Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
DECLA.RATION OF DR. G. A. BEYER. 137
fess ion of faith of the Apostolic church, no other Son of God is named, still less
is any other understood in the Evangelists. Luke i, 32, 35 ; Matt. iii. 17 ; xvii.
5; John XX. 32; 1 John v. 20, 21. But that the Council of Nice afterwards
assumed a Son of God born from eternity, and added another divine person, took
place because they could find no other way to put down the errors of Arius;
and on this account it is, that the church, at the present time particularly insists
that reason shall be held captive in obedience to a blind faith. But whether it
can come into the conception, or idea, of man so to explain the subject may
probably be seen in No, 117, and also in No. 44."—(See Sum. Expo.)
XXIII,
A DECLARATION
RESPECTING THE
DOCTRIiN’ES TAUGHT BY SWEDENBORQ,
DELIVERED IN OBEDIENCE TO THE ROYAL COMMAND,
JANUARY 2, 1770, TO HIS MAJESTY, ADOLPHUS FREDERIC, KING OF SWEDEN,
BY GABRIEL ANDREW BEYER, D.D.,
PROFESSOR OF GREEK LITERATURE, AND MEMBER OF THE CONSISTORY OF GOTTENBURG.
As the reader will naturally desire to know something of the circumstances which
gave occasion to the following ’* Declaration," a few particulars are submitted for his
satisfaction. A persecution was excited by the dean of Gottenburg, in Sweden, and
some of his clergy, against the Rev. Drs. Beyer and Rosen, members of the ecclesiastical
Consistory of that place, in consequence of their having read with approbation the
theological writings of their eminent countryman, Emanuel Swedenborg. The object
of the dean’s mistaken zeal was, to obtain a prohibition of the reading of those writings
as heretical, and to inflict upon those who favored them tlie severe penalties, which the
laws of the kingdom then allowed in cases of dissent from the Swedish Lutheran Church.
The affair came under the cognizance of the supreme council of the state, called, under
the form of government at that time established, the senate, in which the king himself
presided : and it was in obedience to a mandate issued from this authority, requiring of
Dr. Beyer an explicit statement of his sentiments respecting the writings of Swedenborg,
that the following paper was drawn up. It had considerable weight hi preventing the
government from coming to a rash and unjust conclusion respecting the subject of it;
and it is well calculated to have a similar influence upon those into whose hands it may
now fall. When it is known that the effect of a condemnatory sentence would have
been the banishment of the writer from his native land, every candid person must ad-
mire the modest constancy which this document evinces ; and, independently of this
consideration, must be disposed to think favorably of sentiments which could inspire so
steady a conviction of their truth in a mind evidently so well qualified to form a correct
judgment on such subjects. We behold in the author of this paper a pious and learned
man, who, amid the utmost respect for the institutions of Iiis country, discovers an under-
standing and temper superior to common prejudices and well adapted for the right ap-
10
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
