I shall only add, that this fancy of Mr B. and the rest of the So- cinians (Socinianism being, indeed, a kind of modest and subtile Mohammedanism^), of Christ's seeing God, as did Moses, seems to be taken from, or taken up to comply with, the Alcoran, where the same is affirmed of Mohammed. So Beidavi on these words of the Alcoran, "Et sunt ex iis quibuscum locutus est ipse Deus." Saith he, "Est hie Moses; aut juxta alios Moses et Mahumed, super quibus Pax ; Mosi Deus locutus est ea nocte, qua in exstasi quasi fuit in monte Sinai. Mahumedi vero locutus est ilia nocte, qua scaliscoelo admotis, angelos vidit ascendere, tunc enim vix jactum duarum sagit- tarum ab eo fuit." How near Moses came is not expressed, but Mohammed came within two bow-shots of him ! How near the So- cinian Christ came I know not, nor doth Mr B. inform us.
1 " Socinismus est verecundioi- aut subtilior Mahumetismus. Censemus scripta So- cinianorum adTurcismumproximeaccedere." — Censu. Facult. Theol. Leyd., anno 1598.
552 VINDICIiE EVANGELICiE.
But yet as Mr B. eats his word as to Moses, and after he had affirmed that he saw the face of God, says he only saw the face of an angel, so do the Mohammedans also as to the vision of their prophet, who tell us that indeed he was not able to see an angel in his own proper shape, as Socinus says we cannot see a spiritual body, though Mr B. thinks that we may see God's right hand and his left. But of this 3'ou have a notable story in Kessseus. Saith he, " They report of the prophet that on a certain day, or once upon a time, he said to Gabriel, O Gabriel, I desire to see thee in the form of thy great shape or figure, wherein God created thee. Gabriel said to him, O be- loved of God, my shape is very terrible; no man can see it, and so not thou, but he will fall into a swoon. Mohammed answered, Al- though it be so, yet I would see thee in a bigger shape. Gabriel there- fore answered, O beloved of God, where dost thou desire to see me? Mohammed answered, Without the city of Mecca, in the stony vil- lage. Says Gabriel, That village will not hold me. Therefore an- swered Mohammed, Let it be in mount Orphath. That is a larger and fitter place, says Gabriel. Away, therefore, went Mohammed to mount Orphath, and, behold, Gabriel with a great noise covered the whole horizon with his shape; Avhich when the prophet saw, he fell upon the earth in a swoon. When, therefore, Gabriel, on whom be peace, had returned to his former shape, he came to the prophet, and embracing and kissing him, said to him. Fear not, O beloved of God, I am thy brother Gabriel. The prophet answers. Thou speak- est trul}', O my brother Gabriel ; I could never have thought that any creature of God had had such a figure or shape. Gabriel an- swered, O beloved of God, what wouldst thou say if thou sawest the shape of the angel Europhil?"^
They who know any thing of the Mohammedan forgeries and abominations, in applying things spoken of in the Scripture to their great impostor, will quickly perceive the composition of this fiction from what is spoken of Moses and Daniel. This lying knave, it seems, was of Mr B.'s mind, that it was not God indeed, but an
' " Traduiit de propheta quod die qiiodam dixerit Gabrieli. 0 Gabriel, optem te in specie figuroe tuoe magnae vidcre, secundum quam Deus creavit te. Dixit Gabriel, 0 dilecte Ueo, est figura mea valJe terribilis; nemo cam poterit viuere, et sic neque tu, quin animi deliquium passus concidat. Eeponit Mahumed, Etsi maxime ita sit, velim tamen te videre in figura majori. l^espondit ergo Gabriel, 0 dilecte Deo, ubi raevidere desideras ? Extra urbem Meccam, respondit jMahunied, in villa lapidosa. Dixit Gab- riel, Villa ista me non capiet. Ergo respondit Mahumed, In monte Orphath. Hie, in- quit Gabriel, locus aptior erit et capacior. Abiit ergo M.ihumed in niontem Orphath, et ecce Gabriel, cum magno fragore et strcpitu, totum figura sua operieus horizontem ; quod cum propheta vidisset, concidit, deliquium passus, in terram. Ubi vero Gabriel, super quo pax, ad priorem rediisset figuram, accessit ad prophetam, eumque amplexus et oscul;itu<, ita compellavit, Ne timeas, 0 dilecte Deo, sum enim frater tuus GabrieL Dixit propheta. Vera dixisti, 0 frater mi Gabriel: nunquam existimassem ullum esse Dei creaturam tanta proeditam figura. Eespondit Gabriel, 0 dilecte Deo, quid si igitur vidercs figuram Europhil angeli ?" — Kes.«Deus Vit. Patr, p. 12, Interpiet. Hotting.
1
OP Christ's prophetical office, 353
angel, that appeared to Moses on mount Sinai ; and thence is this tale, which came to pass " once upon a time." He proceeds: — '
Q. From whence doth it appear that Christ, like Moses, heard from God the things that he spake 9
A. John viii. 26, 28, 40, xiv. 10.
All the difficulty of this question ariseth from these words, " Like Moses;" and the sense by Mr B. put upon them, — how falsely, how inconsistently with himself, with what perverting of the Scripture, — hath been declared. The scriptures in the answer affirm only that Christ " heard and was taught of the Father;" which is not at all denied, but only the modus that Mr B. would impose upon the words is rejected. Christ " heard of the Father,"^ who taught him, as his servant in the work of mediation, by his Spirit', wherewith he was anointed ; but it is his " going into heaven " to hear a lesson with his bodily ears which Mr B. aims at, and labours under the next query to prove, — how unsuccessfully shall briefly be demon- strated. Saith he, —