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Doc. 314.] 1045
SWEDENBORG AND ETINGER.
all theology must be derived, I was enabled thereby to receive
instruction from the Lord, who is the Word. ”
He has likewise , in a letter from Stockholm , dated
November 14, 1769, given me a description of the state of
his earliest youth. From my fourth year,’ says he, ’to my
tenth, I was constantly engaged in thought upon God, salvation,
and the spiritual diseases of men ; and several times I revealed
things at which my father and mother wondered, saying, that
angels must be speaking through me. From my sixth to my
twelfth year I used to delight in conversing with clergymen
about faith, saying that the life of faith is love, and that the
love which imparts life is love to the neighbour; also that
God gives faith to every one, but that those only receive it
who practise that love. I knew of no other faith at that time,
than that God is the Creator and Preserver of nature, that
He imparts understanding and a good disposition to men, and
several other things that follow thence. I knew nothing at
that time of that learned faith which teaches that God the
Father imputes the righteousness of His Son to whomsoever,
and at such times, as He chooses, even to those who have
not repented and have not reformed their lives. And had I
heard of such a faith, it would have been then, as now, above
my comprehension.’ Hence it may be accounted for, in my
opinion, how an Assessor of the Metallic College could have
become a theologian, if his indisputable erudition be also
taken into consideration ; and a theologian too, who is free
.
from prejudice, and far more enlightened than the obscure
Bohme.40
"If the theology, which is now-a-days in vogue, should be
stripped of all inventions and conclusions from reasoning, what,
pray, would there be left remaining?
"Let the history of dogmas be consulted, and an inquiry
be instituted, at what periods of the world, under what
opportunities, and under what founders, theology has grown to
its height; and it will be immediately seen, that most of the
prevailing doctrines are modern, and that they have been
extended and spread abroad through human authority, grounded
upon perplexed reasonings. It is, therefore, better to forget
them, or to lose sight of them, than to acquire them; yea,
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