Evidences of Christianity by William Paley
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William Paley >> Evidences of Christianity
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From the widely disproportionate effects which attend the preaching of
modern missionaries of Christianity, compared with what followed the
ministry of Christ and his apostles under circumstances either alike, or
not so unlike as to account for the difference, a conclusion is fairly
drawn in support of what our histories deliver concerning them, viz.
that they possessed means of conviction which we have not; that they had
proofs to appeal to which we want.
SECTION III.
OF THE RELIGION OF MAHOMET.
The only event in the history of the human species which admits of
comparison with the propagation of Christianity is the success of
Mahometanism. The Mahometan institution was rapid in its progress, was
recent in its history, and was founded upon a supernatural or prophetic
character assumed by its author. In these articles, the resemblance with
Christianity is confessed. But there are points of difference which
separate, we apprehend, the two cases entirely.
I. Mahomet did not found his pretensions upon miracles, properly so
called; that is, upon proofs of supernatural agency capable of being
known and attested by others. Christians are warranted in this.
assertion by the evidence of the Koran, in which Mahomet not only does
not affect the power of working miracles, but expressly disclaims it.
The following passages of that book furnish direct proofs of the truth
of what we allege:--"The infidels say, Unless a sign be sent down unto
him from his lord, we will not believe; thou art a preacher only."
(Sale's Koran, c. xiii. p. 201, ed. quarto.) Again; "Nothing hindered us
from sending thee with miracles, except that the former nations have
charged them with imposture." (C. xvii. p. 232.) And lastly; "They say,
Unless a sign be sent down unto him from his lord, we will not believe:
Answer; Signs are in the power of God alone, and I am no more than a
public preacher. Is it not sufficient for them, that we have sent down
unto them the book of the Koran to be read unto them?" (C. xxix. p.
328.) Beside these acknowledgments, I have observed thirteen distinct
places in which Mahomet puts the objection (unless a sign, &c.) into the
mouth of the unbeliever, in not one of which does he allege a miracle in
reply. His answer is, "that God giveth the power of working miracles
when and to whom he pleaseth;" (C. v. x. xiii. twice.) "that if he
should work miracles, they would not believe;" (C. vi.) "that they had
before rejected Moses, and Jesus and the Prophets, who wrought
miracles;" (C. iii. xxi. xxviii.) "that the Koran itself was a miracle."
(C. xvi.)
The only place in the Koran in which it can be pretended that a sensible
miracle is referred to (for I do not allow the secret visitations of
Gabriel, the night-journey of Mahomet to heaven, or the presence in
battle of invisible hosts of angels, to deserve the name of sensible
miracles) is the beginning of the fifty-fourth chapter. The words are
these:--"The hour of judgment approacheth, and the moon hath been split
in sunder: but if the unbelievers see a sign, they turn aside, saying,
This is a powerful charm." The Mahometan expositors disagree in their
interpretation of this passage; some explaining it to be mention of the
splitting of the moon as one of the future signs of the approach of the
day of judgment: others referring it to a miraculous appearance which
had then taken place. (Vide Sale, in loc.) It seems to me not improbable,
that Mahomet might have taken advantage of some extraordinary halo, or
other unusual appearance of the moon, which had happened about this
time; and which supplied a foundation both for this passage, and for the
story which in after times had been raised out of it.
After this more than silence, after these authentic confessions of the
Koran, we are not to be moved with miraculous stories related of Mahomet
by Abulfeda, who wrote his life about six hundred years after his death;
or which are found in the legend of Al-Jannabi, who came two hundred
years later.* On the contrary, from comparing what Mahomet himself wrote
and said with what was afterwards reported of him by his followers, the
plain and fair conclusion is, that when the religion was established by
conquest, then, and not till then, came out the stories of his miracles.
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* It does not, I think, appear, that these historians had any written
accounts to appeal to more ancient than the Sonnah; which was a
collection of traditions made by order of the Caliphs two hundred years
after Mahomet's death. Mahomet died A.D. 632; Al-Bochari, one of the six
doctors who compiled the Sonnah, was born A.D. 809; died 869. Prideaux's
Life of Mahomet, p. 192, ed. 7th.
_________
Now this difference alone constitutes, in my opinion, a bar to all
reasoning from one case to the other. The success of a religion founded
upon a miraculous history shows the credit which was given to the
history; and this credit, under the circumstances in which it was given,
i. e. by persons capable of knowing the truth, and interested to inquire
after it, is evidence of the reality of the history, and, by
consequence, of the truth of the religion. Where a miraculous history is
not alleged, no part of this argument can be applied. We admit that
multitudes acknowledged the pretensions of Mahomet: but, these
pretensions being destitute of miraculous evidence, we know that the
grounds upon which they were acknowledged could not be secure grounds of
persuasion to his followers, nor their example any authority to us.
Admit the whole of Mahomet's authentic history, so far as it was of a
nature capable of being known or witnessed by others, to be true (which
is certainly to admit all that the reception of the religion can be
brought to prove), and Mahomet might still be an impostor, or
enthusiast, or a union of both. Admit to be true almost any part of
Christ's history, of that, I mean, which was public, and within the
cognizance of his followers, and he must have come from God. Where
matter of fact is not in question, where miracles are not alleged, I do
not see that the progress of a religion is a better argument of its
truth than the prevalency of any system of opinions in natural religion,
morality, or physics, is a proof of the truth of those opinions. And we
know that this sort of argument is inadmissible in any branch of
philosophy what ever.
But it will be said, if one religion could make its way without
miracles, why might not another? To which I reply, first, that this is
not the question; the proper question is not, whether a religious
institution could be set up without miracles, but whether a religion, or
a change of religion, founding itself in miracles, could succeed without
any reality to rest upon? I apprehend these two cases to be very
different: and I apprehend Mahomet's not taking this course, to be one
proof, amongst others, that the thing is difficult, if not impossible, to
be accomplished: certainly it was not from an unconsciousness of the
value and importance of miraculous evidence; for it is very observable,
that in the same volume, and sometimes in the same chapters, in which
Mahomet so repeatedly disclaims the power of working miracles himself,
he is incessantly referring to the miracles of preceding prophets. One
would imagine, to hear some men talk, or to read some books, that the
setting up of a religion by dint of miraculous pretences was a thing of
every day's experience: whereas, I believe that, except the Jewish and
Christian religion, there is no tolerably well authenticated account of
any such thing having been accomplished.
II. The establishment of Mahomet's religion was affected by causes which
in no degree appertained to the origin of Christianity.
During the first twelve years of his mission, Mahomet had recourse only
to persuasion. This is allowed. And there is sufficient reason from the
effect to believe that, if he had confined himself to this mode of
propagating his religion, we of the present day should never have heard
either of him or it. "Three years were silently employed in the
conversion of fourteen proselytes. For ten years, the religion advanced
with a slow and painful progress, within the walls of Mecca. The number
of proselytes in the seventh year of his mission may be estimated by the
absence of eighty-three men and eighteen women, who retired to
Aethiopia." (Gibbon's Hist. vol. ix. p. 244, et seq. ed. Dub.) Yet this
progress, such as it was, appears to have been aided by some very
important advantages which Mahomet found in his situation, in his mode
of conducting his design, and in his doctrine.
1. Mahomet was the grandson of the most powerful and honourable family
in Mecca; and although the early death of his father had not left him a
patrimony suitable to his birth, he had, long before the commencement of
his mission, repaired this deficiency by an opulent marriage. A person
considerable by his wealth, of high descent, and nearly allied to the
chiefs of his country, taking upon himself the character of a religious
teacher, would not fail of attracting attention and followers.
2. Mahomet conducted his design, in the outset especially, with great
art and prudence. He conducted it as a politician would conduct a plot.
His first application was to his own family. This gained him his wife's
uncle, a considerable person in Mecca, together with his cousin Ali,
afterwards the celebrated Caliph, then a youth of great expectation, and
even already distinguished by his attachment, impetuosity, and courage.*
He next expressed himself to Abu Beer, a man amongst the first of the
Koreish in wealth and influence. The interest and example of Abu Beer
drew in five other principal persons in Mecca, whose solicitations
prevailed upon five more of the same rank. This was the work of three
years; during which time everything was transacted in secret. Upon the
strength of these allies, and under the powerful protection of his
family, who, however some of them might disapprove his enterprise, or
deride his pretensions, would not suffer the orphan of their house, the
relict of their favourite brother, to be insulted, Mahomet now commenced
his public preaching. And the advance which he made during the nine or
ten remaining years of his peaceable ministry was by no means greater
than what, with these advantages, and with the additional and singular
circumstance of there being no established religion at Mecca at that
time to contend with, might reasonably have been expected. How soon his
primitive adherents were let into the secret of his views of empire, or
in what stage of his undertaking these views first opened themselves to
his own mind, it is not now easy to determine. The event however was,
that these, his first proselytes, all ultimately attained to riches and
honours, to the command of armies, and the government of kingdoms.
(Gibbon, vol. ix. p 244.)
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* Of which Mr. Gibbon has preserved the following specimen: "When
Mahomet called out in an assembly of his family, Who among you will be
my companion, and my vizir? Ali, then only in the fourteenth year of his
age, suddenly replied, O prophet I am the man;--whosoever rises against
thee, I will dash out his teeth, tear out his eyes, break his legs, rip
up his belly. O prophet! I will be thy vizir over them." Vol. ix. p.
215.
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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.
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 their fortunes and their
persons in that cause to a degree above those who sit at home. God had
indeed promised every one Paradise; but God had preferred those who
fight for the faith before those who sit still, by adding unto them a
great reward; by degrees of honour conferred upon them from him, and by
granting them forgiveness and mercy." (Sale's Koran, c. iv. p. 73.)
Again; "Do ye reckon the giving drink to the pilgrims, and the visiting
of the holy temple, to be actions as meritorious as those performed by
him who believeth in God and the last day, and fighteth for the religion
of God? They shall not be held equal with God.--They who have believed
and fled their country, and employed their substance and their persons
in the defence of God's true religion, shall be in the highest degree of
honour with God; and these are they who shall be happy. The Lord sendeth
them good tidings of mercy from him, and good will, and of gardens
wherein they shall enjoy lasting pleasures. They shall continue therein
for ever; for with God is a great reward." (Sale's Koran, c. ix. p.
151.) And, once more; "Verily God hath purchased of the true believers
their souls and their substance, promising them the enjoyment of
Paradise on condition that they fight for the cause of God: whether they
slay or be slain, the promise for the same is assuredly due by the Law
and the Gospel and the Koran." (Sale's Koran, c. ix. p. 164.)*
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* "The sword," saith Mahomet, "is the key of heaven and of hell; a drop
of blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent in arms, is of more
avail than two months' fasting or prayer. Whosoever falls in battle, his
sins are forgiven at the day of judgment; his wounds shall be
resplendent as vermilion, and odoriferous as musk; and the loss of his
limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim." Gibbon,
vol. ix. p. 256.
_________
5. His doctrine of predestination was applicable, and was applied by
him, to the same purpose of fortifying and of exalting the courage of
his adherents.--"If anything of the matter had happened unto us, we had
not been slain here. Answer; If ye had been in your houses, verily they
would have gone forth to fight, whose slaughter was decreed, to the
places where they died." (Sale's Koran, c. iii. p. 54.)
6. In warm regions, the appetite of the sexes is ardent, the passion for
inebriating liquors moderate. In compliance with this distinction,
although Mahomet laid a restraint upon the drinking of wine, in the use
of women he allowed an almost unbounded indulgence. Four wives, with the
liberty of changing them at pleasure, (Sale's Koran, c. iv. p. 63.)
together with the persons of all his captives, (Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 225.)
was an irresistible bribe to an Arabian warrior. "God is minded," says
he, speaking of this very subject, "to make his religion light unto
you; for man was created weak." How different this from the
unaccommodating purity of the Gospel! How would Mahomet have succeeded
with the Christian lesson in his mouth.--"Whosoever looketh upon a woman
to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his
heart"? It must be added, that Mahomet did not venture upon the
prohibition of wine till the fourth year of the Hegira, or the
seventeenth of his mission, when his military successes had completely
established his authority. The same observation holds of the fast of the
Ramadan, (Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. i. pp. 126 & 112.) and of the most
laborious part of his institution, the pilgrimage to Mecca. (This
latter, however, already prevailed amongst the Arabs, and had grown out
of their excessive veneration for the Caaba. Mahomot's law, in this
respect, was rather a compliance than an innovation. Sale's Prelim.
Disc. p. 122.)
What has hitherto been collected from the records of the Musselman
history relates to the twelve or thirteen years of Mahomet's peaceable
preaching, which part alone of his life and enterprise admits of the
smallest comparison with the origin of Christianity. A new scene is now
unfolded. The city of Medina, distant about ten days' journey from
Mecca, was at that time distracted by the hereditary contentions of two
hostile tribes. These feuds were exasperated by the mutual persecutions
of the Jews and Christians, and of the different Christian sects by
which the city was inhabited. (Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. i. p. 100.) The
religion of Mahomet presented, in some measure, a point of union or
compromise to these divided opinions. It embraced the principles which
were common to them all. Each party saw in it an honourable
acknowledgment of the fundamental truth of their own system. To the
Pagan Arab, somewhat imbued with the sentiments and knowledge of his
Jewish or Christian fellow-citizen, it offered no defensive or very
improbable theology. This recommendation procured to Mahometanism a more
favourable reception at Medina than its author had been able, by twelve
years' painful endeavours, to obtain for it at Mecca. Yet, after all,
the progress of the religion was inconsiderable. His missionary could
only collect a congregation of forty persons. It was not a religious,
but a political association, which ultimately introduced Mahomet into
Medina. Harassed, as it should seem, and disgusted by the long
continuance of factions and disputes, the inhabitants of that city saw
in the admission of the prophet's authority a rest from the miseries
which they had suffered, and a suppression of the violence and fury
which they had learned to condemn. After an embassy, therefore, composed
of believers and unbelievers, (Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. i. p. 85.) and of
persons of both tribes, with whom a treaty was concluded of strict
alliance and support, Mahomet made his public entry, and was received as
the sovereign of Medina.
From this time, or soon after this time, the impostor changed his
language and his conduct. Having now a town at his command, where to arm
his party, and to head them with security, he enters upon new counsels.
He now pretends that a divine commission is given him to attack the
infidels, to destroy idolatry, and to set up the true faith by the
sword. (Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. i. p. 88.) An early victory over a very
superior force, achieved by conduct and bravery, established the renown
of his arms, and of his personal character. (Victory of Bedr, Mod. Univ.
Hist. Vol. i. p. 106.) Every year after this was marked by battles or
assassinations. The nature and activity of Mahomet's future exertions
may be estimated from the computation, that in the nine following years
of his life he commanded his army in person in eight general
engagements, (Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. i. p. 255.) and undertook, by himself
or his lieutenants, fifty military enterprises.
From this time we have nothing left to account for, but that Mahomet
should collect an army, that his army should conquer, and that his
religion should proceed together with his conquests. The ordinary
experience of human affairs leaves us little to wonder at in any of
these effects: and they were likewise each assisted by peculiar
facilities. From all sides, the roving Arabs crowded round the standard
of religion and plunder, of freedom and victory, of arms and rapine.
Beside the highly painted joys of a carnal paradise, Mahomet rewarded
his followers in this world with a liberal division of the spoils, and
with the persons of their female captives. (Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 255.) The
condition of Arabia, occupied by small independent tribes, exposed it to
the impression, and yielded to the progress of a firm and resolute army.
After the reduction of his native peninsula, the weakness also of the
Roman provinces on the north and the west, as well as the distracted
state of the Persian empire on the east, facilitated the successful
invasion of neighbouring countries. That Mahomet's conquests should
carry his religion along with them will excite little surprise, when we
know the conditions which he proposed to the vanquished. Death or
conversion was the only choice offered to idolaters. "Strike off their
heads! strike off all the ends of their fingers!(Sale's Koran, c. viii.
p. 140.) kill the idolaters, wheresoever ye shall find them!" (Sale's
Koran, c. ix. p. 149.) To the Jews and Christians was left the somewhat
milder alternative of subjection and tribute, if they persisted in their
own religion, or of an equal participation in the rights and liberties,
the honours and privileges, of the faithful, if they embraced the
religion of their conquerors. "Ye Christian dogs, you know your option;
the Koran, the tribute, or the sword." (Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 337.) The
corrupted state of Christianity in the seventh century, and the
contentions of its sects, unhappily so fell in with men's care of their
safety or their fortunes, as to induce many to forsake its profession.
Add to all which, that Mahomet's victories not only operated by the
natural effect of conquest, but that they were constantly represented,
both to his friends and enemies, as divine declarations in his favour.
Success was evidence. Prosperity carried with it, not only influence,
but proof. "Ye have already," says he, after the battle of Bedr, "had a
miracle shown you, in two armies which attacked each other; one army
fought for God's true religion, but the other were infidels." (Sale's
Koran, c. iii. p. 36.) Again; "Ye slew not those who were slain at Bedr,
but God slew them.--If ye desire a decision of the matter between us,
now hath a decision come unto you." (Sale's Koran, c. viii. p. 141.)
Many more passages might be collected out of the Koran to the same
effect; but they are unnecessary. The success of Mahometanism during
this, and indeed every future period of its history, bears so little
resemblance to the early propagation of Christianity, that no inference
whatever can justly be drawn from it to the prejudice of the Christian
argument. For what are we comparing? A Galilean peasant accompanied by a
few fishermen with a conqueror at the head of his army. We compare
Jesus, without force, without power, without support, without One
external circumstance of attraction or influence, prevailing against the
prejudices, the learning, the hierarchy, of his country; against the
ancient religious opinions, the pompous religious rites, the philosophy,
the wisdom, the authority, of the Roman empire, in the most polished and
enlightened period of its existence,--with Mahomet making his way
amongst Arabs; collecting followers in the midst of conquests and
triumphs, in the darkest ages and countries of the world, and when
success in arms not only operated by that command of men's wills and
persons which attend prosperous undertakings, but was considered as a
sure testimony of Divine approbation. That multitudes, persuaded by this
argument, should join the train of a victorious chief; that still
greater multitudes should, without any argument, bow down before
irresistible power--is a conduct in which we cannot see much to surprise
us; in which we can see nothing that resembles the causes by which the
establishment of Christianity was effected.
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