"I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and "create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord "do all these things."*

This radical principle of true religion Zoroaster inculcates clearly and strongly, accompanied with such additional circumstances, as prove, that while he wished to indulge the prejudices of the nation whom he taught, he yet was anxious to do so no further than might be consistent with the principles of the Jewish religion, from which his own were plainly borrowed. In this spirit he maintained that under the SUPREME BEING was the angel of light, the director of good, and an angel of darkness, the author of evil:† that between these is a perpetual struggle, which will continue until the end of the world, when there shall be a general resurrection and retribution to all according to their deeds; when the angel of evil and his followers shall, in perpetual darkness, suffer the punishment they deserve, while the angel of light and his followers shall be received into everlasting bliss; after which there shall be no more any mixture of evil and good, of light and darkness; but they shall remain separated to all eternity. He also taught that the Supreme God originally created the good angel alone, and that the evil followed by the defect of good.

In this entire system we perceive a constant effort to admit the distinct principles of evil and of good acknowledged by the Magian superstition, but only in such a manner as was consistent with the Jewish doctrines, of the supremacy of Jehovah, the introduction of sin and death by the fall, and the expectation of a resurrection and final judgment; which last doctrine was (as we have shown) distinctly and energetically taught by the Jewish Prophets.

In other subordinate particulars of Zoroaster's scheme we find a conformity to that of Moses, so close as cannot be accounted for, except on the supposition of a deliberate imitation. Thus, as Moses heard God speaking from the midst of the fire,§ Zoroaster pretended to the same; as the Jews had their glory or

* Isaiah, xlv. 1, &c. and xliv. 28.

+ Shahristani Relig. Persarum, ch. xxii.; Hyde, ch. ix. p. 163, and ch. xxii. p. 299; Pocockii Hist. Arab. p. 148; and Lord, of the Religion of the Persees, cap. ii.

This is clearly established by Hyde, cap. x. and xxii. § Vide Lord's Relig. of the Persees, cap. viii. p. 42.

special presence of God resting on the mercy-seat, towards which they offered up all their prayers, so Zoroaster taught the Magians to hold the sacred fires in their temples as emblems of the divine presence; as the Jews had frequently received fire from heaven to consume their sacrifices, Zoroaster pretended to the same; as the Jewish priests were of one tribe, so were those of Zoroaster; as the former were chiefly supported by tithes and offerings, so were the latter. Even many of the Levitical distinctions between things clean and unclean are preserved in the religious code of Zoroaster. We also trace in the same work the history of Adam and Eve, of the Creation and the Deluge. We find insertions from the Psalms of David, and praises of the wisdom of Solomon. And above all he celebrates Abraham; his doctrines and religion he delivers as the doctrines and religion of Abraham; so that his innovations had for their object to bring back the Magian religion to the purity which it had originally derived from the instructions of that illustrious Patriarch.

On the extent of this religion it is sufficient to say, that in the time_of_Lucian,* that is, soon after the promulgation of the Gospel, it was received by the great majority of the Persians, the Parthians, the Bactrians, the Chowaresmians, the Arians, the Sacans, the Medes, and many other eastern nations. And to this day, no inconsiderable body of these Magians still remain in Persia and India, who observe the same religion which Zoroaster taught; who perform their public religious worship in his language,† and according to his rites; and preserve his book with the highest reverence, as the sole rule both of faith and manners.

It is a remark connected with the subject of the last observation, that whatever principles of true religion were adopted and preserved by Mahomet, he most certainly borrowed them from the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament ;-the worship of one God; the abhorrence of idolatry; the expectation of a future retribution, and the rules of moral conduct, so far as that expectation is undebased by the sensual pleasures promised by the Arabian impostor, and so far as these rules are uncorrupted by the sensual indulgencies he permitted. In a word, every thing praiseworthy in his system, is plainly derived from the Law and the Gospel. "Remember," says Mahomet, "when

* Vide Lucian de Longævis. Sect. iv. Vol. iii. p. 210. Editio Hemsterhusii. Prideaux, Vol. i. p. 300.

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"the Lord tried Abraham by certain words, God said, Verily "I will constitute thee a model of religion unto mankind." 99** Then follows a divine selection of Mecca for an holy house; a prayer of Abraham, that God would send an Apostle to teach his posterity the Koran: and the chapter proceeds thus: "Who "will be averse to the religion of Abraham, but he whose mind "is infatuated? Surely we have chosen him in this world, and "in that which is to come he shall be one of the righteous. "When his Lord said unto him, Resign thyself unto me, "he answered, I have resigned myself unto the Lord of all "creatures. And Abraham bequeathed this religion to his chil“dren, and Jacob did the same, saying, My children, verily God "hath chosen this religion for you, therefore die not unless ye also be resigned. Were ye present when Jacob was at the point of death, when he said to his sons, Whom will ye worship "after me? They answered, We will worship thy God, and the "God of thy fathers, Abraham, and Ismael, and Isaac, one God, "and to him will we be resigned. That people are now passed away; they have what they have gained, and ye shall have "what ye gain; and ye shall not be questioned concerning that "which they have done. They say, Become Jews or Christians, "that ye may be directed; say Nay; we follow the religion of “Abraham, the orthodox, who was no idolater; say, We believe "in God, and that which hath been sent down unto us [viz. the Koran] and that which hath been sent down unto Abraham, "and Ismael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which 66 was delivered unto Moses and Jesus, and that which was de"livered unto the Prophets from their Lord: we make no dis"tinction between any of them, and to God are we resigned," + &c.

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Thus directly does Mahomet acknowledge that he drew the leading articles of his system from the sacred Scriptures; and undoubtedly he has adopted some of the highest importance: I quote one with pleasure. "It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces in prayer towards the east and the west; but "righteousness is of him who believeth in God, and the angels, "and the Scriptures, and the Prophets; who giveth money for "God's sake unto his kindred, and unto orphans, and the needy, "and the stranger, and those who ask, and for redemption of captives; who is constant at prayer, and giveth alms, and of Sale's Koran, ch. ii. p. 25.

*Koran, ch. ii.

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"those who perform their covenant when they have covenanted, "and who behave themselves patiently in adversity and hardships, and in time of violence; these are they who are true, "and these are they who fear God." How plainly do we perceive in this passage the principles inculcated by the prophet Isaiah, with such superior beauty and energy: "Is not this the "fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to " undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, "and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? "when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that "thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy "light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring "forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. Then shalt thou call, "and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, "Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; and "if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the "afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy "darkness be as the noon-day." * &c.

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It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the absurdity and extravagance, the mixture of sensuality, licentiousness and deceit, which generally pervade the Koran,† justify the assertion, that its author was indebted for whatever degree of religious truth or virtuous principle is found in it, not to his own sagacity or his own rectitude of sentiment, but to those sacred sources of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, the divine authenticity of which he acknowledged, and the doctrines of which he was induced to adopt, in order to attract to himself as many as possible

* Isaiah, lviii. 6, &c.

† In proof of this charge, it is unnecessary to multiply passages from the Koran, of absurdity and extravagance, as in chap. xv. the fall of the angels for refusing to worship Adam; in chap. xxvii. and xxxiv. the lapwing bringing in news to Solomon; the genii building for him; the ants and birds attending him, &c. and chap. xvii. on the celebrated night-journey to heaven; with Prideaux's account, p. 43, and Abulfeda Vita Muham. chap. xix.; of licentiousness and fraud, chap. xxxiii.; the revelation permitting the Prophet to multiply wives, "a peculiar privilege above the rest of the true “believers," vide p. 281, and to take his adopted son's wife; and a revelation to justify an amour with his slave, in ch. lxvi.; of a sensual paradise, in various places, particularly chap. xxv. Consult on this subject White's Bampton's Lecture Sermons, particularly Sermon 6, 8, and 9; and Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, passim.

of the votaries of both these religions, in a country where their numbers were considerable, their ignorance the easy prey of delusion, and their attachment to the religions they professed weakened by the errors which at that disastrous period had corrupted, and the dissensions which had disgraced them.*

And now, on reviewing the facts and observations adduced in this section, it will be found, that the objection against the Jewish scheme, as being partial and confined to one obscure and insignificant nation, and therefore unworthy of the Deity, is false in fact, and inconclusive in reasoning; even without considering the Law as introductory of the Gospel; and that therefore, however confined in its immediate efficacy, its importance is clear, as being a necessary preparation for a pure and universal religion. This last is certainly the most decisive answer to the objection. Yet independent of this, it has been proved that the Jewish scheme was intended to produce, and did produce, a most important and beneficial effect, in checking error and idolatry through a great portion of mankind, while it continued in operation. It has been proved, that this effect was intended and foreseen, and that it formed a direct object of the divine care, and, as it were, a leading motive in regulating the measures of the divine economy. The establishment of the Jewish Law displayed to the nations of Egypt and Canaan, the most striking proofs of the power and justice of Jehovah, and his superiority over their base idols; inflicting the most signal punishment on their deluded worshippers, to prove his abhorrence of idolatry. The subsequent fortunes of the Jewish nation proclaimed the same great truths;-in their apostasies and chastisements, as well as their repentance and deliverances, attesting the resistless power and over-ruling providence of their God, exercised not only over the Jews themselves, but all the nations placed in their neighbourhood, or affected by their fortunes. Particularly after the establishment of the regal government, we see the conquests of David, the wisdom and wealth of Solomon, the magnificence of the Temple, and the splendor of the Jewish religion, attracting general attention. We see the situation of Judea, calculated to increase this effect: at the head of

* Vide Sale's Koran, the Preliminary Dissertation, sect. ii.; Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, the Preface; and Hottinger's Historia Orientalis, Lib. II. cap. ii. p. 212; De Statu Judæorum et Christianorum ante Muhammed; and cap. v. De Causis Conservantibus Muhammedismi.