to, 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. See Beausobre, tom. i. p. 291-305.]

[Footnote 90: Among the prophecies of the Old and New Testament, which
are perverted by the fraud or ignorance of the Mussulmans, they apply to
the prophet the promise of the Paraclete, or Comforter, which had been
already usurped by the Montanists and Manichaeans, (Beausobre, Hist.
Critique du Manicheisme, tom. i. p. 263, &c.;) and the easy change of
letters affords the etymology of the name of Mohammed, (Maracci, tom. i.
part i. p. 15-28.)]

Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.--Part IV.

The communication of ideas requires a similitude of thought and
language: the discourse of a philosopher would vibrate without effect
on the ear of a peasant; yet how minute is the distance of their
understandings, if it be compared with the contact of an infinite and a
finite mind, with the word of God expressed by the tongue or the pen of
a mortal! The inspiration of the Hebrew prophets, of the apostles and
evangelists of Christ, might not be incompatible with the exercise of
their reason and memory; and the diversity of their genius is strongly
marked in the style and composition of the books of the Old and New
Testament. But Mahomet was content with a character, more humble, yet
more sublime, of a simple editor; the substance of the Koran, [91]
according to himself or his disciples, is uncreated and eternal;
subsisting in the essence of the Deity, and inscribed