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DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG. 105
and a very intimate friend, as you may have heard, of
Swedenborg’s :-
’When the deceased found his end
approaching, and expressed a wish to have the com
munion administered to him, somebody present at the
time proposed sending for Mr. Mathesius, the officiating
minister of the Swedish church. This person was
known to be a professed enemy of Swedenborg, and
had set his face against his writings : it was he that
raised and spread the false account of Swedenborg’s
having been deprived of his senses. Swedenborg there
fore declined taking the sacrament from him, and
actually received it from the hands of another eccle
siastic of his own country, named Fernelius, who at
that time was a reader of Swedenborg’s writings, and is
said to have continued to do so ever since, at Stockholm,
where he is now living ; and I have been assured that, on
this occasion, Swedenborg expressly exhorted him to con
tinue steadfast in the truth.’
"Mr. Mathesius is said to have become insane himself,
a short time after this ; and becoming thereby incapable
of his function, has existed ever since, in that melancholy
state, upon the king of Sweden’s bounty.
"Mr. Springer further says, " That a short time
before his death, Swedenborg had his spiritual or in
ternal sight withdrawn from him, after having been
favoured with it during so long a course of years : that he
was under the greatest tribulation of mind on that
account, calling out, ’ O my GOD ! hast thou then at last
abandoned thy servant ?’ This seems to have been the
last of Swedenborg’s trials. He continued several days
in that deplorable condition ; but at length recovered
his spiritual or internal sight. He was then comforted
again, and became happy as before.’
"Mr. Springer received this assurance from Sweden
borg’s own mouth ; and all I write now is from an exact
copy of part of a letter written by Mr. Springer himself.
-I remain, &c.,
" ROBERT HINDMARSH.
"London, Nov. 28, 1786."
F 2
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