Outlines of a philosophical argument on the infinite, and the final cause of creation; and on the intercourse between the soul and the body / by Emanuel Swedenborg. Translated from the Latin by James John Garth Wilkinson.

  • Swedenborg, Emanuel, 1688-1772.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of a philosophical argument on the infinite, and the final cause of creation; and on the intercourse between the soul and the body / by Emanuel Swedenborg. Translated from the Latin by James John Garth Wilkinson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    successful rendering of so difficult a work. There is, however, a brief Advertisement prefixed to the edition, which contains some observations by the Master so just and pertinent, that we need offer no excuse for inserting them here. **To establish rationally,” says he, ‘on solid grounds, some satis- factory knowledge respecting God, the soul, and eternal life, was indeed, professedly, the primary end, the ultimate scope, of all our author's . philosophical disquisitions, as well as theological researches. And, directed towards objects in themselves so interesting, he will be found to have selected such means, in the guidance of his laudable pursuits, as necessarily carry him to discoveries and conclusions no less impor- tant than convincing. Facts, natural and revealed, were alone what he either could, or did, rely upon with security. From visible effects in nature, and in the human body, by retracing all things philosophically to their cause, he was led, and will lead others most fully, to acknow- ledge that there is a God of infinite love and wisdom, and that man hath an immortal soul. And from the actual, though divine and super- natural, manifestations recorded in the Sacred Scripture, he hath been enabled more immediately to ascertain what God is, and what the soul, as to form in particular. For do not the Scriptures positively declare, . that God hath been manifested to the patriarchs of old, to Moses and the prophets, and finally to Christians in the person of Jesus Christ, ever in Human Form? And doth not John the Revelator say ex- pressly, that when he was in spirit abstracted into heaven, he could equally as in the body, hear, see, converse, walk, and, in short, live and act as a man; and that he saw there, as men, ‘the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held?’ * Let not those, therefore, who can accompany our author with pleasure in his philosophical excursions through the shady walks of inferior nature, neglect to rise with him, in the way to their highest edification and improvement, into that superior light which beams efful- gent from the Word of God. Neither let such as have already read and received his Theological Works, look down upon his Philosophy as to them unnecessary, or comparatively below their notice; for without a rational idea of the soul, as scientifically given in his Philosophical Works, it may be doubted whether his scriptural doctrines, which apply so immediately to the spirit of man, can be rightly apprehended and fully understood.” The above particulars, we believe, nearly complete what can be said at present of the literary history of the Outlines.