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 Tren