Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
158 [Doc. 11 .
SWEDENBORG’S ANCESTRY.
than my father’s loins. And now whereas my father did lade
you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke," & c. (1 Kings,
xii, 4-14). This, you see, was too strong food for them,
which their stomachs could not digest. Afterwards I had an
opportunity of conversing with the King alone on these topics,
and on many others which I do not venture to entrust to paper.
Yet I tempered everything for peace and mercy. The letter
about the magister and the bailiff in the “ Shibboleth ” they (the
courtiers) could not at all endure. But my character has always
been such, in my life, in my sermons, and in my printed works,
that I never concealed a single one of God’s truths, whether it
was listened to or not, and whether they raged against me. I
have had, and still have, a strong shield in Him whom I serve,
and I fear nothing, well knowing that they cannot touch even
a hair of my head ; still less can they injure my honour, or deprive
me of my goods, without the will and permission of my Lord.
I also follow Paul, and say, “For do I now preach men , or
God ? or do I seek to please men ? for if I yet pleased men , I
should not be the servant of Christ ” (Gal. i, 10). I have
Christ on my side ; him I serve. He himself had to hear
them charge him with having a devil, with rebelling against
Cæsar; he had to suffer upon the cross, &c.; and he has
said to us, who are right-minded priests, “ Woe unto you
when all men shall speak well of you ! for so did their
fathers to the false prophets” (Luke vi, 26). I have now
grown so old in my office, and have not yesterday, nor the
day before yesterday, gone up to the King’s house for the
first time to preach there, that I require not to read over for
a week what I have to preach and say. The real cause is,
that I have always challenged, and still challenge, the envy
of many, especially of my colleagues. They see what God has
done and is still doing through me for the good of the Church,
in building it up, and this without my having respect to my
own honour and interest. This they cannot bear. That by
royal command I have the care of the Swedish Churches in
Pennsylvania, that the Church in London in England and the
one at Lisbon in Portugal are under my superintendence,
you see, galls them. And as I have neither desired nor
applied for this superintendence, but have been commanded to
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
