"Swedenborg an Entertaining Madman" (Wesley)

Taken verbatim from Wesley's Journal.  I think that the date is December 28, 1769. 

Wednesday, 28.  I sat down to read and seriously consider some of the writing of Baron Swedenborg.  I began with huge prejudice in his favor, knowing him to be a pious man, one of a strong understanding, of much learning, and one who thoroughly believed himself.  But I could not hold out long.  Any one of his visions puts his real character out of doubt.  He is one of the most ingenious, lively, entertaining madmen that ever set pen to paper.  But his waking dreams are so wild, so far remote both from Scripture and common sense, that one might as easily swallow the stories of "Tom Thumb," or "Jack the Giant-Killer." 

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Commentary (mine):

Acts 17:11.  These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

1 Thes. 5:21.  Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

I'm not an expert on Swedenborg, but he seems to have had a baleful influence on John Chapman (aka Johnny Appleseed), Helen Keller, E.B. Browning, Coleridge, and others.  Just Google "Famous People Influenced by Swedenborg" and decide for yourself.