and soberness.' We have already found the common report against him to be false, and have proved the charges to be untenable. If therefore SWEDENBORG was a sane person, he spoke with soberness; if he was not an impostor, he wrote with sincerity; if he was not imposed upon, he wrote with truth; and if he wrote and acted with sincerity, truth, and soberness, then his doctrines and opinions are incontrovertible, and ought to be thankfully accepted."

The above quotations are from the New Church Tract No. 5, on the Claims of Swedenborg.

CHAPTER IV.

Why the New Church is rejected by many-The object of the writer-The phenomena of visions-The reason of the opening of Swedenborg's spiritual senses-His intercourse with the spiritual world-Representations-Science of correspondences -Internal sense of the scriptures-Visions of the prophets.

MANY misrepresentations and false accounts of the New Church creed being in circulation, a large number of persons no doubt reject it because they are ignorant of its truths, and of the solid basis on which it stands. Therefore I desire to give such of my friends as interest themselves in the subject, an opportunity of judging more fairly of this creed, by attempting to set before those, who for my sake may be induced to peruse this work, a clear and true account of the foundation of the New Jerusalem Church, and of all its doctrines. And, as appropriate quotations from the works of men whose talent and learning are established, may, and ought to have more weight with my readers than any composition of my own, a large portion of the remainder of this little volume will contain such extracts as I think best suited to carry conviction to reasonable and candid minds. The extracts of this chapter, and of the consecutive three, are from the very popular lectures of the winter of 1840-41 by the Rev. B. F. Barrett. These lectures have served to enlighten many, as well they might, for they are conspicuous for their sound reasoning and clearness of thought.

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The eleventh lecture, page 374, commences thus: Writing upon the subject of Swedenborg's modes of perception, the pious, learned and philosophic Richer says: At the word vision,' science is disturbed, faith alarmed, and the mind, without examination, appeals to ridicule and mockery. In this proscribed word, superstition, fanaticism, and deception, meet. One sees in it unequivocal proof of a disordered brain, another the certain influence of the spirit of darkness, a third, the evidence of gross and ignorant credulity. Memory recalls what one has read, and receives these visions with the same contempt we have been accustomed to feel for those of ancient story. If history has wished to blast the reputation of any religious personage, it his called him a visionary. Is there in romance a character whose delirious opinions the author would condemn, he makes him a visionary. It is a word which everywhere unites proscription, contempt, ridicule and hatred. The infant, whose reason is but budding, smiles at the story of a vision; for it is told to him along with the fairy tales, to which no one is expected to listen seriously. And while uttering this word, the man of letters smiles; for if he spoke it seriously, his reputation would suffer.

"However fearful may appear such a coalition of enemies, it is nevertheless certain, that truth has very often appeared upon the earth under discredited terms. The gospel had its origin in the midst of a people who had become the scorn of all others. Let us venture then to approach, without prejudice, the phenomena of visions. We shall find, perhaps, even here, materials for true science, which should dread no investigation. We shall undoubtedly be convinced, that enlightened religion has nothing to fear from the results of this study; we shall at last acquire the proof that the frivolity which jests with it, as with an arbitrary thing, attacks a fact which demands to be observed, comprehended and appreciated. Our conscience will then put us in a condition to pass a definitive judgment upon this subject, instead of repeating, like servile echoes, the pleasantries of people who have never been able to think for themselves, or who have not had light or strength enough to struggle against an error which had become dominant.

"We will begin, then, consistently with these views,

to consider, in this celebrated man, the visionary in good faith.

"In truth, it is as a seer of visions, that Swedenborg asserted his mission, and it may be remarked that no founder of religion has spoken in the name of reason alone; he has spoken as an organ of heaven, with which he has claimed to be in communication. If reason alone had been appealed to in aid of the establishment of forms of worship, there would have been as many, without doubt, as there are individuals; for each man has his own manner of feeling and conceiving the truth. The right of imposing his religious opinions on others, belongs to no one, rationally speaking; but, if not as an imperative right, at least as a demonstrative right, it may in some sort belong to certain individuals in communication with the divine power.

"The scripture is founded entirely on a certain order of things: it is only the man who finds himself in this order, who can have the faculty of interpreting it. If St. John wrote his Apocalypse as a seer, is it not probable that it is only a seer, like himself, who will have the power to explain it? What appears, at the first view, a motive for rejecting Swedenborg, appears, on further reflection, rather a guarantee of the mission with which he declares himself charged. If he had claimed to be chosen in order to astablish upon the earth a new providential kingdom by the extent of his reason, the excellence of his understanding, the moral superiority of all his faculties, by what right would his intelligence have prevailed over that of others? With a claim so extraordinary, he should necessarily, in order to be received, assert an intercourse equally extraordinary with the deity whose agent he is.

"But let it not be thought that I demand here the sacrifice of reason; it seems to me, on the contrary, that it is by the use of this faculty alone that I can assure myself that anything above it exists. To expel her from a domain which is hers, is not the way to force her to surrender; she will revolt against this tyrannical act, and will never submit to what one would attempt to impose upon her. If you present to her, on the contrary, something inaccessible to our senses, those instruments which have been given us to act within certain limits, she will soon herself acknow

ledge her insufficiency, and her laying down of her authoriity will be her own act. In refusing to act, she will exercise all her force, and all her independence.

"Now, it is a long time since the reason of enlightened men, has declared itself incompetent for the explanation of certain phenomena, which do not enter into the common order of life and of thought. There is beyond the science of sensations, a science of man, scarcely known, it is true, but yet acknowledged; it is that which explains dreams, presentiments, visions, a thousand supernatural effects attested by the most respectable writers in all times.'(Modes of perception of Emanuel Swedenborg, by Edward Richer-See New Jerusalem Magazine for Nov., 1841.)

"These remarks are from the pen of an able French writer, who possesses a good heart, extensive and varied learning, and one of the most eminently clear and philosophic minds of modern times.

"In the commencement of his work entitled 'The Delights of Wisdom Concerning Conjugial Love,' Swedenborg

says:

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"I FORESEE that many who read the relations immediately following, and those annexed to the chapters, will believe that they are inventions of the imagination; but I assert in truth that they are not invented, but truly done and seen; nor seen in any state of the sleeping mind, but in full wakefulness. For it has pleased the Lord to manifest himself to me, and to send me to teach those things which will belong to the New Church, which is meant by the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, for which purpose He has opened the interiors of my mind and spirit; whereby it has been given me to be in the spiritual world with angels, and at the same time in the natural world, with men, and this now for twenty-five years.'

"In another of his works entitled 'The True Christian Religion,' (n. 779), Swedenborg says:

"THAT THIS SECOND COMING OF THE LORD IS EFFECTED BY MEANS OF A MAN, BEFORE WHOM HE HAS MANIFESTED HIMSELF, AND WHOM HE HAS FILLED WITH HIS SPIRIT, TO TEACH THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH THROUGH THE WORD FROM HIM.

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Since the Lord cannot manifest Himself in person, as

has been shown just above, and yet He has foretold that He would come and establish a New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, it follows, that He is to do it by means of a man, who is able not only to receive the doctrines of this church with his understanding, but also to publish them by the press. That the Lord has manifested Himself before me, his servant, and sent me on this office, and that, after this, He opened the sight of my spirit, and thus let me into the spiritual world, and gave me to see the heavens and the hells, and also to speak with angels and spirits, and this now continually for many years, I testify in truth, and also that, from the first day of that call, I have not received any thing which pertains to the doctrines of that church from any angel, but from the Lord alone, while I read the Word.

"Nevertheless, when we consider how many enthusiasts, fanatics, and impostors there have been in the Church, who have deluded both themselves and others with their pretended revelations, it is not so much to be wondered at that the very idea of a vision should come to be ridiculed; and that whoever professes to have had one, should therefore be regarded as necessarily a person of disordered intellect, or as possessing a diseased organ af marvellousness. But certainly it is neither wise nor just, as was remarked in a preceding lecture, to conclude from many of the pretended revelations which men have had, that therefore there can be no true ones; nor, because there have been impostors and lying spirits in all ages of the church, that therefore there can be no genuine messengers of a revelation from heaven. Those who would draw such inferences from such data, are perhaps not aware of the extent to which their logic would lead them; for, if they would be consistent, they must reject the sacred Scriptures themselves as altogether unworthy of credit-as the productions of madmen-because therein are recorded many miracles and visions. And this is precisely what the avowed infidel has done.

"No-the wiser, and, as I deem, far more philosophic and Christian course for one to pursue in these days of imposture and delusion, is to believe not every spirit, but to try the spirits whether they be of God." We should endeavor to prove all things,' that we may thereby be