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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

 

Apocalypse Revealed #421

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421. And to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. This symbolizes their hell opened.

A key symbolizes the power to open, and also to close (nos. 62, 174, 840). And a bottomless pit symbolizes hell, where those people reside who have affirmed in themselves justification and salvation by faith alone, all of whom come from the Protestant Reformed Church. Here, however, they are people who appear in their own eyes and so in the eyes of many others to be educated and erudite - even though in the sight of angels in heaven they appear to be bereft of intellect as regards matters having to do with heaven and the church, since people who affirm such a faith, even so far as to affirm its inner tenets, close the higher constituents of their intellect, and this at last to such an extent that they can no longer see any spiritual truth in any light. The reason is that an affirmation of falsity constitutes a denial of the truth. Consequently, whenever they hear some spiritual truth, namely, a truth of the Word serviceable for doctrine and life for people of the church, they keep their mind in the falsities they have affirmed; and then they either shroud the truth they have heard in falsities or reject it as nothing but words, or they yawn at it and turn away, and this the more conceited they are owing to their erudition. For conceit glues the falsities together until they at last stick together, like solidified sea foam. The Word is therefore hidden from them, like a book sealed with seven seals.

[2] I will describe, furthermore, their character, and the character of their hell, because it has been given me to see it and speak with the inhabitants there, and also to see the locusts that issued from it:

That pit, which is like the mouth of a furnace, appears in the southern zone, and the abyss beneath it extends a great distance toward the east. The inhabitants in it have light, but if light from heaven is let in, the hell becomes dark. Consequently the pit is closed above.

Seen there are huts with arched roofs, built seemingly of brick, which are divided into several small rooms, and each room has in it a table, with sheets of paper lying on it, along with some books. At each table sits someone who in the world affirmed justification and salvation by faith alone, making charity a merely natural moral act, and deeds of charity simply those of civil life by which people are able to achieve rewards in the world; but if people should do those deeds for the sake of salvation, they condemn those deeds, and some of them do so severely, because the deeds have in them human reason and human will.

All the people in this abyss were educated and erudite in the world. And among them are some metaphysicians and scholastics who are held in higher esteem than the rest there. I recognized several when it was granted me to speak with them.

[3] Their fate, however, is this: When they are first admitted there, they sit in the first small rooms; but as they argue for faith to the exclusion of works of charity, they leave their former seats and go into little rooms nearer the east, and this repeatedly until they reach the end, where those people reside who use the Word to defend those tenets. And because they cannot help but falsify the Word then, their huts vanish, and they see themselves in a desert; and at that point they undergo such experiences as described in no. 153 above.

There is also another abyss beneath that abyss, where the residents are people who have similarly argued for justification and salvation by faith alone, but who within themselves, in their spirit, have denied God, and at heart have laughed at the sanctities of the church. They do nothing but argue there, tearing their garments, climbing up on the tables, stamping their feet and battling each other with invectives. And because no one is permitted to do physical harm there, they threaten vocally and shake their fists.

The environment there is unclean and squalid. But this a subject for another time.

  
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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.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #797

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797. "And the sound of a bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore." This symbolically means that those caught up in the Roman Catholic religion because of its doctrine and a life in accordance with it have no conjunction of goodness and truth, which is what forms the church.

The sound here symbolizes joy, because it is the sound of a bridegroom and bride. In the highest sense a bridegroom means the Lord in respect to Divine good, and a bride means the church in respect to Divine truth from the Lord. For a church is a church by virtue of its reception of the Lord's Divine goodness in the Divine truths that it has from Him.

It is apparent from the Word that the Lord is called a bridegroom and also a husband, and that the church is called a bride and also a wife. That this produces the heavenly marriage that is a marriage of goodness and truth will be seen in a short work, On Marriage. 1

Now because this heavenly marriage is produced in people in the church by their receiving Divine goodness from the Lord in Divine truths drawn from the Word, it is apparent that there is no conjunction of goodness and truth in people caught up in the Roman Catholic religion because of its doctrine and so a life in conformity with it, since they have no conjunction with the Lord, but instead a conjunction with men, living and dead. This conjunction in people caught up in a love of exercising dominion from a love of self over the Divine sanctities belonging to the Lord, and over the Lord Himself, is as though a conjunction with the Devil, who, as we said in the preceding number, is that love. And to turn to the Devil in order to come by him to God is detestable.

[2] That the Lord is called a bridegroom and the church a bride is apparent from the following passages:

He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. (John 3:29)

This John the Baptist said in reference to the Lord.

Jesus said..., "As long as the bridegroom is with them, the wedding guests cannot fast. The day will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast. (Matthew 9:15, cf. Mark 2:19-20)

I... saw the holy city, New Jerusalem..., prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Revelation 21:2)

(An angel said,) "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." (Revelation 21:9-10)

...(the time for) the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready... Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. (Revelation 19:7, 9)

The bridegroom whom the ten virgins went out to meet, also means the Lord (Matthew 25:1-13).

[3] From these passages it is apparent what the sound and joy of a bridegroom and bride symbolize in following places:

As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. (Isaiah 62:5)

My soul shall rejoice over my God..., as a bridegroom puts on the turban, and as a bride adorns herself with her vessels. (Isaiah 61:10)

Again there shall be heard in this place... the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the sound of the bridegroom and the sound of the bride, the sound of those saying, "Confess Jehovah Zebaoth...." (Jeremiah 33:10-11)

Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, and the bride from her room. (Joel 2:16)

I will cause to cease... from the streets of Jerusalem the sound of mirth and the sound of gladness, the sound of the bridegroom and the sound of the bride. (Jeremiah 7:34, cf. 16:9)

I will take from them the sound of mirth and the sound of gladness, the sound of the bridegroom and the sound of the bride, the sound of mills and the light of the lamp. And this whole land shall be a desolation (because of) the king of Babylon... (Jeremiah 25:10-11)

[4] From this one can now see the successive meanings in these two verses, that those caught up in the Roman Catholic religion will not have any affection for spiritual truth and goodness (no. 792); that they are without any understanding of spiritual truth, and so are without any thought of spiritual truth (no. 793), for thought springs from affection and accords with it; that neither do they inquire into, investigate, or confirm spiritual truth (no. 794); that they are also without any enlightenment from the Lord and so without any perception of spiritual truth (no. 796); and finally that they have no conjunction of goodness and truth, which is what forms the church (no. 797).

Thus the literal pronouncements also follow in sequence.

Footnotes:

1. A reference to a work by that title never published by the writer. Extant in manuscript are a brief outline, a relatively short preliminary draft, and two indices for a longer draft on the subject of marriage that has not been found. The content of the existing material makes clear that these manuscripts, including the missing longer draft, were written in preparation for Delights of Wisdom Relating to Married Love (or Conjugial Love), Followed By Pleasures of Insanity Relating to Licentious Love, which the writer published in 1768, two years after publishing the present work on the Apocalypse.

  
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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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