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Doc. 245.] 293
BEYER ON EKEBOM.
he ought to believe that they are to be done by the Lord
with man, and by means of man ? That these three points
are true is proved by the whole Sacred Scripture from be
ginning to end ; for what else is insisted upon there in general,
except that man must shun evils and do goods, and believe on
the Lord God? Besides, without these three points there is
no religion; for does not religion relate to life ? and what is
life but to shun evils and do goods ? and how can a man do
the latter and shun the former except as from himself? Where
fore, if you remove these three points from the church, you
remove from it the Sacred Scripture, and you also remove re
ligion; and when these are removed the church is not a church."
The man, after hearing these things, retired, and was musing ;
but still he departed in indignation.’
"As to the rest I fully agree with the Doctor where he
says: I do not judge either him [Assessor Swedenborg], or
any one else. The Lord is He who knows and judges both
him and me.’ But for this very reason I cannot agree with
him in his judgment afterwards, where he declares at the
same time that ’Swedenborgianism is in all its parts diame
trically opposed to God’s Holy Word, &c.; that it is hereti
cal, Socinian, and thus in every sense objectionable.’ I do
not see any ground for passing this judgment without a pre
vious knowledge of his system of religion, and before bringing
the matter and the person in question in a lawful manner be
fore the proper tribunal ; otherwise we should be guilty of
arbitrariness of the kind which is described in the Code of
Laws, chap. xxv, §§ 21 and 22 ; in order to avoid this I
deem it necessary that this subject should be submitted for
lawful examination to the proper authority. Should the vene
rable Consistory nevertheless find sufficient reasons in what
has thus far been advanced, for regarding the writings of
Swedenborg as seductive-on which subject, for the reasons
above stated, I suspend my own judgment—I still think that
in this matter we cannot address ourselves in a lawful way to
any one else than in humility to His Royal Majesty, who will
perhaps most graciously decide, what steps are further to be
taken with the matter in a lawful way.
"BEYER. "
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