Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/19

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Heaven Revealed.


I.

SWEDENBORG THE CHOSEN INSTRUMENT.

MANY people nowadays know something of the claims of Emanuel Swedenborg, however deficient the great majority may still be in any correct knowledge of his teachings. It is generally known that he claimed, among other things, to have had his spiritual senses so opened as to enable him to see and converse with the denizens of the spiritual world as men see and converse with each other; and this continually for a period of nearly thirty years, embracing the ripest portion of his earthly life. He made no secret of this claim, extraordinary and startling as he knew it to be; but boldly announced it on every suitable occasion, and repeatedly in his published works. In the commencement of his treatise known as "Heaven and Hell," occurs the following explicit declaration:—

"The arcana revealed in the following pages are those concerning heaven, together with the life of man after death. The man of the church at this day knows