he principle of the divine unity. In their obvious
sense, they introduce three equal deities, and transform the man Jesus
into the substance of the Son of God: [76] an orthodox commentary will
satisfy only a believing mind: intemperate curiosity and zeal had torn
the veil of the sanctuary; and each of the Oriental sects was eager to
confess that all, except themselves, deserved the reproach of idolatry
and polytheism. The creed of Mahomet is free from suspicion or
ambiguity; and the Koran is a glorious testimony to the unity of God.
The prophet of Mecca rejected the worship of idols and men, of stars and
planets, on the rational principle that whatever rises must set, that
whatever is born must die, that whatever is corruptible must decay and
perish. [77] In the Author of the universe, his rational enthusiasm
confessed and adored an infinite and eternal being, without form or
place, without issue or similitude, present to our most secret thoughts,
existing by the necessity of his own nature, and deriving from himself
all moral and intellectual perfection. These sublime truths, thus
announced in the language of the prophet, [78] are firmly held by his
disciples, and defined with metaphysical precision by the interpreters
of the Koran. A philosophic theist might subscribe the popular creed
of the Mahometans; [79] a creed too sublime, perhaps, for our present
faculties. What object remains for the fancy, or even the understanding,
when we have abstracted from the unknown substance all ideas of time
and space, of motion and matter, of sensation and reflection? The
first principle of reason and revolution was confirmed by the voice of
Mahomet: his proselytes, from India to Morocco, are distinguished by the
name of Unitarians; and the danger of idolatry has been prevented by
the interdiction of images. The doctrine of eternal decrees and
absolute predestination is strictly embraced by the Mahometans; and they
struggle, with the common difficulties, how to reconcile the prescience
of God with the freedom and responsibility of man; how to explain
the permission of evil under the reign of infinite power and infinite
goodness.

[Footnote 74: Koran, c. 9, p. 153. Al Beidawi, and the other
commentators quoted by Sale, adhere to the charge; but I do not
understand that it is colored by the most obscure or absurd tradition of
the Talmud.]

[Footnote 75: Hottinger, Hist. Orient. p. 225-228. The Collyridian
heresy was carried from Th