ures, 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
