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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

 

True Christian Religion #111

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111. The second experience 1 .

In the natural world people's speech is twofold, because so is their thought, for it may be external or internal. For one can speak as a result of internal thought and at the same time of external thought, or simply as the result of external thought without the internal, or even contrary to it. This is the origin of pretence, insincerity and hypocrisy. But in the spiritual world people do not have twofold speech but only one way of speaking; they speak as they think, otherwise the sound of their voices is harsh and hurts the ears. One can, however, still keep quiet and not reveal the thoughts arising in the mind. Consequently a hypocrite on coming into the company of wise people either goes away, or hurries into a corner of the room, makes himself inconspicuous and sits in silence.

[2] There was once a large assembly in the world of spirits to discuss this subject. They said that being unable to speak except as one thought was hard for those who did not have right ideas about God and the Lord, when they mixed with good people. The middle of the assembly consisted of people from the Reformed Churches, many of them clergy, and next to them were the Roman Catholics and their monks. To begin with, both parties said that this was not hard. 'What need is there,' they said, 'to speak otherwise than one thinks? And if perhaps anyone does not think aright, can he not keep his mouth shut and be silent?'

A clergyman said: 'Is there anyone who does not think aright about God and the Lord?'

But some people in the assembly said: 'Let us put them to the test.' So they told those who have a firm conviction about God as a Trinity of Persons to think about and say 'One God'. They could not do so; they twisted and screwed up their mouths into all kinds of shapes, but were unable to utter any words except those which agreed with their thoughts, and these were about three Persons, so consequently three Gods.

[3] They went on to tell those who had convinced themselves of the doctrine of faith separated from charity to name 'Jesus'. They could not do so, though they were able to say 'Christ', and also 'God the Father'. This surprised them and they asked why. The reason they discovered to be the fact that they had prayed to God the Father for the sake of His Son, and not to the Saviour Himself; and 'Jesus' means Saviour.

[4] Then they were told to think about the Lord's Human and say 'the Divine Human'. None of the clergy present was able to do so; but some of the laymen could. So they made this the subject of a profound debate. Then (i) the following passages from the Gospels were read to them:

The Father gave all things into the hand of the Son, John 3:35.

The Father gave the Son power over all flesh, John 17:2.

All things were handed to me by the Father, Matthew 11:27.

All power has been given to me in heaven and on earth, Matthew 28:18.

'Now keep in mind,' they were told, 'that Christ both in His Divine and in His Human is the God of heaven and earth, and while doing so say the Divine Human.' But they were still unable to do so; and they said that although they could retain some thoughts coming from their understanding of the subject, still they could not acknowledge this at all, and that was the reason for their failure.

[5] (ii) Then the passages from Luke (Luke 1:32, 34-35) were read to them, which prove that the Lord in His Human was the Son of Jehovah God, and that He is there called 'the Son of the Most High', and in many other passages 'the Son of God', as well as 'the Only-begotten'. They begged them to keep this in mind, and also that the only-begotten Son of God who was born in the world must inevitably be God, just as His Father is God, and then to say 'the Divine Human.' But they said: 'We cannot, because our spiritual, that is, interior thought does not permit any but similar ideas to enter the thought which is nearest to speech.' As a result they said they perceived that now they were not allowed to divide their thoughts, as they had in the natural world.

[6] (iii) Next, these words of the Lord to Philip were read to them:

Philip said, Lord, show us the Father; and the Lord said, He who sees me sees the Father; do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? John 14:8-11.

Also other passages stating that the Father and He are one (e.g, John 10:30). They were told to keep these in mind, and so to say 'the Divine Human.' But because their thought was not rooted in the acknowledgment of the Lord as God in His Human too, they screwed up their mouths until they became indignant, wanting to force their mouths to utter the words, but being unable to do so. The reason was that the ideas one thinks of, which are derived from acknowledgment, are identical with the words of language, when one is in the spiritual world. In the absence of those ideas, the words will not come, for speaking is putting ideas into words.

[7] (iv) Then the following passage was read to them from the doctrine received throughout the Christian world:

The Divine and the Human in the Lord are not two, but one, in fact one Person, united like soul and body in man.

This is from the Athanasian Creed, and has been accepted by the Councils. Then they were told: 'This at least will give you some idea and enable you to acknowledge that the Lord's Human is Divine, because His soul is Divine. This is the doctrine of your church, and you acknowledged it in the world. Moreover, the soul is the very essence of a person, and the body is the form, and essence and form make one, like being and coming-into-being, or like the efficient cause which produces the effect and the effect itself.' They held this idea in mind, and tried by means of it to say 'the Divine Human', but still they could not. For the idea deep within their minds about the Lord's Human banished and drove out this new supplementary idea, as they called it.

[8] (v) After this the following passage from John was read to them:

The Word was with God, and the Word was God; and the Word was made flesh, John 1:1, 14.

and also this:

Jesus Christ is the true God and everlasting life. 1 John 5:20.

and from Paul:

In Christ Jesus all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, Colossians 2:9.

John 2:9.

They were told to think along these lines: that God who was the Word became man; that He was the true God; and that all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily. They did so, but only in their external thought; for the resistance of their internal thought prevented them from saying the words 'the Divine Human.' They said frankly that they could not have any idea of a Divine Human, 'because God is God, and man is man; and God is a spirit, and we have never understood spirit as anything but wind or ether.'

[9] (vi) Finally they were told: 'You know that the Lord said:

Remain in me and I in you; he who remains in me, and I in him, bears much fruit, because without me you can do nothing, John 15:4-5.

Because some of the English clergy were present, a passage was read to them from one of the prayers used in the Holy Communion:

For, when we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink the blood, then we dwell in Christ, and Christ in Us. 2

Now consider that this would be impossible, if the Lord's Human were not Divine, and then say 'the Divine Human', acknowledging this in your thought. But they were still unable to do so, because the idea was so deeply stamped on their minds that what is Divine could not be human, and what is human could not be Divine; and that the Lord's Divine was from the Divine of the Son born from eternity, while His Human was like that of any other man. They were told: 'How can you think this? Can the rational mind ever conceive of a Son born of God from eternity?'

[10] (vii) Then they turned to the Evangelical party and said that the Confession of Augsburg and Luther taught that the Son of God and the Son of Man were one Person in Christ, and that even in His human nature He was omnipotent and omnipresent; and this enabled Him to sit at the right hand of God the Father, and control all things in the heavens and upon earth, to fulfil all prophecies, be with us, and dwell and work in us; that there was no distinction in worship, because through the visible nature the invisible Godhead is worshipped; and that in Christ God is man and man is God. On hearing this they replied: 'Is that so?' They looked around and after a while said: 'We did not know this before; that is why we cannot say 'the Divine Human.' One or two said: 'We read that and wrote it, but when we pondered it in our hearts, they were only words, of which we had no inward notion.'

[11] (viii) Lastly they turned to the Roman Catholics and said: 'Perhaps you can name the Divine Human, because you believe that in your Eucharist Christ is wholly present in the bread and wine, and in every part of them. Moreover you worship Him, when you display and carry around the Host, as the Most Holy God. You also call Mary the mother of God. Consequently you acknowledge that she gave birth to God, that is, the Divine Human.' Then they tried to say the words, but because there then slipped in a material idea of the body and blood of Christ, and also a belief that His Human could be separated from the Divine, and in fact is so separated in the Pope, to whom only His human and not His Divine power was transferred, they could not pronounce them. Then a monk got up and said that he could think of the Divine Human in the case of the most holy Virgin Mary, or the patron saint of his monastery. Another monk came up who said: 'The idea which I now cherish in my mind enables me to say the Divine Human of his Holiness the Pope, rather than of Christ.' But then some of the Catholics pulled him back saying: 'You should be ashamed of yourself.'

[12] After this heaven appeared to open, and tongues like small flames were seen coming down and lighting on certain people. These then praised the Divine Human of the Lord, saying: 'Banish the idea of three Gods, and believe that in the Lord all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and that the Father and He are one, just as soul and body are one, and that God is not wind or ether, but is man. Then you will be linked with heaven, and the Lord will enable you to name Jesus and to say "the Divine Human."'

Footnotes:

1. This section is repeated with minor changes from Apocalypse Revealed 294.

2. These words are quoted in English in the original.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #665

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665. After this a voice was heard from heaven coming from the angels who were immediately above us. 'Come up here,' it said, 'and we will question one of you, who is still as to the body in the natural world, what people know about conscience.'

We went up and, after we were admitted, some wise men came to meet us. They asked me what was known about conscience in my world.

'Please let us go down,' I replied, 'and summon a number of both laity and clergy who are believed to be wise. We will stand vertically beneath you and question them, so you will hear with your own ears what answers they give.'

This was done, and one of the elect took a trumpet and sounded it to the south, the north, the east and the west. Then after a little while such a crowd gathered that they nearly filled the space of a furlong. But the angels overhead arranged them all into four groups; one of them consisted of politicians, the second of scholars, the third of medical men, the fourth of clergy.

When they were so arranged, we said to them: 'Forgive us for summoning you. The reason is that the angels who are exactly above us are most anxious to know what you thought when you were in your previous world about conscience; and so what you still think about it, since you retain your previous ideas on such matters. It has been reported to the angels that knowledge about conscience is one of the subjects the knowledge of which has been lost in the world.'

[2] After this we began by turning first to the group consisting of politicians. We asked them to say, if they would, what they had thought in their hearts and so continued to think about conscience. They replied to this one after the other. The gist of their replies collectively was that all they knew of conscience was that it was knowing in oneself, and so being conscious of what one intended, thought, did and said.

But we told them: We did not ask about the etymology of the word "conscience," but what conscience is.'

'What is conscience,' was their reply, 'but anxiety arising from fear of future danger to rank or wealth, and to one's reputation as the result of their loss? That anxiety is dispelled by feasts and a few glasses of fine wine, and by conversations about the sports of Venus and her son 1 .'

[3] 'You are joking,' we said. 'Please tell us whether any of you has experienced any anxiety from other sources.'

'Where else could it be from?' they replied. 'Isn't the whole world like a stage on which each plays his own scene, as comic actors do on their stage? We baffle and get the better of anyone who comes along by means of his own longings, some by making fools of them, some by flattery, some by trickery, some by the pretence of friendship, some by a front of sincerity, and some by our skill as politicians in dangling inducements before them. This gives us no mental anxiety, but on the contrary joviality and gladness, which we fill our lungs with and breathe out silently but to the full. We have indeed heard from some of our colleagues that they are from time to time subject to anxiety and distress, as if affecting the heart and chest, thereby occasioning a sort of cramping of the mind. But on consulting the apothecaries about these, they were told that they are caused by a melancholy humour arising from undigested food in the stomach or from a morbid condition of the spleen. But in some of these cases we have heard of them being restored to their previous joviality by the use of medicines.'

[4] After hearing this we turned to the group composed of scholars, which included a number of experts on physics. We addressed them and said: 'You have studied the sciences and consequently have been thought to be oracles of wisdom; please tell us what conscience is.'

'What sort of a question is this?' they replied. 'We have indeed heard that some people suffer from sadness, grief and anxiety, which affect not only the gastric regions of the body, but also the seat of the mind. For we believe that the two brains are its seat. Since these are composed of adjacent fibres, there is an acrid humour which plucks, bites and gnaws at those fibres, and so contracts the sphere of thoughts in the mind that it is unable to relax to enjoy any of the diversions that come from variety. So it comes about that the person concentrates on only one topic, and this destroys the tensile properties and elasticity of the fibres, thus causing them to become resistant and rigid. This leads to the irregular movement of the animal spirits, known to the medical profession as ataxy, and also to the failure of function which is called loss of consciousness. In short, the mind then lies as if beset by hostile squadrons, and can no more turn one way or the other than a wheel fastened on with nails or a ship stuck fast on a sand-bank. Such distress of mind and consequently constriction of the chest afflicts those whose ruling love suffers loss. If this love is attacked, the fibres of the brain contract, and this contraction prevents the mind from moving freely and seeking its pleasures in various forms. When these people suffer this crisis, each depending upon his temperament, they are subject to delusions of various kinds, dementia and delirium, and some suffer from religious brainstorms, which they call the pangs of conscience.'

[5] After this we turned to the third group composed of medical men, including surgeons and apothecaries. 'Perhaps you,' we said, 'know what conscience is. Is it not a savage pain which grips the head and the substance of the heart, and so the subjacent epigastric and hypogastric regions; or is it something else?'

'Conscience,' they replied, 'is nothing but a pain of that sort. We are better placed than others to know its origins, for there are accidental diseases which attack the organic substances of the body, and of the head too, consequently also the mind, since the mind sits amid the organs of the brain like a spider in the centre of the threads composing its web, and it runs out and back in similar fashion along these. We call these diseases organic, and the ones which recur time and again chronic. But pain of this sort, described to us by invalids as the pain of conscience, is nothing but a hypochondriac disease, which robs primarily the spleen and secondarily the pancreas and the mesentery of their proper functions. From this arise diseases of the stomach, which result in unhealthiness of the humours; for compression occurs around the orifice of the stomach, which is called heartburn. From this arise humours saturated with black, yellow or green bile, which cause blockage of the smallest blood vessels, what are called the capillaries. This leads to cachexy, atrophy and symphysis, as well as false pneumonia due to sluggish catarrh, and ichorous lymph causing corrosion through the whole mass of blood. Similar results ensue from the emission of pus into the blood and its serum as the result of empyemas, abscesses and apostems in the body. When this blood rises through the carotid arteries into the head, it abrades, corrodes and gnaws the medullary, cortical and meningeal substances of the brain, so provoking the pains which are called those of conscience. 2

[6] On hearing this we told them: 'You speak the language of Hippocrates and Galen 3 . This is Greek to us, we don't understand. We did not ask about these diseases, but about conscience, a purely mental matter.'

'The diseases of the mind,' they said, 'and those of the head are the same; and those of the head rise up from the body. For they hang together like two floors of one house connected by a staircase permitting one to go up or down. We know therefore that mental states are indissolubly dependent upon the state of the body. But we have cured those heavinesses or headaches, which we grasp are what you mean by conscience, in some cases by plasters or blistering ointments, in some cases by infusions or emulsions, in some cases by herbal remedies and by anodynes.

[7] So when we heard more of the same from them we turned away and addressed the clergy. 'You,' we said, 'know what conscience is. So tell us and instruct the audience.'

'What conscience is,' they answered, 'is something we know and do not know. We have believed that it is contrition, which precedes election, that is, the moment at which a person is endowed with faith, by means of which he gets a new heart and a new spirit and is regenerated. But we have noticed that few people achieve that contrition; in some cases there is only fear and so anxiety about hell-fire, and hardly anyone worries about his sins and the wrath of God he deserves as a result. But we as confessors have cured them by the Gospel, telling them that Christ by suffering crucifixion removed the sentence of damnation, and so put out hell-fire, opening heaven to all blessed with faith, to which the imputation of the merit of the Son of God is attached. In addition there are people with consciences who belong to various religions, true as well as erroneous, who are scrupulous in matters relating to salvation, not only in essentials, but also in matters of form or of no consequence. Thus, as we said before, we know that conscience exists, but what it is and what true conscience, a wholly spiritual matter, is like, we do not know.'

Footnotes:

1. i.e. Cupid.

2. This passage is full of technical jargon in the original Latin.

3. The leading ancient Greek writers on medical subjects.

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

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