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Suspension of arms, in war, a short truce 
agreed on by both armies, in order to bury 
the dead, wait for fresh instructions, or the 
like. 
Suspension, in rhetoric, is tlie carrying 
on a period or discourse, in such a manner 
as to keep the reader in expectation of 
something considerable in the conclusion. 
But great care must be taken that the read- 
er’s expectation be not disappointed ; for 
nothing is more contemptible than to pro- 
mise much and perform little ; or to usher 
in an errant trifle with the formality of pre- 
face and solemn preparation. 
SWABBER, an inferior oflicer on board 
ships of war, whose employment it is to see 
that the decks are kept neat and clean. 
SWARTZIA, in botany, so named in 
honour of Olof Swartz, M. D., a genus of 
the Polyadelphia Polyandria class and or- 
der. Essential character: calyx four-leaved; 
petals single, lateral, flat; legume one- 
celled, bivalve ; seeds arillated. There are 
six species. 
SWEDENBORGIANS, a modern reli- 
gious sect, so called from their founder, 
Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish noble- 
man, who was born at Stockholm in the 
year 1689, and died at London, 1772, at 
the advanced age of eighty-four years. His 
father was a Lutheran bishop, and was pre- 
sident of tlie Swedish churches. During 
the early part of his life, Emanuel Sweden- 
borg devoted himself, with uncommon as- 
siduity, to the study of useful and honour- 
able science, and his labours and acquire- 
ments soon procured him the notice of 
Charles XII. King of Sweden, who made 
him extraordinary assessor to the Royal 
College of the Mines, &c. a place of great 
honour, trust, and emolument. 
In the year 1734, he printed at Leiptic 
his “ Regnum Minerale,” in three volumes, 
folio. He also wrote a treatise on the Po- 
sition and Course of the Planets, and an- 
other on the Tides. Had the ingenious ba- 
ron confined his attention to these useful 
and honourable pursuits, his learning and 
virtues would have secured to his memory 
the universal esteem and respect he would 
so justly have merited ; but leaving the pur- 
suits of learning for the mysteries of a 
new theological creed, he entirely devoted 
himself to metaphysical speculations and 
spiritual inquiries. Believing himself to 
have received an extraordinary manifesta- 
tion of supernatural light, he forsook the 
paths Of learning and rational science, and 
became the friend and associate of angels, 
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and disembodied “ ministers of graces” 
“ I am,” says he, in a letter to a friend, 
“ a fellow, by invitation, of the Royal 
Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, but 
have never denied to be of any other com- 
munity, as I belong to the society of an- 
gels, in which things spiritual and heavenly 
are the only subjects of discourse and enter- 
tainment; whereas, in our literary societies, 
the attention is wholly taken up with things 
of this world.” 
Thus abstracted from sublunary inter- 
course, and thus highly privileged to “ see 
things invisible,” the pious baron devoted 
a long life, and employed his extraordinary 
talents and genius in forming and establish- 
ing the following curious and ingenious sys- 
tem of Christian theology, which constitutes 
the subject of the present article. 
1. Contrary to Unitarians, who deny, 
and to Trinitarians who hold, a trinity of 
persons in the godhead, the Swedenbor- 
gians maintain that there is a divine trinity 
in the person of Jesus Christ, consisting of 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, just like'the 
human trinity in every individual man, of 
soul, body, and operation ; and as the latter 
trinity constitutes one man, so the former 
constitutes one Jehovah God, who is at 
once the Creator, Redeemer, and Regene- 
rator. 
2. That Jehovah God himself came down 
from heaven, and assumed human nature 
for the purpose of removing hell from man, 
of restoring the heavens to, order, and pre- 
paring the way for a new church upon 
earth ; and that herein consists the true na- 
ture of redemption, which was effected 
solely by the omnipotence of the Lord’s di- 
vine humanity. 
3. They hold the notion of pardon ob- 
tained by a vicarious sacrifice or atone- 
ment, as a fundamental and fatal error ; but 
that repentance is the foundation of the 
church in man ; that it consists in a man’s 
abstaining from all evils, because they are 
sins against God, &c. ; that it is productive 
of regeneration, which is not an instanta- 
neous, but a gradual work, effected by the 
Lord alone, through charity and faith, dur- 
ing man’s co-operation. 
4. That man has free-will in spiritual 
things, whereby he may join himself by re- 
ciprocation with the Lord. 
.5. That the imputation of the merits and 
righteousness of Chiist is a thing as absurd 
and impossible, as it would be to impute to 
any man the works of creation: for the 
merits and righteousness of Christ consist 
