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92 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
that the title should say, printed at London, or at Amsterdam. But Swedenborg,
with a rare delicacy, perfectly suited to his principles, would not consent to it;
and the work, therefore, was not printed at Paris.* This anecdote, which has
not hitherto been known, was attested to one of the editors by M. Chevreuil
himself. Our author speaks of this journey in a letter to Dr. Beyer, dated Am-
sterdam, March 15, 1769, in which he says, that he shall set off for Paris in a
month. t And in another letter to the same, from Stockholm, of October 30th in
the same year, he says that he has learnt that a letter has been printed at Gotten-
burg, in which it is pretended that he had received an order at Paris to quit that
city ; but, adds he, that is a pure falsehood, as M. Creutz, the Swedish ambas-
sador in France, can testify."
We have now adducfed all the documents^ we can find respecting the life of Sweden-
borg as it was known and observed by persons distinguished for their intelligence, piety,
and respectability, both in Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and England. In the testimony
to Swedenborg’s virtues and attainments, thus borne by so many most unexceptionable
witnesses who knew him well, and against which no opposing testimony whatever,
from persons acquainted with him, can be adduced, we surely have the most satisfac-
tory confirmation, not only of his own account of his life and character, but of all that
is advanced, as to his qualifications for the office to which he declares he was appoint-
ed, namely, that of unfolding the spiritual sense of the Holy Word, and of explaining
the genuine doctrines of the Christian Religion, and as to the antecedent probability,
that he might be the human instrument selected to communicate the truths connected
with the Second Advent of the Lord, on the supposition that the time for that event has
arrived. We also see that many men of the very first respectability, intelligence, and
learning, who formed their opinion from a knowledge of the man as well as of his writ-
ings, believed, during his lile-time, that he actually was such an instrument. h
But it may perhaps be thought, that if, in consequence of having been called by th©}
Lord to a holy office, he really bad the privilege of conversing with angels and spirits,
some plain proofs of it, beyond his own assertions, might occasionally occur. Now that
such proofs did occur, is a certain fact. He, indeed, never appeals to them in support
of his mission : he shows, in various parts of his writings, that where the mind is not re-
ceptive of truth by its own evidence, no external testiuiony will force it in : he therefore
affirms, what we shall presently advert to, that it would have been incompatible with
the nature of the truly spiritual dispensation io be opened by the second coming of the
Lord to prove it by miracles. To the performance of miracles, therefore, he made no
* In respect to Swedenborg’s intention of having this work published at Paris, the
English editor of these " Documents" begs here to record a fact which has appeared to
him rather extraordinary, since it indicates that the original design of Swedenborg,
namely, that of having the work published at Paris, was, to a certain extent, carried out.
The editor, when at Paris in the autumn of 1S2G, went one day into a respectable old
book shop ; the proprietor, nearly eighty years of age, on being asked if he had any of
the theological works of Swedenborg, replied, that he had a few copies of the ’’True
Christian Religion," and one or two of " Heaven and Hell." The editor having purchased s
copy of each of these works, the old gentleman observed, that about fii’iy years ago, he
had met with the " True Christian Religion," and thinking it to be a very curious book,
he wrote to Amsterdam, requesting hi^ agent to buy up all the copies of the said work
he could find, and to send them to Paris, so that this work, alihoui^h printed at Amster-
dam, was, according to Swedenborg’s original intention, chiefly issued from Paris.
t See Neiv Jerusalem Magazine, p. 142. These letters will be adduced below.
t Except one respecting his having a fever, and being delirious, &c., propagated by
Wesley in his Armenian Magazine, the refutation of which will be adduced in its proper
place below. See above p. 3G note.
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