Swedenborg: Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church. Benjamin Worcester

Ib. p, 250.

      3 ↑ Dr. J. S. Dörner: Hist. Prot. Theology, ii, 213.

      4 ↑ Ib. ii, 274, 296.

      5 ↑ Palmer: The Church of Christ, i, 348.

      6 ↑ English Church in Eighteenth Century, ii, 44.

      7 ↑ Abbey and Overton: op. cit. ii, 44.

      8 ↑ Life of Frederick the Great, i, 11.

      9 ↑ Op. cit. ii, 268.

      Emanuel Swedenborg: Parentage and Early Life

       Table of Contents

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      II

      EMANUEL SWEDENBORG: PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE

      In the middle of the seventeenth century was living an honest, God-fearing, and prosperous miner named Daniel Isaksson, with his wife Anna, daughter of a Swedish pastor, on his homestead called Sweden, a hundred and twenty miles northwest from Stockholm. Grateful for the large family Heaven sent them, Daniel would often say at dinner, "Thank you, my children, for this meal, for I have dined with you and not you with me: God has given me food for your sakes." His second son Jesper, born in 1653, took the name Swedberg from the homestead. Later, when for his services to church and state his family was ennobled, Jesper's children received the name Swedenborg, though the father himself retained the name Swedberg. Inheriting his father's piety, on being rescued in boyhood from imminent death—caught under a mill-wheel—he resolved never to forget either morning or evening to commit ​himself to God's keeping and to the protection of His holy angels.

      Having received an excellent education at Upsal and abroad, in 1685 Jesper Swedberg was ordained and appointed first chaplain to the King's regiment of Life Guards, later royal chaplain at Stockholm. To the soldiers he taught the catechism and to King Charles XI he preached boldly without fear or favor, yet so pleasing the King that their Majesties stood as godfather and godmother to one of his daughters. "Ask of me," said the King, "what you will and you shall have it." But Swedberg, as he says, never asked the least thing for himself or his family, using his influence only for the appointment of faithful men to office. For a time he was the beloved pastor of a small parish, then on the King's insistence became Professor, and afterward Rector of the University at Upsal. By the King's orders he prepared and published, largely at his own expense, a revision of the Swedish Bible, which was however suppressed by the jealousy of the clergy. At Upsal where Emanuel passed his childhood Swedberg during several professorships and as Dean of the cathedral devoted himself to the well-being ​of the students, and so successfully that he was constantly cheered by their affection, and he could say after his ten years' life with them that in all that time the King had never received a single bad report of them.

      In 1703 this pleasant life at Upsal was interrupted, to Swedberg's entire surprise, by his receiving from the young King Charles XII an appointment as Bishop of Skara, whither he then removed and settled at Brunsbo. He was now fifty years old, and here he remained till his death at eighty-two, never until the last few years neglecting to officiate in public worship. He preached indefatigably from the Gospels and the Epistles, his sermons always flowing without any straining from the text; for, said he, "then God recognizes His own Word." But though always making the duties of his sacred office his chief care, the good bishop was a devoted husband and father. He had married in 1683 Sara Behm, of good family, her father long holding the same office later held by her son Emanuel, that of Assessor in the College of Mines. By a previous marriage to the then Dean of Upsal she had inherited a considerable fortune, which later proved ​of great assistance in the support of Bishop Swedberg's family and in his numerous publications.

      Jesper and Sara's first child was a son who died in his twelfth year. Asked by his father what he should do in heaven, he answered, "I shall pray for my father and brothers and sisters." The second child was Anna, to whom and to her husband Ericus Benzelius—in 1742 made Archbishop of Sweden—Emanuel was always tenderly attached. He was the next child, born January 29, 1688, while his father was serving as royal chaplain at Stockholm. Of the name given him his father wrote in his autobiography, "I am fully convinced that children ought to be given such names as will awaken in them and call to their minds the fear of God and everything that is orderly and righteous. . . . The name of my son Emanuel signifies God-with-us—that he may always remember God's presence, and that intimate, holy, and mysterious conjunction with our good and gracious God into which we are brought by faith, by which we are conjoined with Him and are in Him. And blessed be the Lord's name! God has to this hour been with him. ​And may He be further with him until he be eternally united with Him in His kingdom! . . . I am a Sunday child; and the mother of my children, my late wife, was also a Sunday child, and all my children were Sunday children except Catharine, who was born at Upsal on the third day of Easter." After Emanuel came six sons and daughters, the last being Margaretha, born in 1695, their good mother dying the following year, when Emanuel was nine years old.

      It was in 1719 that the family was ennobled by Queen Ulrica Eleonora with the name of Swedenborg, and Benzelius with the name of Benzelstierna, after which they were entitled to seats in the Diet. The Bishop, however, worked quietly on under his old name till his death in 1735, preaching, writing, and publishing without ceasing, though with small encouragement and few sales. Of his numerous publications he said, "If I had all the money which I have invested in the printing of books, I would be worth now from sixty to seventy thousand dalers in copper." These were largely sermons and other religious works, but also books on the Swedish language, grammar and lexicons, school-books, ​his new Swedish Bible, and a commentary. His autobiography is preserved which he wrote for his children, and he had much correspondence with the colonial missions, especially that of Pennsylvania and Delaware. This mission had been established by his influence with the King and had elected Swedberg their first bishop, as had also the Swedish churches at London and Lisbon, with the King's sanction.

      With these functions and labors of the father we are concerned only as they throw light on the character and ability transmitted to the son. We learn his piety, his faith manifested in charity and good works, his loving zeal in the cares intrusted to him, his learning, his integrity and boldness for the right, and his indefatigable industry. All these traits were indispensable for the discharge of the mission to be intrusted to the son. And another characteristic, less common with other races, he held from his Scandinavian ancestry, of utmost importance to the son—his constant sense of Divine and angelic supervision of the affairs of men. In his first year at Upsal Jesper had such a wonderful dream that he did not know whether he ought not to call it a ​revelation. He said, "No human tongue can pronounce and no angel can describe what I then saw and heard." He firmly believed that "God's angels are especially present in this sacred office [of Divine worship]." He felt sure that he was specially protected by angels from malign influences and directed in his studies at the University. How essential was this trust and confidence in Divine and heavenly influences to the service in store for his son Emanuel we shall see as we go on.

      Of Emanuel's childhood he himself wrote late in life in answer to the inquiries of his friend Dr. Beyer, "From my fourth to my tenth year I was constantly engaged in thought upon God, salvation, and the spiritual experiences of men; and several times I revealed things at which my father and mother marvelled, saying that angels must be speaking through me. From my sixth to my twelfth year I used to delight in conversing with clergymen about faith, saying that the life of faith is love, and that the love which imparts life is love to the neighbor; also that God gives faith to every one, but that those only receive it who practise that love." Thus