Page:A brief discussion of some of the claims of the Hon. E. Swedenborg.pdf/16

 Still it may be urged, that his profession cannot be true; for, if the system of theology, which he has announced, be divine, God would have revealed it long before. An objection of this kind is founded in ignorance concerning the laws of the divine providence. To dwell upon an answer, would be to attach to it much more importance than it deserves. If it had any weight, it would be equally forcible against the establishment of Christianity itself. In that case, the objection would stand thus: Christianity cannot be true; for, if the theological system of the Gospel be divine. God would have revealed it long before he did. On this head, then, more is not necessary to be said.

But we need not enumerate objections. Swedenborg has anticipated all that can be brought against his extraordinary professions; and he has either answered them, or furnished the principles of doing it. That he foresaw the difficulties, which, for a time, would obstruct the reception of his pretensions, is plain, from several passages which may be adduced from his writings. Thus, in his "Arcana Cœlestia," he says, "I am well aware of many objections which will be urged by a variety of persons; some insisting, that it is a thing impossible for any one to converse with spirits and angels during his life in the body; others, that such intercourse must be mere fancy and illusion; others, that I have invented such relations in order to gain credit; whilst others will indulge doubts and scruples of different sorts. All these objections, however, are of no weight with me; having seen, having heard, and having felt what I am about to declare." Now is it probable, that a man, who could so lucidly foresee objections to his claims, and state them with so much perspicuity, would have persisted in a career of falsehood? If his pretensions were not true, he must have known that such objections would be valid; that they would expose him to deserved ridicule and scorn: and would not this have operated so as to deter him from pursuing a course of detestable imposture, particularly as the circumstances associated with it would obviously promote its detection? His case cannot be accounted for upon any other principle than that of allowing his protestations to be true. Speaking of the facts he was about to relate concerning his intercourse with the spiritual world, he said, "Many will believe that they are fictions of the imagi-