This is the annotated edition including a very detailed biography about Swedenborg, his life and his writings. This is the last volume published by Swedenborg, and contains the crowning resume of all he had previously been expounding. It is here condensed into a "universal theology." But it is not mere repetition. Its style is more comprehensive; its argument is a new combination of philosophy and doctrine; its form and its illustrations are to a large extent new. In addition to this, it contains a last section upon the previous Churches, or Dispensations, that have hitherto governed on this earth, and the New Church or New Dispensation which was then being established, the doctrines of which it was Swedenborg's mission to teach. The Lord, the Word, Creation, Redemption, the Christian Life, the Sacraments, are all treated of fully and cogently, and given an interpretation that is both spiritual and rational.