Page:History of Mahomet, that grand impostor.pdf/10

 terrified to embrace his new system of religion.

To these motives he added, (that nothing might be wanting), the threats of grievous punishments and judgments in this life, as well as in that which is to come, if they would not hearken to his doctrine. To this end, he took all opportunities of representing to them the terrible destruction that had overtaken such as refused to listen to the prophets sent before him: How the deluge came upon the old world: Sodom was destroyed by fire, and the Egyptians were sore affected with various plagues, for their contempt and disobedience to Noah, Lot, and Moses; and how Ad and Thamor, two ancient tribes of the Arabians, (as, he on purpose feigned), were totally extirpated for the same reason. On account of such stories as these, which he frequently inculcated to the people, his enemies called him “A teller of old Fables;” but by these artifices, his party continued to increase, which was at last joined by two of his uncles, though severals of them continued to oppose him, as a man who carried on designs that tended to the prejudice of his country.

But that which grieved him most was, that bis opposers required him to work a miracle; "For, said they, Moses, Jesus, and the other prophets, wrought miracles to prove that their missions was divine, and therefore if thou art a prophet, and greater than any that were sent before thee, as thou boastest thyself to be, demonstrate it to us by the same sort of proof: Raise the dead, cause the dumb to speak, and the deaf to hear, and then we will believe thee.” This objection, he endeavoured to evade, or answer divers ways but his most siderable