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68 [Doc. 6.
GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.
“ but he has now recovered, and is quite a different man.
He is kind, benevolent, full of righteousness, and returns
three -fold and sometimes four- fold what he had previously
acquired by unrighteous means. This Bishop was from that
time to the hour of his death one of the warmest friends
of the doctrines of the Lord’s New Church, and he openly
declared that the theological writings of Swedenborg were the
most precious treasures of humanity.
31. Swedenborg was of a very gentle disposition ; but he
was straight-forward, and would not betray the truth from
respect to men, or for any other reason. Mr. Robsahm, the
author of his biography, asked him , whether a certain clergy
man, who was highly esteemed in the capital on account of his
flowery sermons, and who had died a little while before, had
gone to heaven. “No, ” said Swedenborg, " he went straightway
to the abyss ; for that clergyman left his piety in the pulpit ;
he was not pious, but hypocritical and proud, and was vain
of the gifts he had received from nature, and of those which
he sought and obtained from fortune. No , no , there is no
use in deceiving by false appearances. With him they dis
appeared after death ; the mask was dropped; for there it
appears whether a man is interiorly evil or good*.
32. Mr. Robsahm asked him also how he began to have
his revelations. “I was in London,” answered Swedenborg,
" and dined late at my usual inn, where I had a private room
that I might be at liberty to reflect at pleasure upon spiritual
subjects. I felt very hungry, and ate with eagerness. Towards
the close of the meal I noticed a sort of dimness spreading
before my eyes, and saw the floor covered with snakes, toads,
caterpillars, and other hideous reptiles ; and I became more
and more astonished, as the darkness increased. However,
it soon disappeared, (and with it the swarm ofrepulsive reptiles).
Then I saw clearly a man, surrounded with vivid and shining
lightt, sitting in a corner of the room. I was alone; and
* Compare Robsahm’s account, § 44.
* The passages in parentheses ( ) are found neither in Robsahm’saccount,
nor in that which was communicated by Dr. Beyer22 to C. F. Nordens
kjöld 20 in a letter dated Gottenburg March 25, 1776, which is contained
in Section X.
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