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138 [ Doc. 10.
SWEDENBORG’S ANCESTRY.
holding their meetings in private. Public attention was espe
cially drawn to their practices, because even distinguished
people, as for instance Lieutenant-colonel Cedersparre and
others, became so much infected with pietism, as to read and
sing psalms in company with their servants and students. Such
a state of things had to be opposed publicly. In the Diet of
1723, already spoken of, severe measures were taken, especially
on account of the private meetings in Sikla, to prevent the
spread of “pietistic practices.” Swedberg now considered it
his duty to make himself more particularly acquainted with the
occurrences which had been the cause of these complaints. One
day he accordingly visited a so-called “ pietistic prayer-meeting,"
which was held at the house of Chamberlain von Wolcker.
Several came there who had attended the afternoon service,
and they were asked what they had learned from the sermon.
Towards the close Swedberg rose, and said, “ As I am the
only clergyman here, it is my turn now to speak. Much has
been said about such meetings, and generally the worst. For
this reason I am glad that I have heard and seen for myself
how they are managed. Moreover I can fully approve of them ,
and declare that it would be very desirable for every father
of a family to hold similar meetings in his house.” He after
wards directed their attention to what it seemed to him might
give rise to abuses. Especially he combated the opinion, which
some of their friends began to entertain, that an unconverted
teacher could not administer his office with any profit. This
he pointed out as a “ dangerous opinion” ; inasmuch as it
might very easily happen that "a timid person would call in
a priest in order to be absolved of his sins, and that after
wards doubts might arise in his mind whether this absolution
had been efficient, because the clergyman had not been con
verted ; for a ducat does not lose any of its value, even
though an unclean hand should present it, nor does a medicine
lose its power, even though the physician should not have
experienced conversion." The experience which Swedberg
gathered here with his own eyes and ears, he took with him,
and he used it in witnessing concerning it in the Consistory
of the land. Pietism also was dealt with much more leniently
at that meeting of the Diet, than at subsequent ones. With
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