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HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. OETINGER. 205
they should see heaven open ;’ (John i.) and this, we
might reasonably expect, would be the first thing an
nounced at His second coming."
" Since these are abominable times, when from exces
sive self-love, discord and hatred prevail, God has, in the
most important matter respecting the state after death, and
the nature of the inner man, raised up Swedenborg to
assist us. Jacob Behmen appeared also some time ago,
but as he was not informed, as he himself states, in the
sciences, therefore God has raised up Swedenborg, who
is mightily conversant with the sciences, and who, from
his youth up, has led a pious innocent life, and who, in
his labours of love, has had no eye to honour, rank, or
wealth . This man God has prepared and chosen like
Daniel, in order to set up, through him, an extraordinary
light to this sceptical and unbelieving world. I believe,
according to what he himself states in a letter to a friend,*
that the Lord has appeared to him, and that his interior
senses have been opened to see and to hear things, which
we cannot see and hear. But as no manifestations or
revelations from God can take place, but in strict agree
ment with the laws of order, by which God necessarily
regulates all his operations, so in respect to Swedenborg;
what he makes known to us, is done according to those
laws of order, by which the relation between the visible
and invisible worlds is governed. Now, as Swedenborg
had great experience in the sciences of algebra and the
higher mathematics, especially in cosmology, and in all
these respects must be considered equal to Leibnitz,†
he has been chosen as a suitable instrument, having been
prepared from his youth, to make known these things
to mankind."
* To Mr. Hartley. See above p. 25.
+ This assertion, coming from Oetinger, is highly important,
since few were better acquainted with the philosophy of Leibnitz
than he, as is evident from his work entitled Earthly and Heavenly
Philosophy, in which he gives an analysis of the system of Leib
nitz, between whom and Swedenborg, he well knew the compara
tive merits. Leibnitz enjoys nearly the same celebrity in Ger
manyas Newton does in England.
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