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158 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
" 9. That the prophecy of the New Jerusalem, which within two years was
to have been fulfilled, is fefuted by its non- accomplishment.
" 10. That the interpretation of the Apocalypse seems to have been introduced
in favor of the new invented church.
" The above are nearly all the general points of objection, which I find in your
writings advanced against Swedenborg ; after I have laid open to you in truth
and simplicity what I have to oppose to each of these objections, you will judge
yourself, whether they justly or unjustly deprive him of his credit.
" I. In a conversation, during which I asked Swedenborg many questions, I
received from him, in the year 1767, amongst others this answer :
’ That it had
been forbidden him to apply to the reading of dogmatical and systematical
writings, until the heavens were opened to him, and for this reason, because by
the study of such writings, groundless opinions and inventions might easily in-
sinuate themselves into the mind, which might in process of time be hard to
eradicate. Therefore,’ says he, ’
when the heavens were opened to me, I was
obhged to learn the Hebrew language, as well as the correspondences in which
the whole Bible is written ; which has been a motive for my reading the Word
of God more frequently ; and as the Word of God is the fountain from whence
the whole of theology must be drawn, I acquired thereby a capacity to receive
instructions from the Lord, who is the Word itself.’ He has likewise, in a letter
from Stockholm, dated 14th November, 1769, given me a description of the state
of his earliest youth. ’
From my fourth year,’ says he, ’ to my tenth, I was con-
stantly engaged in meditations about God, salvation, and the spiritual affections
and states of men ; I have often uttered things at which my father and mother
marvelled, who would say, that angels altogether spake through me : from my
sixth to my tenth year, it was my delight to discourse with the clergy concern-
ing faith, that love is the life thereof, and that the love which gives that life is
love towards our neighbor ; that God gives faith to every one, but only those ac-
cept of it who practise that love : at that time I knew of no other faith, than
that God created nature, that He preserves it, and gives wisdom and understand-
ing to men ; of that doctrinal assumed faith, which says that God the Father
applies the righteousness of His Son to whomsoever and whensoever He wills,
even to those who have not repented, I knew nothing at that time, and if 1 had
known it, as I do now, it would have been far beyond my understanding.’*
Hence it may be accounted for, in my opinion," continues Dr. Beyer, " how an
assessor of the Metallic College can maintain the character of a theologian, if
his indisputable erudition be also taken into consideration; and a theologian
too, who is free from prejudice, and far more enlightened than the unintelligible
Behmen.
" If the theology, which is now-a-days in vogue, should be stripped of all in-
ventions and conclusions from reasoning, what, pray, would there be left re-
maining ?
" Let the history of doxjtrines be consulted, and an inquiry be instituted, at
what periods of the world, under what opportunities, and under what founders,
theology has grown to its height; and it will be immediately seen, that most of
the prevailing doctrines are modern, and that they have been extended and
* See the letters adduced above pp. 123-137.
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