Esau, and our holy prophet Mahommed. All these prophesied in their days, and through them the will of God was revealed unto men. But the sacred books which were delivered unto them are now lost, and their contents unknown.

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*

"Four sacred books have been successively delivered to mankind: the Toreet, the Zuboor,† the Engel, and the Foorcan. In the first three," added the sheik, were many notices of the coming of our great prophet: but the wicked Jews and Christians, who had the charge of these books, most impiously erased from them every thing that had relation to his mission, excepting one or two solitary passages, where he is spoken of as the Comforter which was to come after the departure of Jesus.

"But the fourth holy book remains pure, as it was delivered to the angel Gabriel to our mighty prophet, Mahommed," continued the sheik: "this, therefore, is the book which thou must receive and believe, if thou wouldst be saved."

Then answered Goonah Purist, "I am willing, my lord, to receive it; and I pray that God may give me a heart to believe those things which are written therein."

The Sheik Olislam appeared to be satisfied with the answers of Goonah Purist, and proceeded to give him further instructions, in order to qualify him for the reception of the faith of Islam.

He told him that every prophet who had appeared on earth, with the exception of the last and greatest, to wit. the prophet of the Mussulmauns, had come with offers of grace and pardon to men: "More especially," added the sheik," Huzrut Esau, whose offers of pardon and peace were free to all such as came to him. But," continued he, "the wicked idolaters and Jews rejected these offers, and put the last of these messengers of peace to an ignominious and painful death: wherefore God being wearied with the obstinacy of mankind, sent Huzrut Mahommed with a conquering sword, communicating to him power sufficient to enforce obedience. And now, acting under the same divine authority, we hold it to be a high and religious duty, as devoted followers of our great prophet, to compel all infidels, idolaters, Jews,

* Pentateuch.
+ The Gospels.

+ Psalms of David.

& The Koraun.

and Christians, to embrace the true religion; using such coercive means as are in our power, to reclaim mankind from their errors."

"I perceive, my lord, by what you say," answered Goonah Purist," that you believe God to be angry with all mankind: nay, I do not know how it can be otherwise than that we should lie under the displeasure of God seeing that we are all sinners, and that God, from the universal perfection of his nature, must be infinitely pure and holy. But this being the case, how can I, who know myself to be one of the chief of sinners, make my peace with him? Are the terms of salvation pointed out in your holy book?"

Sheik Olislam. Are you willing to confess that there is no god but God, and that Huzrut Mahommed is his prophet?

Goonah Purist. May I be so bold, my lord, as to inquire, of what avail this confession will be with regard to the forgiveness of sins; and whether I may thereby hope to fare better in the world to come? For I am as a man condemned to death, and under the horrors of eternal condemnation. I am even now as one sinking into a bottomless pit; and in these circumstances I seek a hope to rest upon, which will not forsake me when the elements are dissolved, and when the stars shall fall from their orbits.

I saw in my dream, that upon this, the Sheik Olislam and his disciples express their contempt of the ignorance of Goonah Purist; nevertheless the sheik answered his question. "You desire to know," said he, "how a true faith may profit you after death. To throw light, therefore, upon your dark and benighted mind, I will explain these things to you. In the first place, I would have you to understand, that when a corpse is laid in the grave, it is visited by a divine messenger, who gives it notice of the approach of two black and livid angels; which angels, on their arrival, cause the dead person to sit upright, and examine him concerning his faith, and his opinion relative to the unity of God, and the divine mission of Huzrut Mahommed. If he can answer satisfactorily," continued the sheik, "they suffer his body to rest in peace, and it is refreshed by the air of paradise; if not, they beat upon his temples with iron maces till he roars out for anguish so loud as to be heard from east to west by all created beings except men and

beasts. Then is the earth pressed on him, and he is gnawed by venomous creatures till the resurrection. Tell me then, Goonah Purist," asked the sheik," whether a right faith will not avail thee much on this occasionthis horrible examination of the tomb ?"

I perceived then that Goonah Purist began to tremble; nevertheless, he continued to question the sheik, and would know of him what he could relate concerning the state of believers in the prophet Mahommed in the future world.

"Know, O Goonah Purist," replied the sheik, "that as the bodies of all men and beasts will be raised from the dust, and those of men be reunited to their souls at a certain season; so, many wonderful signs will forerun that last day, or day of judgment. The chief of these will be the sounding of the great trumpet, the blast of which will be heard three several times, filling all heaven and earth with consternation: and at the sound of the last dreadful blast, every particular body will spring forth from its grave, and be reunited to its soul. That great and terrible day of judgment, when all mankind will be assembled before the Almighty Judge, will last a thousand years. At that time will Huzrut Esau descend to judge the world, and to commit idolaters to hellfire, from which they will never be delivered. But he will give up the faithful to our holy prophet Mahommed, who will mediate between them and God. Then will all mankind," added the Sheik Olislam, "stand assembled some say a thousand, some fifty thousand years looking up to heaven, but without receiving any information from thence. And, in the mean time, the torments of the just and of the unjust will be very grievous: but those of the former will be most terrible."

Now I saw in my dream, that when Goonah Purist heard this terrible account of the last day, he groaned within himself. Moreover, the burden on his back began to press more heavily upon him, while the leprosy in his body caused him to appear more and more foul in his own eyes; yet he spake not.

So the Sheik Olislam proceeded in his discourse, and spake thus:-"When all mankind assembled have waited the appointed time, then will God appear to judge them. He will be surrounded by his angels, and will produce the books wherein the accounts of every person stand recorded by their guardian angels. Then every one

will be examined according to his works; and every man shall give an account to God of the manner in which he spent his time on earth; of his riches, how he gathered and how he employed them; of his body, how he exercised it; of his talents and learning, to what purpose they were applied."

"If this be so," said Goonah Purist, "we are all undone; for whose actions can stand so dreadful a trial?" "It is my business," answered the Sheik Olislam, "to see that thy works are rendered fit to stand the trial; for there can be no doubt but that things will be as I have represented them, since I take them from this holy book which now lies before me, and which, as I before said, was dictated by the angel Gabriel to our holy prophet Huzrut Mahommed."

Goonah Purist fetched a deep groan; and then, with his eyes fixed on the ground, hearkened to the Sheik Olislam, who thus went on :

“In that day, even the day of judgment, the angel Gabriel will stand with a balance in his hand of immense magnitude. In this will the actions of every individual be weighed; and those persons whose good actions shall be found to preponderate against their evil works, will be saved."

"Then," said Goonah Purist," in that case, I shall be inevitably condemned; seeing that the weight of my sins is even now too heavy for me to bear. But, my lord, what will follow the last judgment ?"

“When the trial is over," replied the Sheik Olislam, "such of the believers as are to be admitted into paradise will take the right-hand way, while those who are destined to hell-fire will turn to the left; but both of them must pass the bridge Al Sirat, which is laid over the midst of hell. This bridge is finer than a hair, and sharper than the edge of a sword. The righteous will be enabled to pass over it with ease; but the wicked will miss their footing, and fall headlong into hell, whose flaming jaws will be gaping wide beneath them."

а

"And will they remain for ever in hell?" asked Goonah Purist.

The Sheik Olislam replied, "Of those who fall from Al Sirat, such as have been true believers, and yet have been guilty of crimes, will be received into Jehennam, which is the first hell (for there are seven), whence,

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after having expiated their crimes by ages of fiery suffering, they will be taken up into a state of happiness. But the rest, who have not been true believers, bearing the name only of Mussulmaun, while hypocrisy was in their hearts, will fall into the seventh, or lowest hell, from whence they can never be delivered."

I perceived then, in my dream, that when Goonah Purist heard of the difficulties which even true believers must encounter before they can be admitted to happiness, difficulties which appeared to him absolutely insurmountable, inasmuch as those who are to be saved must, in a great measure, owe their salvation to their own good works and deservings; being filled with horror and consternation, he cried out to this effect:-"Seeing all these things are so, what shall I do to be saved?"

Then answered the Sheik Olislam, "If thou art in earnest to become a Mussulmaun, renouncing thine abominable idolatries, I will inform thee what thou must do." He then made him understand, that their religion required frequent washings and ablutions; earnest prayer, which was duly to be observed seven times a day: abstinence from pork, and frequent alms-giving, with the regular observance of appointed fasts, together with various other ceremonies.

Then answered Goonah Purist. "Many of these things have I done, and more than you have mentioned; if they could have availed me any thing. I have not only refrained from the flesh of swine, but also from that of the cow, from my infancy; I have observed long fasts, and made use of frequent ablutions: but what have all these external rites availed me? I am in no way cleansed or purified from the leprosy of sin: neither is the grievous weight of my burden at all diminished by prayer, or by giving of alms; for these last," added he, "being no more than just and necessary duties, or rather debts due to him that giveth all things, how can they afford satisfaction for past trespasses? feel that the state of mankind on earth is such as to demand a powerful atonement, yea, such an atonement as no created being can provide, and such a method of purification from these pollutions as the whole creation supply."

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"Do you mean to insinuate," replied the Sheik Olislam," that our holy faith does not afford what your necessities require ? You cannot, then, trust our great