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Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings

This list of Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings was originally compiled by W. C. Henderson in 1960 but has since been updated.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #341

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341. To this I will append the following account:

I saw some English clergymen assembled - as many as six hundred - who were praying to the Lord to allow them to ascend into one of the societies of a higher heaven, and it was granted them. So they ascended, and upon entering it, they saw their king, the grandfather of the king presently reigning, 1 and they rejoiced. The king then came over to two bishops that they had among them, whom he had known in the world, and speaking to them, he asked, "How came you here?"

They replied that they had petitioned the Lord, and that it had been granted.

The king said to them, "Why did you petition the Lord, and not God the Father?"

And the bishops said that it was what they had been told to do below.

Then the king said, "Did I not tell you this at times in the world, that one must go to the Lord, and furthermore, that charity is the primary thing. What was your answer in regard to the Lord then?"

It was then given them to remember that they had replied that when one goes to the Father, one goes also to the Son.

But the angels surrounding the king said, "You are mistaken. That's not what you thought, nor does one go to the Lord when one goes to God the Father. Rather, one goes to God the Father when one goes to the Lord, because they are one, like soul and body. Who approaches someone's soul and in that way his body? Is it not the case that when one approaches a person's body, something that he sees, he approaches also the person's soul, which he does not see?"

To this the bishops made no answer. And the king drew near to the two bishops, holding in his hand two gifts, saying, "These are gifts from heaven."

The gifts were heavenly figurines of gold, and the king tried to hand them over. But suddenly then a dusky cloud covered them and separated them, and the clergymen descended the way they had come. They then recorded this event in a book.

[2] All the other English clergymen who heard that their colleagues had been granted to ascend to a higher heaven, assembled at the foot of a mountain, where they awaited their return. And when those colleagues did return, they greeted their brethren and related what had befallen them in heaven, saying that the king had given the bishops two heavenly figurines of gold most beautiful to look at, but that these had fallen out of their hands. And then they disappeared into a nearby wood and conferred with each other, looking around to see if anyone was overhearing. But they were overheard nevertheless.

They were talking about unanimity and harmony, and then about primacy and dominion. The bishops did the speaking, and the rest favored them with their assent. But suddenly, to my surprise, they no longer appeared as many, but as one great person, with a face like that of a lion, having on his head a towering miter, and upon that a crown. And he spoke with a deep voice, and went forward with a broad step. And looking behind him he said, "Who else has a right to primacy but me?"

The king looked down from heaven and saw - seeing them all first as one, and then as many in harmony, most in secular clothing, he said.

Footnotes:

1. The English king presently reigning was George III (1760-1820), grandson of George II (1727-1760).

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #752

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752. To this I will append the following account:

I was given to speak with Pope Sixtus V. 1 He came from a society in the west to my left. He told me that he had been put as chief governor over a society composed of Catholics who more than others excelled in judgment and industry. He said he had been made their chief governor because he had believed during the last half year before his death that the vicariate was an invention in order to gain dominion, and that the Lord the Savior, being God, was the only one who should be venerated and worshiped. He also said that the Holy Scripture is Divine and thus more holy than the edicts of popes. Pope Sixtus said that he had continued to believe in these two principal tenets of religion to the end of his life.

Pope Sixtus also said that their saints are of no account. He was surprised when I told him that it had been decided in council and confirmed by a bull that saints should be invoked.

He said that he led an active life as he had in the world, and that every morning he proposes to himself nine or ten things that he wishes to be accomplished by the end of the evening.

I asked him where he had obtained in so few years the great treasury he had placed in the Castelo del Angelo. He replied that he had written with his own hand to the prefects of wealthy monasteries, telling them to send him as much of their wealth as in their judgment they could, as it was for a holy purpose, and because they feared him, they sent it in abundance.

Moreover, when I said that the treasury still exists, he said, "Of what use is it now?"

[2] While speaking with him, I reported that since his time the treasury at Loreto had been immensely increased and enriched, and so, too, the treasuries in some monasteries, primarily in Spain, but not so much today as in earlier centuries. I added also that these treasuries are preserved for no other useful purpose than the pleasure of possessing them. Moreover, when I reported this, I said, too, that those who possessed them were thus like the gods of the underworld that the ancients called Plutos. 2

When I mentioned Plutos, Pope Sixtus responded, "Hush! I know."

Pope Sixtus said again that the only people admitted into the society over which he presides are those who excel in judgment, and who can accept that the Lord alone is God of heaven and earth, and that the Word is holy and Divine. Moreover, under the Lord's auspices he is perfecting that society daily, he said.

He also said that he has spoken with some so-called saints, but that they become foolish when they are told and believe that they are holy.

He even called stupid those popes and cardinals who wish to be venerated like Christ, even if they are not venerated in person, and who do not acknowledge the Word to be actually holy and Divine, which alone is what people ought to live by.

[3] Pope Sixtus wishes me to tell people who are alive today that Christ is God of heaven and earth, that the Word is holy and Divine, and that it is not the Holy Spirit that speaks through someone's mouth, but Satan, who wishes to be venerated as God.

Moreover, he said that people who do not pay attention to his words go away, as stupid, to their own kind, and after a time are cast down into hell to people who labor under the fantasy that they are gods, where the only life they have is the that of a wild animal.

At this I said, "Your words are perhaps too harsh for me to write."

But he replied, "Write them and I will sign them, because they are true."

And he went away from me then into his society and signed a copy, and sent it as a bull to other societies committed to the same religion.

Footnotes:

1. Born Felice Peretti, 1521-1590, Italian ecclesiastic, Pope 1585-1590.

2. The Roman deity Pluto, god of the underworld, was in later times often confused with the minor Greek deity Plutus (Plou'to"), god of abundance and wealth, a confusion reflected also here and elsewhere in the writer's works.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

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