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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 #695

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695. The fourth experience.

Most people today who believe in a life after death also believe that in heaven their only thoughts will be devotions, their only utterances prayers, and both of these together with their facial expressions and bodily acts will be nothing but ways of glorifying God. So they imagine that the only homes they will have will be places of worship or consecrated buildings, and so they will all be priests of God. But I can solemnly state that in that life the rites of the church do not take up more of people's minds or houses than they do where God is worshipped in the world, though in a purer and more inward way. But there are to be found there all kinds of matters requiring secular attention, and all sorts of matters requiring rational learning, and these of the highest degree,

[2] One day I was carried off into heaven and brought to a society, where wise men lived who in ancient times had been distinguished for the learning they had gained from deep study and meditation on matters within the scope of reason, and which at the same time were of service. Now they were in heaven because they had believed in God, and now believed in the Lord, and they had loved the neighbour as themselves. I was subsequently taken to a meeting they held and asked where I came from. I revealed that I was in the body in the natural world, but in the spirit in their spiritual world.

These angels were delighted to hear this and kept asking: 'In the world where you are in the body what do people know and understand about inflow 1 ?'

After thinking what I could recollect on the subject from conversations and from the writings of famous people, I replied that they are still ignorant of any inflow from the spiritual world into the natural world, though they know of the inflow of nature into objects in nature. For instance, the inflow of heat and light from the sun into living bodies, and also into trees and plants, which causes them to become alive; and in the opposite case the inflow of cold into the same bodies, which causes their death. Moreover they know about the inflow of light into the eyes bringing about sight, the inflow of sound into the ears bringing about hearing, the inflow of smell into the nostrils bringing about smelling, and so on.

[3] Apart from these instances the scholars of the present time reason in different ways about the inflow from the soul into the body, and from the body into the soul. On this subject there are three theories current. One party argues whether there is an inflow from the soul into the body, which they call 'incidental' 2 because of the chance incidence of things on the bodily senses. Or they argue whether there is an inflow from the body into the soul, which they term 'physical', because objects impinge on the senses and from these on the soul. Or whether there is a simultaneous and instantaneous inflow both into the body and the soul together, to which they apply the term 'pre-established harmony'. Yet each of these parties thinks that the inflow they believe in exists inside the realm of nature.

Some people believe that the soul is a particle or drop of ether, some that it is a tiny ball or speck of heat and light, some that it is some entity hidden in the brain. But whatever it is they consider the soul to be, they call it spiritual; but by spiritual they mean something purer but natural, since they know nothing of the spiritual world and the inflow from it into the natural world, so that they remain restricted to the natural sphere. Within this they climb up and drop down, and they soar into it like eagles into the air. Those who are limited to nature are like the natives of an island in the sea who are unaware of the existence of any land but theirs; or they are like fish in a river unaware of the existence of air up above their waters. As a result when anyone mentions the existence of a world apart from theirs inhabited by angels and spirits, and describes this as the source of all inflow into human beings, as well as into trees at a more inward level, they stand astonished, as if they had been told of visions of ghosts, or of nonsense from astrologers.

[4] Apart from the philosophers, people nowadays, in the world in which I live in the body, are unable to think and talk about any other sort of inflow than that of wine into glasses, of food and drink into the stomach, of taste into the tongue, and perhaps of the inflow of air into the lungs, and so on. But if these people are told anything about the inflow from the spiritual world into the natural one, they say: 'Let it flow in, if it does; what pleasure or use is there in knowing this?' Off they go, and then afterwards on talking about what they are told about inflow, they play about with it, as some people play with pebbles, running them through their fingers.

[5] Afterwards I talked with those angels about the amazing effects caused by the inflow from the spiritual world into the natural one. For instance, we talked about the way caterpillars turn into butterflies, about bees and drones, and the astonishing things the silkworm does, and also spiders; how people on earth attribute all these things to the light and heat of the sun, and so to nature. What has often astonished me is that they use these facts to strengthen their leaning towards nature, and any such strengthening plunges their minds into sleep and oblivion, so that they become atheists.

[6] After this I related the amazing facts about plants, how they all progress from the seed in due sequence until they produce new seeds, exactly as if the earth knew how to provide and adapt its elements to the reproductive principle of the seed; and from this to bring forth a shoot, to broaden this to form a stem, to send forth branches from this, to clothe these with leaves, and later to embellish them with flowers, and beginning from their interiors to produce fruits, and by means of these produce as offspring seeds from which the plant can be born again. But because these things are always to be seen and have become familiar, usual and commonplace by constant repetition, they are not looked on as amazing, but as simply the effects of nature. People hold this view solely because they are ignorant of the existence of a spiritual world, working from within on and actuating every single thing which comes into existence and is formed in the world of nature and upon the natural earth, activating sensation and movement as the human mind does in the body. Nor do they know that every detail of nature is as it were a tunic, sheath or clothing enclosing spiritual things and serving at the lowest level to bring about the effects corresponding to the purpose of God the Creator.

Footnotes:

1. The Latin influxus is throughout this section translated 'inflow', although in some cases other translations would be more natural in English.

2. Or 'occasional'.

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

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.

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