Arcana Coelestia #487
487. 'Days means periods of time and states in general. This has been shown in Chapter 1, where the 'days of creation' have no other meaning. In the Word it is very common for a whole period of time to be called 'a day', as it clearly is in the present verse and in verses 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 27, 31, below; and therefore the states that belong to periods of time in general are meant by 'days' as well. And when 'years' is attached, then periods of years mean the natures of those states, and so the states in particular.
[2] The most ancient people had their own particular numbers which they would use to mean different aspects of the Church - for instance, the numbers three, seven, ten, twelve, and many which they obtained from these and other numbers - and in so doing incorporated states of the Church. These numbers therefore contain arcana that would require considerable effort to unravel. Really a number was an evaluation of the states of the Church. The same feature occurs throughout the Word, especially in the prophetical. And the religious ceremonies of the Jewish Church also entail numbers specifying periods of time as well as quantities; for example, in connection with sacrifices, minchahs, oblations, and other practices, which in every case have special reference to holy things. Consequently eight hundred in this verse, nine hundred and thirty in the next, and the numbers of years mentioned in the verses that follow after that, embody in particular more matters than can possibly be retold; matters, that is to say, which have to do with changes in the state of their Church in relationship to their own general state. Later on, in the Lord's Divine mercy, the meaning of the simple numbers up to twelve will be given, for without knowing these first of all no one can grasp what compound numbers mean.
The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Teachings #139
139. From Secrets of Heaven
Conscience. People who have no conscience do not know what a conscience is: 7490, 9121. There are some people who laugh at conscience when they are told that there is such a thing: 7217. Some believe that there is no such thing as conscience; some believe that it is a kind of earthly pain and sadness brought on by a change either in physical health or in worldly circumstances; some believe that it is a form of control put on the lower classes by their religious tradition: 1 206, 847, 950. Some are unaware that they have a conscience even though they do: 2380.
[2] Good people have a conscience; evil people do not: 831, 965, 7490. If our life is devoted to love for God or to love for our neighbor, we have a conscience: 2380. It is especially the case that we have a conscience if we have been regenerated by the Lord: 977. We do not have a conscience if we are focused only on knowing what is true and not on living by it: 1076, 1077, 1919. We do not have a conscience if we do what is good simply because we are good-natured and not for religious reasons: 6208.
[3] We develop a conscience based on the teachings of our church or of whatever religious tradition we follow: 9112. Our conscience is shaped by the principles we believe to be true that we have been taught by our religion: 1077, 2053, 9113. Conscience is an inner restraint that keeps us focused on thinking, saying, and doing what is good and that holds us back from thinking, saying, and doing what is evil, not for selfish and worldly reasons but for the sake of what is good, true, fair, and right: 1919, 9120. Conscience is an inner voice telling us whether or not to act in some particular way: 1919, 1935. Essentially, conscience is an awareness of what is true and right: 986, 8081. The new will in a spiritual, regenerated individual is a conscience: 928, 1023, 1043, 1044, 4299, 4328, 4493, 9115, 9596. Our spiritual life comes from our conscience: 9117.
[4] Conscience may be true, or spurious, or false: 1033 (which includes discussion). The genuineness of the truths that shape our conscience is what determines how true our conscience is: 2053, 2063, 9114. In general, there are two levels on which conscience can exist, an inner level and an outer level. A conscience on an inner level is a conscience that is focused on what is spiritually good; its essence is truth. A conscience on an outer level is a conscience that is focused on what is morally and civically good; its essence is honesty and fairness-or more broadly, what is right: 5145, 6207, 10296.
[5] The pain felt in our conscience is a mental anxiety because of what is unfair, dishonest, and in any way evil, something we believe to be contrary to God and to the well-being of our neighbor: 7217. If we feel anxious when our thoughts take an evil turn, that comes from our conscience: 5470. The pain felt in our conscience is anguish because of something evil that we are doing, or else because of a loss of goodness or truth: 7217. Because a spiritual crisis 2 is a battle between what is true and what is false in our deeper levels, and because there is pain and anxiety involved in crises of the spirit, only people who have a conscience are allowed to have spiritual crises: 847.
[6] People who have a conscience speak and act from the heart: 7935, 9114. People who have a conscience do not swear empty oaths: 2842. People who have a conscience enjoy a sense of inner well-being when they are doing something good or performing some act of justice that accords with their conscience: 9118. People who have a conscience in this world have a conscience in the other life as well and are among the happy there: 965. Heaven flows into our conscience: 6207, 6213, 9122. The Lord governs spiritual people through their conscience, which serves them as an inner restraint: 1835, 1862. People who have a conscience have an inward kind of thinking, while people who do not have a conscience have only a superficial kind of thinking: 1919, 1935. People who have a conscience base their thinking on what is spiritual, while people who do not have a conscience base their thinking only on what is earthly: 1914. People who do not have a conscience are only outwardly human: 4459. The Lord governs people who do not have a conscience by means of outward restraints, all of which have to do with their love for themselves and for the world and the accompanying fear of losing reputation, status, position, profit, and possessions, as well as fear of the law and of loss of life: 1077, 1080, 1835. People who have no conscience and yet allow themselves to be controlled by these external restraints can still function well in high offices in this world and do just as much good as people who do have a conscience; but the restraints under which the former are operating are external and the things they do are good outwardly, whereas the restraints under which the latter are operating are internal and the things they do are good inwardly: 6207.
[7] People who do not have a conscience try to destroy the conscience of people who do: 1820. People who have no conscience in this world have no conscience in the other life either: 965, 9122. This means that for people in hell there is no torment of conscience on account of the evil things they did in this world: 965, 9122.
[8] The identity and nature of people who are hyperconscientious: 3 how hard they are on others, and what they correspond to in the spiritual world: 5386, 5724.
[9] People from the Lord's spiritual kingdom have a conscience, and it takes shape in their intellect: 863, 865, 875, 895, 927, 1043, 1044, 1555, 2256, 4328, 4493, 5113, 8521, 9115, 9915, 9995, 10124. People who are in the Lord's heavenly kingdom have something higher than conscience: 927, 1043, 4493, 5113, 6367, 8521, 9915, 9995, 10124.
Бележки под линия:
1. Much later in Swedenborg's body of work, in True Christianity 665, he provides an account of a memorable occurrence that lays out in further detail various theories regarding the nature of conscience. [JSR]
2. The Latin term here translated "spiritual crisis," tentatio, is used in a particular way in Swedenborg's theology, yet the process to which it refers is sufficiently multifaceted that no single English equivalent will suffice in all contexts. It has traditionally been translated "trial" or "temptation," an echo of its use in the Bible (see, for example,Psalms 95:9; Matthew 26:41; Luke 4:1-13; James 1:2-3, 12-14; Revelation 3:10). In the present edition it is at times alternatively translated "inner conflict" or "assault," "struggle," "crisis," "test," "trial," "temptation," or "enticement," depending on context. Tentatio has six major meanings in Swedenborg's theology, all of which relate to its root meaning of "trying," and all of which are used to express various aspects of a human being's experience during a crisis of the spirit. It denotes: 1. "an assault" or "attack," because this is how Swedenborg says such a crisis begins-as an attack from hell ( Secrets of Heaven 1690); 2. "an attempt," because such attacks are an attempt on the part of hell to control the individual ( New Jerusalem 190); 3. "a putting to the test" or "a being put to the test," because although hell may not have a "putting to the test" as its goal, spiritual crises serve to test the individual, and in them one could be said to succeed or fail (in the sense that either the individual allows the Lord to be victorious or the individual succumbs; see New Jerusalem 192); 4. "an enticement to evil," because enticement is an aspect of the assault: hell attacks the good things that the individual's inner self loves by inflaming desires and stirring up unclean thoughts and impulses that still reside in the outer self ( New Jerusalem 196); 5. "a battle" or "combat," namely, between heaven and hell, because a struggle occurs as heaven resists and counters the attack from hell ( Secrets of Heaven 6657[2]; Revelation Unveiled 100); 6. "a harrowing, painful, trying experience," usually culminating in utter despair and followed by consolation ( Secrets of Heaven 1787; New Jerusalem 196), because this is how a spiritual crisis feels to the individual. Perhaps the three meanings used most commonly in Swedenborg's theology are the first, the fifth, and the sixth: attack on, battle within, and harrowing of the individual. For a general overview of this topic with abundant references to Secrets of Heaven, see New Jerusalem 187-201. [JSR]
3. The Latin word here translated "hyperconscientious" is conscientiosi. It refers to people afflicted by continuous, severe, and unreasonable guilt about their sinfulness. This is a state of "melancholy," or depressive habit of mind, long decried as harmful in the Christian church. In the Protestant tradition, Bishop John Moore of Norwich (1646-1714) is recorded to have spoken on the topic in 1691 (López-Ibor and López-Ibor Alcocer 2010, 227); in the Catholic tradition, Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori (1696-1787) wrote a small treatise against it (Liguori [1751] 1999, 209-216). In technical religious parlance it is referred to as "scrupulosity" or "scrupulous conscience"; in modern psychological practice it has also been called "scrupulosity" and is understood as a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder (Abramowitz and Jacoby 2014, 140-149). (In this use, "scruple" is understood negatively as a doubt based on trifling grounds, a meaning that is paralleled in Swedenborg's use of the Latin term scrupulus in Secrets of Heaven 6479; Spiritual Experiences [= Swedenborg 1998-2013] §3667. Compare the Oxford English Dictionary, under "scruple 2," definition 1.) For other passages in which these "hyperconscientious" people are mentioned, see True Christianity 562:1, 665:7; Spiritual Experiences 1240. Compare also Marriage Love 271. [JFS, SS]
