Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/272



have thus far endeavoured to investigate the prophecies of Holy Scripture, which relate to that dreadful incarnation of evil, that the same Sacred Book designates under the name of Antichrist, or of those other symbolical descriptions and personages, which, by the common consent of Christian interpreters, are referred to Antichrist. We have examined, first, what prophecy in general would lead us to expect concerning this being; when he was to appear; where he was to fix the principal seat of his dominion; what was to be the period or the duration of that dominion; and what were to be the characteristics of it. We then inquired whether any personage had arisen in past history answering to these prophetic marks and descriptions, and we found that there was a personage, who, in our opinion at least, exactly fulfilled them all, and that this personage was the great Arabian impostor, Mahomet: while the religious system he fabricated, in alliance with the mighty political empire he also founded along with it, had exercised in relation to