“The Brief Exposition of the Doctrines of the New Church” is an

exposition effected by means of comparisons between the doctrines of the

New Church and those of Catholics and Protestants. The work is avowedly

only a sketch, and the precursor of a larger book—“The True Christian

Religion”—a work of some years, which will shortly demand our attention.

The Catholic doctrinals are taken from the records of the Council of

Trent; and the Protestant from the Formula Concordiæ, composed by persons

attached to the Augsburg Confession. The disagreements between the tenets

of the Old and New Churches are considered under twenty-five Articles,

the heads of which we will condense and present to the reader.

The Churches which, by the Reformation, separated themselves from

the Roman Catholic Church, differ in various points of doctrine; but

they all agree in the Articles concerning a Trinity of Persons in the

Godhead, original sin from Adam, imputation of the merit of Christ,

and justification by faith alone. The Roman Catholics, before the

Reformation, held and taught exactly the same things as the Reformed did

after it, in respect to these points; only with this difference, that

they conjoined faith with charity or good works.

The leading Reformers, Luther, Melancthon, and Calvin, retained all the

tenets concerning a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead, original sin,

imputation of the merits of Christ, and justification by faith, just as

they were, and had been, among the Roman Catholics; but they separated

charity or good works from that faith, and declared at the same time that

they were not of a saving efficacy, with a view to be totally severed

from the Roman Catholics as to the very essentials of the Church, which

are faith and charity. Nevertheless the leading Reformers adjoined good

works, and even conjoined them to their faith, but in man as a passive

subject; whereas the Roman Catholics conjoin them in man as an active

subject; and notwithstanding this, there is actually a conformity between

the one and the other as to faith, works, and merit.

The whole system of theology in the Christian World, at this day, is

founded on an idea of three Gods, arising from the doctrine of a Trinity

of Persons, and when this doctrine is rejected, then all the tenets of

the aforesaid theology fall to pieces. The truth of this must be apparent

to every one. The Doctrine of a Trinity of Persons in the Divine Being,

is the key-stone of Roman Catholic and Protestant theology. If this

Doctrine be false, the whole structure totters to its fall.

When the faith in three Gods is rejected, then it is possible to receive

the true and saving faith, which is a faith in One God, united with good

works.

This faith is in God the Saviour Jesus Christ, and in its simple form is

as follows: 1. That there is One God, in whom is a Divine Trinity, and

that He is the Lord Jesus Christ. 2. That saving faith is to believe in

Him. 3. That evils ought to be shunned, because they are of the devil and

from the devil. 4. That good works ought to be done, because they are of

God and from God. 5. That they ought to be done by man as of himself,

but with a belief that they are from the Lord, operating in him and by

him.

The faith of the present day has separated religion from the Church,

since religion consists in the acknowledgment of One God, and in the

worship of Him from faith grounded in charity; but the faith of the

present Church cannot be conjoined with charity, and produce any fruits

which are good works, because imputation supplies everything, remits

guilt, justifies, sanctifies, regenerates; imparts the life of heaven,

and thus salvation; and all this freely, without any works of man. In

this case, what is charity, which ought to be united with faith, but

something vain and superfluous, and a mere addition and supplement to

imputation, and justification, to which, nevertheless, it adds no weight

or value?

From this faith results a worship of the mouth and not of the life. Now

the Lord accepts the worship of the mouth in proportion as it proceeds

from the worship of the life.

The doctrine of the present Church is interwoven with many paradoxes,

which are to be embraced by faith. Therefore its tenets gain admission

into the memory only, and not at all into the understanding, which is

superior to the memory, but merely into confirmations below it. Thus the

tenets of the present Church cannot be learned or retained without great

difficulty, nor can they be preached or taught without using great care

and caution to conceal their nakedness, because sound reason neither

discerns nor perceives them.

The doctrine of the faith of the present Church ascribes to God human

passions and infirmities; as, that He beheld man from anger, that He

required to be reconciled, that He is reconciled through the love He bore

towards the Son, and by His intercession; and that He required to be

appeased by the sight of His Son’s sufferings, and thus to be brought

back to mercy; and that He imputes the righteousness of His Son to an

unrighteous man who supplicates it from faith alone; and that thus from

an enemy He makes him a friend, and from a child of wrath a child of

grace:—all which dogmas are the opposite of the truth, and repulsive to

every wise man.

The faith of the present Church has produced monstrous births; for

instance, instantaneous salvation by an immediate act of mercy;

predestination; the notion that God has no respect unto the actions of

men, but unto faith alone; that there is no connection between charity

and faith; that man in conversion is like a stock; with many more

heresies of the same kind; likewise concerning the sacraments of Baptism

and the Holy Supper, as to the advantages reasonably to be expected from

them, when considered according to the doctrine of justification by faith

alone; as also with regard to the person of Christ: and that heresies,

from the first ages to the present day, have sprung up from no other

source than from the doctrine founded on the idea of three Divine Persons

or Gods.

The last state of the present church, when it is at an end, is meant by

the consummation of the age, and the coming of the Lord at that period.

Matt. xxiv. 3.

The infestation from falses, and thence the consummation of every truth,

or the desolation which at this day prevails in the Christian Churches,

is meant by the great affliction, such as was not from the beginning of

the world, nor ever shall be: Matt. xxiv. 21: and that there would be

neither love nor faith, nor the knowledge of good and truth, in the last

time of the Christian Church, is understood by these words in the same

chapter of Matthew: “After the affliction of those days, the sun shall

be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall

fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken,” verse

29.

They who are in the present justifying faith, are meant by the he-goats

in Daniel and Matthew; and they who have confirmed themselves therein,

are meant in the Apocalypse by the dragon and his two beasts, and by the

locusts; and this same faith, when confirmed, is there meant by the great

city which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where the two witnesses

were slain; as also by the pit of the abyss, whence the locusts issued.

Unless a New Church be established by the Lord, no one can be saved.

This is meant by these words: “Unless those days should be shortened,

there should no flesh be saved.” Matt. xxiv. 22. The reason why no flesh

could be saved, unless those days should be shortened, is, because the

faith of the present Church is founded on the idea of three Gods, and

with this idea no one can enter heaven. Not that all who are believers

in the doctrine of a tripersonal God are lost; but that, unless a New

Church were provided by the Lord, and spiritual truth revealed, man,

wanting truth, could never become regenerate, could never enter heaven,

and thus the end of his creation would be defeated. In spite, however,

of false doctrine, men are saved by the laying hold, as it were, of the

truths leading to a good life, which exist in the most corrupt faiths,

and goodness always contains an internal acknowledgment and love of

truth, although false doctrine may fill the memory. Yet it is true,

nevertheless, that false doctrine perverts, discourages, and in the end

destroys all inclinations to live well. For this reason, then, the First

Christian Church has come to its end, or has been consummated; and the

Lord is raising up a New Church, endowed with truth capable of leading

the world in the way of life, and to heaven.

The opening and rejection of the tenets of the faith of the present

Church, and the revelation and reception of the tenets of the faith of

the New Church, is meant by these words in the Apocalypse:—“He that sat

upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new; and He said unto me,

Write; for these words are true and faithful.” xxi. 5. The New Church

about to be established by the Lord, is the New Jerusalem, treated of in

chapters xxi. and xxii., which is there called the Bride and the Wife of

the Lamb.

Such, briefly expressed, are the heads or leading ideas of the little

work, “A Brief Exposition of the Doctrines of the New Church,” a treatise

which, as Wilkinson truly remarks, “is unequaled among Swedenborg’s works

for its destructive logic.”

“The Intercourse Between the Soul and the Body,” is a small treatise

designed to illustrate a subject which has puzzled many minds from

time immemorial. Various have been the theories of philosophers on

this subject; but few could satisfy the intelligent mind, or explain

the varied phenomena of being. Swedenborg, in many of his previous

works, had, with greater or less fullness, explained the nature of the

soul’s union with the body, and this treatise is, to some extent, but

a repetition of what he had elsewhere written,—cleared, however, from

extraneous matter.

His view of the subject is simple and intelligible, as is all truth.

The soul of man is a spiritual substance, of the same form as his body;

transfusing all the body’s tissues, and wearing the body as a garment,

even as the body wears its clothes. The body lives from the soul. In

itself, the body is dead and without sensation, as is evident when the

man leaves it at death; it then returns to its inorganic elements. As the

body is diseased or injured, the soul is more or less deprived of its

power of action in the natural world, but the soul itself is uninjured.

We see an illustration of this in the use of spectacles. Man’s external

organ of sight is defective, and he cannot see objects distinctly.

Glasses are put before his eyes, and he sees as well as ever. Now it is

certain the glasses in themselves do not restore his sight. They merely

complete the defective organ, and the eye of the spiritual man uses

them as a means to look forth into the material world. Observation and

meditation will supply a multitude of confirmations of this doctrine of

the spiritual body animating and transfusing the material.

At death the spiritual body lays down the material, and makes its

appearance in its higher sphere. Whether it is beautiful or deformed,

depends upon the man’s conduct on earth. If the soul has loved goodness

and truth, it is a beautiful human form, and increases in grace and

loveliness to eternity in heaven; if, on the other hand, it has lived in

evil and hated truth, it is deformed and hideous, and finds its place in

hell, the abode of all that is ugly and abominable.

But from this it is not to be concluded that the soul has life in itself.

Like the body, it also is dead, and is only a form receptive of life from

the One Only Infinite Life, in whom the whole universe lives, moves,

and has its being,—the Lord. The material body is proximately sustained

by the light and heat of the material sun. The spiritual body of man

is sustained by the light and heat of the spiritual Sun, which is the

circumambient sphere of the Divine Love and Wisdom. From this spiritual

Sun, our natural sun exists, even as our material bodies live from our

spiritual bodies. But all alike exist and subsist from the Lord alone.

Such, in a few words, is the leading idea of this little treatise. For

the details, the charming confirmation and the able and simple refutation

of the doctrines of Leibnitz and other philosophers, who have treated

on the same subject, we can only refer to the book itself. We append

the concluding paragraph of the treatise, as a delightful specimen of

spiritual analogy:—

“I was once asked, how I, who was previously a philosopher,

became a theologian; and I answered, ‘In the same manner that

fishermen became the disciples and apostles of the Lord: and

that I also from my youth had been a spiritual fisherman.’ On

this, he asked, ‘What is a spiritual fisherman?’ I replied,—‘A

fisherman, in the spiritual sense of the Word, signifies a man

who investigates and teaches natural truths, and afterwards

spiritual truths in a rational manner.’ On his inquiring, ‘How

is this demonstrated?’ I said, ‘From these passages of the

Word: ‘And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the rivers

shall be wasted and dried up. The fishers also shall mourn,

and all they that cast a hook into the brook shall lament.’

Isaiah xix. 5, 8. And in another place it is said, respecting

the sea, whose waters were healed, ‘The fishers shall stand

upon it, from Engedi even unto Eneglaim; they shall be present

to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their

kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.’ Ezekiel

xlvii. 10. And in another place, ‘Behold I will send for many

fishers, saith Jehovah, and they shall fish them.’ Jeremiah

xvi. 16. Hence it is evident why the Lord chose fishermen

for his disciples, and said, ‘Follow me, and I will make you

fishers of men;’ Matthew iv. 18, 19; Mark i. 16, 17; and why

he said to Peter after he had caught a multitude of fishes,

‘Henceforth thou shalt catch men.’ Luke v. 9, 10. I afterwards

demonstrated the origin of this signification of fishermen from

the Apocalypse Revealed; namely, that since water signifies

natural truths, as does also a river, a fish signifies those

who are in possession of natural truths; and thence fishermen,

those who investigate and teach truth. On hearing this, my

interrogator said, ‘Now I can understand why the Lord called

and chose fishermen to be his disciples; and therefore I do

not wonder that he has also chosen you, since, as you have

observed, you were from early youth a fisherman in a spiritual

sense, that is, an investigator of natural truths; and the

reason that you are now become an investigator of spiritual

truths, is because they are founded in the former.’ To this

he added, being a man of reason, that ‘the Lord alone knows

who is the proper person to apprehend and teach the truths of

His New Church, whether one of the primates, or one of their

domestic servants. Besides,’ he continued, ‘what Christian

theologian does not study philosophy in the schools, before he

is inaugurated a theologian.’ At length he said, ‘Since you

are become a theologian, explain what is your theology.’ I

answered, ‘These are its two principles, _God is one, and there

is a conjunction of charity and faith_.’ To which he replied,

‘Who denies these principles?’ I rejoined, ‘The theology of the

present day, when interiorly examined.’”

CHAPTER XXV.

_Persecution—Letter to the Academy of Sciences—Leaves Stockholm

for the last time._

On Swedenborg’s arrival in Stockholm, he found that the long peace he had

enjoyed from external interference and persecution was at an end. The

first manifestation of hostility took place in the seizure of some copies

of his treatise on Conjugial Love, at Norkjoping, which he had sent from

England, intending to present them to his countrymen. The ground of their

seizure was, a law prohibiting the introduction of any works into Sweden

at variance with the Lutheran faith. The seizure having taken place

in the diocese of his nephew Filenius, he naturally turned to him for

explanation and redress. Filenius thereon embraced and kissed his uncle,

and assured him that he would fulfill all his desires, and procure the

restoration of his books. But his actions were the reverse of his words;

for he was, in fact, the prompter of the seizure, and secretly did all

he could to insure their confiscation. By and by Swedenborg discovered

the hypocrisy, and remonstrated with Filenius; whereupon he dropped the

mask, and insisted on the books undergoing clerical revision before they

could be surrendered. Swedenborg urged that as his treatise was not

theological, but chiefly moral, its revisal by the clergy was absurd,

and that such censorship would pave the way for a dark age in Sweden.

But Filenius was unmoved; and Swedenborg, now fully convinced of his

double dealing, likened him, as he well might, to Judas Iscariot, and

said that “he who spoke lies, lied also in his life.” Having brought some

copies of his treatise on Conjugial Love with him to Sweden, he presented

them to many of the Senators, the Bishops, and the royal family. He had

no fear of the result of free and open criticism. But worse things lay

in store. Dean Ekebom, of Gottenburg, was indignant that Doctors Beyer

and Rosen should have embraced Swedenborg’s views, and the clerical

deputies from that town were instructed to complain of Swedenborg and

his disciples to the Diet. They found in bishop Filenius, then President

of the House of Clergy, a willing instrument to further their designs.

They plotted to have Swedenborg put upon his trial, presuming that when

questioned he would openly assert his divine commission and powers of

spiritual intercourse, and then they would pronounce him insane, and have

him committed to a mad-house. Count Hopken revealed to Swedenborg this

cunning device of his enemies, and advised him to fly the kingdom. At

this news, Swedenborg was much afflicted; and going into his garden, he

fell on his knees, and prayed to the Lord to direct him what to do. After

this prayer, he received the consolatory answer that _no evil should

touch him_. And so it turned out. His inoffensive bearing, his rank

and connections, all tended to intimidate his adversaries, and prevent

the execution of their designed outrage. Had he been a farmer’s or a

tradesman’s son, instead of being a bishop’s, his fate might have been

very different.

Bishop Filenius, however, succeeded in gaining the appointment of

a committee of the House of Clergy on the Swedenborgian case. Its

deliberations were kept secret. Nothing came of it that was unfavorable

to Swedenborg. They disregarded the charges of Filenius, and spoke “very

handsomely and reasonably of Swedenborg.”

Filenius gained one point, however, in the presentation of a memorial

to the king, requesting the attention of the Chancellor of Justice

to the troubles at Gottenburg. To this request the king yielded; and

the members of the Consistory of Gottenburg were commanded to send

in an unequivocal representation of the light in which they regarded

Swedenborg’s principles. On January 2d, 1770, Dr. Beyer, as one of the

members of the Consistory, rose, and gave his bold and honest testimony

in favor of Swedenborg and his writings. He said: “Convinced by

experience, I must in the first place observe, that no man is competent

to give a just and suitable judgment on those writings, who has not

read them; or who has read them superficially, or with a determination

in his heart to reject them, after having perused, without examination,

some detached parts only; neither is he competent, who rejects them as

soon as he finds anything that militates against those doctrines which

he has long cherished and acknowledged as true, and of which perhaps he

is but too blindly enamored; nor is he competent, who is an ardent, yet

undiscriminating biblical scholar, who, in explaining the meaning of the

Scriptures, confines his ideas to the literal expression or signification

only: and, lastly, neither is he competent, who has altogether devoted

himself to sensual indulgences, and the love of the world.” He then

entered into the details of New Church doctrine, and concluded in these

words: “In obedience, therefore, to your Majesty’s most gracious command,

that I should deliver a full and positive declaration respecting the

writings of Swedenborg, I do acknowledge it to be my duty to declare,

in all humble confidence, that as far as I have proceeded in the study

of them, and agreeably to the gift granted to me for investigation and

judgment, I have found in them _nothing but what closely coincides with

the words of the Lord himself, and that they shine with a light truly

divine_.” These were noble and brave words to speak in the midst of

enemies.

The debate on his doctrines dragged its slow length along. His enemies,

full of spite, were yet full of fear, and seemed to dread the result of

an open attack upon Swedenborg. Still the petty persecution continued,

until, at last, May 10th, 1770, Swedenborg took up his pen and addressed

himself directly to the king. In this letter, he complains that he had

met with usage the like of which had been offered to none since the

establishment of Christianity in Sweden, and much less since there

had existed liberty of conscience. He recapitulated his grievances.

He said that he had been attacked, calumniated, and menaced, without

the opportunity of defending himself; though truth itself had answered

for him. He reminded his Majesty of their former interview. With great

simplicity, he says: “I have already informed your Majesty, and beseech

you to call it to mind, that the Lord our Saviour manifested himself

to me in a sensible personal appearance; that he has commanded me to

write what has been already written, and what I have still to write;

that He was afterwards graciously pleased to endow me with the privilege

of conversing with angels and spirits, and of being in fellowship with

them. I have already declared this more than once to your Majesty in

the presence of all the royal family, when they were graciously pleased

to invite me to their table, with five senators, and several other

persons; this was the only subject discoursed of during the repast. Of

this I also spoke afterwards to several other senators; and more openly

to their Excellencies Count de Tessin, Count Bonde, and Count Hopken,

who are still alive, and were satisfied with the truth of it. I have

declared the same in England, Holland, Germany, Denmark, and at Paris,

to kings, princes, and other particular persons, as well as to those in

this kingdom. If the common report is to be believed, the Chancellor has

declared that what I have been reciting are untruths, although the very

truth. To say that they cannot believe and give credit to such things,

therein will I excuse them; for it is not in my power to place others in

the same state in which God has placed me, so as to be able to convince

them, by their own eyes and ears of the truth of those deeds and things

I publicly have made known. I have no ability to capacitate them to

converse with angels and spirits, neither to work miracles to dispose or

force their understandings to comprehend what I say. When my writings

are read with attention and cool reflection, (in which many things are

to be met with, heretofore unknown,) it is easy enough to conclude,

that I could not come to such a knowledge but by a real vision, and by

conversing with those who are in the spiritual world. This knowledge is

given to me from our Saviour, not for any private merit of mine, but

for the great concern of all Christians’ salvation and happiness; and

as such, how can any one venture to assert that it is false? That these

things may appear such as many have had no conception of, and which, of

consequence, they can not easily credit, has nothing remarkable in it,

for scarcely anything is known respecting them.” He concluded by throwing

himself upon the king’s protection, and requesting him to command for

himself the opinion of the clergy on the case; also the production of

various documents that had been produced at Gottenburg and elsewhere; in

order that he, and those maligned together with him, might be heard in

their defence, this being their right and privilege. He protested, that

the only advice he had given to Doctors Beyer and Rosen, was to address

themselves to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as a means to heavenly

good and blessedness; for He only has all power in heaven and on earth.

Matthew xxviii. 18. Were this doctrine of the Supreme Divinity of the

Lord Jesus Christ taken away, he averred that he would rather live in

Tartary than in Christendom.

Had the Consistory declared this doctrine heretical, it must have led to

many strange issues. But the Consistory came to no decision, and their

report on Swedenborg’s writings was never written. A short time before

Swedenborg left Stockholm for the last time, the king said to him: “The

Consistory has been silent on my letters and your works;” and, putting

his hand on Swedenborg’s shoulder, he added, “We may conclude that they

have found nothing reprehensible in them, and that you have written in

conformity to the truth.”

Throughout all this affair, Swedenborg remained perfectly calm; and,

though a very old man, worked on as industriously as ever. It might seem,

from what has been said, that the controversy had terminated entirely in

his favor. But it was not so, as he, in the following year, 1771, found

out; for then it appeared that his adversaries had succeeded in obtaining

a strict prohibition against the importation of his writings into Sweden.

It was his intention to send in a formal complaint to the States General,

appealing against this prohibition; but it does not appear whether he

fulfilled his intention, or not.

Finally, he addressed a letter to the Universities of Upsal, Lund, and

Abo, asserting that each of the estates of the kingdom ought to have its

own Consistory, and ought not to acknowledge the exclusive authority of

that of Gottenburg. He declared that religious matters belong to others

as well as the priests. Thus ends our account of this affair. It may be

said to be the only thing approaching to persecution that Swedenborg

endured; and considering the many heterodox opinions that he broached, we

can not but think that he had, on the whole, but little to complain of.

Many who have followed him in the propagation of the new theology, have

not gone so far, yet have fared worse. The gentleness and simple prudence

which, during so many years, shielded him from interference, we can not

too highly admire. But, above all, we must be struck with the remarkable

providence of the Lord, shown in his protection: the Divine promise was

truly kept, that he _should not be harmed_.

His old associates of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm,

received, at this time, his last communication. He wrote them a letter

explaining some of the correspondences of Scripture, and their origin.

In it, he says: “The science of correspondences was esteemed, by the

ancients, the science of sciences, and constituted their wisdom; it

would surely be of importance for some one of your society to devote

his attention to it. Should it be desired, I am willing to unfold the

meaning of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, which are nothing else but

correspondences; these being discovered and proved from the Word, in

the Apocalypse Revealed; and to publish their explications, is a work

which no other person could accomplish.” We have no record as to how the

Academy received this proposal. A copy of this letter was sent to Mr.

Hartley, and Swedenborg desired that he and his friends would think over

the subject. The letter is now published as an appendix to his treatise

on the White Horse.

Swedenborg now prepared to leave Stockholm for another journey. Writing

under date of July 23d, 1770, to Dr. Beyer, he says: “As I am going, in

a few days, to Amsterdam, I shall take my leave of you in this letter,

hoping that our Saviour will support you in good health, preserve you

from further violence, and bless your thoughts.”

Robsahm tells us that, on the day that Swedenborg departed, he called

on him, and “I then asked him,” says he, “if we should meet again. He

answered me in a tender and touching manner: ‘I do not know whether I

shall return; but I am assured I shall not die before I have finished

the publication of the book entitled the True Christian Religion; and for

which only I am now about to depart. But should we not see one another

again in this lower world, we shall meet in the presence of the Lord our

Heavenly Father, if so be that we observe to do his commandments.’ He

then took a cheerful leave, and started on his last journey, with the

apparent vigor of a man of thirty years of age, although he was then

eighty-two. He took ship for Amsterdam, leaving his native land, never

again, in the body, to return.”

CHAPTER XXVI.

_Swedenborg in intercourse with General Tuxen and Paulus ab

Indagine—His reply to Dr. Ernesti—Letter to the Landgrave of

Hesse Darmstadt._

On the voyage to Amsterdam, the ship that carried Swedenborg being

detained, by adverse winds, off Elsinore, General Tuxen, hearing that

Swedenborg was in the offing, determined to improve the opportunity; and,

taking a boat, went off to see him. Introduced by the captain into the

cabin, he found Swedenborg seated in an undress,—his elbows on the table,

and his hands supporting his face, which was turned towards the door,—his

eyes open and much elevated. The General at once addressed him. At this,

he recovered himself, (for he had been in a state of vision,) rose with

some confusion, advanced a few steps in visible uncertainty, and then

bade him welcome, asking whence he came. Tuxen replied that he had come

with an invitation from his wife and himself, to request him to favor

them with his company at their house; to which he immediately consented,

and dressed himself alertly. The General’s wife, who was indisposed,

received him in the house, and requested his excuse if in any respect she

should fall short of her wishes to entertain him: adding that for thirty

years she had been afflicted with a painful disease. Swedenborg politely

kissed her hand, and answered, “Let us not speak of this; only acquiesce

in the will of God, and it will pass away, and you will return to the

same health and beauty as when you were fifteen years old.” The lady

made some reply, to which he rejoined, “Yes, in a few weeks.” From which

they concluded him to mean that diseases which have their foundation in

the mind, and are supported by infirmities of the body, do not disappear

immediately after death.

“Being then together,” says Tuxen, “in company with my wife, my now

deceased daughter, and three or four young ladies, my relations, he

entertained them very politely, and with much attention, on indifferent

subjects, on favourite dogs and cats that were in the room, which

caressed him, and jumped on his knee, showing their little tricks. During

these trifling discourses,—mixed with singular questions, all of which he

obligingly answered, whether they concerned this or the other world,—I

took occasion to say that I was sorry I had no better company to amuse

him than a sickly wife and her young girls: he replied, ‘And is not this

very good company? I was always very partial to ladies’ society.’ After

some little pause, he cast his eyes on a harpsichord, and asked whether

we were lovers of music, and who played upon it. I told him we were all

lovers of it, and that my wife in her youth had practiced, as she had

a fine voice, perhaps better than any in Denmark, as several persons

of distinction, who had heard the best singers in France, England, and

Italy, had assured her; and that my daughter also played with pretty

good taste. On this Swedenborg desired her to play. She then performed a

difficult and celebrated sonata, to which he beat the measure with his

foot on the sofa on which he sat; and when finished, he said, ‘Bravo!

very fine.’ She then played another by Rutini; and when she had played

a few minutes, he said, ‘This is by an Italian, but the first was not.’

This finished, he said, ‘Bravo! you play very well. Do you not also

sing?’ She answered, ‘I sing, but have not a very good voice, though

fond of singing, and would sing if my mother would accompany me.’ He

requested my wife to join, to which she assented, and they sang a few

Italian duettos, and some French airs, each in her respective taste,

to which he beat time, and afterwards paid many compliments to my

wife, on account of her taste and fine voice, which she had preserved

notwithstanding so long an illness. I took the liberty of saying to him,

that since in his writings he always declared that at all times there

were good and evil spirits of the other world present with man; might

I then be bold to ask, whether now, while my wife and daughter were

singing, there had been any from the other world present with us? To this

he answered, ‘Yes, certainly;’ and on my inquiring who they were, and

whether I had known them, he said it was the Danish royal family, and he

mentioned Christian VI., Sophia Magdalena, and Frederick V., who, through

his eyes, had seen and heard it. I do not positively recollect whether he

also mentioned the late beloved Queen Louisa among them. After this he

retired.”

During this visit to General Tuxen, in the course of other conversation,

Tuxen produced an autobiographical letter which Swedenborg had written

to Hartley, and which began, “I was born in the year 1689.” Swedenborg

told him that he was not born in that year, as mentioned, but in the

preceding. Tuxen asked him if this was an error of the press. He said

“No;” and added, “you may remember in reading my writings to have seen it

stated in many parts, that every cipher or number has in the spiritual

sense a certain correspondence or signification. Now,” said he, “when

I put the true year in that letter, an angel present told me to write

the year 1689, as much more suitable to myself than the other; ‘and you

observe,’ added the angel, ‘that with us time and space are nothing.’”

We give these anecdotes as Tuxen relates them. Every one, however, will

know from his private experience how little absolute dependence is to

be placed upon narrations of conversations, or actions, by even the most

truthful. Sir Walter Raleigh, while writing his History of the World,

was led to think of the errors into which he might be led, by observing

that an affray beneath his prison wall was variously described by

several eye-witnesses. If the occurrences of the present are so liable

to misstatement, what sort of faith can we place in the history of the

past? Wilkinson, commenting on this anecdote of the date of Swedenborg’s

birth, remarks, in his usual keen style: “We have here a reason for

that modification of events according to a context, of which the Gospel

histories, so often discrepant from each other, furnish numerous

instances. Manifestly it is the plan of the context which regards the

events from its own point of view, and paints the narrative in its own

colors. It is what all historians do in a lesser way, bending the history

to ideas, or shaping it with an artistic force. Taking a certain larger

block of time as a period of birth, it is hieroglyphically truthful to

play down upon any date contained in the block, according to the subject

and signification. There are many kinds of truth besides black and white;

and generally, figurative truths require latitude of phrase. At the same

time it must be confessed that one would like to know when the writing

is pure history, and when it is a base of history, made use of for

symbolical purposes, and touched, in part, by spirit. Literal people are

apt to be offended otherwise, and we sympathize with them.”

Swedenborg arrived in Amsterdam some time in September, 1770, and

straightway set about printing his manuscript of the “True Christian

Religion.” From two letters of a gentleman, named D. Paulus ab Indagine,

who seems to have been on familiar terms with Swedenborg, we select

the following passages, illustrative of this period of his life. He

writes:—“You asked me what this venerable old man, Swedenborg, is now

doing. This I can tell you; he eats and drinks very moderately, but

keeps his chamber rather long, and thirteen hours appear to be not too

much for him.[3] When I informed him that his work ‘On the Earths in

the Universe’ had been translated and published, he was much delighted,

and his eyes, which are always smiling, became still more brilliant. He

is now indefatigably at work; yea, I must say that he labors in a most

astonishing and superhuman manner at his new work. Only think! for every

printed sheet, 4to, he has to procure four sheets of manuscript; he now

prints two sheets every week, and corrects them himself, and consequently

he has to write eight sheets every week; and what appears to me utterly

inconceivable, he has not a single line beforehand in store.[4] His work

is to consist, as he himself states, of about eighty sheets in print. The

title of this work is the following:—‘True Christian Religion, Containing

the Universal Theology of the New Church, Predicted by the Lord in Daniel

viii. 13, 14, and in the Apocalypse, xxi. 1, 2; By Emanuel Swedenborg,

Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.’ I could not, in my open manner,

conceal my astonishment that he should put himself upon the title page

as the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he replied: ‘I have asked,

and have not only received permission, but have been ordered to do so.’

_It is astonishing with what confidence_ the old gentleman speaks of

the spiritual world, of the angels, and of God himself. If I were only

to give you the substance of our last conversation, it would fill many

pages. He spoke of naturalists, those who ascribe all things to nature,

whom he had seen shortly after death, and amongst them were even many

theologians, or such, at least, as had made theology their profession in

this life. He told me things which made me shudder, but which, however, I

pass by, in order not to be over-hasty in my judgment respecting him. I

will willingly admit that I know not what to make of him; he is a problem

that I can not solve. I sincerely wish that upright men, whom God has

placed as watchmen upon the walls of Zion, had some time since occupied

themselves with this man.

“I can not forbear to tell you something new about Swedenborg. Last

Thursday I paid him a visit, and found him, as usual, writing. He told

me that he had been in conversation that same morning, for three hours,

with the deceased king of Sweden. He had seen him already on Wednesday;

but as he observed that he was deeply engaged in conversation with the

queen, who is still living, he would not disturb him. I allowed him

to continue, but at length asked him how it was possible for a person

who is still in the land of the living, to be met with in the world of

spirits. He replied, that it was not the queen herself, but her _spiritus

familiaris_, or her familiar spirit. I asked him what that might be;

for I had neither heard from him anything respecting appearances of

that kind, nor had I read anything about them. He then informed me that

every man has either his good or bad spirit, who is not only constantly

with him, but sometimes a little removed from him, and appears in the

world of spirits. But of this, the man still living knows nothing; the

spirit, however, knows everything. This familiar spirit has everything in

accordance with his companion on earth; he has, in the world of spirits,

the same figure, the same countenance, and the same tone of voice, and

wears also similar garments; in a word, this familiar spirit of the

queen, said Swedenborg, appeared exactly as he had so often seen the

queen herself at Stockholm, and had heard her speak. In order to allay

my astonishment, he added that Dr. Ernesti, of Leipsic, had appeared to

him, in a similar manner, in the world of spirits, and that he had held

a long disputation with him. What will the learned professor say, when

he comes to hear of it? Probably he will say that the old man is in his

second childhood; he will only laugh at it, and who can be surprised? I

have often wondered at myself, how I could refrain from laughing, when I

was hearing such extraordinary things from him. And what is more, I have

often heard him relate the same things in a numerous company of ladies

and gentlemen, when I well knew there were mockers amongst them; but, to

my great astonishment, not a single person thought of laughing. Whilst

he is speaking, it is as though every person who hears him were charmed,

and compelled to believe him. He is by no means reserved and recluse, but

open-hearted and accessible to all. Whoever invites him as his guest, may

expect to see him. A certain young gentleman invited him last week to be

his guest, and, although he was not acquainted with him, he appeared at

his table, where he met Jewish and Portuguese gentlemen, with whom he

freely conversed, without distinction. Whoever is curious to see him, has

no difficulty; it is only necessary to go to his house, and he allows

anybody to approach him. It can easily be conceived, however, that the

numerous visits, to which he is liable, deprive him of much time.”

About this time, Dr. Ernesti attacked Swedenborg in his Bibliotheca

Theologica, and, in reply, Swedenborg published a single leaf, which, in

its decisive sharpness, is truly effective. It is as follows:—

“I have read what Dr. Ernesti has written about me. It consists of

mere personalities. I do not in it observe a grain of reason against

anything in my writings. As it is against the laws of honesty to assail

any one with such poisoned weapons, I think it beneath me to bandy words

with that illustrious man. I will not cast back calumnies by calumnies.

To do this, I should be even with the dogs, which bark and bite, or

with the lowest drabs, which throw street mud in each other’s faces in

their brawls. Read, if you will, what I have written in my books, and

afterwards conclude, but from reason, respecting my revelation.”

The Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt now wrote to Swedenborg, requesting

information on several subjects. Swedenborg having doubt as to the

genuineness of the epistle, did not at first reply to it, until his

misgivings were set aside by M. Venator, the minister of that prince. In

his reply to the Landgrave, he says: “The Lord our Saviour had foretold

that He would come again into the world, and that he would establish

there a New Church. But as He cannot come again into the world in person,

it was necessary that He should do it by means of a man, who should not

only receive the doctrine of this New Church in his understanding, but

also publish it by printing; and as the Lord had prepared me for this

office from my infancy, He has manifested Himself in person before me,

His servant, and sent me to fill it.”

The Landgrave again wrote to Swedenborg, inquiring about the “miracle”

of his intercourse with the Queen of Sweden’s brother, and Swedenborg

answered that the story was true, but “not a miracle.” He also wrote

to M. Venator, “that such matters ought, by no means, to be considered

miracles: they are only testimonies that I have been introduced by the

Lord into the spiritual world, and that I have been in association

with angels and spirits, in order that the Church, which until now had

remained in ignorance concerning that world, may know that heaven and

hell exist in reality, and that man lives after death, a man, as before;

and that thus there may be no more doubt as to his immortality. Deign, I

pray you, to satisfy his Highness, that these are not miracles, but only

testimonies that I converse with angels and spirits. You may see in the

‘True Christian Religion’ that there are no more miracles at this time;

and the reason why. It is, that they who do not believe because they see

no miracles, might easily, by them, be led into fanaticism.”

Writing of miracles, Swedenborg remarks in another place, “Instead

of miracles, there has taken place, at the present day, an open

manifestation of the Lord himself, an intromission into the spiritual

world, and with it, illumination by immediate light from the Lord in

whatever relates to the interior things of the Church, but principally

an opening of the spiritual sense of the Word, in which the Lord is

present in his own Divine light. These revelations are not miracles,

because every man, as to his spirit, is in the spiritual world, without

separation from his body in the natural world. As to myself, indeed, my

presence in the spiritual world is attended with a certain separation,

but only as to the intellectual part of my mind, not as to the will part.

This manifestation of the Lord, and intromission into the spiritual

world, is more excellent than all miracles; but it has not been granted

to any one since the creation of the world, as it has been to me. The men

of the golden age, indeed, conversed with angels; but it was not granted

to them to be in any other light than what was natural. To me, however,

it has been granted to be in both spiritual and natural light at the same

time; and hereby I have been privileged to see the wonderful things of

heaven, to be in company with angels, just as I am with men, and at the

same time to pursue truths in the light of truth, and thus to perceive

and be gifted with them, consequently to be led by the Lord.”

CHAPTER XXVII.

_The True Christian Religion._

In the early part of 1771, Swedenborg published his “True Christian

Religion, or, Universal Theology of the New Church;” and in August of the

same year took ship, and left Amsterdam for London. Let us now turn to

the consideration of his last great work,—a summary of the doctrines he

was commissioned to teach.

“The True Christian Religion, containing the Universal Theology of the

New Church,” the last work published by Swedenborg, may be looked upon

as the summary of his spiritual thought, his theological labors, his

heavenly message to mankind. In its ninth English edition, it forms a

large octavo volume of 815 pages, and is a complete body of divinity. It

is divided into fifteen chapters, a Supplement treating of the states of

Luther, Calvin, and Melancthon, the Dutch, English, Germans, Papists,

Romish saints, Mahommedans, and the Africans, in the spiritual world; and

seventy-seven memorable relations of scenes and representations witnessed

in that world, interspersed between the various chapters; altogether

forming a volume unique in literature, ancient or modern. At the risk

of an occasional repetition of what has before been said, let us take a

rapid survey of the contents of this massive and marvellous work.

Chapter I. treats of God the Creator, His Unity, the Divine Esse which

is Jehovah, His Infinity or His Immensity and Eternity, the Essence of

God which is His Divine Love and Wisdom, His Omnipotence, Omniscience,

and Omnipresence, and of the creation of the universe. On these sublime

subjects, themes on which, for ages, the weary reason of man has exerted

itself with the poorest results, Swedenborg, with a mathematical

exactness, sets forth the true doctrine; and with a simplicity of logic

which at every step calls the Word of God, and the reason and common

sense of man, to witness; leading the reader to wonder why truths so

simple, so soul-satisfying, should have been hidden from human eyes so

long. Whilst elucidating subjects commonly supposed to transcend human

ideas, and yet which humanity is ever restless to discover,—reverence is

in nowise deprived of its exercise. It is a great mistake, yet a common

one, to associate mystery with true reverence; to talk of “ignorance” as

“the mother of devotion.” Let any one ask himself whether the reverence

of Sir Isaac Newton for that God whose operations in the universe he

was favored to discover, was inferior to that of an ignorant devotee,

or an illiterate peasant. No. A knowledge of God and His attributes is

no destroyer of faith, reverence, or devotion, but the reverse. Our

knowledge of Him, however extended, is but the enlargement of a circle,

which, as it is enlarged, expands our conception of the infinity beyond.

Hence it is that whilst this chapter on God the Creator, goes into

details which are the death of mysticism, the truths which it opens to

the mind lead to an intelligent and reverential love, to which ignorance

can never attain.

Chapter II. is devoted to the consideration of the Lord the Redeemer.

It tells how Jehovah God descended and assumed humanity, that He might

redeem and save mankind; and how the humanity was united to the Divinity,

and thus God was made man, and man God, in one Person; that Redemption

consisted in bringing the hells into subjection, and the heavens into

order, and in thus preparing the way for a new spiritual Church; and how,

without such Redemption, neither could men have been saved, nor could the

angels have remained in a state of integrity. Thus Redemption was a work

purely divine, and could not have been effected but by God Incarnate.

The passion of the cross was in itself alone not Redemption, but was the

last temptation the Lord endured in His Humanity; and it was the means of

the glorification of that humanity. Hence it is a fundamental error of

the Church to believe the passion of the cross to be Redemption itself;

and this error, together with that relating to three Divine Persons from

eternity, has perverted the whole system of Christian theology.

Chapter III. sets forth the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and the Divine

Operation. The Holy Spirit is the Divine Truth, and also the Divine

Virtue and Operation, proceeding from the One God, in whom there is

the Divine Trinity, thus from the Lord God the Saviour, Jesus Christ.

The Divine Virtue and Operation in and on humanity, signified by the

Holy Spirit, consists, in general, in reformation and regeneration;

and, in proportion as these are effected, in renovation, vivification,

sanctification, and justification; and in proportion as these are

effected, in purification from evils, remission of sins, and finally

salvation. The Holy Spirit being the efflux of Jehovah through the

glorified humanity, did not exist until after the incarnation. Hence it

is nowhere said in the Old Testament, that the prophets spoke from the

Holy Spirit, but from Jehovah God. We have a beautiful and irresistible

confirmation of this truth in these words, “for the Holy Spirit was not

_yet, because_ that Jesus was not yet glorified.” John vii. 39.

In this chapter he also speaks of the Trinity. There is a Divine Trinity,

consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and these three are the

three _Essentials_ of One God,—which make a One, like soul, body, and

operation in man. To conceive of a Trinity of Divine _persons_ from

eternity, is to think of three Gods; and no amount of word-playing and

creed-making can prevent the mind from falling into Tritheism, as long as

a Trinity of _persons_ and not of _essentials_ is spoken and thought of.

A Trinity of persons was unknown in the Apostolic Church. The doctrine

was first broached by the Council of Nice, and thence received into the

Roman Catholic Church, and thus propagated among the Reformed Churches.

The Nicene and Athanasian doctrines concerning a Trinity, have, together,

given rise to a faith which has entirely perverted the Christian Church;

and hence has come that “abomination of desolation, and that affliction,

such as was not in all the world, neither shall be,” which the Lord

has foretold in Daniel, the Evangelists, and the Revelation. For when

the Church ceases to know its God, the central point of all faith and

doctrine, all subsidiary points must necessarily become involved in

darkness. And thus it is that the Athanasian creed has given rise to

so many absurd notions about God, and hence, also, to an innumerable

brood of heresies and phantasies on every point of doctrine and life,

so much so, that had not the Lord effected a Last Judgment in 1757, and

established a New Heaven and a New Church, no flesh could have been

saved. The “healing of the nations,” the new life, light and heat, that

have coursed through humanity during the past century, attest the working

of Omnipotence for the salvation and restoration of what is most valuable

and precious in man.

Chapter IV. is an exposition of the nature of the Sacred Scripture, or

the Word of the Lord, proving it to be the Divine Truth itself. The

spiritual sense of the Word, and the means by which it is unfolded,

together with the law of its composition, are explained at length, and

with great perspicuity. It is shown that the spiritual sense is in all

and every part of the Word, that hence it is divinely inspired, and is

holy in every syllable. Nevertheless the literal sense is not to be

disregarded. It is the basis, the continent, and the firmament of the

spiritual sense; in it the Divine Truth is in its fullness, its sanctity,

and its power; from it the doctrine of the Church is to be drawn and

confirmed; and by it conjunction with the Lord and consociation with the

angels is effected. The Word is in all the heavens, and the wisdom of

the angels is thence derived. The Church exists from the Word, and the

quality of the Church with man is according to his understanding of the

Word. The marriage of Goodness and Truth, and of the Lord and the Church,

is in every part of the Word. Men may collect and imbibe heretical

opinions from the letter of the Word; but it is hurtful to confirm such

opinions. Many things in the Word are appearances of truth, in which

genuine truths lie concealed; and many fallacies arise from the taking

of these appearances of truth for genuine or absolute truth. The literal

sense of the Word is a guard to the genuine truths contained in it, and

in the Word is represented by cherubs. To the wicked, it is a mercy

that spiritual truth is thus hidden; for if known and not obeyed, it is

profaned, and profanation involves the deepest suffering and distress.

The Lord, during his abode in the world, fulfilled all things contained

in the Word, and was thus made the Word, that is, the Divine Truth, even

in ultimates. Previous to the Word which the world now possesses, there

was a Word which is lost, but is preserved in heaven among the angels who

lived as men in those times, and is also extant among certain nations in

Great Tartary, who, however, have probably no true idea of the treasure

they possess. By means of the Word, light is communicated to those who

are out of the pale of the Church, and are not in possession of the

Word. This is effected outwardly by the communications of commerce,

with those nations who have the Word; and internally and insensibly

by that community of soul which makes humanity appear before the Lord

as one man. There is no thought conceived, no deed done, but which

radiates from soul to soul, and produces effects of which the doer is

not conscious. Thus it is that the Church—composed of the men who read,

love, and obey the Word—benefits the world, and conjoins it with heaven

and the Lord. Without the Word, no one would have any knowledge of God,

of heaven and hell, or of a life after death, and much less of the Lord.

The multiplicity of points involved in these statements, receive, in this

chapter on the Sacred Scripture, most copious illustrations, both from

the Word itself, and from the common experience of mankind. In reading

this chapter, every candid person will feel that, strange and novel as

many of the statements are, he is not dealing with a mere theorizer; and

that facts and even Revelation itself must be done away, ere the doctrine

of the Sacred Scripture here revealed can be overthrown or proved

erroneous.

Chapter V. explains the Decalogue, or the Ten Commandments, as to their

external and internal sense. The Decalogue, in the Israelitish Church,

was the very essence of holiness, and from it the ark and the tabernacle

derived their sanctity. In the Ten Commandments are contained all things

which relate to love to God, and love towards our neighbor. In its

literal sense, the Decalogue contains general precepts of doctrine and

life, but in its spiritual and celestial sense it contains all precepts

universally. Swedenborg then takes up each commandment singly, and gives

an exposition of its literal, spiritual, and celestial application; and

when he has done this, we perceive that these Ten Commandments, which

every school-boy repeats and feels he understands, nevertheless contain

all precepts, and are such as may afford guidance to the wisest angel,

and that man can never outgrow them. Taking, for instance, the Seventh

Commandment, (the eighth, according to the common numbering,) “Thou

shalt not steal,” he explains it in the natural sense, after the common

acceptation. In the spiritual sense, he shows that to steal means to

deprive others of the truths which they embrace in faith, in teaching

doctrines known to be false, or teaching for the sake of gain; and in

destroying in others, either by word or deed, those truths which lead

to salvation. In the celestial sense, to steal is to take away divine

power from the Lord, to be vain, to be proud, to arrogate to ourselves

the merit and righteousness which are the divine gifts. All who do such

things, notwithstanding their seeming adoration of God, do not trust

in Him, but in themselves; and likewise do not believe in God, but in

themselves; they steal from God; they are spiritual thieves; and every

one who knows his own heart, must know how often he must refer to this

commandment, in order to govern his life, and restrain his thoughts,

before he can know perfect obedience, and be in truth a child of God. As

with this commandment, so with all. We need to think of them every day,

and to use them in all our states. If we purpose to lead a true and happy

life, we must cherish them as constant companions.

Chapter VI. treats of Faith. Faith, it is said, is first in regard to

time, and charity is first in regard to end; that is, the use of faith is

to lead to charity. A saving faith is a faith in the Lord God the Saviour

Jesus Christ, because He is the visible God in whom is the invisible.

Faith, in general, consists in a belief that the Lord will save all

who live a good life and believe aright; and a man receives this faith

in consequence of approaching the Lord, learning truths from the Word,

and living a life in conformity with them. Faith without charity is not

faith, and charity without faith is not charity; and neither faith nor

charity has any life in it but from the Lord. Although a man has power

given him to procure for himself faith and charity, and the life of faith

and charity, yet nothing of faith, charity, or the life of either, is

from man, but from the Lord alone. Charity and faith are together in

good works; for charity consists in willing what is good, and good works

consist in doing what is good, from and under the influence of a good

will; and both charity and faith are merely mental and perishable things,

unless they are determined to works, and coexist in them, whenever there

is opportunity. The wicked have no faith, because wickedness is of hell,

and faith is of heaven, and all the truth of faith is derived from

heaven. Faith cannot dwell with evil, for evil is like fire,—infernal

fire being the love of evil, which consumes faith like stubble, and

reduces it and all that belongs to it to ashes. Evil dwells in darkness,

and faith in light; and evil by means of the falsehood which it loves,

extinguishes faith, as darkness does light. And because the world is at

this day full of evil, (notwithstanding the morality of life, and the

rationality with which faith is spoken and written about,) of true faith

there is almost none, because of goodness there is almost none.

Chapter VII. discourses of love towards our neighbor, and good works. It

is introduced by the statement that there are three universal loves, the

love of heaven, the love of the world, and the love of self. These three

loves, when they are in right subordination, make a man perfect; but when

they are not in right subordination, they pervert and invert him. The

love of self and of the world are not in themselves evil. When the love

of heaven, that is, the love of God, of goodness and truth, is supreme in

the mind, and the world is loved as a means to do good, and self is cared

for that uses to the neighbor may be performed,—then the love of self

and of the world are orderly and justifiable. But when the love of God

and heaven is dethroned, and the love of self or of the world rules, and

a man is religious and just only so far as religion and justice conduce

to self-interest and thus God and justice and all things holy are put to

vile uses, then the soul of man is inverted,—is a form of hell; and in

the light of heaven appears bestial, ugly, and deformed.

Every individual man is the neighbor whom we ought to love, but according

to the quality of his goodness or his life. Man considered collectively,

that is, as a lesser or larger society, and considered under the idea

of compound societies, that is, as our country,—is the neighbor that

ought to be loved. The Church is our neighbor, to be loved in a still

higher degree, and the Lord’s kingdom is our neighbor to be loved in

the highest degree. To love the neighbor is not to love his person, but

the good which is in him. Charity itself consists in acting justly and

faithfully in whatever office, business, and employment a person is

engaged, and with whomsoever he has any connection. Eleemosynary acts

of charity consist in giving to the poor, and relieving the indigent,

but with prudence. There are public, domestic, and private duties of

charity. Public duties of charity are, more especially, the payment of

imposts and taxes. These are paid with different feelings by those who

are spiritual and by those who are natural: those who are spiritual pay

them out of good will, because they are collected for the preservation

and protection of their country and the church, and as a provision for

the proper officers and governors, who must receive their salaries out of

the public treasury, therefore those who consider their country and the

church as their neighbor, pay such debts cheerfully and with a willing

mind, and consider it a wicked act either to withhold them or to use any

deceit in the payment; whereas those who do not esteem their country

and the church as their neighbor, pay such debts with a reluctant and

unwilling mind, and, as often as they have an opportunity, withhold

them, or use some fraud in the payment; for they regard only their own

house and their own flesh as their neighbor. The domestic duties of

charity are of several kinds, as those of a husband to his wife, and of

a wife to her husband; of parents to their children, and of children

to their parents; likewise of a master and mistress to their servants,

and of servants to their master and mistress. There are so many duties

relating to the education of children, and the government of families,

that it would require a volume to enumerate them. As to what particularly

regards the duties of parents to their children, there is an intrinsic

difference in this respect with those who are under the influence of

charity, and with those who are not, although externally the duties

may appear similar. With those who are under the influence of charity,

parental affection is joined with love toward their neighbor and love

to God, and such parents love their children according to their morals,

virtues, pursuits, and qualifications for the service of the public;

but with those who are not under the influence of charity, there is no

conjunction of charity with parental affection; the consequence is,

that such parents frequently love wicked, immoral, and crafty children,

more than those who are good, moral, and prudent; and thus prefer such

as are unserviceable to the public, before such as are serviceable.

Private duties of charity are also of several kinds, such as paying wages

to workmen, returning borrowed money, observing agreements, keeping

pledges, and other transactions of a like nature, some of which are

duties grounded in statute law, some in civil law, and some in moral

law. These duties, also, are discharged from different motives by those

who are under the influence of charity, and by those who are not; by the

former they are discharged faithfully and justly, for the law of charity

requires that a man should so act in all his dealings, with whomsoever

he may have any connection; but these duties are discharged in a totally

different manner by those who are not influenced by charity. Then there

are convivial recreations of charity, which consist of dinners and

suppers and social intercourse. Every one knows that dinner and supper

parties are in general use, and are given to promote various ends; by

many on account of friendship, relationship, mirth, gain, recompense,

and for party purposes of corruption; among the great they are given on

account of their dignity; and in the palaces of kings, for the display of

splendor and magnificence. But dinners and suppers of charity are given

only by those who are influenced by mutual love grounded in a similarity

of faith. Among Christians in the Primitive Church, dinners and suppers

had this end alone in view, and were called feasts, being instituted that

they might meet together in cordial joy and friendly union. At table, the

guests conversed together on various subjects, domestic and civil, but

particularly on such as concerned the Church; and as these feasts were

feasts of charity, their conversation on every subject was influenced

by charity, with all its joys and delights. The spiritual sphere which

prevailed on such occasions, was a sphere of love to the Lord and toward

the neighbor, which exhilarated every mind, softened the tone of every

expression, and communicated to all the senses a festivity from the

heart; for from every man there emanates a spiritual sphere, derived

from the affection of his love and corresponding thought, which inwardly

affects those in his company, particularly at the time of convivial

recreations.

The first part of charity consists in putting away evils, and the second

in doing actions that are useful to our neighbor. It is believed by many,

at the present day, that charity consists only in doing good, and that

while a man is doing good, he does no evil; consequently, that the first

part of charity is to do good, and the second not to do evil: but the

case is altogether the reverse, it being the first part of charity to put

away evil, and the second to do good. For it is a universal law in the

spiritual world, and thence too in the natural world, that so far as a

person wills no evil, he wills what is good; consequently, so far as he

turns himself away from hell, whence all evil ascends, he turns himself

toward heaven, whence all good descends; and, therefore, so far as any

one rejects the devil, he is accepted by the Lord. In performing the

exercises of charity, a man does not ascribe merit to works, so long as

he believes that all good is from the Lord. Moral life, if it is at the

same time spiritual life, is charity. The friendship of love, contracted

with a person without regard to his spiritual quality, is detrimental

after death. The friendship of love, among the wicked, is intestine

hatred toward each other. There is spurious charity, hypocritical

charity, and dead charity. There can be no such thing as genuine charity,

which is living, unless it make one with faith, and unless both in

conjunction look to the Lord. Spurious charity is such as is the charity

of those who hold to faith alone for salvation, and who say charity is

of no account in leading to heaven. Such charity as these may have is

spurious, because not spiritual, and merely performed from selfish and

worldly motives. Hypocritical charity is predicable of those who, in

public or private worship, bow themselves almost to the ground before

God, pour forth long prayers with great devotion, put on a sanctified

appearance, kiss crucifixes and bones of the dead, and kneel at

sepulchers, and there mutter words expressive of holy veneration toward

God, and yet, in their hearts nourish self-worship, and seek to be adored

like so many deities. Dead charity is predicable of those whose faith

is dead, since the quality of charity depends on the quality of faith.

Faith is dead in all who are without works, and in those who believe not

in God, but in living and dead men, and worship idols as if they were

holy in themselves, after the practice of the old Gentiles.

Chapter VIII. is devoted to the vexed question of Free-Determination,

or Free-Will. The doctrines of the Church, as commonly held, are first

stated, and then the New Church doctrine on the question is explained

under the following heads:—The two trees in the garden of Eden, one

of life, and the other of the knowledge of good and evil, signify the

free-will which man enjoys in respect to spiritual things. Man is not

life, but a recipient of life from God. Man, during his abode in the

world, is held in the midst between heaven and hell, and thus in a

spiritual equilibrium, which constitutes free will.

From the permission of evil, which every man experiences in his

internal man, it is evident that man has free-will in spiritual things.

Without free-will in spiritual things, the Word would not be of any

use, consequently the Church would be a nonentity. Without free-will

in spiritual things, man would have nothing which would enable him to

conjoin himself by reciprocation with the Lord; and consequently there

would be no imputation, but mere predestination, which is detestable.

Without free-will in spiritual things, God would be chargeable as the

cause of evil. Every spiritual principle of the Church that is admitted

and received in freedom, remains, but not otherwise. The human will and

understanding enjoy this free-will; but the commission of evil, both in

the spiritual and natural worlds, is restrained by laws, or else society

in both would perish. If men were destitute of free-will in spiritual

things, it would be possible for all men throughout the whole world, in

a single day, to be induced to believe in the Lord; but this would be in

vain, because nothing remains with man which is not freely received.

Miracles are not performed at the present day because they deprive man of

free-will.

Chapter IX. treats of Repentance. It is shown, in the first place, that

repentance is the first constituent of the Church in man, and that in

proportion as a man practices it, his sins are removed; and as they are

removed, they are forgiven or remitted. Contrition, in the sense of a

mere lip-confession of being a sinner, and of being involved in the guilt

of Adam, without self-examination, is not repentance. Every man is born

with a propensity to evils of all kinds, and unless he remove them, in

part, by repentance, he remains in them; and whoever remains in them can

not be saved. The knowledge of sin, and the discovery of some particular

sin in one’s self, is the beginning of repentance. Actual repentance

consists in a man’s examining himself, knowing and acknowledging his

sins, supplicating the Lord, and beginning a new life. True repentance

consists in a man’s examining not only the actions of his life, but also

the intentions of his will. Those also do the work of repentance, who,

though they do not examine themselves, abstain from evils because they

are sins; and this kind of repentance is done by those who perform works

of charity from a religious motive. In repentance, confession ought to be

made before the Lord God the Saviour, and at the same time supplication

for help, and power to resist evils. Actual repentance is an easy duty to

those who occasionally practice it, but it meets with violent opposition

from those who never practiced it. He that never did the work of

repentance, and never looked into, and examined, himself, comes at last

not to know the nature either of damnatory evil or saving good.

Chapter X. describes the nature of Reformation and Regeneration. Unless a

man be born again, and, as it were, created anew, he can not enter into

the kingdom of God. This new birth, or creation, is effected by the Lord

alone, through the medium of charity and faith, during man’s coöperation.

Since all are redeemed, all have a capacity to be regenerated, every one

according to his state. The several stages of man’s regeneration answer

to his natural conception, gestation in the womb, birth, and education.

The first act of the new birth, which is an act of the understanding,

is called reformation; and the second, which is an act of the will, and

thence of the understanding, is called regeneration. The internal man

is first to be reformed, and by it the external, and thus the man is

regenerated. When this takes place, there arises a combat between the

internal and external man, and then whichever conquers has dominion

over the other. The regenerate man has a new will and understanding.

A regenerate man is in communion with the angels of heaven, and an

unregenerate man is in communion with the spirits of hell. In proportion

as a man is regenerated, his sins are removed; and this removal is what

is meant by remission of sins. Regeneration, can not be effected without

free-will in spiritual things. Regeneration is not attainable without

truths by which faith is formed, and with which charity conjoins itself.

Chapter XI. is devoted to a description of what imputation is, and what

it is not. It is shown that imputation, and the faith of the present

church, which alone is said to justify, are a one. The imputation which

belongs to the faith of the present time is two fold, the one part

relating to the merit of Christ, and the other to salvation as its

consequence. The faith which is imputative of the merit and righteousness

of Christ the Redeemer, first took its rise from the decrees of the

Council of Nice, concerning three divine persons from eternity; and,

from that time to the present, has been received by the whole Christian

world. Faith imputative of the merit of Christ, was not known in the

Apostolic Church, which preceded the Council of Nice, and is neither

declared nor signified in any part of the Word. An imputation of the

merits and righteousness of Christ is impossible. There is such a thing

as imputation, but then it is an imputation of good and evil, and at the

same time of faith. The faith and imputation of the New Church can not

be together with the faith and imputation of the former Church; and, in

case they were together, such a collision and conflict would ensue, that

every principle of the Church in man would perish. The Lord imputes good

to every man, and hell imputes evil to every man. Faith, with whatever

principle it conjoins itself, passes sentence accordingly; if a true

faith conjoins itself with goodness, the sentence is for eternal life,

but if faith conjoins itself with evil, the sentence is for eternal

death. Thought is imputed to no one, but will.

Chapter XII. is a luminous exposition of the uses of Baptism. Without

a knowledge of the spiritual sense of the Word, it is shown no one can

know what the two sacraments, Baptism and the Holy Supper, involve and

effect. The washing which is called baptism, signifies spiritual washing,

which is a purification from evils and falses, and thus regeneration.

As circumcision of the heart was represented by circumcision of the

foreskin, baptism was instituted in lieu of it, to the end that an

internal Church might succeed the external, in which all and everything

was a figure of the internal Church. The first use of baptism is

introduction into the Christian Church, and at the same time insertion

among Christians in the spiritual world. The second use of baptism is,

that the Christian may know and acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ the

Redeemer and Saviour, and may follow Him. The third and final use of

baptism is, that man may be regenerated. By the baptism of John, a way

was prepared that Jehovah the Lord might come down into the world, and

accomplish the work of redemption.

Chapter XIII. is taken up with a like description of the uses of the

Holy Supper. It is shown that it is impossible for any one, without an

acquaintance with the correspondences of natural things with spiritual,

to know the uses and benefits of the Holy Supper. An acquaintance with

correspondences serves to discover the signification of the Lord’s flesh

and blood, and that the bread and wine signify the same; namely, that

the Lord’s flesh and the bread signify the divine good of His love, and

likewise all the good of charity, and that His blood and the wine signify

the divine truth of His wisdom, and likewise all the truth of faith,

and that to eat signifies to appropriate. By understanding this, it may

clearly be comprehended, that the Holy Supper contains, both universally

and particularly, all things of the Church, and all things of heaven.

In the Holy Supper the Lord is entirely present, with the whole of His

redemption. The Lord is present, and opens heaven to those who approach

the Holy Supper worthily; and He is also present with those who approach

it unworthily, but does not open heaven to them; consequently, as baptism

is an introduction into the Church, so the Holy Supper is an introduction

into heaven. Those approach the Holy Supper worthily, who are under the

influence of faith toward the Lord, and of charity toward their neighbor,

thus, who are regenerate. Those who approach the Holy Supper worthily,

are in the Lord, and He in them; consequently, conjunction with the

Lord is effected by the Holy Supper. The Holy Supper is, to the worthy

receivers, as a signing and sealing that they are sons of God.

Chapter XIV., concluding the doctrinal portion of the work, describes

the consummation of the age, the coming of the Lord, and the new heaven

and the New Church. The consummation of the age is the last time or

end of the Church. The present day is the last time of the Christian

Church, which the Lord foretold and described in the Gospels, and in

the Revelation. This last time of the Christian Church, is the very

night in which the former Churches have set. After this night, morning

succeeds; and the coming of the Lord is this morning. The coming of the

Lord is not a coming to destroy the visible heaven and the habitable

earth, and to create a new heaven and a new earth, according to the

opinions which many, from not understanding the spiritual sense of the

Word, have hitherto entertained. This, which is the second coming of

the Lord, is for the sake of separating the evil from the good, that

those who have believed and who do believe in Him, may be saved; and

that there may be formed of them a new angelic heaven, and a New Church

on earth; and without this coming no flesh could be saved. This second

coming of the Lord is not a coming in person, but in the Word, which is

from Him, and is Himself. This second coming of the Lord is effected by

the instrumentality of a man, before whom He has manifested Himself in

person, and whom He has filled with His spirit, to teach from Him the

doctrines of the New Church by means of the Word. This is meant by the

new heaven and the new earth, and the New Jerusalem descending out of

heaven, spoken of in the Revelation. This New Church is the crown of all

the Churches which have existed, to this time, on the earth.

On all these subjects Swedenborg discourses at length, and in a style

which, for its combined simplicity and purity, we believe, is unmatched

in theological literature. Wilkinson says truly of the volume, that,

“viewed as a digest, it shows a presence of mind, an administration of

materials, and a faculty of handling, of an extraordinary kind. There is

old age in it in the sense of ripeness. If the intellectualist misses

there somewhat of the range of discourse, it is compensated by a certain

triteness of wisdom. As a polemic, not only against the errors of the

Churches, but against the evil lives and self-excusings of Christians,

the work is unrivaled. The criticisms of doctrine, with which it abounds,

are masterly in the extreme; and were it compared with any similar body

of theology, we feel no doubt that the palm of coherency, vigor, and

comprehensiveness, would easily fall to Swedenborg, upon the verdict of

judges of whatever Church.”

We have said nothing of the seventy-six memorable relations strewn

through the pages of the “True Christian Religion,” because the limits

to which we are confined forbid anything approaching to an adequate

description of them. They are a great trouble to new readers of

Swedenborg, and many who love and delight in the doctrinal teachings of

the work, pass over, unread, the memorable relations, and try not to

think of them. But this is only for a time. They are only strange and

incomprehensible because the principles upon which they are written are

not apprehended. The Indian king, who was told that in northern lands

water became solid, so that his elephants might walk on it, laughed, and

was an unbeliever. But, had the law or principle by which water becomes

ice, been made plain to him, his laughter and his unbelief would have

ceased. So it is with those who are shocked with Swedenborg’s relations

of things heard and seen in the spiritual world. Let but the great law

of correspondence be understood, and the most marvelous of the relations

straightway attain an interest and reality, which none but those who have

studied them under the bright light of correspondences can understand, or

easily believe possible. A memorable relation, which was to the writer

of this, at one time, a thing to cause pity for the man that wrote

it, is now the pleasant and practical study of a Sunday afternoon. He

knows that his experience in this respect is paralleled by that of most

Newchurchmen.

Count Hopken, in a letter to General Tuxen, says, “I once represented,

in rather a serious manner, to this venerable man, (Swedenborg), that

I thought he would do better not to mix his beautiful writings with so

many memorable relations of things heard and seen in the spiritual world,

concerning the states of men after death,—of which ignorance makes a jest

and derision. But he answered me, that this did not depend on him; that

he was too old to sport with spiritual things, and too much concerned for

his eternal happiness to give into foolish notions; assuring me, on his

hopes of salvation, that no imagination produced in him his revelations,

which were true, and derived from what he had heard and seen.”

“The True Christian Religion” was the last work Swedenborg published; it

was a worthy conclusion of his grand labors. Among his papers, at his

decease, was found an incomplete “Coronis” or Appendix to the work. This

has been translated and published, and contains an elucidation of several

interesting points.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

_Anecdotes and Traits of Character._

Swedenborg arrived in London, from Amsterdam, in August, 1771, and

took up his abode in lodgings he had before occupied in the house of

Shearsmith, a peruke maker, at 26 Great Bath street, Cold Bath fields.

From Shearsmith we learn several interesting items of intelligence

regarding Swedenborg’s habits and mode of life.

The dress that he generally wore when he went out to visit, was a suit

of black velvet, (made after an old fashion,) a pair of long ruffles,

a curiously hilted sword, and a gold-headed cane. In his later years

he became less and less attentive to the concerns of the world. When

walking abroad, he seemed to be engaged in spiritual communion, and took

little notice of things and people in the streets. When he went out in

Stockholm, without the observation of his domestics, some singularity in

his dress would often betray his abstraction. Once when he dined with

Robsahm’s father, he appeared with one shoe-buckle of plain silver, and

the other set with precious stones,—greatly to the amusement of some

ladies of the party. When he lodged with Bergstrom, he usually walked out

after breakfast, dressed neatly in velvet, and made a good appearance.

In Sweden his dress was simple, but neat and convenient: during winter,

he was clad in a garment of reindeer skins; and, in summer, in a study

gown: “both well worn, as became a philosopher,” according to Robsahm.

Mr. Servanté was one of the earliest and most affectionate receivers of

New Church doctrine. Before he received the truths of the New Church,

he was once passing along St. John’s street, London, when he met an old

gentleman, of a dignified and most venerable appearance, whose deeply

thoughtful, yet mildly expressive countenance, added to something very

unusual in his general air, attracted his attention very forcibly. He

turned round, therefore, to take another view of the stranger, who also

turned around and looked at him. This was Swedenborg; but it was not

until some years afterward, on seeing his portrait, that he became aware

that the dignified and venerable old gentleman was the author of those

works he now so sincerely loved, and so earnestly studied.

In person, Swedenborg was about 5 feet 9 inches high, rather thin, and

of a brown complexion. His eyes were of a brownish grey, nearly hazel,

and rather small. He had always a cheerful smile upon his countenance.

When Collin visited him, he was thin and pale, but still retained traces

of beauty, and had something very pleasing in his physiognomy, and a

dignity in his erect stature. Ab Indagine tells us his eyes were always

smiling; and Robsahm, that his “countenance was always illuminated by the

light of his uncommon genius.” His manners were those of a nobleman and

gentleman of the last century. He was somewhat reserved, but complaisant;

accessible to all, and had something very loving and taking in his

demeanor. Personally, he left good impressions behind him wherever he

appeared.

He did not understand the English language sufficiently well to hold a

running conversation in it; and moreover he had an impediment in his

speech. He was well acquainted, however, with the principal modern

languages, and, of course, was thoroughly familiar with Greek and Latin,

and had a sufficient knowledge of Hebrew. All authorities agree that his

speech, though not facile, was impressive. He spoke with deliberation,

and when his voice was heard, it was a signal for silence in others,

while the slowness of his delivery increased the curiosity of the

listeners. He entered into no disputes on matters of religion, but when

obliged to defend himself, he did it mildly and briefly; and if any

one insisted upon argument, and became warm against him, he retired,

with a recommendation to them to read his writings. One day, when Mr.

Cookworthy, a member of the Society of Friends, was with Swedenborg

in his lodging, a person present objected to something he said, and

argued the point in his own way; but Swedenborg only replied, “I receive

information from the angels on such things.” One day, when dining with

some Swedish clergy in London, a polemic tried to controvert the doctrine

concerning the Lord, and the nature of our duty to Him; when, according

to Mr. Burkhardt, “Swedenborg overthrew the tenets of his opponent, who

appeared but a child to him in knowledge.”

Swedenborg was practically a vegetarian. Shearsmith said he sometimes ate

a few eels, and his servant informs us that he once had some pigeon pie;

but his usual diet was bread and butter, milk and coffee, almonds and

raisins, vegetables, biscuits, cakes, and gingerbread. The gingerbread he

used to take out with him into the area of Cold Bath square, (now covered

with houses,) and distribute it among the children as they played around

him. He was a water-drinker, but occasionally, when in company, drank one

or two glasses of wine, but never more. He took no supper. Of coffee he

was a great drinker, which he took very sweet, and without milk. At his

house in Stockholm, he had a fire during winter almost constantly in his

study, at which he made his own coffee and drank it often, both during

the day and in the night.

From the commencement of his illumination, Swedenborg was very particular

as to his diet; and his Diary contains many references to his food, and

to the spiritual association which various kinds of nutriment induced.

In one place we read under the heading of “the Stink of Intemperance,”

“One evening I took a great meal of milk and bread, more than the spirits

considered good for me. On this occasion they dwelt upon intemperance,

and accused me of it.” Indeed, on the first opening of his spiritual

sight, in London, in 1743, when being very hungry from much exercise, he

ate with great appetite, the spiritual stranger who appeared, saluted

him with the words, “Eat not so much.” In his treatise on Heaven and

Hell, n. 299, he writes: “It has also been granted me to know the origin

of the anxiety, grief of mind, and interior sadness, called melancholy,

with which man is afflicted. There are certain spirits who are not yet

in conjunction with hell, being yet in their first state, who love

undigested and malignant substances, such as food when it lies corrupting

in the stomach. They consequently are present where such substances are

to be found in man, because these are delightful to them; and they there

converse with one another from their own evil affection. The affection

contained in their discourse thence enters the man by influx; and if it

is opposed to the man’s affection, he experiences melancholy, sadness,

and anxiety; whereas if it agrees with his affection, he becomes gay and

cheerful. Hence was made manifest to me the origin of the persuasion

entertained by some who do not know what conscience is, by reason that

they have none, when they attribute its pangs to a disordered state of

the stomach.” Of the killing and eating the flesh of animals, he writes

thus in the Arcana Cœlestia, n. 1002. “Eating the flesh of animals,

considered in itself, is something profane; for the people of the most

ancient time on no account ate the flesh of any beast or fowl, but only

grain, especially bread made of wheat, also the fruits of trees, pulse,

milk, and what is produced from milk, as butter. To kill animals and to

eat their flesh, was to them unlawful, and seemed as something bestial;

and they were content with the uses and services which they rendered, as

appears also from Genesis i. 29, 30. But in succeeding times, when man

began to grow fierce as a beast, yea fiercer, then first they began to

kill animals, and to eat their flesh. And because man was such, this was

permitted, and at this day also is permitted; and so far as man does it

from conscience, so far is it lawful, for his conscience is formed of

all those things which he thinks to be true, and so thinks to be lawful:

wherefore also, at this day, no one is by any means condemned for this,

that he eats flesh.”

Swedenborg took snuff, as was the custom in his day. Some of his

manuscripts yet bear traces of the dingy powder.

Shearsmith gives the same account of Swedenborg’s habits of sleep, as

his gardener at Stockholm. He had no regard for times and seasons, days

or nights, only taking rest as he felt disposed. This was naturally to

be expected, considering the peculiarities of his seership. At first,

Shearsmith was greatly alarmed, by reason of his talking day and night.

Sometimes he would be writing, and then he would be, as it were, holding

a conversation with several persons. But as Swedenborg spoke in a

language Shearsmith did not understand, he could make nothing of it.

Shearsmith was nevertheless well pleased with his lodger. His servant

told Mr. Peckitt, after Swedenborg’s death, that “he was a good-natured

man, and that he was a blessing to the house, for they had harmony and

good business whilst he was with them.” A short time before his death, he

lay for some weeks in a trance, without any sustenance.

Swedenborg’s pension preserved him from all pecuniary cares. Yet in his

Diary we read: “I have now been for thirty-three months in a state in

which my mind is withdrawn from bodily affairs, and hence can be present

in the societies of the spiritual and celestial. Yet whenever I am

intent upon worldly matters, or have cares and desires about money, (such

as caused me to write a letter to-day,) I lapse into a bodily state;

and the spirits, as they inform me, cannot speak with me, but say they

are in a manner absent. This shows me that spirits cannot speak with

a man who dwells upon worldly and bodily cares; for the things of his

body draw down his ideas, and drown them in the body.—March 4, 1748.”

This experience is worthy of record. Most of us, in our own way, know

the truth of it, from heart experience. Whatever his motives were, he

would receive back no proceeds from the sale of his theological works,

but dedicated the whole to religious subscriptions. To beggars he seldom

gave anything. In his writings, he in several places protests against

the sham charity which satisfies itself by mere alms-giving. He tells us

that habitual beggars lead vicious and impious lives, and that to give

them money is rather to curse than to bless them. Swedenborg did not lend

money; for that, he said, is the way to lose it; besides, as he remarks,

he required it nearly all to pay the expenses of his traveling and

printing.

In his later years, Swedenborg had no library but his Bible, in various

editions, and his own manuscripts. What need had he of the books of men,

when he knew the heavens,—and the glorified authors of earth, in states

of wisdom they never dreamed of here?

Swedenborg seldom went to church; for, as he said, he “had no peace in

the church, on account of spirits, who contradicted what the preacher

said, especially when he spoke of Three Persons in the Godhead, which

amounted in reality to three Gods.”

Swedenborg’s long and arduous labors on earth were now ended. Let us

approach his death-bed with reverence, and observe how a good man can

die.

CHAPTER XXIX.

_Last Days on Earth._

On Christmas eve, 1771, a stroke of apoplexy deprived Swedenborg of his

speech, and lamed one side. He lay afterwards in a lethargic state for

more than three weeks, taking no sustenance beyond a little tea without

milk, and cold water occasionally, and once a little currant jelly. At

the end of that time, he recovered his speech and health somewhat, and

ate and drank as usual. Mr. Hartley and Dr. Messiter at this time visited

him, and asking him if he was comforted with the society of angels,

as before, he answered that he was. They then asked him to declare

whether all that he had written was strictly true, or whether any part

or parts were to be excepted. “I have written,” answered Swedenborg,

with a degree of warmth, “nothing but the truth, as you will have more

and more confirmed to you all the days of your life, provided you keep

close to the Lord, and faithfully serve Him alone, by shunning evils of

all kinds as sins against Him, and diligently searching His Word, which,

from beginning to end, bears incontestable witness to the truth of the

doctrines I have delivered to the world.”

At this time Swedenborg seemed to love privacy, and saw but little

company. His old friend, Springer, the Swedish Consul in London, called

upon him a week or two before his decease. Springer asked him when he

believed that the New Jerusalem, or the New Church of the Lord, would

be manifested, and if this manifestation would take place in the four

quarters of the world. Swedenborg replied: “No mortal can declare the

time, no, not even the celestial angels; it is known solely to the Lord.

Read the Revelation, chapter xxi. 2, and Zechariah, chapter xiv. 9,

and you will find that it is not to be doubted that the New Jerusalem,

mentioned in the Apocalypse, which denotes a new and purer state of the

Christian Church, than has hitherto existed, will manifest itself to all

the earth.”

About this time, says Springer, Swedenborg told him that his spiritual

sight was withdrawn, after he had been favored with it for so long a

course of years. This, of which the world knew nothing, and for which it

cared nothing, it was the greatest affliction to him to lose. He could

not endure the blindness, but cried out repeatedly, “O my God! hast thou

then forsaken thy servant at last?” He continued for several days in this

condition, but it was the last of his trials: he recovered his precious

sight, and was happy.

About this time he wrote a note, in Latin, to the Rev. John Wesley, to

the following effect:—

“GREAT BATH STREET, COLD BATH FIELDS, _February, 1772_.

“SIR,—I have been informed, in the world of spirits, that you

have a strong desire to converse with me. I shall be happy to

see you, if you will favor me with a visit.

“I am, sir, your humble servant,

“EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.”

When the note was handed to Mr. Wesley, he was in company with some of

his preachers, arranging their preaching circuits for the year. Wesley

read the note aloud, and frankly confessed that he had been strongly

actuated by a desire to meet Swedenborg, but he had revealed his wish to

no one. He wrote for answer, that he was then occupied in preparing for

a six months’ journey, but would wait upon Swedenborg on his return to

London. Swedenborg, in reply, stated that the proposed visit would be

too late, as he should go into the world of spirits on the 29th day of

the next month, (March,) never more to return. Wesley did not call, and

they never met. Had he been wise, he would; in spite of engagements, have

embraced this opportunity of conversing with that wonderful man, after an

invitation of such a character. Had they met, Methodism might have been a

different thing from what it is. But let us believe that all such seeming

accidents are overruled for the best.

The authority for this anecdote is the Rev. Samuel Smith, a Methodist

preacher, who was present when Wesley received Swedenborg’s letter. It

excited his curiosity to know something of the writings of so remarkable

a man; and the result was, a firm conviction of the rationality and truth

of the heavenly doctrine promulgated in them, and a zealous activity in

their diffusion, throughout the remainder of his life.

Mr. Bergstrom, the landlord of the King’s Arms tavern in Wellclose

square, at whose house Swedenborg had once lodged, called to see him in

his last days. Swedenborg told him, that since it had pleased the Lord

to take away the use of his arm by palsy, his body was good for nothing

but to be put under ground. Mr. Bergstrom asked him whether he would

receive the Sacrament. Somebody present at the time proposed sending for

the Rev. Mr. Mathesius, a minister of the Swedish Church. Swedenborg at

once declined having that gentleman, for he had sent abroad a report that

Swedenborg was out of his senses. (Mathesius himself, in later years,

became deranged.) The Rev. Arvid Ferelius, another Swedish clergyman,

with whom Swedenborg was on the best terms, and who had visited him

frequently in his illness, was then sent for. Ferelius observed to him,

that “as many persons thought he had endeavored only to make himself a

name, or acquire celebrity in the world, by the publication of his new

theological system, he should now be ready, in order to show justice to

the world, to recant either the whole or a part of what he had written,

since he had now nothing more to expect from the world which he was so

soon to leave forever.” Upon hearing these words, Swedenborg raised

himself half upright in his bed, and placing his sound hand upon his

breast, said, with great zeal and emphasis, “As true as you see me before

you, so true is everything which I have written. I could say more, were

I permitted. When you come into eternity, you will see all things as I

have stated and described them; and we shall have much discourse about

them with each other.” Ferelius then asked him if he would take the

Lord’s Holy Supper. He replied, “You mean well, but I, being a member

of the other world, do not need it. However, to show the connection

and union between the church in heaven and the church on earth, I will

gladly take it.” He then asked Ferelius if he had read his views on the

Sacrament. Before administering the Sacrament, Ferelius inquired whether

he confessed himself to be a sinner. “Certainly,” said Swedenborg, “so

long as I carry about with me this sinful body.” With deep and affecting

devotion, with folded hands, and with his head uncovered, he confessed

his own unworthiness, and received the Holy Supper. He then presented

Ferelius with a copy of his Arcana Cœlestia, expressing his gratitude to

him for his kind attentions.

He knew that his end was near. He told the people of the house on what

day he should die, and Shearsmith’s servant remarked, “he was as pleased

as I should have been, if I was going to have a holiday, or going to some

merrymaking.”

His faculties were clear to the last. On Sunday, the 29th day of March,

1772, hearing the clock strike, he asked his landlady and her maid, who

were both sitting at his bed-side, what o’clock it was; and upon being

answered it was five o’clock, he said, “It is well; I thank you; God

bless you;” and in a little moment after, he gently departed. He was then

84 years, 8 weeks, and five days, old.

His body was taken to the undertaker’s, where it lay in state; and then

was, on the 5th day of April, deposited in three coffins, in the vault of

the Swedish Church, in Prince’s square, Radcliffe Highway, with all the

ceremonies of the Lutheran faith,—the service being performed by the Rev.

Arvid Ferelius.

There the body still lies. No stone, or inscription marks the spot.

Swedenborg of all men, least requires monumental commemoration.

Every year enshrines his memory in increasing numbers of grateful

hearts;—grateful to him, as a medium, whereby the Infinite Wisdom and

Goodness might reach its end in blessing mankind by the advent of

spiritual truth, and leading them within the gates of the Holy City, New

Jerusalem.

FOOTNOTES

[1] The following account of Charles XII., written by Emanuel Swedenborg,

was printed in the “Gentleman’s Magazine,” for September, 1754. It is

a portion of a letter which Swedenborg wrote to M. Nordberg, while the

latter was engaged in writing his “Life of Charles XII.,” in which work

the letter appeared at full length. It is too long to be quoted here; the

following extracts contain the pith of it. It may be proper to observe,

that it was written by the author prior to his being called to the sacred

office which occupied the last twenty-nine years of his life. This

accounts for his speaking of the celebrated Swedish hero with so much

greater respect than he is known to have afterwards entertained for his

memory.

“Having been frequently admitted to the honor of hearing his late most

excellent Majesty, Charles XII. discourse on mathematical subjects, I

presume an account of a new arithmetic invented by him, may merit the

attention of my readers.

“His Majesty observed then, that the denary arithmetic, universally

received and practiced, was most probably derived from the original

method of counting on the fingers; that illiterate people of old, when

they had run through the fingers of both hands, repeated new periods over

and over again, and every time spread open both hands; which being done

ten times, they distinguished each step by proper marks, as by joining

two, three, or four fingers. Afterwards, when this method of numeration

on the fingers came to be expressed by proper characters, it soon became

firmly and universally established, and so the denary calculus has been

retained to this day. But surely, were a solid geometrician, thoroughly

versed in the abstract nature and fundamentals of numbers, to set his

mind upon introducing a still more useful calculus into the world,

instead of ten, he would select such a perfect square, or cube number, as

by continual bisection, or halving, would at length terminate in unity,

and be better adapted to the subdivisions of measures, weights, coins,

etc.

“Thus intent on a new arithmetic, the hero pitched upon the number

eight, as most fit for the purpose, since it could not only be halved

continually down to unity, without a fraction, but contained within it

the square of 2, and was itself the cube thereof, and was also applicable

to the received denomination of several sorts of weights and coins,

rising to 16 and 32, the double and quadruple of 8. Upon these first

considerations, he was pleased to command me to draw up an essay on an

octonary calculus, which I completed in a few days, with its application

to the received divisions, coins, measures, and weights, a disquisition

on cubes and squares, and a new and easy way of extracting roots, all

illustrated with examples.

“His Majesty having cast his eye twice or thrice over it, and observing,

perhaps from some hints in the essay, that the denary calculus had

several advantages not always attended to, he did not at that time

seem absolutely to approve of the octonary: or, it is likely he might

conceive, that though it seemed easy in theory, yet it might prove

difficult to introduce it to practice. Be this as it may, he insisted

on fixing upon some other that was both a cube and a square number,

referrible to 8, and divisible down to unity by bisection. This could be

no other than 64, the cube of 4, and square of 8, divisible down to unity

without a fraction.

“I immediately presumed to object that such a number would be too prolix,

as it rises through a series of entirely distinct and different numbers,

up to 64, and then again to its duplicate 4,096, and on to its triplicate

262,144, before the fourth step commences; so that the difficulty of such

a calculus would be incredible, not only in addition and subtraction, but

to a still higher degree in multiplication and division; for the memory

must necessarily retain in the multiplication table, 3,969 distinct

products of the 63 numbers of the first step multiplied into one another;

whereas only 49 are necessary in the octonary, and but 81 are required

in the denary arithmetic; which last is difficult to be remembered and

applied in practice, by some capacities. But the stronger my objections

were, the more resolute was his royal mind upon attempting such a

calculus.

Obstructions made him eagerly aspire

All to surmount, and nobly soar the higher.

He insisted that the alleged difficulties might be overbalanced by very

many advantages.

“A few days after this I was called before his Majesty, who, resuming

the subject, demanded if I had made a trial. I still urging my former

objections, he reached me a paper written with his own hand, in new

characters and terms of denomination, the perusal of which, he was

pleased, at my entreaty, to grant me; wherein, to my great surprise, I

found not only new characters and numbers, (the one almost naturally

expressive of the other) in a continued series to 64, so ranged as easily

to be remembered, but also new denominations, so contrived by pairs,

as to be easily extended to myriads by a continued variation of the

character and denomination. And further casting my eye on several new

methods of his for addition and multiplication by this calculus, either

artificially contrived, or else inherent in the characters of the numbers

themselves, I was struck with the profoundest admiration of the force of

his Majesty’s genius, and with such strange amazement, as obliged me to

esteem this eminent personage, not my rival, but by far my superior in my

own art. And having the original still in my custody, at a proper time I

may publish it, as it highly deserves; whereby it will appear with what

discerning skill he was endowed, or how deeply he penetrated into the

obscurest recesses of the arithmetical science.

“Besides, his eminent talents in calculation further appear by his

frequently working and solving the most difficult numerical problems,

barely by thought and memory; in which operations others are obliged to

take great pains and tedious labor.

“Having duly weighed the vast advantages arising from mathematical and

arithmetical knowledge in most occasions of human life, he frequently

used it as an adage, that _he who is ignorant of numbers is scarce half a

man_.

“While he was at Bender, he composed a complete volume of military

exercises, highly esteemed by those who are best skilled in the art of

war.”

[2] The bookseller referred to was Mr. Bohn, of Henrietta street, Covent

Garden.

[3] It is not to be supposed that this time was wasted in sleep. In his

meditations and spiritual intercourse, he, no doubt, loved the seclusion

of his quiet chamber.

[4] This is quite a mistake. His work he had in contemplation for some

years. It is probable the revisal, alterations, and additions in the MS

and in the proofs, led Paulus into this misconception.