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 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