Page:A brief discussion of some of the claims of the Hon. E. Swedenborg.pdf/17

 nation; but I protest in truth that they are not fictions, but were truly done and seen; not seen in any state of the mind asleep, but in a state of full wakefulness; for it hath pleased the Lord to manifest Himself to me, and to send me to teach the things relating to the New Church, which is meant by New Jerusalem in the Revelation." Conjugial Love. No. 1.

This may be received as a bold announcement of his inspiration. If it be true, pious confidence was requisite to make it known. The prophets and others declare similar things of themselves; and their claims to be believed, like his, stand upon the authority of personal assertion. By what rule of criticism, then, are we to be guided in determining our belief or rejection of their respective claims? Certainly by that which directs the investigation of collateral evidence, particularly as it is contained in the documents they have written. We admit that there is one species of evidence proving the truth of the prophets declaration, which is wanting in the case of Swedenborg: that is, that their writings have an internal or spiritual sense, distinct from the letter, though manifested by it. Now this, the writings of Swedenborg have not; but then the want of this kind of testimony is compensated for by the fact, that Swedenborg is the person by whom this spiritual sense of the has been discovered, and by whom the laws which regulate that species of composition have been unfolded. He, therefore, on the other hand, has a kind of evidence, favouring the truth of his pretensions, which the prophets had not. He understood, and has revealed, the internal sense of what they wrote, and thus appears to have had an enlightened perception which the prophets did not always enjoy. On all hands it is confessed that they did not invariably comprehend the subject upon which the Divine afflatus impelled them to write. The Lord said to the multitude "that many prophets and righteous men desired to see those things which they saw, and had not seen them;" from which it is plain that they could not have had a perfect personal inspiration. Neither had the apostles, for they saw, but in part, and through a glass darkly. This, then, must be considered as a desideratum in the proceedings of the Divine economy, and which we think the case of Swedenborg sufficiently sup-