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evince the sincerity of their repentance. This great fast is observed on the tenth day of the month Tishri, or September. In the preceding evening they repair to the synagogue, where they remain saying prayers upwards of three hours: and when they return from the synagogue, they may not taste any kind of sustenance, and are even prohibited from taking one drop of water. They are also forbidden to do any kind of labour, even to kindle a fire, and observe this day as strictly as the sabbath.

At six in the morning they attend the synagogue, and offer those prayers and supplications for the pardon of their sins, which are peculiar to the occasion. In the course of the service various portions of scripture are read, particularly part of Leviticus xxvi., Numbers xxix., and Isaiah lvii. They mention in their prayers the additional sacrifice of the day, and entreat God to rebuild their sanctuary, to gather their dispersions from among the Gentiles, and conduct them to Jerusalem, where they may offer the sacrifice of atonement agreeably to the Mosaic law. In the afternoon service, besides portions from the law and prophets, the greatest part of the Book of Jonah is read in the synagogues. They beseech God to be propitious, and forgive their sins. The fast continues from morning to night, for upwards of twelve hours, without intermission.

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In Awb, which answers to July or August, in the fifth month of the ecclesiastical year, the Jews observe a strict fast, occasioned by the destruction of the first temple by NebuchadnezOn this day also the second temple was burnt by the Romans. During this fast they not only abstain from all food, but do not even taste a drop of water. In the evening they go to the synagogue, and, after their usual prayers, the book of Jeremiah is read in a low mournful voice. In the morning they attend the synagogue early, and read a portion of the law, and part of the 8th and 9th chapters of Jeremiah. They go to the synagogue again in the afternoon, and read passages from the law and the prophets suitable to the occasion. All their prayers on this day tend to remind them of their captivity, and the destruction of their temple, which deprived them of offering the daily sacrifice by which an atonement was made for their sins. The marriages of the Jews are always celebrated with great pomp and ceremony. In London they are usually celebrated at some of the principal taverns or coffee-houses. The author, two or three years ago, attended at the wedding of a Jewish friend's daughter at the City of London Tavern: the ceremony itself was solemn and imposing, and the company extremely numerous and respectable. After some time spent in an antiroom, where sat the intended bride and bridegroom, receiving the compliments and caresses of their particular friends, and during which the truly venerable and presiding rabbi of the German Jews in London, Dr. Solomon Hirschel, assisted by others, at intervals, but apparently without order, uttered some prayers, or repeated some texts of Scripture, and the necessary

PART III,

MAHOMETANISM.

In the beginning of the seventh century, when the Jews had very generally departed from the worship and service of the true God, and when the Christians of the east had almost universally forsaken the simple doctrines, and discipline of their Divine Teacher, there sprung up, in the city of Mecca, in Arabia, one of the most extraordinary and enterprising pretenders to prophecy that the world ever witnessed. This man's name was MAHOMET, OF MOHAMMED: he was born in the year 571, of poor parents, but of rich and respectable connexions. His father died before he was two years old, and all the power and wealth of his family devolved to his uncles; especially to Abu Taleb, who afterwards became possessed of the chief sway in the city, and surrounding country of Mecca.

After the death of his father, his uncle Abu Taleb, undertook the care of his education; and ever after, although he refused to listen to his nephew's pretensions as a prophet, manifested great affection for him, and more than once protected him against the fury of his enemies.

He continued in the employment of his uncle, who was a merchant, trading principally to Syria with camels, until he had attained his twenty-fifth year. About that time died one of the chief men of the city, leaving a widow of the name of Cadiga ; who requiring a factor to manage her stock, Mahomet 'entered her service, and traded for her some years, to Damascus and other places. In this service Mahomet conducted himself with so much propriety, that he not only merited the respect, but actually won the affections of his mistress, who was twelve years older than himself; he being then only twentyeight years of age. Cadiga having married him, he became suddenly exalted to an equality with some of the richest men of the city.

Whether this unlooked-for elevation had imspired Mahomet with an extraordinary ambition, or whatever other motive prompted him, he soon began to manifest symptoms of wishing to appear a man of no common character; and as one divinely commissioned to reform the world by the introduction of a new system of religion. He proceeded, however, with much caution and care; and it was not till he had attained his thirty

eighth year, that he retired from the business of the world, to commence hermit in the cave of Hira, in which, as he said, he continued all day, exercising himself in prayer, fastings, and holy meditations. This course of piety having been pursued for he space of two years, his wife began to look upon him in the light of an apostle, and actually became converted to his new faith and mode of life.

Mahomet was in his fortieth year, when he first took upon himself the style and title of an apostle of God. This, however, he did only to a very few who gradually attached themselves to his cause. But, about four years afterwards, he openly declared himself, in the city of Mecca, a prophet sent by God, to convert the people from the errors of Paganism to the true religion. This declaration was, at first, greatly derided; but as his disciples continued to increase, it was at length thought necessary by some to arrest his career by putting him to death. A combination to effect this was accordingly formed; but the plot having come to the knowledge of his uncle Abu Taleb, the prophet was saved from destruction through his means.

The main arguments, which Mahomet used to delude men into a belief of this imposture, were promises and threats, which he knew would work most strongly on the affections of the vulgar. His promises were chiefly of Paradise, which with great art he framed agreeably to the taste of the Arabians for they, lying within the torrid zone, were, through the nature of their climate, as well as the corruption of their manners, exceedingly given to the love of women; and the scorching heat and dryness of the country, making rivers of water, cooling drinks, shaded gardens, and pleasant fruits, most refreshing and delightful to them, they were from hence apt to place their highest enjoyment in things of this nature. For this reason, he made the joys of his Paradise to consist totally in these particulars; which he promises them abundantly in many places of the Koran. On the contrary, he described the punishments of hell, which he threatened to all who would not believe in him, to consist of such torments as would appear to them the most afflicting and grievous to be borne; as, "that they should drink nothing but boiling and stinking water, nor breathe any thing but exceedingly hot winds, things most terrible in Arabia ; that they should dwell for ever in continual fire, excessively burning, and be surrounded with a black hot salt smoke, as with a Coverlid, &c."

Mahomet pretended to receive all his revelations from the angel Gabriel, who, he said, was sent from God, on purpose to deliver them unto him. He was subject, it is said, to the falling-sickness; so that whenever the fit was upon him, he pretended it to be a trance, and that then the Angel Gabriel was come from God with some new revelations. His pretended revelations he put into several chapters; the collection of which makes up the Koran, which is the Bible of the Mahom The original of this book was laid up, as be taug!!!

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his followers, in the archives of heaven; and the angel Gabriel brought him the copy of it, chapter by chapter, as occasion required, that they should be published to the people: that is, as often as any new thing was to be set on foot, any objection against him or his religion to be answered, any dif ficulty to be solved, any discontent among his people to be quieted, any offence to be removed, or any thing else done for the furtherance of his grand scheme, his constant recourse was to the angel Gabriel for a new revelation; and then appeared some addition to the Koran, to serve his purpose. But what perplexed him most was, that his opposers demanded to see a miracle from him ; for," said they, Moses, and Jesus, and the rest of the prophets, according to thy own doctrine, worked miracles to prove their mission from God; and therefore, if thou be a prophet, and greater than any that were sent before thee, as thou boasteth thyself to be, do thou work the like miracles to manifest it unto us." This objection he endeavoured to evade by several answers; all of which amount only to this, "that God had sent Moses and Jesus with miracles, and yet men would not be obedient to their word; and therefore he had now sent him, in the last place, without miracles, to force them by the power of the sword to do his will." Hence it has become the universal doctrine of the Mahometans, that their religion is to be propagated by the sword, and that all true Mussulmen are bound to fight for it. It has even been said to be a custom among them for their preachers, while they deliver their sermons, to have a drawn sword placed by them, to denote, that the doctrines they teach are to be defended and propagated by the sword. Some miracles, at the same time, are told, which Mahomet is said to have wrought; as, "That he clave the moon in two; that trees went forth to meet him, &c. &c. ;" but those who relate them are only such as are ranked among their fabulous and legendary writers; their learned doctors renounce them all; and when they are questioned, how without miracles they can prove his mission, their common answer is, that the Koran itself is the greatest of all miracles; for that Mahomet, who was an illiterate person, who could neither write nor read, or that any man else, by human wisdom alone, should be able to compose such a book, is, they think, impossible. On this Mahomet himself also frequently insists, challenging in several places of the Koran, both men and devils, by their united skill, to compose any thing equal to it, or to any part of it. From all which they conclude, and as they think, infallibly, that this book could come from none other but God himself; and that Mahomet, from whom they received it, was his messenger to bring it unto them them.

In the eighth year of his pretended mission, his party growing formidable at Mecca, the city passed a decree, by which they torbade any more to join themselves with him. This, however, did not much affect him, while his uncle Abu Taleb lived to protect him but he dying two years after, and the govern

ment of the city then falling into the hands of his enemies, a fresh opposition was renewed against him, and a stop soon put to the further progress of his designs at Mecca. His wife Cadiga being now dead, after living with him two and twenty years, he took two other wives in her stead, Ayesha, the daughter of Abubeker, and Lewda, the daughter of Zama; adding a while after to them a third, named Haphsa, the daughter of Omar; and by thus making himself son-in-law to three of the principal men of his party, he strengthened his interest considerably. Ayesha is said to have been then only six years old; on which account the completion of that marriage was deferred, though not for many years, the eastern women being very early marriageable.

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In the twelfth year of his mission is placed the mesra, that is, his famous night-journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, and thence to heaven; of which he tells us, in the seventeenth chapter of the Koran for the people calling on him for miracles to prove his mission, and finding himself unable, or being unwilling, to feign any, to solve the matter, he invented this story of his journey to heaven. The story, as related in the Koran, and believed by the Mahometans, is this: At night as he lay in his bed with his best beloved wife Ayesha, he heard a knocking at his door; upon which, arising, he found there the angel Gabriel, with seventy pair of wings, expanded from his sides, whiter than snow, and clearer than crystal, and the beast Alborak standing by him; which, they say, is the beast on which the prophets used to ride, when they were carried from one place to another, upon the execution of any divine command.

As soon as Mahomet appeared at the door, the angel Gabriel kindly embraced him, saluted him in the name of God, and told him, that he was sent to bring him unto God into heaven ; where he should see strange mysteries, which were not lawful to be seen by any other man. He prayed him then to get upon Alborak; but the beast having lain idle and unemployed from the time of Christ to Mahomet, was grown so mettlesome and skittish, that he would not stand still for Mahomet to mount hin, till at length he was forced to bribe him to it, by promising him a place in Paradise. When he was firmly seated on him, the angel Gabriel led the way with the bridle of the beast in his hand, and carried the prophet from Mecca to Jerusalem in the twinkling of an eye. On his coming thither, all the departed prophets and saints appeared at the gate of the temple to salute him; and, thence attending him into the chief oratory, desired him to pray for them, and then withdrew. After this, Mahomet went out of the temple with the angel Gabriel, and found a ladder of light ready fixed for them, when they immediately ascended, leaving Alborak tied to a rock till their

return.

On their arrival at the first heaven, the angel knocked at the gate; and informing the porter who he was, and that he had

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