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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 #675

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675. To this I will append the following account:

I saw a piece of paper sent down by the Lord through heaven into a society of Englishmen - though that society was one of their smallest - in which there were also two bishops. The piece of paper contained an exhortation to acknowledge the Lord as God of heaven and earth, as He Himself taught (Matthew 28:18 1 ), and to turn away from a doctrine of faith that justifies apart from works of the law, because the doctrine is wrong.

Many of the people read the piece of paper and made copies of it, and they thought and spoke rationally about what it contained from an interior power to judge, so that they were enlightened by the Lord and received that enlightenment with a clarity of sight more innate in the English than in others.

After their acceptance of these ideas, however, they said to each other, "Let us ask the bishops."

And they asked the bishops, but the bishops contradicted the ideas and disapproved them. However, the bishops there were some of those who in the world had become callous with respect to the spiritual aspects of faith and charity, owing to a love of dominion over the sanctities of the church and a love of their eminence in consequence of them also in political affairs. After a brief consultation with each other, therefore, they sent the piece of paper back to the heaven from which it came.

When the bishops did this, most of the laity, after some murmuring, turned away from their earlier acceptance, and their light in spiritual matters, which before had shone, was suddenly extinguished.

Then, after they were warned a second time, but in vain, I saw that society sink down - though how deeply I did not see - so that it disappeared from the sight of angels, who worship the Lord only and reject faith alone.

[2] Several days later I saw as many as a hundred people ascend from the lower earth to which that small society had sunk. They came over to me, and a wise man among them said, "Listen to this amazing thing. When we sank down, the place looked to us at first like a lake, but a little while later like dry land, and afterward like a small city, in which we each had his own house, though a poor one.

"The next day we took counsel with each other as to what we should do. Many said we should go to the two bishops and gently blame them for sending the piece of paper back to the heaven from which it descended, on which account this has befallen us.

"They chose some representatives who went to the bishops," and the wise man speaking with me said he was one of them. "And then some of the wiser among us spoke to the bishops," he said, "as follows:

"'Hear us, you church fathers. We believed that more than others we had a church among us that deserved to be called foremost in the Christian world, and a religion that deserved to be called great. But we were given an enlightenment from heaven, and in that enlightenment a perception that there is no longer any church in the Christian world today, and no longer any religion.'

[3] "The bishops said, 'What are you saying? Does the church not exist where the Word is found? Where Christ the Savior is known? And where the sacraments are celebrated?'

"To this our spokesman replied, 'These things embody the church and they form the church, but they do not form it around a person but within a person.'

"Going on then he said, 'As regards the church: Can the church exist where people worship three gods? Can the church exist where its entire doctrine rests on a single saying of Paul misinterpreted, and so not on the Word? Can the church exist when people do not turn to the Savior of the world, and where they divide Him in two?

"'As for religion: Who can deny that religion consists in refraining from evil and doing good? Is there any religion where people are taught that faith alone saves, and not charity? Is there any religion where people are taught that charity emanating from people is nothing but moral and civic charity? Who does not see that in such charity there is no religion? Is there any deed or work in faith alone? And yet religion consists in doing.

"'In the entire world is there any nation having in it some religion that excludes anything saving from goods of charity, which are good works, even though everything connected with religion consists in goodness, and everything connected with the church consists in doctrine, which ought to teach truths, and through truths, goodness?

"'See, church fathers, what glory we would have if a church that does not now exist and if a religion that does not now exist should begin and arise with us.'

[4] "The bishops then replied, 'You speak too arrogantly. Faith in act, the faith that fully justifies and saves, is it not the church? And faith in state, the faith that emanates and perfects, is it not religion? Apprehend that, my children.'

"But then the wise Englishman said, 'Listen, you church fathers. A person who produces faith in act, does he not do so like a log? Does the church exist in a log that is, according to your notion, then brought to life? Is not faith in state but a continuation and extension of faith in act? And since, according to your notion, everything saving resides in faith, and nothing in the good of charity issuing from a person, where then is religion?'

"At that the bishops said, 'Friend, you speak as you do because you do not know the mysteries of justification by faith alone, and someone who does not know these does not know the path of salvation from within. Your path is an external and untutored way. Go that way if you wish, but provided you know that all good comes from God and none from man, and that in spiritual matters a person can therefore do nothing at all of himself.'

[5] "Annoyed at that, the Englishman speaking with them said, 'I know your mysteries of justification better than you, and I tell you plainly that I have seen in your interior mysteries nothing but phantoms. Does religion not involve acknowledging and loving God and shunning and hating the devil? Is God not good itself, and the devil evil itself? Who in the entire world, if he has any religion, does not know this? To acknowledge and love God - is that not to do good because it is of God and from God? And to shun and hate the devil - is that not to refrain from evil because it is of the devil and from the devil?

"'Your faith in act, which you say is faith that completely justifies and saves, or to say the same thing, your act of justification by faith alone - does it teach the doing of any good that is of God and from God? And does it teach the shunning of any evil that is of the devil and from the devil? Not in the least, because you have determined that there is no salvation in either.

"'Your faith in state, which you say is faith that emanates and perfects - unless it is the same as faith in act, how can that faith in state be perfected when you exclude from it any good issuing from a person as though originating from him, saying, "How can a person be saved by any good issuing from him, when salvation is by grace? And what is good issuing from a person but merit-seeking? And yet the merit of Christ is everything. Consequently to do good for the sake of salvation would be to attribute to self what is Christ's alone, and therefore it would be to try to justify and save oneself. Moreover, how can anyone do good when the Holy Spirit accomplishes everything without the least help of the person? What need then is there for any additional good on the person's part, when any good issuing from the person is in itself not good. And so on."

[6] "'Are these not your mysteries? But in my eyes they are nothing but sophistries and shams concocted in order to set aside good works that are works of charity so as to establish your faith alone. And because you do this, you view people in relation to those works, and in relation to everything spiritual in general having to do with the church and religion, as being like logs or inanimate statues, and not as human beings created in the image of God, to whom have been given, and are continually given, the faculties of understanding and willing, of believing and loving, and of speaking and acting, entirely as though of themselves, especially in spiritual matters, because they are what make a person human. If a person did not think and act in spiritual matters as though of himself, what then would faith be, what then would charity be, and what then would worship be - indeed, what then would the church and religion be?

"'You know that to do good to the neighbor out of love is charity. But you do not know what charity is, even though charity is the soul, life force and essence of faith. And because charity is all of that, what then is faith divorced from charity but lifeless? And a lifeless faith is nothing but a phantom. I call it a phantom, because the Apostle James calls faith without good works not only lifeless but also the faith of demons.' 2

[7] "When he heard his faith called lifeless, the faith of demons, and a phantom, then one of the two bishops became so enraged that he snatched the miter from his head and threw it onto the table, saying, 'I will not take it up again until I have taken vengeance on the enemies of the faith of our church.' And he shook his head, muttering to himself and saying, 'That James! That James!'

"His miter had on it a plaque, which had engraved on it, 'FAITH ALONE.'

"And suddenly then a monster rising up from the earth appeared, with seven heads, having feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion, altogether like the beast described in Revelation 13:1-2, an image of which was made and worshiped, verses 14, 15, in the same chapter.

"This phantom took the miter from the table, and widening the lower part, placed it on its seven heads. At that the earth opened under its feet and it sank into hell.

"Seeing this, the bishop cried out, 'A violation! A violation!'

"We then departed from them, and suddenly we saw a stairway before us, by which we ascended and returned above ground into the sight of heaven, where we were before."

This is the account the wise Englishman related to me.

Footnotes:

1. "And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.'"

2. James 2:14-26

  
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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 #697

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697. The sixth experience. 1

I once saw not far from me an atmospheric phenomenon. I saw a cloud divided into smaller clouds, some of which were blue and others dark; and I saw these as it were colliding with one another. They were striped with glittering rays which crossed them; sometimes the stripes had sharp tips like sword-points, at other times they appeared square-ended like broken off swords. Sometimes the stripes ran out so as to meet, at other times they withdrew into themselves, rather like boxers. So it looked as if these little clouds of varied colours were fighting one another, but they were playing. Since this atmospheric display took place not far from me, I lifted up my eyes and looking hard I saw boys, young men and old men entering a building constructed of marble with also porphyry in its foundations. The phenomenon was over this building. Then I asked one of those who were going in what was happening there. 'It is a high school,' he replied, 'where young men are given an introduction to various forms of wisdom.'

[2] On hearing this I went in with them. I was in the spirit, that is, in much the same state as people in the spiritual world, those who are called spirits and angels. Inside the school there was in front a chair, in the middle were benches, around the sides seats, and a gallery over the entrance. The chair was for the young men who were to take turns to reply to the question set. The benches were for the audience, the seats at the sides for those who had previously given wise answers, and the gallery for the older men who were to be umpires and judges. In the middle of the gallery there was a platform, where a wise man, called the headmaster, was seated. He put the questions, and the young men answered these from the chair.

When all were assembled, the man on the platform got up and said: 'Please now reply to this question and answer it if you can: what is the soul and what is its nature?'

[3] On hearing this all were astonished and began to murmur; and some of the crowd on the benches cried out: 'What man is there from the age of Saturn 2 down to our times who has been able by any effort of rational thought to see and grasp what the soul is, much less what its nature is. Surely this is beyond the capacity of anyone's understanding?'

But people in the gallery replied to this: 'This is not beyond the understanding, but within its capacity and purview. just give a reply.'

So the young men got up who had been chosen that day to mount the chair and reply to the questions. There were five of them, who had been examined by the elders and found to be outstandingly clever. They were then sitting on padded seats at the sides of the chair. They then took it in turn, according to the order in which they sat, to climb up to the chair. As each went up, he put on a tunic of opalescent silk and over it a gown of soft wool with flowers woven in it, and a hat on his head with a chaplet of roses surrounded by small sapphires on the crown.

[4] Then I saw the first man so clothed go up and say: 'What the soul is and what its nature is has not been revealed to anyone since the first day of creation. It is a secret which God alone keeps in His treasure-houses. But this much has been discovered, that the soul dwells in man like a queen. However the location of its residence has been the subject of conjecture among learned experts. Some have placed it in the small tubercle between the cerebrum and the cerebellum known as the pineal gland. They have guessed that this was the seat of the soul because the whole person is controlled from those two brains, and that tubercle regulates them. So what governs the two brains at its whim, must also govern the whole person from head to heel. This view,' he said, 'has been regarded by many in the world as true or very probable, but a later age has rejected it as a mere invention.'

[5] On finishing this speech he took off the gown, tunic and hat, and the second of those chosen put them on and so took the chair. His pronouncement about the soul was that in the whole of heaven and in the whole of the world there is no one who knows what the soul is and what its nature is. 'This much,' he said, 'we know, that the soul exists and is in man; but where it is, is a matter of guesswork. This is certain, that it is in the head, since that is where the understanding thinks and the will forms its resolutions; and it is on the face in front of the head that man's five sense organs are to be found. What gives all of these life is the soul which resides inside the head; but I would not dare to express an opinion on where in it its residence is. I have agreed with those who have assigned to it a lodging in the three ventricles of the brain; at other times with those who placed it in the corpora striata there, at other times with those who placed it in the medullary substance of either brain, at other times with those who placed it in the cortical substance, at others with those who placed it in the dura mater. For there was no lack of points to be made in favour of each one of these seats.

The point in favour of the three ventricles in the brain was that they are the receptacles of the animal spirits and all the brain's lymphs. The points in favour of the corpora striata were that these compose the marrow through which the nerves emerge, and by means of which either part of the brain has continuous extensions to the spine; and from one or other of these the fibres emerge which compose the whole structure of the body. The points in favour of the medullary substance of either brain were that it is a gathering and massing together of all the fibres which form the starting point for the development of the whole person. The point in favour of the cortical substance was that here are the first and last ends, and so the beginnings of all fibres, and so of sensation and movement. The point in favour of the dura mater was that it is the shared covering of either brain, from where it stretches in a kind of continuity over the heart and the viscera of the body. For my part, I do not rate one of these theories as superior to another. Will you please, decide and choose which is the best theory.'

[6] After saying this he came down from the chair and passed on the tunic, gown and hat to the third, who went up to the chair and spoke as follows. 'How can I at my age deal with such a lofty subject? I appeal to the learned people seated at the sides here, I appeal to you wise people in the gallery, in fact I appeal to the angels of the highest heaven: can anyone by the light of his reason form for himself any idea of the soul? As regards its seat in man, I can offer as good a guess as anyone else. My guess is that it is in the heart and consequently in the blood. My reason for this is that the heart by means of the blood from it controls both the body and the head. There is a large blood-vessel called the aorta emerging from it and reaching the whole of the body; and there are blood-vessels called carotid arteries emerging from it and reaching the whole of the head. As a result it is universally agreed that the soul by means of blood from the heart sustains, nourishes and gives life to the whole organic system of both the body and the head. An additional reason for believing this assertion is the fact that Holy Scripture says so many times 'soul and heart'. For instance, you are to love God 'with all your soul and with all your heart'; and God creates in man 'a new soul and a new heart' (Deuteronomy 6:5; 10:12; 11:13; 26:16; Jeremiah 32:41; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30, 33; Luke 10:27, and elsewhere). It also says explicitly that the blood is the soul of the flesh (Leviticus 17:11, 14).' On hearing this some people raised their voices to cry 'Very learned!'; they were members of the clergy.

[7] After this the fourth put on the garments worn by the previous speaker, and on taking the chair said: 'I too suspect that there is no one of such a sharp and subtle mind as to be able to discern what the soul is and what its nature is. I think therefore that anyone who wishes to scrutinise it has his subtlety exhausted by useless exertions. But from childhood up I have persisted in believing the opinion of the ancients, that man's soul is in the whole of him and in every part of him, and so is as much in his head and each of its parts as in the body and each of its parts. It is a useless invention of modern scholars to locate its seat in some part rather than everywhere. Also the soul is a spiritual substance, to which neither extension nor position can be attributed, but only residing and filling. Again, is there anyone who does not understand life when he mentions the soul, and is not life in the whole and in any part you like to name?' There were many in the audience who supported this statement.

[8] He was followed by the fifth, who, adorned with the same emblems, pronounced from the chair as follows: 'I don't much care to say where the soul is, whether it is in some part or in the whole person. But I will draw on my own resources to disclose my opinion on this question, what the soul is and what its nature is. No one thinks of the soul as anything but something pure, which can be likened to ether or air or wind, the vital principle in which derives from the faculty of reason, which man has to a higher degree than animals. I have based this opinion on the fact that, when a person expires, he is said to breathe out or give up his soul or spirit. As a result too a soul which goes on living after death is believed to be a breath of this kind, containing the life of thought which is called the soul. What else could the soul be? But because I have heard people from the gallery asserting that the question what the soul is and what its nature is, is not beyond the understanding, but within its scope and purview, I beg and beseech you to disclose yourselves this everlasting secret.'

[9] The elders in the gallery here looked at the headmaster, who had set the question. He understood from their nods that they wanted him to go down and tell them the answer. So he at once got down from the platform, and passing through the auditorium took the chair, and holding up his hand said: 'Please listen to me. Is there anyone who does not believe the soul to be the most intimate and subtle essence of a person? But what is essence without form but a figment of the imagination? The soul then is a form, but what sort of form I will tell you. It is the form of all the parts of love and all the parts of wisdom. All the parts of love are called affections, and all the parts of wisdom are called perceptions. The perceptions as a result of and so together with the affections make up a single form containing countless parts but arranged in such order and so cohering that they can be called a unity; and they can be called a unity, because nothing can be taken away from it or added to it, if it is to be a unity. What is the human soul but such a form? All the parts of love and all the parts of wisdom are the essentials of such a form, and in the case of a person these essentials are in his soul, and from his soul in his head and body.

[10] 'You are called spirits and angels; and you believed in the world that spirits and angels were like puffs of wind or particles of ether, and so minds of higher or lower degree 3 . Now you see clearly that you are truly, really and actually people, who in the world lived and thought in a material body; and you knew that it is not the material body that lives and thinks, but the spiritual substance in that body. This you called the soul, whose form you did not know; yet now you have seen it and go on seeing it. You are all souls, about whose immortality you have heard, thought, talked and written so much; and since you are forms of love and wisdom coming from God, you cannot ever die. The soul then is a human form, from which nothing can be taken away, and to which nothing can be added, and it is the inmost form of all the forms throughout the body. Since the forms which are outside receive from the inmost both essence and form, you are therefore souls, just as you appear to be to your sight and to ours. In short, the soul is the real person because it is the inmost person; its form therefore is the human form in full perfection. But it is not life, but is the nearest receiver of life from God, and so God's dwelling.'

[11] This speech was greeted by many with applause, but there were some who said, 'We must think about this.' I then went home, and suddenly there appeared above that high school, in place of the previous atmospheric display, a shining cloud without any stripes or rays fighting one another. This cloud penetrated the roof and coming inside lit up the walls. I was told that they saw things written on them, among which was this:

Jehovah God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul, Genesis 2:7.

Footnotes:

1. This section is repeated from Conjugial Love 315.

2. The 'golden age' of antiquity.

3. Latin: mentes et animi.

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

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