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LETTER FROM DR. BEYER TO DR. OETINGER. 163
took place.* For in a letter which he wrote to me from Amsterdam on the 20th
of April last, he mentions as follows : —* I wonder that yonr suit and controversy-
still continue at Gottenburg, against which I will urge a complaint at the next
Diet, when I shall transmit the Universal Theology of the New Heaven and the New
Church, which will appear in print at the end of June. I will send two copies to
each member of the Diet, and request that they may appoint from all the re-
spective orders, an assembly of deputies to give their final decision.’
" But previous to this, he wrote me a letter from Amsterdam, dated the 15th of
April, 1769, wherein he informs me, that he had often been questioned there,
respecting the New Church, and his answer to the inquiries was, that it will
increase by little and little in proportion as the doctrine of justification and im-
putation gradually lose ground, which probably will take place in consequence
of the treatise entitled, A Summary Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church.
It is known that the Christian Church did not gain an immediate ascendancy
after the Resurrection of Christ, but increased by degrees: and in this manner
the words of the Revelation’ are lo be understood :
’
The woman did fly into
the wilderness, where she was nourished for a time, and times, and half a time,
from the face of the serpent ’ (Apoc. xii. 14). The serpent and the dragon is the
false doctrine.
" I will leave it now to the judgment of candid minds (amongst whom I
reckon and respect yourself, reverend Sir, with your son-in-lavir Mr, Seitz, and
the sincere Karg, to whom I beg my respects), whether they can regard the
New Church, to which the whole Revelation of John refers, as a Swedenbor-
gian invention, or not rather undoubtedly consider it as a Avork of the finger
of God and our Lord, and as a church which is to be looked for with the most
earnest desire.
" What man could invent such things of himself, asks Swedenborg in his
Continuation of the Last Judgment, 7 ; and, accordingly, when I shall have heard
that what I have now written, though too long for a letter, yet, considering the
importance of the matter, too short, has not displeased you, though in all the
points I may not have given full satisfaction, I shall count it not a very small
gain.
" Since Dr. Rosen, who is at Stockholm, and myself, have not in express terms
renounced the Swedenborgian doctrines to the king, our affair is consequently
before the council of state, where it is to be further investigated and judged.
The illustrious author, Swedenborg, wrote to me from Stockholm as follows :
—’ I
know that the Lord Himself, our Saviour, will protect his church, especially
against those who are not willing to enter by the true door into the fold, that is,
into heaven, who are called thieves and murderers, so says the Lord Himself,
" He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other
* This will be better understood when the reader is informed, that at the end of the
work on Conjugial Love, E. S. gave a list of the theological works previously published
by him, and concludes with saying, ’’Intra biennium videbitis doctrinam JVovce Eccle-
sicB .% Domino prcedictce in Apocalipsi, xxi. xxii., in plenitudine ;" that is, " In two years
you will see the doctrine of the New Church foretold by the Lord in the Apocalypse,
xxi. xxii., in its fulness," or " at large ;" alluding to the publication of the work entitled
True Christian Religion, containing the Universal Theology of the New Church. That a
learned man should have construed this notice into a prediction of the speedy reception
of the New Church doctrine is not a little extraordinary.
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