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LETTER FROM DR. BEYER TO DR. OETINGER. 161
"IV. This consideration relieves me from the necessity I should otherwise be
under, of saying something respecting the science of correspondences, as being
highly necessary for the interpretation of the divine prophecies ; nor vi^ill it cost
any man much labor, to see into the meaning of the Word, divested of its mate-
rial clothing; for example, how the words, house, city, Jerusalem, and others, do
and can contain something internal, as oil within the fruit ; I say it v/ill not cost
any man much labor, who will not esteem it unworthy of him to give a tho-
rough reading to those demonstrations, contained in the small volume on The
White Horse, 1-5, and the Apocalypse Revealed, from the beginnmg to the end, and
especially 907.
" V. Respecting the Last Judgment, and Swedenborg’s explanation of the
New Heaven and the New Earth, his work on these subjects, published in 1757,
with its continuation in 1763, presents to us a sound knowledge concerning
them. As to the doctrine of the resurrection, he everywhere sets at rest the
acute understanding upon that subject, and that by argurhents which he derives
from the nature of both worlds : an intellect Avhich extends itself above the
world and the senses, sees. very easily that his sentiments are by no means con-
trary to the Scripture, but, on the contrary, do altogether coincide with it.
" Vr. But more important seems to be the charge, which you do not hesitate
to bring against Swedenborg, namely, that he pays no regard to the analogy of
faith, and in his doctrine respecting the most Holy Trinity, does not hold with
the apostles, but with Schwenkfeld. This, I must allow, is a very great and a
very important error, which would eclipse every other excellence, if it were not
visible that this charge cannot be attached to Swedenborg, and that the very
way in which he unfolds this point is sufficient of itself to clear him from it. It
may be admitted that the Schwenkfeldian doctrine, as being more easy to
amend, may have the pre-eminence over others, but at the same time I believe
it will require no great penetration to discover that Schwenkfeld and Sweden-
borg do not entertain the same principles. I wash, however, you would take
the trouble to learn from my small treatise respecting the plan of St. John’s
writings, which I have annexed to this letter, that Swedenborg’s doctrine on this
point is justly held to be apostolic.
" VII. But you, reverend Sir, and your much esteemed colleague, Mr. Seitz,
suppose that oifr great author has committed a blameable error respecting the
sacred authority of Paul, by not acknowledging his and the other apostolic
writings to be canonical, by refusing them the dignity of the Divine Word ; this
will be best cleared up, by a letter of Swedenborg himself, which he wrote to
me from Amsterdam, the 15th of April, 1766, as follows :—’ With regard to the
writings of Paul and the other apostles, I have not given them a place in my
Arcana Calestia, because they are dogmatic writings merely, and not written in
the style of the Word, as are those of David, of the prophets, of the evangelists,
and of the Revelation of John ; the style of the Word consists, throughout, in
correspondences, and thence has a direct and immediate communication with
heaven {Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture, 113); but
the style of these dogmatic writings of Paul, and the other apostles, being differ-
ent, their communication is only mediate or indirect. The reason of this diver-
sity of style is, that as the rules and tenets of the Christian Church were to be
formed from these writings of the apostles, the style used in the Word would
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