However, Swedenborg considered himself a direct instrument in the hands of God, and God is alluded to as a personality.  He believed that his great mission was to disclose the true nature of the Bible, and to prove that it was actually the inspired word of God, having an esoteric meaning, which has wrongly been interpreted to apply to the creation of a material world, and to its history and its people, but that when understood, it explains clearly, the nature of God, and the nature of man, and their relation to each other.  It should be remembered that at the time Swedenborg wrote his theological works, the church had fallen into rank materialism and superstition.  That Swedenborg should have received his illumination, or revelation, direct from the Lord, only serves to prove that the mortal consciousness clothes the revelation with whatever personality appeals to it, as having authority.

Thus, the angel Gabriel was the dictator in the case of Mohammed, and the “Blessed Mother” of the Hindu reveals to them the vision of mukti.  Swedenborg says of his vision:  “God appeared to me and said, ’I am the Lord God, the Creator and Redeemer of the world.  I have chosen thee to unfold the spiritual sense of the Holy Scriptures.  I will myself dictate to thee what thou shalt write.’”

In “The True Christian Religion,” published shortly before his death he says:  “Since the Lord can not manifest Himself in person as has been shown, and yet He has foretold that He would come and establish a new church, which is the New Jerusalem, it follows that He is to do it, by means of a man, who is able not only to receive the doctrines of this church with his understanding, but also to publish them by the press.  That the Lord has manifested Himself before me, His servant, and sent me on this office, and that, after this, He opened the sight of my spirit, and thus let me into the spiritual world, and gave me to see the heavens and the hells and also to speak with spirits and angels, and this now continually for many years, I testify in truth; and also that, from the first day of that call, I have not received anything that pertains to the doctrines of that church from my angel, but from the Lord alone, while I read the Word.”

It is stated with great positiveness by Swedenborg’s followers, and indeed, apparently by the seer himself, if we may take as authoritative, the translations of his works, that the revelations accorded to him covered a period of many years, whereas, we find in most instances of cosmic consciousness, the illumined ones have alluded to some specific time, as the great event, even while claiming that the effect of this illumination remains indefinitely—­in fact, forms a part of a wider area of consciousness which is ever increasing.

But when we take the numerous instances of revelations, in which the devout ones firmly believe that they and they alone have been accorded the vision, we must realize that this phenomenon is impersonal, looked at as a favor to any one human being.  By that we mean that Illumination comes to every soul who has earned it, just as mathematically as the sun seems to set, after the earth has made its hourly journey.