Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/261



of the five faithful sons of the Church named by Kürtz was Oetinger, called by him "the magus of the south," "the first representative of a theology of the future." It is interesting to note that Swedenborg's relations of things heard and seen in the other world, which Höpken would have wished omitted, were to Oetinger the most attractive part of his theological works, for the reason perhaps that his spiritual interpretations of the prophecies of Scripture were at variance with Oetinger's conception of their literal fulfilment. With his own works Oetinger published translations of intermediate chapters in Swedenborg's Arcana, under the following introduction:—

"I herewith present to the reader something rare, which God has given us to know in the present times. It is profitable to compare unusual things with those to which we are accustomed; but in doing so it is necessary sometimes to keep back our judgment until we are able to take in the