Chapter I

. treats of God the Creator, His Unity, the Divine Esse which

is Jehovah, His Infinity or His Immensity and Eternity, the Essence of God which is His Divine Love and Wisdom, His Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence, and of the creation of the universe. On these sublime subjects, themes on which, for ages, the weary reason of man has exerted itself with the poorest results, Swedenborg, with a mathematical exactness, sets forth the true doctrine; and with a simplicity of logic which at every step calls the Word of God, and the reason and common sense of man, to witness; leading the reader to wonder why truths so simple, so soul-satisfying, should have been hidden from human eyes so long. Whilst elucidating subjects commonly supposed to transcend human ideas, and yet which humanity is ever restless to discover,—reverence is in nowise deprived of its exercise. It is a great mistake, yet a common one, to associate mystery with true reverence; to talk of “ignorance” as “the mother of devotion.” Let any one ask himself whether the reverence of Sir Isaac Newton for that God whose operations in the universe he was favored to discover, was inferior to that of an ignorant devotee, or an illiterate peasant. No. A knowledge of God and His attributes is no destroyer of faith, reverence, or devotion, but the reverse. Our knowledge of Him, however extended, is but the enlargement of a circle, which, as it is enlarged, expands our conception of the infinity beyond. Hence it is that whilst this chapter on God the Creator, goes into details which are the death of mysticism, the truths which it opens to the mind lead to an intelligent and reverential love, to which ignorance can never attain.

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