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Yale University library.
AN INQUIRY INTO THE
COMMISSION AND DOCTRINE
OFTHE
NEW APOSTLE
EMANUEL SWEDE NBQRG i
containing a
short, history of imp ostors' and e nthus iasts j
an examination ofmr. s w~edenborg.'s visions; ,
his, cabatlstic interpretation ofscripture;
his denying the resurrection;
as also thirty-one books of the" o ld, anti,
new testament; ;' * ¦¦* -¦ •¦'. <¦'
THE AFFECTED OBSCURITY OF' H-JS-WRITINCS;
. >,- . , • .£#¥'. ,,,,-¦'
AND SOME REMARKS ON HIS MOST PALPABLE CON
TRADICTIONS: '
CONCLUDING, WITH A
FEW STRICTURES ON HtS CALLING: fltIS tO&LQ WER9)
TBI! NEWJERUSALEM CH.URCH. '

BY A MEMBER OF THE OLD' CHURCH*

" Jesus I know,- and Paul I know, but whoar'e;ye ?'f Acts',.
' r ,-1< ¦-'¦,
,¦,,... Silvis ubi passim
Palantes error certo de tramite pellifs, ,r
Ille sinistrql-sum, hie dextrorsum abit, "unus utrique
Error, sed variis'illiidit partibus. ¦':,-• Hot,.
While mazy. error djaws mankind, astray,, ,» : ,-
From trutfi'Ssure path, each takes His j$e'vious Way, ;.
One to.the 4jght, one to the, left recedes,*
Alike deluipd, as ^acn fancy lead?, ¦

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR MESSRS. VERNbR ANDHOOD.;.
J. THOMSON, MANCHESTER.
*794-

PR EFACE.

CT"HE Author of this Inquiry living in a neigh-
¦*¦ bourhood where Mr. Swedenborg,s writings are
circulated with the utmost avidity, after hearing
him proclaimed by his admirers to have been as
highly commissioned an apostle as John the Bap
tist, was naturally induced by this dignified com
parison, to examine into the reality of such extra-
otdinary pretensions.
Accordingly he s-dt down to peruse the writings
of this new apostle with some attentithi, making
short txtracts from them as he went along, not
with any view to publish, bid for his own inform
ation ; when fie had finished the task, he was
struck 'with ' reviewing such glaring absurdities
painted on the world as the oracles of God. Every
fresh paragraph, hostile to Christianity and com
mon sense, lei him into a train of reflections,
which, for the improvement of his own mind, he
committed to paper, but a friend on seeing them
undertook to lay them before the public, hoping,
through the Divine blessing, that among the class
of readers, where the Baron's writings most easily
obtain credit, these Strictures might operate as an
antidote, to open the eyes of some who might other-,
wise be decoyed from the religion of their fathers,
and of the New Testament, by the pretended reve
lations of this false prophet.
Although the Author has his own peculiar ten-
etst tenets which he deems it important to adhere
to, yet he hopes the reader will here find him de- his

( iv )
fending the peculiarities of no party, but Christi
anity as opposed by Swedenborgianism. The man
who honestly takes the Scriptures for his guide, and
believes that eternal life is thegift of God, through
Jesus Christ our Lord, he esteems, and although
he knows of no system more repugnant to the gospel
of Christ' than Mr. Swedenborg* s^; yet he hopes
his benevolence and charity shall never be alien
ated from any of the Baron's followers, who shall
.. appear to him in the integrity of their heart to.
have embraced this new religion.
< This much he acknowledges, lest (as is fre
quently the case) any should overlook the matter,
and complain against the manner of expressing his
convictions on the errors of Mr. Swedenborg. To
whom he would further observe, that in proportion
as any scheme sets at defiance reason and revela-,
tion, it ought to be combated with a degree of cor
responding resentment, especially when it is further
recollected, that many readers never think their
author seriously convinced of the truth which he-
defends, if he does not treat its adversary in the
language of marked opposition ; and such an ad
versary to truth does the Author of this Inquiry
consider the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg,

ERRATA,
Page 15, note, for internal read infernal.
Page 28, line 21 , for truth read good.
Page 29, line 38, dele the figures 3204 with 444 below,
and " the proof."
Page 49. line 31, dele "to be."
Pa6e 5Si line "> <We telling.

SECT. I.

On Impojiors and Enthvfiafis.

EVER fince our bleffed Saviour appeared on earth
to reveal and eftablifh his doctrine among men,
thofe who have confidered his precepts and example as
. fufficient to make them wife unto falvation, have, from
time to time, been intruded upon by the enthufiafms of
foirie, and the impoftures of others, who have either af
firmed the facred character which he fuftains in the
church, or contended that they had a fpecial command
from God, to add fome further revelations as a fupple-
ment to his doctrines.
Scarcely had Chrift afcende,d to heaven till there arqfe
men who perfonated his facred character, and 'availing
themfelves of the ignorance and credulity of the peo
ple, perfuaded feveral to believe they were the true
Meffiahs. About the year 35, Simon Magus afferted that he was
the great power of God, that he defcended from heavea
'' to deliver man, that he had affumed the human form,
and that though he had apparently fuffered death in Ju-
dea, he had not in reality. He afcribed to his miftrefs,
Helena, the production of angels, and to thefe angels
the creation of the world. Iri the following age, one
Barchochebas drew a number of deluded creatures after
him, by telling t,hem that he was the Meffiah, and as his
name in the antient Hebrew denoted the Son of a Start
he applied to himfelf that prophecy of Baalim, Num.
xxiv. 17. " There fhall come a Star out of Judah, and
a Sceptre out of Ifrael." In the fifth century, about
the year 434, there appeared in the ifland of Crete,
another falfe Chrift, called Mofes, who pretended to be
the ancient legiflator of the Jews, come down from
heaven to procure them a paffage through the Sea to
Judea. Great numbers jumped into the fea, expect
ing it would open, and give them paffage ; in this at-
B tempt

( 2 )
tempt many were drowned. After which the importer'
difappearetl *. About the year 556, a falfe Meffiah,
called Julian, appeared in Paleftine. Under him
many took up arms; but Juftinian, the Roman em
peror, fending fome troops againft them, Julian was
taken and executed, and his party difperfed.
In the eight century, a Spaniard, called Serenus,
pretended to conduct the Jews to Paleftine ; but they
loon found him out to be an impoftor. The twelfth
century was very fruitful in impoftors of this kind ;
there appearing no lefs than feven or eight in France,
Spain, Perfia, &c. But the laft century produced a
very famous impoftor. About the year 1660, one Zab-
atai Tzevi, a native of Aleppo, fet up for a Meffiah.
He was summoned before the fynagogue at Smyrna,
and being convicted, was condemned to death ; but as
none could be found to execute the fentence, he was
Isanifhed, and paffing through Greece came to Alexan
dria, from thence to Gaza, where he found a Jew,
named Nathan Levi, whom he perfuaded to act the
part of the prophet Elias, and many were deluded by
this deception. He ' afterwards came . to Conftanti-
nople, where he was apprehended, and ordered to be
run through with a fword ; to avoid which he turned
Muffulman +.
The limits of this pamphlet will not permit me to give
the. reader a full detail of thofe impoftors, who in order
to depreciate the character and integrity of our bleffed
Saviour, have endeavoured tofubftitutethemfelvesirihis
ftead., Let it fuffice to obferve, that as he foretold fo
it has come to pafs, that many falfe Chrifts have arifen
in his name, or rather, affirming his name ; but their
fuccefs being no better than their fincerity, they have
only confirmed the friends of Christianity more effec
tually in the rational belief that the Meffiah is come,
and that it is in vain for them to look for another.
As fome have1 endeavoured to fubvert Chriftianity
by perfonating its author, and thereby wifhing to trans
fer his glory to themfelves, fo others have pretended
that his gofpel was an imperfect fyftem; that it did not
comprehend all the difcoveries which the Almighty
intended to make to mankind, in this preliminary
ftate ; and that before we can perfectly underftand the
will of God, it is neceffary for us to believe certain
dreams and visions with which God has been pleafed
to favour them, in order that they might reveal them
to mankind. Of thefe minor apoftles, the feveral ages
of Chriftianity have produced a plentiful crop. Scarce ly
* Socrat, Hist. Eccles. + M'Bain.

( 3 )
ly had the impoftures and vifions of Simon Magus been
detected, till Montanus, a native of Arbadon in Masfia,
ftarted up, and pretended that he was the Paraclete, or
Comforter, promifed by Chrift, and that he was fent to
perfect the moral doctrines of the gofpel. He made an
artful distinction between 'the Comforter promifed by
Chrift to his apoftles, and the Holy Ghoft, which was
fbed upon them at the day of Pentecoft, and underftood
the former as a divine teacher, and declared that he was
that Comforter alluded to by our Saviour.
In the third century, when the philofophy of Plato
began to be blended with Chriftianity, and the ad
mirers of that pagan medley pretended that the fcrip-
tures were not to be underftood in their literal but in
their allegorical fenfe, one Paul of Thebais rofe up, as he
faid himfelf, in the name pf the Lord, and fleeing from
the feverity of the times, lived with his followers in
caverns and dens, and was confidered as the oracle of
his day, for vifions and extraordinary illuminatioris ;
but of whofe followers, after his death, we have little
account, they having foon returned to the common mafs
of Christians, after the fervour and enthufiafms of their
leader had died away. In the fifth century, in order to
fettle a popifh difpute, about a certain hymn being in
troduced in the litanyj a young man at Constantinople,
declared he was taken up into heaven ; where, accord
ing to his own report, he had the felicity of hearing
the angels fing in Greek, the very hymn in queftion,
the words of which on his return to earth, he repeated
to Proclus his bifhop*. The feventh century was diftin-
guifhed by the pretended revelations and new doctrines
of that celebrated impoftor Mahomet. With a capa
cious memory, fublime imagination, and a clear and
rapid judgment, this illiterate barbarian, who in his
youth had been addicted to religious contemplations,
each year, for some time, retired to the cave of Herva,
three miles from Mecca ; where, by the affiftance of
an apoftate Jew, and a Syrian monk, he compofed thofe
vifions and reveries which at this day fpread their in,.
fluence and belief even farther than the Chriftian re
ligion. Every dogma which he wifhed to eftablifh, and
every tenet, however abfurd, which he intended his
deluded followers to believe, was confirmed by a chap
ter of his Coran, written in heaven, and, as he was
pleafed to fay, fent -down for his publication in the
world ; and . to give the greater appearance of authen
ticity to his impoftures, he publifhed an account of his
being
* Jorlin,

( 4 )
being taken up, one night, into the third heavens, where
he converfed with God, and faw written in a motto over
the celeftial gates, " No God, but God, and Mahomet
is his prophet." I had forgot to tell the reader that he
rode on Alborack, the horse on which the angel Gabriel
was mounted, when he announced to the Virgin Mary
the birth of our. Saviour; and this beast, he tells us,
was exceedingly fkittifh, owing to its never having-
been rode fince that expedition. After this, in Ger
many, two famous, or rather infamous propheteffes,
ftarted up, Heldegard abbefs of Bengen, and Elizabeth
of Schonauge, who publifhed a long catalogue of dreams
and vifions, which they fancied, or pretended to receive
from above. The multitude reforted to thefe new ora
cles, and refpected their decifions as the commands of
God, who in this way, as they told their difciples, was
pleafed to communicate counfel arid inftruction, and the
knowledge of his will to men.
The thirteenth century was' diftinguifhed by the ap
pearance of two of the greateft enthufiafts who ever
milled or difturbed the world ; I mean Dominica Guz
man, a Spaniard, and Francis of Italy; the one the
founder of the Dominican, the other of the Francifcan
friars : who to such a pitch of madriefs carried their
impoftares and enthufiafms, that their followers declared
them to be equal unto, yea, even greater than Chrift
himfelf ; and one Bartholomew, of Pifa, actually pub
lifhed a moft impious book, entitled, " A conformity
between the life of St. Francis and Jefus Chrift," in
which abominable parallel, the faint is made greatly fu-
perior to the Saviour ; and it is well known, that
though they both pretended to be folely direfted by the
Lord in all their opinions and proceedings, yet with
the moft embittered animofity and fpiritual jealoufy, they
and their followers perfecuted each other, as if each
had been confidered by his rival as the common enemy
ef mankind.
In the fourteenth century, a set of fanatics arofe near
Aix-la-Chapelle, inGermany,calledDancers; their tenets
are explained by their name. As if by a fudden impulfe,
a whole company of them would frequently commence a
violent motion like a company of dancers, and continue till
they dropped down with fatigue, when they afferted that
they were favoured with miraculous vifions and reve
lations from God. Every one who is in the leaft ac
quainted with the hiftory and Corruption of the church of
Rome,remembers the fraudulent impoftures of which poor
Jetzer of Bern was made the dupe, by a tribe of religious jugglers

(5 )
jugglers belonging to the order of St. Dominic, who
made that poor illiterate monk believe that the Virgin
Mary appeared to him, and inftructed him how to fettle
a diipute between the Frartcifcans and Dominican fri
ars concerning her immaculate conception. And after
having told him how fhe hated the Francifcans for mak
ing her equal with her Son, in order to give a proof of
her affection for him and his order, fhe told Jetzer,
that fhe Would imprint on him the five wounds that
pierced Jefus on the crofs. Accordingly, one of the
friars, who had all the while pe-rfonated the Virgin,
took the poor fanatic's hand by forcej and ftruck a large
nail through it, which threw him into the greateft ago
ny. But after playing off thefe tricks almoft every
night,* the matter was at length fo grofsly over-acted,
that, fimple as Jetzer was, he at laft difcovered' it, and
had almoft killed the friar who appeared to him as the
Virgin Mary, with a crown on her head. The confe-
quen'ce was, that the church of Rome was fo afhamed
of this fcandalous affair, when it came to be expofed,,
that the four friars were degraded from their pirieft-
hood, and actually burnt alive on the laft day of May,
A little after this, two Dutch mechanics, pbffeffed
with the rage of making profelytes, fixed their refidence
in Munfter, an imperial city of Weftphalia; where, af
ter working up' the' minds of their followers to a pitch
of unparalleled madnefs, by their dreams, vifions, and
pretended revelations, they actually drove the magis
trates and fenate out Of the city ; and one of them, after
having by obfcure vifions and prophecies, prepared the
multitude for fome extraordinary eVentj ftript himfelf
naked, and marched through the ftreets, proclaiming
with a loud voice — " That the kingdom of Zion was at
hand, that what ever was higheft on earth fhould be
brought low, and what ever was loweft fhould be ex
alted." In order to fulfil this, he commanded the
churches, as the moft lofty buildings in the city, to be
levelled with the ground ; and having called the multi
tude together, by the affiftance of a prophet whom he
had tutored for the purpose, they declared that it was
the will of God that John Boccold fhould be king of
Sion, and fit on the throne of David. John, kneeling
down, accepted of the heavenly call, which he folemnly
declared had been revealed likewife to himfelf, and was
immediately acknowledged as monarch by the deluded
multitude ; but this fucceflor pf David foon ended his
reign, prophecies, and.exifterice, a miferable victim tq
fan aticifm and impofture +. In
* Hottenger Hist. Helv, Burnet's Travels, + Gregory.

( 6 )
In the laft century, Mrs. Bourignon, a French vifion-
nary, honoured the world with fome fpecial revelations,
which fhe pretended to have received. Several of her
.predictions and vifions have been publifhed, and
have had their fhare of admirers for a feafon'. A new
feet, folate as the year 1774, called Shakers, was infti-
tuted under the patronage of a Mrs. Anna Leefe, whom
they ftyle (and fhe afferts herfelf to be) the elect lady
fpoken of in the twelfth chapter of the revelations, and
that fhe fpeaks with feventy-two tongues, and though
thefe tongues are unintelligible to the living, fhe con-
verfeswithjke dead, who underftand her language. Sheis
the mother of all the elect, and fhe travails for the whole
world ; in fine, no bleffing can defeend to any perfon,
but only by and through- her*. Thefe are but as it were
a fpecimen of the great numbers of prophets, propliet-
effes, apoftles, feers, and dreamers, which have in the
different ages of Chriftianity obtruded their impoftures
and abfurdities on the world, as the oracles of God, and
have been the .unhappy inftruments of perverting many
weak and ignorant minds from the fimplicity of the
gofpel of Chrift, and have thereby expofed it to the ridi
cule andderifion of its enemies, to the no fmall triumph
ofthe learned infidel, and heart-felt regret of its fincereft"
friends. Among the number of thofe who have laid claim
to infpiration, the name of Emanuel Swedenborg
claims a diftinguifhed place.
This gentleman tells us, that for twenty-feven years
he has, like Enoch, walked with God, and has re
ceived from him fuch difcoveries concerning heaven
and hell, as eye has not feen, nor ear heard. Such
difcoveries as none ever had before, nor will ever have
after him. / For (t the Lord," fays he, " appeared to
me in London, and faid, I am God the Lord, the
Creator and Redeemer ; I have chofen thee to explain
to men the internal and fpiritual- fenfe of the facred
writings 5 I will dictate to thee what thou ought to
write." And that we might at no time hefitate, or be
in fufpenfe whether he fays any thing of himfelf, orby
fpecial revelation, he tells us, " I am but a fecretary,
who write from what is dictated to my fpirit +." This
account is very plaufible, but as we know not at all
times what manner of fpirits we are of, and as a fpirit of
'Gregory. + See anecdotes annexed to Mr. S^nda,l's eulogiitm on Mr. Swe->
^enborg.

( 7 )
of delufion, as well as of truth, is apt to poflefs the
minds of men, it is the bufinefs of every one to whom
thefe fubaltern prophets or apoftles make a tender of
their inftructions, to withhold their belief from their
teftimony, till they have tried them by the touch-ftone
of reafon and revelation ; till, like the Bereans, they
have fearched diligently whether thefe things be fo *,
for, " to the law and to the teftimony, if they fpeak not
according to this word, it is becaufe there is no light in
themt." This is not merely a prudential maxim, but
an apoftolical injunction, for we are exprefsly command
ed " not to believe every fpirit, but to try the fpirits,
whether they are of God ;" and this reafon is affagned
for our not giving implicit credit to every on^e who af
fects to be led by the fpirit, " becaufe many falfe pro
phets are gone out into the world J."
This being the cafe, the friends and followers of
Baron Swedenborg, (many of whom, I believe, are ferious
and well-meaning people) cannot be offended with us
(who ftill remain attached to the old church) for exam
ining, in the moft minute and particular manner, whether
or not there be in the Baron's theology, fuch traces of
a new difpenfation from God to men, as will juftify our
forfaking the common faith and expofitions of revela
tion, and adhere to this new fyftem, which the Baron
fays he Was divinely commiffioned, to reveal to the
world. Three objects of enquiry naturally prefent themfelves
to the minds of every one who either hears or reads the
Baron's pretenfions to new revelations, iff. Does it
appear ivomfcripture, that any new difpenfation, orariy
new revelations are promifed, either to fupercede the
old, or to be a fupplement to the writings and doctrines
of Chrift and his apoftles ? 2d. Does it appear from
reafon that fuch a new difpenfation is wanted, that the
old is imperfect, and that were a new and more ample
difcovery of God's, will to be made to the world, it
would effectually remove thofe evils and falfes, which
the Baron fays, every where abounds at this day? gdly,
If it fhould appear, that new revelations are both pro
mifed in fcripture, and wanted in reafon, amidft the nu
merous candidates for this honour, who have appeared
fince the commencement of Chriftianity, how fhall we
diftinguifli the enthufiaft, who canonizes his own reve
ries, as the oracles of God, from the anointed prophet,
who fpeaks forth the words of fobernefs and truth ? or
how fhall we diftinguifli the defigning impoftor from him
* Acts xvii. ri. * Isaiah via. go. J 1 John iv. 1.

{ « )
him who is actually appointed of God as the meffenger
to reveal this third, laft, and greateft difcoyery of the
Almighty to the children of men ?
When we begin to examine the credibility of the
gofpel, and its divine author, we find it foretold by the
patriarchs and prophets of the Old Teftament, that fuch
a wonderful perfon as Jefus Chrift fhould actually come
into the world. The time when he fhould appear, the
manner of his birth, the place where he fhouldt>e born?
the fufferings and troubles of his life, the circumftances
of his death, and the effects of his doctrine, were all
pointed out and foretold long before the advent of the
Son of God. So that, after fearching the fcripture?
with impartiality, and by comparing the life and doc
trines of Jefus with the figns that had been given con
cerning him, his friends became convinced that he of
whom Mofes and the prophets had fpoken was actually
come, and that Chrift was the identical perfon of whom the
fcriptures teftified. For it is evident that all the Jewifh
nation expected a great prophet from God, whom they
were to hear in all things * ; that they looked for one
who fhould come + ; and that they waited for the falva
tion of God ; and that when Chrift the Meffiah fhould
come, he would teach! them all things J. Thus it ap
pears that both the Old Teftament foretold, and the
pious and learned Jews expected, that God would vifit
his people by railing up for them an horn of falvation,
in the houfe of hisfervant David 1, as he had fpoken
and foretold by the mouth of his holy prophets.
Let us now fee whether or not the New Teftament
gives us any reafon to expect a third and ftill greater
difcovery of the divine will than we have yet been al
ready 'favoured within the two former difpenfations.
For this both the Baron and his friends would have us
to believe; for fays one of them|], "the churches
which have hitherto exifted, have had their morning,
¦their mid-day, their evening, and night. Thus the
Adamical churches, the Noahotical, and the Ifraelitifh
churches have had their exiftence, but are now no more,
and the Chriftian church has paffed through its morn
ing, mid-day, . evening, and is now come to its night."
^From this declaration it would appear, that as the
^Chriftian church was Confiderably different from the If
raelitifh
* Deut. xviii. 15. + Mat. xi. 3. :£ John iv. 25. T Luke i. 6g.
|| See Mr.. Proud's Sermon on New Jerusalem blessings, p. 19.
XJpon looking a second time into the Baron's works, 1 find Mr.
Proud ,has borrowed this prophecy from the .Universal Theology,
No. 753, &.c. "

C 9 v
raelitifh, fo will the New Jerufalem church differ effen-
tially from the Chriftian difpenfation. But it appears
very ftrange to us, who are members of the old church,
that we fhould difcern no promife of this new church,
and new teacher, in the doctrines of Chrift, nor the
writings of his apoftles. In oppofition to every new
fyftem that may be intruded upon us as divine, we are
commanded to hold faft the form of found words which
we have heard* ; and that for the obftinate there remaineth
110 more facrifice for fin; and that if an angel from heaven,
much lefs a mortal creature like ourfelves, fhould preach
any other gofpel than what the apoftles have preached
unto us, the malediction of heaven would reft upon himt;
and that under whatever pretence he, who lets up his
own declarations and doctrines as the revelations of God,
and thereby adds to God's word, already complete, God
would add unto him the plagues or curfes that are writ
ten in his wordj. Under fuch an awful fanction as this, .
the friends of Chriftianity ought to be extremely cau
tious how they liften to the pretences of thofe, who,
not fatisfied with what God has already revealed, are
for adding fomething more to the facred code, as if it
were not fufficient of itfelf to anfwer all the wife pur-
pofes of God in preparing us for his bleffed kingdom.
We are indeed told that many would come in the
name of Chrift, fpeaking lies in hypocrify ; that many
falfe Chrifts %., and falfe prophets would arife, and that
falfe apoftles, deceitful workers, transforming themfelves
into apoftles of Chrift ; and our bleffed Saviour, fore-
feeing that many would arife, boafting and puffing off
themfelves, as perfons of great importance, cautions
us to beware of falfe prophets §, who come unto us in
fheep's clothing, left by looking at the dignity of their
rank, or the exterior fanctity of their conduct, and their
- gravely and repeatedly afferting their infpirations and
intercourfe with God, or angels, we fhould be led from
the fimplicity of his word, to credit their vifionary doc»
trines, inftead of that revelation, which is more careful
C to
* 2 Tim. i. 13. -tGal. i. 9. J Rev. xxii. 18. I Mat. xxiv. 24,
2 Cor. xi, 13.
(j If the man who denies the plainest declarations and doctrines
which Christ taught, such as a resurrection of all that are in their
graves, and who pretends to know those things of which the very an
gels in heaven are ignorant, and Christ himself had no commission to
reveal ; if such persons as these be not false prophets, it matters little "
whether we follow Zoroaster in Persia, Confucius in China, Mahora,
et in Turkey, or Jesus Christ in Europe; as none of them differ mora
widely from each other than the revelations of Christ, and the visions
of Mr. Sfredenborg.

( "> )
to regulate our life and conduct in this world, than to fat-
isfy our curiofity concerning the marriages, houfes, and
angels that are in the other. Indeed, in every place of
the New Teftament, where mention is made of new
Chrifts, new apoftles, new prophets, and new revela
tions, we are folemnly admonifhed to flee from them, to
rebuke them fharply, and to contend earneftly for the faith
(and nothing but the faith) once delivered to the faints.
How remarkable must it then be, that if the birth of
Ifaae, of Sampfon, of Jofiah, of Cyrus, of John the
Baptift, and of Jefus Chrift, fhould all be exprefsly
foretold by God in fcripture, that no hints fhould have
been fuggefted concerning the birth noradvent of fo won
derful a perfon as Mr. Swedenborg. Still more ftrange,
that the captivity of the Jews, the rebuilding, of their
temple, the degradation of Nebuchadnezzar, and the fi
nal difperfion of the pofterity of Jacob, fhould have
been fo accurately predicted, and ye^ this new apoftle,
and his doctrines, who, as his followers fay, was as much
commiffioned by the Lord, as John the Baptift was, fhould
never have been foretold in the fcripture ; nor can any
of those texts which they apply to themfelves, be more
applicable to their church, than to the followers of
Count Zindendprff, Mr. Wefley, Mr. Hutchefon, Mr.
Whitefield, Mr. Barclay, or the head of any other feet
or party, who may have vanity and confidence enough
to appropriate fuch paffages to themfelves, and their
adherents. We conclude then, that the fcriptures give
us no more warrant to expect a new church, and a new
apoftle, in the perfon and writings of Baron Sweden
borg, than in the perfon of Mahomet, arid writings of
the Turkifh Koran.
Nor does our reafon any more fuggeft the neceffity of
farther difcoveries from God, than his former revela
tions have given us warrant to expect : indeed the
vanity of being thought wife above what is written,
and the attachment which many have to the marvellous
and furprifing, often induce people of that turn of
mind to credit the moft unintelligible and inconfiftent
abfurdities, and the lefs they can comprehend of them,
the more they think they are edified thereby. It was
an impertinent curiofity of this kind that fubverted
our firft parents from the path of innocence ; not fatis-
fied with the meafure of knowledge which their Maker
had affigncd them, they wanted to be like Gods, knowT
ing good and evil. It is true they did obtain more
knowledge by the experiment, but it was only the
knowledge of their own fin and'mifery. The queftion,
therefore

( 11 )
therefore, is not what meafure of knowledge the human
mind wpuld wifh to poffefs, but whether or not God has
revealed fufficient information of our duty, fo as that
by a due attention thereunto we fhall attain a bleffed
immortality in the life which is to come.
If to live foberly, righteouily, and godly, be the
whole duty of man, then every thing needful for the
attainment of this invaluable end is to be found in the
fcriptures ; there the moft affectionate love to God, and
our neighbour, is moft frequently and fervently recom
mended; there the beft inftructions for felf-government
are to be found ; there the ftrongeft reafons for truft in
God, through Chrift Jefus, are held forth ; there the
greateft encouragement.againft defpondency in trouble
is afforded us ; there the vanity and allurments of this
preferit life are painted forth in their native colours ; and
there the good man finds an exhilarating comfort, when
the evening of life approaches, in the profpect of en
joying the full poffeffion of that bleffed kingdom which
God has prepared for them that love him. So profit
able for the life that now is, and that \vhich is to come,
are the precepts of piety and virtue which the fcrip
tures lay before us.
But fuppofing that the fcriptures hadpromifed us at
fome future period a greater revelation from God than
we enjoy at prefent,furroundedaswe are by fo many can
didates for this honour, whofe meffagefhallwedeemtobe >
canonical? We have the refpective claims of a Bafilides,
a Montanus, a Mahomet, a Francis, a Behmen, a Bourig-
non, a Buchan, a Leefe, a Zindendorf, and a Sweden
borg to examine. And as they have all had their ad
mirers and followers, who have believed them to be in-
fpired, although their infpirations and dogmas have been
as oppofite to each other, as light and darkncfs ; how
fhall we, that are unconnected with either party, be able
to afcertain whether or not a new prophet or apoftle
fpeaketh of himfelf, or by the Lord.
The only way then to judge of the credibility of Mr.
Swedenborg's laft and greateft difcoveries, is by the
documents and evidences which have eftablifhed and
confirmed us in the belief of the Jewifh and Chriftian
difpenfations, I mean — the evidence of miracles.
It was on this foundation that the Jewifh and Chris
tian churches were built ; for their refpective founders
well knew, that amidft the many frauds and impoftors to
which men were expofed, unlefs they had attefted their
commiffions by doing works ¦which no man could do
but by the finger of God, they could never have had a
greater

( 12 )
greater claim on the faith of the world, than the vafl
numbers of thofe who by fraud and fiction have deluded
mankind. If fix men were to ftand before you, and
declare by the moft folemn affevera tions, that they have
been in heaven, and favoured with fpecial revelations
from God, and yet thefe revelations, like Montanus's,
St. Francis's, 'Peter the Hermit's, Mahomet's, Mrs.
Leefe's, and Mr. Swedenborg's, &c. &c. were all con
tradicting each other, pray how would you act in fuch
a fituation ? Would you believe the moft learned man?
then you muft believe Simon Mugus, and reject St.
Peter, for I verily believe that Simon the forcerer was
by far a better fcholar than the apoftle, for the one fpent
his time in reading magic books, and the other the
greateft part of his life in mending nets, baiting hooks^
and catching fifh. Would you believe the moft holy
man ? that might be a point not eafily afcertained, a
point, I am afraid, which none can decide, but he who
fearcheth the heart, and feeth not as man feeth. But if
by that phrafe you mean the perfon in whom you fhould
difcern the greateft fymptoms of zeal, felf-denial, poverty,
humility,andall for the fake ofthe gofpel,i.e.to perfuade
people to believe and follow him, then I fhould believe
'Peter the Hermit, fooner than any mere human being I
ever read of ; for in the eleventh century, fired with a
holy indignation and furious zeal, which he confidered
as the effects of a divine impulfe, he went through all
the countries of Europe, preaching ; his diet was abfte-
mious, his prayers long and fervent, and the alms which
he received with one hand, he diftributed with the
other, his head was bare, his feet naked, his meagre
body was wrapt in a coarfe garment, he carried a weighty
crucifix before him, he preached to innumerable crowds
in churches, the ftreets, and the highways, his sighs, and
tears, and ejaculations, moved every heart who heardhim,
and Peter fupplied the deficiency of reafon by loud and
frequent appeals to Chrift and his mother, to the faints
ana the angels in paradife, with whom he pretended to
have perfonally converted ; and he carried about a letter
with/him, which he affirmed was written in heaven, and
addreffed to all true Chriftians, to animate their zeal to
enlift in the firft crufade againft the Turks in Paleftine*.
This is the man whom I would fooneft credit, if ex
terior fanctity, felf-denial, and holy zeal, were to be con
fidered as the criterion for judging of heavenly guefts
cr infpired teachers ; but the mifery of this miffion and
letter
* See Mosheim, or Gregory's Church History, the eleventh century.

( 13 )
letter of Peter's, was, that it terminated in the total
ruin of thofe who were foolifh enough to be the dupes
of his enthufiafm, for the moft of thofe who went
againft the Turks were cut to pieces by thofe warlike
barbarians. But perhaps you would believe the perfon
with whofe writings or pretences you were beft ac
quainted, and this I fuppofe is the reafon why many
modern prophets and apoftles are credited by their ad
mirers ; but if this proves any thing at all, it proves
too much, for it proves that every enthufiaftic preacher
or writer, is right, providing he can get but one hearer
or reader to believe him, however contradictory his.
tenets may be to reafon or common fenfe. Suppofing,
for inftance, a perfon to have read Mr. Swedenborg's
memorable relations, he thinks within himfelf this man
appears a learned, pious, and wonderful perfon, he cer
tainly would not have forged thefe vifions, confequently
I ought to believe them ; but I would afk this reader,
is Mr. Swedenborg the only pretender to memorable
relations ? if you fay yes, then you betray your want of
knowledge in the hiftory of the Chriftian church, and
of the various methods which ambition and fanaticifrh
have ufed to impofe on the credulity of mankind.
If you allow that he is not the only one that lays
claim to infpiration, and a fpecial commiffion from God,
then how comes he to be entitled to the pre-eminence?
or were the pretenfions of all the reft equally as good
as his, if that be the cafe, how is it that their ten'ets
and revelations fo flatly contradict each other? why
does the doctrines of his cotemporary and noble col
league Count Zindendorff fo much differ from the
Baron's about faith and charity ? would God have given
a fpecial commiffion to each of thefe gentlemen, fo very
oppofite to each other ? what would we think of a hu
man prince, who would difpatch two ambaffadors to a
foreign court, on the fame expedition, and when they
produced their credentials they fhould be found directly
contrary to each other, while at the fame time each of them
folemnly declared that his commiffion was written and
figned by his royal matter's own hand? is God, think you,
a God of disorder and confufion ? would he infpire one
man * to declare to the world, that they are all a troop of
legalifts, and enemies to the gofpel, who in whole or in
part feek to join the works of the law, and the faith of
Chrift together ; arid another + to. declare, that the old
church is now wholly rejected of God, becaufe its mem
bers and creeds have for this long time been afferting jus
tification
* Zindendorff. f Swedenborg.

( i4 )
tification by faith alone ? Or do you believe the Baron
because you think he is right, and all the pretenfions of
the reft are falfe? but how do you prove that? is he learned?
fo are many of them ; is he noble? fo was Count Zinden
dorff; is he a voluminous writer ? fo is the noble Count
alfo ; is it becaufe he has many followers ? fo has Count
Zindendorff and Jacob Behmen ; or is it becaufe you
think him the moft confiftent, clear, and perfpicuous
writer that ever you read ? then I pledge myfelf to
demon ftrate, in its proper place, that he is one of the moft
unintelligible and contradictory authors that ever laid
the fruits of a diftempered imagination before the pub-
lick. But I am of opinion, that of' nine-tenths of
thofe who believe the Baron's works, had they lived in
the age or neighbourhood where any of thofe fana
tics have exhibited, already mentioned, arid not
known the Baron, they would have as ftrenuoufly con
tended for their vifions and revelations, as they do for
his at this day. Had they been acquainted with Mrs.
Leefe *, it is highly probable they had been Shakers ;
had they read Madam Bourignon's Light in Darknefs,
they would have cried out, " Madam, we will follow
you whitherfoever you go;" had they perufed Jacob Beh-
men's Arora, they would have turned Behmenites ; and
it is more than probable, that even yet, were they to
frequent the meetings, and perufe the books belonging
to the Moravian brethren, they would foon maintain
that God raifed up Count Zindendorff, and honoured
him as the inftrument for fixing a new period in his
¦ church, as the Count calls the commencement of his
theological labours.
Indeed it would be endlefs to trace all the meandrings
and evafions of thofe who have every reafon to affign
but the right one, for believing the pretended reve
lations and heavenly communications of every enthufiaft
or impoftor, whofe writings or followers chance may
fling in their way.
To come from God with a meffage to the world, is a
very ferious and important errand ; and while I believe
it poffible for man to deceive himfelf as well as others in
abufinefsof fuch magnitude, I would believe no one's
verbal
* On obtaining a more intimate acquaintance with the Baron's
followers, I can easily account for the attachment of many of them to
his writings ; they have had from their infancy a predilection to the
.marvellous and surprising, and are but old turncoats from those en
thusiasts, Bourignon, Leese, and Behmen, and' perhaps for no other
reason, but because the Baron's system has more novelty, and more
unintelligibleness in it than either of his mystical predecessors, and
consequently his admirers conclude he is more for their edification.

( is )
verbal affertion, without the concurring teftimony of fuch
miracles as God has always granted to thofe whofe rev
elations and doctrine he defigned as the heralds of his will
and pleafure to mankind.
Let us attend for a while to the manner in which
God invefted his prophets and fervants with thofe com-
millions which he authorized them to execute in his
name. To fatisfy Mofes that God's appearing to him was no
delufion of his mind, and alfo to render his perfon and
meffage refpected, he required and obtained of the
Lord a fign, that is, a miracle, as a teftimony of his be
ing divinely appointed to his office, accordingly his
rodj on his throwing it to the ground, was inftantly
changed into a ferpent ; this convinced himfelf, and he
was ordered to fhew the fame fign to his countrymen,
and to Pharaoh, for their conviction likewife *. When
Gideon was charged with a fpecial commiffion froift
God, although he had feen the angel of the Lord bring
fire out of a rock by the end of his ftaff, yet he ftill
required a fign more fatisfactory to convince him that it
was the Spint of God, and not a fpirit of delufion, that
urged him to an expedition againft Midian +. Accord^
ingly, on his requeft at one time, a fleece of wool was
bedewed in the morning, while all the earth was dry
around it, and next morning, as a further confirmation,
the fleece was dry only, and there was dew on all the
ground. When God raifed up the prophet Elijah (juft as the
Baron fays he has been ¦ raifed up, in the evening of the
old or Chriftian church) at that time divine knowledge
was almoft entirely extinguifhed in Paleftine, juft as
the knowledge of Chrift, to ufe the Baron's fpirit-
tial complaint, is now loft in Europe. But how did
Elijah perfuade them that he was a teacher fent from
God to reform them ; not by telling long ftories
about Predeftinarian churches in hell, and kings of
•kings, and emperors of emperors, lodging there in
palaces of palaces ; nor of troops of wicked fpirits
leaving the hells in fcouting parties to plunder the
heavens J. No ; this might do very well for popifh le.
gends, Mahomet's delufions, Ovid's metamorphofis, the
Arabian nights entertainments, or Mr. Swedenborg's
memorable relations. But Elijah convinced the Jews
by appeals to vifible and exifting facts, by fhutting the
heavens for three years arid fix months from raining, by
railing
* Exod. iv. i. &c. + Judgesvi. 37, &c.
^Such are the discoveries ofthe Baron in some of his celestial and
internal excursions. See Universal Theology, No. 1 8 5, &c.

( 16 )
railing the dead to life, by bringing fire from heaven
on his facrifices and his enemies, in the prefence of
thoufands. Thefe were 'divine works, confirming and
accompanying a divine teftimony, and will be believed
in the church of God, when time fhall have configned
to oblivion and contempt all the, impoftors and enthu-
fiafts in the world.
Now has the Baron produced any documents like
thefe in confirmation of his vifions and infpirations ?
No fuch things ! Has he ever, like Mofes, turned
his ftaff into a ferpent, water into blood, or noon
day into midnight darkness ? When he lived with
the old woman, his gardener's wife *, as Elijah did
with the widow of Sarepta, did he ever make an
handful of meal, and a crufe of oil, ferve him and
his houfekeeper for a feries of- years? or when he
was at laft finally taken to the fpiritual world, has he
dropt his mantle on fome Elifha, who continues by vir
tue of his cloak, and a double portion of his fpirit, to
do the fame mighty works among us, which none could
do, except God was with him? Even Jefus Chrift
himfelf did not expect to be believed upon his mere
word, when he declared that he came from God. In
confirmation of his doctrine, he raifed the dead, gave
fight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and expelled the
moft malignant and chronical diftempers by a word of
his mouth. Nor were his apoftles lefs careful to con
firm their miffion, by doing the works, as well as fpeak -
ing the words of God. Did not Peter and John cure
a man lame from his birth, only by commanding
him in the name of Jefus to arife and walk t ? and
did not Paul in confirmation of his being chofen of
God, ftrike Elymas the forcerer blind, for fpeaking
again 11 his gofpel + ? But why need I multiply particu
lars, were not all the apoftles enabled to fpeak in the
provincial language of every country wherever they
had occafion to preach the gofpel, as a proof of their be
ing fent of Goa, and inverted with fufficient authority
to fpeak in his name.
Are there any figns of apoftlefhip like thefe to be
feen in Baron Swedenborg ? wherein are his preten
fions to infpiration a whit better than any of thofe im
poftors whom every fober perfon confiders as the de
ceivers of mankind ? ^ndeed the Baron feems to be a-
ware of this objection to his pretenfions, and in one of
his
* See anecdotes annexed to Mr. Sandal's eulogium on the Baron.
+ Acts iii. ». J Acts xrii. 8, 9, to,

( 17 )
his fpiritual dialogues, it was retorted upon him (fee
Univerfal Theology, No. 849). " Do miracles, and we
will believe ;" but he made the fame reply to this an-
tagonift in the fpiritual world, that he made to- one- in
the natural world- (fee Eulogium on Mr. Swedenborg,
by Sandal, p. 42) " that at this day no figns nor mira
cles will be given, becaufe they operate only on an out
ward dead belief, and do not avail fo as to convince the
inward ftate of the mind ; agreeable to the ftate of free
will given by our Lord, as the proper means of his re
generation, and that miracles only operate on the exte
rior faith, or belief," fays he, " may be feen from the
little effect they had on the people of Egypt, and the
children of Ifrael in the defart, and the miracles of our
Saviour." Alas ! mafter, this excufe is borrowed. For
the Baron's predeceffor and fellow -labourer in the vine
yard of vifions, Mahomet, made the fame evafions
when preffed to adduce this evidence in proof of his
miffion. " As your forefathers," fays that impoftor,
" contemned the miracles of Mofes and the prophets,
God will work no more among them." But a little
, after this we find , him altering his tone. For having
got a fword in his hand, and an army at his back, his
doctrine then was, that God had fent Mofes and Jefus
with miracles, and yet men would not be obedient to
their word, and therefore he had now fent him in the
laft place without miracles, to force them by the power
of the fword to do his will (fee Dr. Perdeaux's Life of
Mahomet, p. 30, 31, 32). But to drop this parallel be
tween the prophet of Mecca, and our new apoftle, let
us examine the validity of his own excuses as they lie
- before us : 'f Miracles operate only on an outward dead
belief." If miracles in themfelves are fo perfectly ufe1-
lefs, why did God impower Mofes and Chrift to work
them? was it only to see what effects-they would produce
on thofe who faw them ? and feeing that they did not
anfwer the ends expected by them, has the Almighty
by experience become wifer, and come to a refolution
to lay them afide ? does not fuch reafoning as this im
port an imperfection in him who is perfect in know
ledge, and to whom all his works are known from the
foundation of the world ? They argue very much be-
fide the queftion who alledge, that the miracles of Mofes
and Jefus Chrift had but little effect in the world ; they
certainly to every fair and impartial inquirer afforded
the means of folid conviction, that thofe whom God
honoured with the power of doing works which no
mortal man can do, muftbear a divine comrniffion from
D • Go,«,

( i8 )
God, in what they faid, as well as in what they did im
his name, and thus upon rational evidence and ocular
dembnftratioii, the faith of the frrft Jews and primi
tive Chriltians, was eftablifhed both in Mofes and in
Chrift ; yea further, fuch miracles perfectly filenced
and rendered quite inexcufable fuch perfons, as through
prejudice or finful paffions refufed to examine, and
confequently to believe the truth of their millions, by
their miracles ; and to this clafs of perfons our Saviour
alludes, when he fays, (John xv. 24.) " If I had not
done among them the works which none other man
did, they had not had fin, but now they have no cloke
for their fin."
So that the miracles of Mofes and the prophets,
Chrift and his apoftles, as theyconvince us that their mis-
fion was from God, fo they remain as an everlafting ca
veat and warning to guard us againit believing the pre
tenfions of any one, who, while he pretends to have a
fpecial commiffion from God, ,in divine words, is not
able to verify it by divine works.
But this objection of the Baron's may be confidered in
another light. When he fays, "miracles operate only oh.
an outward dead faith," does he mean that all thofe who
believed, and ftill continue to believe, the reality of
thefe miracles, have only but an outward and dead
faith ? Few, I hope, are fo grofsly miftaken as to think
that merely to believe Chrift as a teacher fent from
God, from the evidence of thofe miracles which he
wrought, is fufficient to make us real Chriftians ; but
certainly it is the firft preliminary ftep towards doing
whatfoever things he commands us, when we are per-
fuaded in our own mind that he has a juft right to com
mand us. My believing that the king is my lawful
fovereign, does not conftitute me a loyal fubject, but
certainly it muft precede my giving dutiful allegiance
to his authority. So that the Barori confounds diftinct
ideas, or rather expreffes no idea at all, when he fays
"miracles operate only oh an outward and dead faith."
True, had Chrift done nothing among us but wrought
miracles, our faith in thofe miracles would only been
an outward or dead faith, or to fpeak a little more ex
plicitly, we would have onlybelievedthat about eighteen
centuries ago there was a wonderful man in the world,
who fhowed us a great many mighty works which
God could do, but never told us what we fhould do
ourfelves. Herein the evidences of Chriftianity and
Swedenborganifm effentially differ; the Author of
Chriftianity, and his fyftem, was foretold at fundry time

( 19 )
times, and in divers manners, by the Old Teftament
patriarchs and prophets, long before he appeared to
eftablifh his doctrines among men ; and when he did
appear, far from commanding implicit obedience to his
verbal pretences, he appealed to the ancient prophe
cies, and compared them with the great and notable
miracles which he wrought, and then requefted men of
underftanding and impartiality to draw the inference.
But the author of Swedenborganifm rufhes at once
upon us, like a thief in the night, and without any pre
vious warning of the coming of fuch a wonderfulperfon- ,
age, attempts to fcare us as it were into a belief of his
fcriptures, by threatening us with expulfion from heaven,
till we acknowledge them to be canonical, and without
one fi.ngle evidence but his mere ipfe dixit, would have
us, in defiance of our fenfes, in oppofition to the order
uniformly obferved by God in the Old and New Tefta
ment, to believe that all riis doctrines (or, as he fre-r
quently calls it, his arcana) was written in heaven, as
well as by himfelf *.
But if miracles only operate on a dead faith, have all
thofe a living faith who believe the Baron's vifions,
without the evidence of miracles to confirm them ?
Their faith I make no doubt may be internal and lively
enough in crediting all that he has written, but I am
much afraid that the faith of many.of them, like the faith
of fome of us in the old church, is not altogether of
the operation of God. ,
But he fays, " miracles carry compulfion with them,
and take away a man's free-will in fpiritual matters."
I do not know how free-will can be applied to the be
lieving the truth of any propofition. I always thought
that the underftanding directed the will in thefe cafes,
and not the will the underftanding, and that the under
ftanding was direfted accordjngto the perception of thofe
evidences by which a propofition is demonftrated: for in-
' fiance, can my will refiftbelieving that grafs is green, when
my fenfe of feeing tells me it is fo ? or can my free-will
refiftbelieving that fire is hot, when my fenfe of feeling
affures me of it? A man can no more will as he pleafes,
in receiving or rejecting the truth of a propofition, than
he can look as he pleafes, . or be as high as he pleafes ;
for if by the will, the Baron means, the affent of the
mind, that cannot be refufed, where there appears fuf-
ficient evidence to convince it, whatever improper mo
tives
*JSee Universal Theology, No. 848. Weshall favour this number
with a second glance by and by.

( 20 )
lives may attempt to feduce the affections from truth,
where the underftanding leads, the will muft in fome
meafure follow. For example, my free-will is at perfect
liberty to believe all the Baron's memorable relations, pro
viding my judgment was fatisfied with the evidence by
which they are fupported." My will, if I am fincerely
feeking after truth, has nothing to do in the matter, but
my judgment and my underftanding^ But as my judg
ment and my underftanding, after examining the Baron's
vifions with a confiderable degree of attention, does not
approve of them for want of miracles, as well as for want
of other internal evidences, I hope my free-will is as
much in the exercise of all its functions at this moment
for rejecting, as any of the Baron's followers are, who
receive every word that he has written. Yea I believe
that the free-will of the Jews, after they faw Mofes' mira
cles, and the apoftles, after they faw and believed Chrift's,
were juft as unfhackled, and poffeffed the fame facul
ties, as before ; and that the natural powers of the hu
man mind are juft the very fame in the old church, as in
the new, the fame this day, as they were in the days of
Mofes or of Chrift.
Upon the whole it appears to me that Mr. Swedenborg
Was no more commiffioned by God to deliver thefe vi
fions of his to the world, than he was commiffioned by
the Grand Turk to deliver letters of credentials as his
ambaffador to the king of England, in whofe metropolis
he died." Indeed it would be paying the Baron top
great a compliment, or any man, cr any angel, to believe
their unfupported teftimony, as being meffengers from
God to men, about the great and important concerns of
eternity, without bringing the fame documents and cre
dentials with them that Mofes and the prophets, Chrift
and his apoftles produced, and which I firmly believe
God would have given to the Baron, if ever he had em
ployed him on fuch an embaffy, and which I as firmly
believe the Baron would have gladly exercifcd, if he
had poffeffed the power to exhibit them.

SECT.

SECT. II.

Containing Remarks on the Baron's Cabaliftick *
mode of expounding the Scriptures.

WHEN we fit down and ferioufly confider the fig*
ures, idioms, and ftyle .of Scripture-language,
we fhall find that the fources from which moft of the
ftreams of error have flowed into Chriftianity, have a-
rifen from too great an attachment to the literal fenfe
of fcripture on the one hand, and too much fond
ness for the metaphorical and figurative on the other.
To the firft of thefe extremes we are indebted for a great
part of thofe errors which popery and prieftcraft have
mtroduped into the church, and unto the fecond we
owe that deluge of nonfenfe which fanciful and en-
thufiaftic perfons have made the fcriptures to fpeak ;
fo that the fignifications which this clafs of expofitors
have put on the Word of God, have been as contrary
to each other, as they have been to common fenfe and
found criticifm. -What but a too rigid adherence to
the letter of -fcripture has made fome men think that
bread was flefh, and that tranfubftantiation was true,
becaufe Chrift once faid of a bit of bread, this is my
body, though they might have as well believed that a
candleftick was a church,_becaufe Chrift once faid —
",the feven candle fticks -are feven churches." L'Enfant
tells us that pope John, in his bull againft the Wick-
liffites, juftined the burning of heretics in this form.
" We ordain that they be publickly burned in execu
tion of the fentence of our Saviour (John xv, 6) " if a
man abide not in me, he is caft forth as a branch, and is
withered ^
* Cabala is the name of a mysterious kind of science among the
Jews, feigned^to have been delivered by revelation to their forefathers,
and transmitted by oral tradition to the present times, and serving for
the interpretation of the books both of nature and scripture. The
Jewish cabalists and modern mystics, such as Bheman, Bourignon,
and the Baron, seem to be nearly akin to each other.

{ " )
withered, and men gather them and caft them into the
fire, and they are burned *." And Befnage informs us,
that altars made of Hone in the fixth century were
erected in the churches, and this reafon was affigned
for it, becaufe Jefus Chrift himfelf is called the corner-
Jlone and foundation of the churches +. , And the
Jumpers in Ireland and Wales juftified their leaping
and fhouting in the time of divine fervice, from a verfe
in the Pfalms, " rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous ;"
and from a paffage in one of the prophets, where, in
the figurative language of prophecy, " the trees of the
foreft are reprefented as clapping their hands. J" And
our Saviour once faying that fome men made them
felves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's fake, in
duced the pious, but miftaken Origen, to emafcula,te
himfelf. .
It muft not, however, be concealed, that the oppo-
fite extreme has produced confequences no lefs danger-
pus and abfurd. Some by indulging their fancies, have
feen a whole fyftem of divinity in one fhort fentence ;
others have feen the deepeft myftery in the plaineft
hiftorical fact ; fome have thought that a fimple moral
precept contained a dark and hidden enigma, never
underftood, till they difcovered it. Some have fancied
that they faw original fin in the man that fell among the
thieves, that they faw the ceremonial law in the Le-
vite that paffed by ; the moral law in the prieft, and
Chrift in the Samaritan. They have found conviction
in the oil, and converfion in the wine, which that be
nevolent man poured into his wounds, and they have
been ingenious enough to find imputed righteoufnefs in
the Samaritan's placing the wounded man on his own
beaft. 'They have difcovered the church in the inn,
the two facraments,in the two-pence, the minifters of.
the gofpel in the landlord, and Chrift's fecond coming
at the laft day in the Samaritan's returning to the inn,
and the reward which faithful minifters fhall receive
from Chrift ih the hoft being paid what additional ex
pences he might be at on account of his wounded
gueft. Thus has the moft beautiful moral for incul
cating univerfal benevolence among men, the moft ef
fectual antidote againft bigotry and narrow-hearted pre
judices, and the moft affecting inftance of a good man
confidering every creature in diftrefs as having a claim on
* His. Con. Pisa. + Besnage, y. 2. p. 47.
J Hanipson> Life of Wesley.

( 23 )
on his compaffion, been explained away, and entirely
Overlooked by a puerility of fancy, and foolifh attach
ment to favourite ideas and particular phrafes, which
fome think could never be maintained, if we did
not.fqueeze them out of every hiftorical fact,' paraboli
cal inftruction, or figurative expreffion in the Bible.
Some * have feen " the power of faith in Mofes' rod,
while it was in his hand, and the fame divine power
immerfed in the things of this world, flefh and fenfe,
when the rod become a ferpent, and by the ferpent's
becoming a rod again, they have feen the elevation of
the sensual principle through the power of the divine."
What folemn trifling is this ! Juft as if a man could
not fall into immoralities, and by the grace of God and
his own reflections, recover himfelf therefrom, without
bringing a miracle which God wrought merely to con
vince Mofes that he was divinely appointed to deliver
Ifrael, without bringing this miracle to inform the
backflider of his ruin and recovery.
It would make one fmile to fee how many myfteries
and different fenfes fome eagle-eyed divines find in the
parable of the woman's leavening the three meafures of
meal.
* See Sermons of a gentleman well known for his zealous attach
ment to the Swedenborgian system, p. 42. $5" Although I may
have occasion again to allude to what I deem a perversion of the Word
of God in this gentleman's discourses ; yet far be it from my mind to
blend the integrity of his heart, with the puerile and fanciful ideas
of his head : From the best information 1 can -obtain, his piety to
God, and benevolence to man, would do honour to a better cause
than translating and publishing such antichristian tenets and fabulous
stories, as Baron Swedenborg has spun out of his distempered brain.
Sincerity and virtue shall always be revered by me, whatever super
stitious or enthusiastic incumbrances they may be clogged with.
Is it not astonishing to think that any man pretending to illustrate
the Word of God, should so violently drag this passage from its obvi
ous design, to speak a language never intended by the Almighty to be
conveyed by it. Can the convictions of any man's understanding, not
merely guided by caprice and whim, dictate to him any other reason
for God's turning Moses' rod into a serpent, than to convince him
and Pharoah that he had a divine commission to that prince ? By
what canon in criticism can this gentleman say that God designed this
passage to teach his church the power of faith at one time exeiting it
self, and at another immersed in things of this world. Was he afraid,
that if this cabalistick discovery had not been pointed out, we should
have known nothing about the power of faith, or its being overcome
by flesh and sense ? But when we want to know the power of faith,
we can turn to the 11th of the Hebrews instead of Moses' rod, and
when we want to see its temporary obstructions, when immersed iii
flesh and sense, we can look at David on his house top, or St. Peter
in the high priest's hall, without torturing our imaginations, and the
Word of God, to find out enigmas and mysteries in the plainest pas
sages of sacred history.

( H )
meal. Somet of them have found the three constituent
parts of man, will, underftanding, and action ; others;
have feen faith, hope, and charity ; fome the fpiritual
world, angelic world, and natural world ; fome have
found in this good woman's three meafures of meal, the
three periods, of the world, before the law, under the
law, and under the gofpel ; and thus by hunting after
myfteries, where not the fhadow of one is to be found,
the plain moral and defign of the parable is kept out of
fight, and inftead of pointing out the wonderful power
and providence of God, who from the weakeft origin,
and by the moft fimple means, eftablifhed and inftantly
fpread the gofpel of Chrift, the fpeedy propagation pf
which is fitly compared to the fwelling of leavened
dough ; inftead of leading our thoughts to this pleafing
and ufeful reflection, our fancies are amufed by fhow-
ing us how many triple myfteries may be found in the
three meafures of meal, which has as little to do with the
defign of the parable, as how many changes may be
rung on three bells. The end of the parable would
have been equally anfwered, whether our Saviour had
mentioned three measures, thirteen, or thirty-three. So
that attempting to make us believe that three meafures
of meal fignify the will, underftanding, and action of
man, is as fanciful and ridiculous, as to fay that they
meant the ploughing, fowing, and reaping of the field
where they grew.
Thefe and an hundred fuch-like whims have the
fcriptures been forced to countenance by the internal,
fpiritual, angelical, and celeftial expofitions of fome of
their readers, who have never confidered what was the
proper key for opening up and expounding aright the
Word of God.
The Bible is a mifcellaneous book, written at differ
ent times, by different perfons, in different countries,
on different occafions, and in different languages. A
book, not of philofophy and metaphyfics, but of religion
and morality ; a book, containing a body of laws or
precepts, for the regulation of men's conduct in matters
of religion ; a book, like all other ancient and oriental
writings, abounding with types, parables, metaphors,
allegories, allufions, inferences, and figures, ^vhichneed
only to be well compared one with another, and than to
be explained in the same manner that we would explain
any other antient Greek or Roman author. For can it
be fuppofed when God Almighty commanded his will
to be written for the ufe of man, he intended it npt to
he
+ The same discourses^ p. lfio.

( H )
be underftood, or its real meaning to be concealed for
thousands of years after it was written. Or that when
he mp^65 ufe of human language to inftfuct babes and
fucklings (that is, the ignorant and unlearned) he fhould
choofe to fpeak in riddles, enigmas, and myfteries, without
any literal or grammatical criterion by which his words
may be underftood. It is faid that the priefts of Del-
phos, uttering for the moft part their oracles in mean
and doggerel poetry, gave rife to a faying among the
ancients, that Homer could write better verfes than
Apollo who infpired him ; and furely fuch Chriftians,
who darken and perplex the plaineft moral precept in
the Bible, by loading it with myftery and allegory, give
even in our day reafon to fuggeft, that, according to
their fcheme, a code of laws, written by the attorney-
general, for the regulation of our conduct, would be far
more clear and intelligible, than thofe which the Bible
contains *. Whatever words in the fcriptures are not
to be underftood literally, they are either fuch as are
fpoken in a prophetic or poetic manner, or fuch as
would involve a contradiction of other parts more ex
plicit ; or they allude to fome eaftern or local cuftom at
that time, and in those countries perfectly well known.
When our bleffed Saviour taught the Jews to put
their truft in God, he pointed to the fowls in heaven, n
and without fcanning tne myfteries contained in a bird,
plainly told them, that if the common parent provided
for the fupport of thofe creatures, who neither fowed
nor gathered into barns, every good chriftian might be
affured that the Divine Providence would fo blefs his
honeft endeavours, that he fhould have food to eat, and
raiment to put on. But how contemptible would the
fcriptures appear, if inftead of this fimple, but beautiful
manner of conveying inftruction, a teacher fhould
launch out into the myfteries contained in a bird ; that
its flying upward fignified " the elevation of the fen-
fual principle through the power of the divine," its
flying downward, "the divine power immerfed and
buried in things merely fenfual," its flying horizontal
ly, " the medial fenfe between the fpiritual and the
natural man," its flying to the fouthward fignifies " evils,
and confequent falfes," and its flying northward fig
nifies falfes, and confequent evils," its flying eaftward
fignifies " the effence of faith, which is charity," and
it flying weftward fignifies " the form of charity, which
is faith."
E . How
* Gordon.

( 26 )
How ridiculous does fuch nonfenfe as this appear to
any fober-minded perfon ; is not the preacher or writer
of fuch reveries fitter for a Bedlam than a pulpit, who
could either betray his own ignorance, or fport with
that of his hearers in fuch a manner?
• Similar to thefe fpecimens of myftical theology, are
the Baron's expofition of the Bible; for he lays it
down as an univerfal. maxim, " that the literal fenfe of
the Word is only the bafis, the continent, and the fir
mament of the fpiritual and celeftial fenfes : fee.Uni-
verfal Theology, No, 210.
As Mr. Swedenborg is a very voluminous writer, and
often repeats one fentence, yea feveral pages over and
over, my readers are not to expect me to give long ex
tracts from his writings, and as he has no criterion;
after leaving the literal fenfe of the fcriptures, to try
his expofitions by, but merely his own' poftulatums, I
fhall content myfelf with giving the reader a fort of '
analyfis of his expofitions, and leave him from thefe to
form an idea of the Baron's merits as a commentator,
when compared to a Patrick, a Poole, a Henry, or a
Whitby. A fpecimen of his expofition of the decalogue, with
fome other favpurite terms almoft perpetually intro
duced, to explain every paffage in fcripture, fhall fuf,
fice to give the reader an idea of the Baron's mode of
expounding Holy Writ. We fhall begin with the
fourth commandment, which is " remember the fabbath
day to keep it holy, fix days fhalt thou labour," &c.
By the fourth command, fays the Baron (Univerfal
Theology, No. 301) in the natural fenfe, which is that
of the letter, is meant that fix days are for man and his
labour, and that the feventh is for the Lord. In a
fpiritual fenfe is fignified the reformation and regenera
tion of man by the Lord. By fix days of labour his
warfare againft the flefh and its concupifcencies, and at
the fame time the evils and falfes which are fuggefted
to him from hell, and by the feventh his conjunction
¦ with the Lord, and regeneration thereby. In a celeftial
fenfe it fignifies conjunction with the Lord, and its at
tendant, peace, which confifteth in fecurity againft the
hells, and the prevention of affaults from the evils and
falfes thence arifing.
Fifth command (Univerfal Theology, No. 305). By
honouring the father and mother, in a natural fenfe, is
meant that children fhould honour their parents, and
obey them, &c. &c. In a fpiritual fenfe it means to
revere and love God and the church ; in this fenfe by
father

(. »* )
Father is meant God, who is the father of all, and by
mother the church. In a celeftial fenfe by father is
meant our Lord Jefus Chrift, and by mother the com
munion of faints, whereby is. underftood his church'
throughout the whole world.
Sixth command (Doctrine of Life, New Jerufalem,
No. gi). Natural murder is taking away life. Spiritual
murder all the methods of killing and deftroying the
fouls of men. By celeftial murder (or, as he here calls
*it, fupreme murder) is meant to hate the Lord. Thefe
three kinds of murder make one, and cohere together.
Seventh command (Doctrine of Life, New Jerufa
lem, Nos. 100, 101 ), Natural adultery means whore
dom, &c. Spiritual adultery means to adulterate the
good things of the Word, and to falfify its truth. Su
preme adultery means to deny the Lord's divinity, arid
to prophane the Word. The natural man knoweth
what natural adultery means, but he knoweth not that
by committing adultery is meant to adulterate the good
things of the Word, and to deny the Lord's divinity :
Yet " whoever is principled in natural adultery, is aifo
in fpiritual adultery, and vice verfa *."
Eighth command, theft. " Natural theft means to
fteal, &c. Spiritual theft means to deprive another of
the truths of his, faith, and the good things of his cha
rity. Supreme theft means taking away from the Lord
what is his, while man attributes to himfelf what be-
. longs to the Lord +; There are thefts of every kind, and
* If ail natural adulterers be celestial adulterers, and vice versa,
that is, all celestial adulterers be natural adulterers, then the con
sequence is, that every one who denies the Lord's divinity, is not only
& celestial, but a natural adulterer. Since they cannot be celestial,
without being natural adulterers» The obvious inference which we
draw frbm such a memorable relation is this : that the reason why a
certain ingenious Doctor, who has lately sent a few admonitory let
ters to the Baron's followers ; the reason why he denies our Lord's
divinity must certainly be, that being guilty of celestial a  ~~y»
he is guilty of natural a  — y also. What a pity that the two
gentlemen, who answered his letters, did not give him this hint, for
they certainly must believe it. Unfriendly as I am to the celestial
a  :  y of Dr. P. I should be very sorry to charge him with a
literal breach of the seventh commandment.
+ So ! every one that appropriates the merits or righteousness of
Christ to himself, or denies his>divine humanity, is a literal thief, see
ing these three make one. This I take to be a fling at the members
of our church, for using the phrases, " Christ's righteousness," or
"the imputed righteousness of Christ," and considering this as the
ground of our acceptance with God ; but as these terms are particu
larly obnoxious to the Baron, he endeavours to place them in a ridi
culous light, by introducing conferences and disputations between their

( »* )
and the reafon why they make one is, because the one
is in the other.
The tree of life fignifies love. The tree of know
ledge, faith. Ten fignifies remains. Twelve fignifies
faith. The length of Noah's ark fignifies holiness;
breadth, truth ; its height, good. The flood, tempta
tion. Hufband and wife, evils and falfes. Every fowl
after its kind, all fpiritual truths. By birds, natural
truths. Jehovah fignifies divine good. God fignifies
divine truth. Money fignifies knowledge of truth in
great abundance. Virgins, affections and truths. Women,
conjunction of goodness and truth. Elifha fignifies the
Lord, as to the Word. Bald, the Word in its ultimate,
i..e. literal fenfe. Bears, the literal fenfe feparated
from the internal fenfe. — Such a phrafe fignifies evils,
and confequent falfes. The next falfes, and consequent
evils. Chrift's coming in the clouds fignifies the literal
fenfe of the Word, and in great glory the fpiritual fenfe
of the Word. This fignifies the goods of charity, and
that the truth of faith. This fignifies divine truth, that
divine truth. Goods of charity, and truths of faith.
Faith feparate from charity. The Lord in man, Man
in the Lord *, &c. &c. &c.
With fuch phrafes as thefe does the Baron expound
fcripture, whether it be history, parable, proper
nameSj literal or metaphorical, all are jumbled together

their advocates, and either himself or angelic spirits, and putting
insufficient or ridiculous arguments into the mouth of their advo
cates, and then triumphantly confuting such arguments, as the best
which can be used for them. This is a knack which the Baron fre
quently uses,, by dressing up the sentiments of others in a caricature
of his own making.
* Whimsical as such jargon as this may appear, the Baron is far
from being the inventor of such mystical cant. One of his allegorical'
ancestors, Pope Innocent, made use of the same gibberish to wheedle
King John out of the power of electing the archbishop of Canterbury.
He sent John four gold rings set in precious stones, and commanded
his majesty to consider the many mysteries they implied. He bade
him seriously consider the form of the rings, their number, their mat-
ttr, and their colour. The form, he said, being round, signified eter
nity, which has neither beginning nor end. The number four being
square, denoted steadiness of mind, and the four cardinal virtues..
Gold, which was the matter, being the most precious of metals, sig
nified wisdom, which was the most valuable of all accomplishments.
The blue colour of the sapphire signified faith; the verdure of the em
erald, hope; the redness of the ruby, charity; and the splendor of the
topaz, good works. By such mystical mummery as this did Innocent
repay John for one of the most important prerogatives of his crown,
to strengthen the pope's influence, both against the king and his sub
jects. There seems-to be no small correspondence between the pope's
rings, and the Baron's arcana. Hume.

( *9 )
in one irndiftinguifhed mafs ; fo that when you have
read thefe terms once, you may expect to read the moft
of them five thoufand times over in the .Baron's works.
_ By fuch an arbitrary and unauthorifed way of turning
hiftorical facts, incidental occurrences, and the lives and
conduct of men, into myftery and allegory, there is no
way left for diftinguifhing between what is literal, and
what is only emblematical ; no way left to guard against
the intrufions of the illiterate enthufiaft, or defigning
impoftor; no criterion left by which truth can be tried;
yea, by fuch a fanciful and enthufiaftic manner of ex
pounding the fcriptures as this, the will of God may be
as foon found in the hiftory of Alexander the Great, as
in the hiftory of the Old and New Teftament.
Suppofing, for inftance, fome bold enthufiaft fhould
ftart up, and tell the world, that ever fince anno mundi
3648, man has been in a delufion and error about the
true light from heaven, that in the 106th olympiad
real goods and truths were born into the world, under
the name of Alexander the Great ; that this grand man
had a certain arcana comprifed in his name, the literal
fenfe of which was never known till the days of Dean
Swift, and the fpiritual fenfe of its various parts never
known till revealed by this new apoftle. The literal
fenfe as follows — All-eggs-under-the-grate. In the fpir
itual fenfe all fignifies every fort of goods and truths.
Eggs fignifies the prolification * of goods and truths.
Under fignifies evils arid falfes being in fubjection to
goods and truths. The grate fignifies the centre + of that
expanfe, which in this new difcovery is to be influ
enced by faith and charity. Alexander's being made
generaliffimo of the Greeks againft Perfia, fignifies that
charity precedes faith, faith being reprefented by the
Greeks. His paying honours at the tomb of Achilles,
fignifies an interval or fpace of time when no charity
was among men, which was from the death of Achilles,
A. M. 3204, to the birth of Alexander 3648, including
a period of 444 years, when this 3204
arcana was firft publifhed, although 
never explained till this day. 444 the proof.
. His gaining the firft battle againft the Perfians, figni
fies how fpeedily the truth of 'this arcana, now when
publifhed-,
* Prolification of goods and truths. A favourite phrase of the
Baron's, for which he tells us that the sexes marry in heaven.
+, Centre and expanse. The Baron, for the spiritual improvement
of his readers, proposes and discusses a problem, to the demonstration
of which he had listened, by a satanical mathematician, viz. "whether
the. expanse be derived from the centre, or the centre from the ex
panse." See Universal Theology, No. 35.

( 36 )
publifhed, will prevail over falfes. Perfia fignifying.
that falfes will periih,and rivers that they will be fwept
away as with an inundation of water. Alexander's
marching to Phrygia, and cutting the, Gordian knot
with his fword, fignifies that however plaufibly evils and
falfes are dreffed up, jhis.new doctrine will detect and
expose them. Darius advancing to meet Alexander the
Great at the ftraits of Celicia, fignifies that evils and
falfes will always oppose the goods of charity and truths
of faith. Alexander's gaining a victory over Darius,
fignifies that when charity is oppofed to evils, charity
will always prevail. Alexander's entering into Egypt,
after befieging and taking Gaza, fignifies pyramids, and
pyramids fignify perpetuity, for the effence * of pyra-
jnids is perpetuity, and the form of perpetuity is pyra
mids. I fhall not tire the patience of the reader any longeif
with fpinning out this rhapfody to a greater length,
which could eafily be done, but shall only obferve, that
abfurd and ridiculous as it is, any fanatic coming
amongft us, with ftrong pretenfions to infpirations and
a communication with the Deity, might by the fame
mode of argument that Mr. Swedenborg ufes, defy all
the arts of reafon and ridicule to caufe him to relinquifh
thefe whims, nor would the Baron bring one argument
to fupport his memorable relations, that would not hold
equally good in defence of fpiritualizing the life of
Alexander the Great ; and whoever looks into the firft
volume of his Arcana Celeftia, arid confiders "what
whimfical meanings he puts on the names of Adam, Eve,
Noah, &c. &c. will find as much edification in hearing
the life of Alexander the Great fpiritualized, as in
hearing the Baron expound the book of Genefis.
But nothing can be a clearer proof of the fanciful
and enthufiaftic manner in which the Baron expounds
the fcripture, than a comparifon drawn between his
method, and our bleffed Saviour's or his apoftles : as the
Baron and his friends pretend the higheft veneration
for Jefus Chrift, furely his mode of expounding the
fcriptures ought to be confidered as a ftandard or crite-'
rion to try the merits of every commentator, that pre
tends to inftruct his followers, by illuftrating~the oracles
of God. His method of defcribing perfons, doctrines, and

* The Baron tells us that the essence of faith is charity, and the
form of charity is faith. See Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, p. 15.
With equal reason might he have said, that the essence of sound is
blue, and the form of blueness is a sound.

( gi )
and duties appear remarkably different from the Baron's,
in every point of view. For inftance, when either our
Saviour, or his apoftles, have occafion to mention the
patriarch Noah, or to explain what we are to believe
concerning him ; they advance none of thofe new
fangled doctrines about his non-exiftence, or his being
only a fpiritual reprefentation of fome churches goods
and truths, or evils and falfes, which the Baron, in his
Arcana Celeftia, maintains. No ! they all give us a
plain literal account of him, entirely correfponding with
the literal account of him in the Old Teftament. Chrift
fays, that in his time, the people, in a ftate of carelefs-
nefs, were indulging themfelves in fin, till the Jlood
came, and fwept them all away, Matth. xxiv. 37. St.
Peter tells us that God's long-fuffering waited for the
reformation of the antideluvians, while his ark was
preparing ; but at laft brought the flood upon the world
of the ungodly, yet faved Noah and a few, that is, eight
fouls, which compofed his houfehold, 1 Pet. iii. 20, and
2 Pet. ii. 5. St. Paul only mentions him once, and that
for the exprefs purpofe of telling us that, he was warned
of God to prepare an ark, to the faving of himfelf and
his houfe, Heb. xi. 7. And when St. Luke adverts to
him, it is to mark his lineal defcent from Adam, whom,
as he could trace human geheology no higher, he calls
the Son of God. And his ark is mentioned in the fame
exprefs literal manner, both by our Saviour, St. Paul,
and St. Peter, without affixing any internal, fupreme,
or celeftial fenfes to either ; but confirming by their ex
pofitions in the New, what we had learned in the Old
Teftament, concerning both Noah and his ark.
When our Lord introduced a fyftem of reform among
the Jews, by correcting the falfe gloffes which they had
put on the law of God, fuiting it to their own vicious
purpofes; when, in his admirable fermon on the mount,
he refcues the third commandment from the corrupt in
terpretation of corrupt men, he does not begin, like the
Baron, by amufing our fancies with the natural fenfes, fpir
itual fenfes, and celeftial fenfes of that precept, but tells us
jnplainliteral language that rafh and unneceffary oaths are
not only to be avoided, but that we are neither to fwear by
the heavens, nor the earth, norby any member of ourbody,
and that any thing beyond fimply affirming or denying a'
propofition, cometh of evil. See Matth. v. 34.
When he would inftruct us in the true meaning of
that precept, " thou fhalt not kill," far from trifling
away his time in puerile distinctions about natural mur
der, fpiritual murder, and fupreme murder, as Mr. Swe
denborg

( 3* )
i -
denborg does, he tells us in few, but expreffive words,
that this precept prohibited not only taking away the
life of our neighbour, but all caufelefs anger and malig
nant revenge.
When he expounds and enforces the duty enjoined
in the feventh command, he does not amufe his audi
ence, as the Baron does his readers (fee Doctrine of Life,
New Jerufalem, Nos. 100, 101) on quibbling diftinc-
tions between fpiritual and fupreme adultery ; fuch
trifling was below the dignity of his fubject, but affures
us, in the moft pointed manner, that what was unlaw
ful to do, was unlawful to indulge in our thoughts, and
that he, who was only restrained from illicit commerce
with a woman, from the want of opportunity, or the
fear of fhame, was confidered in the eye of the Almighty,
as a breaker of that law.
, When our Saviour, or his apoftles, have occafion to
fpeak of the creation of the world,, or ofthe firft perfons
who inhabited the fame, they never trace any circum-
ftance beyond Mofes' literal account ofthe cofmography,
nor do they ever allude to any perfon's exiftence before
that of Adam and Eve. When St. Paul fpeaks of Adam
to the Romans, v. 14. he tells them that death reigned
from Adam to Mofes, even over them that had not fin
ned, after the fimilitude of Adam's tranfgreffion. Here
the apoftle traces back the origin of death, and afcribes
its fource.to Adam's tranfgreffion; nor does he in the
leaft hint at any race of immortals, who lived in our
world before Adam. ¦ And when fpeaking of Adam to
the Corinthians, 1. xv. 45, he exprefsly calls him "the
firft man." And in his firft letter to Timothy, ii. 13.
he declares " that Adam was firft formed." And St.
Luke, when tracing back the geneology of our Saviour,
who was the fon of Abram, who was the fon of Adam,
feeing he could find no human father from whofe loins
Adam had fprung; he very juftly calls him the fon of God,
becaufe he was the firft of God's rational creation in this
world. And our Saviour himfelf fays, that " from the
beginning of the creation God made mankind, male and
female," (Matth. xix. 4.) exprefsly alluding thereby to
the words of Mofes, Gen. i. 27. where he tells us that
God created man in his own image, male and female
created he them, namely, Adam and' Eve.
One fhould think that it would require pretty ftrong
evidence to deftroy fuch an accumulation of fcripture
teftimonies, that Adam and Eve were the firft of the
intelligent creatures of God upon earth: but againft all
thefeconcurring teftimonies the Baron has only to bring
down

'( 33 )
down a memorable relation from heaven, as the papal
bulls were formerly brought over from Rome, and lo !
this truth, recited in hiftorical detail by facred writers
in the Old Teftament, and confirmed by Chrift and his
apoftles in the .New, muft be deftroyed at once, for
the JBaron informs us that he has authority to de
clare that " Adam was not the firft of men, but by Adam
and his wife is -reprefentatively defcribed the firft
church." Univerfal Theology, No. 520.
Reader, I have fet before, thee the teftimony of Chrift
and his apoftles on the one hand, and Mr. Swedenborg's
»n the other, judge for thyfelf.

^^^^f^^fg^"^^"^^^

SECT. III.
Containing Remarks an Mr. Swedenborg's Revir
vul of the Heathenijh and Sadducean Doffrine
that. there is no RefurreSion from the Dead.
THE old tenets of the Heathens and Sadducees, in
denying a refurreftion, are again broached in the
writings of Mr. S-wedenborg (fee Univerfal Theology,
No. 693), who, with much banter and ridicule, and
without ever once appealing to the revelations of
Jefus Chrift to fupport his opinions, fubftitutes his
•own -in their room, and in a pretended dialogue
which he once iheard between a noviciate * prieft, a
politician, and philosopher, treats the univerfal faith
of the chriftian church,, and the whole tide of fcrip
ture, with the fame contempt and burlefque as if they
were nothing but old wives' fables, and borrows from
'Celfiis and the ancient enemies of chriftianity, all the
V puzzling and metaphyfical fubtleties which they ufed to
advance againft thofe who preached Jefus and the refur-
rection. Celfus ufed to call the hope of Chriftians, the hope of
worms, who expected to crawl out of the earth in the
returning fpring ; nor does the Baron exalt thofe who
F believe
* Noviciate is the name which Baron Swedenborg gives to spirits
just arrived in heaven, or the spiritual world.

( 34 )
believe in the refurrection much higher than thefe rep
tiles, for he tells us that the life of an afs is to be pre
ferred tp that of aman,if his body is to lie fixty centuries,'
like a prifoner, bound hand and foot in a dungeon, while
his fpirit is flying about the univerfe, expecting the laft
judgment, and then he afks if it be not contrary to rea
fon to imagine that the foul can be re-invefted with its
natural body ? Of all the foolifh things the 'Baron has
written, this fhould have been the laft. For few will
examine his vifionary fyftem, poffeffing the exereile of
their reafoning faculties, but will find far greater rea
fon to diffent from crediting his dreams and memorable
relations, than to think it incredible that God fhould
raife the dead, Acts xxvi. 8.
Nothing can be more obvious to the fmalleft atten
tion, than that Chrift and his apoftles taught the doc
trine of a general refurrection, and future judgment,
in oppofition to the Sadducees, who denied both.
When Paul preached Jefus and the refurrection to the
Athenian philofophers (Actsxvii. 31.), thefe Heathens,
like the Baron, denied the apoftle's doctrine, but they
did not attempt to fophifticate his words, by affixing
any other fenfe to them than that which their gram
matical conftruction plainly admitted ; inftead of tor
turing his terms to fuit their own ideas, they at once
entered into the defign of his words, and only mocked
at the doctrine he intended to eftablifh. When Paul
faid (Acts xxiii. 6.) that 'for the hope and refurrec
tion of the dead he was called in queftion, why did the
, Baron's brethren, the Sadducees, nearly pull him in
pieces, but becaufe they did not believe his doctrine.
Had their eyes been illuminated by the fun of the Bar
on's fpiritual world, they might have eafily accommo
dated the apoftle's words to their own tenets, by pre
tending to underftand him as fpeaking of the refurrec
tion of goods and truths out of the grave of evils and
falfes. The conteft, therefore, between the ancient
Sadducees and the apoftle, was far more rational and
confiftent than that of the modern Sadducees at this
day. Both deny the fame truth, they who heard the
apoftle preach it, as well as thofe who read it in his
writings ; but on different principles. Says the ancient
Sadducees, " Paul, we underftand you very well ; like
our neighbours, the Pharifees, ye maintain that ourdead
bodies fhall at a, certain future period be raifed again
into life — -but we do not believe you." As the Saddu
cees heard Paul's perfonal miniftry, they could be un
der no mifaprehenfion of his meaning, for if they had, he

.( 35 )
lie would have readily corrected it. Our modern Sad
ducees do not believe this fact neither; but as they find
it fuits their fyftem to give the apoftle credit for fome
of his affertions, they do not like bare-facedly to mock
him, when he fays, c: that there fhall be a refurrection
both of the juft and of the unjuft." But by pretending
to know his meaning better than the Pharifees who
believed, or the Sadducees who believed not his doc
trine, they fay the apoftle's words meant no fuch things
as the Pharifees and Sadducees were contending about.
But could the apoftle patiently look on, and fee the er
rors of both, without rectifying their miftake, when even
he himfelf was nearly torn in pieces, in confequence of
both parties mifunderftanding his words ?
When Paul fays, " that as by man came death" (it is
hoped the Baron will allow that men literally die)
does he not immediately add, " fo by man alfo came
the refurrection from the dead." Now by what rule of
conftruction can a literal fenfe be put on the firft part
of this antithefis, and a myftical fenfe on the laft ?
Would any man believe me, if from this text I fhould
contend for the literal fenfe of the laft propofition, and
the figurative fenfe of the firft ?
Suppofe I fhould fay, it is true, there will be a resur
rection by Chrift at the laft day. But you are not to
underftand the apoftle in the literal fenfe, when he
fays, " in Adam all die;"' here he only, means fuf-
pended animation, and that when our friends have car
ried us to our fubterraneous apartments, we awake, and
prosecute our career in life with as much ardour as ever ;
and our refurrection only means our coming above
ground, and entering into anew fcene of action. Does-
not every one fee the folly of fuch a comment, and
how the Word of God would be tortured t6 counte
nance fuch fentiments. But no lefs abfurdity attends
the inverting of this fcheme, by which our literal death
by Adam is admitted, but our literal refurrection by
Chrift is denied.
When Martha faid to Chrift (John xi. 24.) that her
brother Lazarus fhould rife again, in the refurrection at
the laft day, did fhe only mean a fpiritual refurrection of
faith and charity, or did fhe not rather mean the re-anima
ting of his lifelefs body, which by that time had been
dead fourdays? This was whatfhe meant, andit waswhat
Chrift wrought on him in her prefence, and in the pre-
fence of many others. Was not the refurrection of
Lazarus' body at the laft day, clofely connefted with
the idea of his being raifed by the power of Chrift that
, moment ?

( 36 )
moment ? Wherein would the difference of not be
lieving the Baron's fyftem, till the laft day, of this year,
and my believing it this moment, differ but merely, in
point of time? and wherein did that refurrection which
Chrift effected on Lazarus, differ* from that which his
filter expected, at the laft day, but in point of time like-
wife? When Chrift had foretold (Mark yiii. 31.)
that after being killed by the elders and fcribes, in the
fpace of three days he would rife: again, did he npt mean
that his body would literally rife from the tomb, within
that time? and did not the.event verify his. prediction ?
But if the dead bodies of men literally rife not, then is
not Chrift literally raifed (1 Cor. xv* 16.). But if.Chrift
be raifed, how, can the Baron, or. his followers, fay that
there is no refurrection of the dead ? Tne very idea
which all ancient and modern languages have attached
to rifing again and refurrection, imports, a re-animation
of animal life, and a rifing up from below where all
dead bodies, are depofited. When ?aul fays (.1 Cor, xv.
42.) that the body is fown in difhonour, does he-not
allude to its being call into the ground, as.the-hufband-
man cafteth feed into the field ? and when he fays that
it is raifed in glory, does he not there fpeak of railing the
fame body which was fowed, juft as Ebed-melech raifed
up Jeremiah out of the dungeon ? When Chrift faid,
John v. 28, 29. that the hour fhould come when all that
were in their graves fhould hear his voice, and come
forth, either to a refurrection of happinefs or mifery, '
did he mean only fpiritual graves ? I think the Baron
never fpeaks of. graves in his fpiritual worlds ; of cav
erns and workhoufes he frequently takes notice, but
¦what can thefe graves mean ? He tells us about young
children and old decrepid females, appearing in all the
bloom of youth in heaven, and alio of marriages and
churches in the fpiritual world, but we hear of no phyr
ficians, coffins, fextons, funerals, nor graves. If we
,may credit the fcriptures, they affure us, that Jefus
Chrift is appointed of God to be the judge of quick
and dead, and. by dead we underftand thofe that fhall
be in their graves, and by quick we underftand thofe
who fhall be alive at his fecond coming ; and that we,
even our fouls and bodies, fhall all ft^nd before the
judgment-feat of Chrift, and that the dead, fmall and
great, fhall be affembled on that important occafion, and
* Observe, I am not speaking of the moral qualities, nor immortal
state of the body after the resurrection, but merely that dead, bodies
shall rise.

0 ft )¦
and that the' fame Jefus, who was 'taken up from the!
apoftles-ab Mount Olivet', while they gazed at his afcen-
fion, will come in like manner as they had feen him go
into heaven. But againft all thefe plain andJ unequiv
ocal declarations of a refurrection from the dead, and
of* J-efus Chrift's fecond coming, to render to every man
according to his- works, againft thefe the Baron has at
hand a ready-made falvo, " That Chrift cannot manifeft
himfelf in perfbnw"'
And after telling, us that the clouds, in which he
faid' hew-ill' come, fignifies the literal fenfe of the Word;
and- power and glory the fpiritual fenfe, (fee Univerfal
Theology, No. 776) he informs us that his fecond'eomingis
to be effectedby a-ma'n^befbre whom he hath maniffefted
himfelf in perfon, and whom he hath filled with' his
fpiritj to teach the doctrines of the New Church by the
Word from him (No. 779) and' this man^ by whom the
Lord'is to come- a fecond time into the world, is no oth*
er perfon than " the Honourable Emanuel Swedenborg;"
for fays that gentleman, "he has appeared to me his
fervant, and fent me on this office, and' granted me to
fee the fpiritual world, the heavens, and the 'hells, and
to converfe with angels and fpirits ; this I teftify irt
truth, and from the firft day of my call to this office, I
never' received any thing appertaining^ to the doctrines
of that church, from any angel, but from the Lord
alone, whilft I' was reading the Word." All I fhall
obferve on this wonderful difcovery is, ' that it was
a very great pity, when our tranflators rendered the
original texts of our Bible into Englifh, they were not
acquainted1 with this marvelous arcana of the Baron's :
how eafily might they have prevented! much infidelity
and fcepticifm about the authenticity of Mr. Sweden-
borg's miffion ; for inftead of giving us: a' natural
fenfe of' the Word, they might have, by a very ffnaM
alteration in the phrafeology of fcripture, paved' the
way and prepared, our minds for the reception of this
wonderful arcana, and thereby.preventedi me and fuch-
like carnal men * from- telling the world, that as he only
beareth

* Carnal men,- and carnal minds, are epithets which the Baron and
his translators frequently bestow on those who fee.,1 themselves justi
fied' in dissenting from his- opinions. We are sofry to observe, that
this species of theological chicane, is not merely confined to the Baron
and his followers ; how- often do we hear such abusive language, both
from the, pulpit and the press, sanctioned by those from whom better
things might be expected. With what' indignation must a thinking
mind be compelled to listen to an uncharitable dogmatist, haranguing

( 38 )
beareth witnefs to himfelf, his witnefs is not true. InJ
ftead of our carnal outward letters, John v. 28. might .
have been much better rendered thus : " Marvel not at
this, for the hour is coming, when all that are in their
graves fhall hear the voice of Emanuel Swedenborg^
and come forth, &c. and in 1 Cor. v. 10, inftead of
faying that we muft all appear before the judgment-feat
of Chrift, &c. they might have rendered it, before the
judgment-feat of Baron Swedenborg ; and inftead of
faying that he preached unto them Jefus and a refurrec
tion, they might have rendered it, Baron Swedenborg
and a refurrection from the literal to the fpiritual fenfe
of the Word. And whereas the very laft promife in
the Word has led fimple minds to think that Chrift
would literally come again, into the world, and the very
writer of the paffage has put as it were a petition into
our mouths, expreffive of our defires to that effect (fee
Rev. xxii. 20.). How much better would it have been,
according to this fpiritual light, to have faid, Behold,
Baron Swedenborg cometh quickly, even fo come, Moft
Noble Baroi} *.
O indignant reader! canft thou fee this clod of clay
fitting in the temple of God, and appropriating to him
felf thofe paffages of fcripture which only belong to the
Saviour and Judge of the univerfe, without feeling in
thy breaft the fentiments of marked oppofition againft
fuch a mixture of pride, enthufiafm, and blafphemy ?
If every paffage in the New Teftament which fpeaks of
an assembly from a place where decency forbids the merited retort ;
while he tells his auditory, that the controverted topic on which lie
declaims is allowed by all but carnal minds, and that the opposite
sentiments are suited unto and adopted by the unregeneratei and uncon
verted part of mankind. Such language, in my opinion, deserves the
severest animadversion. As it has not only i most unhappy influence
on the natural tempers of those who credit such defamation, but is in
plain English a bearing false witness against our neighbour. To say
that any man disbelieves my sentiments from some secret malignity
of heart, of which 1 can have no existing evidence in his life and con
duct, is taking upon me uncharitably to judge the servant of another,
and to arraign ideas as criminal in the sight of God, when at the same
time I have no proof that they arise from a criminal intention.
* The late editor of a periodical magazine has informed posterity,
that while the Baron lodged with a Mr. Brochmer in London, he
told his landlord, " that he was the Messiah, and that he was come to
be crucified for the Jews." The friends of the Baron, after labouring
hard (in the Heaven and Hell Magazine for March 1781), to extenuate
the number of freaks and enthusiasms peculiar to that holy madman,
are obliged to acknowledge " that Swedenborg once called himself
the Messiah." It needs, therefore, little penetration to see why he
denies the second coming of Christ, it is, that he may have the honour
.of coming in his room.

( 39 )
of Chrift's fecond coming to judge the world, muft be
confidered as alluding to the coming and preaching of
this man, what is that but to fubftitute in thefe texts
the name of Baron Swedenborg, for Jefus Chrift, and
at one blow to fweep away the foundation of the
chriftian's hope in a future refurrection, which has all
along diftinguifhed the gofpel of Chrift from every Pa
gan fyftem and Sadducean tenet hitherto invented by
,the craft or cunning of artful and defigning men, and to
fubftitute in its ftead the reveries of a man, at whofe
fide a perfon could not have walked the ftreets, -without
hearing him fpeak fuch ridiculous nonfenfe *, as nothing
but a total derangement of intellects could juftify.
For any one to be fo attached to allegory and meta
phor, as to fuffer their minds to be led away from be
lieving the grand doctrines of a refurrection, 4 future
judgment, and Chrift's fecond coming, by fubftituting
in their room fuch cant phrafes as goods of charity — •
truths of faith — the proceeding divine fphere — the con
necting divine fphere — the ultimates of the internals of
life — the medial fenfe between the fpiritual and natural
man — whoever can think the combination of fuch' words
as thefe, for ideas they have none, are a fufficient fub
ftitute for believing thefe grand and univerfal truths,
may as well allegorize away his firft coming, and turn
all the circumftances attending his birth,^ doctrines,
fufferings, and death, into a parable or fabie, and the
confequence be to deny as obftinately that, ever he did
come, as that he ever will come again into the world.
Indeed, if we were allowed to' fport in this manner
with the writings of any one, whoever could be able to
afcertain the meaning of an author, if his words are not
to be an index pointing out the correfponding ideas of
his mind. What confufion would fuch a fcheme intro
duce among men, if every word that we read has an idea
different
•* Mr. Lindsey says (Second Address to the Oxford Students, page
j 78), that a person of great worth and credit, still living, informed
him, that a friend of his several years ago walking with Baron Swe
denborg along Cheapside, in one part, the Baron suddenly bowed very
low to the ground ; when the gentleman lifting him up, and asking
what he was about, the Baronreplied by asking him if he did not see
Moses pass by, and told him that he had .bowed to him. The man
that could see Moses walking along Cheapside, might see or fancy any
thing after that ; but to think that men of study and reflection, should
believe him when he says that he is alluded to in those scriptures that
mention Christ's second coming, is to assure the wildest raving frantic
in the world, that whatever they say, they will never want believers
and followers, whose credulity can only be equalled by their ab
surdities.

( -4° )
different to that which appears on the 'face of it ; we
fiad better at once melt dow'n our Eriglifh language in
to a fort of Corinthian 'brafs, and from the alphabetical
liquidcoin a new vocabulary, with'fixed and determined
ideas annexed t6 each phrafe. "Such is the rage of
this New Sectary for allegorizing, 'internalizing, and
fpiritu ali zing every word and every object which
they fee, that I fhould not be furprifed to hear fome
of the Baron's followers tell me by and by, that
there was no fuch an animal as a horfe, for although our
organs of vifion fancied that they faw an affemblage of
members contacted in a body referflbling that creature, yet
as ouri'nteriors were not illuminated by the celeftidl influx
of their fpiritual world, we muft be told that this walk
ing object, which we fancied to be a horfe, Was only an
emblem of divine goods and divine truths ; that his head
-fignified the principles of the internals of life, that his
tail fignified the ultimates of the internals of life ; that
his four feet fignified four churches,. Antidiluvian, Ifra-
tlitijh, "Chriftian, and New Jferufdlem churches ; that
his flefh and bones fignifies the ejfen.ce -of faith, which is
charity ; and his exterior figure fignifieth the form of
charity, which is faith ; that his eating and drink
ing fignifieth participation and confociation of goods
and truths ; venting his ordure fignifieth the extermi
nation of evils and falfes j and his breathing fignifieth
divine influx. Fapclful as this allegory may appear to
the judicious reader, I am firmly of Opinion that the
imaginations of many, whofe vifionary tlrrn of mind
have led them to believe the reveries of Mr. Sweden
borg, could be fo far wrought upon.as to credit this Lec
ture on fpiritual horfes, and to confider it as a good ac-
qufition to the difcoveries and arcana of their hew
apoftle. And I may farther add, that thereis juft as much pro
priety/in endeavouring to perfuade men that there is no
fuch thing as a horfe in the world, and that the exterior
figure of that animal is only an affemblage of fpiritual
goods and fpiritual truths, as to perfuade ariy one who
has read and believes his Bible, that God will not raife
the dead.
O Voltaire ! how has fuch religious nonfenfe as this,
hardened thee and thy followers in infidelity.

SECT.

( 4i )
SECT. IV.
Containing Remarks on the unwarrantable Free
dom which Swedenborganifm ufes with the
Holy Scriptures.
IT appears to me, that among all the other fingulari-
ties of Mr. Swedenborg, he must have denied nearly
one-half of the Holy Scriptures ; this, I confefs, I have
not feen in any of his writings, but in a Catechifm for
the ufe of the New Church, juft now before me,
I find an ab ft raft of his tenets, and which I fhould
think has been drawn up by thofe who were perfectly
acquainted with every word which he has written. In
this catechifm is the following moft lingular and extra
ordinary queftion ;
Which are the books of the Word ?
Answer, all thofe which have the internal fenfe, which
are as follows, that is to fay, in the Old Teftament, the
five books of Mofes called Genefis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, and Deuteronomy ; the book of Jofhua, the
book of Judges, the two books of Samuel,' the two
books of Kings, the Pfalms of David, the prophets Ifa-
iah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hofea,
Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Hab-
akkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi,and
in the New Teftament, the four Evangelifts, Mat
thew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Revelations.
According to the anfwer given to this queftion, no
lefs than one and thirty books of the Holy Scriptures
are expunged from the Word of God to make room for
the Baron's fyftem *. For if thofe omitted contain not
what they are pleafed to call the internal fenfe, and con-
fequently are none ofthe Word, what is that but faying,
in their usual uncouth manner, that thirty-one books in
the Bible are falfe, or do not belong to the fcriptures.
Juft as if one fhould afk you, in the prefence of ten
perfons, how many hpneft men there were in the room,
G and
* I have been told by. those who have had access to the li
braries of some of the Baron's followers, that on taking up their Bibles
they have seen whole verses and chapters here and there expunged
with a pen; a plain proof how little value they set on the Word of
God, when compared to the oracles and visions of their new apostle.

{ 42 )
?nd yqu make anfwer, and fay, fix, what is this but to
fay that the other four are rogues or thieves. So does
tfie anfwer to this queftion appear to me, and I am fure
it will appear fo to every other perfon who reads it,
nor will all the quibbles they can ufe about fpiritual,
celeftial, and fupreme fcriptures, be able to elude the
force of this plain and obvious confequence.
On this ftrange mangling of the Word of God, I
fhall beg leave to lay before my readers the following
REMARKS.
It has always been a maxim with me to grant, in the
fulleft fenfe of the word, the greateft liberty of inquiry
to thofe, who in fearching after divine truth, are willing
to be content with what they can find in the Holy
Scriptures, and do not affume to be wife above what is
therein written. I venerate that man, whatever his
views of the fcheme of Chriftianity may be, who with
an honeft and fincere heart can truly fay, that he has
learned his religious fyftem from the oracles of God,
without diminifhing from or adding thereunto. We
know but in part, and fo long as ftudious men fearch
and judge for themfelves, they will more or lefs differ
in forne things ; it has always been the cafe, notwith
standing the various methods which religious defpotifm
has taken, to make the weakeft party think like the
ftrongeft. Difclaiming, therefore, every method of en
forcing truth, but by a free and rational appeal to the
underftandings and confeiences of thofe who deny it, I
cannot help bearing my teftimony in the moft ample
manner, againft a fyftem like Mr. Swedenborg's. A
fyftem which is guided in no way by thofe methods of
inveftigation, which great and learned men in every
age have availed themfelves of. A fyftem, which leaves
no criterion whereby we can difcern the moft raving
rhapfodies, from the moft critical and folid inveftiga
tion of truth. A fyftem, which admits the pretended
revelations of a man to be divine, however much they
contradict thofe which have already been received, and
a fyftem, which, as in the queftion before us, expunges
at one ftroke nearly one-half of the Word of God from
the other, and fends this mangled account of it abroad
into the world, without affigning the flighteft reafon for
fo doing. What muft the poor illiterate mechanic or day
labourer think of his Bible, perhaps the only volume
in his cuftody, when he is told by this pamphlet, that
thirty-one books therein do not belong to it. What muft

( 43 )
muft he think of Chrift and his apoftles, when he is
told not to believe what the greater part of them have
written concerning their Lord and Mafter. What muft
he think even of that which they fuffer to remain in
his Bible, if the one part be fraud and fiction, why not
the other ; they are unable to give him any good argu
ment for expunging one part, without enabling him by '
the fame argument to reject the other likewife. How
incompetent are numbers, who are deluded by this im-
pofture, to judge about the authenticity of fcripture.
Many of whom can fcarcely read a chapter of that Bible
they are taught to tear in pieces. .Many of whom are
merely catched by the unmeaning jargon which they
hear in the mouths of thofe,' who by flattering their
vanity, pretend to inform them of what eye has not yet
feen, nor ear heard, and even while they are hearing or
reading a combination of unintelligible fentences, picked
from the Writings of this man, not one out of an hundred
can define or underftand what they mean. And > what
would the parents of thofe children anfwer, who put this
catechifm into the hands of their offspring, fhould they
be afked why thefe thirty-one books remain in the
Bible, if they have no connection with it ? If none of
thefe. books belong to the 'Word, i -what impoftors muft
Peter, Paul, and James have been, for writing and fend
ing them abroad into the world, as -being what they heard
and were taught from their Lord, and Mafter. Much, I
firppofe, would the admirers of the Baron rejoice^ could
there appear ^unexceptionable evidence of his apoftle-
fhip, as there is internal and external evidence of the
truth of thofe parts of divine revelation which they
reject. But fuppofing they fhould fay that by the Word, they
meant only that thofe books mentioned in the anfwer,
contained an internal, and the books not mentioned,
are to be confidered in a literal fenfe ; be it fo. Still
the queftion is moft improperly put, and as improperly
anfwered, and carries in it, as indeed all the writings of
their chief do, fuch ambiguity, and might be the fource
of endlefs wrangling and contention, to define what it
would have the world to-believe by fuch a reply. So
much cloud and confufidn feems to be on the face of it,
that hundreds even of thofe who profefs to believe the
Baron, though they purchafe and give it to their chil
dren to read, when preffed to explain it, know not
what to make of it ; or if they fhould happen to give it
fome illuftration, the beginning and end of their elu-
cidgtipns are fo contradictory, and their remarks fo op-
pofite

( 44 )
polite one to another, that you eafily fee ' they believe
and profefs they know not what. But fuppofing that
thofe fcriptures omitted in the anfwer are to be under
ftood literally, muft the external contradict the internal;
muft St. Matthew, the celeftial writer, contradict St.
Paul, the literal writer ; or muft St. John, who wrote
internal, fupreme, and fpiritual truths in his gofpel and
revelations, contradict St. John, who writes external
truths in his three epiftles ? If, as the Baron tells us,
the literal fenfe be the bafis, continent, and firmament
of the fpiritual and celeftial fenfe, what fort of a fabric
can be raifed, where the bafis is torn away. t How in-
confiftent is he to fay, that the literal fenfe is the bafis,
when in one place he does not allow the literal fenfe at
all, and in anothertears it entirely from the Word of God.
He tells us of literal, fpiritual, and celeftial theft ; we
fmile, it is true, at the fanciful diftinctions, but while
he admitted of literal theft, and made it the bafis of the
reft of his thefts, we did not, much care though he had
told us that there were angelical, diabolical, political,
logical, aerial, and nocturnal theft, or as many thefts as
he could find adjectives to prefix to the word ; nor fhould
we have much quarrelled with him about fpiritual, celes
tial, fupreme, internal, diabolical, or angelical refurrec-
tions, had he but allowed a literal refurrection as the bafis,
continent, and firmament of the reft of his refurrections ;
but that would not fuit his defigns of having his own
name fubftituted in the room of our bleffed Saviour's,
whom he wifhes to rob of the honour of coming a fec
ond time into the world.

SECT. V.

Containing great Myfteries revealed in a Style truly
myfterious.

ANOTHER ftriking feature in the character of Mr.
Swedenborg's writings, is an affected obfcurity
and unintelligiblenefs in the moft of his doctrines ; iri
this,

( 45 )
-this, however, he has no claim to originality, for many
of thofe enthufiafts and impoftors already mentioned,
have availed themfelves of the fame art to gain the ap-
plaufe of the world, to what they could not underftand,
and by an affemblage of words, from which no diftinct
ideas could be drawn, their followers have fancied that
they poffeffed fuperior knowledge to others, becaufe they
pronounced fentences that nobody could comprehend,
merely becaufe there was nothing ui them to be compre
hended but the letters and fyllables of which they were
compofed. Mr.Swedenborg was too well acquainted with
the writings of the ancient and modern teachers of this
clafs, not to have availed himfelf of their ftyle and
phrafeology. Irenasus (p. 99) could have told him how
Bafilides, the heretic, taught " that he and his followers
knew all, and penetrate all, themfelves being invifible.
Know yourfelf," fays he, "but let nobody elfe know you.
The many muft not, and cannot kndw your affairs, but
only one of a thoufand, and two often thoufand." And
from the writings of Tertullian, p. 250, he might learn,
that " nothing was more carefully obferved by the an-
.cient Valentinians, than to hide what they preach ;
if they may be faid to preach what they hide ; they in-
truft nothing to their followers, till they make them
their own." " Becaufe," as' Epiphanius fays of them,
p. 179, " all are not fit for fuch knowledge, and it muft
not be fpoken too plainly, but darkly and myfterioufly."
And Rimius, in his account of the Moravians, (p. 33)
makes the fame obfervation'on Count Zindendorff and
his followers. " It is not eafy," fays he, " to come at
the tenets of this feet, on account of the great obfcurity
affected by their teachers, who make it their ftudy to
fpeak and write that they may not be underftood."
. How far Mr. Swedenborg has copied thefe originals,
in the affected obfcurity of his ftyle, will belt appear by
the following fentences, which I have extracted from
his works in the courfe of my perufing them-.
In his Univerfal Theology, No. 368, he fays, "¦ The
Lord is faith and charity in man, and man is charity
and faith, in the Lord." That the Lord can work in the
mind of man by the irradiations of his fpirit, both to
willand to do, of his good pleafure, is a plain fcriptural
truth. But to 'attempt to explain this operation by
faying, that the Lord is faith and charity in man, and
man charity and faith in the Lord, is juft as abfurd
as to explain a man's bridling and faddling a horfe, by
.telling us, "that the man is faddle and bridle in the
horfe, and the horfe bridle and faddle in the man." '
He

(; 46 )
He fays (Doctrine of the New Jerufalem, p. 1 16) " fo
long as a man is underthe influence of 'finful defires, fo -
long he is in hell ; but when he conquers thefe habits, he
is in heaven." To fay that a man is actually in hell, when
he does an evil action, or in heaven, when he does a
• good,t is as uncouth a mode of expreffion, as if one
fhould fay, fo long as a man robs on the highway, fo long
he is in chains hanging on a gallows, but when he con
quers this habit of robbing, he is in perfeft life and
honour. To fay that a man is in the road to hell or
heaven, as his conduct appears good or bad,, is intelli
gible language ; but to fay that he is in either, while in
this life, is fanciful and erroneous.
In his treatife on Heaven and Hell, No. 54, he fays,
" Heaven is not without any one, but within him."
This is juft as ridiculous a way of expreffing himfelf, as
if he had told us that the houfes in which we lodge, are
not without us, but within us, and that we cover them
from rain and cold, inftead of their covering us. That
there are certain difpofitions and endowments of the
mittdi requifite for us to poffefs before we attain to an
everlafting habitation in heaven, is a fact few will deny,
tihat believes there is a heaven ; biltt to fay that heaven
is in man, inftead of his preparing to be in it, is as lite
ral and logical a falfehood, as to fay my glove is within
my hand, inftead of faying my hand is within r my
glove. No, 48. " Every angelic fociety is a heaven in a leffer
form, and every individual angel a heaven, in the leaft
form." Few would think that I fpoke with perfpicuity,
if I fhould fay, every fociety of his majefty's fubjects,
is Great Britain in a leffer form, and every individual
fubject, is Great Britain in its lea'ft form. Heaven can
not be made leffer nor larger, however .many angelic
focieties may be in it.
No. 57. "The church is in man. The church is with
in a man, not without a man. He is a church in the
leaft form. . He is an angel-man." How fond a perfon
muft be of allegorizing and turning into myftery the
plaineft duties of chriftianity, who affects to convey
religious inftruction in fuch a fanciful manner as this.
I am aware, that in apology for fuch phrafes as thefe,
their admirers tell us, it may be fpoken fo in a cer
tain fenfe. True, no body can hinder you from fpeak-
ing in as many fenfes as your fancy may fuggeft to you,
but I would beg leave to afk if fuch a way of fpeaking
be good fenfe, is it juft fenfe? is it literal fenfe? it cannot
be figurative fenfe, 'when the liteTal fenfe isdenied, as it

( 47 )
is by faying, that heaven and the church are not without
a man, but within him ; your fancy may add as many
fenfes to it as Mr. Swedenborg's fancy does to faith, even
twenty kinds of it, (Univerfal Theology, No. 344) in
which he tells us that there is adolefcent, celeftial, fpir
itual, blind, purblind, heretical, harlot, and adulterous
faith, &c. &c. But with a very fmall fhare of common
fenfe, I think it no great difficulty to fee fuch glaring
and lawlefs deviations from literal and actualfacts ; fp
far from carrying any intelligence with them, that they
are no better than allegorical nonfcnfe *.
Nos. 65, 66, 67. "Heaven refembles one man, in
members and parts, and after the fame names ; accord
ingly^ the angels fay, fuch a fociety is in the member of
the head,breaft, lungs, but the fupreme fociety is in the
neck. The fecond heavens forms the breaft down to the
loins and knees, and the loweft or firft heaven forms
the "interior parts down to the feet. And alfd the arms,
fingers, hands, and fides, the fituation of the heavens
is as the fituation of the organs and bowels in man, fo
that heaven is confidered as the grand man. Heaven re
fembles the human form." When we call our eyes ori
the map of Europe, we fee Italy refembles the leg of a
man in form, but what proportion it bears in the Baron's
fcience of correfpondencies, to heaven, which, as he fays',
appears like a human form, and grand man, I fhall not take
upon me to determine, as I have never yet been in
heaven, to draw a chart of its form and dimenfions ; I
confefs this celeftial anatomy is above my comprehen-
fion. However, till the Baron gives us better evi
dences that he faw this grand man, than he has given
us that he faw Mofes walking in Cheapfide, I beg leave for
* I remember to have seen in the Baron's works, the page I have
forgot, on what he grounds the church heaven and hell, &c. &c. be
ing within man. It is on Luke xvii. 21, where Christ told the Phar.
isees, that the kingdom qf God was within them. But nothing but a
total inattention to the original, the scope of the. passage, and even the
very margin of our English Bibles, could induce a classical scholar to
think that our Saviour" here meant entos umon estik, to signify is
within you, when it plainly signifies is amongst you. And what was it
that was amongst them ? Why Jesus Christ and his doctrine, which is
figuratively termed the kingdom of God, in as much as it led to the
final enjoyment of that kingdom. Our Lord does not here speak .'of
any power that he had gained by his doctrine over the hearts of the
Jews, and much less the Pharisees to whom he speaks, but that the
kingdom of the Messiah began how to appear, and the gospel of that
kingdom was preached among (not within) them. In this sense entos
umon & en y»iji are frequently used in the Old Testament, by the
Seventy, Gen. xxiii. 9. Give me it for a place of burial, en umin,
amongst you. Exod. xvii. 7. Is the Lord, en umin, among us or
not?

( 48 )
for one to withhold my affent from believing the topo
graphical exactnefs of Mr. Swedenborg's celeftial map.
In the following fentence you find the Baron in
the clouds and contradictions again. No. 203. "As
far as one is in the form of heaven, fo far is he
in heaven, nay, fo far is a heaven in its low.eft
form." It is but juft lately that we were told heaven
was not without any one,- but within him; now the
tables are turned, and inftead of heaven being within
him, he is within heaven. This is a very odd way of
metaphorizing heaven into a man, and man into a
heaven. The one time we are told that heaven is in
man, and is man, the next time we are informed that
man is in heaven. What contradictions and abfurdi-
ites does he expofe himfelf to, who obftinately refufes
to fpeak or write in plain intelligible language like other
people. No. 361. " Ufes in the other world appear in fplen-
did forms, the, good of ufe as gold, and the true of ufe
as filver." The great obfcurity of this expreffion lies
hid in the words ufes and forms. If by ufes the Baron
means the good actions of men in heaven, can he wifh
us to believe that our virtues will be arrayed in grand
apparel, and ftand like a man in fplendid forms before
our faces in the other world ? or does he mean that all
the good which we do will appear like a ftatue of gold
before us, and all the truths which we believe as a ftatue
of filver, and that thefe fplendid forms will be more or
lefs in fize, as we have more or lefs been eminent in
either believing or doing the will of God ? The phrafes
good of ufe, and true of ufe, found very harfh in an
Englifhman's ears, but by good and true I fuppofe he
means doing and believing. Yet I can form no idea
how our doing and believing will ftand in fplendid
forms before us in heaven. The Baron tells us (Uni
verfal Theology, No. 108) " that he faw the Lord
making a new angelic heaven about the year 1770."
It will certainly accommodate fome of thofe fplen
did forms, as every man has two of them. It is to
be wifhed that when Mr. Swedenborg teaches us
about heaven, he would put his words in fuch con-
ftruction as they might he underftood on earth; for
I am fure that the moft part of the inhabitants of this
planet, know as little about ufes appearing in the other
world in fplendid forms, with the good of ufe as gold, and
the true of ufe as filver, as the fifhermen in the Orkneys
would know what one of their companions faid, if he
came from London and told them, that the noife of the wild
beafts

( 49 1
feeafts in the Tower appear in fplendid fortes, the good
of their noife as gold, and the true of their ndife as
filver. Indeed every way in which I confider this
affertion, it appears to be myftery rendered more mys+
teriou r.
Laft Judgment* p. j 2. " Angels and fpirits are
with man, and [refide] in his affections." If an
gels, as the Baron tells us, are fubftantial bodies, to fay
they refide in our affections, is as abfurd as to fay,
that a man lives in the, bray of an afs, or that the afs
lives in the colour of his coat. If angels live in mail's
affections, pray wlio lives in the affeetioris of angels ?
Or what angels was if that lived in the affections of the
firft man, as, according to the Barons ill angels, and
even devils, have once been men.
Univerfal Theology, No. 30. " Grid is in fpacej
without fpace, and in time, without time." No. 6g,
fi The Lord made himfelf righteoufnefs by acts of re
demption. The proceeding divine fphere is divine
truth.-s-The connecting divine fphere is divine good. —
The divine love of the divine wifdom, in firft princi
ples, and in ultimates.— The ultimates of the internals
of life. — The medial fenfe between the fpiritual and
natural man. — The male is the wifdom of love, and the
female the love of his wifdom. — The will of the flefit
is the propriety of man's will, which in itfelf is evil,
and the will of man is the propriety of his underftand
ing, which in itfelf is the falfe, derived from evil.-^~
The Lord and hell fight in man, arid contend for do
minion over him." Thefe myfteries of the Baron's,
which appear to rhe to be so hard to be underftood, put
-me in mind of what Dr. Jortiri forriewliefe fays of a
poor clergyman, who was obliged to hide himfelf all
the Week for fear of an arreft, arid on fahbath delivered
his fermons in fdch abftrufe language that ilobody could
underftand him. Six dayss fays Jortin, he was invisi
ble, and the feventh incdfnprehe'nfibie ; and fo is the
Baron, when he is in the fpiritual world he is invi*
fible, and whefi he writes his account of it he is incom;
prehenfible, The following paffagess appear to me to be dabknefs
overwhelmed ¦taith darkntfs (Univerfal Theology, No,
18). The effe of God is his irimoft ground, His es
sence is the particular determination originating in the}
effe, and his exifte-nCe is the ektei rial op^raticta of both,
(Univerfal Theology, No. g6), God's effence is loVe it-
fell, arid wifdoW itfelfi Paflirig river the contradictions
which appears here about God's effence, to fay that the
H diviri*

( 50 )
divine effence is love and wifdom, becaufe the fcripture
fays God is love [that is, loving] and ftyles him perfect
in wifdom, is juft as abfurd as to. fay, that his effence is
a burning flame, becaufe the fcriptures fay *' our God is
a confuming fire."
The truth of the matter is, that we know nothing at
all about the effence of God, and whoever has confi
dence enough to pretend to illuftrate the modus of ex-
iftence in that ineffable being} their affurance ought to
be checked by confidering that important queftion
never yet anfwered, " Who, by fearching, can find out
God?" The vanity of defiring to be thought wife above what
is written, has betrayed many into fuch labyrinths of
confufion and contradiction, as have made them lofe
that efteem they otherwife might have merited, had
they been content to follow only where reafon and reve
lation led the way.
" 'Twas pride brought angels from their high abodes,
Men would be angels, angels would be Gods."
. So fond is the Baron to find out the effence and
forms of the underftanding, and affections of the mind,
which he always confounds with fubftance and colour
in bodies, that he makes that to be fubftance, which
every other perfon would make a property ; for in
ftance, 'to. fpeak of the effence and farm of anger, pride,
or generofity, is not intelligible language, becaufe thefe
being affections of the mind, we cannot afcribe form
nor effence to them, by any rules with which we are
acquainted. To fay that the effence of anger is a ftone,
wood, bones, or blood, is rionfenfe ; but to fpeak of the
caufe of anger, and its effects, is a diftinS: mode of ex-
preffion. _ Equally improper would it be to fpeak qf
the form of anger ; can we fay it is like a houfe, a beaft,
or a mountain ? it makes the man in whofe breaft it is
kindled, oftentimes look difagreeable to his neareft
neighbour, but ftill our ideas are loft and bewildered
when we attempt to apply form or fpace to any affec
tion of the mind, This is one great cause why fo much
ambiguity and confufion appears in Mr. Swedenborg's
writings, who, when fpeaking of.goodnefs and truth,
which every one confiders as qualities and affections of
the mind, without any relation to fubftance or fpace, he
fpeaks of their effence and form juft as if he were talk
ing of fubftances, and tells us that " Good is the effence
of truth, and truth is the form of good." Weak or un
thinking minds may be catched by the novelty of fuch art

( 5* )
an expreffion, and the rhiming and chiming of its found,
but I am fure there is not one diftinct idea contained in
it, no more than in a perfon faying, that found is
the form of colour, and colour is the effence of found.
The fame confufion of ideas appears in his defcription
of faith and charity, who, inftead of defcribing them as
habits, affections, or'qualities of the mind, tells us, that
the effence of faith is charity, and the form of charity is
.faith; juft as if charity had a form like a fquare, a triangle,
or a circle, and faith had a fubftance like a log of wood, a-
-fhilling, or a bone. What,perfon, without having re-
courfe to mere quirk and quibble, can make any fenfe of
fuch expreffions as thefe. Faith is mediate charity.—
Faith and charity make one, like effence and form. — -As
to the firft of thefe expreffions, it appears to me totally
deftitute of any acceptation. As to the fecond, it is a
palpable miftake to fay, faith and charity make one, for
there may be faith where there is no charity, and chari
ty where there is no faith. There is a great difference
between believing and doing. Indeed the whole of Mr.
Swedenborg' s writings are filled with details of thofe who
feparate. faith and charity, which he fays here are one.
So that whatever pains is taken to make thefe expres-
fions of the Baron's ftand on their legs, they are at
beft but a catalogue of crude, unintelligible phrafes,
which can never Be made to fpeak any fenfe, till they
are t wilted and tranfpofed, joined and difjoined in Tuch
a manner, as to make them look arid read totally differ
ent from the prefent arrangement in which they appear
in the Baron's-writings; In( this way the Baron con
founds diftin,£t ideas, which fhould always be kept afun
der. As a proof, you will hear him and his friends fre
quently perfuading us to believe, that wherever evil is,
there alfo the devil isj and wherever the devil is, there
hell is, for whether we fpeak of evil, the devil, or hell, it
is the fame thing, inafmuch as it is not poffible they fhould
ever be feparate or put afunder *." „ What a medley of
inconfiftencies will appear here, if we criticife this pas-
Sage ; if devils be fubftantial forms, that is, beings of as
folid a fubftance, as the defk on which I am writing, how
is it poffible for them to lodge in the affections of men, as
the Baron tell us they do ; and if the hells be nothing but
eternal workhoufes, .how can the fubffemtial form of a
devil, the eternal workhoufes of hell, and telling a lie,
be one and the fame thing, and cannot be feparated nor.
put afunder ; this is juft as inconfiftent and unguarded a way
* See discourses already hinted at, p. 17, 1 S.

.( 52 )
a way of fpeaking, as if 1 fhould fay wherever idlenefs
is, there thpft is, and wherever theffis, there detection
is, and wherever detection is, there , the gallows is,
and wherever the gallows is, there hell is ; fo that
whether you fpeak pf idlenefs, theft, detection, the gal.-
lows, or hell, you fpeak of one and the fame thing, as it
is impoffible to divide them. Ariy one with half an eye
in his head, can fee the lopfe unguarded manner in
which this ftring pf diftinft circumftances are fancifully
and erroneoufiy blended together. Who the devil is,
whether he was once a nran, as the Baron fays, or made
of fire, as Manomet feys, what are the extent of his
powers, and how far he influences the actions of moral
agents, are queftions to which fatisfaetory anfwers have
never yet been given.
The niceft metaphyfician will find it difficult to draw
the line between -what a man does by his own animal
and rational powers, and what he does by the power
of the devil. It is true that the fcriptures fpeak of
the devil (or an adverfary) tempting men to fin, but to
infer from hence, that the deyil that tempted, and the
fin which was the confequence of that temptation, and
hell or puriifhment, which is the confequence of that
fin, are numerically one, and cannot be divided, is juft
^s.a.bfurd as to fey, that revenge, murder, and the pun-
ifhmenf for murder, are one and the fame thing.
Into the belief of fuch unmeaning expreffions have
many of his followers been led by his flattering their
vanity, or rather their ignorance, in telling them that
in all and every part of the Word there is an internal
_ fenfe contained within the literal. But had he chofen
to write about the fcripture as their own internal evi
dence dictates, he Would have told hie readers that the
word abounds with many rhetorical' exornatiaris, types,
and figures, and that many words are diftorted from
their literal and primitive fenfe, to exprefs under a
figure what is only emblematically meant thereby.
v The epithet of figurative (not internal) which we apply
to fuch a mode of inftruction, is perhaps borrowed from
the fcience of arithmetic, which is expreffed by figures.
that is, by figns correfponding to thofe numerical ideas .
which we wifh to afcertain in our mind. For inftance,
the figure 4 is not actually that number, but only a
mark or fign correfponding to that number. Here
is actually the number four]) I | thefe we juftly fay are
four ftrokes, but the figure 4 is only a mark or fymbol
expreffive of thofe ftrokes, or any other thing of an
equal quantity.
To

( 53 >
To apply this mode of reafoning to the explanation
of the fcripture,
David fays, Pfalms lxxxiv. 11. God is a fun and a
fhield ; to fay that there is any internal fenfe here, is
wifhing to exprefs ourfelves lingular, merely for the
love of Angularity, and to fay that it is to be utlderftood
literally, is a grofs miftake, but we are to underftand it
figuratively, and the figures from which we are to learn
its import are the fun and a fhield. The fun being the
fountain of vegetable exiftence, and exhilerating by his
beams the whole animal world, is here made ufe of as
a figure to defcribe the goodriefs and providence of
God, as the author and giver of every good- and perfect
gift to man. The fhield * is another figure, borrowed
from an ancient piece of defenfive armour, made of
light wood, or hides doubled into feveral folds} and
fortified with plates of metal ; this the' foldier always
held in his left-hand, to ward off the weapons of the
enemy from his body. So that to fay God" is a fhield,
is to fay in a figure that he defends from thofe dangers
we could not forefee nor avoid ; and when we fay that
he is both a fun and fhield, we mean by thefe metaphors
that "the Almighty gives us thofe bleffings which we enT
joy, and wards off many dangers and evils from us
which we could not dp of ourfelves. But from^he fcrip
ture faying that God is a fun, to infer from hence, as
the Baron does, that the Lord actually appears in hea
ven as a fun before the right eye, and as a moon before
the left, THeaven and Hell, p. 116) is an affertion fitter
to be iriferted in Ovid's Metamorphofis, than iri a fys-
tem of religious knowledge for men to believe. Again-,
to fay that the helmet, greaves, fpear, target, and fhield
of Goliah, mentioned in hiftorical detail, were not lite
ral, but fpiritual or'celeftial armour, and that Goliah only
fignifies fome church, or evils and falfes, is as ridiculous
and abfurd as it would be in one to think that the
breaft-plate, helmet, fword, andfhield, which Paul bids
the chriftian take (Eph.vi. 13) are literally and abfolutely to

* Homer describes the use of the shield, in his account of the
combat between Hector artd Ajax, thus :
" He said, and rising high above the field,
" Whirl'd the long lance against the seven-fold shield,
" Full on the brass, descending from above,
*' Through six bull hides the furious weapon drove,
" Till in the seventh it fixed. Then Ajax threw
" Thro' Hector's shield the forceful jav'lin flew,
" From their bor'd shields the chiefs their jav'lins drew,
" Then close impetuous, and the charge renew." lliti, B. 7.

"( 54 )
to be made out righteoufnefs, the gofpel, faith, and
falvation. So much for the affected obfcurity of the Baron's
writings.

SECT. VI.
Containing a Catalogue of Contradictions.

ANOTHER evidence of the Baron's writings being
the inventions of his own mind, and not the in-
fpiration of heaven, is the numerous contradictions and
inconfiftencies that appear where his fancy has out-run
either his judgment or his memory.
Take the following as a fhort fpecimeri.
The Lord is in man. The The Lord is not in man.
Lord and hell fight in man, Evil prevents the Lord's
and contend for dominion entrance into man, for evil
over him. Univerfal The- is hell, and the Lord is
ology, No. 546. heaven, and heaven and
hell are oppofites. Doctrine
of Life, New Jerufalem,
p. 29.
REMARKS.
If evil be hell, how comes it to keep the Lord and
heaven out of man ? is it becaufe it may chance to get
the firft poffeffion, or is it that after having fought in
man for fome time, hell gets the better, and forces heaven
to retreat, and prevents it in future from entering into
a poffeffion from which it has already been diflodged ;
or is it by mutual compact that fome men are given up
to hell, and fome up to heaven, and confequently none
can enter the dominions of the other ; but this it can
not be, otherwife how could both fight in man for do
minion. But what furprifes us moft is, that after all
this

( 55 )
this fighting and contending of heaven and hell for do
minion over man, the Baron fhould tell us (Univerfal
Theology, Nos. 356, 357) that man hath power to pro
cure faith and charity for himfelf.
The Tree of Life, &c.
The tree of life fignifies The tree' of life fignifies
love, the tree of knowledge the Lord in man, the tree
faith *. of knowledge fignifies man
not in the Lord.

REMARKS.
This paradox may perhaps be reconciled by telling
telling us, that there are as many different meanings in
thefe two trees, as there were different leaves hanging
on their boughs. md wife.
Hufband arid wife figni
fy evils and falfes.
Trinitarians may be in
heaven. There are many
perfons, who, during their
abode in the world, through
fimplicity and ignorance
have imbibed falfes as to
faith; but have not lived
in adulteries, &c. Thefe,
in another life, fo long as
they are principled in what
is falfe, cannot be intro
duced into the heavenly
focieties, left they fhould
defile them. Thefe are kept
fome time in the lower
earth, and inftructed in the
truths of faith, and are af
terwards taken up to hea
ven. Arcana Celeftia, No.
1106.
* It has been remarked in its proper place that those extracts from
the Baron's works which appear here, were first transcribed by the
author into a common place book, without any view of laying them
before the public, and as he is convi^ed that the substance of every
paragraph is strictly just, to an intelligible reader, this, and having
returned the originals to their owners, will account for some extracts
having no references, as also for any figure that should accidentally be
found wrong. REMARKS,

Hufband ,
Hufband and wife figni
fy truth and goodness.
Trinitarians cannot be in
heaven. To implant in chil
dren and young people the
idea of three divine per
fons, to which is unavoida
bly annexed the idea of
three gods, is to deprive
them of all fpiritual milk,
and afterwards of all fpirit
ual meat, and laftly of all
fpiritual rationality, the
confequence of which is
fpiritual death (eternal
damnation I fuppbfe he
means) to all thofe who
confirm themfelves in fuch
an opinion. Univerfal The
ology, No. 23.

( 56 )

REMARKS.
As children and young people areof all others the
moft fufceptible of wrong ideas and falfes as to faith,
how the confequence can be fpiritual death, and yet
after a little time to get into heaven, is left for New
Jerufalem logic to reconcile.

Heaven and hell-is ajlate
ef permanency. Spirits know
each other in the fpiritual
world, but not in heaven
and hell', becaufe in the
fpirtual world they are juft
as in the natural world, but
afterwards all are perma
nently fixed in one ftate.
Heaven and Hell, No. 148.

Heaven and hell not a
ftate of permanency . A fpir-<
it oflce told the Baron that
he was caft out of heaven
by Michael's angels, and
became an angel of the
dragon, becaufe he was a
Trinitarian. Univerfal The
ology,. No. 110.

REMARK S.
How a fpirit can be permanently fixed in heaven,
and yet hurled out of it the next day, becaufe he em
braced in this life, and had been confirmed in the 'belief
that God the Father and God the Son, were not one,
but two perfons, I cannot poffibly reconcile, without
making ufe of fuch quirks and quibbles as would appear
ridiculous in any other argument.
N, B. According to the Baron's fcheme, all fpirits
at firft go into a place which he is pleafed to term the
"fpiritual world, and after a fhort time are conveyed to
heaven or hell. ,

Selief Unalterable after
death. After death no one
has it iri his power to alter
the belief which he hath
impreffed ih his mind, by
arguments of confirmation ;
it remaineth fixed, and
Cannot be rooted out, efpe-
cially as to what relateth
to God. Univerfal The
ology.

Not unalterable. Luthet
is rifen again, and hath re
nounced his. errors refpefct-
irigjuftificatioivbyafaithin three divine perfons front
eternity ,andin confequence
thereof is tranflated into
the fociety of the bleffed
in the new heaven. Uni
verfal Theology, No. 137.

REMARK S.
^.s Luthef, with all the order of Auguftirie friars to
whpm.

( 57 )
which he belonged, was a Trinitarian before as well as
after he left popery, how he could alter his opinions
after death, if fo be that belief remains fixed and can
not be rooted out a.s to what relateth to God, may ap
pear to the Baron's followers a confiftent truth, but I
confefs it appears to me a perfect contradiction.
No wives in hell. A An
gle fatan * and a woman
once came from hell to fee
the Baron at his lodgings.
The woman could affume
all habits and figures of
beauty, like a Venus, or
princely virgin. The Bar
on asked the fatan, if fhe
was his wife ? Satan re
plied, what is a wife ? we
do not know the meaning
of the word, fhe is my
harlot. Univerfal Theolo
gy, No. 80.
REMARKS.
Perhaps this contradiction may be afcribed to the ig
norance of the fatan who. favoured the Baron wjith a
vifit, he not being acquainted with all the various or
ders and forms in the different hells. Indeed Mr.
Swedenborg, in his Univerfal Theology, gives fuch
fcandaloufly obfeene accounts of brothels and harlots,
&c. &c. being in hell, as are fitter for the licentious
pages of a Rochefter, or a Buckingham, than for a fys-
tem of religious inftruction to prepare men for the
kingdom of heaven.

Wives inhell. The wick
ed fpirits, when they are
brought into hell, are
brought into a cavern,
where there are harlots,
and the noviciate fpirit is
permitted to take one to
himself, and call her his
wife. Univerfal Theology,
No. 281".

Harlots in hell can beau
tify themfelves. The female
fatan, who, with her infer-

Harlots cannot -beautify
themselves. Those judges,
who on earth perverted

nal paramour, paid a morn- judgment, their office in
ing vifit once to the Baron, hell is to prepare vermili-
could change herfelf at on, and mix it into a paint,
pleas- I to
* The reader is desired to take notice of a very important discov
ery of the Baron's, concerning the infernal system. " The satans,"
he tells us, " are those who have lived in falses, and consequent evils,
and the devils are those whp have lived in evils, and consequent
falses." Universal Theology, No. 281. But I have not found out in
his writings what the Belzebubs and the Lucifers are; however, if
we might hazard an analogical conjecture, perhaps the Belzebubs are
those who have lived in the essence of evils, which is falses, and the
J»ueifefs those who have lived in the form of falses, which is evils.

( 5» )
pleasure into all forms and to bedaub the faces of har-
figures of beauty. Uni- lots, and give them the
versal Theoolgy, No. 80. outward appearance of
beauty. Universal Theo
logy, No. 332.
REMARKS.
The Baron is like an eel among your hands, for when
you think you have found out fome. uniformity in his
fyftem, down comes there another memorable relation,
and like a Penelope's web undoes in one page what has
been done in the other. All the remarks I shall
make on thefe indelicate paffages, is to promife the
reader not to offend him with any more immodeft ex
tracts of this kind from the Baron's works, which,
whoever looks into Nos. 570, 488, and 798, of hi,s Uni
verfal Theology, but particularly into No. 388, will
find fuch encouragement to lewdness under the veil of
a pretended revelation frbm heaven, as in my judgment
has amoral tendency to promote licentioufnefs, inftead
of godlinefs, in the minds of the young and unprin-.
cipled part of mankind who may read them.
Adam was the wiftft of Adam was not the firft of
mankind. -mankind.
Adam and his wife, the Adam was not the firft -
wifeft of mankind, fuffer- of men, but by Adam and
ed themfelves to be fedu- his wife is reprefentatively
ced by the ferpent, and defcribed the firft church.
their firft-born Cain flew Univerfal Theology, Nq.
his brother Abel. Uni- 520.
verfal Theology, No. 479. This fact, he tells us, he
has demonftrated elfewhere
in his heavenly myfteries.
REMARKS.
If the Baron allows Adam to be the wifeft of men,
which the fcriptures no where affert, and denies him to
be the firft of men, which the Bible pofitively fays he
was (fee 1 Cor. xv. 45, 47) how fhall we poor ignorant
creatures act in fuch a dilemma; here is revelation
againft revelation, and the Baron's gofpel againft Chrift's
gofpel ; as no man can ferve two mafters, fo no man can
believe two contradictive revelations, without holding
to the one, and difregarding the other. But this is not
the only paffage where the Baron, as with the authority
of an angel from heaven, would have us to receive an
other gofpel than that which we have received ; for it
is

( 59 )
is a maxim with him, to affert what the fcripture de-
nies, arid to deny what the fcripture afferts.
God will give no more rev- God has given more reve-
tiations. It is not accord- tations. The Lord appear
ing to the divine order ed to the Baron, and faid,
that man fhould receive in- " I am God the Lord, the
ftruction from heaven by Creator and Redeemer; I
any other writings than have'chofen thee to explain
the fcriptures, as these are to men the interior and
the inftituted means of fpiritual •fenfe of the facred
communication between writings : I will dictate to
heaven and earth, and thee what thou ought to
therefore between the Lord write." Anecdotes, p. 29.
and man. Heaven and See alfo Univerfal Theolo-
Hell, No. 258. ' .gy, No. 735.
What unaccountable affertions are thefe, to'declare with
one breath, that God dictated to him what he fhould write
for man's inftruttion, and with the next to declare that
God would give us inftructions from heaven by no other
writings than the fcriptures ; for his writings mention
hundreds of particulars of which the fcriptures give us
no intimation, and affert many things which the fcrip
tures abfolutely deny. For inftance, the Bible is en
tirely filent on the following particulars : That devils
and angels were once men— -that Calvinifts are driven
out of heaven, and have churches in hell1 — that Satans
plunder the heavens — that married people quarrel in
the other world — that Dutchmen are living on one
fide of the ftreet in heaven, and their wives on the
other — that tables are in heaven for burftifig in explo- -
fions on thofe who lay too much ftrefs on faith — that
errors are in heaven^that infants are baptifed in hea
ven — that the Lord appears in heaven as a fun before
the right eye, and as a moon before the left. Now on
all thefe modern difcoveries of the Baron's the fcriptures
are quite filent.
But this is not all ; not fatisfied with advancing what
the fcriptures do not inform us of, he even takes upon
him to deny feveral effential truths, which the Word of.
God pofitively afferts :
FOR INSTANCE,
The B&ronfays, The Bible fays,
Adam was not the firft The firft man Adam was
man. Univerfal Theolo- made a living foul. 1 Cor.
gy, No. 520. xv. 45.
The The

( 60 )

The Baron fays,
They marry in heaven
for the prolification of
goods and truths.
There fhall be no refur
rection. Univerfal Theo
logy, No. 693.
There never was a flood
of water that drowned the
antideluvians. Arcana Ce-
leftia. The damned in hell are
fometimes admitted into
heaven. There never will be a fu
ture nor general judgment.
Chrift will never come
again to judge the world.

The devils are atheifts.
Univerfal Theology, No.
77- God's effence is divine
. love and divine wifdom.
The Lord riot only re
deemed men, but angels
alfo. Univerfal Theology,
No. 121.

The Bible fays,
In heaven they neitheif
marry, nor are given in
marriage. There fhall be a refur
rection, both of the juft
and of the unjuft.
The flood came and
fwept them all away. Mat.
xxiv. 39.
There is a great gulph
fixed, over which they can
not pafs to that bleffed
place. Luke xvi. 26.
We muft all appear be
fore the judgment feat of
Chrift. 2 Cor. v. 10.
Chrift will come in the
glory of his Father, to ren
der to every man according
to his works. Mat. xvi. 27.
The devils believe and
tremble. James ii. 1 9.
Touching the Almighty
we cannot find him out.
Job, xxxvii. 23.
He took not on him the
nature of angels, but the
feed of Abram, and the
angels who kept not their
firft eftate, he hath referved
in everlafting chains. Heb.
ii. 16. Jude 6.
There is a great gulph
fixed. So that they who
would pafs from hence to
you cannot. Luke xvi. 26.

The good angels are in
hell, prefiding over and
modifying the punifhment
of the wicked. Arcana
Celeftia, No. 967.
What the late pious and ingenious Mr. Hervey faid
of one of his opponents, may, with a fmall variation, and
ftill greater propriety, be applied to the Baron. " It is
no matter whether he contradicts either himfelf or the
Bible, providing he does but contradict." For if thefe
be not contradictions of the moft glaring and palpable
nature, we may at once begin and invert all the ideas

( 61 )
We have attached to our words, and fay that noon-day
fignifies midnight darknefs, and that every enthufiaft
and impoftor from the days of 'Simon Magus fo Baron
Swedenborg, have fpoken nothing to the world but the
words of truth and fobernefs.
To perfons determined at all events to fanction any
abfurdity, however glaring, this farrago may perhaps be
confidered as perfectly confiftent and harmonious, but
to a mind not catched through the pompous, but un
meaning combination of fentences in his writings, they
will appear both contradictory and unintelligible. And
an additional proof that fuch a jumble of inconfiftencies
could never originate with a God of order and confum-
mate wifdom, but are the productions of a mind either
labouring under the misfortune of intellectual derange
ment, or what is ftill more to be lamented, intention
ally fent forth to lead captive filly minds, by fpeaking
lies in hypocrify. Indeed the whole that can be faid of
Mr. Swedenborg's writings, may be drawn within this
narrow compafs — either his works are an exprefs revela
tion from God — or they are written under the influence
of a difordered mind — or they are written, like the im
poftor Mahomet's, with an intention to impofe upon and
deceive the world. .That they are not a revelation from
God, I think I have already proved to a demonstration,
fo far as ever we have been taught in what manner to
judge ofthe credibility of a divine million. As to the fee- '
ond 1 allow it is poffible, but indeed very improbable,
that a man for twenty-feyen years fhould be under the in
fluence of fuch a delufion. With regard to the laft I am
not obliged to anfwer it; let it fuffice, thatlhavefhown
he had no command from God to publifh thefe works as a
revelation from heaven. The heart of man is deceitful
above all things, who can know it? The tranfition
from enthufiafm to impofture is very eafy. " The energy
of a mind, ftill bent on the fame object, may convert a
general obligation into a particular call, and the warm
fuggeftions of the underftanding, or the fancy, may be
confidered as the infpiration of heaven ; the labour of
thought may expire in rapture and vifion, and the in
ward fenfations and invifible monitor may be defcribed
with the form and attitudes of an angel of God. From
raptures of imagination to intentional impofture, the
ftep is perilous and flippery : the demon of Socrates
affords a memorable inftance how a wife man may de
ceive himfelf, how a good man may deceive others, how
the confeience may flumber in a mixed and middle ftate
between felf-illufion and voluntary fraud *." Whether the
* Gibbon,

( 62 )
the writings of Mr. Swedenborg be the effects pf en-
thufiafm or impofture, or of both, I will not take upon
me to determine ; but that either a heated imagination,
or a fraudulent intention has produced them, I as firmly
believe as I believe in my own exiftence, nor do I hefi-
tate.in declaring them, after a very careful perufal, to
be a moft fhameful corruption of Chriftianity, and a
grofs perverfion of thaf revelation which God has made
of his mind to the world.

( 63 )

SECT. VII.
Containing Remarks on Mr. Swedenborg' s calling
his Followers The New Jerufalem Church.
PERHAPS few theological ftratagems have been
more unhappily fuccefsful in fearing weak and
timid minds from fearching after truth, and judging ac
cording to the conviction of their own underftanding,
than the method adopted by religious parties, of culling
from the facred code, oir vocabulary of their own lan
guage, fome popular phrafe or fentence, and theti ap
propriating it to their own party as their exclufivq
privilege. Complimenting themfelves with fuch honorary ap
pellations, and their diffenting brethren with thofe epi
thets of degradation which are oppofed to them, have
given rife to fuch local, arbitrary, and ambiguous phrafes
as catholic and heretic — rational and irrational — church
man and fchifmatic— orthodox and heterodox, &c. terms
ufed by too many who deny or profefs the ideas implied
therein, without ever flopping to examine the fyftem
alluded to, but are either decoyed into, or frighted
from fuch tenets, according as their different watch
words have chanced at firft to found favourable or un
favourable in their ears.
This error among Chriftians, has made a much greater
progrefs in the world than perhaps we are aware of, be
caufe few, otherwife good men, are \Villing to fee fuch
artifice in their own party, though moft complain of its
being ufed by their opponents, and he would certainly
do an effential fervice to the Chriftian religion, who
could perfuade the defenders of its refpective parts, not
to addrefs trie pajfions of men by fuch equivocal phrafes,
but appeal to their under ftandings, by the ufe of fuch
terms as are allowed by- their adverfaries, as well as
their admirers *.
Mr. Swedenborg therefore availing himfelf of the
wonderful
1 * I allow that it is requisite to make use of some term of distuic-
tion, in order to characterize one religious society of Christians from
another, but I contend that those epithets should have no pomp nor
parade in their sound; because they will on that account be the end less

( 64 )
wonderful efFe&s which fuch popular and high found
ing epithets have in all ages produced on fuperficial and
half-thinking minds, has been pleased to diflinguifh
his adherents by the name, ftile, and title of the New
Churchy or New Jerufalem Church, borrowing this appel
lation, as Barclay did that of Berean, from a text of
fcripture in the New Teftament, and it muft be cou-
fefled that he and his followers have improved on the
hint
less source of litigation and wrangling with those who refuse us the
exclusive use of such fulsome and self-created titles. For instance,
for a religious society to call themselves an Episcopal, Presbyterian,
or Independent church, is. a proper, and no wise unbecoming appel
lation, for it only imports that you prefer one of these modes of
church government to another, without flinging any stigma on those
with whom you do not associate, and what is still more, there is none of
the other two but will allow you the undisturbed possession of such
a designation, Farther, I see no impropriety when contemplating
the different hypothesis of Athanasius and Arius, of Calvin and Armin-
ius, for any society of men to caH themselves Athanasians, Arians,
Calvinists, or Arminians, as they favour either of the systems of those
far-famed and eminently distinguished theologians. But to assume an
honorary appellation, which the followers of Confucius or Zoroaster
have as good a claim to as any society in England, and which no de
nomination of.Christians admits us to enjoy, but as usurpers, appears
to the sober part of mankind as ridiculous as for a man to take the de
signation of a lord, a earl, or a duke, a title which everyone knows he has
no right to assume, and which none gives him but as a term of derision,
and in order to chastise his vanity. 1 herefore all such self-created titles
as Unitarian churches, Gospel churches, Berean churches, orthodox*
churches, or New Jerusalem churches, as every one of them flings an
indirect stigma on those without the pale of their own party, and are
allowed by none but such as exclusively appropriate such epithets to
themselves ; they ought to be exploded, and the Christian church no
longer torn in pieces with such inflammatory and party-coloured
phrases, to whose acceptation it would be as difficult to fix a universal
standard, as to the terms sedition, 'heresy/ or witchcraft,' and are
just as well calculated to make a proselyte from the sect of Ali to
Omar among the Turks, as to give a weak and unfurnished mind bet-T
tcr information concerning the Christian religion.
Although there are points commonly implied in some of the fore
going epithets, tQ which I solemnlyvdeclare my unfeigned belief, yet
1 can never think it just nor honourable to establish them by such un
handsome insinuations as these terms throw out against my fellow-
servants, and as I cannot pretend to perfection either in knowledge
or practice, as an honest man wishing to do to others as I would be
done to, I could no more send abroad such unqualified terms into the
world, as the badges of my party, than I could call them the holy
church, the righteous church, or the humble church.
* So difficult is it to ascertain who are orthodox, or who are heter
odox, by a party's arbitrarily assuming or disavowing these phrases,
that I have found the most staunch Socinians of the age dubbing the
translators of our Bibles with a heterodox scheme of the. Christian
religion, and calling Trinitarians heretics and apostates. This I men-r
tion purely to show the folly of any society of Christians appropriating
such indefinite phrases to themselves. See a treatise on the attributes and
worship of God, &c. by Hopton Haynes, Esq. page 40 and.-i 54.

( 6S )
hir* to a wonderful advantage, by prefixing a few fcrip
ture names to the term church, and the Aiming and' chim
ing of fuch compound words, artfully concluding with
their own favourite defignation, has been highly flatter
ing to the vanity of thofe who are for>d of the marvel
lous, and love'things unintelligible for their edification.
_ In order to paVe the way for the/ undifputed' admis
sion of this popular title, the Barort often takes care to
have it linked with fuch former difjtenfations of God,
as by way of analogy may moft eafily conciliate the ap
probation of his readers. Accordingly you frequently hear
him and his admirers defcanting on the Adamic church —
the Noahatic church — the Abramatic church— the Ifraeli-
tijk church — theChriftian church — and the Ne wjferufalem
church*. Here the New Jerufalem Church being found,
as it were, in good company, gaffes with many for the le
gitimate companion, or fucceffor of thofe with whom fhe
is fo artfully enrolled. But though fhe is reported to have
-come down from heaven, like a bride'adorned'to meet her
bridegroom, let not the elegance pf her dress, nor the
honourable company with whoti fhe affefts to affociate,
fafcinate our judgments from enquiring whether fhe be
of celeftial birth, or a fpurious bantling, the mother of
faints, or the mother of harlots, or whether fhe has- deri
ved her origin, as one of the Baron's tranflators remarks,
" from the Father of lights, or the Father of lies."
The city of jerufalem is eminently diftinguifhed in
fcripture, as being the metropolis of Paleftine, the feat
or confluence of all the true worfhippers of God, for
more than a thoufand years. It was there that the
Sjhecinah, or Divine Prefence was exhibited, and all
the facred apparatus belongirig to the temple fervice
depofited. From this city it was that the apoftiesfirft
fet out, by exprefs command, to preach the everlafting
gofpel of Chrift. Thus dignified and highly honoured
as jerufalem was, it became, in the language or prophecy,
a term made ufe of to denote great bleffings ana feli
city ; juft as Babylon is ufed to defcribe trouble, perfe-
cution, and diftrefs, the one being the end and portion
of good men, the other pf bad.
Accordingly we find, the prophets, fpeaking of jefu-
falem, and the bleffings prefigured thereby, with all the
ardour and glow of facred eloquence. David defcribes
the happinefs of God's people, under the fimilitude' of
the Lord's building up jerufalem, Pf. cxlvii. 2. Ifaiah,
by his making it a praife, lxii. 7, and rejoicing, lxv. .18,
Jeremiah calls it the thfone of the Lord, iii. 17.' and
fpeaking of gofpel times, tells us, fhe fhall dwell fafely;
Kxxiii. 16. Joel alluding to the fame period, fays that
K ' fhe
* See page 8.

( 66 )
fhe fhall be holy, iii.17; And the prophet Zechariah,
who dwelt with peculiar pleasure on the happiqefs of
God's' people, under the ffmilitude .of, this famous city,
compares their felicity £0 living waters going put from
ferufatemi xiv. 8. and its citizens fafely inhabited, v'er.
U. asnd every veffel therein ho|inefs.Lp the Lord, v., 81.
And fpeaking of the fame periods he calls it, a fountain, 0-
pened to the inhabitants ol.ferufalem. Npr are (the New
Teftament propheti lefs careful to ufe this figurative al-
lufion, than the Old. St. John, the amarvuenfis of pu,r
bleued Lord, alfures, u's, that thofe who are fajfthful wn-
to death, fhall have a dlftinguifhed feat in the paiadjifie,
of God, which in allufion to the Old city, thatjiad for
merly rnanifefied the Divine Power and Prefence,, hs
chara^hirifes as the New Jerufa'lem. And St. Paul, when
foeaking of the mildnefs and lenity of the gofpel, and
the .gentle manner in which it was promuigated,,wheq
compared to the' " fire and bla.cknefs, darknefs an4
JSempeff.," which accompanied the giving of the lawj
carries his thoughts back to Mount Zion,, on which
4he temple antiently ftood, and recollecting that-Jeru-
felem was by way of eminence termed the City of God,
he terms the bleffings pf the gofpel, Mouit Zionjpx die
City of the Living God, or the Heavenly J~erufaL&n,,3& or
which are fynonimous figures, Heb. xii, 32. And after
St. John had given as it were a prophetical hiftory of
the church of Chrift in the Revelations, and had brought
her through all the trials and perfecutiqns to which fhe
has already been (or ftill continues to be) expofed, he
conducts, her at laft to thofe regions of felicity, where
the wicked ceafe frpm troubling, and where the weary
axe at reft, which in the.ufual figurative ftile of pro^
phecy lie calls a holy city, a high mountain, New J-erufa-
lem, the great City or Hohjftrufalem *, Rev. xxi. a, 10.
Mr. Swedenborg, catching at this laft-quoted paffage,
p*effes it into the iervice.of his fyftem, and contends
that it alludes to his memorable relations; and new arcana,
which he fays was fent down from heaven for him, to
publifh +, and that thofe who believe and receive this
arcana,
* See also those prophecies which speak of troubles and punish-
mentr, under the figure of Babylon, Rev. xiv. 8. xvi. 19. xvii. 5.
and xviii. a, 10, 21.
+ Among the many memorable relations told by the Baron, I cannot
resist the ,deSife of entertaining the reader with the following, whicli
is net the least carious af the number. Universal TTheology,
No. 848, 'The angels wrote the Arcana ih heaven, and let it down
once to the natural world, and it fell amongst assemblies of learned
clergy and laity, many of whom were heard to mutfer words to this
effect: "What have- we got here? Is it any thing oi- nothing? What
nutters it whether we know these things, or do not know them?
Surely they are the offsprinjfjrf jfsagiaatton, or a disordered brain ?"
And

< *7 0
atcana, fhall be called the New jferufakm Church, and
that all other churtha fhall be f-waflowed up by thjs
new difpenfation, arid fhall give place to it ; for as the
Jewiih difpenfation gpve way to the Chriftian, fo fhall
the C'htrfhan difpenfation to the difcoveries made by
the Baron.
• Now fuppoTing us willing to allow this affertion to
be as near truth as it poffibly can, it' ftill wants thofe
collateral evidences which are both to precede and fol
low after it, for •prior .to this New Jerufalem's appear
ing, the dead, fmaTl and .great, are to be judged, xx. lg.
thefea is to .give tip its dead, ver. 13. the wicked are to
be caftinto a lake of fire, which is the fecond death,
ver. 15 and then the new heavens and the new earth ,is
to appear, in which dwelleth righteoufnefs, bepftufe-. the
earrti, and the works that are therein fhall be burned
xtp, 2 Pet. in. 12. then, and not till then, fhall this rkm
heaven, or 'New Jerufdlem, predicted by the prophet,
make its appearance.
But another de'fe'£tion of this New Church p'f tlie tBar-
on's is, that it by no means correfponds with th*t ftate
of felicity promifed to the inhabitants of the New ferp-
falem, or holy city, for it fays God fhall wipe away
all tears 'from their eyes^ and among .them -there ifhall be
no mdre deatli, npr forrow, npr crying, ,npr .pain.
Are the Swedenborgians exemptedfrpijii thefe calami
ties attending on humanity, anymore than we the mem
bers of the Old Church, who lay (flaim to no fuch exclu
sive privileges ? .with regard to their moral ftate, they
feem juft like cither people, fome of them ?re virtuous,
and fome vicious, "fome pious, and fome prpphane. As
to their domeftic ftate, there feems to be among them
the fame plenty and poverty, happine'fs and mifery,
' which others experience, juft as they in general are fo-
ber and induftrious, or idle and intemperate. In fine,
no calamity, from the cradle to the grave, attacks other
people, from which fhe Barpn's followers feem to be
exempted. An evident proof fhat the monopoly of this
pompous title (as many others of a like kind), is a
mere arbitrary ufurpation of a word, which a.s it belongs - to
And after treating it with indignity, the angels were ordered to tajte
it up again, which affected the-angels with sorrow.' Can any man read
this plain narrative, without.asking, .where was. this assembly sitting ?
of what members was it composed ? .have any of the then, ^r^sent
members attested this to be a'fact? I hoDe they are are not aj^ dead,
• as their united attestations would go a great-way to confirm us in the
belief of this new arcana.' He cannot say it was only in tjie spiritual
world, for he tells us that it passed through the spiritual, into the
natural world. It would have Wonderfully confirmed -the Baron's
visions, had he got this narrative attested by the members of that as
sembly.

( 68 )
' f.6 every one, belongs to no .brie; and, "as it belongi tp.no
one, it is the higheft arrogance for anyone .many or feft
of men, to lay art exclufiye claim to it..
St. John's New, Jerufalem, and the Baron's, differ as
widely? from each other, as the Baron's mode of ex
pounding the fcripture, does from that of Jefus Chrift's.
Every thing in the ftate which John defcribes, Cbrre-
fponds to the .idea which we form of heavenly happi-
nefs— no {ymy^br moon — nor temple* — nor gates —
nor candle are wanted— as to the felicity of the inhab
itants, every thing that now hurts or annpys^fhall be
removed, neithererying — nor tears — nor pain — nor death
fhall approach them, becaufe all thofe things fhall be
done away.
Confequehtly, till the Baron's friends fcanfhow us tjiefe
things actually exifting arriong them,, as ;a confirmation of
their verbal teftimony that they aire the holy city,£nd.New
' Jerusalem church alluded to-in'that paffage, they m^t^^s
well call themfelves the new Corinthiajt church, or t0^iiti
> * Ephesian church, or any other name of a t.oWn or iperfon
mentioned in the Holy Scripture, which they think* will
" Ifeve the moft mufical orporripous foundin the.ears^p^their
-admirers, for they have eqiially 'the fame right.(orjfather
: no/fight at all) tb the; one any more.'.thantofche.'oi^er.
. Upbn the whole, whether we confider the irrtpoftprs
" ahd;erithufiafts, who Kaye troubled the church of Chrift
^"frpmt'Me commencement of Chriftianity down tp/Mr.
* Swedenborg, or whs&ejv we cdnfider that gentleman's
ffet^nded vifipns in the celeftial and infernal rregibns.
is fanciful expofitions of the Bible, the unwarrantable
freedom which his* adherents ufe yrith.' that facred vok
U.nVe, his denying the refurreftion, the inexplicable ar-
* ra-ngemerit and affe&ed obfcurity of his writings,' his palT
fable contradictions, or the pompous and bombaftic tit^e
y which "he di-ftingnifhes Jtiis folio wers; whether' we
¦; \ coaffdter all' dr either of tKefe particulars, we may fee how
'».£ berien'rial the apoftle's advice is, not to believe every fpir
it who pretends to haVe been in heaven or in hell, learn
ing how to ffi'ftruft us, but, JO try them whether they be^
of God; juft as we did" Mofes and the prophets, Chrfft
L and his apoftles, becaufe many falfe prophets, of a frate
dulent or fanatic tujpi of mind, have from time i;o time r.
gone abVoad into the world, who by their pretended v'i-';
lions and enthufiaftic raptures, have deceived many.
* As Temples are abolished in the Nciy Jerusalem (see Rev. xxi. 2».')>
there" appears a great want of memory or,mc<desty?m.the Baron's fol- ;
, Ipweis.in not being satisfied with calling their assembly houses, asjo^j^.
cr Christians do, churches ar chftp'ds, ;bht aiming .at the sublime 1%
every thing, call them New Jefusalch Temples., _ , , •
FINIS. . -, •'

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