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192 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
"6
Respecting the second objection, on the subject of
FAITH IN CHRIST, no author has urged the necessity
of such faith with more force. He insists on it in a
thousand passages, and especially in his comment upon
John iii. 16, and xv. 4, besides teaching throughout all
his writings the impossibility for any Christian to enter
the kingdom of heaven and to be with the Lord, who
does not acknowledge JESUS CHRIST to be the ONLY
GOD, the REDEEMER, and JUSTIFIER.
"The third objection, as to Self-righteousness and
Merit, has no ground whatever in the author’s writings.
He every where keeps close to the above passage of
John : Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch can
not bearfruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no
more can ye, except ye abide in me ;’ (xv. 4. ) and
insists that man can only arrive at a conformity with the
divine will by the practice of good, in appearance indeed
as from himself, but still under the acknowledgment that
in reality it is from the Lord : he therefore maintains, that
man is in himself nothing but what is evil and false, that
is to say, nothing but the love of self and of the world ;
consequently, that man can claim no merit, but that all
merit belongs, without the possibility ofman’s partici
pation in it, to the Lord alone.
"Respecting the fourth objection, namely, the charge
of Socinianism, no man can possibly maintain doctrines
more repugnant to Socinus and his followers than our
author, who frequently quotes the principles of Socinus
for the express purpose of refuting them.
"Another pretext for opposing our author’s labours, is,
that his views extend beyond the sphere of the received
doctrines, and announce high and important truths in a
manner altogether novel and unusual. In answer to
which, it may be proper to consider, that as what is
spiritual infinitely exceeds in all respects that which is
natural, and yet additions are daily being made to our
stock of natural knowledge ; who shall hinder the divine
light also from spreading its beams as far as it is the will
of our Lord God to permit ? And does that man act
wisely who shuts his intellectual eye against that light,
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