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Doc. 232.] 255
SWEDENBORG TO ETINGER.
any one shall take away from the words." But if you say,
"the city is not a city of walls, of pearls, of the fountain of
life," is not this equivalent to taking away? And again, by
declaring in your book concerning the New Jerusalem, that the
New Heaven and the New Earth signify the New Church, and
that the city which comes down signifies its heavenly doctrine,
do you not thereby take every thing in the Holy Revelation
in a sense different from what is warranted by the unequivoval
meaning of the words ?*
You do not seem to be acquainted with the purpose of
eternities in Christ, as taught in the Ephesians and Colossians,
or you would not declare that the earth will continue to exist
as a seminary of spirits. The planets, for all we know, may
be seminaries of spirits. The Scripture is mute on the subject.
According to my opinion a person may have been in the
spiritual world for two thousand years, as they have been described
by Zinzendorf, and yet on the day of the Lord, after wood, hay,
and stubble have been burnt up, he will have to think of it
differently. All this I write out of love and remain
Your obedient servant,
F. C. ETINGER, Abbot.
DOCUMENT 232.
SECOND LETTER OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
TO F. C. ETINGER.182+
I. Query: Is a sign required to show that I
have been sent by the Lord to do what I am doing ? Answer :
Signs and wonders do not take place at the present day, be
cause they compel externally, and internally do not convince.
What effect did the miracles in Egypt and Jehovah’s des
* Dr. Immanuel Tafel says (p. 354), "It plainly appears from the above
that Etinger believed exclusively in the literal meaning of Scripture, the
utter insufficiency of which has been glaringly shown in modern times."
The Latin original of the second letter of Swedenborg to Etinger,
from which the above translation has been made, was likewise published
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