Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

Jasper Swedenborg, bishop of importance, compared with West-Gothia. He was born the distinguished privilege of

having, as he supposed, his spiritual sight opened, and conversing with spirits and angels in the spiritual world. He first began to have his

at Stockholm in the year 1689, and died in London in 1772. He early enjoyed all the advantages of a liberal education, having studied with great attention in the academy of revelations in London. He Upsal, and in the universities of England, Holland, France, and Germany. Endued with uncommon talents for the acquirement of learning, his progress in the sciences was rapid and extensive; and at an early period in life he distinguished himself by various publications on philosophical subjects. His philosophic studies led him to refer natural phenomena to spiritual agency, and to suppose that there is a close connexion between the two worlds of matter and spirit. Hence his system teaches us to consider all the visible universe, with every thing that it contains, as a theatre and representation of the invisible world from which it first derived its existence, and by connexion with which it continually subsists.

Baron Swedenborg's extraordinary genius and learning, accompanied with the purity of his life and uprightness of his character, attracted the public notice. Hence he received various literary and political honours. These, however, he considered of small

asserted, that on a certain
night a man appeared to him
in the midst of a strong shin-
ing light, and said, "I am
God, the Lord, the Creator,
and Redeemer: I have chosen
thee to explain to men the
interior and spiritual sense of
the sacred writings. I will
dictate to thee what thou
oughtest to write." He affirm-
ed that after this period his
spiritual sight was opened so
far, that he could see in the
most clear and distinct man-
ner what passed in the spiri-
tual world, and converse with
angels and spirits in the same
manner as with men. Accord-
ingly, in his treatise concern-
ing heaven and hell, he relates
the wonders which he saw in
the invisible worlds;
and gives
an account of various, and
heretofore unknown particu-
culars, relating to the peace,
the happiness, the light, the
order of heaven; together with
the forms, the functions, the
habitations, and even the gar-
ments of the heavenly inhabi-
tants. He relates his conver-
sation with angels, and de-
scribes the condition of jews,

mahometans, christians, clergymen of every denomination, laity, &c., in the other world. Baron Swedenborg called the doctrines which he delivered, "The Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem." It is thus styled; for, according to his system, the New Jerusalem signifies the new church upon earth, which is now about to be established by the Lord, and which is particularly described, as to its glory and excellency, in Rev. xxi., and many other parts of the sacred word. The holy city, or New Jerusalem, he interpreted as descriptive of a new dispensation of heavenly truth, breaking through, and dissipating the darkness which at this day prevails on the earth, The laws of divine order,

and the economy of God's kingdom, providence, and operation, will be more clearly and fully understood; and the, hearts of men will be thus opened to a nearer intercourse with heaven, and rendered admissive of the purer influences of gospel love and charity in their lives and conversation.

The following extract contains the general outlines of Baron Swedenborg's theological system.-(1.) That the sacred scripture contains three distinct senses, called celestial, spiritual, and natural; and that in each sense it is divine truth, accommodated respectively to the angels of the three heavens, and also to men on earth.*-(2.) That there is a correspondence between all things in heaven and all things

* Baron Swedenborg observes in his " Arcana Coelestia," that there are in general four different styles in which the word is written. The first is what was in use in the most ancient church, who, when they mentioned earthly and worldly things, thought of the spiritual and celestial things represented thereby; so that they not only expressed themselves by representatives, but also reduced their thoughts into a kind of historical series or arrangement. From the posterity of the most ancient church Moses received what he wrote concerning the creation, the garden of Eden, &c., till the time of Abraham. The second style is historical, occurring in the books of Moses from the time of Abraham till the times of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and the Kings; in which books the historical relations are such as they appear to be in the letter, but yet every part of them contain things altogether different in the internal sense. The third style is prophetical, which took its rise from the style of the most ancient church. This style, however, is not connected like the historical and that of the most ancient church; but is broken and interrupted, being scarcely ever intelligible but in its internal sense, wherein are contained the greatest arcana, which succeed each other in a beautiful and orderly connexion, having relation to the internal and external man, to various states of the church, to heaven itself, and in their inmost sense to the Lord. The fourth style is that of the Psalms of David, which is between the prophetical and the ordinary style of speaking; in which, under the person of David as king, the Lord is treated of in an internal sense.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

in man; and that this science of correspondences is a key to the spiritual or internal sense of the sacred scriptures, every page of which is written by correspondences; that is, by such things in the natural world as correspond unto, and signify things in the spiritual world. (3.) That there is a divine trinity of Father, Son, and holy Ghost, or in other words, of the all-begetting Divinity, [Divinum a quo] the divine human, and the divine proceeding, or operation; and that this trinity consisteth not of three distinct persons, but is united as body, soul, and operation in man, in the one person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who therefore is the God of heaven, and alone to be worshipped; being Creator from eternity, Redeemer in time, and Regenerator to eternity.(4.) That redemption consisteth not in the vicarious sacrifice of the Redeemer, and an atonement to appease the divine wrath; but in a real subjugation of the powers of darkness; in a restoration of

SWE

order and good government in the spiritual world; in checking the overgrown influences of wicked spirits on the souls of men, and opening a nearer and clearer communication with the heavenly and angelic powers; in making salvation, which is regeneration, possible for all who believe on the incarnate God and keep his commandments.-(5.) That there is an universal influx from God into the souls of men. The soul, upon receiving this influx from God, transmits it through the perceptive facul ties of the mind to the body. The Lord with all his divine wisdom, consequently with all the essence of faith and charity, entereth by influx into every man, but is received by every man according to his state and form.

Hence it is

that good influxes from God are changed by the evil nature of their recipients into their opposites; good into evil, and truth into falsehood.―(6.) That we are placed in this world, subject to the influences of two most opposite princi

Correspondence, in a philosophic sense, is a kind of analogy that one thing bears to another, or the relation subsisting between the essence of a thing and its form, or between the cause and its effect. Thus the whole natural world corresponds to the spiritual world; the body of a man, with all its parts, corresponds to his soul; and the literal sense of the word corresponds to the spiritual.

The natural, or material world, in which we live, as to the body, proceeds derivatively (in a sense consistent with the Mosaic account of the creation). from the spiritual world, and subsists by continual influx from it. As a spiritual thing, it is formed into a palpable and material thing, as an essence clothing itself with a form, or as a soul making to itself a body.

ples, of good from the Lord and his holy angels, of evil from hell or evil spirits. While we live in this world our spirits have their abode in the spiritual world, where we are kept in a kind of spiritual equilibrium by the continual action of those contrary in of powers; consequence which we are at perfect liberty to turn to which we please; that without this free-will in spiritual things regeneration cannot be effected. If we submit to God we receive real life from him; if not, we receive that life from hell which is called in scripture spiritual death.-(7.) That heaven and hell are not arbitrary appointments of God. Heaven is a state arising from the good affections of the heart, and a correspondence of the words and actions grounded on sincere love to God and man: and hell is the necessary consequence of an evil and thoughtless life, enslaved by the vile affections of self-love, and the love of the world, without being brought under the regulations of heavenly love, by a right submission of the will, the understanding, and actions, to the truth and spirit of heaven.-(S.) That there is

an intermediate state for departed souls, which is called the world of spirits; and that very few pass directly to heaven or hell. This is a state of purification to the good; but to bad spirits it is a state of separation of all the extraneous good from the radical evil which constitutes the essence of their natures.-(9.) That throughout heaven, such as are of like dispositions and qualities are consociated into particular fellowships, and such as differ in these respects are separated; so that every society in heaven consists of similar members.-(10.) That man immediately on his decease rises again in a spiritual body, which was inclosed in his material body; and that in this spiritual body he lives as a man to eternity, either in heaven or in hell, according to the quality of his past life.

(11.) That those passages in the sacred scripture, generally supposed to signify the destruction of the world by fire, &c., commonly called the last judgment, must be understood, according to the abovementioned science of correspondences, which teaches, that by the end of the world, or consummation of the age,'

Baron Swedenborg maintains that the free agency of man consists not in a liberty independent of HIM in whom he lives, moves, and has his being; but it is a continual gift from the Fountain of all life and liberty; so that he cannot be said to act of himself, but as of himself.

*

is not signified the destruction descending from God out of of the world, but the end, or heaven. consummation, of the present christian church, both among Roman Catholics and Protestants of every description and denomination that this consummation, which consists in the total falsification of the divine truth, and adulteration of the divine good of the word, has actually taken place, and, together with the establishment of a new church in place of the former, is described in the Revelations, in the internal sense of that book, in which the new church is meant, as to its internals, by the new heavens, and as to its externals, by the new earth; also by the New Jerusalem

It is a leading doctrine of Baron Swedenborg, in his explanation of the other books of scripture, that one of the principal uses for which the word is given is, that it might be a medium of communication between the Lord and man; also that earth might be thereby conjoined with heaven, or human minds with angelic minds; which is effected by correspondences, and natural things with spiritual, according to which the word is written; and that in order to its being divine, [divinum verum in ultimio] it could not be written otherwise that hence, in many parts of the

* An ingenious author, who has embraced the doctrines of the New Jerusalem church, thus explains this subject: "It may be expedient to observe that there is a last judgment, both particular and general, as it relates to an individual of the church, or to the church itself collectively considered. The last judgment, as it relates to an individual, takes place with every one when he dies; for then he passeth into another state of existence, in which, when he cometh into the full exercise of the life which he had procured to himself in the body, he is judged either to death or to life; i. e. to hell or to heaven. The last judgment, as it relates to the church collectively considered, takes place when there is no longer any genuine love and faith in it, whereby it ceaseth to be a church. Thus it was the last judgment of the representative church, which existed with the jews when the Lord came into the world; wherefore the Lord said, Now is the judgment of this world, now is the prince of this world cast out. And the apostle Peter, preaching on the day of Pentecost, applies the prophecy of Joel to those times, and to the circumstances then existing, in which similar things are declared to take place as at the end of the christian church; viz. Wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour, and smoke; the sun turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, &c. The last judgment of the christian church established by the Lord, is the accomplishment of what was foretold by the Lord in the evangelists, and by John in the revelations, which accomplishment has now taken place. This accomplishment, however, is not so manifest in the church on earth, where appearances are for a longer time kept up, as it is in the world of spirits, the intermediate state between heaven and hell." See Notes on Swedenborg's Doctrine concerning the Lord, by Mr. Hill.

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »