SWEDENBORGIANS. Among the first disciples of the Swedenborgian faith were two clergymen of the Church of England, the Rev. Thomas Hartley, who translated the work on Heaven and Hell; and the Rev. John Clowes, translator of the Arcana Cælestia. In December 1783, eleven years after Swedenborg's decease, an advertisement brought 5 persons to meet together for reading and conversation, which number had increased to 30 in 1787. About this time the formation of a definite religious society was commenced; provision was made for public worship; and a system of ministerial ordination was adopted. At the fifteenth conference, held in Manchester in August 1822, there were 8 ministers and 37 delegates, representing 24 congregations. At the census of 1851, the number of congregations was ascertained to be 50, of which the greater number were in Lancashire and Yorkshire. It is considered, however, by members of the body, that the mere number of their chapels gives a very inadequate idea of the prevalence of their opinions; many, they say, ostensibly connected with other churches, entertain the prominent doctrines of the New Church. The principal societies for disseminating the doctrines of the New Church in England are, the "Swedenborg Printing Society," established in 1810, and the "Missionary and Tract Society," established in 1821.
The doctrines held by the New Church of Emmanuel
Swedenborg will be seen from the following "Articles of Faith." These were not written by Swedenborg, but were drawn up by order of the Annual Conference of Ministers and Laymen, by whom the affairs of the body, as at present constituted, are managed.
"The Articles of Faith of the New Church, signified by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation, are these:—
"1. That Jehovah God, the Creator and Preserver of heaven and earth, is Love itself and Wisdom itself, or Good itself and Truth itself; that He is One both in Essence and in Person, in whom, nevertheless, is the Divine Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which are the Essential Divinity, the Divine Humanity, and the Divine Proceeding, answering to the soul, the body, and the operative energy in man; and that the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is that God.
"2. That Jehovah God himself descended from heaven as Divine Truth, which is the Word, and took upon him human nature, for the purpose of removing from man the powers of hell, and restoring to order all things in the spiritual world, and all things in the Church; that He removed from man the powers of hell, by combats against and victories over them, in which consisted the great work of redemption; that by the same acts which were His temptations, the last of which was the passion of the cross, He united in His humanity, Divine Truth to Divine Good, or Divine Wisdom to Divine Love, and so returned into His divinity, in which He was from eternity, together with and in His glorified humanity; whence He for ever keeps the infernal powers in subjection to Himself; and that all who believe in Him, with the understanding from the heart, and live accordingly, will be saved.
"3. That the Sacred Scripture, or Word of God, is Divine Truth itself, containing a spiritual sense heretofore unknown, whence it is divinely inspired, and holy in every syllable; as well as a literal sense, which is the basis of its spiritual sense, and in which Divine Truth is in its fulness, its sanctity, and its power; thus, that it is accommodated to the apprehension both of angels and men; that the spiritual and natural senses are united by correspondences, like soul and body, every natural expression and image answering to and including a spiritual and divine idea; and thus that the Word is the medium of communication with heaven, and of conjunction with the Lord.
"4. That the government of the Lord's Divine Love and Wisdom is the Divine Providence, which is universal, exercised according to certain fixed laws of order, and extending to the minutest particulars of the life of all men, both of the good and of the evil; that in all its operations it hath respect to what is infinite and eternal, and makes no account of things transitory, but as they are subservient to eternal ends; thus, that it mainly consists with man in the connection of things temporal with things eternal; for that the continual aim of the Lord, by His Divine Providence, is to join man to Himself, and Himself to man, that He may be able to give him the felicities of eternal life; and that the laws of permission are also laws of the Divine Providence, since evil cannot be prevented without destroying the nature of man as an accountable agent; and because, also, it cannot be removed unless it be known, and cannot be known unless it appear; thus, that no evil is permitted but to prevent a greater; and all is overruled by the Lord's Divine Providence for the greatest possible good.
"5. That man is not life, but is only a recipient of life from the Lord, who, as He is Love itself and Wisdom itself, is also Life itself; which life is communicated by influx to all in the spiritual world, whether belonging to heaven or hell, and to all in the natural world, but is received differently by every one, according to his quality, and consequent state of his reception.
"6. That man, during his abode in the world, is, as to his spirit, in the midst between heaven and hell, acted upon by influences from both, and thus is kept in a state of spiritual equilibrium between good and evil; in consequence of which he enjoys free will, or freedom of choice, in spiritual things as well as in natural, and possesses the capacity of either turning himself to the Lord and His kingdom, or turning himself away from the Lord, and connecting himself with the kingdom of darkness; and that, unless man had such freedom of choice, the Word would be of no use; the Church would be a mere name; man would possess nothing by virtue of which he could be conjoined to the Lord, and the cause of evil would be chargeable on God himself.
"7. That man at this day is born into evil of all kinds, or with tendencies towards it; that therefore, in order to his entering the kingdom of heaven, he must be regenerated or created anew; which great work is effected in a progressive manner, by the Lord alone, by charity and faith as mediums during man's co-operation; that as all men are redeemed, all are capable of being regenerated, and consequently saved, every one according to his state; and