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.
308 [Doc. 245.
TRIAL AT GOTTENBURG.
"To worship God the Saviour cannot be prohibited through
out Christendom, and still less among the Lutherans (see the
Augsburg Confession, p. 19, and also the ’Apology,’ p. 226) ;
nor can it be denied that in Christ Man is God and God is
Man, with many other things which I mentioned in a former
letter. The Formula Concordiæ explains also a divine trinity
in those who are re-born by faith (p. 695, Apology, p. 130);
how much more then is a Divine Trinity in God the Saviour,
&c. &c. (Col. ii, 9). All this, however, and much more,
will be demonstrated in a work which will be published two
years hence.* The ’Brief Exposition ’ is a forerunner of it, and
is to prepare the way for its reception. This little preliminary
treatise has been spread throughout the whole of Christendom,
Sweden excepted, because theology is now in its wintry state,
and here in the north the night lasts longer than in southern
parts ; wherefore they in their darkness may be supposed to
kick against everything of the New Church which belongs
to the understanding or to reason. Still there are those in
the ecclesiastical order who are exceptions to this rule ; I
apply also to myself what the Lord has said to His disciples
in Matt. x, 16.
"What you relate respecting your wife in her dying hours,
was caused especially by the impression of two clergymen,
who associated her in her thoughts with those spirits, from
whom she then spoke ; it happens sometimes with some in the
hour of death that they are in the state of the spirit. Those
spirits that first spoke through her belonged to the followers
of the dragon, which was cast down from heaven (see Rev. xii),
and who became then so filled with hatred against the Saviour,
and consequently against God’s Word, and against everything
belonging to the New Church, that they cannot bear to hear
Christ mentioned. When the sphere of our Lord descends
upon them out of heaven, they become like raving maniacs,
and seek to hide themselves in holes and caverns, and thus
save themselves , according to Rev. vi, 16. Your deceased
wife was yesterday with me, and informed me of many things
* Swedenborg refers here to the "True Christian Religion, " which was
published in Amsterdam in 1771.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
