he belyeth the Goſpel, in ſaying it is corrupted by Chriſtians; he belyeth Chriſtians, when he ſaith they worship many gods, and that they give to God a companion, when they acknowledg the Divinity of Chriſt; he belyeth the Jews in ſaying they make Eleazer a god; he belyes the Patriarchs, in ſaying that Noah, Abraham, Iſaac, and Jacob believed his Alcoran, being ſo many thouſand years before he was born, or his Alcoran had any exiſtance; he belyes alſo the Apoſtles, in making them his Scholers, who lived neer ſix hundred years before he was born: by all which we may ſee who was the Compiler of this Alcoran, not the God of Truth, but the Father of Lyes; not Chriſt and his Apoſtles, whoſe weapons in propagating the Gospel, were powerfull preaching, miracles, and patience in ſuffering; not the ſword, the chief means that Mahomet uſeth to force his Alcoran, an inſtrument forbid by Chriſt, but uſed by him who hath been a murtherer from the beginning; but I will not take upon me the task of refuting the Alcoran, beinq already refuted by Cantacuzenus, Richardus the Monk, Cuſa the Cardinal, Woodmanſtadius, Savanorola and others. I only thought good, upon intreaty of ſome learned and religious men, to prefix this brief Caveat, that the Reader might be the better armed to encounter with any rub or difficulty he ſhall meet with in the reading thereof. But before I end, give me leave to clear my ſelf again in this point: that it is not my meaning all ſhould have the liberty to read the Alcoran promiſcuouſly, I know with the Apoſtle, that though all things be lawfully yet all things are not expedient, there are children as well as men in underſtanding; the Nurſe may uſe that knife which the childe may not, and that ſword which may without danger be handled by a ſober man, cannot without danger be touched by a mad man; there are as well queaſie as ſtrong ſtomacks, and what is meat to the one may be venome to the other; though Mithridates could without hurt eat poyſon, others may not preſume to eſcape ſo; it is lawfull for any to look upon a monſter, but it is not expedient for conceiving women; that iron which an Oſtrich can digeſt, may deſtroy the ſtomack of other creatures; how many have been de-
