Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/233

 seen in the spiritual world concerning the states of men after death, of which ignorance makes a jest and derision. But he answered me that this did not depend on him; that he was too old to sport with spiritual things, and too much concerned for his eternal happiness to yield to such foolish notions; assuring me on his hopes of salvation that imagination produced in him none of his revelations, which were true and from what he had heard and seen."

In another letter Count Höpken recurs to the same point: speaking of a certain clergyman, he says—

"He was by no means a Swedenborgian, for he did not understand his 'memorable relations'; and I could wish the happy deceased had left them out, as they may prevent infidelity from approaching his doctrines. I represented to him these inconveniences; but he said that he was commanded to declare what he had seen in the other world; and he related it as a proof that he did not reveal his own thoughts, but that they came from above. As for the rest, I find in his system a simplicity and gradation and such a spirit as the work of God in nature everywhere proves and exhibits; for