Page:The Mohammedan system of theology (IA mohammedansyste00neal).pdf/55

 fraud, which, while it tended to the aggrandizement of the popedom, virtually dethroned the Saviour, and converted the best gift of God, the religion of Jesus Christ, into the very reverse of all the ends for which it was designed. With regard to Mohammed, had he pretended no particular call, and restricted himself to the inculcation of the unity of the divine nature, he might have been transmitted to posterity as the head of a sect, but not as the founder or compiler of the code which now hears his name. Asserting a particular call exposes him to reprehension: there is no God but God, is an acknowledged truth, but that Mohammed is his prophet is a fiction. The natural and penal consequence of error is to produce itself in endless variety This accounts for his tampering with Christianity and Judaism, it being necessary to the success of his projects to recognise those ancient and widely prevailing modes of faith,