philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

25

Upload: francis-batt

Post on 15-May-2015

581 views

Category:

Education


0 download

DESCRIPTION

Emanuel Swedenborg

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955
Page 2: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

REVELATION

THROUGH THE AGES BY

PHILIP H. JOHNSON, B.A., B.Sc.

This essay Jormed part '!f a brochure

issued in 1949 to mark the occasion '!f the publication '!f the Third Latin Edition '!f

arcanll ltatlestia BY EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

and '!f the Two Hundredth Anniversary '!f the

publication '!f the First Edition

SWEDENBORG SOCIETY (INe)

20 Bloomsbury Way, London

1955

Page 3: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955
Page 4: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

THE greatest need of mankind today is for a knowledge of where to look for a clear and authoritative revelation from God. It always has been so and it always will be so, but the present time is our chief concern, and many professing Christians are deeply perturbed by the apparent lack of such revelation.

Ifthere be a loving God, a Heavenly Father caring for His children, surely He would reveal Himself to them, and would provide those children with a means of knowing His will, and of Iearning how they may live in accordance with it.

In olden times the difficulty was not so great. There were Writings, Holy Scriptures, which man accepted as the Word of God. Christian people recognized the Jewish Scriptures as a,. Divine revelation to aIl men. They added to them the gospels, the stories of the life of Jesus Christ upon earth; they accepted also the letters written by Paul and other apostles to the early Christian churches, and with some hesitation they added to these the strange book known as the Apocalypse of John the Divine.

AlI these writings have been in existence for weIl nigh two thousand years, some of them very much longer, and while we are bound to acknowledge that there are many other writings for which Divine authority is claimed, yet we must also admit that the Bible has gained wider acceptance as the Word of God than have any of the sacred books of other religions, with the possible exception of the Mohammedan Koran, largely copied from the Old Testament Scriptures.

The discussion of the comparative merits of these writings is beyond the scope of this pamphlet, which seeks to draw your attention to the fact that two hun­

3

Page 5: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

dred years ago there appeared a remarkable book, written by Emanuel Swedenborg, which sought among other things to re-establish the authority of the Bible as the Word of God, and which contained, for those who read and studied it, abundant evidence for the accept­ance of that authority.

For we must recognize that though many Christians continued to sing

We won't give up the Bible, God's holy book of truth;

yet there were many also, sorne of whom still professed to be Christians, who nevertheless gave up their belief in the Bible as the Word of God. The attacks led by Voltaire, Thomas Paine and many other writers con­temporary with Swedenborg, were having their effect in shaking man's belief in the Sacred Scriptures as being a Divine reve1ation, and we believe that the results of those attacks are manifested in the state of the world today.

We fully appreciate the honesty of sorne of those attacks, but we daim that a fair consideration of Swedenborg's reply to them might have changed the history of the world.

The book above mentioned is the ARCANA CAELESTIA, first published in 1749. It was written in Latin and con­tains sorne three million words, so that we can scarcely hope to summarize it in a few pages, but we may in a short space draw attention to sorne of the guidance it provides to man in his search for the Word of God.

Swedenborg suggests (or rather informs us, but until we accept his mission we will be satisfied with sugges­tion), that primitive man was nearer to God than is modern man. This is not a mere flight of imagination:

4

Page 6: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

we may note that Sir G. Elliott-Smith in his masterly work on Primitive Man arrives at a similar conclusion though differently worded. He is convinced that war and bloodshed came to mankind with the arrivaI of what we caU civilization and wealth.

Being nearer to God, early men saw Him in aU their surroundings; like Shakespeare, they

Found tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

They lived a family life and teaching their family was an important part of their occupation, and the form of their teaching was parabolic. Long ages age men spoke in parables, they told fables, they talked of birds and beasts, but saw in them God's creatures. And in God's creatures, ox and lamb, sheep and goat, aye, even in the serpent, they saw representatives of things Divine. Hence arose the manner of expression familiar to us in the earliest chapters of the Bible, and if we would understand those chapters we must find out what the things in them represent, and thereby we can leam how man feU from his early state of innocence.

Now this way of speaking, and later of writing, was handed down to the descendants of primitive man, even though the things represented were not so clearly seen. Hence came the hieroglyphic writings and polytheistic religion of Egypt, the cuneiform inscrip­tions of Babylon and Chaldea with their remarkable paraUels to the early chapters of Genesis. There is a common idea that these last are copied from the Babylonian tablets, but it needs Httle study of these tablets to show the impossibility of this: one might as weU suggest that Beethoven's sonatas are a derivative of American jazz-music.

5

Page 7: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

Abraham certainly came from Ur of The Chaldees sorne four thousand years ago, but it is very doubtful whether he brought with him any of its stories and legends. He was a pastoralist and the founder of the Jewish people, and we read in the Bible a remarkable history of how that people rose to a position of world­wide importance, a position which they have maintained to the present day. But wherein lies this importance?

l suppose that there are those today, especially among the Jews themselves, who will say that it arose from their being God's 'chosen people'. But why chosen? The answer is very different from what we might expect, and yet as Swedenborg explains it, it is very satisfying. We read in Deuteronomy ix 6, 'Know therefore that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiff·necked people'.

It may at first seem incredibJe that this obstinate people should be chosen by God for His purposes, but there are cases in which obstinacy can be useful. Winston Churchill is probably as obstinate a man as ever lived, but he managed to instil his obstinacy into others with commendable results at a time of crisis.

And the obstinacy of the Jews made them a people peculiarly suited for preserving the Word of God unaltered: firstly, by their rigid observance of the representative rites of worship; and secondly, by their meticulous accuracy in handing down the Hebrew Scriptures. Note that these rites and these scriptures were both founded on the representatives received from the earlier direct revelations, although their meanings had mostly been forgotten. But a dark age for mankind had to be bridged, and the revelation had to

6

Page 8: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

be preserved through that period. Only an obstinate people, determined to maintain the exact rites and words handed down from their forefathers could accomplish this task. Anyone who has studied ancient manuscripts, and the variant readings to which the copying of them gave rise, must regard with amaze­ment and admiration the meticulous accuracy of the Hebrew Bible. It is not perfect, but no other ancient book in the world approaches it for purity of text. It seems only rational to believe that this preservation of the text is the result of a Divine interposition in the affairs of men. If there be a Word of God handed down from ancient times, then these writings assuredly provide, in their form and in their history, stronger evidence for such a daim than any other.

It is strange, however, to meditate on the utterly changed outlook ofthese recipients of Divine revelation. The earliest men looked at worldly objects and saw in them representations of Divine things; the Jews, especially in the years just before the Lord's first advent, looked at worldly objects and saw in them things to worship. In spite of their Sacred Scriptures they were utter materialists. Their temple was a building to worship, not one in which to hold communion with God. Their sabbath was a ceremonial to be worshipped, not an occasion for approaching God more dosely: and their scriptures were an object of worship rather than of learning God's will.

It is always tempting to ponder on what might have been. Suppose that the Jews had recognized that their Scriptures were God's Word for mankind, not merely for themselves; suppose that they had sought for the spiritual teaching underlying the rites and ceremonies

7

Page 9: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

therein described, instead of being solely concerned with their exact observance; suppose that they had spread their teachings abroad among men, instead of selfishly concealing them from aIl but 'the chosen people'. WeIl, many things might have happened, one of which would almost certainly have been a serious corruption of the text, for wide dispersion of written manuscripts would certainly have had this result, as we see in the case of the gospels, and to a lesser degree in the variations of the Alexandrian Septuagint from the original test.

But what did happen? We have it in the words ofHim Who brought a further revelation:

Thus have ye made the Word of God of none effect by your tradition (Matthew xv. 6); and because the Jews, in spite of their care, had made the Word of God of none effect, therefore

The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth (John i. 14).

In these simple words the Gospel of John discloses the fact that, and the means by which, the Word of God was restored to men; in this statement we have a summary of the whole teaching of the gospels. But we must notice that the gospels do not replace the Old Testament scriptures, although there is a tendency among Christians to regard them as doing so. They who would banish the Old Testament from our churches and schools must surely have given but superficial study to the words of Jesus: such words for example as:

Think not that 1 am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: 1 am not come to destroy, but to fuIfil (Matthew v. 17); or again in Luke,

And beginning at Moses and aU the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the seriptures the things concerning Himself(Luke xxiv. 27).

8

Page 10: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

'Search the Scriptures' was His command, 'for these are they which testify of Me' (John v. 39). Assuredly they who reject the Hebrew scriptures reject the teachings of Jesus.

In the ARCANA CAELESTIA we find a marvellous revelation of how these scriptures teach the inner life of our Saviour, but the book must be read to appreciate this. The gospels certainly differ in style as they do in language from the Jewish scriptures, but we may note the enlightening statement, too often neglected, that 'without a parable spake He not unto them' (Matthew xiii. 34). There are many 'hard sayings' in our Lord's discourses which would not prove so hard to under­stand if we would recognize that He a/ways spoke in parables, and that these parables can be interpreted, as Swedenborg clearly shows, by exactly the same methods as apply to the 'dark sayings' of psalmist and prophet.

Yet we ought also to recognize, what was so readily accepted by our predecessors, that there is in the Bible just as it stands in its literaI sense all that is necessary for man's salvation. The spiritual teachings of the Word shine through the letter,as the face of -Mosesshone tIiIôtigh the veil he wore on coming down from Sinai.

Let us accept the truth that the purpose of the gospels is not to supersede, but to reveal the spirit ~nd life of the Jewish scriptures, and we shall then find that the Old and New Testaments are not opposed, but comple­mentary one to the other; and that either is necessary for understanding the other. The Old Testament tells again and again of the promised coming of the Messiah, but the Jews utterly misread the promise: the New Testament tells of the actual coming, but the Jews utterly rejected Him Who fulfilled the promise, in fact

9

Page 11: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

they crucified Him. There are many today who are spiritually as the Jews, and it is for their salvation that a new revelation is now taking place.

This may seem a bold statement, but it should prove very welcome to those who desire to have their faith in God's Word restored. And it is not contrary to Scrip­ture: Jesus speaking to his disciples proc1aimed:

1 have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He wiH guide you into aH truth (John xvi. 12, 13).

Surely we can see in these words a promise of further revelation, but still c1earer, if we would but recognize it, is the promise contained in another dec1aration to His disciples:

Then shaH appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shaH aH the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shaH see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (Matthew xxiv. 30). --

Fundamentalists will scoff at the suggestion that 'this day is this scripture fulfilled'; others will regard it as sheer imagination; many will exc1aim that the idea is impossible in view of the facts of science and meteor­ology. We grant the difficulty of a literaI interpretation ofthe words, but, as stated above, Jesus spoke in parables.

Can we interpret this parable? The crucial word is 'c1ouds'. Earthly c10uds shut us

off from the blue heaven and from the sun in that heaven: is it sheer imagination to suggest that the c10uds of which Jesus spoke are those which shut us off from the spiritual heaven and from the Sun of right­eousness, that is, from Gad, the Light of the world?

This is more than poetic imagery though poets often see more c1early than prosaic mortals, as Keble did when he wrote:

10

Page 12: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

Oh may no earth-born cloud arise To hide Thee from Thy servant's eyes.

But it is Swedenborg who points out that the 'clouds of heaven' mentioned in our Lord's prophecy are just those difficulties and obscurities of which we have been writing. The hard sayings, the strange parables, the unclean incidents, the obscure figurative language of many parts of the scriptures: these are earth-born, the Word might have been given throughout in the beautiful language of the first chapters of Genesis, and we might have appreciated fully its imagery, but for man's faU.

'Because of the hardness of your heart' was the explanation Jesus gave to the Jews of difficulties in the text of scripture, and so it has ever been. Yet always there have been concealed in that text Divine and spiritual truths for those ready to receive them. The sun is ever behind the clouds, and many of the clouds have a silver lining.

It is interesting, and should be convincing, to look through a concordance of the Bible, and note how every reference to clouds is enlightened by this correspond­ence, as Swedenborg caUs it, of 'cloud' to the letter of the Word. The sign of the covenant with Noah, 'the bow in the cloud', is surely a prophetie announcement of this same revelation of God through an unveiling of the spiritual teaching within the written scripture. The miraculous guide of Israel in the wilderness was 'a pillar of cloud' to the earth-bound Egyptians, but 'a pillar of fire' to those who were Israelites indeed. Many a refer­ence in the Psalms becomes full of light as we think of this correspondence, and we may note especial1y the verses: 'He covereth the heaven with clouds', and 'He maketh the clouds His chariot'. It is Divine Providence

11

Page 13: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

that has preserved the Word of God by concealing it in the clouds of the letter, but that same letter is still 'the chariot of God' by which He wars against evil and falsity, and by which He can bear us up to heaven, as Elijah was carried up in a 'chariot of fire'-a glorious representative of the uplifting power of the Bible for those who recognize it as the Word of God.

One hesitates to draw attention to the convenience of this interpretation for fear of detracting from its Divine significance. Yet there are many earnest Christians who are puzzled by what our learned divines in their wisdom describe as the eschatology of the scriptures, a word they define as 'the doctrine oflast, or final, things'. The more one studies their commentaries on eschatology the more one is Led to understand that it is aU very inter­esting but aU a mistake, and the puzzled earnest Christian very naturaUy enquires, Was Jesus then quite mistaken in His beliefs? and are His words often those of a mistaken enthusiast?

We commend the attention of these puzzled Chris­tians to Swedenborg's eminently rational and beauti­fuUy simple explanation. Because of the hardness of heart of His hearers our Lord spoke in parables, but this

( parable is easy ofinterpretation. His promise of'coming 1 in the clouds' is a prediction that He would reveal Him­i self to His disciples at some future time by showing

them His glory through the dark sayings of the sacred scriptures.

Many may still be worried by the time element, but surely they ought not to be. There is no time in affairs of the spirit, modern physicists support the fact by telling us there is no real time even in this world, 'Behold 1 come quickly' means 'behold 1 come surely' and has no

12

Page 14: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

reference to worldly time; and 'those who stand here and shaH not see death' are those who take their stand on the rock of faith in Christ, who assuredly will not taste of spiritual death.

The second coming of Christ is not a physical but a spiritual coming: there was a coming in the flesh and in­time, and this we celebrate every Christmastide, but it is not one that is to be repeated, and there is now no reason or excuse for apprehension as to a last day for this wonderful universe. If only we can raise our ideas a little above the world and the flesh, we begin our preparation to receive with joy the news of the Lord's second coming in power and great glory by the opening o~'ye~to_behol(t1bJUY.on~der§_~f the -Sa~d-Sc~ip­tures-wonders that have always Iain conceaIeathere, bUt which are today unveiled for those who are willing to have their eyes opened.

This is the message that Swedenborg gave to the wodd two hundred years ago, and this pamphlet is an invita­tion to you to examine that message.

You will, of course, start by enquiring as did the lews, 'Have any of the rulers believed on him?' and it would be possible to draw up quite an imposing list of writers, scientists, industrialists and others, who have been receivers and, to a greater or lesser extent, foHowers

( of his teachings, but it is very much better that you ) should judge for yourself of the truths contained in his

writings. The task presents sorne difficulty and demands careful consideration, but so does every task that is 1. worth doing. You will find that in many points there are differences between the Christian religion as set forth in the Writings of Swedenborg and that preached by many today. We would emphasize, however, with

13

Page 15: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

all the power at our disposaI, that Swedenborg did not reveal, or profess to reveal, a new religion. His writings are an unfolding Qf what is in.Jhe S~cred Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The very title ofthë"WOfk to which we are drawmg attention on this 200TH ANNIVERSARY of its first publication dearly demon­strates this. The full title is ARCANA CAELESTIA QUAE IN SCRIPTURA SACRA SEU VERBO DOMINI SUNT DgI.!3GfA, which being translated is, 'The secret things of Heaven that are in the Sacred Scripture or Word of the Lord, uncovered' .

~ The outstanding words of this title are areana and ( deteeta, both difficult to translate exactly, although , comparatively easy to understand. Areana from area

(=a chest or depository) suggests treasures stored away î for safe keeping; detecta reminds us of the modern craze r for detection and detective stories. We love mysteries

but still more do we love their unravelling. There are no mysteries of modern literature that can for a moment compare with the mysteries of man's origin and destiny, and to our mind there are no unravellings that can compare with those displayed in this remarkable work. Not that Swedenborg daims to have disdosed ail the mysteries of the Word: again and again he assures us that they are infinite in number, and many of them beyond human grasp; but he does show how, by careful and prayerful study of the Word as a whole, we may solve many of the difficult problems that scientist, philosopher and theologian find so puzzling.

1 With acceptance of the teachings set forth in this work (teachings which Swedenborg justly daims, as it

) seems to us, to be the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, and which he supports by thousands of quotations from

14

Page 16: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

aIl parts of the Bible), we shaIl indeed find that the rough places ar~ma~~ smooth, the stumblin~cks are removed, the clouds dispersed, and 'the true light that enlighteneth every man coming into the world' is displayed in aIl its brightness.

But before accepting these teachings the enquirer will naturaIly wish to know something of the teacher, whether he be of God, or whether he speaks from him­self only. There is probably no religious writer whose life can bear closer inspection than Swedenborg's. The son of a Swedish bishop, Jesper Svedberg, bishop of Skara, he received his education at Upsala, the Swedish home of learning, and subsequently traveIled widely in Europe. The breadth of his studies is truly amazing and he weIl deserved the title of 'the Swedish Aristotle' that has been bestowed upon him. There was scarcely a branch of knowledge that he did not explore and in many he was an adept. It is very noticeable that he was no mere bookworm, for he writes to his brother-in-law Benzelius, '1 have always desired to turn to sorne practical use the studies which l selected on your advice'.

A list of the subjects he studied and on which he published treatises would occupy many pages of this pamphlet; we must be satisfied with two quotations from the ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA'S article on Swedenborg:

Swedenborg's voluminous writings were not properly coUected and examined until towards the end of the 19th century; it was then seen that in almost every department of scientific activity he was ahead of his time. His work on palaeontology shows him the predecessor of aU the Scandinavian geologists. He was also a great physicist and had arrived at the nebular hypothesis theory of the formation of the planets and the sun long before Kant and Laplace; he wrote a lucid

15

Page 17: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

account of the phenomena of phosphorescence, and adduced a molecular magnetic theory which anticipated sorne of the chief features of modern hypotheses. The French chemist Dumas, credits him with the first attempt to establish a system of crystallography. He was the first to employ mercury for the air pump, and devised a method of determining longitude at sea by observations of the moon among the stars.

This seems a noteworthy list of achievements and one which might weIl entitle him to a niche in the halls of fame, but the article continues:

In no field were Swedenborg's researches more noteworthy than in physiological science. In 1901 Max Neuberger of Vienna called attention to certain anticipations of modern views made by Sweden­borg in relation to the functions of the brain, and the University of Vienna appealed to the Royal Swedish Academy for a complete issue of the scientific treatises. Swedenborg showed (lSO years before any other scientist) that the motion of the brain was synchronous with the respiration and not with the action of the heart and the circulation of the blood, a discovery the full bearings of which are still unrealized. He arrived at the modern conception of the activity of the brain as the combined activity of its individual cells. The cerebral cortex, and, more definitely, the cortical elements (nerve cells), formed the seat of the activity of the soul, and were ordered into departments according to various functions. His views as to the physiological functions of the spinal cord are in agreement with recent research, and he anticipated modern research on the functions of the ductless glands.

As we read this account of almost dazzling achieve­ment we are driven to enquire how it is that Sweden­borg is not ranked, as he deserves to be, with great scientific pioneers such as Galileo, Kepler, Newton and Darwin. His discoveries were no less remarkable, in importance they were equal to those for which these pioneers attained world-wide fame, yet the name of Swedenborg is known to comparatively few. How can we account for this neglect? The answer probably lies in the fact that he wrote the ARcANA CAELESTIA.

The implications of this explanation are worthy of

16

Page 18: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

careful consideration, especial1y in these days when w~ are witnessing the downfal1 of a materialistic conception of the universe that1las-flourished for sorne two huiïdred ye~rs. They liave been years-of astonisnfng material progress for mankind, but he would be a bold man who ventured to suggest that either moral or spiritual progress has been equal1y great during this period. Many indeed are of the opinion that the reverse is the case and that humanity has made little or no progress. We do not propose to enter into a discussion of this question, but we would point out that it is exactly what Swedenborg foresaw, and that it was just because he was aware of the terrible dangers of materialism that he gave up his scientific pursuits and devoted the latter years of his life to the study of spiritual matters.

Throughout his studies he had been an enquirer. He was haunted by 'the everlasting Why1' He sought always for the causes of things and he discovered (and passed on to us the discovery) that there is a world of causes above and within the phenomenal world of the scientist. This may not seem a great advance on Plato and other Greek philosophers, but consider the words in which Swedenborg passes on this discovery: they will be found in §2993 of the ARCANA:

The causes of aH natural things are from spiritual things, and the beginnings of causes are from celestial things; or what is the same thing, aH things in the natural world derive their cause from truth, which is spiritual, and their beginning from good, which is celestial. AU things of nature take their rise from these (i.e. truth and good) in accordance with the different forms of truth and good found in

) the Lord's kingdom, and thus from the Lord Himself, the source of aH good and truth.

This is a tremendous statement and volumes might be written upon it. We do not propose to do more than

17

Page 19: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

ask your careful consideration of what is implied by it, and to point out that Swedenborg does not daim it as his own discovery, but states that he learned it from his converse with angets, and that it is a revelation from the Lord Hims~lf. His own comment upon-itisfffiportant.

'These things,' he writes, 'cannot but seem strange, especially to those who will not, or cannot, raise their thoughts above the things of nature.'

We suggest, however, that in his theological works, and especially in the ARCANA, Swedenborg showed that he was willing and able to raise his thought above merely natural things, and that in so doing he has helped us to see something of the causes and origins of the things around us. His critics find fault with him for abandoning the pursuit of natural science in which he had taken such great strides, and turning to the study of theology; especially do they object to his turning to the Hebrew, but surely this quotation from his writing provides a complete explanation of his reasons for so doing, nay more, it shows that believing as he did, he could act in no other way.

We must refer you to his biographers for details of the steps he took in surrendering his place in the world of science and devoting himself to the dutY he felt incumbent upon him, that of prodaiming to a world sadly in need of such teaching, that the spiritual world is at least as worthy of investigation as the natural, and that it can be investigated by those who have learned

( the right methods. He chose as the motto to be printed at the beginning of each volume of the ARCANA :

) Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and ail these things shaH be added unto you (Matthew vi. 33); and if ever man sought to live up to his motto surely it was Swedenborg who did so.

18

Page 20: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

!

He resigned his high position in the Swedish College of Mines, explaining in a letter to the King, 'As 1 feel it incumbent on me to finish the work on which 1 am now engaged, 1 would most humbly ask your Majesty to select another in my place.... It is my humble wish that you graciously release me from my office, but without bestowing upon me any higher rank, which 1

\ most earnestly beseech you not to do. 1 further pray that 1 may receive half of my salary, and that you will graciously grant me leave to go abroad to some place where 1 may finish the important work on which 1 am now engaged. (Stockholm, June 2nd, 1747)'.

The work on which he was engaged was his prepara­tion for writing the ARcANA. The request was granted and he proceeded with that work, though he probably had no idea at the time that the rest of his life would be devoted to similar productions and that after some five and twenty years of unremitting labours he would still leave much of it uncompleted and unpublished. We can well understand, however, the need he felt for more time, when we contemplate the_'!.stop.j§hLng acc,!m_ulation of his preparatory work. This is now stored up, chiefly in the library of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, but much of it has been pub­lished either in book form, or in phototyped copies. We gather from it that, during the two years preceding his retirement from public office, Swedenborg was engaged in an intensive study of the Bible. The actual

i volume he used has been preserved and its margins '1 bear witness to the thoroughness of his study, these

marginal notes alone would fill a volume. But in addition to this he compile_d indexes of names and subjects which fill nearly a thousand pages ~f close

19

Page 21: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

writing, and there are also more than two thousand pagés of notes and comments on his reading of the Word. Sorne of these he seems to have intended for publication, but the time was not yet.

To many students this would appear 'a full-time job', but the results of his release from official duties show that it was not so with Swedenborg, for in the next year he produced fifteen hundred more pages of

~ indexes, and seven hundred pages of notes that have ) been preserved, while there is abundant evidence that

much of his labour is unrecorded, as for example, his work of mastering the Bebrew tongue.

We stress the importance of these preliminary studies as evidence that the ARCANA are not, as superficial students of them have suggested, the random writings of a disordered mind; stilliess are they as Swedenborg's latest biographer suggests 'a chaotic mass', but they are

) the ordered findings from a most intensive study by a mind endowed with extraordinary acuteness. Few can devote the time to their study that was expended on their production, but the history of how they were produced suggests that superficial study will not be sufficient to disclose their depth.

- These studies had now reached a stage such that Swedenborg was ready to write and publish his work, but for this something more was needed, and that was 'freedom of the press'. Only in Bolland or in England could that be obtained in 1748. Hence his request for 'leave to go abroad where he might finish the important work'.

The place chosen was London and we may feel proud of the compliment paid to our ancestors by this choice. Ten years later, in 1758, Swedenborg writes of 'the

20

Page 22: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

noble English nation' and enlarges upon the freedom they enjoy, though he also remarks, gently but firmly, upon their insularity, as when he notes their readiness 'to contract intimacy with friends of their own nation and rarely with others'. 'Englishmen,' he says, 'are lovers of their country and zealous for its glory, and regard foreigners much as a person looking through a telescope from the roof of his house regards those outside the city.'

But never mind this aloofness, the English press was free, he could publish his work without interference. So early in OC1()12er)-J 748, Swedenborg sailed for England wfth ms Hebrew and Latin Bibles, his Hebrew

· Lexicon, his precious indexes and his notes on spiritual experiences, and there he sought for a quiet lodging 1where he could write his new book and superintend its publication.

One would like to know where he lodged, but while we have evidence and addresses of later residences, there is none for his address while writing the ARCANA. In a now very shabby quarter of London, close to the docks and still frequented by Swedish and Norwegian sailors, there is a Swedenborg Street and a Swedenborg Square, close by is Wellclose Square where he certainly stayed at a later time with a Swedish compatriot, but we have been unable as yet to trace the origin of these names. Possibly they arise from Swedenborg's remains having Iain for over a hundred years in the Swedish church in Ratcliffe Highway, which is not a great distance away.

The fact remains, however, that the place where this great work was written is at present shrouded in mystery, aU we have with regard to it is a scrap ofpaper,

21

Page 23: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

stuck to the flyleaf of his spiritual diary, or notes on spiritual experience. This scrap, when translated from the Swedish, reads:

Took 10dgings on the 23rd November, 1748, for six shillings per week for haIf a year. For one year sufficient will be deducted to make the rent f14, being a saving of thirty two shillings.

This sounds perhaps a little parsimonious, but we must remember that, as the figures prove, money was then at least ten times as precious as today, and we must recognize that Swedenborg's care for small sums was due ratber to generosity than to parsimony. Certainly these must have been but poor lodgings for a Swedish nobleman, the associate of kings, and prime ministers,

) but he proposed to defray the whole expense of printing and publishing his work, and those expenses ran into

) sorne thousands of pounds. Nor did he look for any monetary return. His printer informs us that the profits, if any, were to be devoted to the propagation of

( the gospel. Swedenborg was not a wealthy man and he ) needed to be careful in his private expenditure.

The ARCANA CAELESTIA was a generous gift to the world, and the world hardlynoticed the-grr(st~d

it express any gratitude for it, certainly not in the life­time of the donor. Since that time sorne thousands of copies either in the original Latin, or in various trans­lations have been printed, distributed and sold, but the numberofthosewhoacceptitsteachingsisstill verysmall.

Now, two hundred years after its first appearance, it is being re-published in Latin. Those responsible for this republiëation desire aM hope for an awakened interest in it. The Latin needed revision in the light of modern scholarship, and the revision has been greatly helped by a comparison with Swedenborg's own manu­22

Page 24: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

script, which has been almost miraculously preserved in the archives of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

More than ten years have been spent in its production and it should contain information invaluable for the student. The manuscript just mentioned is not thatrwhich was sent to the printer, Swedenborg re-copied its more than two million words, but there seems little

1doubt that in many cases it is nearer to Swedenborg's t words than is the sometimes faulty printed version. In

the new edition both MS. and printed edition are repro­duced, either in text or notes, so that the reader can know and learn from both.

No writer can be fully appreciated save in the lan­guage in which he wrote, and it is to the original lan­guage we must turn in aIl controversial matters:-If is hoped that this willoé recogmzea--by a11 ardent students of Swedenborg, and that there will be a wide demand for this new edition.

But there will still be many who have not had the privilege of education in the Latin tongue, and yet desire to read of these 'Heavenly Mysteries'. 'Heavenly Mysteries' was the translation of ARCANA CAELESTIA accepted in Swedenborg's own time, and we presume by Swedenborg himself, for he spent 8:Ju~ther ;(200 on having the second volume translated into EnglisL Mysteries, mystics and mysticism wefe anathematothe

) materialistic age of the past two centuries, but today we - begin to see that there may be something in them, as did1the Greeks of old. Swedenborg frequently speaks of the

'mysteries of faith,' and we can scarcely close this brief appreciation of his work on a more appropriate note than that of his approach to these mysteries.

In Psalm viü. 9, 10, we read 'The Lord bowed the 23

Page 25: Philip h-johnson-revelation-through-the-ages-the-swedenborg-society-1955

heavens and came down, and thick darkness was under His feet, and He rode upon a cherub'. Of this passage Swedenborg writes (in A.C. n 1761): Thick darkness is put for clouds, and to ride upon a cherub tells of the Lord's Providence lest man should enter from himself into the mysteries of faith.

This last sentence might almost be described as the essence of Swedenborg's method, for he does not enter into the mysteries of faith from himself, but from the Lord. He accepts the opening verses of John's gospel, he recognizes that the Word is God, that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and that it is full of grace and truth. So fully did he recognize this that the Lord actually revealed Himselfto Swedenborg in the spirit, and instructed him to convey to mankind the unveiling of the mysteries of faith.

The results of this opening of Swedenborg's spiritual sight are disclosed in many passages in the ARcANA, but it would need a volume to discuss them. Here it is sufficient to emphasize the fact that while the writing of the book is Swedenborg's, yet it was not from himself that he obtained its contents, but from the Word, and therefore from the Lord Himself. We might write at length to support this contention, but the best support for it will be found in reading the work. And see what is promised thereby (i) a revelation of the mysteries of faith, (ii) a discovery of God's providential care for mankind, (iii) a way of approach to the Lord Jesus Christ, and (iv) a knowledge of, and guide to eternallife.

Surely it is worth while to read and study this book.

24