Elias de la Roche Rendell

“ A bad man may knowingly speak the truth; but for a good man to invent a falsehood of such a nature, to utter it with frequency and solemnness, to persist in it with inimitable coolness for nearly 30 years, and to die with declarations of its truth upon his lips, is a thing impossible. The facts of his goodness refute the imagination of his falsehood.
But it may be insinuated that he had recourse to such extraordinary pretensions in order to become the founder of a sect. This, however, is denied by the excellence of his character, and contradicted by the dignified principle of his writings. ”

“ Christians profess to believe in the existence of a spiritual world, and in the immateriality of their own souls; in the existence of angels, and their ministration in the affairs of men; in the existence of wicked spirits, and their continued efforts to deceive mankind. Can they, then, with any consistency or reason, doubt, if the eyes of their spirits were to be opened by the Lord, that they would then be enabled to see the things of the otherwise invisible kingdom? Would such a circumstance afford any evidence of their insanity? ”

“ The communication of grace, the activities of faith, the nature of the resurrection, the principles of judgment, the joys of Heaven, the torments of Hell, and the coming of the Lord, are all pronounced to be mysteries which reason must not dare to handle, or philosophy attempt to touch. Do not these facts prove, most convincingly, that there is no true intelligence upon the most important subjects of revelation in that dispensation of which they are predicable? ”

“ Hence we learn that Christianity, though fallen, may profess itself to stand, and, as to externals, continue to exist long after the internal principles of genuine truth have departed from it. Indeed such circumstances are to be expected; they are the concomitants of a corrupted church; for in the progress of its perversions of truth, and recession from holiness, it will so interweave itself with secular interests and worldly institutions, as to render it a kingdom of this world merely. ”

“ Superior spiritual truths require superior states of the natural mind for their effective reception. Natural intelligence is a due habitation for spiritual wisdom; and the state of society plainly evinces that it is journeying upon a road which leads to deliverance from error. To this end religion has already made a movement, by the circulation of the Bible in nearly all the languages of the earth, in number and to an extent unparalleled in the history of the human race: will any one pretend that this is merely a human work—a device of political ingenuity? ”

“ If the Jews had uniformly acted upon the principle of rejecting, after the death of Moses, all the communications made to them by the prophets, on the ground that no further revelations were to be made, what would have become of a very large proportion of the Bible, and thus of the means of Christian edification? The degeneracy predicted of the Christian church is such, that, whensoever it may arrive, it is plain that a divine interference must take place to preserve it from extinction. ”

“ When mystery begins, there is some reason to suspect that truth has ended: wisdom is one of of the capital attributes of a genuine church; if, then, a church professes to exist, which teaches doctrines that cannot be received among the people as principles of rational intelligence, or be regarded by them as the subjects of wisdom, the conclusion that it has come to its end, is irresistible. Doctrines which cannot be comprehended by man, cannot be of any intellectual or practical use to him. ”

“ We believe, further, that a human instrument, chosen and commissioned by the Lord, is requisite to make known the Divine excellencies in which the second advent is to consist—that none but a good and wise man could be qualified for such a purpose—and that if such a one solemnly declares that he has been so selected, he is entitled to credit, provided he sustains his profession as Swedenborg has done, by delivering to the world a body of Divine doctrines before unknown, and yet drawn from the Holy Scriptures, and confirmed by the testimony of their literal sense. ”

“ It has been said that the claims of Swedenborg cannot be true, because his doctrines are so novel. We can scarcely imagine that any one ever seriously entertained this as an objection. If they are true, and had been known, a revelation of them would not have been required. All Divine communications, on their first promulgation, must necessarily appear novel: it was the case with Christianity itself 1800 years ago. It is folly to urge objections from such a fact; for any one may see that novelty is the very feature by which a revelation must be distinguished. ”

“ These doctrines teach us that the Lord Jesus Christ is the exclusive God of heaven and earth, that being the name of Jehovah in His Divine humanity: and they rationally explain to us the nature of the Trinity existing in His glorious Person; illustrating it by means of the soul, body, and proceeding operations in man. They teach us that, as the Redeemer. He assumed a humanity in the world, as the only orderly medium of liberating man from the infernal bondage he had brought upon himself by an evil course, and thereby restored him to a condition of spiritual freedom. ”

“ In doing this, our only desire is to assist in the promotion of that piety and truth—that sincerity, wisdom, and goodness, which are the inseparable companions of a pure, precious, and imperishable religion—a religion eminently calculated to confer on man the love of God, and which teaches that the true way to heaven is to be unceasingly employed in the endeavour to add something to the wisdom and happiness of our fellow Creatures. ”

“ The doctrines of a genuine church are drawn from the Lord's Holy Word, and they are intended to teach mankind how to think wisely of God. His kingdom, and Providence; and also how to live in agreement with His laws, and thus to be virtuous. A church is corrupted in proportion as it is defective in these two essential principles; and it is brought to its end when its doctrines are such as are not contained in the Revelation of God. ”

“ It is evident that a miracle would not prove a falsehood true: it is equally plain that a thousand miracles would not make a truth more true; the reason is, because there is no necessary connexion between the two things. In these days, the chief of all miracles is the promulgation of theological truth; and this we believe the Lord to have put the world in possession of, through the instrumentality of Swedenborg. ”

“ Now by the tribulation of the days referred to, is clearly meant the disastrous state of the church which is treated of, induced by the perversions of error and the influences of evil. By the sun that is to be darkened, is denoted that love to the Lord would be obscured; by the moon not giving her light is meant, that charity to man would not appear; by the stars falling from heaven, is signified that the knowledge of goodness and truth would depart from the church, and by the powers of the heaven being shaken, is denoted that all the principles of the church would be convulsed. ”

“ Such phenomena are unsuited to modern times, when reason has obtained a superior developement in humanity; and they are by no means adapted to assist in the promulgation of those spiritual truths of genuine religion, for which we believe the illustrious Swedenborg to have been raised up. But why should miracles be considered necessary to prove the truth of his mission? Many of the prophets performed no miracles, and yet their authority is not doubted on that account. ”

“ Intelligence and piety must acknowledge it to arise from some new activity of the Divine mercy, and thus to a spiritual manifestation of the Lord. But what is the purpose of the superior state which the natural mind has attained to, and in which it is still advancing? Is it merely for transitory purposes, that man may for a few years enjoy natural intelligence in the natural world? ”

“ Miracles merely awe the understanding, they do not convince the judgment. They may terrify the beholder, but they will not make him wiser. They may induce obedience from fear, but they will not originate virtue from love. Not withstanding the stupendous miracles performed by Moses before Pharaoh and the Israelites, we find that they served to harden the heart of the one, and certainly induced no improvement upon the other. ”

“ It is the same sense, accommodated to the apprehensions of men, which enables them to become true spiritual members of the church: the external or literal sense is the cloud in which that spiritual intelligence resides, and by means of which it is rendered manifest; and the Lord, who is the Word as to its spirit and life, is said to come in those clouds when he reveals that spirit and life, and confirm the truth of that revelation by means of its letter. ”

“ That it is influenced by some deleterious maxims is manifest from the facts that it is broken up into nearly a hundred different sects—that in each are to be found as many differing speculations—that most concur in acknowledging its leading doctrines to be inexplicable, and place reason under the subjection of faith—and that while all profess to derive their notions from the Bible as the standard of truth, not one of them has any distinct doctrine which teaches what are the laws of divine composition, or discloses a uniform principle for its interpretation ”

“ In such a requisition we are presented with another evidence of the sensual condition into which the human mind has fallen. The Lord said that it is "an evil and adulterous generation that seeketh after a sign." [11] He also declared that if men "hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." [12] These statements assure us that miracles are not the proper evidences of truth, and also that they are not adapted to produce that reasonable conviction concerning it, which is to accompany the genuine faith of an enlightened Christian. ”

“ Nothing but a special interference on the part of the Lord Himself is adequate to account for a proceeding so stupendous, pregnant, as it unquestionably is, with such extensive and favourable consequences to genuine religion. No other cause but that of the fulfilment of the Lord's promise, is sufficient to explain the phenomena adverted to: they are effects commensurate with such a design, and they have come into existence since the period when Swedenborg announced the Lord's second advent to have been begun. ”

“ Most commentators of any celebrity admit, that according to the prophecies of Scripture a period is to arrive in the Church when more enlightened views of doctrines and a purer practice of its principles, than at present prevail, are to distinguish it. Does it not follow, then, that some one is to be selected by the Lord, and illuminated by Him, for the purpose of making these known? They cannot be brought into existence, or obtain publicity, but through the instrumentality of man. ”

“ There is the authority of the Scriptures. It is no unexampled circumstance for the Lord, during the progress and decline of a dispensation, to raise up persons for the purpose of declaring its corruptions, and restoring information which had been thoughtlessly abandoned. The Jewish economy existed only about the same period that the Christian church has already done; yet how numerous were the prophets which were raised up, at various times, with the express design of correcting its abuses. ”

“ The Lord as the Word comes to man by means of it. The internal sense of the Word constitutes that spiritual intelligence which prevails in heaven; for, says the Psalmist, "For ever. O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." ”

“ It will not believe that it contains within itself the abomination of desolation: so long as a church considers itself such, it will announce itself to be the true church, and its impurities will be dignified by the title of its mysteries. Whatsoever may be its perversities, it will never as a church acknowledge them ”

“ Now pretensions like these, proclaimed in times when scepticism concerning things of a spiritual nature and the eternal world has paralyzed the faith of millions, and even taken up a visible possession in too many of the minds of professed believers, are not likely to be extensively received or correctly understood at their first promulgation. They do not agree with the desires of mankind, who have descended into states of the plainest naturalism—they coincide not with expectations formed by the influences of error—they are opposed to the common prejudices of the world ”

“ Moreover, this Church has not anything sectarian in its principles; for the good and the true, wheresoever and with whomsoever they may be found, whether professing to be a Jew or a Gentile. Greek or barbarian, are by us regarded as brethren, having in them something belonging to that Church of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Head. All the doctrines of this Church tend to promote, in those who receive them, intelligence and virtue: for the precepts of truth are to teach men how to live. ”

“ The material body is flesh and blood, and this cannot inherit the kingdom of God. [34] It is the soul which constitutes the man; the body is only an instrument annexed to it for a season in the natural world, and intended as the medium of performing the desires and intentions of the soul. When the body dies, it passes into the elements of which it is composed; but the soul does not suffer the extinction of its life. ”