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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 #260

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260. 24. As coldness develops in the mind, so it also develops in the body; and in the measure that this coldness grows, the outward aspects of the body close up as well. It is believed today that a person's mind is in his head and nothing of it in his body. Yet both soul and mind are not only in the head but in the body; for the soul and mind are the person, it being these two that constitute the spirit which lives after death. (We have fully shown in other works that this spirit exists in perfect human form.) It is because of this that as soon as a person has a thought, he can in an instant express it with the mouth of the body and represent it simultaneously in gesture; and as soon as he wills something, he can in an instant do it and accomplish it by means of parts of the body. None of this would be possible if the soul and mind were not at the same time in the body, constituting the person's spiritual self.

This being the case, it can be seen that when conjugial love exists in the mind, there is a reflection of it in the body. Also, that because love is a type of warmth, it descends from within and opens the outer parts of the body. Conversely, however, it can be seen that the absence of this love, which is coldness, descends from within and closes up the outer parts of the body.

This makes clearly apparent the reason ability lasts to eternity in the case of angels, and the reason for its failure in men in a state of coldness.

  
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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

 

True Christian Religion #186

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186. The second experience.

Once I turned over in my mind the question in what part of the human mind theology is stored. I thought at first that since theology is spiritual and celestial, it must be at the highest level; for the human mind is divided into three levels, like a house with three storeys, or like the dwellings of the angels in three heavens.

Then an angel visited me and said: 'With those who love truth because it is truth, theology reaches the highest level, since that is where their heaven is, and they enjoy the same light as angels. Ethics, however, considered and perceived theoretically are located at the second level, because they communicate with spiritual matters; political affairs lie beneath these at the first level. Facts, however, which are of many kinds and can be classified into genera and species, constitute the door to the higher regions. Those in whom spiritual, ethical, political and factual matters are subordinated to one another in this way have their thoughts and actions controlled by righteousness and judgment. The reason is that the light of truth, which is also the light of heaven, shines down from the highest level on those beneath, just as sunlight passing through the ethers, and so eventually the air, gives light to enable men, animals and fish to see.

[2] 'The case is different, however, with theology in those who do not love truth because it is truth, but only because it enhances their own reputation. With these people theology resides at the lowest level, where factual knowledge is stored; in some cases it becomes mixed with these, in others they cannot mix. Political matters lie beneath these at the same level, and ethics beneath these, since in these cases the two higher levels are not open on the right-hand side. These people therefore do not have any power of inward judgment, nor any affection for righteousness, but only ingenuity. This allows them to talk on any subject as if they were intelligent, and to adduce what appear to be rational proofs of any proposition which comes up. But the objects of their reason, which are what they chiefly love, are false, because they are inseparable from the fallacies of the senses. This explains why there are so many people in the world who can no more see the truths of doctrine to be drawn from the Word, than those born blind; and when they hear them, they hold their noses to prevent their smell from assailing them and causing nausea. But when faced with falsities, they open every sense-organ and suck them in as whales do water.'

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

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