I hope that my latest published work, called Vera Christiana Religio, has come into your hands, and also the two copies sent at the same time to his most Serene Highness, the Duke Landgrave, for I very greatly desire your judgment on the matters contained therein, knowing that by enlightenment from the Lord, you more than others will see in light the truths there made manifest from the Word.

Today I am also sending an answer to the Most Serene Duke's letter lately written to me; and, by virtue of the command contained therein, I tell of some conversations, including also that which I had with the Queen of Sweden and her brother.* These must by no means be classed as among miracles, being merely testimonies that I have been introduced by the Lord into the spiritual world, and there into communication and speech with angels and spirits; and this to the end that the Church, which has hitherto been in ignorance of that world, may know that heaven and hell are actual, and that man lives as a man after death; that so, doubts may no longer flow into the human mind concerning its own immortality. Deign, I pray you, to persuade the Duke your Prince, so that he will think, not that such things are miracles, but that they are merely testifications that I speak with angels and spirits. That miracles do not take place at this day, and for what reason, see in the above mentioned work [n. 501]. The Lord says [**]. Therefore, they who do not believe unless they see miracles, can easily be carried off into fanatical notions. I have seen 2 volumes full of miracles done by a certain Paris,*** which yet are nothing but pure lies, being partly fantastical and partly magical. It is the same with the other miracles among the Roman Catholics. Consult also, if you wish, what has been recounted by me in the above work. It will confirm men of the present day in no other way; and they will be established by letters and also by conversations.**** For the Word itself and the truths derived therefrom - if in my last work these truths appear before the reader in some light, it is a sign that the Lord is present and enlightens him.***** * Lovisa Eleonora (1720-1782), the sister of Frederick the Great, and her younger brother Augustus William (1722-1758). In the Library of Upsala University is a letter from the Queen-then a widow and Queen Dowagerin which she asks J. F. Beylon, her Chancellor, to "give me pleasure by sending me two copies of Swedenborg's works in Latin." It was Queen Lovisa Eleonora to whom Swedenborg, on Nov. 15, 1761, told what is called the Queen's secret. ** "If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead" (Luke 16:31). *** Francois de Paris (1690-1727) was a Jensenite priest and ascetic, whose fame is due to the miracles ascribed to him after his death. Giving up riches, he earned his daily bread as a weaver, but led the life of an ascetic, denying himself in every way that he might help the poor. He never did miracles, nor professed to do them, but soon after his death, so great was the veneration in which he was held that his grave was visited by multitudes and was held as a holy and wonder-working place. In 1731, so widespread was the belief that a visit to that grave would miraculously cure diseases, that the Archbishop of Paris instituted an inquiry as to the credibility of the alleged miracles. His conclusion was that they had no foundation in fact, and he forbade all marks of veneration at the tomb of Paris. Rumors of miracles at the tomb still continued however, and in 1737, a wealthy M. Montgeron who, after a life of dissipation had experienced a wonderful conversion at the tomb of Paris, devoted his time to gathering evidence of miraculous cures, and then published a quarto volume entitled La Verite des Miracles Operes par l'intercession de M. De Paris. A second volume was published in 1741 as a "Continuation." These are the two volumes referred to in the text by Swedenborg, and also in Invitation 55 and Abomination 31. Both volumes are illustrated by "before and after" pictures. A third volume was published in 1748. **** I interpret these words as meaning Swedenborg's printed works and his conversations with spirits and angels. ***** The copy of this document has several grammatical errors, indicating that the copyist was not familiar with Swedenborg's hand writing. In the present case, the text is not clear. It reads: "Hodiernos non aliter firmebit, et constabilitiuntur Litteris, item colloquis, quia Ipse Verbum et Ipsae Veritates inde depromtae quae si in quodam luce in opere ultimo coram legente apparent, indicium est quod Dominus adsit, ac ille illustrat."