and friendship with all the bishops of my comparison between them. The Catholic country, who are ten in number; as also with doctrinals are excerpted from the records of the sixteen senators, and the rest of the nobil- the Council of Trent; the Protestant, from ity; for they know that I am in fellowship the Formula Concordiæ composed by persons with angels. The king and queen also, and attached to the Augsburg Confession. These the three princes their sons, show me much churches indeed dissent upon various points, favor: I was once invited by the king and but are agreed as to the fundamentals, of a queen to dine at their table -an honor which trinity of persons, of original sin, of the imis in general granted only to the nobility of putation of Christ's merits, and of justification the highest rank; and likewise, since, with by faith alone. Respecting the latter tenet, the hereditary prince. They all wish for my however, the Catholics conjoin the faith with return home: so far am I from being in any dan- charity or good works, while the leading Reger of persecution in my own country, as you formers, in order to effect a full severance seem to apprehend, and so kindly wish to pro- from the Romish communion as to the very vide against; and should any thing of the kind essentials of the church which are faith and befall me elsewhere, it cannot hurt me. charity, separated between the two. NeverI am a Fellow, by invitation, of the Royal theless the Reformers adjoin good works, and Academy of Sciences of Stockholm, but I even conjoin them to their faith, but in man never sought admission into any other literary as a passive subject, whereas the Roman society, as I belong to an angelic society, Catholics conjoin them in man as an active wherein things relating to heaven and the subject. The whole system of theology in soul are the only subjects of discourse and Christendom is founded upon an idea of three entertainment, whereas the things that occupy Gods, arising from the doctrine of a trinity the attention of our literary societies are such of persons, and falls when that doctrine is reas relate to the world and the body. ..jected, after which saving faith is possible. As to this world's wealth, I have what is suf- The faith of the present day has separated ficient, and more I neither seek nor wish for.' 356. "We presume that Swedenborg lodged with Shearsmith in Cold Bath Fields during this short sojourn in London.

religion from the church, since religion consists in the acknowledgment of one God, and in the worship of Him from faith grounded in charity. The doctrine of the present church 357. "On his departure from England, he is interwoven with paradoxes, to be embraced had requested his friend, Dr. Messiter, to by faith; hence its tenets gain admission into transmit certain of his works to the Divinity the memory only, and into no part of the unProfessors of the Universities of Edinburgh, derstanding above the memory, but merely Glasgow, and Aberdeen, and the letters which passed upon this occasion furnish a testimony to his personal character from one who knew him well. Dr. Hartley, Dr. Messiter (M. D.), and Dr. Hampè, who was preceptor to George I., were his chief English friends.

into confirmations below it. They cannot be learned, or retained, without difficulty, nor be preached or taught without using great care to conceal their nakedness, because sound reason neither discerns nor perceives them. They ascribe to God human properties in the 358. "In September he quitted London, worst sense of the term. The heresies of all and returned to Stockholm, arriving in the ages have sprung from the doctrine founded latter capital at the beginning of October. on the idea of three Gods. This has desoOn his arrival he was kindly received by all lated the church, and brought it to its conclasses of people, and at once invited by their summation. The Catholic laity, however, royal highnesses the hereditary prince and his have for the most part ceased to know any sister, with both of whom he conversed. He thing of the essential doctrinals of their also dined with several of the senators, and church, these being lost for them in the nutalked with the first members of the Diet, and merous formalities of that religion, and hence, with the bishops there present, who all be- if they recede in part from their outward haved very kindly to him, excepting his forms, and approach God the Savior immedinephew, Bishop Filenius. A storm, however, ately, taking the Sacrament in both kinds, had been brewing during his absence, and he they may be brought into the New Church now had to meet it. Dr. Hartley's fears were more easily than the Reformed communities. justified by the facts, though not by the ulti360. " These are a few of the propositions mate event. But before we turn to this new of this little treatise, which for its destructive page of his life, we must give some account logic, is unequalled among Swedenborg's of the works, that he had just published abroad. works. If rational assault could have carried 359. "The Brief Exposition is the forerunner the outworks of the existing creeds, this of the True Christian Religion, to be noticed work would have had the effect; and Swepresently. It is a criticism on the doctrines denborg would have been justified in his of the Catholic and Protestant churches, from hope, that the errors of the churches might the point of view of the New Church. The be extirpated' by a book. But an error author premises a statement of the doctrinal whose first condition lies in the prostration of views of the three churches, for the sake of the understanding, is good, so far, against

fore to Swedenborg but another name for methodical darkness, which terminated the thought that it professed to extend.

rational attacks. Dialectics make no impres-mony of course proceeded from some word sion on whoever believes that man is a spir- of command; in short, from a more inscrutaitual fool, doomed by his constitution to believe ble soul. Preëstablished harmony was therein nonsense and absurdity: that is to say, in what would be such if he dared to judge it by his reason. This fortress, viz., the denial of the mind itself by both churches, is therefore yet unstormed by our author's artillery; and it is evident that more real and terrible means must gather to battle around it, before it will capitulate. At the same time, the longer it holds out, the more is the laity separated from the clergy; the more the sciences and positive knowledge claim the earth to its very walls; the more the clerical garrison is starved in the sight of the abundance of natural truth; and in the end, the more likely it is that some convulsion, either mental or worldly, will sweep away the strong offence, and substitute a people's church upon its desert site.

363. "Now here we see the value of spiritual sight on a difficult point. While the soul was unknown, its manner of communication with the body was necessarily occult, but when it is actually seen as the man himself, with all his looks, members and garments about him, then the matter took a practica, form, and he, the soul, was united to the body, because he wanted it to supply his sensations from, and do his work in, the world. The error lay in thinking of the soul as not a body, and not a man; the power of the truth in looking from humanity as the way of answering the question The soul, in this new view, is the complete man; the body is his fit natural garment. Intercourse between the Soul and Body. The latter he puts on, by a divine necessity, 361. "The Intercourse between the Soul and to clothe the spiritual essence from the rudethe Body is a work in which the author brings ness of this world, and to enable him to work his spiritual sight to bear upon the solution amid its inclemencies, and to gather its fruits of that old problem. In this world, the soul of wisdom, for a convenient season. In this is unseen, excepting through the body; and case there are all the common motives for the though consciousness affirms its existence, yet union of the soul-man with the body-man, that philosophy gives it no qualities that warrant there are for our union with our clothes, with us to say what it is. In short, philosophy our houses, and with every circumstance that crushes the question, and insists that there is we draw around us to extend our lives and no what in the case. The consequence is, build up our state. This once seen, analogy that we too often regard the soul as a floating points out a thousand links between the spirand indeterminate entity of no weight to coun-itual and the natural man, every one of which terbalance the world and the senses. This is practical, and of daily force.

gives rise to the doctrine of Physical Influx, 364. "Swedenborg also illustrated the docwhich means in brief the omnipotence of out- trine of the influx of the soul into the body, ward objects and of sense, in controlling and by the analogous influx of the whole spiritual filling the inward faculties, and even accord- world into the natural. As a scientific man, ing to many in creating them. The contrary he had already seen the law of spheres afar view is that of spiritual influx, in which the off in the doctrine of Modifications, which soul, whatever it be, is seated upon the throne recognized the manner in which the vital and of the human powers, takes from the senses other vibrations permeate the world; in which whatever it wills, and acts according to cir- the Word of God and the words of man-in cumstances from its own wisdom. There is a which all expressions, whether looks, voices, third system, that of Leibnitz, named preestab- acts, or things make their way through the lished harmony, wherein neither soul nor body universe, and infect with their own life and acts upon the other, but each concurs with the power the system and its parts. But when other, and does what the other does; much as he visited the inner world, the matter came two men might move their arms or legs to time under conditions suited to experimental sciunder some ordering common to both. The ence. He now touched the reality of spheres. theory of spiritual influx is that which Swe- The scents, colors and forces environing hudenborg adopts; and which he fills with his manity struck his opened senses, and he was experience. amazed at their tidal power. As every spirit 362. "The problem of this link had dwelt belongs to some province of the Grand Man, with his understanding from his earlier days, his presence excites correspondently that part and he had given a keen refutation of Leib- of the human body to which he answers. nitz when writing his anatomical works; for When a liver spirit approached to Swedenhe saw that that great genius was not solving borg, he felt the influx, sometimes before the the question by his hypothesis, but only ren- spirit came in view, in his own hepatic region, dering it insuperable, by propounding as a and he knew the quality of the spirit from his solution a statement still more knotty; since operant sphere. When one of the eye men or his preëstablished harmony required in point of the heart men came near him, his own eyes of fact a second soul to move two bodies in- or heart, sympathetically affected, told him at stead of one. For the drill effecting the har- once whither the new comer belonged. When

evil spirits sought him, the maladies or pains as he wrote to Dr. Beyer, 'does no harm; to which they answered were excited for the being like the ferment in new wine, which time in his system; he knew therefore that precedes its purification; for unless what is spiritually these messengers were even such wrong be winnowed, and rejected, the right diseases. Hypocrites gave him a pain in the cannot be discerned or received. For this reateeth, because hypocrisy is spiritual toothache. son (Dec. 29, 1769) he did not stir one step to Moreover each spirit appeared in the plane defend his cause, knowing that the Lord Himof the part whereto he corresponded; for the self, our Savior, defends his church.' It was cosmogony of the spiritual world is human, finally concluded at the Diet and in the Counand hence the human body is the pivot round cil, not to touch his person; a resolution owing which it plays. Nay, the body has its human in great part to the rank and character of the form from the circumpressure of the human accused, and to his relationship to many noble spiritual world, which, so to speak, deposits families, both in and out of the church. and maintains it, much as each cell of the material body is laid and preserved by the plan and pressure of the whole.

366. "But we must return to the beginning of this affair, to give the details. The party in Gottenburg, headed by Dean Ekebom, found a ready instrument at Stockholm in Persecution, and Defence of his Opinions. Bishop Filenius, then president of the House 365. "We have mentioned already that in of Clergy, for carrying their complaint directly this year (1769) Swedenborg had found, on before the Diet. The first obnoxious meashis return to Sweden, that his peaceful life ure taken was the stoppage of a number of was to be interrupted by misrepresentation copies of Swedenborg's work on Conjugial and persecution. It is surprising that he had Love at Nork-joping, whither he had sent proceeded so long in promulgating doctrines them from England, in anticipation of his own condemnatory of the Lutheran creed, without arrival, intending, when he came to Sweden, drawing down upon himself the vengeance of to make presents of them, as was his wont. the clergy. His works, however, were writ- They were however detained for examination, ten in Latin, and but little known in Sweden, according to a law prohibiting the introducwhich made it, for a time, not worth while to tion of books reputed contrary to the Lutheran notice them. But when eminent persons like faith. Swedenborg naturally turned to his Drs. Beyer and Rosen, as well as others en- nephew, Bishop Filenius, requiring an exjoying still higher dignity in the church, be- planation of the affair, and requested the came avowed disciples and propagators of their Bishop's friendly offices to have the box sentiments, the matter became serious; and cleared. Filenius embraced and kissed him, the clergy, ever sensitive of innovation, deter- and cordially promised his assistance; notmined to crush the new doctrine in the bud. withstanding which he did every thing in his Dean Ekebom at Gottenburg was the origina- power to insure the confiscation of the books. tor of the movement. The clerical deputies When this became apparent, Swedenborg exfrom that town were instructed to complain postulated with him, and he now insisted on of Swedenborg and Dr. Beyer in the Diet. the work being revised, before it was given The tactics of his adversaries were sufficiently up. It was urged by the author, that as his cunning; he was to be put upon his trial, and examined; and as, when questioned, there was no doubt that he would assert openly his divine commission and spiritual privileges, it would then be easy to declare him insane, and consign him to a madhouse. One of the senators, (it is said Count Höpken,) disclosed to him by letter this plot, and advised him to quit the country. On receiving the information, he was greatly affected, and retiring to his garden, fell upon his knees, and prayed that the Lord would direct him what to do. A response was immediately received from an angel, that he might rest securely upon his arm in the night,' whereby is meant that night in which the world is sunk in matters pertain- 367. "He was now determined to clear the ing to the church. Assured by this comfort- matter up, and made inquiries among others ing message, Swedenborg, who was not allowed of the bishops, as to how the case stood with to be present at the debates on his cause, and his writings. They all told him that they knew nothing of the details of what happened, supposed the books had merely been taken care enjoyed the calm in his chamber, and let the of until his return; that they knew nothing storm rage without as much as it pleased. of any other detention; that if such there Clamor, indeed, he knew that there was among were, Filenius had acted on his own authority. a great part of the clerical body; but' clamor,' He had indeed made a representation on the

treatise was 'not theological, but chiefly moral,' its revisal by clerical order was unnecessary, and would be absurd; and that the exercise of such a censorship would pave the way for a dark age in Sweden. Filenius was inflexible, and his intentions manifest. Swedenborg, deeply aggrieved by the duplicity of the Bishop his relation, likened him to Judas Iscariot, and said pointedly, in allusion to the foregoing circumstances, that he who spoke lies, lied also in his life.' In the mean time he took good care to distribute the work to those he intended to receive it, bishops, senators, and members of the royal family, from a number of copies that he had himself brought home.

subject in the Diet, but the clerical house had not received his motion, had not even registered it among their proceedings, and above all, had sanctioned no confiscation.

368. "The proceedings in the Diet, as he afterwards learned, had been somewhat as follows. The Bishop Filenius, who attacked Swedenborg'in the first instance from a secret dislike, but afterwards out of inveteracy,' had gained over some members of the clerical order to his own views. He procured the appointment of a committee of the House of Clergy on the Swedenborgian cause. Its deliberations were kept secret. But though it consisted of bishops and professors, this committee, after hearing evidence, ignored the charges of Filenius, and terminated with a report in Swedenborg's favor; in the course of which they took occasion to speak of him 'very handsomely and reasonably.' Filenius, however, gained one point; viz., that a memorial should be presented to the King in Council, requesting the attention of the Chancellor of Justice to the troubles at Gottenburg. This was intended to procure a censure upon Drs. Beyer and Rosen, and indirectly upon Swedenborg also. In consequence, a letter was addressed by the Chancellor to the Consistory, to desire its opinion upon the affair; which occasioned the subject to be again agitated for two days in the Council, where the king presided.

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of it. I have declared the same in England,
Holland, Germany, Denmark, and at Paris,
to kings, princes, and other particular persons,
as well as to those in this kingdom. If the
common report is to be believed, the chancel-
lor has declared, that what I have been re-
citing are untruths, although the very truth.
To say that they cannot believe and give
credit to such things, therein will I excuse
them, for it is not in my power to place others
in the same state in which God has placed
me; so as to be able to convince them, by
their own eyes and ears, of the truth of those
deeds and things I publicly have made known.
I have no ability to capacitate them to con-
verse with angels and spirits, neither to work
miracles to dispose or force their understand-
ings to comprehend what I say. When my
writings are read with attention and cool reflec-
tion (in which many things are to be met with
heretofore unknown), it is easy enough to con-
clude, that I could not come to such knowledge
but by a real vision, and by conversing with
those who are in the spiritual world.
This knowledge is given to me from our Sa-
vior, not for any private merit of mine, but for
the great concern of all Christians' salvation
and happiness; and as such, how can any one
venture to assert that it is false? That these
things may appear such as many have had no
conception of, and of consequence, that they
cannot easily credit, has nothing remarkable
in it, for scarcely any thing is known respect-
ing them.'

369. "When matters came to this pass, Swedenborg at once, May 10, 1770, addressed his majesty in a bold and characteristic memo- 370. "He concluded by throwing himself rial. He complained that he had met with upon the king's protection, and by requesting usage the like of which had been offered to the monarch to command for himself the opinnone since the establishment of Christianity in ion of the reverend clergy on his case; also Sweden, and much less since there had exist- the production of the various documents that ed liberty of conscience. He recapitulated had passed at Gottenburg and elsewhere; in his grievances. He said that he had been order that he, and those maligned along with attacked, calumniated and menaced, without him, might be heard in their defence, this the opportunity of defending himself; though being their right and privilege. The only truth itself had answered for him. He re- advice, he protested, that he had given to Drs. minded his majesty of an interview that had Beyer and Rosen, was to address themselves passed between them. I have already in- to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as a formed your majesty,' says he, and bescech means to heavenly good and blessedness, for you to recall it to mind, that the Lord our he only has all power in heaven and on earth, Savior manifested himself to me in a sensible (Matt. xxviii. 18.) personal appearance; that he has commanded 371. "The latter point was in truth the me to write what has been already done, and core of the controversy that was raging about what I have still to do; that he was after- him, and was one which his writings are calwards graciously pleased to endow me with the culated to provoke wherever they are dissemiprivilege of conversing with angels and spirits, nated. Is prayer to be addressed to the Faand of being in fellowship with them. I have ther, or to the Redeemer? to the invisible already declared this more than once to your Being, or to God with us? to the revealed majesty in the presence of all the royal family, Divine Face and Body, or to the unrevealed when they were graciously pleased to invite me Divine Soul? Have worship and prayer a to their table with five senators, and several definite object or not?. Swedenborg ably cited other persons; this was the only subject dis- on his own side the text of scripture, the coursed of during the repast. Of this I also Augsburg Confession, the Formula Concordiæ, spoke afterwards to several other senators; and the Liturgies of his own Communion; and more openly to their excellencies Count de and showed that wherever the church had deTessin, Count Bonde, and Count Höpken, who parted from vagueness and mystery, its pracare still alive, and were satisfied with the truth tices were accordant with his views. To the

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Son of God, born in time, every son of time on my letters and your works;' and putting must address himself, in order to find salva- his hand on Swedenborg's shoulder, he added: tion. Were this doctrine taken away, he' We may conclude that they have found nothaverred that he would rather live in Tartary ing reprehensible in them, and that you have than in Christendom. Did the persecution written in conformity to the truth.' against him succeed, it might amount to a 374. "Throughout this affair, his adversaprohibition from the clergy against their flocks ries attempted in vain to ruffle his calmness, addressing prayer to the personal Savior: a by personal invective. He answered them dangerous issue, which probably his opponents with honest vigor, but always from the facts foresaw, and were not prepared to accept. It of the case. Against the indecent barkings does not appear that throughout the dispute, of the Dean,' he told Dr. Beyer, in a private his visions were brought upon the carpet, oth-letter, they must not throw stones to drive erwise than as furnishing the general charge them away. And he wrote to Mr. Wennof unsoundness of mind, which, as we have gren, a magistrate of Gottenburg, that as for seen, certain members of the House of Clergy certain merciless slanderers' in the clerical meditated, but did not venture to bring for- party, their expressions had fallen on the ward. ground like fireballs from the clouds, and 372. "King Adolphus Frederic had in the there had gone out.' In the mean time Swemean time already commanded the members denborg persevered in his own course, with of the Consistory of Gottenburg to send in an efficacious industry which neither this turan unequivocal representation of the light in moil, nor his advanced years, abated for a which the assessor's principles were regarded moment. by the Consistory. On the 2d of January, 375. "Here our narrative of the affair 1770, Dr. Beyer, as one of the members, vol- ceases. Swedenborg, before his last departure unteered a declaration on the subject, in which from Sweden, addressed a letter to the Unihe gave a manly testimony in favor of Swe-versities of Upsal, Lund, and Abo, asserting denborg and his doctrines, citing his own ex- that each of the estates of the kingdom ought perience about them, and his views of their to have its consistory, and ought not to acmoral and spiritual tendency. Convinced knowledge the exclusive authority of that at by experience,' says he, I must in the first Gottenburg. He declared (in another place) place observe, that no man is competent to that religious matters belong to others also give a just and suitable judgment of those besides the priestly order. It appears that, writings, who has not read them, or who has notwithstanding the termination of the controread them only superficially, or with a deter-versy in his favor, his adversaries had sucmination in his heart to reject them, after hav-ceeded in enforcing a strict prohibition against ing perused, without examination, some de- the importation of his writings into Sweden, tached parts only: neither is he competent, as he found out the next year (1771). In who rejects them as soon as he finds any thing that militates against those doctrines which he has long cherished and acknowledged as true, and of which perhaps he is but too blindly enamoured: nor is he competent, who is an ardent, yet undiscriminating biblical scholar, that, in explaining the meaning of the Scriptures, confines his ideas to the literal expression or signification only and, lastly, neither is he competent, who has altogether devoted himself to sensual indulgences, and the love of the world.' He concluded his memorial as follows: 'In obedience, therefore, to your majesty's most gracious command, that I should deliver a "The remarkable particulars related concernfull and positive" declaration" respecting the ing your wife, in her dying hours, were wrought writings of Swedenborg, I do acknowledge it through the impression of two clergymen, who so to be my duty to declare, in all humble confi- directed and employed her thoughts in conversadence, that as far as I have proceeded in the tion, as to effect a conjunction with such spirits as she then spoke of. In the hour of death, it hapstudy of them, and agreeably to the gift grant-pens at times, to some people, that they are in a ed to me for investigation and judgment, I state of the spirit. The spirits, who first spoke have found in them nothing but what closely through her, were of the dragon's society, that coincides with the words of the Lord Himself, and that they shine with a light truly divine.' 373. "The Consistory, as a body, came to no report upon Swedenborg's writings; and a short time before he left Sweden on his last voyage, being in the king's company, the latter said to him: The Consistory has been silent

consequence of this, it was his intention to send in a formal complaint to the States General against the Counsellor of State, the presumed instrument of the prohibition; but whether he fulfilled this purpose we do not know." — Wilkinson's Biography, pp. 174–195. Spiritual Phenomena. The Insane and Idiotic.

376. We find also, in this year, the following account concerning some remarkable particulars which took place with the wife of Dr. Beyer, while upon her death bed. It is in a letter to the Dr., in reply to his questionings.

were cast out of heaven, agreeably to the prediction in the Revelation, xii. They are thence become so filled with enmity and hatred towards Word, and all that belongs to the New Church, our Savior, and, consequently, towards His holy that they cannot even bear to hear the name of Christ mentioned. When the sphere of the Lord, proceeding from the heavens, lights on them, they