]
[Footnote 78: This passage is expounded two ways. Some, referring the
relative his to the first antecedent, take the meaning to be that no Jew
or Christian shall die before he believes in Jesus: for they say, that
when one of either of those religions is ready to breathe his last, and
sees the angel of death before him, he shall then believe in that
prophet as he ought, though his faith will not then be of any avail.
According to a tradition of Hejaj, when a Jew is expiring, the angels
will strike him on the back and face, and say to him, "O thou enemy of
God, Jesus was sent as a prophet unto thee, and thou didst not believe
on him;" to which he will answer, "I now believe him to be the servant
of God"; and to a dying Christian they will say, "Jesus was sent as a
prophet unto thee, and thou hast imagined him to be God, or the son of
God," whereupon he will believe him to be the servant of God only, and
his apostle. Others, taking the above-mentioned relative to refer to
Jesus, suppose the intent of the passage to be, that all Jews and
Christians in general shall have a right faith in that prophet before
his death, that is, when he descends from heaven and returns into the
world, where he is to kill Antichrist, and to establish the Mohammedan
religion, and a most perfect tranquillity and security on earth.]
[Footnote 79: Namely, God, Jesus, and Mary--as the eastern writers
mention a sect of Christians which held the Trinity to be composed of
those three; but it is allowed that this heresy has been long since
extinct.
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