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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

 

Divine Love and Wisdom #350

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350. Some people must indeed be pardoned for having attributed certain visible phenomena to nature, for the following twofold reason: first, that they have not known anything about the sun of heaven where the Lord is, and the influx from it, nor anything about the spiritual world and its state, nor, indeed, of its presence with mankind. And therefore they could not help but think that anything spiritual was a purer form of something natural; thinking thus that angels existed either in the stratosphere or in the stars; and in regard to the devil, either that it was the evil in mankind, or if the devil actually existed, that he existed either in the air or in the depths of the earth; also that people's souls after death existed either at the center of the earth or in some limbo or other until the Day of Judgment; and other like things which their fancy persuaded them of, owing to their ignorance of the spiritual world and its sun.

[2] The second reason they must be pardoned is that they could not have known how the Divine produces all the phenomena that appear on the earth, where one finds both good things and bad, fearing to confirm the notion in themselves lest they ascribe the bad things as well to God, or lest they form a material concept of God, making God and nature one and so confusing the two.

For these two reasons they must be pardoned who have believed that nature produces the phenomena they see by a power implanted from creation.

[3] However, those who by confirmations on the side of nature have made themselves atheists, cannot be pardoned, because they could have confirmed themselves on the side of the Divine. Ignorance, indeed, excuses, but it does not take away falsity that has been confirmed; for such falsity is bound together with evil, thus with hell. Consequently those same people who have confirmed themselves on the side of nature even to the point of separating the Divine from nature, regard nothing as sinful, because everything sinful is a sin against the Divine, which they have separated and so rejected; and people who in spirit regard nothing as sinful, after death, when they become spirits, rush in bondage to hell into heinous evils in accordance with their lusts, to which they have given free rein.

  
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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

 

Conjugial Love #2

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2. I once saw an angel flying beneath the eastern sky holding a trumpet to his mouth, who sounded towards the north, towards the west, and towards the south. He was wearing a cape which swept backwards as he flew; and he was girded with a sash of garnets and sapphires that seemed ablaze with fire and light.

Flying in horizontal position, facing forward and down, he slowly descended to the tract of ground surrounding me. Landing upright upon his feet, he began to pace back and forth, and then seeing me he headed in my direction. I was in the spirit, and in this state was standing on a hill in the southern zone.

When he drew near, I spoke to him and asked, "What is happening? I heard the sound of your trumpet and saw you descending through the air."

The angel answered, "I have been sent to call together people most renowned for their learning, most discerning in their brilliance, and foremost in their reputation for wisdom, who have come from the kingdoms of the Christian world and are living in this surrounding land. I have been sent to assemble them on this hill where you are standing, to express their honest opinions as to what they had thought, understood and perceived in the world regarding heavenly joy and eternal happiness.

[2] "The reason for my mission is that some newcomers from the world, admitted into our heavenly society in the east, have told us that not even one person in the whole Christian world knows what heavenly joy and eternal happiness are, thus what heaven is. My brothers and companions were very surprised at this, and they said to me, 'Go down, call together and assemble the wisest in the world of spirits (the world into which all mortals are first gathered after they leave the natural world) in order that we may learn from the testimony of many whether it is true that Christians are in such darkness and unenlightened ignorance concerning the life to come.'"

He also added, "Wait here a little, and you will see companies of the wise streaming here. The Lord is going to prepare a hall of assembly for them."

[3] I waited, and behold, after half an hour I saw two bands of people coming from the north, two from the west, and two from the south. As they arrived, they were led by the angel with the trumpet into the hall prepared for them, where they took places assigned to them according to the zones they came from.

They formed six groups or companies. A seventh came from the east, but it was not visible to the others owing to the light.

After they were assembled, the angel explained the reason they had been called together, and he asked the companies to present in turn their wisdom regarding heavenly joy and eternal happiness. Each company then gathered into a circle, its members facing each other, in order to recall the ideas they had acquired on the subject in the previous world, to consider them now, and after conferring to present their conclusion.

  
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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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