have a name to live and yet are dead-dead to the apprehension of the future judgment, than the revelations made by our Author of the separate states of the saved and the lost, bringing home to our feelings the great Redeemer's words, "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. R. S.

THE DATE OF THE OPENING OF SWEDENBORG'S
SPIRITUAL SIGHT.

To the Editor of the "Intellectual Repository."

I MAKE no claim to any special qualification for the performance of the duty I undertook in your issue of April, which was merely to suggest certain points for the consideration of your readers as bearing upon "J. B.'s" argument of January in favour of 1745 being the true date of the opening of Swedenborg's spiritual sight rather than 1743. Certainly I have no taste for such a controversy; but after waiting nearly three months in the hope that some one would take up the question, I ventured to do so, rather than allow "judgment to go by default" on a question which I consider of more than ordinary

importance.

I did not undertake to discuss every point of evidence brought forward by "J. B.," but to show there were other facts and statements to be considered by your readers, and especially to defend the integrity of the date given in the letter to the Rev. T. Hartley, and confirmed, as against 1745, by the letter to the Landgrave of HesseDarmstadt, written in 1771: the date 1743 being again confirmed by the periods during which Swedenborg states he had enjoyed the privilege of open sight into the spiritual world, in n. 157 and n. 851 in "The True Christian Religion." All these statements I regard as the final ones being given when Swedenborg perfectly comprehended his true position-the purpose and end of his mission: thus to my mind explaining all the other dates which related more or less to develop. ments of state during special periods of his life. As an illustration I may here quote the fact, that the 7th day of August 1747 is mentioned by Swedenborg in this connection, as "J. B." and your readers will find by referring to vol. ii. Photo-Litho. MSS. Apocalypsis Explicata, page 1164, last line. Let "J. B." read this and then say whether his term "FULL" can apply to 1745, since we find that Swedenborg here records that on the date given his sight was opened in, and he was admitted, to the celestial degree. Surely "J. B." will not suggest that this is not a further advancement in state.

In addition to the "FULL" "J. B." has now added "the definite

commencement of his (E. S.'s) mission," whatever that may mean in his estimation. I shall however distinctly define the purpose of my remarks, and as I read Swedenborg for myself, and do not allow any one to dictate to me what his meaning may be, seeing how plain it always is, I am not to be led away by false issues or blinded by the dust of wordy controversy, and "J. B." might have saved himself the trouble of quoting the various dates, &c., in his paper of May, had he attended to what I said in mine of April, that " any proofs or illustrations bearing on the full opening of his (E. S.'s) spiritual sight are plainly nihil ad rem to the real question under discussion,-the accuracy of the date in the authentic letter to the Rev. T. Hartley, in which 1743 is distinctly and unmistakeably given."

He may not see the real question as I wish your readers to see it. I will endeavour to make it perfectly plain.

The statement in this letter divides itself into two parts :

1. That in which Swedenborg states that "the Lord Himself most graciously manifested Himself in prison to me His servant in the year 1743."

2. "And then opened my sight into the spiritual world, and endowed me with the gift of conversing with spirits and angels, which has continued to me to this day." i.e. 1769.

Now, whilst stating that the passage divides itself, or may be divided into parts, I also maintain that it refers to one subject, but not necessarily to one event. I hold that the event of 1743 was, as stated, the manifestation of the Lord Himself in person to Swedenborg, and by that manifestation his spiritual sight was opened in a distinct but comparatively limited degree; thus "J. B.'s" references to other dates are perfectly consistent with the progressive states extending, as I have stated, to 1747, at least.

There is nothing in the letter to Hartley about "London." The circumstances stated by Swedenborg in the Adversaria as having occurred "in London in the month of April 1745," and those related by Robsahm are not necessarily connected with the event of 1743, for there is nothing in the statement to show that the Lord Himself was present "in person" on that occasion. Indeed, the statement requires a great amount of credulity to enable one to believe that the Lord would manifest Himself for the first time to Swedenborg under any such circumstances, but it is quite consistent with the belief that an angel-"the man" mentioned by Robsahm-appeared to E. S., and practically reproved him for over-eating, etc., or, at least, demonstrated to him the evil still within.

There is a statement by Dr. Beyer that Swedenborg informed him that the next night the same man appeared to him "sitting in purple and majestic splendour near his bed," and gave him a commission to open the spiritual truth of "The Word." But "J. B." has given us his views of hearsay evidence by disputing Robsahm's accuracy in the instance in which I quoted his testimony in favour of the date 1770 being that when the T. C. R. was finished, and suggests, rightly

enough, that "words heard and repeated become often very different." Why then should not Robsahm, in the instance quoted by "J. B.," have mixed up Swedenborg's statement respecting the first manifestation of the Lord to him in 1743 with the narration of what occurred in 1745 both events appearing to Robsahm to have occurred in London.

But the date 1743 is altogether disputed, and on what grounds? A "misprint" is now repudiated at all events, and that is a gain, but “J. B." says, “Possibly in the small close hand of Swedenborg the 5 might appear like a 3." Now, happily a very common sense test of this possibility exists, which a few years ago could not have been cited for immediate application. Let "J. B." or any of your readers refer to the Photo-Litho MSS. of Swedenborg's works, and compare the 3's and the 5's, all being, of course, accurate fac simile reproductions of the originals. Let them carefully examine the MSS. of the Apocalypsis Explicata, vol. ii., already referred to, page 881, in which the numbers of the verses as copied from "The Word" are given. They will find that the 3 and 5 in the units, as in 13 and 15, are singularly clear and unlike; and any one who has a knowledge of drawing, and the mechanical action of the hand in the formation of curves, will see at once that the action of Swedenborg's hand when producing the top of the 3 was the very reverse of that required in the production of the top of the 5, in which of course the essential difference in the two numerals consists.

I now come to the question of the value of the statement in n. 157 and n. 851 T. C. R., on which 1 relied, and still rely, so much as a confirmation of the date 1743. "J. B." objects to my expression that "it is a well-known fact that Swedenborg was occupied two years in the production of this work." Perhaps I should have used the more guarded expression,-an accepted fact. In a letter to Dr. Beyer dated Stockholm, October 30, 1769, Swedenborg mentions a work which "I intend laying before the public within the space of two years." This work was no doubt the T. C. R., and the expression has probably given rise to the "two years" " notion. "J. B." says "the conclusion is that he (E. S.) wrote the work in one year." He then repudiates the inference drawn from the anecdote of Robsahm, and throws a doubt on the accuracy of the narrator; but the truth of Robsahm's statement is proved by Swedenborg himself in "The True Christian Religion," as we shall see. "J. B." asks "what becomes of the assertion that it was finished in 1770?" and finally commits himself to the statement that Swedenborg "was writing each week for the printers in 1771, and expected to finish it in September of that year." Now, if this IT refers to "The True Christian Religion," as we are bound to infer, the matter is disposed of at once by Swedenborg.

Will "J. B." and your readers kindly refer to n. 791 "True Christian Religion," headed "MEMORANDUM"? Here Swedenborg distinctly states: "After this work was finished, the Lord called together His twelve disciples," etc.; and further on he says, "This was done on

19th June in the year 1770," i.e. clearly "AFTER" the work was finished.

Possibly "J. B." may suggest that 1770 is a misprint for 1771,Swedenborg's 0 being mistaken for a 1. Even this will not make September" of that year come before 19th "June." Certainly 1772 would not do, for Swedenborg died in March of that year.

66

"J. B." takes Cuno as an authority that Swedenborg was writing "The True Christian Religion" at Amsterdam in January 1771, but surely Swedenborg himself would never have written the " Memorandum,” n. 791, if this had been the case. The truth appears to be that Robsahm's statement, "From the beginning of October 1769 until August 1770, he (E. S.) resided at his own house in the environs of Stockholm," as quoted in my remarks of April is correct, and that Swedenborg was occupied from October 1769 until about the middle of June 1770 in writing "The True Christian Religion." How much earlier the work was begun it is impossible to say, but that it was "finished" before 19th June 1770 is distinctly proved by n. 791. I maintain then that n. 157 (T. C. R.), in which 26 years is named as the period during which E. S. had enjoyed spiritual intercourse, was written in 1769, whilst n. 851, in which 27 years is mentioned, must have been written before 19th June 1770, and that the confirmation herein given of the date 1743, as the period when Swedenborg's spiritual sight was first opened, is indisputable.

If the date 1745 is to be accepted instead of 1743, it is perfectly clear that Swedenborg must have written n. 851 in 1772, the year of his departure into the spiritual world, and one year after the publication of the book according to the date on the title-page.

Had I not a right then to say that dates would be inextricably confused if 1745 were accepted for 1743?

I now protest against "J. B.'s" interpretation of the periods of time given in n. 1 and n. 419 Conjugial Love written in 1768. The accuracy of these is proved by the periods quoted from T. C. R., i.e. 26 years in n. 157, written, as shewn, in 1769; 27 years in n. 851, certainly written in 1770;-25 years being mentioned in C. L. in n. 1 and n. 419. All these bring the date to 1743.

Such is my reply to "J. B.'s" question, "But what becomes of the assertion that it (T. C. R.,) was finished in 1770?" and my justification for stating that the date on the title-page, 1771, had nothing to do with the date of the completion of the writing of the work. Swedenborg records that it was finished before 19th June 1770. Can "J. B." deny that? Now, he either did or did not know of the Memorandum," n. 791, in which this fact is recorded. He charges me with having written without "any extensive consideration of the subject," but what shall we say of his "consideration," or even knowledge of Swedenborg's crowning work, in which, to my mind, the whole question is narrowed by Swedenborg himself in his most perfect exposition of the truths it was his mission to give to the world,-the last work he gave to the world in print, The True Christian

Religion, containing the Universal Theology of the New Church. Here is a work most complete in itself, the final effort of his life, in which he has evidently been permitted to bring together, as it were, in one focus, all the great truths of his previous works. What then so likely as that he would desire to, and did absolutely place on record the precise period during which his spiritual sight had been opened to "hear and see" the things he had described.

I may now be permitted to quote one or two instances of collateral evidence to show that "The True Christian Religion" was finished by the middle of the year 1770.

1. In a letter to Dr. Beyer, dated Stockholm, April 30, 1770; Swedenborg says: "I go next June to Amsterdam, where I intend to publish the Universal Theology of the New Church."

2. In another letter to Dr. Beyer, dated July 23, 1770, the opening words are as follows: "In a few days I am going to Amsterdam, and intend to publish the whole Theology of the New Church," which means that he was going to publish it in a month or little more after he had finished it.

To show that the book was actually published at the date when "J. B." assumes he was writing it I quote:

3. In a letter to Dr. Beyer, dated Amsterdam, July 2, 1771, Swedenborg says: "In a few days I shall send to Stockholm by Captain Casp. Nyberg two copies of the work just published, entitled Vera Christiana Religio, one for the Bishop Dr. Menander, and the other for the Bishop Dr. Serenius,” etc.

The only portion of "J. B.'s" statement that I can accept in this matter is that "it (T. C. R.) was completed," (i.e. published as well as written) "before August, for in that month 1771 he bade adieu to his friends in Amsterdam and sailed for London," where, as we know, he departed the natural world on 29th March 1772.

"J. B." complains that I ignore so many points in his January paper. My reply is very simple. Why should I or any other receiver of Swedenborg's testimony waste time in going over dates and inferences, speculations and surmises, on a matter which Swedenborg himself settled in so peremptory a manner in his last and, I repeat, crowning work. Believing as I do, and as I suppose "J. B." does, that every act of Swedenborg's life was guided by the Lord in His Divine Providence for the perfect completion of the special mission to which He had called him, I hold that these allusions in n. 157 and n. 851 T. C. R., together with the statement in the "Memorandum" n. 791, as to the date of the completion of the work, and even the letter to the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (which certainly might correspond to 1744, but will not bear "J. B.'s" demand on our common sense to make it 1745), were made with the view of unmistakeably defining the period through which this eminent servant of the Lord Jesus Christ had been permitted to enjoy spiritual intercourse, not only with angels and deceased men, but with the Lord Himself, to the end also that the precise date IN TIME should be fixed for the