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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 #442

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442. Then the sixth angel sounded. (9:13) This symbolizes an examination and exposure of the state of life among those people in the Protestant Reformed Church who were not so wise, and yet who placed the whole of religion in faith, thinking of it alone, and of nothing besides it and ritual worship, and so living as they pleased.

That these people are the subject to the end of the chapter will be evident from the exposition of the following verses.

To sound a trumpet means, symbolically, to examine and expose the state of the church and its consequent life among people for whom religion is faith alone, as may be seen in no. 397 above.

[2] The people who are the subject now are totally different from those who have been the subject so far in this chapter, whose falsities in matters of faith were seen in the form of locusts. They differ in this respect, that the people described so far devote themselves to zealously exploring the mysteries of justification by faith and to teaching its signs and its testimonies, which to them are the goods of a moral and civic life, asserting that although the precepts of the Word are in themselves indeed Divine, in people they become natural, because they emanate from a person's will, and being natural, they lack any connection with the spiritual components of faith. Moreover, because they defend these ideas by rational arguments which have the sound of learning, they live in the southern zone in an abyss, in keeping with the description in no. 421 above.

[3] In contrast, however, the people who are the subject in the verses that follow now to the end of the chapter, do not pursue these mysteries, but simply make plain faith the whole of religion, and nothing beyond it and ritual worship, and so live as they please.

I have been granted to see these, too, and to speak with them. They live in the northern zone in huts constructed of rushes and reeds, covered with plaster, and having dirt floors.

These huts are scattered about. The more clever among the inhabitants know how to employ their natural sight to defend that faith by rational arguments and to establish that it has nothing to do with one's way of life. They live in front, moreover, with the more simple behind them, and the more stupid toward the western part of that zone. There is such a multitude of them as to be beyond belief.

They are instructed by angelic spirits, but those who do not accept truths pertaining to faith or live in accordance with them are conveyed down into the hell that lies beneath them, where they are imprisoned.

  
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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 #800

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800. The Dutch in the spiritual world.

In my book HEAVEN AND HELL I reported that Christians, who have the Word read to them and who know and acknowledge the Lord, the Redeemer and Saviour, are in the middle of the nations and peoples who make up the whole spiritual world. The reason is that with them the spiritual light is strongest; and it radiates as from a centre towards all the surrounding areas as far as the most distant. How this happens was shown in the chapter on the Sacred Scripture (267-272 above). In this Christian centre the members of the Reformed churches are allotted places in accordance with their ability to receive spiritual light from the Lord. Since the Dutch have this light more deeply and fully infused into their natural illumination, so that they are more disposed than others to receive rational ideas, they have been given dwellings in the east and south of that Christian nucleus. It is their capacity for receiving spiritual heat which locates them in the east, their capacity for receiving spiritual light which locates them in the south. Compass-points in the spiritual world are not like those in the natural world, but the location of dwellings depends upon the way faith and love are received, those in the east excelling in love, those in the south excelling in intelligence; see HEAVEN AND HELL 141-153.

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

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