"1. Query: Is a sign required to show that I have been sent by the Lord to do what I am doing? Answer: Signs and wonders do not take place at the present day, because they compel externally, and internally do not convince. "What effect did the miracles in Egypt and Jehovah's descent on Mount Sinai have upon the Israelitish people, who, notwithstanding, after the lapse of a month made for themselves a golden calf, and worshipped it in place of Jehovah? And what effect did the Lord's miracles have upon the Jewish nation, by whom He was notwithstanding crucified? The same would be the case now, should the Lord appear in the clouds with the angels and trumpets; as described in (Luke 14:16, 29-31). The sign, given at this day, will be enlightenment, and thence an acknowledgment and a reception of the truths of the New Church; with some also there will be an enlightenment which speaks [illustratio loquens], which is more than a sign. But some sign will perhaps still be given.

"2. Query: Whether I have conversed with the apostles? Answer: I have conversed with Paul for an entire year, and also on the subject of what he wrote in his Epistle to the Romans (3:28). Three times I spoke with John, once with Moses, a hundred times with Luther, who confessed to me that, contrary to an admonition received from an angel, he accepted the doctrine of faith alone solely for the purpose of separating from the Papists. With the angels, however, I have now conversed for twenty-two years, and I am still conversing with them daily; these the Lord has associated with me. "There was no use in my mentioning this in my writings; for who would have believed it? And who would not have said, 'Show me a sign that I may believe'? And this everyone would say who did not see it.

"3. Query: Why from being a philosopher I have been chosen? Answer: The cause of this has been, that the spiritual things which are being revealed at the present day may be taught and understood naturally and rationally: for spiritual truths have a correspondence with natural truths, because in these they terminate, and upon these they rest. That there is a correspondence of all spiritual things with all things of man, as well as with all things of the earth, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 87-102, and n. 103-115). For this reason I was introduced by the Lord first into the natural sciences, and thus prepared; and, indeed, from the year 1710 to 1744, when heaven was opened to me. Everyone also is led by means of natural things to spiritual things; for man is born natural; by education he is made moral, and afterwards by regeneration from the Lord he becomes spiritual. The Lord has granted to me besides to love truths in a spiritual manner, i. e., to love them, not for the sake of honor, nor for the sake of gain, but for the sake of the truths themselves; for he who loves truths for the sake of the truth, sees them from the Lord, because the Lord is the Way and the Truth (John 14:6); but he who loves them for the sake of honor or gain, sees them from himself; and seeing from oneself is equivalent to seeing falsities. Falsities that have been confirmed close the church, wherefore truths rationally understood have to open it. How else can spiritual things which transcend the understanding, be understood, acknowledged, and received? The dogma which has been handed down by the Papists, and accepted by the Protestants, namely, that the understanding is to be held in bondage under obedience to faith, has a second time closed the church, and what else is to open it again, except an understanding enlightened by the Lord; but on this subject see the Apocalypse Revealed (n. 914).

"4. I am very sorry that you should have had to suffer for the translation of the book on Heaven and Hell; but what suffers more at the present day than the truth itself? How few there are who see it, yea, who are willing to see it! Do not allow yourself to be discouraged thereby, but be a defender of the truth.

"I remain your most obedient, "Em. Swedenborg. "Stockholm, November 11, 1766." * Documents Concerning Swedenborg, Vol. 2, pp. 255-257.