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REFUTATION OF MR. WESLEY’S FALSE REPORTS. Ill
the Messiah, and rolled himself in the mire.’ Being desirous (says the Rev,
Robert Hindmarsh), of ascertaining the truth or falsehood of this story from Mr,
Brockmer’s own mouth, I made it ray busmess, in company 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 showmg him the
different numbers of the JMagazine, in which the reports published by Mr. Wes-
ley are contained. After hearing the passages read, Mr. Brockmer, without
hesitation, denied the fact, positively declaring, •
thafhe had never opened his mouth
on the subject to Mr. Wesley, nor had he ever given such an account to any other person:’’
and he seemed much displeased, that Mr, Wesley should have taken the liberty
to make use of- his name in public print, without his knowledge or consent.
* Swedenborg,’ said he, *
was never affiicted with any illness,* much less with a violent
fever, while at my house : nor did he ever break from me in a delirious state, and run in-
to the street stark naked, and there proclaim himself the Messiah, as Mr. Wesley has un-
justly represented. But perhaps he may have heard a report to that effect from some other
person; and it is well known, that Mr. Wesley is a very credulous man, and easily to be
imposed upon by any idle tale, from whatever quarter it may come.’
" I then put the following question to Mr. Brockmer :
’
Supposing it to be true,
that Swedenborg did actually see and converse with angels and spirits, did you
evei observe anything in his behavior, that might not naturally be expected on
such an extraordinary occasion?’ He replied as follows :’ If I believed that to
be true, I should not wonder at anything he said or did; but should rather won-
der, that the surprise and astonishment which he must have felt on such an oc-
casion, did not betray him into more unguarded expressions than were ever
known to escape him : for he did and said nothing, but what I could easily ac-
count for in my own mind, if I really believed «vhat he declares in his writings
to be true.’
" It is to be observed, that Mr. Brockmer was one of the people called Mora-
vians, who are by no means friendly to the doctrines of the New Church, as laid
down in the writings of Swedenborg. The testimony, therefore, of such a man
in favor of the equable and becoming deportment of his noble lodger, and to the
silencing of those unfounded reports, to which Mr. Wesley (once an admirer of
Swedenborg and his writings, but afterwards an avowed enemy to both),t so
hastily and unworthily lent himself, must be received with due respect by every
candid and unprejudiced mind.
" It appears, then, that the report of Swedenborg’s having been seized with
a fever, in the height of which he broke from jNIr. Brockmer, ran into the street
naked, and proclaimed himself the Messiah, is totally false. But even supposing
it to be true, that he once had a fever accompanied with delirium, an affliction
to which the wisest and best of men are subject, what has this to do with the
general tenor of his writings, composed while he was in perfect health ? Is the
character of a man to be estimated by what he says or does in such a state ?
Would iNIr. Wesley, or any other person, wish to be judged in this way .’
" Mr. Brockmer died a few months after he made the declaration above recited :
* That Swedenborg enjoyed excellent health, and was never known, in his own
country, to have had a violent fever, is asserted by M. Sandel ; see p. 36, and note
t See above pp. 106-lOS.
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