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DR. SPENCE. 1175
inmate of his house.
as
His society was the more agreeable to me,
we professed the same religion . Nevertheless, it was not as
a pure act of charity that he asked me to live with him; but
he had also a personal interest in it, and the tranquillity of his
house depended on this arrangement. This change of lodgings
was of the greatest benefit to me, and afterwards also I was the
recipient of the most disinterested services on his part, which were
the beautiful fruits of his benevolent character. When I left his
house, I left London. He is dead, and I expect to find him
where I shall be able to tell him that to the last breath of my life
in this world, my heart has been imbued with gratitude towards
him. May he be blessed among the blessed." The letter which
C. F. Nordensköld received from his friend Wadström in 1785, and
to which reference is made on p. 807, was directed to him “Care
of Dr. Wm. Spence." In his care also C. F. Nordensköld left the
MS. of the Apocalypsis Explicata, and the copy of those MSS. which
he had brought to England (see Document 309, p. 807).
In a letter dated May 2, 1822, which C. F. Nordensköld addressed
to Dr. Im. Tafel, he says of Dr. Spence that "he was a physician
and apothecary, an extremely honest and benevolent gentleman,
although his means were limited."
Dr. Spence belonged to that party of the New Church friends
.
in England, who are designated non-separatists, to which also the
Rev. John Clowes and others belonged. On this account he was
sharply criticized by those who were of a different opinion from
himself, as appears from the following extract of a letter
addressed by Henry Servanté 227 to Mr. James Glen of Demarara,
South America, dated London, June 1 , 1806, and which was pub
lished in the "Monthly Observer" for 1857 (p. 419), "Mr. Spence
is a native of Scotland, and I believe still living, he is also by pro
fession a surgeon, but I never considered him a true recipient. He
has constantly opposed an external separation from the Old Church,
and strenuously maintained the high-flown doctrine of Episcopacy,
and that no other than such as were regularly ordained by a bishop
were orderly qualified or authorized to preach the doctrines of the
New Church. You will perhaps be able to trace some outlines of
the eccentricity of his character in his ’Essays.’"
The preface to these "Essays" contains Dr. Spence’s arguments
on the relation between the Old and the New Churches ; in which
he uses very strong language in respect to his "spiritual brethren
the ’separatists.""
It is not known when Dr. Spence departed this life; according
to Mr. Servanté he was still living in 1806.
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