PREFACE.

THE good name of EMANUEL SWEDENBORG is no longer in question. In place of being denounced as a heretic, he begins to be recognized by Christian students in all denominations as a pioneer of the advanced theology fast finding its way into the thought of the Churches.

We need not now documents to prove the ability, the soundness of mind, the laborious acquisitions, the deep philosophic insight, the sincerity and the honor of the man. Rather, we want to be shown from the limitations of his human nature, from the trials and the training given his heart and mind, from the grace and the new spirit vouchsafed him, on the one hand; and on the other hand, from the need, the nature, and the result of his mission,- that this was the work, not of his own will and unaided intellect, but of the will of the Lord Jesus Christ, under the guidance of His Holy Spirit.

In this study, while the spirit of adulation finds no place, our love, esteem, and sympathy cannot but

greatly increase, as with our fellow-servant we learn to give all the praise to Him whom he loved to serve. And our task is reduced to setting in such order the things most surely believed among us, as will cause us to listen to Swedenborg's own words and to believe with him that they were not from himself, but from the Spirit of Truth.

Of all previous biographies of Swedenborg mention will be made in the Appendix. Let us here but express our obligations to the first known to us, by Mr. Nathaniel Hobart, which will always be held in grateful remembrance; and to the most complete by far, the collection of Documents, in three large octavo volumes, by the indefatigable Rev. R. L. Tafel; from which, as in most authentic form, the greater part of our material has been drawn. To these Documents and to Swedenborg's published works the student is referred for further research.