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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 #386

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386. To this I will append the following account:

When I once looked about in the spiritual world, I heard what sounded like the gnashing of teeth, and like a thumping, too, intermixed with a harsh noise. So I asked what I was hearing, and the angels who were with me said, "There are clubs, which we call taverns, where people argue with each other. This is the way their debates sound at a distance, but close by they sound only like arguments.

I went over and saw cottages constructed of interwoven rushes, with clay for mortar. I wanted to look through a window, but there wasn't one. I looked for a window because I was not permitted to enter through the door, as light from heaven would then flow in and befuddle the people.

Suddenly, however, a window materialized on the right side, and I heard the people complain then that everything had gone dark. But shortly a window materialized on the left side, with the window on the right side closing, and then the darkness was by degrees dispelled, and they saw each other in a state of light. After that I was allowed to enter through the door and listen.

There was a table in the middle of the room, with benches surrounding it, yet the people all seemed to me to be standing on the benches, and to be arguing sharply with each other about faith and charity, the people on one side saying that faith was the principal tenet of the church, and on the other side that charity was.

Those who made faith the principal tenet said, "Do we not deal with God as regards faith, and with people as regards charity? Is not faith therefore something heavenly, and charity something earthly? Are we not saved by what is heavenly, and not by anything earthly?

"Furthermore, cannot God confer faith from heaven, because it is something heavenly, and must not a person confer on himself charity, because it is something earthly? What a person confers on himself is unrelated to the church and is therefore not saving. Can works that are called works of charity justify anyone in that case before God?

"Believe us when we say that by faith alone we are not only justified but also sanctified, provided our faith is not contaminated by hopes for merit that spring up from works of charity."

And so on.

[2] In reply, the people who made charity the principal tenet of the church sharply refuted them, saying that charity is saving, and not faith. "Does not God hold all people dear and will good to all? How can God do this except through the agency of people? Does God enable people to speak with one another only about matters having to do with faith, and not enable them to do things for one another that are matters of charity?

"Do you not see how absurdly you spoke about charity, saying that it is something earthly? Charity is something heavenly, and because you do not do the good pertaining to charity, your faith is earthly. How do you receive faith other than as a log or rock? You say that it is simply by hearing the Word, but how can the Word do anything simply by being heard, and how can it have any effect on a log or rock? Perhaps you are animated without being aware of it. However, what is that animation except to enable you to say that faith alone is saving? Yet what that faith is, and what saving faith is, you do not know."

[3] But one among them then arose, whom an angel speaking with me called a syncretist. 1 He took the cap from his head and placed it on the table, but quickly replaced it, as he was bald. He said, "Listen, you are all wrong. The truth is that faith is spiritual, and charity moral; but still they are conjoined, and they are conjoined by the Word, by the Holy Spirit, and by the effect these have, without the person's knowing. Indeed, the person may be said to be a compliant form, but one in which the person has no part.

"I have thought to myself a long time about this, and I eventually found that God can enable a person to receive a faith that is spiritual, but cannot move him to a charity that is spiritual without his being like a pillar of salt."

[4] When he said this, the people caught up in faith alone applauded, while those espousing charity booed. And the latter said with annoyance, "Listen, my friend, you do not know that a moral life can be spiritual, and that it can be merely natural - being a moral life that is spiritual in the case of people who do good from the Lord, though doing it as if of themselves, and being a moral life that is merely natural in the case of people who do good from hell, though doing it as if of themselves."

[5] I said before that the arguing sounded like the gnashing of teeth, and like a thumping, too, intermixed with a harsh noise. The particular arguing that sounded like the gnashing of teeth came from those who were espousing faith alone; the arguing that sounded like a thumping came from those who were espousing charity alone; and the intermixed harsh noise came from the syncretist. I heard their voices at a distance thus because they had all argued in the world, but did not refrain from any evil and so did not do any moral good that was spiritual. Moreover, they also did not know at all that the totality of faith is truth, and that the totality of charity is goodness, and that truth without goodness is not truth in spirit, and that goodness without truth is not goodness in spirit; thus that one must form the other.

The reason everything became dark when a window materialized on the right side is that light flowing in from heaven on that side affects the will. And a state of light returned when the window on the right side closed and a window materialized on the left side, because light flowing in from heaven on the left side affects the intellect, and everyone can be in the light of heaven as regards his intellect, provided his will is closed as regards the evil in him.

Footnotes:

1. An espouser of syncretism, a system of belief that attempts to reconcile differing religious and philosophic positions. The term was applied especially to the views of George Calixtus, a Lutheran theologian in the 17th century, and to his followers.

  
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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

 

True Christian Religion #507

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507. The fifth experience. 1

I was talking with angels and we came at last to the subject of the lust for evil which every person acquires by birth. 'In the world where I live,' said one of them, 'those who are possessed by lust appear to us angels as fools, but to themselves they seem extremely wise. On this account, in order to drag them out of their folly, they are by turns allowed to lapse into it and are then brought to a rational frame of mind, which in their case is confined to externals. When they are in this state they see, acknowledge and confess that they are crazy. But they still long to exchange their rational state for their crazed one, and they plunge into it as being freedom and pleasure in place of compulsion and unpleasantness. So it is lust that inwardly delights them, not intelligence.

[2] 'There are three universal loves of which every person is from creation compounded: the love of the neighbour, which is also the love of performing services, and this is a spiritual love; the love of the world, which is also the love of possessing wealth, and this is a material love; and self-love, which is also the love of dominating others, and this is a bodily love. A person is truly human when the love of the neighbour, or the love of performing services, makes up the head, and the love of the world, or of possessing wealth, makes up the chest and belly, and self-love, or the love of dominating, makes up the feet and the soles of the feet. But if the love of the world makes up the head, a person is only human in the way a hunchback is. And if self-love makes up the head, he is not like a person standing on his feet, but like one standing on the palms of his hands with his head down and his haunches in the air.

[3] 'When the love of performing services makes up the head, and the other two loves duly make up the trunk and feet, the person appears in heaven to have the face of an angel with a lovely rainbow around his head. But if the love of the world or wealth makes up the head, seen from heaven he seems to have a pale face like a corpse with a yellow ring around his head. And if self-love or the love of dominating others makes up the head, seen from heaven he seems to have a face dark with fiery gleams with a white ring around his head.'

This led me to ask: 'What do the rings around the head represent?' Intelligence;' they replied, 'the white ring around the head of a person with a dark face with fiery gleams represents his intelligence being limited to externals or around him, and his craziness being in his internals or inside him. Also a person of this sort is wise when engaged in the body, but crazy when in the spirit. No one is wise in spirit except by the Lord's doing; this happens when he is born again and created anew by the Lord.'

[4] After this the ground on the left opened and I saw rising through the opening a devil with a dark face with fiery gleams and a white ring around his head. 'Who are you?' I asked. 'I am Lucifer,' he said, 'the son of the dawn. I was cast down for making myself like the Most High, as described in Isaiah, chapter 14.' He was not actually Lucifer, but he thought he was. 'Since you have been cast down,' I said, 'how can you rise again from hell?' 'There,' he said, 'I am a devil, but here an angel of light; don't you see I have a white ring round my head? And you will see, if you wish, that among moral people I am moral, among rational people rational, among spiritual people even spiritual. I was even able to preach.'

'What did you preach about?' I asked. 'Against cheats,' he said, 'against adulterers and all the hellish loves. In fact it was then I called myself the devil Lucifer and invoked curses against myself as such, so that I was praised to the skies. That was how I got the name of the son of the dawn. To my own surprise, when I was in the pulpit I could think of nothing but speaking correctly and properly. But the reason was revealed to me, that I was in externals and these were then separated from my internals. Yet despite having this revealed to me, I was still unable to change, because I regarded myself as superior to the Most High, and was proud enough to oppose Him.'

[5] 'How,' I asked then, 'could you have spoken like that when you are yourself a cheat and an adulterer?' 'I am different,' he replied, 'when I am in externals or the body, from what I am when in internals or the spirit. In the body I am an angel, but in the spirit a devil. For while I am in the body I am in the power of the understanding, but in the spirit I am in the power of the will, and the understanding carries me upwards, while the will carries me down. When I am in the power of the understanding there is a white ring surrounding my head; but when the understanding becomes completely subservient to the will and is its creature, which is our ultimate fate, the ring turns black and fades away. When this happens I can no longer climb up into this light,,

Suddenly, however, catching sight of the angels with me, his face became inflamed and his voice became harsh, and he turned black, including the ring around his head. Then he fell back into hell through the opening by which he had risen. The by-standers drew the conclusion from what they had seen and heard that it is the will and not the understanding which determines a person's character, since the will has no difficulty in bringing the understanding over to its side and making it subservient.

[6] Then I asked the angels where the devils got their rationality from. 'It is,' they said, 'from the glory of self-love, for self-love is surrounded by glory, since this is the brilliance of its fire, and glory raises the understanding almost into the light of heaven. Everyone's understanding is capable of being raised in proportion to his knowledge; but the will can only be raised by living in accordance with the truths taught by the church and by reason. That is why even atheists, who out of self-love boast of their reputation, and so pride themselves on their intelligence, enjoy a higher degree of rationality than many others. But this happens when they are deep in intellectual thought, not when they are letting their wills express their love. It is love in the will which takes possession of the internal man, but thought in the understanding which takes possession of the external man.' The angel went on to tell us the reason why man is a compound of three loves, that of service, that of the world, and self-love. It is so that he may be guided in his thoughts by God, yet think entirely as if of himself. He told us that the highest levels of the human mind are turned upwards to God, the middle levels outwards to the world, the lowest downwards to the body. It is because these are turned downwards that a person thinks as if entirely of his own accord, when in fact his thoughts are controlled by God.

Footnotes:

1. This section is repeated with modifications from Conjugial Love 269.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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