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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 #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.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #71

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71. At this point I shall insert accounts of three experiences, of which this is the first.

Once I heard beneath me a roaring as of the sea, and asked what it was. Someone told me that it was a disturbance among the spirits gathered on the lower earth, which lies closest above hell. In a little while the ground which formed a roof over them split open, and through the gap birds of the night came pouring forth in hordes and spreading out to the left. They were immediately followed by a wave of locusts, which leapt upon the grass covering the ground, and turned it all into a desert. A little later I began to hear by turns a kind of wailing coming from those birds of the night, and to the side an inarticulate cry as if from ghosts in the woods. Later still I saw beautiful birds coming from heaven and spreading out towards the right. These birds were marked with what looked like wings of gold broken up by stripes and spots of silver; some had on their heads crown-shaped crests.

While I was gazing in wonder at all this, there suddenly emerged from the lower earth, where the disturbance was, a spirit who could take upon himself the appearance of an angel of light. 'Where is the man,' he shouted, 'who talks and writes about an order, to which almighty God has restricted Himself in His dealings with man? News of this has penetrated the roof and reached us down below.'

When he came to the ground level, he hurried along a paved road; and eventually he came up to me and at once pretended to be an angel from heaven. Then, speaking in an assumed tone of voice, 'Are you,' he said, 'the man who thinks and speaks about order? Give me a brief account of order and some examples of it.'

[2] 'I will give you,' I replied, 'a summary, but not the details, because these would be beyond your grasp.' I told him: (i) God is Order itself. (ii) He created man from order according to order and to be subject to order. (iii) He created his rational mind in accordance with the order of the whole spiritual world and his body in accordance with the order of the whole natural world, which is why the ancients called man a micro-heaven and a microcosm. (iv) It is therefore a law of order that man from his micro-heaven or little spiritual world should control his microcosm or little natural world, just as God from His macro-heaven or spiritual world controls the macrocosm or natural world in all its parts. (v) A consequential law of order is therefore that a person ought to enter into faith by means of truths from the Word, and into charity by means of good deeds, and so reform and regenerate himself. (vi) It is a law of order that a person should by his own efforts and ability cleanse himself from sins, and not stand idly confident of his inability to act, waiting for God to wipe away his sins in an instant. (vii) It is also a law of order that a person should love God with all his soul and all his heart, and his neighbour as himself, and not hang back waiting for God instantaneously to place either love in his mind and heart, like bread from the baker's in the mouth. I told him much more besides.

[3] When he heard this, the Satan replied in a polite tone which concealed his deceit: 'What is this you say? That a person by his own ability should enter into order by obeying its laws? Don't you know that man is not subject to the law, but to grace; and that everything is given freely and a person can take nothing for himself unless it is given him from heaven? Don't you know that in spiritual matters he can no more act of himself than Lot's wife when she was turned into a pillar, or Dagon, the idol worshipped by the Philistines in Ekron? So it is impossible for a person to justify himself, since this must be accomplished by means of faith and charity.'

To this I made only this reply: 'It is a law of order too that a person should by his efforts and ability acquire for himself faith by means of truths from the Word, while believing that not a grain of faith comes from himself, but from God; and that a person should by his efforts and ability aim to justify himself, but he is to believe that not a jot of justification comes from himself, but from God. Is it not commanded that a man should believe in God, and love God with all his strength, and his neighbour as himself? Reflect and tell me how God could have given these commandments, if man had not the ability to obey and perform them.'

[4] On hearing this the Satan's face underwent a change; from being white it first turned a lurid colour, and then pitch black. He spoke with his black mouth and said: 'All you have said is paradoxes to counter paradoxes.' Then at once he sank down to his own kind and vanished. The birds on the left together with the ghosts made an unusual noise, and threw themselves into the sea, which is there called the Sea of Suph 1 , and the locusts came hopping after them. Both air and land were thus cleared of those animals, the disturbance down below ceased, and all became peaceful and calm.

Footnotes:

1. The Hebrew name for the Red Sea.

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

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