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This is surely true, replied Eber, since all things are ordered by God, and all blessings are gifts of his love. Did the Prophet teach that all who enter Paradise are equally blessed?
No: it is taught throughout the Book that there will be abodes of more eminent bliss for some than for others; the prophets being more favored than the apostles, and the apostles than the martyrs, and the martyrs than they who have not suffered for the faith. The poor also shall be more blessed than the rich[1].
These things Mohammed learned of the Gospel, said Eber. I have told thee of the parable of the rich man who in this life had his good things, and the poor man who in the next world lay in Abraham's bosom, because in the midst of his sickness and poverty on earth he had remembered Moses and the prophets, and obeyed them. This parable Mohammed no doubt heard; and that Jesus said 'How hard is it for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven!' That some shall be more blessed than others we may also believe, since Paul wrote, that as there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and yet another glory of the stars, and as even one star differeth from another star
- ↑ Prelim. Dissert. p. 98.
