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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 #81

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81. While we were talking in sorrow about these things, suddenly a burst of light shone about us, dazzling my eyes. I looked up, therefore, and behold, the whole sky above us appeared lit up, and we heard a glorification echoing across it in long succession from the east to the west.

Then the angel said to me, "The glorification you hear is a glorification of the Lord on account of His Advent, and it is coming from angels of the eastern and western heavens." (From the southern and northern heavens we heard only a polite murmur.)

Moreover, since he understood it all, the angel told me, first, that glorifications and celebrations of the Lord are taken from the Word, because then they come from the Lord, inasmuch as the Lord is the Word, in the sense that He is the essential Divine truth in the Word.

Then the angel said, "Specifically now, they are glorifying and celebrating the Lord with these words which were spoken by the prophet Daniel:

You saw iron mixed with miry clay; they will mingle together through the seed of man, but they will not cohere.... But (in those days) the God of heaven will make to rise a kingdom which for ages shall not perish...; it shall crush and consume all these kingdoms, while it shall stand for ages. (Daniel 2:43-44)"

[2] After this I heard what seemed to be the sound of singing, and deeper in the east I saw a burst of light more brilliant than the first. And I asked the angel what they were glorifying there.

The angel said that they were glorifying the Lord with these words in Daniel:

I was seeing in the visions of night, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, was One like the Son of man.... And to Him was given dominion...and a kingdom, and all peoples and nations...shall worship Him. His dominion is the dominion of an age, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one which shall not perish. (Daniel 7:13-14)

In addition, the angel said, they are celebrating the Lord with these phrases taken from the book of Revelation:

To (Jesus Christ) be glory and might.... Behold, He is coming with clouds.... (He is) the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last..., who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. I, John...heard...(this from the Son of Man from out of) the midst of the seven lampstands.... (Revelation 1:5-7; 22:13; 1:8-13; taken also from Matthew 24:30-31)

[3] I looked again into the eastern sky, and a light shone over to the right, whose glow extended into the southern hemisphere. Hearing as well a sweet sound, I asked the angel what aspect of the Lord they were glorifying there.

The angel said they were quoting these words in the book of Revelation:

I saw a new heaven and a new earth.... And I...saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride...for her husband.... And (an angel) talked with me and said, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." And he carried me away in the spirit on to a great and high mountain, and showed me the...city, the holy Jerusalem.... (Revelation 21:1-2,9-10)

Also these words:

I, Jesus...am...the Bright and Morning Star. And the Spirit and the bride shall say, "Come!".... (And He said,) "I also am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:16-17,20)

[4] After these and other things, we heard a general glorification echoing across the sky from the east to the west and also from the south to the north, and I asked the angel, "What is happening now?"

He said they were quoting these verses from the Prophets:

Let all flesh know that I, Jehovah, am your Savior and your Redeemer.... (Isaiah 49:26)

Thus said Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts: "I am the First and the Last, and beside Me there is no God." (Isaiah 44:6)

It will be said in that day: "Behold, this is our God, whom we have waited for to free us. This is Jehovah, whom we have waited for." (Isaiah 25:9)

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Prepare the way of Jehovah...." ...Behold, the Lord Jehovih comes in strength.... He will feed His flock like a shepherd. (Isaiah 40:3,10-11)

Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given..., whose name shall be...Wonderful, Counselor, God, Hero, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

Behold, the days will come..., and I will raise to David a righteous Branch, who shall reign, a King.... And this is His name...: JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Jeremiah 23:5-6; 33:15-16)

Jehovah of Hosts is His name, and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. He shall be called God of the whole earth. (Isaiah 54:5)

In that day...Jehovah shall become King over all the earth. In that day there will be one Jehovah and His name will be one. (Zechariah 14:8-9)

[5] When I heard these things and understood their meaning, as a result my heart leapt, and I went home filled with joy. And there, returning from the state of my spirit into a bodily state, I wrote down what I had seen and heard. To which I now add this, that following His Advent the Lord will revive conjugial love, such as it was among ancient peoples. For conjugial love comes only from the Lord, and it is found in people who are made spiritual by Him through His Word.

  
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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 #716

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716. To this I will append the following account:

I spoke with several English bishops in the spiritual world about the short works I published in London in 1758, namely, Heaven and Hell, The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, The Last Judgment, The White Horse, and The Earths in the Universe. I had sent these short works as a gift to all the Bishops and to a number of magnates or lords. The bishops said that they had received them and looked them over, but that they did not regard them as having any merit, even though artfully written. And they said, too, that they had persuaded as many as they could not to read them.

I asked why this was, since in fact the books contain secrets concerning heaven and hell, and concerning life after death, and many more worthy of much merit, having been revealed by the Lord for people who will belong to His New Church, which is the New Jerusalem.

But they said, "What is that to us?" And they poured out invectives against them as they had in the world. I heard them.

I then read in their presence these verses from the Apocalypse:

Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the rising of the sun might be made ready. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are spirits of demons that perform signs to go away to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty... And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew Armageddon. (Revelation 16:12-16)

Having explained these verses in their presence, I told the bishops that they, and others like them elsewhere, were the people meant by these depictions.

[2] A king, the grandfather of the king reigning today, 1 heard from heaven what I said to the bishops, and being somewhat annoyed, he said, "What is this?"

And then one of those bishops, who had not gone along with the others in the world, turned to the king and said, "These whom you now see with your own eyes, thought in the world, and so even now continue to think, of the Lord's Divine humanity as being that of an ordinary person, and they attribute all salvation and redemption to God the Father, and not to the Lord except as the occasioning cause. For they believe in God the Father, and not in His Son, even though they know from the Lord that it is the Father's will that they believe in the Son, that those who believe in the Son shall have eternal life, and that those who do not believe in the Son shall not see life. 2

"In addition, the charity done by the Lord through a person as though done by the person - this they cast out from having anything to do with salvation."

[3] Speaking further with the king, the bishop disclosed the hierarchy that many of the bishops continually aspire to and also take part in, which they establish by joining together and forming an alliance. They do this with all of their order through emissaries, messengers, letters and conversations, supported by their ecclesiastical and at the same time political authority. As a result they almost all cling together, like a single bundle of sticks. Moreover, it is in consequence of that hierarchy, too, that even though the aforementioned works for the New Jerusalem were published in London and sent to them as a gift, they have caused those works to be so shamefully rejected that they are regarded as not even worth a mention in their book catalogue.

Hearing this, the king was dumbfounded, especially on being told that the bishops thought as they did regarding the Lord, who nevertheless is God of heaven and earth, and regarding charity, which nevertheless is the essence of religion.

At that, by a shaft of light descending then from heaven, the interiors of their minds and faith were laid open; and when the king saw them, he said, "Depart! Alas, who can become so hardened against hearing anything relating to heaven and eternal life?"

[4] The king then asked why the clergy rendered the bishops such universal obedience, and the bishop said that it resulted from the power granted to every bishop in his diocese of nominating to the king only one man or candidate for a parish, and not three as in other kingdoms. Owing to that power, then, they have the ability to promote their supporters to higher positions of honor and larger incomes - each one according to the obedience that he renders.

The bishop disclosed also how far that hierarchy could go, and that it has progressed to the point that power is the essential goal and religion a formality.

He revealed, too, their passion for power, and when viewed by angels, they saw that it exceeded the passion for power of people in positions of secular authority.

Footnotes:

1. In 1766 when this work was published, the reigning monarch was George III, who in 1760 succeeded his grandfather, George II, as king of England.

2. John 6:40; 3:36

  
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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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