Page:The Mohammedan system of theology (IA mohammedansyste00neal).pdf/177

 wise determined, would not be affected by such means; nay, would become more obdurate, and consequently exposed to greater condemnation. He observed, therefore, that God had sent him last of all his Prophets, to enforce obedience by the power of the sword.

This daring attempt to impeach the utility of miracles speaks volumes: it not only shews his incompetency, but establishes our hypothesis of the reasonableness of the expectation that God would invest a delegate from himself with some such convincing authority. The truth of the principle has been virtually acknowledged, as well by the endeavours of some of the Musulmans to controvert the use of miracles by a chain of reasoning similar to the above, as by the attempts of others to decorate their Prophet with such a power, notwithstanding his open disavowal. The former observe that God has, at different times, sent different Prophets into the world,