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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 #508

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508. The sixth experience.

One day a magnificent church building appeared to me; it was square in plan with a roof like a crown, with arches above and a raised parapet running around. Its walls were all windows made of crystal, its door of a pearly substance. Inside on the south side towards the west there was a platform, on which the open Word lay at the right surrounded by a blaze of light, so bright as to spread round and light up the whole platform. In the middle of the church was a shrine with a curtain in front of it; but this was now raised and there stood a golden cherub with a sword which he brandished in all directions in his hand.

[2] When I caught sight of all this, as I meditated, the meaning of each of the details came flooding into my mind. The church meant the new church; the door of a pearly substance, entry into it; the windows of crystal the truths which enlighten it; the platform the priesthood and their preaching; the Word on it, open and lighting up the top of the platform, the revelation of its internal, or spiritual, sense; the shrine in the middle of the church the link of that church with the heaven of angels; the golden cherub there the Word in its literal sense; the sword brandished in his hand meant that this sense can be twisted in different ways, so long as it is made to refer to some truth. The lifting of the curtain in front of the cherub meant that now the Word was laid open.

[3] Later, when I got closer, I saw there was an inscription over the door: NOW IT IS PERMITTED. This meant that now it is permitted to enter with the understanding into the mysteries of faith. Seeing this inscription led me to think that it is extremely dangerous to enter with the understanding into the dogmas of faith which have been put together out of one's own intelligence and the falsities it produces, and even more so to seek to support them by quoting the Word. This has the effect of shutting off the understanding at the top and little by little also at the bottom, to such an extent that theology is not only disliked but actually wiped out, like the writing on a paper being destroyed by book-worms, or the wool of a piece of cloth by grubs. His understanding then concerns itself only with political affairs which affect his life in the country where he lives, and with civil affairs relating to his official duties, and with domestic affairs of his household; and in all of these he constantly embraces nature, being led by the enticement of its pleasures to love it, as an idolater does the golden image in his lap.

[4] Now since the dogmas of present-day Christian churches are put together not from the Word, but from people's own intelligence and the false ideas that come from that, and also by means of some ideas supported from the Word, for this reason the Lord's Divine providence has seen to it that among Roman Catholics the Word has been taken away from laymen, while among Protestants it remains open, though shut off by their frequent saying that the understanding must be kept in obedience to their faith.

[5] But in the new church the opposite happens; here it is permitted with the understanding to approach and penetrate all its secrets, and also to support them from the Word. The reason is that its doctrines are a series of truths revealed by the Lord through the Word; and proving them by rational argument causes the understanding to be opened up above more and more. This lifts it into the light enjoyed by the angels of heaven; and that light is in essence truth, and it makes the acknowledgment of the Lord as the God of heaven and earth shine out in all its glory. This is what the inscription 'NOW IT IS PERMITTED' over the door means; and the removal of the curtain of the shrine in front of the cherub has the same meaning. It is a rule in the new church that falsities shut off the understanding, and truths open it up.

[6] After this I saw what looked like a child overhead, holding a paper in his hand. As he approached me, he grew in size until he was a man of average height. He was an angel from the third heaven; all there look at a distance like children. When he reached me, he held the paper out to me. But since it was written in the rounded script customary in that heaven, I gave it back and asked them to expound the meaning of what was written on it in words I could comprehend in my thinking.

'What is written here,' he replied, 'is: FROM NOW ON ENTER INTO THE MYSTERIES OF THE WORD WHICH HAVE SO FAR BEEN HIDDEN: FOR EACH ONE OF ITS TRUTHS IS A MIRROR IN WHICH WE SEE THE LORD.'

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #25

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25. At this point I shall insert the following account of an experience. 1

Once on waking from sleep I fell into a profound meditation about God; and when I looked up, I saw in the sky above me a brilliant, oval-shaped light. When I fixed my gaze upon that light, it moved to either side and occupied the surrounding area. Then suddenly heaven lay open before me, and I saw wonderful sights, and angels standing in a ring on the south of the opening, talking among themselves. Because I was fired with a desire to hear what they were saying, I was first permitted to hear the sound of their voices, which was full of heavenly love, and later their speech, which was full of the wisdom which comes from that love.

They were talking among themselves about the one God, being linked with Him and salvation by this means. What they said was beyond words to express; most of it could not be put into the words of any natural language. But because on a number of occasions I had been in company with angels in heaven itself, and then, being in a like state, I could speak similarly with them, I was now able to understand them, and pick up a few points in their conversation which can be rationally expressed in the words of natural language.

[2] They were saying that the Divine Being is one, the same, the very self and indivisible. They illustrated this by spiritual ideas, saying that the Divine Being cannot be reduced to several, each of which is the Divine Being, and still remain one, the same, the very self and indivisible. For each would think from His own Being from Himself, and in each case through Himself; if He then thought from the others and through them in agreement, then there would be several gods of like mind, and not one God. For unanimity, being a consensus of several with each one agreeing of himself and through himself, is not consonant with the oneness of God, but with a plurality. They did not say 'of gods', because they were unable to, since the light of heaven which governed their thought, and the aura which carried their speech, offered resistance.

They said too that when they wanted to say the word 'Gods', and each as a Person by Himself, as soon as they attempted to say this it was instantly replaced by one, or rather the sole, God. They added that the Divine Being is the Divine Being in itself, not from itself, because from itself supposes Being in itself arising from another prior one. Thus it supposes a God arising from God, which is impossible. Anything arising from God is not called God, but Divine. For what is God arising from God, or God born of God from eternity, and what is God arising from God proceeding by means of God born from eternity but mere words totally devoid of heavenly light?

[3] They went on to say that the Divine Being, which is in itself God, is the same; not the same in a simple way, but infinitely the same, that is, the same from eternity to eternity. He is the same everywhere, the same with each person and in each person; but all the changes and differences occur in the person who receives Him, and it is his state which causes this.

To demonstrate that the Divine Being, which is God in itself, is very self they said: 'God is very Self, because He is love itself and wisdom itself, that is, because He is good itself and truth itself, and thus life itself. If these things were not the very Self in God, they would be as nothing in heaven and the world, because none of them would be related to the very Self. Every quality gets its quality from the fact that it is the self which is its source, and must be related to it to have that quality. This very Self, which is the Divine Being, is not in any place, but with and in those people who are located in accordance with their ability to receive it, since neither place nor movement from one place to another can be attributed to love and wisdom, or good and truth, and life from them, which constitute the very Self in God, or rather are God Himself. Hence God is omnipresent. That is why the Lord says that He is in the midst of them, and that He is in them and they in Him.

[4] 'Because God cannot be received by anyone such as He is in Himself, He appears as He is in essence, as the Sun above the heavens of the angels; the radiation emitted by Him as light is Himself as regards wisdom, and as heat is Himself as regards love. That Sun is not God Himself, but the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom coming forth most nearly from Him, all around Him, and these appear to the angels as the Sun. He Himself is in the Sun as a Man; He is our Lord Jesus Christ, both as regards the Divine origin and the Divine Human; since the very Self, which is Love itself and Wisdom itself, was His soul from the Father, and so Divine Life, which is Life in itself. This is different in the case of any person; in him his soul is not Life, but a receiver of life. The Lord teaches us this too, when He said:

I am the Way, Truth and Life, John 14:6.

and elsewhere:

Even as the Father has life in Himself, so too did He grant the Son to have life in Himself, John 5:26.

Life in Himself is God.'

They added that those who are at all spiritually enlightened can perceive from these statements that the Divine Being cannot exist in several, because it is one, the same, the very self and thus indivisible. If anyone were to say that this plurality was possible, there would be obvious contradictions in the qualities predicated.

Footnotes:

1. This is repeated from Apocalypse Revealed 961.

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

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