here drawn of the moral parallel,it may seem sufficiently apparent, that the moral scheme of Mahometanism, in its lower features, is constructed from the carnal ordinances and observances of the Mosaic covenant, as interpreted by Rabbinical tradition; and, in its better parts, is throughout a studied and servile copy of the higher precepts of the Law, or the pure morality of the Gospel. The practical imperfection of its merits, therefore, and the glaring character of its defects, instead of injuring the providential analogy, unite in reducing that analogy to the just relative proportion, which alone, a spurious revelation can bear to the genuine; to that proper and respectful distance, which the illegitimate must ever keep, from the legitimate seed. And, when every concession which truth and justice can require, has been made in favour of the system of Mahomet, as viewed in its practical tenets and effects, an immeasurable gulf remains, and always must remain, between its principles and springs of action, and those of the blessed, everlasting Gospel. SECTION VI. DOCTRINAL ANALOGY OF MAHOMETANISM WITH JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 66 WHEN Christianity was originally presented to the Gentile world, its primitive teachers, the apostles, inculcated, as the root of all its other doctrines, two fundamental articles of faith : they preached Jesus, and the resurrection." And, although the Jews rejected Jesus as the Christ, the coming of a Messiah, and the hope of a resurrection from the dead, were also undoubted fundamentals of belief, in the ancient Jewish church. These doctrines, therefore, stand properly in the foreground of an inquiry into the doctrinal parallel of Mahometanism with Judaism and Christianity. Now the religion of Mahomet not only recognizes Christ and the resurrection, but, in its recognition of these primary truths, reaches almost as far beyond the popular notions prevalent among the Jews, as it falls short of the pure and perfect belief disseminated under the Christian dispensation. The character and extent of the doctrinal analogy here subsisting, may be easily collected, from a simple review of the measure of that faith in Jesus Christ, and in the resurrection after death, which are held essential, in all Mahometan confessions of faith, to the character of a true Mussulman. The belief professed by Mahomet and his followers concerning Jesus Christ, comprises the following great Christian verities. 1. They acknowledge him to be the λoyos, or Word of God, in a mysterious sense proceeding from the Father. So the Koran, in the version there given of the angelic salutation: "The angels said, O Mary, verily God sendeth thee good tidings, that thou shalt bear the Word, proceeding from himself: his name shall be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary." The lowest interpretation, put by the commentators on this passage, asserts Christ to be called the Word, "because he was conceived by the word, or command of God, Aoyov, seu Sermonem, Christum efoxws ab iisdem [Muhammedanis] appellari. Dubitandum non est quin emberov hoc Servatoris nostri, vel potius xαρаκтηpа ovoiwon, desumpserit Muhammed ex Joh. i. 1.-Hotting. Hist. Orient. p. 105. The sense in which the term λoyos came subsequently to be understood, among the Saracenic philosophers, may be gathered from the Kitab-al-Resula, or "Book of the Prophet;" where the author, while asserting the uncreated eternity of the divine attributes, thus unconsciously bears testimony to the divine nature of Christ, whom Mahomet owned to be "the Word." "Locutus est Deus cum Mose SERMONE, qui est proprietas essentiæ ejus, non vero Creatura de Creaturis ejus." The doctrine of our Lord's divinity inevitably results from a comparison of this extract, with the admissions of the Koran. + See Sale's Koran, vol. i. p. 63.; and compare vol. ii. p. 130., and p. 449. without a father :" the prevalent belief of Mahometans understands the expression, as appropriated to our Lord, in a sense still nearer to the Catholic mystery. * 2. They own Jesus as the Messiah of the Jews, and make common cause with Christians, on this question, against them. t 3. They maintain, with the Catholic church, our Lord's incarnation of a pure virgin, by the immediate power or Spirit of God; ‡ alleging him, further, to have been begotten after the similitude of Adam's creation, whom God called into being from the dust. § 4. His immaculate conception. || 5. His sole exemption, the blessed virgin only excepted, from the touch of Satan, or stain of Adam's transgression. 6. His office in heaven as mediator and intercessor between God and man.¶ 7. His place * "One sect of them, particularly, believes that Christ is God, and the Redeemer of the world."— Worthington's Boyle's Lectures, vol. ii. p. 246. Conf. Pocock, Specim. p. 221. +"Rem ipsam si spectes, et controversiam que cum Judæis nobis intercedit, an Jesus Nazarenus sit verus Messias, diximus jam, in Thesaur. Philol. p. 163., Muhammedanos à Christianorum stare partibus.” — Hott. Hist. Orient. p. 105, 106. So the Koran: "Mary, the daughter of Imran, who preserved her chastity, and into whose womb we breathed of our spirit.”. Sale, vol. ii. p. 449. "Tu as créé Jésus de ton Esprit, et de ton Verbe.' ap. Gagnier, tome i. p. 242. Mahomet, § Sale's Koran, vol. i. p. 67. Mill, De M. A. M. p. 349. Hott. Hist. Orient. p. 104. Hott. Hist. Orient. p. 94. ¶ Concorditer Arabes docent Christum in cœlo, seu vitâ eternâ, MEDIATORIS, seu ¡Ketov, munere fungi. — Hott. ut supra, p. 105, 106. - and final supremacy, as the appointed Judge of all men, Mahomet himself included, at the last day. From the foregoing summary of its belief in Christ's character and office2, the reader will perceive that the religion of Mahomet not only reproves the errors of Jewish infidelity, but rises vastly superior to the confession of certain classes of pretended Christians. By a special Mahometan law, the Jews, who altogether deny the character and office of Jesus Christ, and reject him as the promised Messiah, are compelled, first to confess their faith in Christ and Christianity, as the indispensable preliminary to their admission to the rank of Mussulmans. * Nor will orthodox Mahometans admit the affinity laid claim to by those sectaries of Christianity, the disciples of Socinus, or by the more modern Unitarians, who disown those characteristics of Jesus Christ, upon which they strenuously insist; his miraculous incarnation, his immaculate conception, and his exemption from all taint of human frailty, with his media * Si quis Judæus fieri vult Mahumetista, cogitur prius credere Christo: cui talis fit interrogatio: Credisne Christum fuisse flatu Dei ex Virgine natum; et ultimum prophetam Hebræorum? Quo concesso, fit Mahumetanus." M. A. Vivaldus, ap. Reland. De Relig. Mohamm. Præfatio. -- |