Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
48 [Doc. 5.
GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.
requested to do so by the honourable man who is mentioned
at the beginning of these anecdotes, and if he had not in
timated that they would be made use of in enlightening
posterity about Swedenborg’s personal character, and indeed
by a society, whose purpose it is to translate several of his
writings into French. [See Note 20).
[ ]
51. I know from experience that there is not a single
word in all his writings which leads man away from the
doing of God’s will, and consequently from a sincere love of
the neighbour; there is contained, however, thereinan entirely
new system , which is opposed to the principal religions pro
fessed by men, and to all their sects, but which agrees with
all of them in this particular, that blessedness and misery
depend upon man’s life in time.
52. All this Swedenborg has proved abundantly in his
writings, and especially has he written against the dangerous
doctrine of faith alone; and if we in the History of the Church
follow those who have been instrumental in establishing reli
gions, we find that all religions, from the earliest to the
latest times, have been instituted by well-meaning prelates,
and that afterwards they have been subverted partly by
ignorant, and partly by cunning and crafty prelates. In con
clusion, however, I earnestly desire that every one who
reads Swedenborg’s writings should do so with caution, and
that he should rather remain in the faith he received in
childhood, and which was often impressed upon him with
severity, and which very few among the professors of faith
examine, than that he should from frivolity or from blind zeal
revile what he cannot understand. For such persons read all
the prophets and the book of revelation, where they under
stand nothing, with the same feeling of contempt with which
they read Swedenborg’s system, where, however, everything
may be easily understood by him who does not amuse himself
at the expense of truth, and who does not reject every thing
that does not agree with his own pre-conceived notions.
CARL ROBSAHM
Treasurer of the Bank, Stockholm.
Stockholm , March 29, 1782.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
