dern Hiſtories of the Eaſt and Weſt Indies, wherein are more damnable tenets then any in the Alcoran, and they who have read the Jewiſh Talmud, and Cabala, will finde them as ridiculous pieces as the Alcoran.
3. If there were any lovelineſs, beauty, excellency, or any thing elſe in the Alcoran that might win the minde, and draw the affection after it, I ſhould hold the reading of it dangerous, but whereas it is ſuch a miſhapen and deformed piece, I think the reading of it will confirm us in the truth, and cauſe us love the Scripture ſo much the more: for as a beautiful body is never more lovely then when ſhe is placed neer a Black-More, neither is truth more amiable then when it is beſet with Errors. Oppoſita uxta ſe poſita clarius eluceſcunt, the Gem recieves luſtre from the foile, the ſtars from the night, & fire is moſt ſcorching in Froſt, even ſo by an Antiperiſtaſis truth is fortified by error Who can thing that the fight of a Hob Goblin, or deformed vizard ſhould draw the childe from the Nurſe or breſt of the Mother to embrace it, Whereas the fight thereof will rather cauſe the child hold faſter by the mother. The wiſe Spartans oft-times brought drunkards into the room. where their ſons were, not that they ſhould be induced thereby to love, but to abbor drunkenneſs, which they could not have done, had they not ſeen the unſeemly and rude carriage, the undecent behavior, and uncompoſed geſtures of the drunkard. When Ziſca had deſtroyed the Adamits of Bohemia, he preſerved two alive that they might reveal to the world the wicked errors of that Sect. Who is ſo mad as to prefer the embracements of a filthy Baboon, to his beautiful Miſtreſs, or the braying of an Aſs to a Conſort of Muſick? he deſerves the ears of Midas that will prefer the Cuckoes ſong to the ſweet notes of the Nightingale.
4. Though the Alcoran be received among many Nations, yet this reception proceeds not from any love they bear to it, or any lovelineſs they finde in it, but partly out of fear, being forced by the Sword, partly out of a prepoſterous deſire of liberty and preferment, and partly out of ignorance, as not being ſuffered to read the Scriptures nor to hear Philoſophy, by which the errors thereof may be detected, nor to enquire into the abſurdities thereof, or to diſpute and queſtion any thing in it: for which cauſe alſo it is not ſuffered
