Heaven Revealed.
I.
SWEDENBORG THE CHOSEN INSTRUMENT.
MANY people nowadays know something of the claims of Emanuel Swedenborg, however deficient the great majority may still be in any correct knowledge of his teachings. It is generally known that he claimed, among other things, to have had his spiritual senses so opened as to enable him to see and converse with the denizens of the spiritual world as men see and converse with each other; and this continually for a period of nearly thirty years, embracing the ripest portion of his earthly life. He made no secret of this claim, extraordinary and startling as he knew it to be; but boldly announced it on every suitable occasion, and repeatedly in his published works. In the commencement of his treatise known as "Heaven and Hell," occurs the following explicit declaration:—
The same claim in substance is often repeated in his writings. And he tells us how this extraordinary privilege was granted him, or in what way this alleged open intercourse with the inhabitants of the other world was effected. It was through the providential opening of his spiritual senses. These senses, he says, belong alike to every human being. They are inherent in the very constitution of an immortal spirit—are included among its powers or capabilities, just as natural sight, hearing, feeling, etc., are included in the capabilities of our material organism. And although these senses (for a wise and beneficent purpose which he has repeatedly explained) are ordinarily closed during our life on earth, they nevertheless may be and repeatedly have been opened in men while living in the flesh. And when opened, the individual is for the time intromitted into the spiritual world, and enjoys a sensible perception of its people and objects.[1]
We know very well how this claim is commonly regarded by those who have never examined the seer's disclosures with sufficient thoroughness to enable them to form an intelligent opinion of his pneumatology. They look upon his alleged open intercourse with spirits, as not only improbable, unreasonable and unsusceptible of proof, but as evidencing a want of mental balance—as, indeed, a species of monomania. Many who do not believe him a willful impostor, and who are ready to admit (for popular opinion is beginning to lean this way) that he saw truth on many subjects quite in advance of his age, treat with contempt and derision his claim to open intercourse with angels and spirits; as if such visions as he has recorded were to be reckoned among things highly improbable if not impossible, and the record itself to be accepted as evidence of mental derangement.
This is the attitude of nearly every one in reference to the great Swede's alleged intercourse with the denizens of the other world, before he has given much thought to the subject, or has examined the evidence by which his claim is supported. It was substantially the writer's own attitude before he had made himself familiar with the general character of the seer's disclosures, and had duly considered the facts and laws which underlie his pneumatology, and prove it not only credible but indisputably true.
But Swedenborg's claim to a special illumination and open vision (if allowed), we shall be told, stamps his disclosures with the character of a divinely authorized revelation. And not only do people nowadays find it hard to believe in any new revelation (multitudes are coming to disbelieve in any revelation, unless its truth can be scientifically demonstrated), but the claim itself seems to them ridiculous, and quite sufficient to discredit him who makes it; sufficient, indeed, to prove him a deluded fanatic or a wicked impostor. Nor are we surprised at this, seeing how many "false Christs and false prophets"—how many pretenders to a special divine commission—have from time to time appeared, and how many have been deceived by them. But people do not reason thus on other subjects. On the contrary, they admit that a counterfeit is conclusive evidence that there is such a thing as genuine coin.
It is quite true that Swedenborg's disclosures come to us professedly as a new and divinely authorized revelation; a revelation, however, not contrary nor supplementary to the Sacred Scripture, yet necessary to its complete fulfillment and to the better understanding and fuller efficacy of its teachings; a revelation meant and fitted for the spiritual edification of all who are longing for instruction on the sublimest themes, and are willing to receive it. But these disclosures, notwithstanding they come professedly as an authorized revelation, claim no authority and ask no consideration merely on that ground. They ask to be received solely upon the ground of their intrinsic reasonableness, or their clearly perceived agreement with the deepest intuitions of human reason and the verdict of the most enlightened understanding. They appeal to no miraculous evidence in attestation of their truth, but to evidence of a higher kind. Scripture, reason, analogy, observation, history, individual experience, well-authenticated facts, the principles of sound philosophy, the known laws of our mental and moral constitution, the wisdom and beneficence of God as revealed in his Word and works and in the wondrous ways of his Providence—these are the witnesses which are confidently appealed to. What if these should all unite in affirming the validity of this man's claim and the truth of his disclosures? Shall we reject or disregard the concurrent testimony of such witnesses?
Already there is a large and continually increasing class of minds—among them are persons by no means deficient in intellectual grasp, logical acumen or judicial candor—who, after years of careful examination of the disclosures in question, have been constrained to acknowledge their truth; and this, too, in spite of the influence of early education, preconceived opinions, popular prejudice, the sneers of the multitude, and the pity if not the frowns of near and valued friends. When all this is duly considered, we submit to the honest and independent seekers after truth, whether it does not entitle this new revelation to, at least, a candid examination. Certainly the acceptance of any revelation or theory by wise and good men, is not sufficient evidence of its truth; for wise and good men have sometimes embraced error,—yes, and clung to it with surprising tenacity. But the profound conviction of many such men, is, we think, a sufficient reason for giving their views a candid examination before pronouncing them erroneous. Our judgment is unintelligent, and therefore valueless, until we have carefully weighed the evidence which carried conviction to their minds. The Jews, when they crucified the Divine Saviour, knew not what they did. And Christians at the present day know as little what they do, when, without serious examination, or any weighing of the evidence, they reject and ridicule the disclosures made through the Swedish seer. May they not in this be imitating the example of the Jews more closely than they imagine?
But the very claim, we are told, which Swedenborg sets up—the claim to have enjoyed long and open intercourse with the spirits of deceased men, and to have been thereby enabled to reveal the arcana of the spiritual world, is of itself sufficient to stamp him as a deluded fanatic. It is assumed that such intercourse is impossible in the nature of things; and on the ground of this assumption. Christians proceed to justify themselves in their neglect to examine his disclosures. But if this be a sufficient justification, or if Swedenborg's claim alone be evidence of self-delusion, then what is to be said of Isaiah and Ezekiel and Paul and John and a host of ancient worthies? If the mere fact of his claiming open intercourse with spirits, is sufficient proof of mental aberration in his case, then why should not a similar claim be accepted as evidence of a similar mental condition in the case of all other seers? Or will it be said that what was once reckoned among the credentials of heaven-illumined prophets, is now to be regarded as evidence of mental hallucination?
- ↑ The Bible furnishes evidence of the existence of spiritual senses in man, and of their having been occasionally opened during his earthly sojourn. See 2 Kings vi. 15-18; and other texts cited in the chapter on "The Rationale of Spirit-seeing" in Doctrines of the New Church by the author, pp. 208-213.