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.
Doc. 245.] 357
ROSEN TO A SENATOR.
a law dating from the year 1766 , indicate this. * If all
Christians who are related to us by faith appeal to God’s Word,
though some do violence to it and strain it, nevertheless if
we examine this matter justly and, as it were, standing in
God’s presence, the question resolves itself into this, Who has
really the law and the Word on his side? He who has is ortho
dox, and he alone. A great advance in linguistics and an
accumulation of inestimable philological and philosophical †
discoveries, made in recent times, give me a just hope
that an amendment in our faith and life, which is as possible
as it is necessary, will eventually take place. And now it
happens that a wonderful man, who gives evidence of a most
unusual learning in natural and spiritual things, declares that
he has been sent by the Lord for such a purpose ; and on
being asked for his credentials, he solves all involved theolo
gical problems, strikes down naturalism and superstition, with
the same weapons exposes the nakedness of the learned, and
subjects himself to the good and evil report of the Lord’s
apostles ; he manifests the greatest possible veneration for
Scripture, he worships God, and urges man to sanctification :
in short, he seeks to promote the honour of the Most High.
It is excusable, if for such a man, whose ’ eyes are open’
(Num. xxiv, 4) , and ’in whom is undoubtedly the spirit of the
holy gods’ (Dan. v. ii), I should conceive some veneration.
"Mere curiosity, however, has not led me to his doctrines,
* "The statutes concerning the freedom of writing and printing do not
mention the dogmatic books, § 1, and admit of no other than a literal
explanation."
"The symbols are sacred among us, so far as they are the Word of
God propounded as to its meaning and as to its words. If a different
meaning should be laid upon them, by an advance in the study of theo
logy, they are no longer the Word of God. The same would be the case,
if a creed should originate in the notions of men.’ See Schubert’s Con
sideration of the Articles of Faith.
"Paul, for instance, says (Romans iv, 3) that ’Abraham was justified
by faith, and James (ii, 21) declares that he was justified by works. The
apostle likewise states, that ’justification or righteousness is imputed to man
without works’ (Romans iv, 6; xi, 17) ; when yet ’God will render to every
man according to his deeds’ (Romans ii, 6). Of this subject Swedenborg
gives a natural and unforced explanation."
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
