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.
456 TESTIMONY OF CONTEMPORARIES. [Doc. 256.
1. "In respect to his ’Revelation Revealed’ or Apocalypsis
Revelata, Amsterdam, 1764, I am astonished that the theo
logians of every denomination keep silence about it, and allow
this man to write everything he chooses, as long as the day
lasts. We can easily comprehend why the Protestants should
not object to his saying anything he pleases about the de
struction of Babel and the Babylonian whore, because all that
is set forth on this subject is also applied by others to Rome
and popery; but the Protestants themselves are not treated
better by him : for the apocalyptic dragon is with him an emblem
of the Protestants. Man being saved by faith alone without
the works of the Lawhe calls unhesitatingly a draconic doctrine;
and against this he declaims as much as against the Baby
lonian whore. Faith and love, according to him, must be
married, else faith is a mere matter of the imagination and a
nonentity. Herein he is perfectly right." He continues, "If
we understand by faith the idea, that, because the one Man,
the only and perfect Mediator between the most holy God and
the poor sinner, has from grace done everything for us, we are
not obliged to co-operate in our salvation, we not only act
foolishly, but even wickedly." We see therefore that in respect
to the importance of conjoining faith with charity, Cuno tho
roughly agreed with Swedenborg, and thus was willing to em
brace one of the fundamental doctrines of the New Church.
On the other hand he declares in the same place, "If
man was able of himself and by his own power to fulfil the
Law and to do good works, and, indeed, such good works as
find grace before the most holy eye of a just God, he would
be justified in expecting a reward for them ; but as the bare
reason of a man who examines himself, and who is not
blinded by a foolishly arrogant self-love, must convince him,
that all the good he does is fragmentary and imperfect, and
that it would be irrational to expect a reward for such im
perfect and frail works, it follows hence of its own accord,
* See "Aufzeichnungen," &c., p. 51 et seq.
Swedenborg’s own definition of the dragon is as follows: "By the
dragon are here understood those who are in faith alone, and reject the
works of the Law as contributing nothing to salvation” (A. R. 537).
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
