Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/24

 its truth; for wise and good men have sometimes embraced error,—yes, and clung to it with surprising tenacity. But the profound conviction of many such men, is, we think, a sufficient reason for giving their views a candid examination before pronouncing them erroneous. Our judgment is unintelligent, and therefore valueless, until we have carefully weighed the evidence which carried conviction to their minds. The Jews, when they crucified the Divine Saviour, knew not what they did. And Christians at the present day know as little what they do, when, without serious examination, or any weighing of the evidence, they reject and ridicule the disclosures made through the Swedish seer. May they not in this be imitating the example of the Jews more closely than they imagine?

But the very claim, we are told, which Swedenborg sets up—the claim to have enjoyed long and open intercourse with the spirits of deceased men, and to have been thereby enabled to reveal the arcana of the spiritual world, is of itself sufficient to stamp him as a deluded fanatic. It is assumed that such intercourse is impossible in the nature of things; and on the ground of this assumption. Christians proceed to justify themselves in their neglect to examine his disclosures. But if this be a sufficient justification, or if Swedenborg's claim alone be evidence of self-delusion, then what is to be said of Isaiah and Ezekiel and Paul and John and a host of ancient worthies? If the mere fact of his claiming open intercourse with spirits, is sufficient proof of mental aberration in his case, then why should not a similar claim be accepted as evidence of a similar men-