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144 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
municated in the writings of Swedenborg, that the
circulation of the report of his insanity should have
been materially promoted by a man so much intitled
to respect as the late Rev. Mr. Wesley. It is however
certain, that in the part which that respectable person
took in the affair, he was completely imposed upon by
the minister of the Swedish Chapel in London, Mr.
Mathesius, who was Swedenborg’s personal and violent
enemy. Mr. Wesley, indeed, professes to give his state
ment on the authority of a Mr. Brockmer, as well as of
Mathesius : this, however, was only because Mathesius
told him that he derived his information from Brockmer;
but this, Brockmer totally denied," as is evident from
the following document :
" Refutation of the false Reports propagated by Mr.
Wesley.*
"Mr. Wesley asserted in his Arminian Magazine for
August, 1783, p. 438, that he was informed by one Mr.
Brockmer, of London, and also by Mr. Mathesius, a
Swedish clergyman, that Swedenborg, while he lodged at
the house of the former, had a violent fever, in the
height of which, being totally delirious, he broke from
Mr. Brockmer, ran into the street stark naked, proclaimed
himself the Messiah, and rolled himself in the mire.’
Being desirous (says the Rev. Robert Hindmarsh, ) of
ascertaining the truth or falsehoud of this story from Mr.
Brockmer’s own mouth, I made it my business, in com
pany with three other gentlemen now deceased, to wait
upon him at his apartments in Fetter-lane, and to ask
him whether he had ever communicated to Mr. Wesley,
or to any other person, such information as above stated,
at the same time shewing him the different numbers of
the Magazine, in which the reports published by Mr.
Wesley are contained. After hearing the passages read,
Mr. Brockmer, without hesitation, denied the fact, posi
tively declaring, that he had never opened his mouth on
6
* See Hindmarsh’s " Vindication of the Character and Writings
of the Hon. Emanuel Swedenborg, &c.," pp. 15-20. 2nd Edit.
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