Life of Emanuel Swedenborg / Together with a brief synopsis of his writings, both philosophical and theological

by William White

The little thought he gave in after years to his scientific writings, and the little care he seemed to have lest the world should forget them, is very evident from his subsequent writings, in which they are scarcely alluded to. Some of the friends he made in the latter portion of his life, appear to have had very faint ideas of the extent of his achievements in natural science. Count Hopken, a very intimate friend of his, for many years, remarks: “Swedenborg made surprising discoveries in anatomy, which are recorded somewhere in certain literary Transactions.” Thus it appears that he was entirely ignorant of the existence of Swedenborg’s great work, the “Animal Kingdom.” What stronger proof could be given than this, of the sincerity with which the foregoing extracts were penned, in which he commits his works to the care of the God of truth, in humble acquiescence in whatever verdict his justice might pronounce.

Great and manifold were the merits of these scientific works; yet we should, perhaps, do well to look upon them, as their author seems to have done, as school-boy exercises. Through the severe training and development of the whole powers of his mind, by the composition of these works, his Divine Master was fitting him to gaze upon the awful realities of the spiritual world, and to become a worthy exponent of the hidden wisdom of the Holy Scripture.

It must, necessarily, be a matter of interest with many to know what were the religious opinions of Swedenborg at this period of his history. Occupying himself so intensely with natural science, it was hardly to be expected that theology could receive much of his attention. Among his posthumous papers, however, we find a little treatise on faith and good works, in which he comes to the wise conclusion that “there is no love to God if there be none to the neighbor;” or that “there is no faith if there be no works;” and therefore, that “faith without works is a phrase involving a contradiction.” Throughout all his scientific writings we find a simple and open assent to the primary truths of religion, and a constant endeavor to confirm some truth of religious doctrine by the natural facts which came under his notice. His religious views up to this time were generally such as the Christian world held, with here and there a quiet dissent as to particular points, and a strong tendency to eschew the merely theoretical and mystical belief, for the practical and active. We have his own testimony to the fact, that dogmatic and systematic theology formed no part of his otherwise extensive reading; and thus he came to the study of the Word of God unperverted by the sophisms of creed-makers. Of the gentle and earnest piety of his soul, we have striking proof in his “Rules of Life:”

1. Often to read and meditate on the Word of God.

2. To submit everything to the will of Divine Providence.

3. To observe in everything a propriety of behaviour, and to keep the conscience clear.

4. To discharge with fidelity the functions of my employment, and the duties of my office, and to render myself in all things useful to society.

More need not be said on this head than that he kept these vows.

We now close the first book of Swedenborg’s life, and open the second. Emphatically his was a double life. So rich in thought and action were both parts, that either would have been reckoned sufficient to render him a remarkable man. The one life was an orderly and regular growth out of the other: the first was a providential preparation for the second. Carefully disciplined by thought and investigation in the outer world, through a long series of laborious years, the curtain which separated the seen from the unseen was, for him, drawn aside, and his prepared eyes saw in clear sunlight those mysteries of life and spirit, which the best and wisest of men have most ardently desired to see. Let us, then, leave Swedenborg the Man of Science, and turn to him as the Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, the worthy exponent of the spiritual sense of the Word of God, and the announcer of the New Era in which reason and faith are to be at one, and men everywhere friends and brothers.