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Doc. 313.] 995
CHRONOLOGICAL ACCOUNT.
These four treatises, which are known under the name of the "Four
Leading Doctrines" or the "Four Primary Doctrines," contain the
doctrinal derivations from the "Apocalypse Explained," as well as
from the things heard and seen in the spiritual world which are
recorded in the " Spiritual Diary" (see no. 111). In the preface to
the "Doctrine of the Lord," the author declares that "by command of
the Lord who appeared before him, these four doctrinal treatises
were to be published." He says also that "by the Doctrine of the
New Jerusalem is to be understood Doctrine for the New Church ,
which is to be instituted at the present day, because the old church
has reached its end."
The earlier of these treatises were written simultaneously with
no. 113, and thus in the year 1761 ; for the author states there that
"these treatises are now being made public." The "Doctrine of the
Lord" also is referred to in the outline of the treatise on the
"Precepts of the Decalogue" (no. 114), in article ii, where we read,
"Some things are to be introduced here from the work on the Lord."
After the MS. of these four treatises had arrived at a certain
degree of advancement, Swedenborg departed in the spring of
1762 for Amsterdam in order to arrange for the subsequent pub
lication of his theological works in Holland; probably on account
of their rejection by the clergy and the leading men of England
(see nos. 107 and 108). On July 17, 1762, i. e. on the day when
the Emperor Peter III died, he was in Amsterdam, as appears from
Document 257, B (p . 490). After finishing the MS., of the "Four
Leading Doctrines," he seems to have consigned it to the printer,
and returned to Stockholm in the latter part of the same year, as
we have a letter from him dated Stockholm, January 6, 1763 .
During the winter of 1762-63 he communicated a scientific paper
to the Academy of Sciences (no. 121), which was printed in its
Transactions in the quarter beginning with April, 1763. In the
beginning of June, 1763, he again left for Amsterdam, as appears
from Document 283, A, no. 1. On his arrival there he found the
"Four Leading Doctrines" (nos. 116-119) ready for delivery.
The "Doctrine of the Lord" was translated into English by Mr.
P. Provo,223 and published in 1784 by the London Printing Society.
A second edition, corrected by Mr. George Adams, Optician,
was printed at his expense in 1786. A French edition was published
in London in 1787, under the editorship of Mr. B. Chastanier;222 and
a Swedish translation in Copenhagen in 1791, and in Stockholm in 1797 .
The "Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture" was likewise translated
into English by Mr. Provo, and published in 1786 at the expense
63*
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