influence, to prevail over all; and this object he at length attained. But how did he attain it? How did he at first win leaders, and afterwards conciliate and appropriate his conquered enemies? Probably, as the mass of Arabs would deem his pretensions unfounded, the wiser portion would demand some proof of the divine commission of Muhammad, in preference to Omaiyah. To secure the silence and favour of these was the prophet's aim; and, but for their aid, his enterprise would either not have succeeded, or been brought to nothing upon the event of his death. This is a subject of great interest; but can here be but superficially sketched and hinted at.

The best method of arriving at some confident conclusion in this inquiry is, to endeavour to enter into some individual detail. To examine the state of thought and feeling in different individuals, is

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