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theism , ambition soon changed the current of these thoughts ; imposture was called in to further his opening prospects of dominion , and when the violence of his opponents had driven him into a successful appeal to the sword , the new auxiliary was too gratifying to be laid aside , though the
just pretext for using it ( self-defence ) had ceased . He soon coveted temporal authority , and from the time that his system courted and received the protecting influence of civil authority , it naturally slighted the support of reason , and adopted superior force as the shorter road to conviction . And why not ? He had come to the conclusion ,
satisfactory to his own mind , that his system contained the best guides for the direction of man in his domestic and social relations ; that its inculcation of moral duties , sanctioned by the doctrine of a future state of proportionate rewards and punishments , was conducive to the best interests of
order and society , and why not then give it patronage ; why not then go a step further and enforce its observance by . the weight of civil authority ? Christians , and enlightened Christians , reason upon the same principles , although
oriental Jew-Christians became indignant , and desirous of standing aloof from such idolatrous profanation . Mahomet saw this , and took up the oriental Christianity exactly where he found it—with strict Monotheism for its theology , with circumcision for
its initiatory rite , with polygamy for a ; tolerated practice , with a high veneration for the Jewish Scriptures , , and with the opinion that Jesus Christ was a human sage , and a prophet of the truth . Thus Mahomet met the traditional creed of all those nations
which were descended from the subjects of the vast Parthian or Hebrew empire , and he was secure of the secret alliance of the Monotheists every where , while he permitted to his followers the plunder of Idolaters and Latinized Christians . The custody of the sacred well , which was
an hereditary right qf the family of Mahomet , might aid him in dictating religious professions to the Arabians , but these his first followers had little of the spirit of piety . If the Arabian freebooters
were the original proclaimers of the religion of Mahomet , still there was little of conversion and faith among them ; the popular , the settled , the enduring basis oif his sect is to be sought id the Jfcw-Chrintiana or Hebrew ? , property so called .
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the milder forms of the governments to which they entrust the protection of particular forms of religion , render the effects of their theory in the present day , generally speaking at least , less destructive to the peace of society , and less degrading to the system which it is intended to support . Of course
there was now an end of argument ; < c the human code was mingled with the divine , and henceforth the ideas of change and of profanation were inseparable . " * Armed with the terrors of the sword , and the devotion of a
numerous band of enthusiasts , the mild voice of persuasion accorded not with the Prophet ' s views 5 the angel Gabriel commanded him to support and propagate his religion by warfare , and the eighth and ninth chapters of the Koran were now said to have been
revealed , breathing the strong spirit of united spiritual and temporal pride and intolerance . " The sword , " he now exclaimed , " is the key of heaven and hell ; " as to unbelievers , " strike off their heads , and strike off all the
ends of their fingers ; this shall they suffer because they have resisted God and his apostle "—to which temporal reward he kindly adds the ghostly consolation , that they should " also suffer the torments of heli-fire . "t
The same spirit of aggrandizement led Mahomet to sacrifice the purity and simplicity of the faith which his early efforts seemed to have been devoted to inculcate , to the desire of conciliating those who might contribute to prop up the fabric of his power . of
The obstinate attachment of many his countrymen to the religion of their fathers , and the hope of gaining over to his cause a large portion of the professors of the Jewish and Christian faiths , induced him , no doubt , to admit into his teaching many tenets which his conscience and understaflding , as well as the obvious tendency of ws
scheme of reform , would otherwise have impelled him to reject without hesitation . With the purer doctrines on which his system was founded , Mahomet therefore united other parts or the traditional creeds of the nations around him , and the Koran accordingly , the best record of his <> Pfion * and doctrines , ( though probably an
* MiUVs Hist . Mahbmetaniem , P- l 6 B * t Sale's Kortui , L 225 , 226 , 253 .
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260 The Nonconformist . No . XVtH .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1820, page 260, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2488/page/4/
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