About this time, Dr. Ernesti attacked Swedenborg in his Bibliotheca Theologica, and, in reply, Swedenborg published a single leaf, which, in its decisive sharpness, is truly effective. It is as follows:—
“I have read what Dr. Ernesti has written about me. It consists of mere personalities. I do not in it observe a grain of reason against anything in my writings. As it is against the laws of honesty to assail any one with such poisoned weapons, I think it beneath me to bandy words with that illustrious man. I will not cast back calumnies by calumnies. To do this, I should be even with the dogs, which bark and bite, or with the lowest drabs, which throw street mud in each other’s faces in their brawls. Read, if you will, what I have written in my books, and afterwards conclude, but from reason, respecting my revelation.”
The Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt now wrote to Swedenborg, requesting information on several subjects. Swedenborg having doubt as to the genuineness of the epistle, did not at first reply to it, until his misgivings were set aside by M. Venator, the minister of that prince. In his reply to the Landgrave, he says: “The Lord our Saviour had foretold that He would come again into the world, and that he would establish there a New Church. But as He cannot come again into the world in person, it was necessary that He should do it by means of a man, who should not only receive the doctrine of this New Church in his understanding, but also publish it by printing; and as the Lord had prepared me for this office from my infancy, He has manifested Himself in person before me, His servant, and sent me to fill it.”
The Landgrave again wrote to Swedenborg, inquiring about the “miracle” of his intercourse with the Queen of Sweden’s brother, and Swedenborg answered that the story was true, but “not a miracle.” He also wrote to M. Venator, “that such matters ought, by no means, to be considered miracles: they are only testimonies that I have been introduced by the Lord into the spiritual world, and that I have been in association with angels and spirits, in order that the Church, which until now had remained in ignorance concerning that world, may know that heaven and hell exist in reality, and that man lives after death, a man, as before; and that thus there may be no more doubt as to his immortality. Deign, I pray you, to satisfy his Highness, that these are not miracles, but only testimonies that I converse with angels and spirits. You may see in the ‘True Christian Religion’ that there are no more miracles at this time; and the reason why. It is, that they who do not believe because they see no miracles, might easily, by them, be led into fanaticism.”
Writing of miracles, Swedenborg remarks in another place, “Instead of miracles, there has taken place, at the present day, an open manifestation of the Lord himself, an intromission into the spiritual world, and with it, illumination by immediate light from the Lord in whatever relates to the interior things of the Church, but principally an opening of the spiritual sense of the Word, in which the Lord is present in his own Divine light. These revelations are not miracles, because every man, as to his spirit, is in the spiritual world, without separation from his body in the natural world. As to myself, indeed, my presence in the spiritual world is attended with a certain separation, but only as to the intellectual part of my mind, not as to the will part. This manifestation of the Lord, and intromission into the spiritual world, is more excellent than all miracles; but it has not been granted to any one since the creation of the world, as it has been to me. The men of the golden age, indeed, conversed with angels; but it was not granted to them to be in any other light than what was natural. To me, however, it has been granted to be in both spiritual and natural light at the same time; and hereby I have been privileged to see the wonderful things of heaven, to be in company with angels, just as I am with men, and at the same time to pursue truths in the light of truth, and thus to perceive and be gifted with them, consequently to be led by the Lord.”
CHAPTER XXVII.
The True Christian Religion.
In the early part of 1771, Swedenborg published his “True Christian Religion, or, Universal Theology of the New Church;” and in August of the same year took ship, and left Amsterdam for London. Let us now turn to the consideration of his last great work,—a summary of the doctrines he was commissioned to teach.
“The True Christian Religion, containing the Universal Theology of the New Church,” the last work published by Swedenborg, may be looked upon as the summary of his spiritual thought, his theological labors, his heavenly message to mankind. In its ninth English edition, it forms a large octavo volume of 815 pages, and is a complete body of divinity. It is divided into fifteen chapters, a Supplement treating of the states of Luther, Calvin, and Melancthon, the Dutch, English, Germans, Papists, Romish saints, Mahommedans, and the Africans, in the spiritual world; and seventy-seven memorable relations of scenes and representations witnessed in that world, interspersed between the various chapters; altogether forming a volume unique in literature, ancient or modern. At the risk of an occasional repetition of what has before been said, let us take a rapid survey of the contents of this massive and marvellous work.