The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn YokdhanIbn Tufayl, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik
Islamic
The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan
Ibn Tufayl, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik
Islamic philosophy -- Early works to 1800
Sec. 9. It must needs be acknowledg'd by us Christians, as well as by the
Jews, that _Moses_ was, without Controversie, the the greatest Prophet
that ever appear'd upon Earth before our Saviour's time, and had the
most frequent and greatest Revelations of the Divine Will. For tho' it
was a singular Favour which God vouchsafed the other Prophets, in
communicating to them some of the Secrets of his Purposes; yet _Moses_
was the Man whom God chose to be the Instrument of the Deliverance of
his People _Israel_, by such convincing Signs and Wonders, as were
undeniable Evidences of the Divine Power by which they were wrought, and
who was not only to be God's Messenger to his People in some few
Particulars, but the immediate Receiver of that Law, and all the
Oeconomy, both Ecclesiastical and Civil, by which God's People were to
be governed without any Addition or Diminution, so many hundred Years,
till the Coming of the promised _Messias_. God himself bears Witness to
this, _Numb_. xii. 6. _If there be a Prophet among you, I the Lord will
make my self known unto him in a Vision, and will speak unto him in a
Dream. My Servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine House.
With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark
Speeches, and the Similitude of the Lord shall he behold_. Now _Moses_
had not been faithful in God's House, if he had not reveal'd the whole
Will of God to his People, as it was deliver'd to him; which most
certainly he did. But how? Why, he commands the People thus, _Deut_. vi.
17. _You shall diligently keep the Commandments of the Lord your God,
and his Testimonies and his Statutes which he hath commanded thee_;
which were, no doubt, the very same which he had received upon Mount
_Sinai_. Nor did this Holy Man, this _faithful Servant in God's House_,
ever recommend, or so much as hint any such Service of God, as is
dream'd of by our _Mysticks,_ or give the least Encouragement for any to
hope for the Gift of Prophecy, or an Intuition or beholding the Divine
Being in this State. And yet it is certain that both _Moses_ himself,
and Multitudes of others after him, were Heavenly-minded Men, and did
that which was acceptable in the Sight of God, and shall be Partakers of
Everlasting Glory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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