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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 #499

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499. 18. Yet they use their rationality only when engaged in their outward lives, but abuse it when engaged in their inner ones. They are engaged in their outward lives when they speak publicly or in company with others, but in their inner ones when they are at home or by themselves.

Investigate the matter for yourself, if you wish. Take a person of this character, as, for example, some member of the Jesuit order as it is called, and have him speak in the company of others or teach in a church about God, the sanctities of the church, and heaven and hell, and you will hear him to be a more rational champion of them than anyone else. He may even perhaps move you to laments and tears for your salvation. But take him into your home, praise him over the usual orders, call him the father of wisdom, and make yourself his friend until he opens his heart, and you will hear what pronouncements he will have to make then regarding God, the sanctities of the church, and heaven and hell, namely, that they are fantasies and delusions, and thus inventions to ensnare souls, by which they captivate and bind the great and small, rich and poor, and hold them under the yoke of their dominion.

Let this suffice to illustrate what we mean in saying that natural people, even including carnal ones, possess human rationality like others, yet that they use it only when engaged in their outward lives, but abuse it when engaged in their inner ones.

It is in consequence of this that one ought not to base his judgment of a person on the wisdom of his lips alone, but on the wisdom of his life too.

  
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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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