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468 TESTIMONY OF CONTEMPORARIES. [Doc. 256.
less is he willing or able to believe the accounts which such
a teacher furnishes.
"Thus far the following of your works have reached the
light of day: The Last Judgment and the Destruction of
Babylon,’ ’Heaven and Hell,’ ’Continuation concerning the Last
Judgment,’ "The White Horse,’ ’
The Earths in the Universe,’
"
The Wisdom of the Angels,’ &c. Your Arcana Coelestia,’
embracing eight volumes, I have not yet succeeded in reading,
nor even in turning over its leaves. Several additional writings
like these have been published by you. You have sent copies
of them to all the bishops in England ; yet not a single one
has made a reply to it. The Dutch have only noticed your
work, the last but one, treating on ’Conjugial Love,’ and they
reviewed it with great judgment and praiseworthy moderation.
The Amsterdam critic suspended his judgment until the work
on the new doctrine in its fulness,* which was promised within
two years, should make its appearance. He says, ’We expect,
therefore, in time a more ample explanation. Meanwhile,
according to my opinion, the theologians may without danger
be spared the trouble of refuting the ideas of this extra
ordinary man.’
"Your last work you have distributed among the clergy of
every denomination in this city, not only among the Reformed,
but also among the Roman Catholics. You have also made
it known in other towns, and in the universities of Holland.
Almost a whole month has since elapsed, and I do not hear
of a single person who is rising up against you. It seems,
therefore, as if you were looking for adversaries; but to say
it openly, I am afraid you will find none. For most people
despise your memorable relations, which are indeed wonderful
but not proved, and they ridicule them as the mere outbirth
of your imagination. Others again are delighted with them,
as with fairy tales, but nevertheless make sport of them. Still
others from common report speak of you as a heretic ; and
others regard you as a madman. Others, finally, but why
* Swedenborg does not entitle his work "On the new doctrine in its ful
ness," but says "within two years you will see in its fulness the doctrine of
the New Church which was predicted by the Lord in the Revelation xxi, xxii.”
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