*I have had the pleasure of receiving your welcome letter of Nov. 23, 1768. The reason I have not answered it until now is that I desired to await the publication of a small work called SUMMARY EXPOSITION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW CHURCH WHICH IS MEANT BY THE NEW JERUSALEM IN THE APOCALYPSE, in which the errors of the doctrine hitherto accepted concerning justification by faith alone and concerning the imputation of the justice or merit of Christ are fully exposed. This treatise has been sent by me to every priest in the whole of Holland, and will also go to the more eminent priests in Germany. I am told that they have read it carefully, and that some have already found the truth, whereas others do not know where to turn; for what is written in it affords full conviction that that doctrine is responsible for there being at this day no theology in Christendom.

I am planning to send 12 copies to you by the first ship that sails from here. Of these will you please give 1 to the Bishop, 1 to the Dean, and the rest, except your own copy, to the lecturers in theology and to the priests in the city; for no one can rightly judge the work, except him who has thoroughly learned the secrets of justification. After the little work has been read will you kindly request the Dean to express his opinion of it in the Consistory. All those here who are able and willing to see the truth, give their assent.

Here I am asked concerning the New Church, when it will come; and to this I reply that it will come gradually as the doctrine of justification and imputation is uprooted, which should be done by means of this treatise. It is known that the Christian Church did not come into its own immediately after the ascension of Christ, but increased gradually; which is also meant by these words in the Revelation: 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. xii 14. The serpent or dragon is that doctrine.

In about a month's time I shall leave for Paris, and this for a purpose which must not be revealed beforehand.

With regard to the visions of several persons, mentioned in your letter, they are nothing but fantastic visions.

And now my respectful greeting to the Bishop and to my other friends in Goteborg.

I remain etc. Em. Swedenborg

Amsterdam 15 March 1769

* On 23 November 1768, in a letter that is not now extant, Beyer wrote to Swedenborg in Amsterdam seeking his advice concerning certain people who claimed to have had visions of the spiritual world, but Swedenborg delayed his reply until SUMMARIA EXPOSITIO DOCTRINAE had been completed three or four months later.