ART. VI. The True Christian Religion, containing the Universal Theology of the New Church, foretold by the Lord in Daniel vii. 13, 14, and in Revelations xxi, 1, 2. By EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. A New Translation from the original Latin Edition, printed at Amsterdam, in the year 1771. Boston: published by John Allen, 1833.

THE doctrines of Swedenborg are comprised in the following works: The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrines; Treatises upon the four principal Doctrines, that concerning the Lord, the Sacred Scripture Faith and Life, with a Treatise on the White Horse in the Revelation, and a Brief Exposition of the Doctrines of the New Church. This was the precursor of the work, the title of which stands at the head of this article, the last and most important publication of the author. It contains a general and regular summary of his doctrines, was written in Latin, and published at Amsterdam in 1771, the year before Swedenborg died. It was first translated into English by the Rev. John Clowes, and printed in 1781. Several editions were published in England, and one in this country. The copy before us is a new translation by the Rev. Mr. Worcester.

We shall attempt to give as fair and as intelligible an exposition of the general character of this work, as we have been able with our own comprehension to obtain for ourselves, by first analyzing its contents, exhibiting the opinions which it expresses upon prominent religious doctrines, as far as they are to any degree original, and then by considering more at length the general principles upon which it proceeds. We trust that if there should be any disciple of Swedenborg among our readers, he will pardon any misapprehension, and any uncharitable judgment with which he may think us chargeable. We are well aware how hard it is for any one to reject a system, and at the same time to give a fair exhibition of its character and evidence. But we must be allowed to say that our pre-judgement was in favor of the doctrines of the New Church. There was

an indefinite, but a most attractive idea of beauty and spirituality associated with them in our mind. Our inquiry has dispelled it, and left us much disappointed; but it has not excited in us anything of unwillingness, while denying much to allow much.

We proceed to analyze the contents of the work before us. Chapter I. treats of God, the Creator, His Being, Nature, and Attributes. The proofs of His existence are drawn from the teachings of Nature, the internal consciousness of men, which Swedenborg calls the Divine Influx from God into the soul, and from the Scriptures. The mysticism, which pervades all the author's works, is manifest in the first pages of this discussion. Thus the Scriptures teach that there is a God, he says, because they are themselves God, that is, in their inmost sense, they proceed from and treat of God. There is one striking characteristic in his writings, to which it may be well to draw attention now, as a remarkable exhibition of it occurs in this connexion. Swedenborg often makes a statement the truth of which all will admit; but he connects it in such a manner with his own alleged inspiration, that some readers would be at a loss to make a distinction. Of course, we do not now assert that this inspiration is only alledged, that question remains for examination. We refer to what appears to be an artful mixture of truth with that which as yet is not known to be so. Many readers may perhaps be ignorant of the common truths of religion and philosophy, which are to be met with in his writings; and as their minds are struck with an approbation of some of his statements, they may receive all that they find connected with them. Thus while stating the capacity of human reason to discover the Being and Unity of God, Swedenborg adduces many striking arguments from the visible universe, from the wonderful instincts of animals, from plants, &c., the same as are to be found in all the books on natural theology. But he states that these arguments were expounded by him, in one of his conversations with angels, when he illustrated the great doctrine to some newly arrived spirits from the natural world.

man.'

God's essence, he says, is made up of love and wisdom. He exists in a human form, that is, in the words of Hindmarsh, (letters to Priestley,) "he is truly and properly a Divine male man, and the angelic heaven created by Him is a grand female "This chapter contains some very good reasoning against the common doctrine of the Trinity. Swedenborg says he exposed its inconsistencies to three church dignitaries in the spiritual world. A bishop had a conversation there concerning it with him, and endeavored to explain it. Swedenborg objected that it made three Gods. As the Bishop and the dignitaries retired,, "the Bishop turned round and endeavored to exclaim, “There

is one God;' but as his thought drew back his tongue, he could not, and then with open mouth he breathed out three Gods.' Those who were standing by laughed at the strange sight and departed." (16*) The angels told Swedenborg that they could not even utter the word "gods," for the celestial aura in which they live opposes it. What he says of the absurdity of the doctrine is very plain and very true; but there is not a particle of novelty or of inspiration apparent in his language.

Chapter II. is concerning the Lord, the Redeemer, and Redemption. Swedenborg says that a Trinity of persons was not the faith of the primitive church. He insists on the unity of God, though he acknowledges a trinity which did not exist until after the mission of Christ. Jehovah descended from heaven and assumed the human form, that he might save men. This God incarnate is Jesus Christ. Redemption is "a battle with the hells, a subjugation of them, and afterwards an establishment of order in the heavens." To God belongs Creation, to the Lord Redemption, and to the Holy Spirit Divine Operation. The Lord the Redeemer is Jehovah in the human form. These are the different names in the Old and New Testaments for the same being. The godhead does not consist of three distinct persons exercising separate offices and operations, but the true scriptural idea of the Trinity of the Father, Son, and Spirit is this. By Father is understood the essential divine principle in the Lord Jesus, by Son, the human principle united therewith, and by Spirit, the Divine, proceeding, operating principle, formed from the union of the other two, and constituting one God man as the soul, body, and operation form one human man. God sent himself into the world in the human form, that is, as the son of God. He made himself righteousness by acts of redemption. We have then a symbolical illustration of some points in the history of Jesus. For instance, his betrayal by Judas signifies his rejection by the Jewish nation, for Judas represented that nation.

Chapter III. is concerning the Holy Spirit, and the Divine Operation. His views on this subject are similar to those which prevail among Unitarians. The spirit, or the internal man, is the mind, which is within the external man. Respecting the end to be attained by the Atonement or Reconciliation, Sweden

* The numbers connected with the extracts refer to the sections into which the book is divided.

borg's views are scriptural, that is, reasonable; but the same cannot be said of the means by which that end was to be obtained. The diseases and disorders occasioned by sin needed to be removed; a return to virtue was all the atonement or satisfaction which God required. How then was this to be obtained? It was necessary that God himself should come down among men, by taking upon him the human nature, and thus procure for himself the satisfaction he required. Swedenborg thus describes the process. (23.) "The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world that he might subdue the hells and glorify his humanity." God satisfied himself, and himself made atonement for the sin of man, by taking upon him the infirmities of human nature, and suffering in the flesh in order to remove the powers of evil from man, and to make himself visible by the humanity which he assumed. Swedenborg is exceedingly scandalized at the Calvinistic doctrines, and in one of his visits to the spiritual world he found the stern reformer himself suffering severe durance for having preached predestination. But it would seem that his objections to these doctrines were not founded on their unreasonableness.

Chapter IV. is concerning the sacred Scripture or the Word of the Lord. Chapter V. is an explanation of the internal and external sense of the decalogue. Of the latter chapter we shall presently speak at large.

Chapter VI. is concerning faith. The sum of faith is, that he, who lives well and believes aright, is saved by the Lord. Faith and charity cannot exist together unless they make one. There is much good sense in this chapter, but there is some little nonsense; as, for instance, the statement which he undertakes to prove, (362,) "That the Lord, Charity, and Faith make one, like life, will, and understanding in man; and that if they are divided each perishes, like a pearl reduced to powder."

Chapter VII., Charity, Love towards the Neighbor, and Good Works. "There are three universal loves; the love of heaven, the love of the world, and the love of self." There is in every man an internal man and an external man while he is on earth. The external of each man is here; the internal of the good is in heaven with angels, of the bad in hell, though they do not know it. After enumerating the various kinds of love, Swedenborg comes to "the Recreations of Charity," which are dinners, suppers, and parties. (433.) Loves and VOL. XXIV. -3D S. VOL. VI. NO. II.

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friendships formed on earth are detrimental after death, because they tie people together. The whole amounts to this, (458,) "That there is an influx of the love of God towards men, and that the reception of it by man, and coöperation with him, is love towards the neighbor."

Chapter VIII., Free Agency. Chapter IX., Repentance. Chapter X., Reformation and Regeneration. Swedenborg first cites the Augsburg Confession and refutes its doctrines on free agency, &c., and then explains his own doctrine, thus-"Man, while he lives in the world, is held in the middle, between heaven and hell, and there in spiritual equilibrium, which is free agency." (475.) Predestination, he says, is the "fœtus of the old doctrine." He sets out with the very sensible remark, that "Repentance is the first thing of the church with man.' Contrition is not repentance. It is begun by the knowledge of sin, and it is the restoration of order in man. The same idea in almost the same words is to be found in one of Massillon's sermons. "Penitence is only the reëstablishment of order in man, and man is only in order when he loves the Lord.”* The whole chapter on repentance is certainly reasonable, exposing the common errors which prevail concerning it, and showing that it is sincere only when it comes from the depths of the heart, and effectual only when it leads to immediate amendment. The doctrine of election makes no part of the creed of the new church. As far as we are able to understand what he says concerning reformation and regeneration, we should think his philosophy very reasonable, though it prevailed before he taught it. All men may be regenerated, because all have been redeemed. God in coöperation with man effects the new birth by charity and faith. The first act in the process is reformation, and this is of the understanding; the second is regeneration, which is of the will. (587.) The internal man is reformed first, and by it the external; this gives rise to a contest between the two. A man when regenerate, has a new will and a new understanding, and is in communion with the angels in heaven. Swedenborg says,-"Regeneration is effected comparatively as man is conceived, carried in the womb, born, and educated." He constantly refers to the correspondence between what is done naturally and what is done spiritually; consequently he gives us here the correspondence between

* Sermon, "On the Woman who was a Sinner."