The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon [1673]
[Footnote 76: The three gods in the Koran (c. 4, p. 81, c. 5, p. 92) are obviously directed against our Catholic mystery: but the Arabic commentators understand them of the Father, the Son, and the Virgin Mary, an heretical Trinity, maintained, as it is said, by some Barbarians at the Council of Nice, (Eutych. Annal. tom. i. p. 440.) But the existence of the Marianites is denied by the candid Beausobre, (Hist. de Manicheisme, tom. i. p. 532;) and he derives the mistake from the word Roxah, the Holy Ghost, which in some Oriental tongues is of the feminine gender, and is figuratively styled the mother of Christ in the Gospel of the Nazarenes.]
[Footnote 77: This train of thought is philosophically exemplified in the character of Abraham, who opposed in Chaldaea the first introduction of idolatry, (Koran, c. 6, p. 106. D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 13.)]
[Footnote 78: See the Koran, particularly the second, (p. 30,) the fifty-seventh, (p. 437,) the fifty-eighth (p. 441) chapters, which proclaim the omnipotence of the Creator.]
[Footnote 79: The most orthodox creeds are translated by Pocock, (Specimen, p. 274, 284 - 292,) Ockley, (Hist. of the Saracens, vol. ii. p. lxxxii. - xcv.,) Reland, (de Religion. Moham. l. i. p. 7 - 13,) and Chardin, (Voyages en Perse, tom. iv. p. 4 - 28.) The great truth, that God is without similitude, is foolishly criticized by Maracci, (Alcoran, tom. i. part iii. p. 87 - 94,) because he made man after his own image.]
The God of nature has written his existence on all his works, and his law in the heart of man. To restore the knowledge of the one, and the practice of the other, has been the real or pretended aim of the prophets of every age: the liberality of Mahomet allowed to his predecessors the same credit which he claimed for himself; and the chain of inspiration was prolonged from the fall of Adam to the promulgation of the Koran. ^80 During that period, some rays of prophetic light had been imparted to one hundred and twenty-four thousand of the elect, discriminated by their respective measure of virtue and grace; three hundred and thirteen apostles were sent with a special commission to recall their country from idolatry and vice; one hundred and four volumes have been dictated by the Holy Spirit; and six legislators of transcendent brightness have announced to mankind the six successive revelations of various rites, but of one immutable religion. The authority and station of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Christ, and Mahomet, rise in just gradation above each other; but whosoever hates or rejects any one of the prophets is numbered with the infidels. The writings of the patriarchs were extant only in the apocryphal copies of the Greeks and Syrians: ^81 the conduct of Adam had not entitled him to the gratitude or respect of his children; the seven precepts of Noah were observed by an inferior and imperfect class of the proselytes of the synagogue; ^82 and the memory of Abraham was obscurely revered by the Sabians in his native land of Chaldaea: of the myriads of prophets, Moses and Christ alone lived and reigned; and the remnant of the inspired writings was comprised in the books of the Old and the New Testament. The miraculous story of Moses is consecrated and embellished in the Koran; ^83 and the captive Jews enjoy the secret revenge of imposing their own belief on the nations whose recent creeds they deride. For the author of Christianity, the Mahometans are taught by the prophet to entertain a high and mysterious reverence. ^84 "Verily, Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, is the apostle of God, and his word, which he conveyed unto Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from him; honorable in this world, and in the world to come, and one of those who approach near to the presence of God." ^85 The wonders of the genuine and apocryphal gospels ^86 are profusely heaped on his head; and the Latin church has not disdained to borrow from the Koran the immaculate conception ^87 of his virgin mother. Yet Jesus was a mere mortal; and, at the day of judgment, his testimony will serve to condemn