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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 #732

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732. After discussion the first group, which was from the north, said that heavenly joy and everlasting happiness are really one with life in heaven. 'Everyone therefore,' they said, 'who comes into heaven, comes to enjoy the festivities which make up life there, just as anyone going to a wedding enjoys the festivities there. Heaven is within our sight above us, isn't it, and so in a place? There and nowhere else is bliss on top of bliss, pleasures on top of pleasures. Anyone on coming into heaven is plunged into these, to the utmost of his mental perception and to the utmost of his bodily sensation, because the joys of that place are so intense. So heavenly happiness, which is also everlasting, is nothing more than being admitted to heaven; admission is by God's grace.'

[2] When they had made this speech, the second group from the north out of their wisdom made the following prophecy: 'Heavenly joy and everlasting happiness are simply the most entertaining meetings with angels, and the most charming conversations with them. This keeps their faces constantly wreathed in smiles, and the mouths of the whole assembly laughing sweetly at their soft words and witty speech. What are the joys of heaven but variations on this theme for ever?'

[3] The third group, the first of the wise from the western quarter, from thinking about their affections made this declaration: 'What are heavenly joy and everlasting happiness but feasting with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Their tables will be supplied with rich and dainty dishes, fine wines and noble vintages; and after the banquet there will be games and dances by girls and youths to the music of bands and pipes, with interludes of the sweetest singing of songs. Then finally towards evening there will be theatrical performances, and after this another banquet, and so on every day for ever.'

[4] Following this statement from the fourth group, the second from the west, pronounced its opinion. 'We have held,' they said, 'numerous ideas about heavenly joy and everlasting happiness, and we have looked into various joys and compared one with another; and we have come to the conclusion that the joys of heaven are the joys of a garden. What is heaven but a garden stretching from east to west and from south to north, containing fruit trees and delightful flowers? In the middle will be the magnificent tree of life, around which the blessed will sit, feeding on fruits of exquisite flavour, and decked with garlands of flowers with the sweetest scent. Under the breezes of a perpetual spring these will grow time and again in infinite variety day by day. Their perpetual growth and flowering, as well as the constant spring climate, will inevitably refresh the mind, so as to take in and imbibe new joys day by day, and bring people back to the flower of youth and so to the primeval state, which Adam and his wife were created to enjoy. Thus they will be returned to their garden of Eden, now transferred from earth to heaven.'

[5] The fifth group, which was the first group of clever people from the south, made the following statement: 'Heavenly joys and everlasting happiness are simply surpassing dominions and the richest treasures, which will confer magnificence beyond the reach of kings, and splendour beyond compare. We have grasped that these must be the joys of heaven and their continued enjoyment, which is everlasting happiness, by considering those in the previous world who attained this state. Moreover, we infer this from the fact that the happy are to reign in heaven with the Lord, and be kings and princes, because they are the sons of Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords; and they will sit upon thrones being waited on by angels. We have grasped the magnificence of heaven from the fact that the New Jerusalem, which is used to describe the glories of heaven, will have each of its gates made out of a single pearl, streets of pure gold, and precious stones for the foundations of its wall. So everyone who is received into heaven will have his mansion gleaming with gold and precious substances, and the rule will pass in turn from one to another. Knowing as we do that in such things joys are inherent and happiness is immanent, and that God's promises can never be broken, we have been able to conclude that the happiest state of life in heaven is from this source and no other.'

[6] After this the sixth group, which was the second from the south, spoke up and said: 'The joy of heaven and its everlasting happiness are simply a perpetual glorifying of God, one long festival lasting for ever, and a most blessed act of worship with songs and shouts of triumph. Thus our hearts will be constantly lifted up to God in full confidence that our prayers and praises will be acceptable on account of God's munificence in blessing us.' Some of the group added that this glorifying of God will be accompanied by magnificent lamps, the most fragrant incense, and processions of great pomp, with the chief priest leading the way with a great horn, followed by the bishops and dignitaries of higher and lower rank, and finally by the men with palms and the women with images made of gold in their hands.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Conjugial Love #77

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77. The third account:

The next day my angel guide and companion came again and said, "Prepare yourself, and let us go to the inhabitants of heaven in the west, who are some of the people who lived in the third period or copper age. The places where they live stretch from the south across the west towards the north, but not extending into the north."

So, having prepared myself, I accompanied him, and entering their heaven from the south side, we found there a magnificent grove of palm trees and laurels. We passed through it, and then on its western border we saw giants twice the height of ordinary people.

They interrogated us. "Who let you in through the grove?"

The angel said, "The God of heaven."

And they replied, "We are guards to the ancient western heaven. But go ahead and pass."

[2] So we passed, and from a watch-tower we saw a mountain rising to the clouds, and between us in the tower and that mountain we saw villages after villages, with gardens, groves and fields in between. We then passed through the villages to the mountain and ascended. And lo, at its summit was not a peak but a plateau, and on it a city widely extended and spread out. All of its houses, moreover, were made out of wood from resinous trees, and their roofs out of wooden planks.

I asked, "Why are the houses here made of wood?"

The angel answered, "Because wood symbolizes natural goodness, and the people of the third age on the earth were in this state of goodness. And because copper also symbolizes natural goodness, therefore the age in which they lived was named after copper by people of earlier times.

"There are also sacred halls here, built out of boards of olive wood, and in the middle of them is a sanctuary, containing in an ark the Word given to the inhabitants of Asia before the Word which the Israelites had. Its narrative books are called the Wars of Jehovah, and the prophetical books, Oracles, both referred to by Moses (Numbers 21:14-15,27-30).

"In the kingdoms of Asia it has now been lost, and it is preserved only in Great Tartary."

The angel then led me to one of the buildings, and looking in, we saw in the middle of it the sanctuary, all bathed in a brilliant white light. And the angel said: "The light comes from that ancient Asiatic Word, for all Divine truth shines with light in heaven."

[3] As we were going out of the building, we heard it had been reported in the city that two strangers were about, and that they were to be investigated to find out where they came from and what their business was here. Moreover, an attendant came running from the court and ordered us to appear for a hearing.

When we were then asked where we came from and what our business was here, we replied, "We passed through a grove of palm trees and then through the abodes of giants, the ones who guard your heaven, and afterwards through a stretch of villages. You may conclude from this that we have come here, not of ourselves, but thanks to the God of heaven. As for our business, the reason for our coming, it is to be instructed regarding your marriages, to find out whether they are monogamous or perhaps polygamous."

They replied, "What are polygamous marriages? Are they not forms of licentiousness?"

[4] Then the panel of magistrates there selected someone intelligent to instruct us in his own home about this matter. And when we arrived at his house, he called his wife to his side and said the following:

"The earliest or most ancient people were in a state of truly conjugial love, and they therefore experienced the strength and power of that love, more than any other peoples in the world. They are now in a most blissful state in their heaven, which is in the east. We have precepts from them regarding marriage which we have preserved among us. We are their descendants, and they have handed down rules of life to us, like fathers to sons, and the rules which have to do with marriage include this maxim:

Children, if you wish to love God and the neighbor, and if you wish to be wise and be happy to eternity, we advise you to live monogamously. If you depart from this precept, all heavenly love will escape you, and with it inward wisdom, and you will become outcasts.

"We have obeyed, like children, this precept of our fathers, and we have perceived the truth in it. The truth we perceived is that a person becomes heavenly and internal to the extent that he loves his married partner only, and that a person becomes natural and external to the extent that he does not love his married partner only. In the latter case, he loves no one but himself and the imaginations of his own mind, and he is foolish and stupid.

[5] "This is why all of us in our heaven are monogamous. And because we are, therefore all the boundaries of our heaven are guarded to keep out polygamists, adulterers and licentious people. If polygamists get in, they are cast out into the darkness of the north. If adulterers get in, they are cast out into the fires of the west. And if licentious people get in, they are cast out into the illusory lights of the south."

Hearing this I asked what he meant by the darkness of the north, the fires of the west, and the illusory lights of the south.

He answered that the darkness of the north was dullness of mind and ignorance of truths; that the fires of the west were loves of evil; and that the illusory lights of the south were falsifications of truth. "These last," he said, "are forms of spiritual licentiousness."

[6] After this he said, "Follow me to our treasure house."

So we followed, and he showed us some written documents of very ancient peoples, telling us that they wrote on wooden and stone tablets and afterwards on polished sheets of wood assembled into books, and that people of the second age wrote their records on parchments of animal skin. Then he brought out a parchment containing maxims of the earliest peoples transcribed from their stone tablets, including also the precept regarding marriage.

[7] When we had seen these records and others from very early antiquity, the angel said, "It is now time for us to go."

Then our host went out into the garden and took some sprigs from a tree, and, tying them into a bundle, he presented them, saying, "These sprigs come from a tree native or peculiar to our heaven, whose sap has the fragrance of balsam."

We took away this bundle of sprigs with us and descended by a way, over to the east, which was not guarded. And behold, the sprigs turned into shiny bronze and their very tips into gold, as a memento that we had been among a people of the third age, which is named after copper or bronze.

  
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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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