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s ._SWEDENBORG AS THEOLOGIAN AND SEER- 341
he described as entirely love. God (he says) needed not to
be reconciled to us, but we to Him. Christ came into the
world not to make satisfaction for our sins and to earn
salvation for us, but to lead us from love of the creatures
to love to God. He is our example rather than our Re
deemer. His death was not an atoning sacrifice, but an
encouragement to self-sacrifice. Dippel also attacked the
orthodox doctrine of the Trinity.
It is easy to see the points in which Dippel s theology
coincides with that of Swedenborg, and probably Dippel s
pretensions to supernatural power were not without attrac
tions to the young Swede. There is, however, I think, no
evidence that they met in later years, and the great re
ligious crisis in Swedenborg s life occurred much later, in
the year 1743, when he was in London. What the nature
of that crisis was is not exactly known.
According to the narrative of Brockmer, with whom he
was then lodging in Fetter Lane, Brockmer was called up
one evening by Swedenborg, who had gone to bed, and
found him in a very wild state, in fact quite insane.
Swedenborg, who was foaming at the mouth, and spoke
with difficulty, confided to him that he was the Messiah,
that he was come to be crucified by the Jews, and wished
Brockmer to go with him to the synagogue on the morrow
to be his interpreter. According to this account he did
many other wild things at this time, and had to be taken
care of in another house.29
Details of his outer life are
otherwise wanting for this period.
Swedenborg (perhaps naturally) gives no such account
of what happened to him, but relates many dreams, some
times quaint, strange and irreverent, and sometimes coarse
and vulgar, which befell him about this time. He
describes in particular the way in which he was able, by
holding his breath, to enter into close relations with the
invisible worlds. I believe that in this he had a supposed
29
See W. White :
I.e., ed. 2, pp. 129 foil., also quoted in Chr.
Remembrancer, 54, 315-7.
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