Reply to Rev. Dr. Pond's "Swedenborgianism reviewed; ...

Contents

Introduction, --------- Z9

Chapter I. — Swedenborg. — The various classes of his readers. — To which

of them Dr. Pond belongs. — Character of his attack, - 45

Chapter II. — Dr. Pond's work still farther characterised. — Perversions of

the history of Swedenborg's life, - - - 50

Chapter III. — Dr. Pond's objections to the claims of Swedenborg considered. — His argument from miracles weighed, - - 54

Chapter IV. — Dr. Pond's unfairness in his mode of dealing with the doctrines of Swedenborg. — These doctrines particularly considered in contrast with those held by Dr. Pond and his school, 64

Chapter V. — Dr. Pond's charge of Swedenborg's misrepresentations of doctrines and characters, contradiction of historical and scientific facts, and inconsistencies with himself; met and refuted, 83

Chapter VI. — Dr. Pond's objection that Swedenborg lowers the standard of

Christian piety, considered, - - - - • - 118

Chapter VII.— Dr. Pond's charge against Swedenborg's principles of interpreting the Scriptures, and his constitution of the canon, refuted, - - - - - - - . 126

Chapter IX. — Swedenborg's doctrine of the future life vindicated from Dr.

Pond's cavils, - - 138

Chapter X. — Swedenborg's doctrine of marriage, polygamy, concubinage, and scortatioru set in its true light, - 154

Chapter XI. — Dr. Pond's estimate of Swedenborg, .and various minor

cavils, considered, - ...... 170

Chapter XII.— Conlcusory.— Appeal to Dr. Pond, <■ * - 179

MR. CRALLE'S LETTER.

Dear Sir:

I have read Dr. Pond's Book, entitled " Svjedenborgianisvi Reviewed" which you placed in my hands ; and although the illiberal and contracted spirit in which it is written, — combined with its frequently unfair statements and gross misrepresentations, — deprives it, in my estimation, of all just claims to notice ; yet, as you requested it of me, and as it contained a kind of summary of the vulgar objections urged against the New Church, — conceived in the ordinary spirit of sectarian controversy, and addressed, with characteristic skill, to the popular prejudices, — I had designed to reply .to it at some length. Indeed, during the last spring, I devoted such leisure hours as I could command to the task, and had made considerable progress in the work, when my time and attention was suddenly called to other matters, by an occurrence with which you are already acquainted. It is now impossible for me to complete the work in time to prevent the mischiefs which may, to some extent, possibly flow from the labors of Dr. Pond. I must now content myself with some general reflections, suggested by the perusal of the book, which, I hope, may tend, in some manner, to correct the false impressions on certain points which seem to prevail to a considerable extent, and which impressions alone constitute the staple of this, and similar works. Its errors of inference, its misstatements of facts, (to all appearance deliberate,) its various allegations of inconsistency, and, above all, its gross and unwarrantable imputations, I must leave you to deal with, as you think best.

We live in an age not more remarkable for its progress in the arts of life, than for its active spirit of inquiry in all matters which concern us as men ; — a spirit which takes nothing upon trust; and which promises to leave no subject unexamined, whether of Science, Philosophy or Religion. By men of free minds, and who love truth for its own sake, this spirit is hailed with gladness; — while, on the other hand, by those who are the mere slaves of a system, and who make its dogmas the tests of truth, it is regarded as an abomination and a curse. Like the proud Assyrian, they have set up their image, — proclaimed its Divinity, — and prepared the furnace for all those who will not fall down and worship.

The world has but recently become acquainted with the fact that there exists an organized Society or body of men, calling themselves members of The New Jerusalem Church, — or more commonly The New Church. The peculiar doctrines and opinions which they entertain, have led to many extravagant and ridiculous accounts, made up and industriously circulated by zealous individuals connected with the various religious sects in the country ; and the public, imposed upon by them, have adopted the conclusion that they are, at best, but a congregation of crazed enthusiasts. Even this equivocal character is by no means universally accorded to them : — for some pious Divines have convinced themselves, it would seem, and satisfied their respective people, that their doctrines (if not their lives,) sanction some of the worst of vices, — being directly opposed to the Holy Scriptures, and designed to subvert the Christian Religion !

These accounts, creditable as they are to the ingenuity of the propagators, have not,

6 MR. CRALL&S LETTER.

however, prevented the slow but gradual increase and influence of the Church, both in this country and in Europe. Its philosophical and religious views have so successfully vindicated themselves against the assaults of their opponents — and the progress of the Church has been so rapid, especially during the last few years, that grave theologians have deemed it necessary of late no longer to rely on the purilerhodomontade heretofore offered to the public, but to approach the subject somewhat more soberly and seriously. Amongst these, I suppose I must rank Dr. Pond — of whom I had never heard until you placed his book in my hands. He seems to have made himself acquainted, at least, with the titles oi' the volumes he reviews, — a fact which I do not remember to have observed in the contributions of any of his predecessors ; — and I readily admit that, if he had made himself acquainted with their contents, I would not have reasonably objected to his qualifications as a Reviewer — at least so far as knowledge is concerned. But this he obviously has not done : and even as regards titles, his catalogue of works " attentively perused," as he says, contains in number, one more volume than was ever written. But of this unfortunate slip I will say no more.

Most of the vulgar errors which prevail in regard to the New Church, arise not only from ignorance of its religious and psychological system, but from an entire misconception of the character and pretensions of the Church itself. Many believe that it is the name of a new sect, asking to be admitted into the congregation of the other sects of the Old Church. And as its doctrines of Faith and Life do not fully accord with any of these, the whole company rises up as one man, and each judging- by his own particular test of orthodoxy, the whole unite in reading it out with bell, book and candle.

Now, this is a gross misconception. The New Church does not pretend to be a sect of the Old. It does not ask to be admitted into its pale, and refuses to be tried by its rules of reason and tests of orthodoxy. It claims to be a Church by itself, founded on that final and full revelation of truth promised to man in the volume of the Divine Word. The Prophet Daniel declares — " I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people and nations and languages should serve him : — his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." And John in the Apocalypse says — " And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away ; and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

In these and many other passages of like import, both in the Old and New Testament, it is believed that a New Church, founded on a clearer and fuller revelation of Divine truth, is prefigured and promised to the world ; and that the Lord is now, in fulfilment of the prophecies and promises contained in his Word, establishing on the earth a New Church — described by Daniel as " a kingdom that shall not be destroyed ;" — and by John " as the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven."

It would require much more time than I have at command, to explain fully the reasons on which this opinion is founded. This has been done by others ; and he who desires information may obtain it by consulting the works of the Church. I must content myself by merely saying, First, that such an interpretation as we here give to the words of prophecy, is not new ; but that it has had able and pious advocates for ages past — and, Second, that the evidences oi its truth and the proof of the fact, are based on the internal or spiritual sense of the Holy Scriptures, as revealed to and explained by E. Swedenborg: — For it is a marked distinction of the New Church, which obtains in all its views and doctrines— that the Divine Word, or Holy Scriptures, contain throughout an internal or spiritual sense, as well as a literal or external sense ; and there is an exact correspondence between them in every, the most minute particular ; the latter being as the natural body of a man — while the former answers to the soul or spirit which gives it life and power. Or, to take a higher and truer illustration,— the external or literal sense is as the material humanity assumed by our Lord, while the internal or spiritual sense, is as the Divinity itself: and as the Divine purified, glorified and united itself to the Human, so the internal or spiritual sense, illustrates, vivifies and conjoins itself with the external or literal sense. And, further, as all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily ; so all the fulness of the internal sense,— or the divine truth itself, dwells, as it were bodily, in the external or literal sense. To separate them would be, as it were, to separate the soul from the body ; and in view of this great and fundamental truth, the Lord himself taught his disciples, in reference to the Holy Scriptures, that the letter alone killeth — the spirit it is that giveth life.

The literal sense of the Divine Word, being thus the continent, basis, or body, as it were, of the spiritual sense, the New Church believes that it is written from the beginning to the end, — in every word, jot, and tittle, according to the exact, unchangable, and everlasting relation or correspondence which subsists between spiritual and natural things ; between the causes which exist in the spiritual world, and the effects which subsist in the natural world, in all their wonderful varieties ; and that, in this respect, it is eminently distinguished from every merely human production, — requiring no less than Infinite Wisdom to have dictated it.

Now the whole system of the New Church is derived from, and based on the literal sense of the Scriptures, — not separated from, but conjoined with, and illustrated by, the spiritual sense : and it thus differs wholly and in all its parfs from the system of the Old Church: — the one deriving its doctrines of Faith and Life from the internal sense of the Divine Word, as contained in, conjoined with, and manifested by, the literal sense ; — and therefore an Internal Church ; — the other deriving its doctrines and discipline from the literal sense separated from the spiritual, — and, therefore, an External Church..

This theory (if I must so express it,) of the New Church, in regard to the Holy Scriptures, has subjected it to very many and severe animadversions on the part of the theologians of the old church denominations. They cannot consent that the Divine Word shall be interpreted in any other way than that which they have adopted, — viz: according (to use their own language,) " to its plain literal import ;" — although this rule be so indeterminate that, as all men know, it has engendered more than a hundred different sects with almost as many different interpretations. It wouldbe a task equally unpleasant and unprofitable to pry into these common places of our assailants, and I pass them by without special comment.

It is most obvious that, unless there be in the Divine Word an interior and spiritual sense, it is not a Divine but a human composition. It is not the Word of the Divine Being, but the word of Moses, and others who were but imperfect men. It is not the truth of the natural facts recorded in the literal sense, that makes the Word Divine and Holy. It is something embodied in these truths, something essentially divine which constitutes its incomparable pre-eminence as the Word of the Lord. If the mere truth of facts recorded in an historical series, entitle a work to the appellation of Holy or Divine, we mi^ht perhaps, admit to some partial participation in this distinction the works of Herodotus, Thucidides, Livy, Tacitus, Josephus, and even Hume, Gibbon and Voltaire. It must be most manifest to every enlightened understanding — to every mind capable of thinking out of the harness of sectarian discipline, that there is, in the Divine Word, a deep, mysterious and spiritual meaning altogether distinct from the mere outward words of historical facts. Strange that professing Christians should require to be told that the Books of the Holy Scriptures are not the Words of Moses, Joshua, David, Isaiah, Matthew, and others, but the Word of the Lord ! And yet such is the fact, for we read of Lectures delivered by learned Divines of the Old Church, on what they are pleased to call " Hcbrciv Poetry" — that is the Psalms, the Prophets and other portions of the Divine Word ! — in which we are told of the "flowing sweetness" of the one, the " bold conceptions" of the other, the "awful sublimity* of a third, the " affecting plaintiveness" of a fourth, and the peculiar temper of mind and feeling, and even the provincialisms and idiomatic 2^hrases of each and of all ! !*

That the Divine "Word contains a deep, mysterious, internal sense which constitutes its essential sanctity and holiness, is no new opinion. It has obtained in every age of the world and of the Church. It may be found, before the Christian era, in the Misnah and Gemara, the Talmud and the Targums of the Jews. Its vestiges may be traced even amongst heathen nations, in the theosophy of the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, the Hindoos, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans; for it is no novel or visionary hypothesis that all these drew their respective systems of theology, however disfigured and distorted, from the same common original. The evidences of this are many and conclusive; and I trust the time is near at hand when some one, having the necessary leisure and learning, may collect and lay them before the world.

The same opinion prevailed in the earlier ages of the Christian Church, before the traditions of the elders and the decrees of Councils had riveted their shackles on the human mind. I might fill pages from the works of the ancient Fathers in support of this assertion. Even in these latter days, in the consummation of the Old Church, the impression is not entirely eradicated. Some of the most eminent of the Protestant Church have ventured to assert the opinions of the Primitive Fathers even at the risk cf forfeiting an orthodox reputation. One of these,! and perhaps the most learned of his age, if not of any age since the revival of letters, in his Sermon before the British House of Commons, uses the following emphatic language:

" There is a caro and a spiritus, a flesh and a spirit, a body and a soul in all the writings of the Scriptures. It is but the flesh and body of Divine truth, that is printed upon paper; which many moths of books and libraries do only feed upon ; many walking skeletons of knowledge, that bury and entomb truths in the living sepulchres of their souls, do only converse with ; such as never did any thing else, but pick at the bark and rind of truths, and crack the shells of them. But there is a soul and S2nrit of Divine truths which could never yet be congealed into ink, that could never be blotted upon paper ; which, by a secret traduction and conveyance, passeth from one soul into another, being able to dwell and lodge no where, but in a spiritual being, in a living thing, because itself is nothing but life and spirit.'"

Another,| scarcely less distinguished for learning, in a discourse delivered before the University cf Oxford, July 23, 1730, commenting on the peculiar language in which the Books of the Old Testament were written, observes:

" When the literal is either impossible or absurd, the plainest words are to be understood figuratively. In the original language it was hardly possible to avoid figurative expressions : for witli them the tongue is a language of things rather than words, and its very letters are significant. It is not merely an arbitrary sound, but a real cliaracter, and the name of every creature discovereth, in some measure, the distinguishing property of its nature. All nature is its book, and its words are formed upon the essences of things; and they had convened their primeval knowledge to their posterity, had they not rested in the . and forgot the things. Their wickedness brought on their ignorance, and their ignorance their errors.'"

* They who may desire to see in what light the old church regards the Divine Word, may consul! Bishop Lowth's " Be Sacra Poo-i Hebrceorum" from which he will learn much of the peculiar characteristics of the Hebrew Poets, Job, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Nahum and others, as well as of their 2>oelry ; much of which was written expressly for music .'

t R. Cudworth, D. D. X H. Telton, D. D.

This view of the language of the Divine Word has received the suffrages of the most learned oriental scholars ; and some have gone so far as to attempt to trace out the distinctive character and internal force and meaning of each particular letter in the alphabet ; whether with an approach to correctness or not, I shall not undertake to decide — my object being rather to state general impressions, than to pass judgment on particular hypotheses.

Admitting that such an internal or spiritual sense exists in every part of the Holy Scriptures, and that such may have been the common opinion of learned men in the past ages of the Church, it will naturally be inquired, from what source do the members of the New Church profess to derive their knowledge of it ? We answer frankly and promptly, from the disclosures of Emanuel Swedenborg; the medium, or instrument, as we believe, through whom the Lord has been pleased to open to his creatures these treasures of his Word, heretofore scaled up, in order to the establishment on the earth of that " Holy City" seen by John, that " Kingdom" spoken of by Daniel, " which shall not be destroyed" This belief is not founded merely on the assurances of Swedenborg himself — however highly he may be regarded as a man of piety, probity and truth — but on the internal testimonies furnished by the revelations themselves — revelations that ask net the enforced assent exacted by personal respect, need not the doubtful guaranties of personal veracity, but boldly demand a trial on their own merits, requiring only that the Law and the Prophets should be the witnesses, and impartial human Reason the Judge. We believe, on investigation, they will be found to contain incontestable evidences of their own truth, — a science, philosophy and religion which no unaided human intellect could ever have fashioned into order out of the chaos of its own thoughts, however great its powers, lofty its conceptions, or vast its attainments.

It is charged against the Church that its rule of interpretation, by which the internal sense of the Word may be unveiled, is arbitrary in its nature, and uncertain, if not inconsistent in Its results. This allegation is made by those whose prejudices have not allowed them to acquire any other than a very partial knowledge of the rule itself, — much less of his nature, and the principles which regulate and determine Its application. So far from being arbitrary in its nature, it must be (if taken as a rule at all,) as fixed and unchangeable as the forms and qualities of the material world, on which it is founded : nay, as firm and unchangeable as the laws of the Deity himself, whose order and attributes are eternally stamped upon, and, as it were, stereotyped in the forms of the visible creation, — themselves being (if I might so speak,) the earthly alphabet of a heavenly language ; teaching us that every created form and substance, no matter in what order of life or being, — no matter in what proportions of multitude or magnitude, — from the blind mole to the heavengazing man, — from the animalcula to the mammoth, — from the separate sand-grain on the sea-shore to the innumerable congregation of atoms that form a world, a system, a universe ; each and all are but the sensible manifestations of the infinite attributes of the Most High, and speak, in an almost audible voice, that God is all in all.

Without the aid of this science of correspondence between natural and spiritual things, It is believed by the Church impossible to determine, with certainty, whether the writings received as the Holy Scriptures, are of Divine or human origin. The want of this aid will account for the various conflicting opinions amongst theologians, and contradictory decisions of Councils, in settling the Canon of Scripture; — if, indeed, it can be said to be settled at ail — to say nothing of the jeers and mockery of the scornful. It could not have been otherwise when men looked to tradition and outward testimony for authority — confounding the letter with the spirit — imputing the supposed imperfections of the text to unauthorized interpolations, or to the personal imperfections of the respective pensmen ; and, in short, making it but little more than a mere account of the Natural Creation, a history of the Jews, interspersed, occasionally, with moral instructions, and predictions about Kings, and Tyrants, and Civil Governments, and other earthly matters. Regarded merely in this gross and unworthy point of view, it has required immense labor, on the part of good and learned men in every age, to reconcile the world to its Divine authority : and had not a merciful Providence ordained it otherwise, — had not deep voices been sometimes heard in the dark sayings of the letter, — such as were once uttered from the cloud that vested on Sinai; had it not been permitted to man, occasionally, through openings in the garments of the literal sense, to catch a glimpse of the glorious body of Divine Truth, it is more than probable that the sacred Oracles would, long since, have been ranked amongst the ordinary impositions of tying prophets and designing priests.

I shall not stop to inquire into the mischiefs which have resulted to the world from the want of some fixed and rational rule of interpretation, such as is that for which we contend. The difficulty, not to say impossibility, of reconciling the apparent contradictions which seem to disfigure the mere literal sense ; the seeming inconsistency, in many of its statements, with the dictates of reason, the conclusions of philosophy, and the discoveries of science, have led to schisms, convulsions and bloodshed : and Christendom, for eighteen centuries, has staggered like a drunken man under the constantly accumulating burden of creeds without concord, systems without order, and sects without names to designate them. In the meantime, the torture, the faggot, and the sword, have been active in this work ; and the earth has drunk more blood than would float the navies of the globe. The cause and the remedy of the disease are equally obvious; but the time is not yet, though it be not distant, when man will discover the one and apply the other. Meantime, the member of the New Church has but to perform his duties faithfully and sincerely to God and to man. The rest is with Him who sleeps not, neither is weary.

In connection with this part of the subject a further inquiry may be anticipated, viz : Does the New Church regard the revelations of Swedenborg as of the character and authority of the inspired Books of the Old and New Testament ? I answer, it is so certified and circulated by grave and revered persons in the Old Church, but that there is not the slightest foundation for the opinion or the charge. The mere idea is so bold as to border on blasphemy. The inspired Books of the Old and New Testaments contain, in the view of the Church, the Divine Truth itself. They were dictated in every word, from the beginning to the end, by the Lord himself; and comprehend the treasures of infinite Love. and Wisdom. The persons selected to write them may, or may not have understood more than their outward import. The probability is, that, to a considerable extent, they were made acquainted with their general character, scope and design ; but that they could have comprehended the full measure of the Divine Goodness and Truth contained in them, is utterly incredible. Neither they nor any angel in Heaven — no one but the infinite God himself can, of this, have any adequate conception. A different theory would involve the worse than blasphemous paradox that man is equal to God! In the very chapter of Daniel to which I have referred, after recording what he had seen in the '•' night visions" — these correspondences in the spiritual world, presented to his contemplation in the forms of the ral world — the Prophet speaks of being grieved in the spirit and troubled on account of l>is visions, he asks for an interpretation (I am speaking according to the literal sense of the Word), and an interpretation is given him; but still clothed in the natural images of outward tilings — veiled, as it were, in the vesture of earthly forms. And the Prophet, as it would appear, still pondering and perplexed, utters the words of one who feels the linpotance of his understanding — " Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me ; but I kept the mutter in my heart." And in a subsequent chapter, when the final consummation of the prophecies was presented before his vision, in images that have stamped themselves so deeply on the human understanding for so many ages ; when he had seen the man clothed in linen lift up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and heard him " Sware by Him that liveth for ever" when " all these things shall be finished," he says — "-And I heard, but I understood not ; then said I, my Lord, what' shall be the end of these things ? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are dosed up and sealed till the time of the end."

I might prosecute this inquiry further if it were at all relevant to the subject: but it is not, and I wish to avoid all extraneous matter. My object is merely to present the views of the Church in respect to the Divine Word; and from these views themselves to show that, in its estimation, no record whatever, that ever has been or that ever can be written, though arch-angels were the pensmen, and the curtains of heaven the scroll — can be compared in any manner, or in any degree, with the Word of the Lord. I make no other reply to the assaults of reckless men, whose charges reflect far darker shadows on themselves than on the Church against which they are made.

To the impartial mind it will appear manifest, from what I have said, that the New Church cannot rank the disclosures of Swedenborg with the books of the inspired volume. What it claims for them and for him, is nothing more than what it accords, in degree, to every truthful composition, and to every man who thinks and acts in the world. I say, in degree ; for we believe that, in one sense, all men may be regarded as inspired ; that is to say, that all men receive their knowledge of truth, their love of goodness, their thoughts and affections, their life and being, from the Lord. If they distinguish between the good and the evil; between the true and the false ; if they will, and understand, and act, though all appears to be from themselves, yet all is from the Lord alone ; for they are merely recipients of these affections and faculties. In this sense, therefore, and in this degree, all men may be considered as inspired. Each feels, thinks and acts as from himself, and differently from another: — for in this consists his substantive individuality of being. One has a deeper and a stronger current of feeling; a wider and a clearer range of vision; a higher and a larger sphere of action, than another : yet each, and all, are but instruments still — mere recipients, whose very existence, and all that it implies, is momentarily received from the Lord of Life.