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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 #74

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74. The third experience.

I saw in the distance a number of people assembled with hats on their heads. Some had silk bands on their hats, to show they were clergymen; others, who were laymen, had the brims of their hats decorated with golden bands. All of them were educated and learned people. I also saw some people wearing caps 1 , and they were uneducated.

On approaching I heard them talking among themselves about unlimited Divine power, saying that if it operated according to some laws of order which had been passed, it would not be unlimited, but limited, and so power, but not omnipotence. 'But anyone can see,' they said, 'that no kind of compulsion could force omnipotence to act in one way and not another. To be sure, when we think about omnipotence and at the same time about laws of order which it is compelled to observe, our preconceived 2 notions about omnipotence collapse, like arms leaning on a broken stick.'

[2] Seeing me standing nearby some of them hastened up and said with some vehemence: 'Are you the man who has encumbered God with laws like fetters? What a presumptuous thing to do! By doing this you have shattered our faith, which is the basis of our salvation, in the midst of which we set the righteousness of the Redeemer, above it the omnipotence of God the Father, and we attach as an appendage the working of the Holy Spirit, which is effective while man is totally impotent in spiritual matters; all man needs to do is to proclaim the completeness of justification, which by Divine omnipotence is present in that faith. But I have been told that you see an empty void in that faith, because it contains nothing of Divine order on man's part.'

On hearing this I broke silence and said in a loud voice: 'Learn the laws of Divine order, and then open up your faith; you will see a vast desert and in it the long, sinuous Leviathan 3 surrounded by nets so knotted that they could never be disentangled. But do what we read Alexander did on seeing the Gordian knot; he drew his sword and cut it in two, so severing its contortions, threw it on the ground and trampled its strands under his heel.'

[3] This speech made the assembly bite their tongues, for they wanted to sharpen them to make a cutting reply; but they did not dare, because they saw heaven lying open above me, and heard a voice from there: 'Restrain yourselves and listen first to what order is, the laws of which Almighty God follows in His actions. God', the voice said 4 , 'created the universe from Himself in His capacity as Order, by order and to be subject to order. Likewise He created man, in whom He established the laws of his own order to make him an image and likeness of God. These are briefly, that he should believe in God and love the neighbour; so far as he applies his natural powers to performing those two actions, so far does he make himself a receiver of Divine omnipotence, and so far does God link Himself to him, and him to God. His faith thus becomes a living and saving faith, and his actions become charity, which also is living and saving. But it should be known that God is constantly present, continually striving and acting on the person, and touching his free will but never forcing it. For if God were to force a person's free will, his dwelling in God would be destroyed, and he would be left only with God's dwelling in him. This is something which all enjoy on earth as much as in heaven, and so do those in hell. For this is the source of their ability, will and understanding. The reciprocal dwelling of a person in God only occurs with those who live in accordance with the laws of order enacted in the Word; and these people become images and likenesses of Him, paradise is given them to possess, and the fruit of the tree of life to eat. The rest gather around the tree of knowledge of good and evil, talk with the serpent there, and eat of its fruit. But after this they are banished from paradise. Yet God does not abandon them; it is they who abandon God.'

[4] The people who wore hats understood and approved of this. But those who wore caps objected, saying: 'By this surely omnipotence is limited, and limited omnipotence is a contradiction in terms.'

'It is no contradiction,' I replied, 'to act omnipotently in accordance with the laws of righteousness with judgment, or according to the laws engraved upon love by wisdom. But it is a contradiction to say that God can act contrary to the laws of His own righteousness and love, for that would be to lack judgment and wisdom. It is that sort of contradiction your faith involves, if you believe that God can simply by grace justify the unrighteous, and mark him out by all the gifts of salvation and rewards of life. But I will tell you in a few words what God's omnipotence is. God by His omnipotence created the universe, and at the same time implanted order in every part of it. God also by His omnipotence preserves the universe and maintains order there with its laws for ever, and when anything slips out of order, brings it back and restores it. Moreover, God by His omnipotence established the church and in the Word revealed the laws of its order; and when it fell away from order, He restored it, and when its fall was complete, came down Himself into the world, and by assuming human form put on omnipotence and re-established it.

[5] 'God by His omnipotence and also omniscience examines everyone after death, and prepares the righteous or sheep for their places in heaven, to build up heaven from them; and prepares the unrighteous or goats for their places in hell, and builds up hell from them. Both heaven and hell He arranges into communities and assemblies in accordance with all the varieties in their love; there are as many of these in heaven as there are stars in the sky we see in the world. He links the communities in heaven into a unit, so that in His sight they are like one person, and likewise the assemblies in hell, so that they are like one devil. He separates one party from the other by an abyss, so that hell can offer no violence to heaven, nor can heaven torment hell. For those who are in hell suffer torment to the extent that they feel the influence of heaven. If God from His omnipotence were not doing all this at every moment, such savagery would overcome human beings that they could no longer be restrained by any laws of order, and thus the human race would be destroyed. These and similar things would happen, if God were not order, and omnipotent in order.'

On hearing this those who wore hats went away with their hats under their arms, praising God. (For in that world intelligent people wear hats.) But those who wore caps did not, because they are bald; and baldness is a sign of stupidity. These went off to the left, the others to the right.

Footnotes:

1. The Latin word tiara usually indicates some sort of oriental headdress; the distinction here intended may be the absence of brims.

2. The Latin has praeceptae meaning 'commanded', but praeconceptae 'preconceived' is probably intended.

3. This is the version Swedenborg follows of Isaiah 27:1 (e.g. at Arcana Caelestia 7293).

4. The Latin has 'it said' (i.e. the voice), but in view of the rest of this section dixit is probably a misprint for dixi 'I said'.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #503

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503. At this point I shall add some accounts of experiences. The first experience.

I heard that a meeting had been called to discuss man's free will in spiritual matters - this was in the spiritual world. There were present from every quarter learned men, who had thought about the subject in the world in which they had previously lived, and many of them had been at councils and synods, both before and after that of Nicaea. They gathered in a sort of circular temple, like the one at Rome known as the Pantheon, which was formerly dedicated to the worship of all the gods, but subsequently consecrated by the papacy to the cult of all the holy martyrs. Around the walls of the temple were what looked like altars; but each had chairs drawn up to it, on which those who had gathered sat, and rested their elbows on the altars as if they were so many tables. No one had been appointed to preside over their meeting, but one by one, as the fancy took them, they broke ranks and coming into the centre gave vent to and made known their opinion. To my surprise, all the members of this assembly were full of arguments in favour of man's complete lack of power in spiritual matters, and they ridiculed the idea of free will in this respect.

[2] When they were assembled one man suddenly rushed into the centre and cried out in a loud voice: 'Man has no free will in spiritual matters, any more than Lot's wife had after she was turned into a pillar of salt. For most certainly, if man had any more freedom, he would of his own accord claim as his own the faith of our church. This is that God the Father in complete freedom and at His good pleasure confers that faith as a free gift on whomever He wishes, whenever He wishes. God would never have this good pleasure nor make this free gift, if by some sort of freedom or good pleasure man could also claim it for himself. For if this happened, our faith, a star which shines before our eyes night and day, would be scattered into the air like a shooting star.'

He was followed by another man who jumped up from his seat and said: 'Man has no more free will in spiritual matters than an animal, or rather, than a dog, because, if he had, he would do good of his own accord, whereas all good comes from God, and man cannot get anything for himself but what is given to him from heaven.'

[3] He was followed by another who leaped up from his seat and spoke from the centre. He said that man has no more free will in spiritual matters, or even in discerning these, than an owl has in daylight, or rather, than a chick has while it is still hidden in the egg. 'In such matters he is as blind as a mole; for if he was a veritable Lynceus 1 to discern what has to do with faith, salvation and everlasting life, he would believe that he could regenerate and save himself, and would actually attempt it, thus profaning his thoughts and deeds with seeking more and more merit.'

Yet another ran out into the centre and delivered this utterance, that anyone of the opinion that he can will or understand anything in spiritual matters since the fall of Adam is raving and becoming deranged, since he would then believe himself to be a tin god or supernatural being, possessing in his own right some portion of God's power.

[4] He was followed by a man who came panting into the centre, carrying under his arm a book, called the Formula of Concord; the Evangelicals at the present time swear by what he called its orthodoxy. He opened it and read out the following passage:

Man with regard to good is utterly corrupt and dead, so that there has remained and subsists in man's nature since the fall before regeneration not so much as a spark of spiritual strength, to enable him to be prepared for God's grace or to seize it when it is offered; or to be capable of receiving that grace of his own accord by his own efforts; or in spiritual matters to understand, believe, endorse, think, will, begin, complete, act, work, co-operate or apply or adapt himself to grace, or to make any contribution, to the extent of a half or even the smallest part, to his conversion. In spiritual matters relating to the salvation of the soul man is like the pillar of salt which was Lot's wife, resembling a block of wood or stone devoid of life, without the use of the eyes, the mouth or any senses. However he has the power of movement and the control of his external members, so as to attend public gatherings and hear the Word and the Gospel. (pp. 656, 658, 661-663, 671-673 in my edition.)

After this all expressed their agreement, crying out together: 'This is true orthodoxy.'

[5] I was standing close by and listening intently to all this, and since in my spirit I was incensed I asked in a loud voice: 'If you make man in spiritual matters a pillar of salt, an animal, blind and mad, what then becomes of your theology? Is not everything in theology a spiritual matter?'

After a period of silence they replied to this: 'The whole of our theology contains nothing spiritual apprehensible by reason. Our faith is the only item in it which is spiritual. But we have carefully shut up our faith to prevent anyone looking into it, and have taken precautions to ensure that no gleam of spirituality escapes from it so as to become visible to the understanding. Moreover man does not by any choice of his own contribute a whit to it. We have also removed charity from any spiritual idea, making it purely a moral matter, and we have treated the Ten Commandments likewise. Neither do we teach that there is anything spiritual about justification, the forgiveness of sins, regeneration and salvation by this means. We say that faith brings these about, but how we have no idea. In place of repentance we have adopted contrition, but to prevent it being thought to be spiritual we have removed it from all contact with faith. Neither have we adopted any but purely natural ideas about redemption. These are, that God the Father placed the human race under sentence of damnation, His Son took that sentence upon Himself, and allowed Himself to be hung upon the cross, thus compelling His Father to have mercy; and we have many more such ideas, in which you will not be able to detect anything spiritual, but only what is completely natural.'

[6] But, so incensed had I already become, I went on to say: 'If man had no free will in spiritual matters, what would he be but a beast? Surely this is what gives him his superiority over mere beasts? What would the church be without it, but the blackened face of a wall-eyed fuller? What would the Word be without it, but a blank book? Is there anything the Word says and commands more often than that man is to love God and to love the neighbour, and he is to believe that his salvation and life depend upon how he loves and believes? Is there anyone who is unable to understand and do what is laid down in the Word and in the Ten Commandments? How could God have prescribed and commanded man to do such things, if He had not given him the capability to do them?

[7] Tell any peasant, someone whose mind is not bogged down in fallacies about theology, that in what concerns faith and charity and the salvation they bring he can no more understand and will than a block of wood or a stone, not even being able to devote himself to or fit himself for them, surely he will roar with laughter and say: "How crazy can you get? What need have I then of a priest and his sermons? How is a church then any better than a stable? How then is worshipping any better than ploughing? What madness it is to talk like that, piling folly on folly. Does anyone deny that all good is from God? Surely man is permitted to do good of himself by God's guidance? And it is much the same with believing."'

On hearing this they all cried: 'We gave an orthodox view based on orthodox principles, you have given a peasant's view based on peasants' principles.' Then suddenly a thunderbolt fell from the sky, and they rushed out in droves for fear it would burn them up, and they all went away, each to his own home.

Footnotes:

1. In Greek mythology a man famous for his acute vision.

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

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