"The intrinsic merits of Mohammedanism, while utterly beneath comparison with the only true revelation, are yet confessedly superior to those of every other religious system which has obtained among men . . . . As opposed to the Gospel, indeed, Mohammedanism must be considered only as a curse; but as the pre-appointed scourge of heresy and heathenism, as cleansing the world from the gross pollutions of idolatry, and as preparing the way for the reception of a purer faith, it may well be regarded as a blessing."

"Suppose these, and similar positions, plainly deducible from the Coran and its commentators, once brought clearly and conclusively to elucidate the authoritative record of Scripture, by men whose zeal shall shine forth on the benighted East, sustained by extensive knowledge, and tempered by a wise discretion, while their walk among men forms that best of commentaries, a living one, on the truth and power of these doctrines;—suppose episcopal Christianity, in a word, one day taught and exemplified in Asia, as it was originally taught and exemplified in the Apostolic times, and who, that reflects on the whole providential history and relationship of the two religions, can doubt the eventful result throughout the Mohammedan world ? " (vol. i. p. 400). "And thus out of the most deadly and devastating apostasy with which the justice of Heaven ever visited the sins of men, does the mercy of God seem, all along, to have been secretly, but effectually, preparing the instrumental means for the glorious re-edification of our Eastern Sion, by the final bringing in of Jew, Mohammedan and Gentile, to the church and kingdom of the Gospel" (vol. ii. p. 371).