340 THE DECLINE AND FALL the one^ and the practice of the other, has been the real or pre- tended aim of the prophets of every age ; the liberaHty 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.^^ During that period, some rays of prophetic light had been im- parted 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 recal 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 an- nounced to mankind the six successive revelations of various rights, 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 apoc- ryphal copies of the Greeks and Syrians ; ^^ 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 synagogues •,^'^ 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 con- secrated and embellished in the Koran ; ^^ 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 85 Reland, de Relig. Moham. 1. i. p. 17-47. Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 73-76. Voyage de Chardin, torn. iv. p. 28-37 and 37-47 for the Persian addition, " Ali is the vicar of God ! " Yet the precise number of prophets is not an article of faith. 86 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. [The book of Enoch survives in an Ethiopic version, edited by .rchbishop LaviTence, with a translation, 1821.] 87 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. 88 The articles of Adam, Nouh, Abraham, Moses, &c. in the Bibliotheque of d'Herbelot, are gaily bedecked wnth the fanciful legends of the Mahometans, who have built on the groundwork of Scripture and the Talmud.
