ivered, 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.

4. But Mahomet's highest heaven was reserved for those who fought his
battles or expended their fortunes in his cause: "Those believers who
sit still at home, not having any hurt, and those who employ their
fortunes and their persons for the religion of God, shall not be held
equal. God hath preferred those who employ the