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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

 

Conjugial Love #103

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103. To this I will append two narrative accounts. Here is the first:

One morning before sunrise, I looked out towards the east in the spiritual world and I saw four horsemen seemingly flying out of a cloud that shone with the blaze of dawn. On the heads of the horsemen I saw curled helmets 1 , on their arms what appeared to be wings, and about their bodies light orange-colored tunics. Thus dressed, like racers they rose up on their horses and held the reins out over their manes, so that the horses went out at a gallop like wing-footed steeds.

I followed their course or flight with my eyes, with a mind to find out where they were going. Then suddenly three of the horsemen peeled off in three directions, to the south, the west, and the north, while the fourth pulled up after a short space and came to a halt in the east.

[2] Wondering at this, I looked up to heaven and asked where the horsemen were going. I received the reply, "To the wise in the kingdoms of Europe, people of polished reason and keen sight in analytical investigations who enjoyed a reputation for genius among their contemporaries. They are being summoned to come and solve the secret of the origin of conjugial love and its vigor or potency."

Those speaking from heaven also said, "Keep looking, and in a little while you will see twenty-seven carriages, three with Spaniards in them, three with natives of France or Frenchmen, three with Italians, three with Germans, three with natives of the Netherlands or Dutchmen, three with Englishmen, three with Swedes, three with Danes, and three with Poles."

Then, after two hours, their carriages appeared, drawn by ponies light bay in color with strikingly decorated harnesses. And traveling rapidly to an immense house visible in the border region between the east and the south, the riders all got out of their carriages around the house and boldly went in.

[3] Moreover I was then told, "Go on over and go in, too, and you will hear."

I went and entered the house, and examining it inside, I saw that it was square, with sides facing towards the four points of the compass. Each of the sides had three high windows containing panes of crystal, whose frames were made of olive wood. From either side of the frames projected walls in the form of rooms, with vaulted ceilings and containing tables. These walls were made out of cedar, the ceilings out of fine sandarac wood 2 , and the floors out of boards of poplar. Against the east wall - where I did not see any windows - a table stood, overlaid with gold, on which had been placed a miter covered with precious stones. This would go as an award or prize to the one who found the secret of the riddle to be presently put before them.

[4] As I looked around at the rooms formed by the projecting walls, which were like compartments along the windows, I saw in each of them five men from the same European kingdom, who were ready and waiting for the topic on which they were to render judgment.

Instantly, then, an angel stood in the middle of the palace and said, "The subject on which you are to render judgment is the origin of conjugial love and its vigor or potency. Discuss it and come to a decision. Then when you have reached a decision, write your opinion on a piece of paper and put it into the silver urn that you see placed beside the gold table. Also, sign it with the initial letter of the kingdom you are from. For example, if you are natives of France or French, write F. If you are natives of the Netherlands or Dutch, write N. If you are Italian, write I. If you are English, write E. If you are Polish, write P. If you are German, write G. If you are Spanish, write Sp. If you are Danish, write D. And if you are Swedish, write Sw."

With these words the angel departed, saying as he left, "I will return."

The five fellow countrymen in each compartment along the windows then considered this instruction, analyzed the subject, and after coming to a decision to the best of their ability to judge, wrote it down on a piece of paper, signed it with the initial letter of their kingdom, and put it into the hollow silver container.

Three hours later, when they were all finished, the angel returned to draw the pieces of paper out of the urn one by one and read them in the presence of the whole gathering.

Footnotes:

1. Probably morions or comb morions.

2. Literally, "thyine wood." See Revelation 18:12, where it has been variously translated.

  
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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 #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.

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