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466 TESTIMONY OF CONTEMPORARIES. [Doc. 256.
that is worthy of attention. They are refulgent with beauties ;
but I likewise became aware of many blemishes. I am willing
either to keep silence, or to ask you to indulge my freedom
in addressing you. For it is my custom either to be silent,
or, when summoned to speak, to tell the truth ; but you are
accustomed to listen graciously: for, according to Pliny, those
who are most willing to hear of their faults, deserve most
to be praised.
"You have greatly recommended to me your latest publi
cation entitled, ’A Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the
New Church, signified by the New Jerusalem in the Reve
lation of John,’ and you have asked me in all friendship
and without reserve to communicate to you my judgment. I
have carefully perused it, and weighed it in the impartial
balance of reason. Whether I have done so justly or not I
will not decide. To give oracular decisions in theological
matters of such great importance is beyond my capacity,
nor does it belong to my office. I am an apprentice and not
a master; and yet you desire that I should give my opinion
freely and without circumlocution. Well then, I shall obey
your behests. But I wish you to observe that you have not
to do with a theologian, but with a Christian, not with a
professed clergyman, but with a layman, not with a hostile
antagonist, but with a friend, and a man with whom you may
communicate freely and intimately.
"After having carefully read the sixteen works which you
published at your own expense in London and Amsterdam, and
extracted all those parts which seemed obscure, I have been
waiting wistfully for the more extensive work promised within
two years, concerning the Doctrine of the New Church in its
fulness,* an epitome ofwhich you have published, as I entertained
a firm hope, that the doubts which arose while reading your
previous works, would there be solved and removed. My expec
tation, however, has been disappointed. You have added nothing
to your system in your recent book, which was not known to
me from my previous reading. Your first principle, therefore,
* Cuno writes here new doctrine, although Swedenborg says distinctly
Doctrine of the New Church.
I
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