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34 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
had been the case, he would then have solicited per
mission from those angels who regulate those matters. *
He showed me the garden. It had an agreeable
building; a wing of which was a kind of temple, to
which he often retired for contemplation ; for which its
peculiar structure, and dim, religious light, were suitable.
"We parted with mutual satisfaction; and he presented
by me, to the said Dr. Celsius, an elegant copy of his
Apocalypsis Revelata, then lately printed at Amsterdam.
"I should have improved this personal acquaintance,
but Swedenborg went soon afterwards on his last travels,
from which he did not return : he died in London, and
was buried in the cemetery of the Swedish church."
* Here the Editors of the New Church Repository appended a
note as follows :-
" Although as to substance there can be no
doubt of the correctness of Mr. Collin’s memory, yet with due
deference to that respectable gentleman, we cannot but remark,
that we are of opinion he must have misapprehended one of
Swedenborg’s expressions. We allude to that which is expressed
by Mr. Collin in the following words : That if any important
spiritual or temporal concern of mine had been the case, he would
then have solicited permission from those angels who regulate those
matters.’ Now, as far as we are acquainted with the writings of
Swedenborg, we have no recollection of his ever having inculcated
the idea, that application for any favour, natural or supernatural,
should be made to angels, but to the Lord alone. We cannot,
therefore, but conclude, that the declaration was either mis
understood, or mis-remembered." Upon which Dr. Collin, in a
letter to the Editors, gave the following explanation :
"Gentlemen,-Permit me to explain the following words in my
conversation with Swedenborg: ’that if any important spiritual
or temporal concern of mine had been the case, he would then
have solicited permission from those angels who regulate such
matters.’ This answer to me is correctly translated from the
Swedish. It does not imply, as you apprehend, any worship of
angels, but only a request to them, as agents, by Divine com
mandment. Christians have generally believed such agency, as
appears from the Bible and ecclesiastical history. Many persons,
not chargeable with credulity, have ascribed to them influence on
the human mind, and aid in dangers, when human means and
other causes were incompetent, though this agency was not seen,
heard, or felt by the bodily organs. Swedenborg did, indeed,
assert a very familiar intercourse with them, but not any sort of
adoration. "NICHOLAS COLLIN."
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