The book was seized as soon as printed, and never issued.[1] The ostensible charge against it was of heresy, because the Saviour was called in it the "Son of Man," as well as the "Son of God." But the real objection was that the clergy had not all had a hand in the work. By order of the King, Swedberg was repaid twenty thousand dalers; but he still made a loss of thirty thousand, and his printer was ruined.
"Upsal,[2] where Swedberg now lived, was a pleasant city of some five thousand inhabitants, set in a wide undulating plain, and made up of low-built houses of wood and stone, surrounded with gardens. In the centre of the city stood the grand cathedral, esteemed the finest Gothic building in Scandinavia, where Sweden's kings of old were crowned, and the bones of many rested. Built around this 'beautiful house of God,' in a spacious square, were the university buildings, two houses in which Swedberg owned as professor and rector. Here in this fine square our boy Emanuel spent his childhood and found his play-ground."[3] At the university, where he received one professorship after another, Swedberg had great satisfaction and success. "It is incredible and indescribable," he says, "what courage, consolation, and freedom are derived from a pure and lawful vocation; and, on the other hand, how much those are disheartened who have not this comfort." This he said on entering the First Professorship of Theology. In 1695 he was installed as Dean of the Cathedral.
During his ten years at Upsal he lectured, preached, exhorted, and examined the students incessantly; how happily, we may judge from his own words:—
"I experienced this grace from God, that there was such unity and trust among the teachers that there was never any dissension. I lived in the large square, and I can affirm that
- ↑ Nevertheless, some copies got over to the Swedish colony in Delaware; and a note is preserved written by Swedberg's son-in-law, Benzelius, May, 1742, directing his son to pay to his uncle, Assessor Swedenborg, 256 dalers in copper, "a part of the sum paid by Momme for the hymn-book."
- ↑ Thirty-nine miles N.N.W, from Stockholm.
- ↑ Op. cit. i. 13.
