3.  The Arabs deduced their descent from Abraham through the line of Ishmael.  The inhabitants of Mecca, in common probably with the other Arabian tribes, acknowledged, as I think may clearly be collected from the Koran, one supreme Deity, but had associated with him many objects of idolatrous worship.  The great doctrine with which Mahomet set out was the strict and exclusive unity of God.  Abraham, he told them, their illustrous ancestor; Ishmael, the father of their nation; Moses, the lawgiver of the Jews; and Jesus, the author of Christianity—­had all asserted the same thing; that their followers had universally corrupted the truth, and that he was now commissioned to restore it to the world.  Was it to be wondered at, that a doctrine so specious, and authorized by names, some or other of which were holden in the highest veneration by every description of his hearers, should, in the hands of a popular missionary, prevail to the extent in which Mahomet succeeded by his pacific ministry?

4.  Of the institution which Mahomet joined with this fundamental doctrine, and of the Koran in which that institution is delivered, we discover, I think, two purposes that pervade the whole, viz., to make converts, and to make his converts soldiers.  The following particulars, amongst others, may be considered as pretty evident indications of these designs: 

1.  When Mahomet began to preach, his address to the Jews, to the Christians, and to the Pagan Arabs, was, that the religion which he taught was no other than what had been originally their own.—­“We believe in God, and that which hath been sent down unto us, and that which hath been sent down unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the Tribes, and that which was delivered unto Moses and Jesus, and that which was delivered unto the prophets from their Lord:  we make no distinction between any of them.” (Sale’s Koran, c. ii. p. 17.) “He hath ordained you the religion which he commanded Noah, and which we have revealed unto thee, O Mohammed, and which we commanded Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus, saying, Observe this religion, and be not divided therein.” (Sale’s Koran, c. xlii. p. 393.) “He hath chosen you, and hath not imposed on you any difficulty in the religion which he hath given you, the religion of your father Abraham.” (Sale’s Koran, c. xxii. p. 281.)

2.  The author of the Koran never ceases from describing the future anguish of unbelievers, their despair, regret, penitence, and torment.  It is the point which he labours above all others.  And these descriptions are conceived in terms which will appear in no small degree impressive, even to the modern reader of an English translation.  Doubtless they would operate with much greater force upon the minds of those to whom they were immediately directed.  The terror which they seem well calculated to inspire would be to many tempers a powerful application.

3.  On the other hand:  his voluptuous paradise; his robes of silk, his palaces of marble, his riven, and shades, his groves and couches, his wines, his dainties; and, above all, his seventy-two virgins assigned to each of the faithful, of resplendent beauty and eternal youth—­intoxicated the imaginations, and seized the passions of his Eastern followers.