Page:A Few Plain Answers to the Question, Why do you Receive the Testimony of Baron Swedenborg.pdf/3

A FEW PLAIN ANSWERS,

&c. &c.

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I.

I receive the Testimony of Baron Swedenborg, because he respects whatsoever is truly respectable in the Doctrines and Opinions of the Theological Writers, whether Jewish, Christian, or Heathen.

HE admits therefore and maintains the authority of Divine Revelation, and that the book which we call the Bible, contains that revelation in all its fullness. He admits also and maintains a number of important doctrines deducible from that revelation, such as the doctrine of the Divine Unity, and of a Trinity in that Unity; the doctrine of the Divinity of Jesus Christ, and of His miraculous conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary; the doctrine of Christian redemption, and of the absolute necessity of Such redemption for the salvation of fallen man; the consequent doctrine of Hereditary Evil or corruption, which rendered such redemption necessary; the doctrines also of Repentance, of Reformation and Regeneration, without which acts on the part of man, co-operating with Divine Grace, his corruptions cannot be removed, neither can the benefits of redemption be applied to him; the doctrine likewise of the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Supper, and of their Divine Expediency, together with the further Expediency of Public Worship, Preaching and Teaching; and, lastly, the doctrines of the Resurrection from the Dead, of Heaven and of Hell, or of a state of eternal happiness for those who have lived well, and of eternal misery for those who have lived otherwise; besides a variety of other scriptural tenets, too tedious to enumerate; but all tending to prove that Baron Swedenborg, in his Theological Speculations, was not one of those rash innovators, who is at variance with every opinion but his own, and who conceives the antiquity of a sentiment a sufficient ground for opposition to it; but that on the contrary, he respected and embraced in his System of Theology, some of the most interesting and edifying doctrines of the Christian Faith and Life, venerable alike for their age, wisdom and their sanctity.

Not that it is to be understood as if Baron Swedenborg asserted nothing new, for he is perpetually suggesting both new and grand ideas on all the above subjects, but then the novelty of his ideas is grounded on the same authority with the subjects to which they apply, and therefore only proves, with greater clearness and certainty, his deserved claim to the high title of that Scribe instructed unto the kingdom, who is like unto a man, an householder which bringeth forth out of his treasures things new and old.^[1]

1. Matt. xiii. 52.