the cry of those very persons whom the Saviour described as being of their father the devil, and said that the lusts of their father they would do.[1] Such unfounded charges have too frequently been brought by the thoughtless against those eminent persons whose virtues and talents have placed them in advance of the times in which they lived; and the facts ought to be considered as a salutary admonition against imitating an example so vicious in its origin, and so dangerous in its consequences.
Christians profess to believe in the existence of a spiritual world, and in the immateriality of their own souls; in the existence of angels, and their ministration in the affairs of men; in the existence of wicked spirits, and their continued efforts to deceive mankind. Can they, then, with any consistency or reason, doubt, if the eyes of their spirits were to be opened by the Lord, that they would then be enabled to see the things of the otherwise invisible kingdom? Would such a circumstance afford any evidence of their insanity? Does that privilege, granted, as it undoubtedly was, to many of the prophets and apostles, prove those persons to have been mad? If so, the Bible is, for the most part, the fictions of a disordered intellect, and Christianity itself a fabrication of the insane.
Still, by some it may be said, there can be no doubt concerning his being an enthusiast, fanatic, and visionary. The charges made by such expressions are too vague to be forcible. The signification of the terms have too much latitude for maintaining solidity in argument. If by an enthusiast and fanatic are meant a person who vainly imagines himself to have a supernatural intercourse with the spiritual world, and revelations from the Lord; and thus one who has such conceits without facts for their foundation; then those terms are expressive of a species of insanity, and therefore their application is disposed of by the considerations under that head. If they are intended to indicate some follies, it is necessary, before they can be applied to Swedenborg, to make out some cases of such a nature against him. We confidently await the issue of such an attempt. If any thing else be meant, it must be defined before its refutation can be undertaken. But the terms will not admit of any significations which are
