Most Reverend Herr Doctor:

I have had the pleasure of receiving the Herr Doctor's welcome letter of the 23d of November 1768. That I have not answered it until now is because I wished to delay the answer until a little work had come out, called Summaria Expositio Doctrinae Novae Ecclesiae quae per Novam Hierosolymam in Apocalypsi intelligitur, wherein are fully exposed the errors of the hitherto accepted doctrines concerning justification by faith alone, and concerning the Imputation of the righteousness or merit of Christ. This treatise is being sent by me to all the priests in the whole of Holland and also will go to the foremost priests in Germany. I have heard that they have read it with attention, and that some have already found the truth, while others do not know where to turn; for what is written therein affords complete conviction that the effect of that doctrine has been that in Christendom at this day there is no theology.

I am thinking of sending 12 copies to the Herr Doctor by the first ship that goes from here. These the Herr Doctor will please give: 1 to the Herr Bishop [Lamberg], 1 to the Herr Dean [Ekebom], and the rest, except his own copy, to the Lectors of Theology and to the Priests in the city; for no one can judge the work so well as one who has fundamentally entered into the secrets of justification. After the little work has been read by the Herr Dean, may it please the Herr Doctor kindly to request him to express his opinion of it in the Consistory. All those here who are able and willing to see the truth, will assent.

Here they often ask me concerning the New Church, when it will come, whereupon I answer that it will come little by little, as the doctrine of Justification and Imputation is uprooted, which will likely be done by this treatise. It is known that the Christian Church did not come in immediately after the ascension of Christ, but increased gradually. This, moreover, is meant by these words in the Apocalypse: And the woman flew into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent (chap. 12:14). The serpent or dragon is that doctrine.

In about a month I go from here to Paris, and this for a purpose which must not be revealed beforehand.*

As regards the visions of the different persons who are mentioned in the Herr Doctor's letter, they are nothing else than fantastic visions.

And now, with respectful greetings to the Herr Bishop and to my other friends in Gothenburg, I remain

the most reverend Herr Doctor's obedient and most faithful servant Em. Swedenborg Amsterdam March 15, 1769 * c.f. Letter to Beyer, April 23, 1769.