ablolutely forbad them to ufe it in the old fen fe ; unlefs they meant
no more by it, than that G o d had fo ordered the feafons, that when
the moon was in fuch or fuch a manfion or houfe, or at the riling
or fetting o f fuch and fuch a lia r, it Ihould rain or be windy, hot
or cold
The old Arabians therefore feem to have made no farther progrefs in a-
ftronomy, which fcience they afterwards cultivated with fo much fuccefs
and applaufe, than to obferve the influence of the liars on the weather,
and to give them names; and this it was obvious for them to
do, by reafon of their pafloral way o f life, lying night and day in
the open plains. The names they impofed on the liars, generally
alluded to cattle and flocks, and they were fo nice in dillinguilhing
them, that no language has fo many names of liars and alterifms as
the Arabic; for tho’ they have fince borrowed the names of feveral
conllellations from the Greeks, yet the far greater part are of their
own growth, and much more ancient, particularly thofe of the more
confpicuous liars, difperfed in feveral conllellations, and thofe of the
leffer conllellations which are contained within the greater, and were
not obferved or named by the Greeks \
Thus have I given the moll fuccindt account I have been able, of
the Hate of the ancient Arabians before Mohammed, or, to ufe their
expreffion, in the time of ignorance. I lhall now proceed briefly to
conlider the Hate of religion in the eall, and of the two great empires
which divided that part of the world between them, at the
time of Mohammed’s letting up for a prophet, and what were the
conducive circumllances and accidents that favoured his fuccefs.
1 V. Poc, Spec. p. 163, &c. 2 V. Hyde ubi Tup, p. 4.
S e c -
S e c t i o n II.
O f the State o f Chriftianity, particularly o f the Eaftern.
Churches, and o f Judaifm, at the Time o f M ohammed’.?
appearance: and o f the methods taken by him fo r the
efiablifhing his Religion, and the circumjlances which
concurred thereto. *
IF we look into the eccleliallical hillorians even from the third The
century, we lhall find the Chrijlian world to have then had a 'fchrl/ii-
very different afpedt from what fome authors have reprefented; unity after
and fo far from being indued with adtive graces, zeal, and devotion,
and ellablilhed within itfelf with purity of dodtrine, union, and firm
profeffion of the faith ", that on the contrary, what by. the ambition
of the clergy, and what by drawing the abftrufeft niceties into con-
troverfy, and dividing and fubdividing about them into endlefs fchifms
and contentions, they had fo dellroyed that peace, love, and charity
from among them, which theGofpel was given to promote; and in-
llead thereof continually provoked each other to that malice, rancour,
and every evil work; that they had loll the whole fubltance
o f their religion, while they thus eagerly contended for their own
imaginations concerning it; and in a manner, quite drove Chrijiianity
out of the world, by thole very controverfies in which they difputed
with each other about it Jjc In thefe dark ages it was, that moll of
thofe fuperftitions and corruptions we now juftly abhor in the church
o f Rome, were not only broached, but ellablilhed; which gave great
advantages to the propagation of Mohammedifm. The worlhip of
faints and images, in particular, was then arrived at fuch a fcandalous
pitch, that it even furpaffed whatever is now pradtifed among the
Romanijls
After the Nicene council, the eallern church was engaged in perpetual
controverfies, and torn to pieces by the difputes of the Arians,
Sabellians, Nejiorians, and Eutychians: the herefies of the two lall
of which have been Ihewn to have confiiled more in the words and
form of expreffion, than in the dodtrines themfelves 4; and were ra-
1 Ricattfs State of the Ottoman empire, p.187. 2 Prideaux's pref. to his life of Mahomet. 3 V.
La vie de Mahomed, par Boulainvilliers, p. 219, &c. 4 V . Simon, Hill. Crit. dela creance, Sec.
des nations du Levant.
£ ther