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Doc. 10.] 147
BISHOP JESPER SWEDBERG .
Swedberg’s thoughts in these matters were not allowed to
pass altogether unnoticed by those gentlemen, who had already
scented heretical and unorthodox notions in his pietistic
sympathies. Infantile faith and faith in angels usually slumber
together in the same cradle. The eldest son of Swedberg
by his first wife, soon followed his mother to the grave in
1696. When, on his deathbed, he was asked by his father
what he should do in heaven, he answered, among other things:
"I shall pray for my father and mother.” Swedberg stored up
”
this answer in his heart, and he was confirmed thereby in
his faith, that love and the bond of union between the dead
and those who live after them , is not broken by death, without
his in the least encouraging faith in the efficacy of the
mediating prayers of the saints. Meanwhile he composed, in
the name of his children, an inscription for the tomb of his wife,
and let the above -mentioned doctrine flow into it. As soon as
this appeared, one of his adversaries went to the King with
the leaf, and said that the professors in Upsal were becom
ing Catholics, and prayed to the saints. But immediately
afterwards Swedberg came himself, and refuted the accusation.
His refutation had a double meaning. He asked the King
whether His Majesty did not believe that the late Queen (the
King’s mother), now in God’s kingdom , was praying for him
and his children . The matter was hushed. But Swedberg
had a great desire to prove publicly, in a rational manner,
his agreement with the doctrine of our church on this point.
He intended also to make this the subject of his disputation
for obtaining his theological degree, but upon the King’s
remonstrance this was not carried out.
We do not wish, however, to occupy our pages by quoting
the instances of credulity mentioned concerning him in
collections of anecdotes; as for instance this, that one day,
when Swedberg was saying his evening prayer in the church, one
of the sextons went up into the tower and called out : "Swedberg,
to -morrow thou shalt die ;" when he is said to have taken this
as a warning from a good spirit, and to have gone home to
set his house in order. What Swedberg relates himself, con
cerning his wonderful ministerial administrations in the case
of melancholy persons, is more worthy of credit. There
10 *
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