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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 #13

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13. (vi) IF THERE HAD NOT BEEN ONE GOD, THE UNIVERSE COULD NOT HAVE BEEN CREATED AND KEPT IN EXISTENCE.

The reason the oneness of God can be deduced from the creation of the universe is that the universe is a single system coherently organised from beginning to end, and dependent upon God as the body is on the soul. The universe was so created that God could be omnipresent, and keep all its particulars under His guidance, and keep it perpetually together as a unit, and so preserve it. This too is why Jehovah God says that He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, Alpha and Omega (Isaiah 44:6; Revelation 1:8, 17) and elsewhere that He does everything, spreads out the heavens, and stretches out the earth, of Himself (Isaiah 44:24). This mighty system which is called the universe is a single unit coherently organised from beginning to end, because God had one end in view in creating it, to create from the human race a heaven of angels. The means to this end are all the things of which the world is composed; for he who wills the end, wills also the means.

[2] The man therefore who contemplates the world as a piece of work containing the means to that end can contemplate the created universe as a single coherent unit, and he can see that the world is an assemblage of services structured for the benefit of the human race, to form a heaven of angels. The Divine Love cannot have any other end in view than from His Divine to make human beings eternally blessed; and His Divine Wisdom cannot produce anything but services designed to fulfil that end. By considering the world from this universal point of view every wise man can grasp that the Creator of the universe is one, and that His essence is Love and Wisdom. Consequently there is no detail in it which does not conceal services either nearly or distantly designed to benefit human beings. Their food is provided by the fruits of the earth and also by animals, their clothing from the same sources.

[3] One of the astonishing things is that those insignificant insects called silk-worms dress both women and men in silk and adorn them magnificently, from queens and kings down to maids and servants; and those insignificant insects, the bees, supply wax to illuminate splendidly churches and halls. Those who consider one by one facts about the world instead of the whole assemblage of ends, causal means and effects, and those who do not attribute creation to Divine Love acting by means of Divine Wisdom, cannot see that the universe is the handiwork of one God, and that He dwells in each service because He is in the end. For everyone who is involved in an end is also involved in the means, for the end which activates and controls the means is buried deep within all the means.

[4] Those who regard the universe not as the handiwork of God, nor as the dwelling-place of His Love and Wisdom, but as the handiwork of nature and the dwelling-place of the sun's heat and light, shut off the higher regions of their mind from God, and expose the lower regions to the devil. As a result they exchange their human nature for that of a wild beast, indeed they not only think themselves to be no better than animals, but actually become animals. They become foxes in cunning, wolves in ferocity, leopards in guile, tigers in savagery, crocodiles, snakes, screech owls and other night-birds, each with its own nature. People like this in the spiritual world actually look from a distance like those wild beasts, for this is how their love of evil shows itself.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #460

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460. The second experience 1 .

Once when I was looking around the spiritual world I heard a noise like the grinding of teeth, and also a throbbing sound, and mixed with them hoarse cries. I asked what this was. 'There are colleges,' said the angels with me, 'which we call places of entertainment, where they hold disputations. Their debates sound like this if heard from a distance, but from close by they are heard only as disputations.'

On approaching I saw some huts made of plaited reeds stuck together with mud. I wanted to see in through a window, but there was none. I was not allowed to go in through the door, because if I did light would flood in from heaven and cause confusion. Then suddenly a window was made on the right, and then I heard complaints that they were in darkness; but a little later a window was made on the left and that on the right was shut, and then little by little the darkness was dispelled, and they could see one another by their own sort of light. After this I was permitted to go in by the door and listen.

There was a table in the middle with benches round it; but it seemed to me that they were all standing on the benches disputing hotly about faith and charity. One party claimed that faith was the essential of the church, the other that charity was. Those who made faith the essential said: 'Surely faith guides our dealings with God and charity our dealings with men. Is not faith then heavenly and charity earthly? Surely it is by heavenly things, not earthly ones, that we are saved. Again, surely God can from heaven give us faith, because it is heavenly, while a person can give himself charity, because it is earthly; and what a person gives himself has nothing to do with the church and therefore does not save. Surely like this no one can be justified in the sight of God by so-called charitable deeds. Believe us, it is by faith alone that we are not only justified, but also sanctified, provided that faith is not polluted by the presence of merit-seeking deeds among the charitable ones.' They added many more arguments.

[2] But those who made charity the essential of the church hotly contested these arguments, claiming that it is charity, not faith, which saves. 'Surely God holds all men dear and wishes good to all? How can God do this except by means of men? Surely God does not grant only the ability to talk with men about matters that concern faith, without enabling men to do charitable acts? Do you not see how absurd it is of you to talk of charity being earthly? Charity is heavenly, and because you do not do charitable good, your faith is earthly. How do you receive your faith, except like a block of wood or a stone? "By listening to the Word" you will say. But how can the Word act on someone if he merely listens to it? How can it act upon a block of wood or a stone? Perhaps you are quickened without any awareness of it; but what sort of quickening is it, apart from your ability to say that faith alone justifies and saves. But you do not know what faith is, or what sort of faith is saving faith.'

[3] Then someone got up whom the angel talking with me called a syncretist. He took off his wig and put it on the table, but immediately put it back on his head, because he was bald. 'Listen,' he said, 'you are all wrong. The truth is that faith is spiritual and charity is moral, but they are none the less linked. The link is effected by means of the Word, as well as by the Holy Spirit, and by the result produced, which can indeed be called obedience, though man has no part in it; because when faith is introduced, a person knows no more about it than a statue. I have pondered the subject for a long time, and finally reached the solution, that a person can receive from God faith which is spiritual, but he cannot be moved by God to charity which is spiritual, any more than a block of wood can.'

[4] This speech was greeted by applause from those who championed faith alone, but with disapproval from those who championed charity. They said indignantly: 'Listen, friend, you are unaware that there is moral life which is spiritual, and moral life which is purely natural. Spiritual moral life is found in those who do good coming from God, but still as if of their own accord, purely natural moral life in those who do good coming from hell, and yet still as if of their own accord.'

[5] I said that the dispute sounded like the grinding of teeth, and a throbbing sound, with hoarse cries mixed with them. The dispute which sounded like the grinding of teeth came from those who made faith the sole essential of the church, and the throbbing came from those who made charity the sole essential of the church, the hoarse cries mixed with them came from the syncretist. The reason why they sounded like this at a distance was that they had all in the world engaged in disputes, and had not shunned any evil; consequently they had not done any good of spiritual lineage. They were also totally ignorant of the fact that the whole of faith is truth and the whole of charity is good, and that truth without good is not truth in spirit, and good without truth is not good in spirit, so that one makes the other.

Footnotes:

1. This passage is repeated from Apocalypse Revealed 386.

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

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