These inquire in what respect the
divine providence is manifested in the Mahometan religion; and they so
discover in it this, that the Mahometan religion acknowledges our Lord
to be the Son of God, the wisest of men, and a grand prophet, who came
into the world to instruct mankind; but since the Mahometans have made
the Koran the book of their religion, and consequently think much of
Mahomet who wrote it, and pay him a degree of worship, therefore they
think little respecting our Lord. In order to shew more fully that the
Mahometan religion was raised up by the Lord's divine providence to
destroy the idolatries of several nations, we will give a detail of the
subject, beginning with the origin of idolatries. Previous to the
Mahometan religion idolatrous worship prevailed throughout the whole
world; because the churches before the Lord's coming were all
representative; such also was the Israelitish church, in which the
tabernacle, the garments of Aaron, the sacrifices, all things belonging
to the temple at Jerusalem, and also the statutes, were representative.
The ancients likewise had the science of correspondences, which is also
the science of representations, the very essential science of the wise,
which was principally cultivated by the Egyptians, whence their
hieroglyphics were derived.
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