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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 #802

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802. We say that from the Roman Catholic religion, meant by the city of Babylon, comes the adulteration and profanation of all the truth of the Word and so of every sanctity of the church; and a number of times previously we have said that that religion has not only adulterated the Word's goods and truths, but has also profaned them; and that Babylon in the Word therefore symbolizes the profanation of what is holy. We will now say how that profanation came about and continues.

We said above that the love of exercising dominion, springing from a love of self, over the sanctities of the church and over heaven, thus over all the Divine sanctities belonging to the Lord, is the Devil. 1 Now because that dominion was fixed as the objective in the hearts of those who founded the Roman Catholic religion, they could not help but profane the sanctities of the Word and the church.

Suppose that that love, which is the Devil, is inwardly fixed in someone's mind, as is the case with every reigning love, and place some Divine truth outwardly before his eyes. Would he not tear it up, throw it on the ground, and trample it, and in its place summon up some falsity agreeable to him?

[2] A love of possessing all the goods of the world is Satan, and the Devil and Satan act in concert, as though bound together by covenant, in the kind of people who, owing to the one love, are caught up in the other.

One may conclude from this why it is that Babylon in the Word symbolizes profanation.

By way of illustration, place before that love, which is the Devil, this Divine truth, that God alone is to be worshiped and adored, and not some man, thus that the Vicariate is a fabrication and a fiction which ought to be rejected. Or else this truth, that to call upon the dead, to fall prostrate before their images, to kiss them and their bones, is a pure and foul idolatry that ought also to be rejected. Would not that love, which is the Devil, vehemently and angrily reject these two truths, fulminate against them, and tear them to pieces?

[3] If, moreover, someone were to say to that love, which is the Devil, that to open and close heaven or loose and bind, thus to forgive sins - which is the same thing as reforming and regenerating and thus redeeming and saving mankind - is a work purely Divine; that a person cannot claim for himself something Divine without committing profanation; that Peter did not claim it for himself, and therefore did not exercise any such power; moreover that the apostolic succession was fabricated by that love, as was also the transference of the Holy Spirit from one person to another - on hearing these things, would not that love, which is the Devil, deafen with anathemas the person saying them, and in a fiery rage command that he be turned over to an inquisitor and thrown into a prison of the condemned?

If someone still were to ask, "How can the Lord's Divine power be transferred to you? How can the Lord's Divinity be separated from His soul and body? Is it not according to your belief that this cannot be done? How can God the Father impart His Divine power to the Son except to His own Divinity as its receptacle? How can this be transferred to a person so as to be his?" And many other like things.

Hearing them, would not that love, which is the Devil, fall silent, rage within, gnash its teeth, and cry, "Take this person away! Crucify him, crucify him! Everyone go, go! See the great heretic and amuse yourselves!"

Footnotes:

1. nos. 796:2, 797:1.

  
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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 #333

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333. The second experience.

Some time later I heard again from the lower earth the same cries as before 'How learned, how learned!' On looking around to see who was there, I found myself in the presence of angels from the heaven exactly above the people who were shouting 'How learned!'

When I talked to them about the shouting, they said that these were learned people who only argue whether a thing exists or not, and rarely reach the thought that it is so. 'They are therefore like winds which blow and pass on, or like bark around trees that have no heartwood, or like almond shells with no kernel, or like the peel around fruits with no flesh inside. For their minds are devoid of interior judgment, and merely coupled to the bodily senses. So if the senses themselves are unable to judge, they can reach no conclusions. In short, they are creatures of their senses, and we call them logicmongers. We call them this because they never reach any conclusions, but they pick up anything they hear and argue whether it exists, continually speaking for and against. Nothing gives them more pleasure than attacking truths and by subjecting them to argument tearing them in pieces. These are the people who consider themselves learned beyond anyone in the world.'

[2] On hearing this I begged the angels to take me down to visit them. So they took me down to a hollow, from which steps led down to the lower earth. We went down and followed the sound of shouting 'How learned!' There we found some hundreds of people standing in one place stamping on the ground. I was surprised at this and asked: 'Why are they standing like that stamping on the ground? They might,' I added, 'make a hole in the ground like that.'

The angels smiled at this and said: 'They seem to stand in one place because they never think about anything being so, but only whether it exists, and this they argue about. When thought makes no further progress, they seem merely to trample and wear out one clod of earth without advancing.'

The angels went on: 'Those who arrive in this world from the natural one, and are told that they are in a different world, form groups in many places, and try to find out where heaven and hell are, and likewise where God is. But even after being taught this, they still begin reasoning, debating and arguing whether God exists. They do so because at the present time so many people in the natural world are nature-worshippers, and when the talk turns to religion this is the subject they discuss among themselves and with others. This proposition and discussion rarely ends in an affirmation of faith in the existence of God. Afterwards these people associate more and more with the wicked; this happens because no one can do any good from the love of good, except by God's help.'

[3] After this I was taken to a meeting, and there I saw people with not unpleasing faces and well dressed. 'They look like this,' said the angels, 'in their own light, but if light is shed from heaven, there is a change in their faces, and in their clothes.' This happened, and their faces turned swarthy and they seemed to be wearing black sackcloth. But when this light was shut off, they returned to their previous appearance.

A little later I spoke with some of the people in the meeting and said: 'I have heard the crowd around you crying out "How learned!" So I should like, if I may, to enter into conversation with you about matters of the most profound learning.' 'Say anything you like,' they replied, 'and we will satisfy you.'

'What sort of religion,' I asked, 'will effect people's salvation?'

'We shall split up this question,' they said, 'into several, and we cannot give a reply until we have settled these. The order of discussion will be: (1) whether religion is of any importance; (2) whether or not there is such a thing as salvation; (3) whether one religion is more efficacious than another; (4) whether heaven and hell exist; (5) whether there is everlasting life after death; and many more questions.'

So I asked about the first question, whether religion is of any importance; and they started discussing it with many arguments. So I asked them to refer it to the meeting, which they did. The agreed reply was that this proposition requires so much investigation that it would not be finished before evening. 'Could you,' I asked, 'finish it within a year?' One of them said it could not be finished in a hundred years. 'So,' I said, 'in the meantime you have no religion, and since salvation depends upon it, you have no idea of salvation, no belief in it or hope for it.'

'Wouldn't you like us,' he replied, 'to prove first whether religion exists, what it is, and whether it is of any importance? If it exists, it will be for the wise too; if it does not, it will be only for the common people. It is well known that religion is called a bond; but the question may be asked, "For whom?" If it is only for the common people, it is not really of any importance; but if it is for the wise, then it is.'

[4] On hearing this I said: 'You are anything but learned, since you can think of nothing but whether it exists, and argue this in either direction. Can anyone be learned, unless he knows something for certain, and advances to that conclusion, just as a person advances step by step, and in due course achieves wisdom? Otherwise you do not so much as touch truths with your finger-tips, but drive them further and further from your sight. Therefore reasoning only whether it exists is like arguing about a hat without wearing it, or about a shoe without putting it on. What can come of this, except ignorance whether anything exists, whether anything is more than an idea, and so whether salvation exists, or everlasting life after death, whether one religion is better than another, or whether heaven and hell exist? You cannot have any thoughts on these subjects, so long as you are bogged down at the first step and pound the sand there, unable to put one foot in front of the other and make progress. Take care that, while your minds stand in the open outside the court, they do not inwardly grow ossified and turn into pillars of salt.'

With these words I left them, and they were so incensed they threw stones after me. Then they looked to me like carvings, totally devoid of human reason. I asked the angels what was their fate. They said that the worst of them are plunged into the depths, and there they find a desert, where they are forced to carry loads. Since they can then make no reasonable utterance, they chatter and make idle remarks, Seen from a distance there they look like donkeys carrying loads.

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

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