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144 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBOKG.
die under a bushel ? When truths apparently new and unknown, but which in
their essence are the old and genuine truths, are again manifested, terms must
likewise be required to express them, which may appear new and unusual at
first sight, though they are, nevertheless, the necessary vehicles for conveying
such sublime and important information,
" in. To proceed briefly, yet explicitly, to the subject of the author’s experience
and intercourse with the spiritual world, and as to what he has seen or heard therein
;
respecting which it may be affirmed, that a confidence in the reality of what he
has thus seen or heard, will be the natural result of an acquaintance with, and
an acknowledgment of, the fundamental principles of his system. For proof of
some of the ideas suggested in the author’s works—such as of that concerning
the sun in heaven, that it is the essential Love and Wisdom proceeding from the
Lord; that it is the origin of every good and truth ; that the genuine human
principle originates in it ; also, that the will and the understanding are the essen-
tials of man, and that they are the receptacles of good and truth ; that without
the senses, internal and external, there can be no perception of life ; that life and
the senses do not exist except in proper organic forms ; that the kingdom of the
Lord is, from the greatest to the least, a kingdom of ends and uses ; besides
many other general ideas, of which a complete knowledge may be obtained ;
see the volume treating of the Wisdom of Angels concerning the Divine Love and
Wisdom. It may be observed, how little mankind have hitherto been able to
form, in any degree, a precise idea respecting the eternal world ! With what
delight then ought we now to learn what has hitherto been unknown, and even
supposed impossible to be known ! The more these truths are examined, the
more they will be found to harmonise with the accounts given us in the Holy
Scriptures, where these subjects are represented to view in* the general literal
meaning, but are more particularly contained in the spiritual sense.
" I do not, with all due submission, think it necessary to touch upon those
titles which have been unthinkingly bestowed upon the author,—such as fanatic,
visionary, enthusiast, and several others, dismissing them, as applied to so en-
lightened a servant of the Lord Jesus, as names without any acknowledged
meaning, only reminding those who sq apply them of the words of Peter, ’ Thai
they speak evil of the things that they understand not’
"In obedience, therefore, to your Majesty’s most gracious command, that I
should deliver a full and positive ’ Declaratio-n’ respecting the writings of Swe-
denborg, 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"*
* " Some parts of this " Declaration," which had only a local or tennporary refer-
ence to the Government and Church of Sweden, not being interesting to the generality
of persons in this country, having been omitted, a few verbal alterations therefore
became necessary.
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