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But here Swedenborg could not rest; and the mode, wherein he still describes the necessity of the Incarnation of the Deity, for the regeneration of mankind, is certainly entitled to the epithet of ingenious. His view is not new, and was already unfolded by the Fathers of the Church, and the Schoolmen, and with greater clearness, copiousness, and precision, than by Swedenborg; but, as we have, however, no ground for supposing, that he was acquainted with the labours of anterior times on this matter, we ought not to refuse him the merit of an original discovery. He says, without the condescension of God in Christ, faith were comparable to a look cast up towards the heavens, and would be utterly lost in the vague and the immeasurable; but through Christ it hath received its proper object, and is, thereby, become more definite. Some fathers of the Church express this thought in the following manner; to wit, that by his own powers, man is unable to rise above a mere void, meaningless, unconscious yearning, and that it is only through revelation this yearning is satisfied, and is blessed with a true object. Swedenborg adds (in common with Cardinal Cusa, who has treated this subject in a most intellectual manner), that, in the relations of man to God, the human and the divine, the earthly and the heavenly must every where pervade each other; that, by communion with the incarnate Deity, faith and love receive their higher and eternal sanction; but, that as God hath lived among us in a human shape, those virtues have, thereby, obtained their right foundation, and then only became our own;

mechanical change in the moral condition of mankind; but, according to Catholic doctrine, it brought about a living, internal, and organic change.-Trans.

us.

for, the Divine in itself would remain inaccessible to The one great work of Divine Mercy, we may contemplate from many points of view; and the more comprehensive is our contemplation of that work, the deeper will be our reverence and adoration. But, that so important principle in the Incarnation, which is so clearly expressed in Holy Writ, so distinctly asserted through all centuries of the Church, and plastically stamped, if I may so speak, on her public worship--the principle, that the death of the Lord is our life-ought never to be thrown into the back-ground, much less absolutely rejected.

What the northern prophet says as to the duties, required on the part of man, in order that he should realize, within himself, the regeneration, designed for him by God, has much resemblance with the doctrine of the Catholic Church. In Christ, says Swedenborg, Divine truth and love became manifest. Hence, man must approach unto him, and receive the truth in faith, and walk according to the same in love; faith without love, or love without faith, has no value. Hence, respecting Justification, he has nearly the same idea, which the Catholic Church has ever inculcated; and in his opinion, it is essentially identical with the sanctification, and inward renovation, produced in faith in Christ.† But here the great distinction is to be observed, that he deduces not the forgiveness of sins from the merits of Christ. The relation between Grace and Free-will, is

*Vol. i. p. 552.

† Vol. i. p. 283. "By means of divine truth originating in good, that is, by means of faith originating in charity, man is reformed and regenerated, and also renewed, quickened, sanctified, justified; and, in proportion to this progress and growth in these graces, is purified from evils; in which purification consists the remission of sins."

pretty well set forth; and in such a way, that he deviates not into Pelagianism, and scarcely into Semipelagianism-a circumstance, which from Swedenborg's opposition to Luther's doctrine, must really excite surprise.

But the historian of dogmas will be filled with astonishment, when, on these matters, he turns his attention to Swedenborg's historical observations. In order to justify the connexion, which he has assumed between the doctrine of the Trinity, and that of the vicarious Satisfaction, he asserts, that with the Council of Nice, the Protestant doctrine of the imputation of Christ's merits has been introduced and maintained.* This assertion involves a two-fold error; in the first place, because, before the aforesaid council, an imputation of Christ's merits can be proved to have been the universal belief of the Church; and secondly, because, from that council down to the sixteenth century, the peculiar Lutheran theory on this subject, with the exception of some slight and scattered traces, is not to be found. Luther himself never vaunted of this concurrence with the doctrine of the Church, subsequently to the Council of Nice. On the contrary, he made it his glory to have caught a deeper insight into the meaning of St. Paul, than all the fathers of the Church. Swedenborg need only have read the commentaries on St. Paul's Epistles, which Chrysostom and Theodoret, in the Greek Church,

* Vol. iii. p. 317.

"That the faith, which is imputative of the merit and righteousness of Christ the Redeemer, first took its rise from the decrees in the Council of Nice, concerning three Divine Persons from eternity; which faith, from that time to the present, has been received by the whole Christian world." P. 312: "That imputation and the faith of the present Church, which alone is said to justify, are one thing."

and Ambrosiaster and Jerome, in the Latin, have composed, to see the fallacy of his strange conceit. As to the theologians of the middle age, every page of their writings will refute the assertion of Swedenborg. How then would the opposition between Catholics and Protestants be explicable, if, on the article of belief in question, the former had ever put forth the same doctrine as the latter? Swedenborg does not even adduce a single historical testimony, in support of his assertion, and contents himself with mere round assurances, without reflecting that, in matters so important, proofs, and not mere assurances, are required. Swedenborg was not aware, that we can believe in an imputation of the merits of Christ, without being in the least forced to adopt the peculiar theories of the Reformers of Wittenberg and of Geneva. In other places, where he treats of the separation of Protestants from the Catholic Church, and of their peculiar doctrines, in consequence of that schism, he even contradicts himself, forgets, at all events, the broad distinction, which, according to what has been already recounted, he had laid down between Catholics and Protestants, as to their capability for embracing, in the next world, the entire truth, and precisely in regard to the article of Justification.

Upon his doctrine of Free-will, also, Swedenborg did not a little pique himself, under the supposition, that it was utterly unknown to the whole Christian Church; and his English editor, in all seriousness, points to this notion, as to something quite new and unheard-of. Truly, if we attend only to the Formulary of concord, from which Swedenborg makes long extracts, as well as to the writings of Calvin, we should be justified in believing, that the doctrine of Free-will, is nowhere any longer known. But how much soever Swedenborg

descants on Free-will, he gives, amid all his images, no very clear notion of it, although it is not to be doubted that this idea floated before his mind.*

§ LXXXII.-Swedenborg's Doctrine relative to the Sacraments.

Swedenborg's doctrine on the Sacraments, has, independently of its peculiar language, nothing very striking, although he thinks the contrary, and opines, that without knowledge of the spiritual sense, that is to say, the mystico-allegorical meaning, and especially of the correspondences between heaven and earth, nothing solid can be adduced even on this article of belief. Moreover the two sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper (for more he doth not acknowledge), are, in his opinion, very precious; and he strives, with all his powers, to promote a lively reverence for, and worthy reception of the same. Of baptism, he teaches, that, through three stages, it is designed to work an inward purification. In the first place, it conducts into the Christian Church; secondly, by its means, the Christian is brought to a knowledge and recognition of the Saviour and Redeemer; and thirdly, in it man is born again through the Lord. But, these three objects of baptism, are, in themselves, one and the same, and are in the same relation one to the other, as cause and effect, and the medium between the two.*

*

But the knowledge of celestial correspondences, above all, serves to initiate Christians into the essence of the holy communion. Flesh and bread are the earthly

* Vol. i. pp. 108-156.

† Vol. ii. p. 273.

Loc. cit. p. 389. "In a like manner as a first cause, a middle cause, which is the efficient, and ultimate cause, which is the effect, and the end, for the sake of which the former causes were produced."

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