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146 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
1765, Agreeably to these references, and in obedience to what the Lord Himself
teaches in John xiv. 16, faith in God must be directed towards the Saviour Him-
self. From this alone it may be concluded, how undeservedly and barefacedly
this doctrine has been attacked with such opprobrious language, and that it
could not have been said by a man of a sound heart, ’
That it is full of the most
intolerable fundamental errors, seducing, heretical, captious, and in the highest
degree to be rejected.’ This flood of blasphemy is poured out upon the world,
although the Doctor allows in his ’
Reflections,’ 2, that he never read my w^rit-
ings, in the following words :
—’ I do not know Assessor Swedenborg’s religious
system, nor shall I take pains to come at the knowledge of it. I was told that
it may chiefly be learned from the following works, which he has published, viz.:
Concerning the New Jerusalem, Concerning Faith, and Concerning the Lord, works
which I do not possess, neither have 1 read or seen them.’ Is not this to be
blind in the forehead, but to have eyes behind, and even these covered with
a film .’ To see and judge of writings in such a manner, and in such like terms,
can any secular or ecclesiastical judge regard otherwise than as criminal? The
book entitled. The Doctrine of the New Church, mentioned by the Doctor, may be
had at Gottenburg, so tha.t if he had pleased, he might have had a sight of it.
The Doctor blasphemes, likewise, the spiritual sense of the Word, which our
Saviour at this time has given to be revealed, as if the same blasphemies would
prove a hinderance to the Sacred Scriptures, which, even according to his de-
cision, still continue to contain the principles of the knowledge of faith, religion,
and the rei^ealed theology; although in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concern-
ing the Sacred Scriptures, it is fully shown and demonstrated : I. That the sense
of the letter of the Word is the basis, continent, and foundation of its spiritual
sense, 27-36. If. That the divine truth in the sense of the latter of the Word is
in its fullness, its sanctity, and its power, 37-49. IK. That the doctrine of the
church is to be deduced from the literal sense of the Word, and to be confirmed
thereby, 50-61. IV, That by ihe literal sense of the Word, there is a conjunction
with the Lord, and a consociation vvith the angels, 62-68 ; and, further, concern-
ing the spiritual sense of the Word, and its invaluable uses, 5-26, and Apoca-
lypse Revealed, 200, 898, 911, and in a thousand other places. Respecting the
other point, namely, the charging those doctrines with Socinianism, the same is
a horrid blasphemy and untruth; forasmuch as Socinianism signifies a negation
of the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, when, in fact. His divinity, in this doc-
trine of the New Church is principally confirmsd and proved, and that the Saviour
has so fully completed the reconciliation and redemption of man, that without
His coming no man could have been saved, see Apoc. Rev. 67, and in many
other places ; in consequence whereof, I consider the word Socinian to be a
scoffing and a diabolical reviling. This, with the rest of the Doctor’s ’ Reflec-
tions,’ may be considered in the same sense as ’
the flood which the dragon cast
out of his mouth after the woman, that he might cause her to be swallowed up
by the flood, during the time that she was yet in the wilderness ’ (Apoc, xii, 15).
And it may come to pass, that the same which is mentioned in verse 17, may
likewise take place :
’ And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to
make war with the remnant of her seed, who kept the commandments of God,
and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.’ That the New Jerusalem signifies the
New Church, which is to be the bride and the wife of the Lamb, see Ayocalypse
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