ART. XXV.

Swedenborg.

THE name of Swedenborg is familiar to the Christian world. A church has been formed, in which his theological writings are received as a revelation from heaven. It is called the Church of the New Jerusalem, and it has many believers both in this country and in Europe.

Emanuel Swedenborg was born in Stockholm, in the year 1688. His father was a clergyman, and a pious and learned man. In his youth, Swedenborg manifested strong religious feelings, and it is said that "he thought much about the Lord and spiritual things," and astonished his parents with his conversation upon these subjects. He was educated in the university of Upsala, in Sweden, and was distinguished for his excellent scholarship. He at first devoted himself to mining and the smelting of ores, and in a few years won the favor of Charles XII. king of Sweden, by an important invention, which was of great service to the king in his military.operations. Swedenborg was appointed Assessor Extraordinary of the Metallic College, which gave him the superintendence of all the government mines in Sweden. He continued in this office for twenty-five years, during which he wrote many valuable works on the natural sciences. His work entitled "The Animal Kingdom," is a master-piece of the profoundest wisdom on the subjects of which it treats. His works on anatomy and physiology, natural philosophy and chemistry, and other scientific subjects, anticipated many later discoveries, and are consulted by the wise and learned in our own age.

In 1719 he was created a noble, and his name was. changed from Swedberg to Swedenborg. He was offered many appointments of great honor and profit, which he declined. He travelled much in foreign countries, and many of his writings he published in London. They were nearly all written in Latin, and have since been translated into the English and other languages.

When Swedenborg was about fifty-seven years old, he

began to have those trances and visions which led him to believe that the Lord had appeared to him and chosen him to explain to mankind the interior or spiritual sense of the Word, or Holy Scriptures, and to reveal many things concerning the spiritual world. From this time he devoted himself to the subject of religion, and the preparation of his theological writings, which are very voluminous, and were all of them written in the Latin tongue. His "Arcana Coelestia" comprises ten large, closely printed octavo volumes, and is a revelation of the internal or spiritual sense of the books of Genesis and Exodus, with revelations of the spiritual world interspersed between the chapters. He also published “Heaven and Hell," "The Divine Love and Wisdom," "The Divine Providence," "The True Christian Religion," "The Doctrine of the Lord," besides a number of smaller works upon "Faith," "The Last Judgment," "The Apocalypse," "The Sacred Scriptures."

Swedenborg professed to have had his spiritual senses opened, and thus to have beheld the spiritual world, and to have conversed with angels and departed spirits. Besides the wonderful things he relates, there are a number of singular facts stated in his life, that are quite equal to any of our modern spiritual manifestations. It is related that, in the year 1756, while he was in Gottenburg, three hundred miles from Stockholm, he became suddenly alarmed, turned pale, and when asked by the company what had happened, he said that a dangerous fire had just broken out in Stockholm, and that it was spreading very fast. He said that the house of one of his friends, whom he named, was already in ashes, and that his own was in danger. At a later hour he went out and returned, exclaiming, "Thank God! the fire is extinguished the third door from my house." This happened on Saturday. On the next Monday evening a messenger arrived from Stockholm, who was dispatched during the time of the fire. In the letters brought by him the fire was described precisely as stated by Swedenborg. On Tuesday the royal courier arrived with the melancholy intelligence of the fire, agreeing entirely with the account Swedenborg had given. This fact appears to be abundantly authenticated, and certainly he could not have seen the fire at so great a distance with his natural sight.

The queen of Adolphus Frederick, and sister of Frederick the Great, king of Prussia, requested of Swedenborg to converse with her deceased brother, which he did, and related to the queen the subject of their last conversation together, and certain words which he had addressed to her; at which she was greatly astonished, as no other person knew of the matter but herself, and she had never mentioned it to any one. Swedenborg did the same thing in several other instances. When Peter the Third, of Russia, died in prison, Swedenborg was in company at Amsterdam in Holland. In the midst of conversation his countenance suddenly changed, and it was evident that something extraordinary was passing within him. As soon as he came to himself, he said, "this very hour the emperor Peter III. has died in prison," mentioning at the same time the manner of his death, which was supposed to be by poison. The papers afterwards announced the emperor's death as having occurred on that very day.

Not many weeks previous to the death of Swedenborg, he addressed the following note to the Rev. John Wesley: "Sir, I have been informed in the world of spirits that you have a strong desire to converse with me. I shall be happy happy to see you if you will favor me with a visit. I am, sir, your humble servant, Emanuel Swedenborg." Mr. Wesley was greatly astonished at the reception of this note, and confessed to his friends that he had been strongly impressed with a desire to converse with Swedenborg, but that he had never mentioned the wish to any one. He replied to Swedenborg, that he was much occupied with preparations for a six months' journey, but would do himself the pleasure of visiting him on his return to London. Swedenborg wrote to him again that the proposed visit would be too late, as he should go into the spirit world on the 29th of the next month, never more to return. Mr. Wesley went on his journey, and on his return was informed that Swedenborg had died on the day he had named, viz: the 29th day of March, 1772. About a month previous to this he had told the people of the house that he should be removed to the world of spirits on the 29th day of March. It was the Sabbath, and occurred as he had predicted. He was eighty-four years of age, and for twenty-eight years had enjoyed what he believed to be

visions of the spiritual world, converse with spirits and angels, and communications from the Lord of the heavenly truths of the New Jerusalem.

The writings of Swedenborg show that he was of a deeply meditative mind, of profound and varied learning, and of great spiritual insight. He was far in advance of the theological opinions of his own generation, and rejected most of the doctrines of the Lutheran and Calvinistic churches. He taught that there is but one God, and denied that there was a trinity of persons in the godhead. But he held the remarkable opinion, that Jesus Christ was God, that he is to be worshipped as the Lord of heaven and earth, and that there is no other God. The Father and Son are only different names for the same person; the latter pertaining to his humanity, which he assumed and glorified; and the Holy Spirit is the divine proceeding or operation of the divine love and wisdom.

He rejects the doctrine of a personal devil,—although the term devil occurs frequently in his writings,—and considers the devil to be a personification of the self love of the wicked. He rejects the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and holds that there is no salvation without good works and a pure life. He gives a clear exposure throughout his writings of the error of depending on faith for salvation. He rejects the doctrine, that any portion of mankind are predestined to eternal punishment in hell, and calls it "a cruel heresy." He teaches the moral fredom of every soul; that this freedom is an attribute of all moral and intelligent beings, without which they could not exist; and that it will continue forever. He teaches that all souls are capable of salvation; that all men were predestined and created for heaven; and that God exerts his divine love and wisdom continually to that end. But he holds that he cannot interfere with their free-will, and that there are those who will confirm themselves in evil, and will continue so to all eternity. Other portions of his writings, however, seem to conflict with this doctrine, and to teach the possibility of universal restoration. He teaches that heaven and hell are formed of societies, and that every one attaches himself to the society of those who are in the same ruling love. The joys of heaven are social, moral and intellectual; virtuous companionships are

renewed; and the goods of love, and the truths of wisdom, flow eternally from the Lord. The punishments of the wicked are only such as they inflict upon themselves, and such as result from their spiritual condition, while the Lord restrains them from injuring each other, and angels are sent to relieve them of any excess of misery. Thus the mercy and loving kindness of the Lord are extended to all; He wills that all should be saved; and he does not torment any of his creatures-a very different view from the doctrine of eternal hell torments taught by the theologians of his day.

Between heaven and hell, Swedenborg teaches that there is an intermediate state, called "the world of spirits," where every soul first enters on leaving this world. Here the righteous put off what evils remain in them, before they can enter heaven, and the wicked confirm themselves in their evils, and get rid of the good they had in them, when they take their own way to hell. The resurrection, he teaches, is simultaneous with the death of the body, and there is no general day of resurrection and judgment at the end of the world. A spiritual body only is raised; and this occurs with each individual when he is removed from this to the spiritual world, and a spiritual judgment then also passes upon each soul. He teaches also that there was a last general judgment, and that this occurred in the year 1757, in the spiritual world, just one hundred years ago. Since that time we are living under a new dispensation, called the New Jerusalem, of which the New Church is the embodiment. All those prophecies that relate to the second coming of Christ are applied to this event, and said to be fulfilled in it; and the second coming of the Lord, and the descent of the New Jerusalem consists in the promulgation of the truths revealed through Swedenborg's illumination, and the establishment of a church in which those truths shall be believed and practised. This church is finally to supercede all the old Christian churches in the world.

From this sketch it will be seen that Swedenborg's views are a great advance upon the old theologies of the Christian church, and that their adoption would work a great revolution in the religious world. His doctrine of the Lord, and his denial of the reformation of the wicked