Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/38

xxx The bishop lived to the advanced age of eighty-two, fulfilling acceptably all the duties of his Episcopate to the last. His first wife,—he was three times married,—the mother of Emanuel, was Sarah Behm, daughter of Albert Behm, assessor in the college of mines and owner of the extensive mines of Tallfors. The social position occupied by the family, both on the father's and on the mother's side, justify the presumption that their children enjoyed the best educational advantages that Sweden afforded at that period. Of him, as of Samson, it may be said he was born a Nazarite from his mother's womb. In one of his letters to Dr. Beyer, near the close of his life, he said: "From my fourth to my tenth year I was constantly occupied with thoughts of God, salvation, and the spiritual affections of men; and several times I revealed things at which my father and mother wondered, 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 they only receive it who practise that love. I knew of no faith, at that time, than that God is the Creator and Preserver of Nature; that He imparts understanding and a good disposition to men, etc. I knew nothing at that time of that learned faith which teaches that God the Father imputes the righteousness of His Son to whomsoever, and at such times as, He chooses, even to those who have not repented and have not reformed their lives. And had I heard of such a faith it would have been then, as it is now, above my comprehension." Of his academic life we only know that he was educated at the University of Upsala, and in point of scholarship was admirably equipped for the studies to which he consecrated the rest of his life. He introduced himself to the world in 1709, with a Selection of Sentences from Seneca and Publius Syrus Mimus, enriched with comments of his own on "Friendship" and on other virtues.