Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/224

218 Bible, and imbibed something of its divine spirit. Surely they who have studied the Bible most thoroughly, and heeded its precepts most reverently, are best qualified to judge of its character and claims. No value whatever, indeed, is to be attached to the opinion of those who have rarely if ever read the Bible. And if we apply the same rule to the multitude who discredit Swedenborg without having first studied him, what weight should we attach to their opinion? Only those who have made themselves familiar with his teachings, are qualified to judge of their value or of the validity of their author's claim; and by all of this class, without a solitary exception of which we have any knowledge, the seer's credibility is admitted and his claim conceded.

One other consideration.—He tells us that the almost constant sight of objects and spirits in the other world with which he was favored for so many years, occurred in states of full wakefulness, and was as vivid as the sight of men and objects in this world. Now, (1) he either had this experience and did actually see and converse with spirits in the manner alleged; or (2) he acted the part of a most villanous impostor—and this, too, without any adequate or conceivable motive; or (3) he was under a strange hallucination for nearly thirty consecutive years—all this time mistaking the things of his imagination for objective