Swedenborg and Channing : showing the many and remarkable agreements in the beliefs and teachings of these writers

Front matter

Digitized by

SWEDENBORG

AND

Contents

THEOLOGY. PAGH

I. Introduction 21

II. Religious Liberty 28

Preface

O person of tolerable candor, and able to appreciate l\l the highest human excellence, can read the life of William Ellery Channing, without being impressed with the conviction that a truer, nobler, braver, wiser, saintlier man than he, or one more thoroughly devoted to the cause of truth and righteousness, never adorned the American pulpit. Men may dissent from his theological views, but I see not how it is possible for honest and right-minded people to differ as to his rare purity, simplicity, elevation and breadth of character.

And from every authentic 'account we have of Swedenborg's life, we may safely conclude that in purity, spirituality and general excellence of character, and in steady and ever-increasing devotion to the highest and noblest ends, he was in no respect inferior to Channing ; while in respect to intellectual, and especially scientific acquirements, he was vastly superior to him.

The agreements in the beliefs and teachings of these writers, as shown in the following pages, are so numerous and so close, as naturally to awaken the suspicion — in some minds, at least — that Channing read and drew extensively from Swedenborg, — coming as he did three-quarters of a century after him. I have therefore deemed it important, and a duty also, to give this point careful ix

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consideration. Having done so, and having reached the conclusion that he did not consciously derive any of his beliefs from Swedenborg, and never even read him with any interest, I will briefly lay before the reader the evidence which has forced me to this conviction.

i. I have inquired of persons who were on terms of closest intimacy with Dr. Channing, and who, if he had ever been an interested reader of Swedenborg, would undoubtedly have known it. Among these I may mention the name of his nephew, Rev. W. H. Channing, and that of his own son, Dr. William F. Channing. The former wrote the Memoir which I had occasion often to quote in the preparation of the present work. And in reply to a letter of inquiry from me, he says : —

"As you rightly suppose, my uncle's MSS. have all passed under my inspection, and my memories are still vivid of years of most confidential intercourse with him. If he had ever been a reader of Swedenborg, it therefore seems highly probable that the fact must have come to my knowledge. But so far as my recollection goes, neither in his conversations nor in his writings did my uncle ever refer to him, or make the least allusion to his life or doctrines. Unless, therefore, you have access to means of information unknown to me, my judgment is, that you should be very guarded in grouping Dr. C. with the religious teachers of our age, who have been influenced in the formation of their views by the illustrious Seer of Sweden.

"This judgment of mine may appear to you more trustworthy, from the consideration that I have been a student of Swedenborg's writings even from my college days; and though not a 'receiver' of his theology or his philosophy in a sense that would entitle me to be called

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xi one of his 'disciples,' yet I am always gratefully glad to acknowledge my deep obligations to him as a spiritual and intellectual benefactor."

And the son of Dr. Channing, in answer to a letter of inquiry as to his father's knowledge and opinion of Swedenborg, after premising that he spoke with great caution, writes : —

"I can say, however, that his view agreed with the prevalent one, that Swedenborg was a visionary, in so far as his claim to special inspiration or illumination is concerned. My father was a conscientious student of religious history, and undoubtedly read what was in print and ordinarily obtainable in this country up to 1842, concerning Swedenborg. I have an impression that there was one volume of Swedenborg in his library. If so, I think it must have been either the Divine Love and Wisdom, Divine Providence,. Heaven and Hell, or Conjugial Love. I cannot at present ascertain.

" Mrs. Anna Cora Mowatt has reported a conversation with my father about Swedenborg, which took place at Lenox in the summer of 1842. This is a definite, authentic report, colored, of course, by Mrs. Mowatt's personality."

In another letter of later date (July 22d, 1878), the son writes, in answer to further inquiries on the same subject : —

" On the principal question raised in your letter there can be no possible doubt. My father could have drawn very little directly from Swedenborg, as he never made him a study, nor expressed interest in, or obligation to, his works, — as he would have done if Swedenborg's writings had been to him a conscious source of new truth.

" Whether he read a little more or a little less of Swedenborg's writings, there can be no doubt that he drew xii

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little directly from them, knew them but little, and therefore valued them little, — measured by your standard or mine.

" I have the impression that there was a hard and narrow sectarian exposition of Swedenborg in Boston during my father's life, which very probably helped to obscure to him what I have since learned to consider Swedenborg's grand contributions to modern thought, theology aside. I mention my own view only to show that I look on my father objectively, and am scrupulously careful not to see him through the medium of any sympathies or ideas of my own."

The following is Mrs. Mowatt's report of the conversation she had with Dr. Channing about Swedenborg, only a few weeks before his death. Mrs. M. and her husband were boarding at the same hotel with Dr. C. and his family ; and she says : —

" One day I was sitting on the piazza, reading aloud to Mr. Mowatt. The book was Swedenborg's Divine Providence. A slight movement behind my chair caused me to turn. Dr. Channing was leaning against the open door, apparently listening. He told me to go on, and I had no excuse for not Obeying. I read for some time uninterruptedly. At length he accosted me with, ' Do you understand what you are reading ? '

"I replied, 'I think I do.'

" ' Do you believe it ? '

'•' ' What makes you believe it? ' " ' Because / can't help it.'

" 'That's a woman's reason,' he answered, laughing; ' but I believe it is the strongest you could give.'

" He then told me that he had read a portion of Swedenborg's works with great attention, and he reverenced the

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xiii author, although the doctrines had not, as yet, earned the same conviction to his mind as they had done to ours." — Autobiography of an Actress, pp. 182, '3.

So much for personal testimony on the question before us. And after giving it all the weight to which it is fairly entitled, and considering what deduction may properly be made from Mrs. Mowatt's report on account of her passionate admiration of Swedenborg, and her pardonable desire, therefore, to have it believed that Dr. Channing also had read some of his works " with great attention "

— she does not say, " with great interest," — it amounts simply to this : That Dr. Channing had the then prevailing impression in regard to Swedenborg; that he had never read him enough to become at all interested in his teachings, or even to understand him ; that he regarded him as an amiable and honest visionary, to whose writings he attached little or no value, and from which, therefore, he did not consciously draw any new or valuable truth.

2. Then another and different line of argument forces us to the same conclusion. Briefly stated, it is this : —

Dr. Channing was known to be remarkable alike for honesty, simplicity, independence and perfect frankness of character. He was not a man of policy, but of unswerving principle. He was not a cunning man in the popular acceptation of this word. He practiced none of the arts of concealment, — indeed, he seemed a total stranger to all such arts. His nature, too, was as generous as it was honest and frank. No man was ever more ready

— more glad, indeed — than he, to award to every individual due meed of praise for any and every valuable contribution made by him to the common stock of knowlxiv

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edge, and particularly to the stock of religious ideas. Il is therefore inconceivable — nay, impossible — that one of his frank and generous nature, could have read Swedenborg with such interest and to such extent as to draw from him the larger portion of his best thought, and the chief staple of his theology, and die without leaving any record of his conscious obligation to the illustrious Swede ; — yes, without revealing to his own family or other bosom friends, any particular interest in the great seer's writings, or even letting them know that he ever read these writings to any extent.

3. Then, we nowhere find in Dr. Channing's writings the slightest reference to, or the briefest quotation from, Swedenborg. Indeed, I am not aware that he has ever mentioned his name. And there is nothing in his phraseology — not a sentence or word to remind one of the great seer, or to indicate any familiarity with his writings.

Yet the undeniable fact remains — and the proof of it is presented in the present volume — that on fifty-five different subjects, covering almost the entire domain of theological doctrine, and embracing points of vital interest and importance, the teachings of these men are substantially the same, differing only in form or phraseology. There is almost a perfect coincidence of thought, along with a wide difference in expression. And what will add to the reader's wonder, is this other fact, that, on nearly every one of these points, whi)e Swedenborg and Channing are in such close agreement, they both differ widely from the generally accepted creeds of their own day, and of preceding centuries. How, then, are their many and remarkable agreements to be accounted for, unless the latter drew largely from the writings of the former?

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XV

Swedenborg himself, I think, furnishes a satisfactory answer to this question. He assures us that every one who acknowledges the Divine and cherishes a sincere reverence for the Word, receives enlightenment from the Lord — a kind of internal revelation — more or less clear and abundant in proportion to the individual's freedom from the blinding influence of dogma, to the intensity and purity of his desire for truth, and the depth and sincerity of his devotion to all known duty. Speaking of this class of persons who receive "revelation from the Divine — ■ not by a sonorous voice, but inwardly," he says : —

"This revelation is made by an enlightenment of the internal sight which is the understanding, when a man who is in the affection of truth from good, reads the Word. On such occasion enlightenment is effected by the light of heaven, which is from the Lord as a Sun there. When the understanding is illumined by this Divine light, it then perceives that to be true which is true, inwardly acknowledges it, and as it were sees it." (A. C, n. 8780.)

"Revelation means enlightenment when the Word is read, and consequent perception of truth. All the particulars of the Word in its internal sense, treat of the Lord and his kingdom ; and the angels attendant on man perceive the Word according to this sense. This perception is communicated to the man who is in good, and who reads the Word with an ardent desire for truth. Hence he has enlightenment, — the intellectual faculty of his mind being open into heaven, and his internal man in consort with the angels." (Ibid., n. 8694.)

Here we have the all-sufficient explanation of the marvelous agreements pointed out in the teachings of these writers. Both were humble and independent minds, free from the domination of sect or creed. Both were devout xvi

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and earnest seekers after truth, and both lived up right and blameless lives. Both loved and honored the Word of God, and reverently listened to the whisperings of the Spirit. Therefore their interiors were open (in different degrees, however) to the illuminating influences of heaven, and the souls of both consorted with the angels. Seeing, therefore, by a kindred light, it is not strange that they should have seen many things pertaining to the higher reason — many of the truths of heaven — so nearly alike. It is, indeed, precisely what might have been expected.

But here I must not neglect to say that the quotations made from these two writers in the following pages, can give the reader no adequate conception of their relative degree of spiritual enlightenment. In many instances where I have given but one or two brief extracts from Swedenborg, I might have quoted many pages equally interesting and instructive, and in further elucidation of the same subject. And on hundreds of other subjects about which we find nothing whatever in Channing, Swedenborg has written with such a degree of fulness and such a measure and depth of wisdom, as compel me to admit that his illumination was extraordinary and special, and vastly superior to that of Channing. I say this, after a careful reading and thoughtful study of the writings of both ; and I say it not in any sectarian spirit, or in the interest of any particular denomination — for I do not belong to any — but in the interest of that new and rational Christianity which so many have long been waiting for, and which has already begun to gladden and bless all open, free and reverent souls.

It is more than a hundred years since the illustrious

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xvii

Swede passed from the scene of his earthly labors. And although the world has meanwhile been making unexampled progress in knowledge, civilization, intellectual and moral culture, yet his theological writings were never so much sought after, so extensively read and so highly prized by religious teachers, as at the present day: This is a well-known fact — and it is a fact of immense significance, and worthy of consideration by all thoughtful minds. And another fact of like significance, is : That all the best tendencies of religious thought and feeling for the last half century — tendencies toward larger liberty, broader views, more charitable judgments, a kindlier spirit and a higher unity — have been and still continue in the direct line of Swedenborg's inculcations. Every advanced step taken by individuals or churches, is a step towards the theology and philosophy of the Swedish sage.

There is one other question which I would affectionately urge the students of Channing to consider, who are disposed to doubt or deny Swedenborg's claim to any special illumination, and particularly his claim to a long and open intercourse with the denizens of the other world ; and it is this : Do the extracts from his writings on the various topics considered in this volume, read like the ravings of a monomaniac ? — for such, or something worse — an impostor — he surely must have been, if there was no valid foundation for such a claim. Or, is it conceivable that a man could rise up in a period of such darkness as prevailed a hundred years ago, and publish all the grand truths that are to be found in the writings of the gifted Channing — yes, and a hundred times more, without some extraordinary help from on High? — without some such 2* B xviii

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special illumination as that which he persistently claimed ? Or is it conceivable, again, that one who rose so far above the thick darkness of the last century, as the quotations from his writings in this volume clearly prove (and these might be increased a hundred fold), could, at the very time he was writing these paragraphs of sober, solid, common sense, be under such a strange hallucination that he could not distinguish facts from fancies? — knew not the difference between objective realities and subjective states? — mistook his own mental conceptions for the veritable forms and voices of angels? — and therefore believed that he saw and conversed with the denizens of the other world, when he was merely holding communion with his own vivid imaginings. And all this, remember, not during the period of life when imagination is wont to take her highest flights, but at the advanced age of sixty, seventy, and eighty years, when she generally folds her wings and accepts the guidance of sober reason !

Now is this reasonable, or even conceivable ? If not, then a veritable revelation of transcendent interest and importance has actually been made through Swedenborg ; — a revelation not only of the deeper spiritual meanings of God's Word, but of the nature, laws and phenomena of the spiritual world. But this revelation is one which addresses itself to our rational intuitions, and asks to be received on no other ground than that of its intrinsic truth and reasonableness. And of this, every one must judge for himself, and form his own conclusion.

B. F. B.

Germantown, July 29, 1878.

THEOLOGY.

xix

ABBREVIATIONS

OF THE TITLES OF SWEDENBORGS WORKS QUOTED IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES.

A. C.

stand for Arcana Ccelestise.

Ap. Ex.

" Apocalypse Explained.

A. R.

" Apocalypse Revealed.

H. H.

" Heaven and Hell.

T. C. R.

" True Christian Religion.

C. L.

" Conjugial Love.

B. E.

' ' Brief Exposition of N. C. Doctrines.

D. F.

" Doctrine of Faith.

D. L.

" Doctrine of Life.

D. S. S.

" Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture.

L. J.

" Last Judgment.

Contin. L. J.

" Continuation of Last Judgment.

I. " Influx

D. W.

" Divine Wisdom.

XX

Jaabiv/ fans

SWEDENBORG AND CHANNING.

THEOLOGY.

I.

Introduction

TT is sufficiently apparent to all thoughtful minds, *■ not only that the world moves, but that it has been moving for the last hundred years at an unusually rapid rate. Stupendous changes have taken place within that time, in almost every department of human thought and every sphere of human activity,— changes not only in literature, science, philosophy, the mechanic arts, commercial intercourse, and industrial processes, but changes in men's interior and most solemn convictions — in their theological and religious opinions. True, there has been no great change in the written creeds. These remain for the most part substantially as they were. But the prevailing religious beliefs of men are not what they were a century ago. These have changed, and are rapidly changing still. Abundant evidence of this is to be found in the most popular preaching of our times, in religious journals of largest influ- . 21 ence and widest circulation, and in all our best and most acceptable religious literature.

While I am writing, one of our largest and most popular religious weeklies {The Christian Union) is laid upon my table, containing a remarkable sermon on the signs of the times by one of our ablest living preachers, as well as one of the closest observers of the tides and tendencies of popular belief — both religious and irreligious — from which I quote the following, which is directly in the line of my own thought : —

" A change is going on with respect to the faith of men in regard to many fundamental points of religious truth, and in regard to the whole system of educatory influences that springs up out of these. It is a change which all sects recognize. The Roman Catholic observes it with that clearness of vision which it has had in every age. Protestants recognize it — those who dread it and those who like it. It is admitted in many directions by men who declare that the old things are passed away, and that all things are become new. . . .

"This fluctuation of men [in their religious beliefs] ; this wishing on their part that they knew exactly what is true ; this sober and mournful regret that they find themselves sliding away from the old grounds of their fathers and grandfathers ; this occasional plucking up of their loins and drawing the girdle tighter that they may keep what they have

INTRODUCTION.

got — this is all indicative of the change that has gone on, and is going on.

" This change is not narrow ; it is not locaf; it is not transient. It has all the appearance of a march, of an advance, and of an advance as great as that of Judaism over Media and over Assyria; as great as that of Christianity over Judaism ; as great as that of Roman Christianity over Roman idolatry ; and as great as that of the Reformation over that of the hierarchal system of the medieval age."

Now a change so great and manifest, so wide and comprehensive in its reach, so steady and majestic in its march, would seem (would it not ?) to indicate the dawn of a New Era. It is precisely what might be expected to result from a New, Dispensation of religious truth, or the promised advent of Him who is the Truth itself, and who is beginning to break through the clouds of the letter with a brightness that dazzles and a power that awes ; — " coming," agreeable to his own prediction, " in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."

That there is some deep and adequate cause for the change here referred to, no one can doubt. Some are satisfied that they know what that cause is, — a cause, however, not generally understood or recognized as yet. But I do not propose to discuss that I roblem here. I only wish to call attention to the writings of the two great religious reformers whose names are found on the title-page of this volume, and who, under Providence, have been eminently instrumental in bringing about that much-needed theological reform which has clearly commenced, in the midst of which we are so obviously living, and whose existence and progress every careful student of religious thought is beginning to see and frankly to admit.

In another part of the sermon from which I have here quoted, the writer touches upon the history of religious development on our globe, and the adaptation of different forms of belief to the different stages of human progress. And in this connection we find the following sensible remarks, which indicate with sufficient clearness the writer's own view of the* old theologies, and their utter inadequacy to men's present needs.

" A development [of religious truth] that at first meets the necessities of men, after a time ceases to meet those necessities. At the beginning it is a cradle which they can sleep in while they are yet babes ; but it is too short for them to rock in when they become adults

" I believe that to past theologies we owe a world of gratitude. They were efficient in bearing us through the times that have gone by; and they were good enough for the period in which they existed. But that there is to be nothing more known, that no more light is to break out of the Word of God or out of human experience, I do not

INTRODUCTION.

believe. Any system of theology which is adequate to the wants of mankind, must be a system that includes all the facts, all the light and all the truth that from any quarter dawn on the world. And if we are losing our hold upon the older systems, or a part of them; it is only that we are preparing the way to build larger, deeper, with more authority and with more power."

And I cannot resist the temptation to quote one other passage from the same discourse. Speaking of the great current of new religious thought that is sweeping through the world, unsettling old beliefs and exposing the sandy foundations on which such multitudes have builded, — a current so broad in its extent, so crescent in its progress and so resistless in its power as clearly to authenticate its divine origin — he says : —

" It is absurd to attempt to resist, to forestall, to stop, a movement which bears in its length and breadth and height and depth, and in its continuity and universality, the signs and tokens of divine impulse. The attempt to keep back the tide of the sea with a broom, or the attempt to stop the course of a river with a straw, were wisdom compared with the attempt to stop a movement which has behind it the will of God and the universal consciousness of men : " —

A passage which recalls to mind the last words I used in the last one of a series of lectures de- 3 livered in the city of New York nearly forty years ago, on that grand, comprehensive and altogether rational system of religious truth unfolded in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg; — words which seem even truer now than when they were first uttered, and which I may be pardoned for repeating here — as I do with increased emphasis.

"As yet this New Dispensation is only in its dawn. And although all the evil loves of men, and all the powers of hell are arrayed against its truths, yet the Omnipotent Lord Jesus is in them, and their progress however slow is sure. Skepticism may cavil ; bigotry may sneer; prejudice may turn away its face in scorn ; . . . but so sure as the Lord liveth and reigneth, the march of his truth is forever onward. And yonder broad river that hurries to the ocean could as easily be stopped in its career by the puny hand of man, as the onward and continually increasing progress of the truths whereof I have spoken, can be stayed by any human opposition. They may be opposed, scorned, persecuted — for so has it ever fared with truth ; but they cannot be crushed nor stopped. ' Conquering and to conquer' they must ever go, until ' the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever.'"

Words strictly true when spoken, and whose truth is becoming more and more evident — evident, I mean, to constantly increasing numbers — with each revolving year.

INTRODUCTION.

Many, no doubt, will be surprised at the coupling of these names,— Swedenborg and Channing; and still more surprised, perhaps, when they see how much there is in their beliefs and teachings to justify such coupling. And it is difficult to foresee or conjecture which class of readers will be most astonished, those of Swedenborg or those of Channing. My hope is, that the discovery of the many and remarkable agreements in their writings, as shown in the chapters following, will be alike gratifying to both classes ; and that the students of the former may be induced to form a higher and truer estimate of the writings of the latter, and those of the latter be led to a more patient and thorough study of the writings of the former; and that the still larger class who know little or nothing of either of these teachers, may be induced to seek an early acquaintance with the writings of both. However this may be, the numerous and striking parallelisms discovered in their teachings, can hardly fail to be regarded as one of the curiosities, if not marvels, of modern literature ; and as such, therefore, a matter of interest to the general reader.

I commence with what all will acknowledge to be a distinguishing characteristic of the Age in which we live, and which is indispensable to all theological or religious reform, to all healthy religious growth and all genuine religious life, —

II. Religious Liberty

QWEDENBORG was the earnest and consistent ^ advocate of perfect liberty of thought in matters of religious belief — the rights and sacredness of the individual conscience. Freedom and rationality he declares to be the two essentially human faculties, without which man would not be man, and without the exercise of which no one can go to heaven or attain to the heavenly state. The freedom of the human will, he says, is a thing so important and sacred, that the Lord guards it in every individual "as the apple of his eye;" choosing to let his children plunge into the lowest depths of guilt and sin, rather than invade or take away their freedom. And by his own example and teachings he furnished . a conspicuous illustration of the individual liberty which he so steadily inculcated.

And not only this, but his knowledge of the intimate connection and dependence of the natural upon the spiritual world, enabled him to see that greater spiritual liberty to men on earth would be one of the beneficent results of that memorable event which he was permitted to witness in the realm of causes or "World of Spirits," in 1757, and which he calls "the Last Judgment." Writing shortly after

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

that event, and referring to its effect upon the then future church, he says : —

" The state of the church hereafter will be unlike what it has been hitherto. It will be similar, indeed, in the outward form, but ^similar in the inward. Churches will continue to exist, to outward appearance divided, and their doctrines will be taught as heretofore. — But henceforth the man of the church will be in a more free state of thinking on matters of faith, because spiritual liberty has been restored to him." (L. J., n. 73.)