• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 21371 0

both the Jews, who reject him as a prophet, and the Christians, who adore him as the Son of God. The malice of his enemies aspersed his reputation, and conspired against his life; but their intention only was guilty; a phantom or a criminal was substituted on the cross; and the innocent saint was translated to the seventh heaven. ^88 During six hundred years the gospel was the way of truth and salvation; but the Christians insensibly forgot both the laws and example of their founder; and Mahomet was instructed by the Gnostics to accuse the church, as well as the synagogue, of corrupting the integrity of the sacred text. ^89 The piety of Moses and of Christ rejoiced in the assurance of a future prophet, more illustrious than themselves: the evangelical promise of the Paraclete, or Holy Ghost, was prefigured in the name, and accomplished in the person, of Mahomet, ^90 the greatest and the last of the apostles of God.

[Footnote 80: Reland, de Relig. Moham. l. i. p. 17 - 47. Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 73 - 76. Voyage de Chardin, tom. iv. p. 28 - 37, and 37 - 47, for the Persian addition, "Ali is the vicar of God!" Yet the precise number of the prophets is not an article of faith.]

[Footnote 81: For the apocryphal books of Adam, see Fabricius, Codex Pseudepigraphus V. T. p. 27 - 29; of Seth, p. 154 - 157; of Enoch, p. 160 - 219. But the book of Enoch is consecrated, in some measure, by the quotation of the apostle St. Jude; and a long legendary fragment is alleged by Syncellus and Scaliger.

Note: The whole book has since been recovered in the Ethiopic language, - and has been edited and translated by Archbishop Lawrence, Oxford, 1881 - M.]

[Footnote 82: The seven precepts of Noah are explained by Marsham, (Canon Chronicus, p. 154 - 180,) who adopts, on this occasion, the learning and credulity of Selden.]

[Footnote 83: The articles of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, &c., in the Bibliotheque of D'Herbelot, are gayly bedecked with the fanciful legends of the Mahometans, who have built on the groundwork of Scripture and the Talmud.]

[Footnote 84: Koran, c. 7, p. 128, &c., c. 10, p. 173, &c. D'Herbelot, p. 647, &c.]

[Footnote 85: Koran, c. 3, p. 40, c. 4. p. 80. D'Herbelot, p. 399, &c.]

[Footnote 86: See the Gospel of St. Thomas, or of the Infancy, in the Codex Apocryphus N. T. of Fabricius, who collects the various testimonies concerning it, (p. 128 - 158.) It was published in Greek by Cotelier, and in Arabic by Sike, who thinks our present copy more recent than Mahomet. Yet his quotations agree with the original about the speech of Christ in his cradle, his living birds of clay, &c. (Sike, c. i. p. 168, 169, c. 36, p. 198, 199, c. 46, p. 206. Cotelier, c. 2, p. 160, 161.)]

[Footnote 87: It is darkly hinted in the Koran, (c. 3, p. 39,) and more clearly explained by the tradition of the Sonnites, (Sale's Note, and Maracci, tom. ii. p. 112.) In the xiith century, the immaculate conception was condemned by St. Bernard as a presumptuous novelty, (Fra Paolo, Istoria del Concilio di Trento, l. ii.)]

[Footnote 88: See the Koran, c. 3, v. 53, and c. 4, v. 156, of Maracci's edition. Deus est praestantissimus dolose agentium (an odd praise) ... nec crucifixerunt eum, sed objecta est eis similitudo; an expression that may suit with the system of the Docetes; but the commentators believe (Maracci, tom. ii. p. 113 - 115, 173. Sale, p. 42, 43, 79) that another man, a friend or an enemy, was crucified in the likeness of Jesus; a fable which they had read in the Gospel of St. Barnabus, and which had been started as early as the time of Irenaeus, by some Ebionite heretics, (Beausobre, Hist. du Manicheisme, tom. ii. p. 25, Mosheim. de Reb. Christ. p. 353.)]

[Footnote 89: This charge is obscurely urged in the Koran, (c. 3, p. 45;) but neither Mahomet, nor his followers, are sufficiently versed in languages and criticism to give any weight or color to their suspicions. Yet the Arians and Nestorians could relate some stories, and the illiterate prophet might listen to the bold assertions of the Manichaeans.