*Before leaving for Paris next week I wish to make the following addition to my reply to the Opinion in the Dean's report. In the report it is claimed that I have written: 1. That the Sacred Scripture has hitherto been explained in a harmful and wrong manner, AR p. 21, n. 1. This is completely untrue, for in the place quoted there is nothing of the kind. 2. That there is no satisfaction for the sins of the world. This too is completely untrue. 3. That justification by faith alone is reviled. This is true; for faith alone is faith separated from charity, that is, from good works; and faith separated from charity has been rejected by the Swea Court of Appeal, and later also by the University of Uppsala, perhaps also by the Universities of Lund and Abo. Apparently the Dean does not yet know that according to the Formula Concordiae itself, the good works that follow faith freely and spontaneously, and are called the fruits of faith, also works of the spirit and works of grace, and are done in the state of justification, have no connection with faith and consequently contribute nothing whatever to salvation, indeed that it would be destructive if they were to join and mingle themselves with faith; and that which has no connection is in itself separate.

In the reply that I sent, some of the quotations from the Formula Concordiae concerning the Divinity of Christ are erroneously referred to as 337, 375. This should be 737, 775. On the same subject there is here added a more distinct and explicit extract from the Formula Concordiae, as follows. (See the edition printed at Leipzig in 1756)

That in Christ God is Man and Man God pp. 607, 765. That Christ is true God and Man in one indivisible Person, and abides to eternity, pp. 600, 762, 763, 840 seq. That Christ, as to His Human Nature, has been raised to the omnipotent power of God, inasmuch as He was such a Man that His Human Nature had so close and ineffable a union and communication with the Son of God as to become one Person, p. 607. That the Human Nature of Christ was exalted to Divine Majesty and Power is according to the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, also according to the Fathers, as Athanasius, Augustine, Chrysostom, Eusebius, Cyril, Bustachius, Gregory, Epiphanius, Theodoret, Basil the Great, Theophylactus, Hilary, Origen, Nicephorus, Nyssenus, Vigilius, Lee, pp. 840-78. This is confirmed from the Word in many places, pp. 608, 844, 847, 852, 861, 863, 869. That the Human Nature of Christ received the most excellent, the greatest, supernatural, and celestial properties, these being the prerogatives of Majesty, Strength, and Power, p. 774; and also the spirit of all wisdom, pp. 781, 782. That Christ operates in, with, and through each Nature, and through the Human as through the organ of Deity, pp. 773, 779, 847. That this takes place by hypostatic union, glorification, and exaltation, pp. 774, 779. That in the state of humiliation He emptied Himself, and that He did not always put forth and manifest that majesty, but did so as often as it pleased Him, until after the resurrection He put off the form of a servant and entered into the Divine Majesty and Glory itself, pp. 608, 764, 767. That by virtue of the hypostatic union He wrought miracles even in the state of exinanition, pp. 167, 767. That Christ is our Redeemer, Mediator, Head, Pontifex, and King as to each nature, p. 773. That as to His Human Nature Christ was actually exalted to the right hand of God, p. 608. That He is at the right hand of God; that He has ascended above all the heavens, and truly infills all things, and rules everywhere not only as God but also as Man, concerning whom the prophets certainly prophesied; into the possession of which properties He actually came as to His Human Nature, p. 768. That the right hand of God is everywhere, and that Christ, being present as to His Human, governs all things, and has them under His feet, p. 600. That by reason of the unity of Person Christ, according to His Human Nature, was given Majesty, Glory, Omnipotence, and Omniscience together with the most immediate dominion over all things, pp. 737 seq., 608 seq., 834 seq., Appendix pp. 147, 148. That Christ by personal union and exaltation as to the flesh, being placed at the right hand of God, received all power in heaven and on earth, p. 833. That Christ also as to His Human Nature has all power in heaven and on earth, pp. 775, 779; confirmed by passages from the Sacred Scripture, pp. 775, 776, 780. That Christ as to His Human Nature is omnipresent, pp. 3, 10, 611, 768, 783, 785, Appendix p. 150. That the royal office of Christ is this, that as God-Man in each Nature, in His capacity of King and Lord of heaven and earth, He might most immediately govern all things in the kingdom of power, grace, and glory, pp. 787, 876, Appendix p. 149. That the flesh of Christ is vivifying, and that Christ as to His Human Nature has the power of vivifying, pp 776, 777, 782, Appendix p. 152. That Christ as to each Nature is to be adored and invoked, according to the Augsburg Confession, p. 226, Appendix p. 151. That Christ overcame the devil, hell, and damnation, p. 767, and also pp. 613, 614, 788, Appendix p. 150.

If twice as many selected passages from the Formula Concordiae concerning the Person of Christ should be desired, as also concerning justification by faith alone, they will be adduced at another time.

Em. Swedenborg

Amsterdam 22 April 1769

Please present either this original or a copy of it in the venerable Consistory. It would be well if the Bishop were shown a copy.

* Only a week after writing to Beyer with a response to Dean Ekebom's negative report, Swedenborg made a further reply to Ekebom. The original letter was lost but a copy of it is found among the Goteborg Consistory Minutes now in Uppsala.