Page:A brief discussion of some of the claims of the Hon. E. Swedenborg.pdf/10

 those who receive them, intelligence and virtue: for the precepts of truth are to teach men how to live. These doctrines encourage no one to hope for heaven who has not, in agreement with the opportunities afforded him, lived in conformity with its laws.

They who have classed him with such mean-minded and illiterate enthusiasts as Brothers, Muggleton, Reeve, Southcote, and that tribe of the victims of delusion, know not what they do. The receivers of such fanaticisms as they have propounded, just come into existence as such, exhibit their inconsideration, betray their folly, sink into neglect, and pass away. It is not so with Swedenborg. His writings are to be found in nearly all the civilized countries of the world; in most of the distinguished colleges of Europe and America, and in the libraries of the learned. They are spoken of with respect by the wise, and noticed in the literature of our times as being among the most extraordinary productions of theological erudition. Receivers of the doctrines, which he has been the instrument of announcing, are to be found among statesmen, poets, orators, judges, members of all the learned professions; the nobility, bishops, clergy of the establishment, and of most of the other denominations of Christians: and believers in them are continually enlarging their number, and we sincerely hope increasing their intelligence and piety.

The pretensions of Swedenborg then derive some evidence favourable to their truth from the unsullied excellence of his character, the effects of his writings, and their uniform tendency to make men wise and good.

But it will be said that these circumstances are but small proofs that he was commissioned by the Lord to announce his second advent to the world. But why are they small proofs? If the asseverations of a good and wise man are not to be credited, surely little reliance is to be placed upon the declaration of a bad man and a blockhead. Most commentators of any celebrity admit, that according to the prophecies of Scripture a period is to arrive in the Church when more enlightened views of doctrines and a purer practice of its principles, than at present prevail, are to distinguish it. Does it not follow, then, that some one is to be selected by the Lord, and illuminated by Him, for the purpose of making these known? They cannot be brought into existence, or obtain publi-