Page:History of Mahomet, that grand impostor.pdf/25

 permitted him to be vanquished:” And to oppose the clamours and complaints of the latter, he introduced his doctrine of Predestination, telling them, “That as for those who were slain in the late battle, their fate was inevitable; and that if they had remained at home in their houses, they must have died when they did, the period of everyman’s life being absolutely fixed and predetermined of God, beyond which time it could not possibly be prolonged:” But for their comfort, he added, “That as they died fighting for the faith, they had obtained the crown of martyrdom, and were now alive with God in Paradise in a state of everlasting bliss, which was infinitely to be preferred before this life, and all the satisfaction the world afforded.” And these doctrines he found so strengthened the courage and resolution of his disciples, that he did not fail to inculcate them ever after.

The next year Mahomet made war upon a tribe of Jewish Arabs in the neighbourhood of Medina, whom he forced to fly towards Syria; but a party of his troops overtaking them near the border of that country, put them every man to the sword, one only excepted, who had the good fortune to escape. The same year he fought a second battle, and had many other skirmishes with those that refused to submit to him, which were attended with various success.

In one of these expeditions, some of his officers, being heated with liquor and deeply engaged in play, fell out amongst themselves, and had very near ruined his affairs; and therefore, for preventing the like mischief, he prohibited his followers the use of wine, and all games of chance Cfor