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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 #387

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387. The third experience.

When the two angels were out of sight, I saw a garden on the right containing olives, figs laurels and palm-trees, planted in order in accordance with their correspondences. As I looked in that direction I saw angels and spirits walking among the trees in conversation. One of the angelic spirits then looked back and saw me. (Angelic spirits is what those in the world of spirits are called who are being prepared for heaven.) He came out of the garden to me and said: 'Would you like to come with me into our park? You will hear and see wonders.'

So I went with him, and then he said to me: 'These whom you see' (for there were many of them) 'are all in possession of the love of truth, and thus in the light of wisdom. There is also here a palace, which we call the Temple of Wisdom; but no one can see it who thinks himself very wise, much less one who thinks he is wise enough, even less one who thinks he is wise on his own account. The reason is that these people do not have a love of genuine wisdom to enable them to receive the light of heaven. Genuine wisdom is when a person sees by the light of heaven that what his knowledge, intelligence and wisdom embrace compared with what they do not are as a drop of water is to the ocean, consequently virtually nothing. Everyone in this parkland garden, who by perception and sight acknowledges within himself that his wisdom is comparatively so small, can see the Temple of Wisdom. For it is the internal light in a person's mind, not the external light without the internal, which allows him to see it.'

[2] Now because I had often thought this, and knowledge, then perception and finally internal light led me to acknowledge that man's wisdom is so scanty, I was suddenly allowed to see the temple. Its form was remarkable. It stood up high above the ground, four-square, with walls of crystal, a roof of translucent jasper elegantly arched, the substructure of various precious stones. There were steps leading up to it of polished alabaster, and at the sides of the steps figures of lions with cubs. Then I asked whether I might go inside, and I was told I might. So I went up, and when I got inside I saw what looked like cherubs flying beneath the roof, but they quickly vanished. The floor on which I was walking was made of cedar planks, and the whole temple with its translucent roof and walls was built as a form for light to play upon.

[3] The angelic spirit came in with me, and I repeated to him what I had heard from the two angels about love and wisdom, and about charity and faith. Then he said: 'Did they not also talk about the third?' 'What third?' I said.

'It is the good of use,' he replied. 'Love and wisdom without the good of use are nothing; they are mere mental abstractions, which are only realised, when they are employed in use. Love, wisdom and use make an inseparable group of three. If they are separated, none of them is anything. Love is nothing without wisdom, but in wisdom it is formed to some purpose; and the purpose to which it is formed is use. Therefore when love by means of wisdom is put to use, it actually exists, because it is realised in action. These three are exactly like end, cause and effect; the end is nothing unless by means of the cause it is realised in the effect. Take one of the three away, and the whole falls to pieces and becomes as if it had never been.

[4] 'It is much the same with charity, faith and deeds. Charity without faith is nothing, nor is faith without charity, nor are charity and faith without deeds; but in deeds they are something, and the nature of that something is determined by the use the deeds serve. It is much the same with affection, thought and performance; and it is much the same with will, understanding and action. For will without understanding is like the eye without the power of sight, and either of them without action is like the mind without the body. The truth of this can be clearly seen in this temple, because the light we enjoy here is the light which enlightens the interiors of the mind.

[5] 'Geometry too proves that there is nothing complete and perfect unless it is triple. For a line is nothing unless it becomes an area, nor is an area anything unless it becomes a solid. So one must be multiplied by the other for them to come into existence; and they come into existence jointly in the third. Just as in this case, so it is with every single created thing; they reach their end in the third term. This now is why three in the Word means complete and utterly. In view of this I cannot help being surprised at some people professing belief in faith alone, some in charity alone, and some in deeds alone, when in fact one without the other is nothing, and so are one together with another but without the third.'

[6] But then I put the question: 'Cannot a person have charity and faith and still do no deeds? Could a person not be fond of something and think about it, and yet not do it?' The angelic spirit 1 replied to me: 'This is impossible, except as a mental abstraction; it cannot actually happen. He will still be striving and wanting to do it; and the will or effort is in itself an act, because it is a continuing impulse to action, and it becomes an act when externalised by being directed towards an object. Therefore effort and will, as an internal act, is accepted by every wise man, because it is accepted by God, exactly as if it were an external act, provided there is no failure to act when the opportunity arises.'

Footnotes:

1. The Latin has here 'angel', but cf. Apocalypse Revealed 875, 878.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Survey of Teachings of the New Church #114

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114. To these points I will add two memorable occurrences taken from Revelation Unveiled.

The first memorable occurrence. I was suddenly overcome with a deathly illness. My whole head felt worse and worse. A poisonous smoke was blowing in from the great city that spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt (Revelation 11:8). I was half dead and in severe pain. I thought I was about to die. I lay in bed in that condition for three and a half days. My spirit developed this sickness, and then my body came down with it as well.

Then I heard voices around me saying, “Look, he is lying dead in the street of our city—the one who was preaching that we should repent so that our sins would be forgiven and [that we should worship] only Christ the human being.”

They asked some of the clergy, “Is he worthy of burial?” (We read that the same thing happened to the two witnesses who were killed in that city; see Revelation 11:8, 9, 10.)

The clergy replied, “No. Let him lie there as a spectacle.”

They kept going away and coming back to mock me.

And I am telling the truth when I say that this happened to me at the very time that I was explaining the eleventh chapter of the Book of Revelation.

Then I heard more serious words from the people who had been mocking me—especially these: “How can repentance be practiced apart from faith? How can Christ the human being be adored as God? Given that we are saved for free without our deserving it at all, what then do we need except faith alone—the faith that God the Father sent the Son to take away the damnation of the law, to credit us with his own merit, to justify us before the Father, to absolve us from our sins, and then to give us the Holy Spirit, who activates every good thing within us? Aren’t these points in accordance with Scripture and also with reason?”

The crowd of bystanders applauded these statements.

[2] I heard all this but was unable to respond because I was lying there almost dead.

After three and a half days, however, my spirit regained its health. In the spirit I went from that street into the city, and I said again, “Practice repentance and believe in Christ, and your sins will be forgiven and you will be saved. If you do not, you will perish. The Lord himself preached that we must repent in order for our sins to be forgiven, and that we must believe in him. He commanded the disciples to preach the same message. Surely the dogma of your faith leads to utter complacency about the way you live!”

“What are you babbling about?” they replied. “The Son has made satisfaction. The Father has assigned us the Son’s merit and has justified us for the reason that these are our beliefs. We are now led by the spirit of grace. What sin could there be within us? What death could there be among us? Do you grasp this Good News, you preacher of sin and repentance?”

Then a voice from heaven said, “Surely the faith of someone who has not practiced repentance is nothing but a dead faith. The end has come, the end has come upon you who are complacent, guiltless in your own eyes, justified by your own faith—devils!”

At that moment a chasm suddenly opened up in the middle of the city and spread outward. The houses were falling in on each other and the people were swallowed up. Soon water bubbled up from the great hole and flooded what was already devastated.

[3] After they sank to a lower level and were seemingly covered in water, I wanted to know what their situation was like in the depths. A voice from heaven told me, “You will see and hear.”

Then the water that had seemingly flooded them disappeared from before my eyes. (Water in the spiritual world is a correspondence that appears around people who have false beliefs.) I saw the people in a sandy place at a great depth, where there were piles of stones. They were running between the piles of stones and loudly bemoaning their having been cast out of their great city.

They were shouting and wailing, “Why has this happened to us? We are clean, pure, just, and holy because of our faith.”

Others were saying, “Surely through our faith we have been cleansed, purified, justified, and sanctified.”

Still others were asking, “Hasn’t our faith made it possible for us to be seen and esteemed by God the Father and the whole Trinity, and to be declared before angels, as clean, pure, righteous, and holy? Haven’t we been reconciled, atoned for, ritually purged, and therefore absolved, washed, and wiped free of our sins? Didn’t Christ take away the damnation of the law? Why then have we been thrown down here like the damned? We did hear from a bold proclaimer of sin in our great city, ‘Believe in Christ and practice repentance.’ But didn’t we believe in Christ when we believed in his merit? Didn’t we practice repentance when we confessed that we were sinners? Why then has this happened to us?”

[4] A voice was then heard from the side: “Are you aware of any sin in yourselves? Have you ever examined yourselves, and then abstained from any evil because it is sinful against God? If you do not abstain from sin, then you are still devoted to it; and sin is the Devil. You, then, are the people of whom the Lord spoke when he said, ‘You will then begin to say, “We ate and drank with you. You taught in our streets.” But he will say, “I tell you, I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from me, all you workers of wickedness”’ (Luke 13:26, 27). Matthew 7:22, 23 is also about you. Therefore go away, each to your own place. Do you see the holes leading to those caves? Go in there, and each of you will be given your own work to do, and food in accordance with your work. If you don’t go in, your hunger will drive you in.”

[5] After that a voice from heaven came to some people who were up at the level of the ground but were outside the city (see Revelation 11:13). The voice said loudly, “Beware! Beware of associating with people like that. Don’t you understand that evils that are called sins and acts of wickedness make us unclean and impure? How can you be cleansed and purified from them except by active repentance and by faith in the Lord God the Savior? Active repentance is examining yourselves, recognizing and admitting to your sins, accepting that you are at fault, confessing them before the Lord, begging for his help and power in resisting them, stopping doing them, and living a new life. All this is to be done as if you were doing it on your own. Do this once or twice a year when you are about to take Holy Communion. Afterward, when the sins for which you are at fault recur, say to yourselves, ‘We do not want these, because they are sins against God.’ This is actual repentance.

[6] “Surely you can all recognize that if you do not examine yourselves and see your sins, you remain in them. From birth you find all evils delightful. It feels good to take revenge, to be promiscuous, to steal, and to slander. Because they feel good you overlook them. If someone happens to point out to you that they are sins, you make excuses for them because they feel good. You use false arguments to defend them and convince yourselves that they are not sins, and you stay in them. And afterward you do those evil things more than you did before, to the point where you no longer know what sin is or even whether there is such a thing.

“It is different, however, for people who actively go through a process of repentance. The evils that they recognize and admit to [in themselves] they call sins. They therefore begin to abstain and turn away from them. Eventually they begin to feel the pleasure of those evils as unpleasant. The more this happens, the more they see and love what is good, and eventually even feel delight in it, which is the delight that the angels in heaven feel. Briefly put, the more we put the Devil behind us, the more we are adopted by the Lord and are taught, led, held back from what is evil, and kept in what is good by him. This is the pathway from hell to heaven; there is no other way.”

[7] It is amazing that Protestants have such a deep-seated resistance, antipathy, and aversion to active repentance. Their reaction to it is so strong that they cannot force themselves to do self-examination, to see their sins, and to confess them before God. It is as if they are overcome by horror as soon as they form the intention to do it. I have asked many Protestants in the spiritual world about this, and they all said that it is completely beyond their strength. When they heard that Catholics practice this, that is, that they examine themselves and openly confess their sins to a monk, the Protestants were profoundly amazed, especially since the Protestants themselves could not do this even in secret before God, although they had been commanded, just as the Catholics had been, to do this when they were about to take the Holy Supper. Some people in the spiritual world investigated why this was, and discovered that faith alone was what had led to such an impenitent state and such an attitude of heart. Then those Protestants were allowed to see that Catholics are saved if they turn to Christ and worship him, and no longer worship but only honor the leaders of their churches.

[8] After that we heard a kind of thunder, and a voice speaking from heaven and saying, “We are amazed. Say to the gathering of Protestants, ‘Believe in Christ and practice repentance, and you will be saved.’”

So I said it.

I added, “Clearly, baptism is a sacrament of repentance and therefore introduction into the church. What else do godparents promise for the child being baptized but that she or he will renounce the Devil and all his works? Clearly, the Holy Supper is a sacrament of repentance and therefore introduction into heaven. Doesn’t the priest say to those about to take it that they absolutely have to practice repentance first? Clearly, the Ten Commandments are the universal teaching of the Christian church; they urge repentance. Isn’t it true that the six commandments on the second tablet say, ‘You are not to do this and that thing that is evil,’ not, ‘You are to do this and that thing that is good’? Therefore you are capable of knowing that the more we abstain from what is evil, the more we love what is good; and that before that, we do not know what good is, or even what evil is.”

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.

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