Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/153

 Divine mercy of God Messiah I was afterward informed with regard to some, even many particulars. From these I was at last able to see that the Divine providence governed the acts of my life uninterruptedly from my very youth, and directed them in such a manner that by means of the knowledge of natural things I was enabled to reach a state of intelligence, and thus by the Divine mercy of God Messiah, to serve as an instrument for opening those things which are hidden interiorly in the Word of God Messiah."

Still later, Nov 11, 1766, he wrote to Oetinger—

"I was introduced by the Lord into the natural sciences, and thus prepared, and indeed from the year 1710 to 1744, when heaven was opened to me." And this he said was for the purpose—

"That the spiritual things which are being revealed at the present day may be taught and understood naturally and rationally; for spiritual truths have a correspondence with natural truths, because in these they terminate, and upon these they rest. . . . The Lord has granted me besides to love truths in a spiritual manner—that is, to love them, not for the sake of honor, nor for the