a certain woman, who declares that she is GENEVIEVE; she is clad in shining raiment, and of a countenance which appears holy; but when some of them begin to worship her, her countenance immediately changes, and her raiment also, and she becomes like an ordinary woman, and chides them for desiring to adore a person, who is held in no greater estimation among her associates than as a servant maid, wondering how men in the world can be misled by such foolish fancies. 827. To the above relation I shall annex a circumstance most deserving of attention: MARY THE MOTHER OF THE LORD, on a time passed by, and appeared over head in white raiment; there she stopped awhile, and said, that she had been the mother of the Lord, and that He was indeed born of her, but that being made God, He put off all the humanity which He had from her, so that now she worships Him as her God, and is unwilling that any should acknowledge Him as her son, since all in Him is Divine. OF THE MAHOMEDANS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 828. The Mahomedans in the spiritual world appear behind the Roman Catholics in the west, and form a kind of circle around them. The reason of their appearing next behind the Christians is, because they acknowledge our Lord as the greatest prophet, the wisest of men, who was sent into the world to instruct mankind, and also confess that He is the Son of God. Every one in that world dwells at a distance from the centre, where the Christians inhabit, according to his confession of the Lord and of one God; for that confession conjoineth minds with heaven, and determines their distance from the east, over which point the Lord is. 829. Since religion has its abode with man in the highest regions of his mind, and the lower derive life and light from the highest, and since the idea of Mahomed is always connected with religion in the minds of Mahomedans, * St. Genevieve was worshipped by the Parisians as their tutelary saint. therefore some Mahomed or other is always placed in their view; and that they may turn their faces towards the east, over which point the Lord is, he is placed beneath the central point which the Christians inhabit. It is not Mahomed himself, who wrote the Koran, but some other who fills his place; nor is it always the same person, but he is changed according to circumstances: a native of Saxony, who was taken prisoner by the Algerines, and turned Mahomedan, once acted in this character; he having been a Christian, was led to speak with them of the Lord, affirming that he was not the son of Joseph, but the Son of God Himself. This Mahomed was afterwards replaced by others. In the place where that representative Mahomed hath his station, a fire, as of a small torch, appears, in order that he may be distinguished; but that fire is visible only to Mahomedans. 830. The real Mahomed, who wrote the Koran, is not at this day to be seen among them. I have been informed, that at first he was appointed to preside over them, but being desirous to rule over all the concerns of their religion, as a god, he was removed from his station, which was beneath the Roman Catholics, and was sent down to one on the right side near the south. A certain society of Mahomedans was once instigated by some evil spirits to acknowledge Mahomed as a god, and in order to appease the sedition, Mahomed was raised up from the earth or region beneath, and produced to their view; and on this occasion he was seen by me also: he appeared like corporeal spirits, who have no interior perception; his face was of a hue approaching to black; and I heard him utter these words: "I am your Mahomed:" and presently he seemed to sink down again. 831. The hostility of the Mahomedans against the Christians has arisen chiefly in consequence of their belief in three divine persons, and their consequent worship of three gods as so many creators; and additionally against the Roman Catholics, in consequence of their bending the knee to images; hence they call the latter idolaters, and the former fanatics, saying, that they make a three-headed god, and that though they talk of one, they mutter three, and so divide omnipotence, and make three out of one; thus that they are like young stags with three horns, one for each god, and at the same time three for one god; and that theirprayers, their psalmody, and their preaching, are all filled with these mistaken ideas. 832. The Mahomedans, like all other Gentiles who acknowledge one God, and love righteousness, and do good from a principle of religion, have their own heaven, but beyond the limits of the Christian heaven. Yet the Mahomedan heaven is divided into two: the inhabitants of the inferior heaven live virtuously with several wives; none however are elevated from this into the superior heaven, but such as renounce concubinage, and acknowledge the Lord our Saviour, and at the same time his dominion over heaven and hell. I have been informed, that it is impossible for them to conceive God the Father and our Lord to be one, but that it is possible for them to believe that the Lord hath dominion over the heavens and the hells, because He is the Son of God the Father. It is this faith by means of which the Lord effects their ascent into the superior heaven. 833. It may be a matter of stumbling and offence to those who meditate about the Divine Providence, and at the same time believe that none can be saved except such as are born Christians, that the Mahomedan religion is more extensively received throughout the world than the Christian; whereas this is no matter of offence to those who believe that all things are under the regulation of Divine Providence; for on this occasion too they trace the footsteps of that Providence; and find that the reason for it consists in this, that the Mahomedan religion acknowledges the Lord to be the greatest prophet, the wisest of men, and also the Son of God; but having made the Koran the only rule and standard of their religion, they think much about Mahomed who wrote it, and pay him a kind of worship, and therefore think little about our Lord. In order to shew more plainly and fully that the Mahomedan religion was raised up under the auspices of the Divine Providence of the Lord to destroy idolatry in many nations, I shall enter into a more particular consideration of the subject, adverting first to the origin of idolatries. Before the rise of this religion, idolatrous worship was spread through a great many countries of the terraqueous globe; the cause of which was, that the churches extant before the Lord's coming were all representative; such also was the Israelitish church, where the tabernacle, the garments of Aaron, the sacrifices, every thing belonging to the temple at Jerusalem, and even their statutes, were representative. The science of correspondences, which is likewise the science of representatives, was accounted by the ancients the science of sciences, and was particularly cultivated by the Egyptians, being the origin of their hieroglyphics. It was this science which enabled them to know the signification of animals and trees of every kind, as well as mountains, hills, rivers, and fountains; also of the sun, the moon, and the stars: by the same science they attained besides to the knowledge of spiritual subjects; for the things represented, being such as belong to spiritual wisdom among the angels in heaven, were themselves the origins of the representatives. Now as all their worship was representative, consisting of mere correspondences, they therefore performed it on mountains and hills, and also in groves and gardens: for this reason too they consecrated fountains, and made graven images of horses, oxen, calves, lambs, nay even of birds, fish, and serpents, which they placed in the vicinity and at the entrance of their temples, and also in their houses, arranged in order accord ing to the spiritual principles of the church to which they corresponded, or which they represented, and thence signi fied. In process of time, when the science of correspondences became obliterated, posterity began to worship the mere graven images as if they had been holy in themselves; not aware that their forefathers saw nothing holy in them, but regarded them merely as the representatives of holy principles according to their correspondences. Hence originated all the idolatries which have prevailed throughout so many kingdoms of the earth. For the extirpation of these idolatries, it was brought to pass of the Divine Providence of the Lord, that a new religion, accommodated to the genius and temper of the eastern nations, should be taught and propagated, which should contain something from the Word both of the Old and New Testaments, and teach, that the Lord came into the world, and that He was the greatest prophet and wisest of mankind, and the Son of God: the instrument for effecting this was Mahomed, from whom that religion took its name. Thus it appears, that this religion owed its rise to the divine providence of the Lord, and was accommodated, as was said, to the genius and temper of the eastern nations, for the purpose of destroying the idolatries that so generally prevailed, and communicating to its votaries some knowledge of the Lord, before they came after death into the spiritual world. This religion would not have been received by so many kingdoms, nor could their idolatries have been extirpated, unless it had been made suitable to the ideas of the people, but especially unless polygamy had been allowed; for the Orientals, without such allowance, would have burned with adulterous lust more than the Europeans, and so would have destroyed themselves eternally. 834. It was once given me to perceive what is the nature and quality of the heat of their polygamical love. I was conversing with a certain person who acted in the office and |
