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18 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.
prophecy taken by Swedenborg, and which is demonstrated by him with great force ol
reasoning and the most conclusive Scripture testimony. If this be the true view of the
subject, and if Scripture does indeed deliver the oracles of truth, this New Jerusalem,
—this new and improved form of the Christian Church,
—
must begin to be manifested at
sometime or other. The predictions respecting it cannot be allowed, by their Divine
Author, to remain a dead letter for ever ; at some time or other they must be accomplished.
And what times have ever yet arrived, at which their accomplishment might so reasona-
bly be considered to be about to commence, as the times now present 1 A longer
period has already elapsed since the first foundation of the Christian Religion, than has
intervened between the first communication of any former dispensation of divine things
to man and its modification by a succeeding one. Neither the Antediluvian Church,
nor the Noetic, nor the Israelitic, lasted so many centuries as has the Christian church
already. If then a new modification of this is ever to appear—if a New Jerusalem is,
ever to form the tabernacle of God with men—the present age, as the probable era of
its commencement, cannot be objected against on the plea of immaturity. If, also, it
is reasonable to suppose that such an era would be marked by extraordinary signs, no
era, assuredly, was ever more decidedly so marked than the present. For a long period,
which does not seem yet to have entirely closed, the judgments of heaven have been
abroad in the earth, in a more distinguished and more universal manner than has mark-
ed any former age since the establishment of the Christian Church. The whole politi-
cal and moral aspect of almost every country on the face of the globe, and particularly
of every country where Christians have had influence, has been svirprisingly transform-
ed ; and even the human mind itself, throughout, as far as is known, all the great
families of man, has undergone a most conspicuous change. Is it not reasonable to
suppose, that these wonderful occurrences may have been in part overruled, and in
part produced, by the immediate agency of Divine Providence, with reference to the
accomplishment of its purposes of mercy, in the establishment of the new dispensation
of genuine Christianity, predicted under the figure of the New Jerusalem 1—that judg-
ments are proceeding to remove obstructions out of the way, and that beneficial influ-
ences also are in operation to prepare for its reception % Most assuredly, the most de-
cided opposer of the doctrines now proposed as those of the New Jerusalem, cannot
deny, that if a New Jerusalem is ever to appear in the form of a New Church among
men, no times wearing more of the character which may reasonably be expected to
mark the era of its commencement have ever yet been known, and none can be rea-
sonably looked for hereafter in which that character shall be more strikingly displayed.
There is much, then, which gives an antecedent probability to the opinion, that, as
the predictions relative to the new state of the Lord’s Church among mankind, of which
the New Jerusalem is a figure, must be fulfilled at some time or other, the present is
actually the time appointed by Infinite Wisdom and Goodness for that purpose. But
whenever the time should arrive, it is undeniably certain, that some individual or other
of the human race must be enlightened to make it known. Whenever the superior
clearness of doctrinal views, introductory to superior purity of practice, which, as all
commentators admit, is at some period to constitute the pre-em.inent glory of the
Church, should be communicated to bless her members, it is obviously indispensable,
that some individual or other of the human race should receive the illumination neces-
sary to introduce it. Some instrument or other, peculiarly enlightened, must be raised
up for the purpose. If, then, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the present may be
the time in which the Church, or state of the Church, represented by the New Jerusalem,
is to commence, there is no absurdity in supposing that such an instrument for communi-
cating her doctrines may already have appeared. The illustrious Swedenborg is be-
lieved by many to have stood in this capacity. He most solemnly affirms it in various
parts of his writings : is there any improbability in the belief, that he may have been the
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