prehend three folio volumes. Prior to the publication of this work, the Academic Consistory and the Society of Sciences at Upsal, had requested him to solicit the place of professor of the sublime and abstracted mathematics, which had been filled by Nils Celsius. This he however declined. He was enrolled a member of the Society of Sciences at Upsal, of the Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, and of the Academy of St. Petersburg. His works furnished the editors of the Eta Eruditorum, published at Leipsic, with many articles, and the whole of his treatise on iron and the preparations of steel, was inserted by the authors of the Description of Arts and Trades at Paris, in their collection of the best things written on those subjects. Nearly all his works are written in the Latin language. After occupying himself to the age of 53, in the investigation of philosophical and natural subjects, he dedicated himself wholly to spiritual things. In his letter to the King of Sweden, he says, "I have already informed your majesty, and beseech you to recall it to mind, that the Lord our Saviour manifested himself to me in a sensible personal appearance; that he has commanded me to write what has been already done, and what I have still to do. He was afterwards graciously pleased to endow me with the privilege of conversing with angels and spirits and to be in fellowship with them. When my writings are read with attention, and cool reflection, (in which many things are to be met with as hitherto unknown) it is easy enough to conclude, that I could not come by such knowledge, but by a real vision and converse with those in the spiritual world."

"If any doubt shall still remain, I am ready to testify, with the most solemn oath that can be offered in his matter, that I have said nothing but essential and real truth, without any mixture of deception. This knowledge is given to me from our Saviour, not for any particular merit of mine, but for the great concern of all christians, salvation and happiness; and as such, how can any one assert it false." From the year 1744, he continued to write, and from 1747, to publish his theological works in the Latin language, these, if collected in an uniform edition, would perhaps fill in the English language 30 octavo volumes of 500 pages. His two most extensive works are his Arcana Cælestia, in 12 octavo volumes in which he explains, verse by verse, every word in the books of Genesis and Exodus according to what he calls the spiritual sense; and his Apocalypsis Explicata, (published since his decease,) in 6 octavo volumes, wherein he treats of the book of Revelations in the same manner. The doctrines exhibited in his writings are to the following purpose.

1st. Contrary to Unitarians, who deny, and to Trinitarians,

who hold a trinity of persons in the Godhead, the Swedenborgians maintain that there is a divine trinity in the person of Jesus Christ, consisting of Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, just like the human trinity in every individual man, of soul, and body, and operation; and as the latter trinity constitutes one man, so the former constitutes one Jehovah God, who is at once the Creator, Redeemer, and Regenerator.

2d. That Jehovah God himself came down from heaven, and assumed human nature, for the purpose of removing hell from man, of restoring the heavens to order, and preparing the way for a new church on earth; and that herein consists the true nature of redemption which was effected solely by the omnipotence of the Lords divine-humanity. But Swedenborg declares, that this divine humanity is from the Father, and is in itself like unto its divinity, and not like the humanity of another man; for, with the Lord, the former forms, which were from the maternal principle, were altogether destroyed and extirpated, and divine forms received in their place, for the divine love doth not agree with any but a divine form, all other forms it absolutely casts out; hence it is that the Lord when glorified was no longer the Son of Mary.

3d. They hold the notion of pardon obtained by a vicarious sacrifice, or atonement, as a fundamental and fatal error; but that repentance is the foundation of the church in man, that it consists in a man's abstaining from all evils, because they are sins against God &c. that it is productive of regeneration, which is not an instantaneous but a gradual work, effected by the Lord alone, through charity and faith during man's co-operation.

4th. That man has free-will in spiritual things, whereby he may join himself by reciprocation with the Lord.

5th. That the imputation of the merits and righteousness of Christ is a thing as absurd and impossible, as it would be to impute to any man the works of creation; for the merits and righteousness of Christ consist in redemption, which is as much the work of a divine and omnipotent Being as creation itself. They maintain, however, the imputation of good and evil, and that this is according to a man's life.

6th. That the doctrines of predestination, and justification by faith alone, is a mere human invention, and not to be found in the word of God.

7th. That the two sacraments of baptism and the holy supper are essential institutions in the New Church, the genuine and rational use of which are now discovered, together with the spiritual sense of the holy word..

8th. That the sacred scriptures contain a three-fold sense,

namely, celestial, spiritual, and natural, which are united by correspondences; and that in each sense, it is divine truth accommodated, respectively, to the angels of the three heavens, and also to men on earth.

9th. The word is inspired not only as to all the particular expressions, but also as to all the particular small letters which compose every expression, and thus as to the smallest dot and tittle; and inwardly in itself, has stored up the arcana of heaven, which do not appear in the letter, when set in each of those things, which the Lord himself spake when he was in the world, and which he before spake by the prophets, there are things celestial and altogether diviuc, and elevated from the sense of the letter; but also in each of the syllables of the expressions, and in each of the apexes of every syllable. Hence the books of the word have an internal sense and are the following; the five books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, I. and II., Kings, I. and II.; the Psalms, the Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi; and in the New Testament, the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the Revelations.

10th. That in the spiritual world there is a sun distinct from that of the natural, the essence of which is pure love from Jehovah God, who is in the midst thereof; that the heat also proceeding from that sun is, in its essence, love, and the light thence proceeding is, in its essence, wisdom; and by the instrumentality of that sun, all things were created and continue to subsist, both in the spiritual and in the natural world.

11th. They maintain, that there is not in the universal heaven a single angel that was created so at the first; nor a single devil in all hell, that had been created an angel of light, and was afterwards cast out of heaven; but that all both in heaven and hell, are of the human race; in heaven such as had lived in the world in heavenly love and faith, and in hell such as lived in hellish love and faith.

12th. That the material body never riscs again; but that man immediately after his departure from this life, rises as to his spiritual or substantial body; (which was inclosed in his material body, and formed for his predominant love whether it be good or evil,) wherein he continues to live as a man in a perfect human form, in all respects as before, save only the gross material body, which he puts off by death, and which is of no further

use.

13th. That the state and condition of man after death is according to his past life in this world; and the predominant love,

which he takes with him into the spiritual world, continues with him forever and can never he changed to all eternity; but if evil, he abides in hell to all eternity.

14th. That true conjugal love, which can only subsist between one husband and one wife, is a primary characteristic of the new church, being grounded in the marriage of goodness and truth, and corresponding with the marriage of the Lord and his church: and therefore it is more celestial, spiritual, holy, pure, and clean, than any other love in angels or men.

15th. That the science of correspondence, (which has been lost for some thousands of years, but is now revived in the Theological works of the Honourable Emanuel Swedenborg) is the only key to the spiritual or internal sense of the word, every page of which is written by correspondences, that is by such things in the natural world as correspond with and signify things in the spiritual world.

16th. That all those passages in the scriptures generally supposed to signify the destruction of the world by fire, &c. commonly called the last Judgment, must be understood according to the above science, which teaches, that by the end of the world is not meant the destruction of it, but the destruction or end of the present Christian church, both among Roman Catholics and Protestants of every description, and that this last judgment took place in the spiritual world in the year 1757.

17th. That the second advent of the Lord, which is a coming not in person, but in the spiritual or internal sense of his holy word, has already commenced; that it is, effected by means of his servant Emanuel Swedenborg, before whom he hath manifested himself in person, and whom he hath filled with his spirit, to teach the doctrines of the new church by the word from him; and that this is what is meant in the Revelation by the new heaven and the new earth, and the new Jerusalem thence descending.

These doctrines, to say the least of them, are ingenious. Many persons, indeed, of great respectability, and not a few men of learning and talent, even of the present day, believe that these. doctrines are something more than ingenious. It is, however, not a little extraordinary, that although the Swedenborgians openly deny the commonly received doctrine of a trinity of persons in the Godhead, and believe as they certainly do that to assert that doctrine is nothing less than tritheism; and when it is also considered that the system of the highly illuminated baron has excluded that other orthodox doctrine of a vicarious sacrifice by the death of Christ, we say, under these considerations, it is not a little to be wondered at, that there should be found any persons still in communion with our established church, who profess

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themselves members of the New Jerusalem church as revealed by Emanuel Swedenborg.. But the wonder increases much upon the consideration that some even of the regular clergy of the English Church, are to be found among the disciples of the honourable baron. The present venerable and respectable minister of St. Johns, Manchester, the Reverend Mr. Clowes, is not only an open professor of the faith of the New Church, but is also the well known translator of all the baron's theological publications.. The forbearing temper of many of our present ecclesiastical governors, and the liberal spirit of the times are circumstances not a little honourable to the national character in general, and to our national clergy in particular. May this spirit and this forbearance continue to increase, until no discrepancy of mere opinion whatever, while unaccompanied by errors of conduct or depravity of heart, shall be made the foundation of hatred or the pretext for exclusive civil and religious privileges.

CHAPTER XIX.

UNITARIANS.

THE Unitarians are those who believe that there is but one God, the supreme object of religious worship, and that this God is the Father only, and not a Trinity, consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Unitarians having frequently been confounded with the old' Socinians, it is but justice to observe, that a very material difference exists in some parts of the religious faith of these two sects. The Socinians believed that Jesus Christ, though a human being, was advanced by God to the government of the whole created universe, and was, therefore the proper object of religious worship.

On account of their essential deviation from the doctrine of the Socinians in this and some other respects, the modern Unitarians disclaim the appellation Socinian, as inapplicable to their views of religious faith and worship; this term is, however, very comprehensive, and is applicable to a great variety of persons, who, notwithstanding, agree in this one common principle, that there is no distinction in the divine nature.

The appellation of Unitarians may be considered as a genuine term, including in it a number of specific differences. Indeed, all those who reject the doctrine of the Trinity, and pay divine adoration to the Father only, may with propriety be called Unitarians. As it is a principle among this body of Christians, that