CELESTIAL, SPIRITUAL, and NATURAL, KNOWLEDGE:

By feveral Members of the LONDON UNIVERSAL SOCIETY for Promotion of the NEW CHURCH. (To be continued Monthly.)

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THE

New-Jerufalem Magazine;

JUNE 1, 1790.

The Life of EMANUEL SWEDENBORG continued and concluded.

H

AVING mentioned the tender and affectionate manner in which Swedenborg took leave of his friend Mr. Robfam the last time of his departure from Sweden, we fhall now proceed towards the close of the life of this eminent and extraordinary man.

He embarked for Amfterdam towards the middle of the year 1770, as appears by his letter of the 12th of June of that year, addreffed to the universities and academies of Upfal, Lund, and Abo; on his arrival in that city, he fuperintended the edition of his laft work, (entitled TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, containing the univerfal Theology of the New Church,) with an astonishing activity for a man of his years; as is remarked by a gentleman who refided there at the time, in a letter bearing date January 26, 1771, wherein among other particulars he expreffes himself as follows. "He "(Swedenborg) is now indefatigably employed in bringing "forward his new work, and I must say in a manner quite “ astonishing, and indeed more than human; for he has fix"teen pages printed every week, half fmaller than that of all his other works. Only confider, that for every printed « page he muft write out four pages of MS. copy, and ne "has two fheets or fixteen pages quarto printed weekly; "so that he must write out eight fheets per week. He faith

Gg 2

"this

*

"this work will contain about eighty sheets; and what to

me is quite incomprehenfible, he never has a fingle line " left behind. He has calculated already that the whole can"not be completed before next Michaelmas, &c.

When Swedenborg had finished this most important work he returned to England, where he was for a while employed in the compofition of an appendix to it; but towards the latter end of the year 1771, he was attacked with a stroke of the palfy, of which however he gradually recovered, as will appear from the following affidavit of Richard Shearsmith and his wife, the people with whom he lodged at the time of his death; which affidavit was taken in 1785 in order to refute an infidious calumny propagated against this extraordinary man after his decease, by one of his own country, a clergyman, who had always been his bittereft enemy, namely, the Rev. Mr. Matthefius, who maliciously published the infamous report of Swedenborg's having been mad, which report was alfo charitably introduced by Mr. John Wefley in his Armenian Magazine. Matthefius to complete his revenge against the writings of a good man (who during his life never did him or any other perfon the leaft injury) gave it out after his death that Swedenborg in his laft hours had made an open recantation of all his theological tenets. It is very remarkable, that fince this manifeft act of profanation, Matthefius has been very feverely punished, by being feized with madness himself, which happened publicly one day when he was in the Swedish church and about to preach, and which increafed to fuch a degree, that he was officially recalled from his place which he held here in the Swedish church, and is ftill living in the fame ftate in Weftrogothia, an awful example of the dreadful vifitation which often awaits prophanators of the truth. As fuch invidious reports however gained ground abroad, and greatly prevailed with fome fo as to reject the truth offered in our author's writings, it was thought neceflary in 1785 to clear up this dangerous report of Swedenborg's pretended recantation. In confequence of this

* This work was indeed comprised in 68 sheets, but had Swedenborg been able at that time to have completed and fubjoined to it the whole of his appendix, it is more than probable, it would have exactly answered to the above number. Speaking of this appendix we will beg leave to obferve, that what was printed in London after his decease, is but an incomplete part of the fame; the truth is, (as we were informed by Doctor Meffeter, in whofe hands this valuable manufcript was left) that nearly one half of the copy had been mislaid and finally lost at the doctor's houfe.

refolution

refolution Mr. Thomas Wright of the Poultry, watchmaker to his majesty, and Mr. Robert Hindmarsh of Clerkenwell Clofe, printer to his Royal Highnefs the Prince of Wales, went together to the houfe of Mr. Richard Shearsmith, peruke-maker in Cold Bath Fields, where Swedenborg refided at the time of his death, and there were informed that the whole of the report was a contrived falfehood of Matthefius's own invention, and the faid Shearsmith and his wife offered to make their folemn affidavit of the fame, which was accordingly done before the Lord Mayor of London for the time being in manner and substance as follows.

AFFIDAVIT taken before the Right Hon. THOMAS WRIGHT, then Lord Mayor of the City of London, on the 24th Nov. 1785, viz.

"That towards Christmas 1771, Mr. Swedenborg had a "ftroke of the palfy, which deprived him of his fpeech, " which he foon recovered, but yet remained very weak and "infirm. That towards the end of February 1772, he de"clared to Elizabeth Shearsmith (then Reynolds) and to

Richard Shearsmith's firft wife (then living) that he fhould "die on fuch a day; and that the faid Elizabeth Shearsmith "thinks fhe can fafely affirm on her oath he departed this "life exactly on the very day he had foretold, that is, one "month after his prediction. That about a fortnight before "his death he received the Lord's Supper from the hands of "Mr. Ferelius, a Swedish minifter, to whom he earnestly

cr

recommended to abide in the truth contained in his wri"tings. That a little while before Mr. Swedenborg's de"ceafe he was deprived of his fpiritual fight, on which ac"count being brought into very great tribulation, he ve"hemently cried out, O my God! haft thou then wholly for"Jaken thy fervant* at laft? But a few days after he reco"vered again his fpiritual fight, which circumftance appeared "to make him completely happy, That this was the last of his "trials. That during his latter days, even as on the former, "he retained all his good fenfe and memory in the most

The gentleman from whofe letter we have given an extract, farther obferves with refpect to the title affumed by Swedenborg in his laft printed work, namely that of The SERVANT OF THE LORD, according to my way of thinking, "could not conceal from him my aftonifhment, on his giving himfelf the cha "racter of a Servant of the Lord Jefus Chrift;" but he replied; I have asked, and I bave not only obtained leave, but even received exprefs and pofitive orders fo to do. "complete

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