*Your letter of the 18th instant has duly reached me. Perhaps a brief account in reply with regard to what happened to me on my arrival here will not be displeasing.

I did not arrive here in Stockholm until this month, and I found both high and low very pleased and favourable; and I was then soon invited to a meal with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, with whom and the Crown Princess I indeed conversed. Later I have eaten with members of the Privy Council in their own houses or together with them. I have talked with the most prominent men in the Diet, and also with the bishops who are present here, all of whom, except Bishop Filenius, showed themselves well disposed.

When I learned that my copies of CONJUGIAL LOVE were placed in sequestration in Norrkoping I asked Bishop Mennander of Abo, Bishop Benzelstierna of Westerahs, Bishop Lutkeman of Gottland, and Bishop Lamberg how the matter stood. They all answered that they knew no otherwise than that the books were in safe-keeping until my arrival, in order that meanwhile they might not get lost, and that Bishop Filenius had reported the matter in the House of the Clergy in some such way; also that the House had not said a word about it, still less agreed to any sequestration, for which reason his report is not entered in the Minutes. Thus the most revered House of the Clergy has no part whatever in the matter, but only Bishop Filenius with whom I have exchanged some words on the matter. He insists on revision before they are released, and as yet is unwilling to hear that a revision of this book, which is not theological but rather moral in nature, is unnecessary and therefore unreasonable, and that such a step would pave the way for a dark age in Sweden. The reason for this animosity on the part of Bishop Filenius is presumably partly domestic, partly a matter of bias, and partly representative of the persecution of the dragon or the sting of the locusts in the Revelation. (Such reasons have suggested themselves to me; but if they are it is a matter that can be left open, since they may turn out to be different.)

Bishop Filenius' action, however, in no way affects me, since I brought 38 copies with me, and previously have sent 5, more than half of which I have already distributed to the bishops, to members of the Diet, to members of the Privy Council, and to their Majesties; and when the rest have likewise been distributed there will be more than enough in Stockholm. The copies kept in Norrkoping will be sent abroad where undoubtedly they are wanted.

I am sending herewith a small treatise on THE INTERACTION OF THE SOUL AND THE BODY, published by me in London, which has been presented to the societies and universities in England and France. Will you please read the very last lines there. I believe it is by now also translated into English.

The small treatise BRIEF EXPOSITION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW CHURCH I have passed on only to Bishop Benzelstierna here, with the strict provision that it shall not be handed out to any one else. The reason is that there are few in Sweden who admit the understanding into anything theological. Thus no enlightenment can be received in and from the Word of God, as for example Rom. iii 28 and Gal. ii 16. There faith imputative of the merit of Christ is not meant, but the faith of Jesus which is faith from Jesus in Jesus; nor are the works of the law of the Decalogue meant, but the works of the Mosaic law which were for the Jews alone; nor is the imputative faith of the present day Church meant in Rom. iv - and more of this kind. Nor do they allow themselves to be enlightened in the language of the Scripture with reference to the Son of God, namely that by the Son of God is not meant any Son of God born from eternity, but the Son of God conceived of Jehovah God in time and born of the virgin Mary, according to the plain words in Luke i 32, 35; Matthew iii 17, xvii 5; John xx 31; I John v 20; and several other places; likewise in accordance with the Apostles' Creed, where no other Son of God is named, as the result of which the Primitive Church knew of none other. That a Son of God from eternity has been accepted in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds is for the reason that, at the time, they found no other way of refuting and banishing the heretical views of Arius. By all means see the Apostles' Creed. Therefore I keep with the Apostolic Church.

Invoking God the Saviour cannot be forbidden anywhere in the whole of Christendom, least of all by the Lutherans according to the Augsburg Confession itself, p. 19, and later the Apologia, p. 226; and in addition this, that in Christ Man is God, and God Man; besides many things which I adduced at a previous occasion.

The Formula Concordiae also declares that there is a divine trinity in those who are reborn by faith, p. 695, APP p. 130. What then is not the Divine Trinity in God the Saviour Himself! etc., etc., Col. ii 9. But all of this and more will be fully demonstrated in the work itself to be published 2 years from now. The BRIEF EXPOSITION, which is a forerunner, will prepare the way for its reception. This little forerunning treatise is found everywhere in Christendom, except here in Sweden, because theology is now in its winter, and there is then a longer night here in the north than in southern places. Therefore, in their darkness they would kick at anything that belongs to the understanding or reason in the New Church; yet with exceptions for those in the ecclesiastical order. I also apply to myself what the Lord said to His disciples, Matthew x 16.

The occurrence which is related concerning your wife in her dying hours came about through an impression, especially from two priests, who put her thoughts into association with those spirits from whom she then spoke. At the hour of death it happens to some that they are in the state of the spirit. The spirits who then first talked through her were among the followers of the dragon, who had been cast down from heaven, Rev. xii, and these then become so hateful of the Saviour, and consequently of the Word of God, and of all that belongs to the New Church, that they cannot bear to hear Christ mentioned by name. If the sphere of our Lord is falling down upon them from heaven, they come into a rage, and straightway flee into holes and caves, according to Rev. vi 16.

Your late wife was with me yesterday, and she related much of what she had thought, and what she had spoken of with you her husband, and what with her seducers. Were I present with you, I would be able to tell you much about these things, but it is not permitted to write it.

As to the lad whom you mentioned, I have at present no time to say anything about it.

And now fond greetings to our friends, especially to Councillors Wennergren and Hammarberg. I remain etc.

Eman. Swedenborg

Stockholm 30 October 1769

P.S. This letter can be shown to others at your pleasure, and can also be copied and printed. Two honourable men in London have invited me to England, and I am contemplating going there next spring.

I am told that a letter is supposed to be printed in Goteborg, which claims that in Paris I was ordered to leave. This is completely untrue. Count Creutz, our Envoy in Paris, can testify to this.

* By 1769 Dr. Beyer's adherence to the new doctrines was quite obvious to all, and efforts were being made by enemies to deprive him of his appointment of principal lecturer in theology. In August his wife died in childbirth, having been attended by two priests who endeavoured to turn her, and through her to turn Beyer himself, from Swedenborgianism. On 18 October Beyer informed Swedenborg of these matters in a letter that is now lost, and in addition he sought guidance concerning a boy in Skara who had had visions of white serpents in his early years and who had powers of healing. He also asked for some information concerning Swedenborg's early life. In his long letter of 18 October, written from Stockholm, Swedenborg briefly mentioned first of all what had been happening to him since his return home. A discussion of the sequestration in Norrkoping of copies of DE AMORE CONJUGIALI is followed by a brief reference to the recently published DE COMMERCIO ANIMAE ET CORPORIS and fuller comment on SUMMARIA EXPOSITIO DOCTRINAE. An answer to Beyer's query concerning his late wife appears at the end of this letter while information concerning the boy from Skara and Swedenborg's early years came in the letter of 14 November. In addition to the actual letter sent on 30 October, Codex 52 in the Swedish Academy of Sciences contains a primary draft (Ap) i, the author's own hand.