say, they might have been led to a firm belief that all of the Sacred Books* must have been posi

It may be, Theophila, that you would be glad to be drawn out of the uncertainty in which, by the diversity of opinions among us, we are respecting the genuineness of the Books that are presented to us as parts of the Sacred History, and to know which are those that are truly Scripture, that you might admit them as such, and study only them. I am sorry that I cannot satisfy you, having received no information about it. The Catholics, acting to the best of their judgement, and from a pious intention, have declared in their councils that such and such Books ought to be looked upon as belonging to the Bible; and in latter times the Protestants, guided, no doubt, by religious motives, have considered as apocryphal some of those that had been generally received; both, I think, without a competent authority to decide the question. Recently I have heard that Emmanuel Swedenborg in his theological works, of which I have read very little, when I was young, and nothing since, save a few quotations, "has set forth that Ruth, the Chronicles, the Books of Ezra, "Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, "Acts of the Apostles, and the Apostolical Epistles, were not written 66 by Divine inspiration, and not yielding the internal sense, according "to the science of correspondence, (in which I have not been in"structed;) and that he affirms that the authority by which he de"clares some of the Books to be Divine, and others not so, is reve"lation; and, as a proof, says that many do not contain any spiritual sense, and that there is a great difference as to the wisdom and in"struction they convey."

66

I believe that E. Swedenborg, like some others, has been favoured with powers and information much above the common, and that he has had revelations, the nature of which I cannot say that I know; but which I have understood to have been, at least partly, communications made to him by the angels with whom I think he has communed; and which, as such, whatever was their degree in spirituality, I readily admit to be superior to the contents of all books, that, like this coarse writing, are only extracts from a degenerate human mind. But whatever may be the authority of the revelations which were made to him; (of which it is possible that he had not the full intelligence, as has

tively given by the inspiration of God; a truth with which it is evident that their ancestors had been unac

been the case with others to whom some have been granted) conceding that it may be very respectable; that his knowledge was considerably above that of those who are reputed learned among us; and that I may be much mistaken in what I am going to say contrary to his declaration, still I hope I may be allowed to differ with him on some points: for instance, respecting the Book of Job, which I believe to be Scripture. I have strong reasons to think so, reasons quite independent of the mention, which seems to me of a great weight, made of his name in Eze. 14. 14, 20. and in Sam. 5. 11.; and of the seeming impossibility of knowing, without inspiration of God, the exchange of words between the Lord and Satan, Job 1st and 2d chapters, and the reproof made by the Almighty in 38, 39, 40, 41 chapters. In the description of the belief or spirit Behemoth, the chief of the ways of God; (in the Latin, principium viarum, in the French, le chef-d'œuvre du Dieu fort) and of the belief or spirit Leviathan, the king over all the souls children of pride, I suppose there is much spiritual sense.

Mention being made in 1 Kings, 4. 29, 30, 32, of Solomon's wisdom, proverbs and songs, I should hesitate to reject them, on the mere assertion of Swedenborg. As to Ecclesiastes, if it should be demonstrated that the Holy Writings do not speak of this visible earth, then it will be clear that Solomon has not been a king and a preacher in our Jerusalem, and that the Book in question not having been written by him, must have been granted by the inspiration of God: unless that people would have it that there has been in this world a man who knew so much of wisdom that he was able to write it. To tell his name would be difficult.

Neither would I part, except on a higher authority, with the Books of Chronicles, in which I have particularly remarked the following verse: 1 Chro. 28. 6. And he said unto me, Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts; for I have chosen him to be my Son, and I will be his Father: which verse I find coincides exactly with 2 Sam. 7. 12, 13, 14, and with the Gospel, wherein the Son of Man is called the Son of David, and the Son of God; and is mentioned also as the temple of God, whose holy law dwells in his heart; the sime as one may admit that it does, 2 Chro. 5. 13, 14, in Solomon's heart or

quainted, since they were in the habit of considering them as the history of their own nation, written by pious

religious system which I take for the house and temple which he builds and consecrates to the Almighty. The Acts, 7. 47, 48; 1 Cor. 3. 16.

Understanding, as I do, that the Sacred History is a revealed and progressive account of the regeneration of the soul, it appears to me that, without the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, to which I refer you, there would be a chasm in the gradual process, something wanting in the link; thinking that the soul that is just released from so dangerous an error as the proud philosophy or system Babylon, is not yet in a state capable of receiving the Saviour's holy truths. I believe she wants to be prepared to them by returning to the covenant Jerusalem; by setting up the altar in herself; by making free-will offerings unto the Lord; by laying in herself the foundation of the temple, by meeting with contradictions and hinderances in her pious undertaking, to strengthen her in patience, and in her appeal to the Lord for protection and assistance; by persevering in the building, forwarding, advancing, and finishing of it; by dedicating it to God, and keeping the mental feast, or the doctrine that is the Passover from error to truth; by praising God; by a religious fast; by mourning for the affinity of opinion still kept up with the notions of those who are estranged from God; by praying to him; by reforming her union with strange and false minds; by repenting, and promising amendment; by building in herself the knowledges that might protect and defend her; by persevering in prayer, while her enemies scoff; by setting a watch over herself, her sentiments, affections and thoughts; by reparation of offences, and by restitution; by keeping religious hospitality; by reading and hearing the law, and keeping the spiritual feast of tabernacles; by a solemn fast, and by a sincere repentance, confessing God's goodness, and her own wickedness; by sealing in herself the covenant, and by dwelling in the doctrine Jerusalem; by separating herself from the errors of those who are prevented by them from coming into the spirit of the congregation of God; and by establishing in herself proper regulations for her future conduct. I should conceive that after such wholesome preparations the soul would be better disposed to receive Christ's high and holy precepts, than when

persons who had witnessed the events related in the Scripture; or who wrote them from the reports or tra

just come out of her captivity in the perverse, misleading, Babylonian spirit.

I can say nothing of the Books Ruth and Esther. As to the Acts of the Apostles, and the Apostolical Epistles, they seem to me so instructive above the productions of men of our kind, so connected together, and such a consequence of the Gospel, that, though given under different names, I believe them, from what I have been told, to have been written by the same hand; and that, without a positive injunction not to acknowledge them as Scriptures, I could not cease to reverence them as having been inspired by the Omnipotent, and dictated by His Spirit who speaketh in His elect. St. Matt. 10. 19,20. (For instance, I could not conceive how the following verse can have been written without the inspiration of God. In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. Tit. 1. 2.)

Admitting that what Emmanuel Swedenborg, the much informed, but not infallible, Swede, says, is right: "that there is a great difference "as to the wisdom and instructions that are conveyed by the Books" that are generally received, I should not think it sufficient to reject those that are inferior to others; no more than I should give up the law of Moses, because it is not equal to that of Christ: the first of which I consider as the preparatory instruction or the beginning of the regeneration, and the second as the perfecting of it: both beautiful and essential in their time and season.

Upon the whole, it does not appear to me of so much importance in our present degraded condition, to know accurately the degree of wisdom of each of the Books, and whether this or that is positively part of the Bible, or not, as to receive with simplicity those that seem to us to bear the stamp of the Word of God; and to follow, the best we can, the excellent instructions which they contain. It is to be hoped that some day or other we shall be favoured with a correct information about them.

More than two years after I had written this note, the following books were sent to me to read :

Defence of the New Church, signified by the New Jerusalem

ditions of others who were supposed to have seen them: which seems inconsistent with the notion of a Divine

contained in Letters to Dr. Priestly, published by Robert Hindmarsh, in 1792.

Letters to a Member of Parliament on the Character and Writings of Baron Swedenborg, in Answer to the Abbé Baruel, by the Rev. Mr. Clowes, in 1799.

In the extracts which they contain of Swedenborg's theological works I have met with propositions that have appeared to me so much in contradiction with the Scripture, and leading so much to consequences that would be, in my opinion, subversive of it, that, should you happen to peruse those writings, I think you will do well not to suffer yourself to be so attracted by his uncommon learning, nor so far influenced by the satisfaction which many of his explanations might afford you, as to receive every thing from him without discussing it and inquiring whether it agrees with the Sacred History or not; I do not mean whether this or that notion of his might be or not in a manner supported by one or several passages, but whether it can be reconciled with the spirit of the whole. From the various and doubtful opinions which I have heard from some of those who have studied his writings, I have been led to suppose that they must be complex, deficient in simplicity, and hard to be understood, unless the intelligence of his admirers be questioned.

In refutation of the Abbé Baruel's words, that," in the writings " of Swedenborg, it is always God or an Angel that speaks," Mr. Clowes says, "The fact is, that, throughout the voluminous philoso"phical and theological works of our honourable author, there is "not a single passage to support the assertion of the Abbé Baruel "that God speaks in them, and I challenge the Abbé to produce such

a passage. I challenge him to point out a single instance in those "works wherein it is asserted by the author that he immediately re"ceived any command, precept, or information from the Most High. "On the contrary, it is continually insisted upon by Swedenborg, "that the Sacred Scriptures, or Word of God, contain the whole "will and wisdom of the Deity, and are fully competent, if rightly understood, to the instruction of man in every case relating to salva"tion. It was, therefore, the great labour of Swedenborg, as a hea