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138 SWEDENBORG’S TRAVELS AND DIARIES. [Doc. 208.
Lord, who had prepared me for this office from my earliest
youth; but I added] let me in turn ask you a question:
Why did the Lord when He was on earth choose fishermen
for His disciples, and not some ofthe lawyers, scribes, priests,
or rabbis ? Consider this subject well, draw your conclusions
correctly, and you will discover the reason. "
This question Swedenborg himself answered in another place
("Intercourse between the Soul and the Body," no. 20) in
this manner : "I was once asked how I from being a philosopher
had become a theologian. I replied, ’In the same way in
which fishermen had been made disciples and apostles by the
Lord; and that I also from my earliest youth had been a
spiritual fisherman.’ When asked what was meant by a
spiritual fisherman, I replied that by a fisherman in the
spiritual sense is meant a person who investigates and teaches
natural truths, and afterwards spiritual truths in a rational
manner. To the question, how this was proved, I answered,
’By these passages of Scripture,’ quoting Isa. xix. 5, 8;
Ezek. xlvii. 9, 10 ; Jer. xvi. 6 ; from which it appears why
the Lord elected fishermen for His disciples and said to
them, ’Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’
(Matt. iv. 18, 19 ; Mark i. 16, 17), and why He said to
Peter after he had caught many fishes, ’From henceforth thou
shalt catch men’ (Luke vi. 9 , 10) . Afterwards I explained
the origin of this meaning of fishermen from the ’ Apocalypse
Revealed,’ where it is shown that natural truths are signified
by water (nos. 50, 932), and also by a river (nos. 409, 932) ;
further, that by a fish are signified those who are in natural
truths (no. 405), and hence by a fisherman, those who investi
gate and teach truths."
That a thorough understanding of natural truths was one
of the chief means by which Swedenborg was prepared by the
Lord for his sacred office is clearly stated by him in the
following passages :
"What the acts of my life involved, I could not distinguish
at the time they happened, but by the Divine mercy of God
Messiah I was afterwards informed with regard to some, even
many, particulars. From these I was at last able to see that
the Divine Providence governed the acts of my life uninter
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