A27004:1115
The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural…
The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural evidence the being of God ... : the second part, of Christianity, proving by evidence supernatural and natural, the certain truth of the Christian belief ... / by Richard Baxter ... ; also an appendix defending the soul's immortality against the Somatists or Epicureans and other pseudo-philosophers.
London: printed by R. White for Fran. Titon, 1667
Part 2 › Chapter 2: Of the several Religions which are in the world.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
§. 12. But withal I find a Man exalted as the chief of Prophets, 1without any such proof as a wise man should be moved with; and an Alcoran written by him below the rates of common Reason, being a Rhapsody of Nonsense and Confession; and many false and impious doctrines introduced; and a tyrannical Empire and Religion twisted, and both erected, propagated, and maintained, by irrational tyrannical means: As which discharge my reason from the entertainment of this Religion.
§. 12. But withall I finde a Man exalted as the chief of Prophets, 1without any such proof as a wise man should be moved with; and an Alcoran written by him below the rates of common Reason, being a Rhapsody of Nonsence and Confesion; and many false and impious doctrines introduced; and a tyrannical Empire and Religion twisted, and both erected, propagated, and maintained, by irrational tyrannical means: As which discharge my reason from the entertainment of this Religion.
- 1Vid. Theodore Abucare Opuscul. Mahumetem non esse ex Deo. &c. Et Euthym•i Zigaben. Moamethica.
1. That Mahomet was so great (or any) Prophet, is neither confirmed by any true credible Miracle, nor by any eminency of Wisdom or Holiness, in which he excelled other men; nor any thing else which Reason can judge to be a Divine attestation. The contrary is sufficiently apparent in the irrationality of his Alcoran: There is no true Learning nor excellency in it, but such as might be expected among men of the more incult wits, and barbarous education: There is nothing delivered methodically or rationally, with any evidence of solid understanding: There is nothing, but the most nauseous repetition an hundred times over of many simple incoherent speeches, in the dialect of a drunken man; sometimes against Idolaters, and sometimes against Christians for calling Christ, God; which all set together seem not to contain (in the whole Alcoran) so much solid useful sense and reason as one leaf of some of those Philosophers whom he opposeth, however his time, had delivered him from their Idolatry, and caused him more to approach the Christian Faith.