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.
Doc. 270.] 609
CHASTANIER ON MATHESIUS.
de la Doctrine Céleste de l’Église de la Nouvelle Jérusalem,"
where (pp. 21 to 24) he furnishes the following interesting
account:
F.
B. CHASTANIER222 ON MATHESIUS AND J. WESLEY,238 IN 1785.
1. "Mr. Springer121 informed us yesterday, November 15, 1785,
in the presence of a numerous and respectable company, that
Swedenborg had presented his Arcana Celestia to Mathesius,
who was never willing to read the work, and who, from hos
tility he had conceived against the doctrines contained there
in, had been constantly one of the greatest antagonists of
Swedenborg; and who had contributed not a little to circulate
and affirm the egregious falsehood which John Wesley, a
minister of the Anglican Church and one of the chiefs of the
sect called Methodists, was inconsiderate enough to insert in
the January number of the ’ Arminian Magazine,’ I believe for
1781 or 1782. Wesley himself, however, is by no means the
author of that falsehood, which he endeavoured to make as
plausible as possible ; the leading features of which are as
follows : [Chastanier gives here an abstract of Mathesius’ ac
count of Swedenborg, as contained in Document 270, B].
2. "Mr. Springer121 confirmed yesterday what we had pre
viously learned concerning this affair, viz. that it owes its
origin to two circumstances : The first is due to the advantage .
which two Jews took of a swoon, or a kind of ecstasis or
trance into which Swedenborg fell in their presence in his own
house ; when they profited of this ecstasis, to steal from him
his gold watch. As soon as Swedenborg recovered his con
sciousness after his trance, he noticed that his watch had been
taken from his pillow, and he asked the two Jews who were
with him to restore it. They said to him, ’Do you not know
that in your ecstasis you seized your watch yourself; that you
went out into the street, and threw it into the gutter.’ Sweden
borg contented himself with replying, ’My friends, you know
that this statement is false.’ Reing afterwards advised to pro
secute these two rogues in a court of justice, he said, ’It is not
39
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
