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Doc. 245.] 355
SWEDENBORG TO BEYER.
to go further-to a Son of God from eternity, he is at liber
ty to do so.
"Your letter, and your fear of harsh treatment, have induced
me to develop and explain the point at issue in this manner,
since theological subjects are of such a nature, that a person
may easily wander about in darkness in respect to them,
particularly if accusers, with a pretence of learning, try to
blacken them by such coarse expressions, and seek to kill the
’man-child’ with murderous words. However, I presume, and
I believe it as a certainty, that His Royal Majesty with the
enlightened members of the Council will judge of this matter
in its true light, and not according to the glosses of the Dean
and others. For if you should be removed from office and
exiled, what could the present as well as future generations
say, but that this had happened to you for no other reason than
that you had approached immediately our Lord and Saviour,
and that you had, notwithstanding, not denied the Trinity. What
astonishment and indignation must not this cause in every one!
"This subject, in its whole extent, will soon be placed before
the whole of Christendom,* and the judgment passed upon it
I will hereafter submit to the King, and to the Honourable
Houses of the Realm in general : for during a session of the
Diet, the House of the Clergy is not at liberty to submit to
His Royal Majesty its own separate or independent opinion,
which shall afterwards have the force of law. Theological
matters belong to the other Houses also.†
"With respect to your journey here, I do not think that
your presence in Stockholm would greatly benefit your cause.
I will only ask you to be kind enough to copy this letter, and
send a copy to His Excellency Senator Stockenström,198 and
another to His Excellency Senator R. Hermanson,199 informing
* The above letter was written on April 12, 1770, and in the "True
Christian Religion," no. 791 Swedenborg states that that work was finished
on June 19, 1770; so that the publication of that work was evidently
before his mind when he penned these expressions.
The Swedish Diet at the time of Swedenborg was divided into four
Houses : the House of Nobles, the House of the Clergy, the House of Burghers,
and the House of Peasants. Any measure to have legal power had to pass
three out of the four Houses. This lumbersome legislative machinery was
abolished in 1866, and the two chambers-system introduced.
23*
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