Most Serene Duke, Landgrave,

When I received your most gracious letter, I was somewhat hesitant, being in doubt as to whether it was signed by you. I disclosed the cause of this doubt to the clergyman, the Rev. Venator, when he was with me. But when I heard from him that such was not the case,* and all doubt was removed, I was somewhat troubled; yet I delayed my answer until I had received from the printer the lately printed theological work called Vera Christiana Religio, containing the complete theology of the New Church predicted by the Lord in Daniel, 12:13, 14, and in the Apocalypse, 21:1, 2 seq. Of this work, Most Serene Duke, I have today sent you two copies by the coach which leaves this city for Germany twice a week. I pray that you favor the work, for in it are pure truths disclosed from heaven.

As to the book called Arcana Coelestia, which was published in London, it is no longer to be found, for all the copies, both those in England and those in Holland, have been sold. I know that some persons in Sweden have it. I will write to two of them, and ask whether they are willing to sell it for a price. If I may, I will communicate their answers as soon as they arrive.

In your gracious letter I am asked how I came to have communication with angels and spirits, and whether this can be transferred from one person to another. On this matter, deign graciously to receive the following as my answer:

The Lord our Savior predicted, both in the Gospels and in the Apocalypse, that He would come again into the world and establish a New Church; and since He cannot** come into the world in Person, it was necessary that He do this by means of a man who not only could perceive the doctrinals of this Church in his understanding, but would be able to publish them by the press. And because the Lord has prepared me for this from childhood, therefore He manifested Himself in Person before me His servant, and sent me to this office. This was done in the year 1743; and after this He opened for me the sight of my spirit, and so introduced me into the spiritual world, and granted me to see the heavens and the marvels there, and also the hells; and likewise to speak with angels and spirits, and this continuously now for twenty-seven years. That such is the case, to this I testify in truth. The fact that this happened with me is solely for the sake of the New Church here spoken of.

The gift of speaking with angels as I speak with them cannot be transferred from one person to another. It has sometimes happened that a spirit enters in, and utters some word to a man, yet it is not given him to speak with the man mouth to mouth; this, moreover, is extremely dangerous, for the spirit enters into the affection of the man's own love, and this is not concordant with the affection of heavenly love.

As to the man who was troubled by spirits, I have heard from heaven that this arose from the meditation in which he indulged, and that, despite this, no danger is to be feared therefrom because the Lord guards him. The sole means of healing is that he be converted and pray to the Lord the Savior Jesus Christ for help.

I remain with the deepest respect, Most Serene Duke Landgrave Your most humble servant Eman. Swedenborg

Amsterdam June 18, 1771

* That is, that the signature was not forged. ** The autograph reads quia non potest in Persona adhuc in mundum venire (because He cannot as yet come, etc.), but the adhuc is surely a slip of some sort; see T.C.R. 779. Perhaps Swedenborg meant to write ad hoc (for this purpose).