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108 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
that can adorn a minister of the gospel, and of course for veracity among the
rest, is acknowledged by all who knew him (and few were known through a
wider circle)—^by those who differed from him as well as by those who agreed
with him in theological sentiment; I therefore wrote to him, to request a written
statement of the particulars, with leave to publish it with his name ; with which
request he kindly complied. The part of his letter (dated January 19, 1826,)
which relates immediately to this subject, is as follows :
—
*’
’ My very dear Sir,— In full and free compliance with your wishes, as express-
ed in your kind favor of the 16tb, I send you the following memoir of the late
Mr. Wesley, as communicated to me by my late pious and learned friend, Rich-
ard Houghton, Esq., of Liverpool, who was also intimately acquainted with Mr,
Wesley, insomuch that the latter gentleman never visited Liverpool without pass-
ing some time with Mr. Houghton. As near as I can recollect, it was in the
spring of the year 1773 that I received the communication, one morning, when I
called on Mr. Houghton at his house, and at a time, too, when the writings of
the Hon. E. Swedenborg began to excite public attention. These writings were
at that time unknown to myself, but not so to my friend Mr. Houghton, who was
in the habit of correspondence with the Rev. T. Hartley on the subject, and was
very eager to make me acquainted with them. Accordingly, in the course of
our conversation, my friend took occasion to mention the name of Mr. Wesley,
and the manner in which he, on a late visit to Liverpool, had expressed his sen-
timents on those writings. We may now (said Mr. Wesley,) burn all our books of
Theology. God has sent us a teacher from heaven ; and in the doctrines of Swedenborg
we may learn all that it is necessary for us to know.’ "
" The manner in which Mr. Wesley here expressed himself was strong indeed
;
so much so, that were it not certain that his mind must have been at that time
under a very powerful influence in Swedenborg’s favor, he might be suspected
to have spoken ironically. This I observed in my letter to Mr. Clowes ; to which
he replies, ’ I can hardly conceive, from the manner in which it was expressed
by Mr. Houghton, that irony had anything to do with it:’ and Mr. Houghton "
must have known with certainty whether it had or not. His repeating Mr.
Wesley’s observation to Mr. Clowes, as an inducement to him to peruse the
writings of Swedenborg, is a complete proof that Mr. H. believed it to mean
what it expresses. But an examination of dates will show, that Mr. Wesley’s
statement to that gentleman was made while the impression from Swedenborg’s
supernatural communication was acting in all its force. Mr. Clowes’ interview
with Mr. Houghton was in the spring of 1773. Mr. Wesley does not appear ta
have been at Liverpool between that time and the lOth of the preceding October,
when he returned from his last great circuit. In that circuit he did visit Liver-
pool, and was there early in April, 1772. This, then, must be the ’late visit’
mentioned by Mr. Houghton ; and this was within six weeks after he had received the
extraordinary communication from Swedenborg. This is certain : and it is also
highly probable, that, at the time of his visiting Liverpool, the effect of that com-
munication was greatly strengthened, by the verification of the announcement,
which, we have seen, Swedenborg had made to him, of the day of his own
death. He died, as he had announced, on the 29th of March : there can be little
doubt that a notice of it appeared in the papers : it would thence, it is highly
probable, be known to Mr. Wesley when he was at Liverpool, about a fortnight
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