COMPENDIUM

OF

THE THEOLOGICAL AND SPIRITUAL WRITINGS

OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.

INTRODUCTORY.

Swedenborg's Own State and Professions. 1. WHATEVER of worldly honor and advantage may appear to be in the things before mentioned, (family descent, connections, worldly offices, honors, travels, scientific and philosophical attainments, &c.,) I hold them but as matters of low estimation, when compared to the honor of that holy office to which the Lord Himself hath called me, who has graciously pleased to manifest himself to me, his unworthy servant, in a personal appearance in the year 1743, to open in me a sight of the spiritual world, and to enable me to converse with spirits and angels. From that time I began to print and publish various unknown arcana, that have either been seen by me or revealed to me, concerning heaven and hell, the state of men after death, the true worship of God, the spiritual sense of the Scriptures, and many other important truths tending to salvation and true wisdom. - Letter to Rev. Thomas Hartley, London, 1769.

2. Since the Lord cannot manifest Himself in person, as has been shown just above, and yet he has foretold that He would come and establish a New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, it follows, that He is to do it by means of a man, who is able not only to receive the doctrines of this church with his understanding, but also to publish them by the press. That the Lord has manifested Himself before me, his servant, and sent me on this office, and that, after this, He opened the sight of my spirit, and thus let me into the spiritual world, and gave me to see the heavens and the hells, and also to speak with angels and spirits, and this now continually for many years, I testify in truth; and also that, from the first day of that call, I have not received any thing which pertains to the doctrines of that church from any angel, but from the Lord alone, while I read the Word.-T. C. R. 779.

in the spirit and at the same time in the body, and only several times out of the body. That Ezekiel, Zechariah, Daniel, and John when he wrote the Revelation, were in that state, is evident. — T. C. R. 157.

4. Instead of miracles, there has taken place at the present day an open manifestation of the Lord Himself, an intromission into the spiritual world, and with it illumination by immediate light from the Lord in whatever relates to the interior things of the church, but principally an opening of the spiritual sense of the Word, in which the Lord is present in his own divine light. These revelations are not miracles, because every man as to his spirit is in the spiritual world, without separation from his body in the natural world. As to myself, indeed, my presence in the spiritual world is attended with a certain separation, but only as to the intellectual part of my mind, not as to the will part. This manifestation of the Lord, and intromission into the spiritual world, is more excellent than all miracles; but it has not been granted to any one since the creation of the world as it has been to me. The men of the golden age indeed conversed with angels; but it was not granted to them to be in any other light than what is natural. To me, however, it has been granted to be in both spiritual and natural light at the same time; and hereby I have been privileged to see the wonderful things of heaven, to be in company with angels, just as I am with men, and at the same time to pursue truths in the light of truth, and thus to perceive and be gifted with them, consequently to be led by the Lord. — Spir. Diary.

5. I foresee that many, who read the Relations after the chapters, will believe that they are inventions of the imagination; but I assert in truth, that they are not inventions, but were truly seen and heard; not seen and heard in any state of the mind buried in sleep, but in a state of full wakefulness. For it has pleased the Lord to 3. Since by the spirit of man is meant his manifest Himself to me, and to send me to teach mind, therefore, BY BEING IN THE SPIRIT, which those things which will be of his New Churcn, is sometimes said in the Word, is meant a state of which is meant by the New Jerusalem in the the mind separate from the body; and because, in Revelation; for which end He has opened the that state, the prophets saw such things as exist interiors of my mind or spirit, by which it has been in the spiritual world, therefore that is called the given me to be in the spiritual world with angels, vision of God. Their state, then, was such as and at the same time in the natural world with that of spirits themselves is, and angels in that men, and this now for twenty-seven years. Who world. In that state, the spirit of man, like his in the Christian world would have known any mind as to sight, may be transported from place thing concerning HEAVEN AND HELL, unless it to place, the body remaining in its own. This is had pleased the Lord to open in some one the the state in which I have now been for twenty-sight of his spirit, and to show and teach? — T. six years, with this difference, that I have been C. R. 851.

as was before said, a greater or less society, a kingdom or empire, the church, and also the angelic heaven. Take away from them love and wisdom, and think whether they are any thing, and you will discover, that without these, as grounds of their existence, they are nothing. - D. L. W. 28. 11. In consequence of the Divine Essence Itself being love and wisdom, all things in the universe have relation to good and truth; for all that proceeds from love is called good, and all that proceeds from wisdom is called truth. D. L. W.31. The Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom are

6. That the things which I learned in representa- | upon these two, and without these two, they are tions, visions, and from discourses with spirits and nothing. Similar is the case with all things of angels, are from the Lord alone. Whenever there the life of man, in his compound state, which is, was any representation, vision, and discourse, I was kept interiorly and most interiorly in reflection upon it, as to what thence was useful and good, thus what I might learn therefrom; which reflection was not thus attended to by those who presented the representations and visions, and who were speaking; yea, sometimes they were indignant, when they perceived that I was reflecting. Thus have I been instructed; consequently by no spirit, nor by any angel, but by the Lord alone. from whom is all truth and good: yea, when they wished to instruct me concerning various things, there was scarcely any thing but what was false: wherefore I was prohibited from believing any thing that they spake; nor was I permitted to infer any such thing as was proper to them. Besides, when they wished to persuade me, I perceived an interior or most interior persuasion that the thing was such, and not as they wished; which also they wondered at: the perception was manifest, but cannot be easily described to the apprehension of men. -S. D.

1647.

PART I.

GENERAL TRUTHS OF CHRISTIANITY.
SECT. 1. CONCERNING GOD.
Importance of a correct Idea of God.

7. The idea of God enters into every thing belonging to the church, religion, and worship; and theological matters have their residence above all others in the human mind, and among these the idea of God is the principal or supreme; wherefore, if this be false, all beneath it, in consequence of the principle from whence they flow, must likewise be false or falsified; for that which is supreme, being also the inmost, constitutes the very essence of all that is derived from it; and the essence, like a soul, forms them into a body, after its own image; and when in its descent it lights upon truths, it even infects them with its own blemish and error. — D. J. 40.

8. Upon a just idea of God, the universal heaven, and the church universal on earth, are founded, and in general the whole of religion; for by that idea there is conjunction, and by conjunction, light, wisdom, and eternal happiness. — Preface

to A. R.

a Substance and a Form.

12. The cominon idea of men, concerning love and wisdom, is that of something volatile and floating in subtile air or ether; or of an exhalation from something of the kind; scarcely any one thinks that they are really and actually a substance and a form. Those, who see that they are a substance and a form, nevertheless perceive love and wisdom out of their subject, as issuing from it; and what they perceive out of the subject, as issuing from it, although it be perceived as something volatile and floating, they also call and wisdom are the subject itself, and that what a substance and a form; not knowing that love is perceived without it, as something volatile and floating, is only an appearance of the state of the subject within itself. The causes, why this has not heretofore been seen, are several: one is, that appearances are the first things, from which the human mind forms its understanding, and that it cannot shake them off, but by an investigation cannot investigate it, without keeping the underof the cause, and if the cause lies very deep, it it cannot keep it long, by reason of the natural standing, for some time, in spiritual light, in which light, which continually draws it down. Nevertheless, the truth is, that love and wisdom are, a real and actual substance and form, and constitute the subject itself.

13. But as this is contrary to appearance, it may seem not to merit belief, unless it be demonstrated, and it cannot be demonstrated, except by such things as a man can perceive by his bodily senses; wherefore, by them, it shall be demonstrated. A man has five senses, which are called feeling, taste, smell, hearing, and sight. The 9. All who come into heaven have their place subject of feeling is the skin, with which a man allotted them there, and hence everlasting joy skin causing it to feel what is applied; the sense is encompassed, the substance and form of the according to their idea of God, because this idea reigns universally in every particular of worship. of feeling is not in the things which are applied, And inasmuch as God is universally and particu- but in the substance and form of the skin, which larly in all things of religion and worship, there- is the subject; the sense is only an affection fore, unless it be a just idea of God, no commu- thereof, from things applied. It is the same with nication can be given with the heavens. Hence it is that in the spiritual world every nation has its place according to its idea of God as a man, for in this and in no other is the idea of the Lord.-H. D.

The Divine Essence itself is Love and Wisdom. 10. If you collect together all the things that you know, and place them under the intuition of your mind, and inquire, in some elevation of spirit, what is the universal of them all, you cannot conclude otherwise than that it is love and wisdom; for these two principles are the essentials of all things of the life of man: all things civil, moral, and spiritual, belonging to him, depend

the taste; this sense is only an affection of the substance and form of the tongue; the tongue is the subject. It is the same with the smell: that odors affect the nose, and are in the nose, and that there is an affection thereof, from odoriferous substances touching it, is well known. It is the same with the hearing; it appears as if the heating were in the place where the sound begins; but the hearing is in the ear, and is an affection of its substance and form; that the hearing is at a distance from the ear, is an appearance. It is the same with the sight; it appears, when a man sees objects at a distance, as if the sight were there, but nevertheless, it is in the eye, which is the subject, and is, in like manner, an affection

thereof; the distance is only from the judgment, | father, whose minds, manners, and faces are simiconcluding concerning space from intermediate lar, so that they mutually recognize each other. objects, or from the diminution and consequent obscuration of the object, whose image is produced within the eye, according to the angle of incidence. Hence it appears, that the sight does not go from the eye to the object, but that the image of the object enters the eye, and affects its substance and form; for it is the same with the sight, as it is with the hearing; the hearing does not go out of the ear to catch the sound, but the sound enters the ear and affects it. Hence it may appear, that the affection of a substance and form, which constitutes the sense, is not a thing separate from the subject, but only causes a change in it, the subject remaining the subject then, as before, and after. Hence it follows, that the sight, hearing, smell, taste, and feeling, are not any thing volatile flowing from those organs, but that they are the organs themselves, considered in their substance and form, and that whilst they are affected, the sense is produced.

The angelic heaven is arranged into societies according to all the varieties of the love of good; which varieties aim at one most universal love, which is love to God; from this love are propagated all those who in faith acknowledge, and in heart worship, one God, the Creator of the universe, and at the same time the Redeemer and Regenerator. But the case is altogether different with those who do not approach and worship one God, but several; and also with those who profess one with their lips, and at the same time think of three, as do those in the church at this day, who distinguish God into three persons, and declare that each person by himself is God, and attribute to each separate qualities or properties, which do not belong to either of the others. Hence it comes to pass, that not only the unity of God is actually divided, but also theology itself, and likewise the human mind, in which it should reside; what thence can result but perplexity and incoherency in the things of the church? The truth is, that the division of God, or of the Divine Essence, into three persons, each of which by himself, or singly, is God, leads to the denial of God. — T. C. R. 15.

14. It is the same with love and wisdom, with this only difference, that the substances and forms which are love and wisdom, are not extant before the eyes, like the organs of the external senses; but still no one can deny, that those things of wisdom and love, which are called thoughts, percep- 18. Awaking on a time out of sleep, I fell into tions, and affections, are substances and forms, a profound meditation about God; and when I and that they are not volatile entities, flowing looked upwards, I saw in the heaven above me a from nothing, or abstracted from that real and ac- very bright light of an oval form; as I fixed my tual substance and form, which is the subject. eyes attentively upon that light, it receded graduFor there are in the brain, innumerable substances ally from the centre towards the circumference, and forms, in which every interior sense, which and lo! then heaven was opened before me, and has relation to the understanding and the will, I beheld magnificent scenes, and saw angels resides. All the affections, perceptions, and standing in the form of a circle on the southern thoughts there, are not exhalations from the sub-side of the opening, and in conversation with each stances, but they are actually and really the subjects, which do not emit any thing from themselves, but only undergo changes, according to the influences which affect them, as may evidently appear from what has been said above concerning the senses.

15. Hence it may first be seen, that the divine love and the divine wisdom in themselves, are substance and form, for they are Esse itself and Existere itself; and if they were not such an Esse and Existere as they are substance and form, they would only be an imaginary entity, which, in itself, is nothing. — D. L. W. 40-43.

God is One.

16. That there is an influx from God into the souls of men, that God is one, is because all the Divine, taken universally as well as particularly, is God; and because all the Divine coheres as one, it cannot but inspire into man the idea of one God; and this idea is corroborated daily, as man is elevated by God into the light of heaven; for the angels, in their light, cannot force themselves to utter the word Gods; wherefore, also, their speech, at the close of every sentence, terminates as to accent in unity, which is from no other cause than from the influx into their souls, that God is one.-T. C. R. 8.

17. He who in faith acknowledges, and in heart worships, one God, is in the communion of saints on earth, and in the communion of angels in heaven; they are called communions, and they are so, because they are in one God, and one God is in them. The same are also in conjunction with the whole angelic heaven, and I might venture to say, with all and every one there, for they are all as the children and posterity of one

other; and because I earnestly desired to know what they conversed about, it was permitted me first to hear the sound of their voices, which was full of celestial love, and afterwards to distinguish their speech, which was full of wisdom flowing from that love; they conversed together concerning the one God, of conjunction with him, and salvation thereby. The matter of their discourse was for the most part ineffable, there being no words in any natural language adapted to convey its meaning; but I had sometimes been in consort with angels in their heaven, and being at such times in a similar state with them, was also in the use and understanding of their language; therefore I was now able to comprehend what they said, and to collect some particulars from their conversation, which may be intelligibly expressed in the words of natural language. They said that the Divine Esse is the One, the Same, the Itself, and the Indivisible, in like manner also the Divine Essence, because the Divine Esse is the Divine Essence, and in like manner also God, because the Divine Essence, which is also the Divine Esse, is God. This they illustrated by spiritual ideas; saying, that the Divine Esse cannot possibly belong to several so as to be a Divine Esse in each of them, and yet remain one, immutably the Same, the Itself, and the Indivisible, for each of them would think from his own particular esse, and by himself; if he then also thought at the same time from the others, and by the others unanimously, they would be several unanimous Gods, and not one God; for unanimity, being a consent of several, and, at the same time, of each from himself and by himself, does not accord with the unity of God, but implies plurality: they did not say of Gods, because they could

Truth, and the Life;" and in another place: "As the Father hath life, in himself, so hath he given the Son also to have life in himself;" life in itself is God. To this they added, that he who is in any spiritual light, may perceive from what has been said, that the Divine Esse, which also is the Divine Essence, being the One, the Same, the Itself, and, of consequence, the Indivisible, cannot possibly exist in more than one; and that if it should be supposed to exist, manifest contradictions would follow such a supposition.

not, for the light of heaven, which gave birth to | Father, thus divine life, which is life in itself; but their thought, and in which their discourse pro- the case is otherwise with every man; in him ceeded, resisted; they said also that when they the soul is not life, but a recipient of life; the Lord attempted to pronounce the word Gods, and each also taught this, by saying, "I am the Way, the as a distinct person by himself, the effort of utterance fell of itself into the expression of one, yea, of one only God. Again: they proved that the Divine Esse is the Divine Esse in itself, not from itself, because from itself supposes an esse in itself from which it is derived; thus it supposes a God from a God, which is impossible; that which is from God is not called God, but is called divine, for what is a God from a God, thus what is a God born from eternity from a God, and what is a God proceeding from a God through a God born from eternity, but words in which there is no light whatever from heaven. It is otherwise, however, with the Lord Jesus Christ; in him is the Divine Esse itself from which all things are to which the soul in man corresponds; the Divine Humanity, to which the body in man corresponds, and the proceeding divine to which activity in man corresponds; this trine is one, because from the divine from which all things are, is the Divine Humanity, and thence from the divine, from which all things are through the Divine Humanity, is the proceeding divine. Therefore also in every angel and in every man, inasmuch as they are images, there is a soul, a body, and activity which make a one because the body is derived from the soul, and activity is from the soul through the body. They said, moreover, that the Divine Esse, which in itself is God, is the same, not simply the same, but infinitely the same, that is, the same from eternity to eternity; it is the same every where, and the same with every one and in every one, whilst all variableness and changeableness is in the recipient, and arises from the state of the recipient. That the Divine Esse, which in itself is God, is the Itself, or the very essential Self, they thus explained; God is the very essential Self or the Itself, because he is love itself, wisdom itself, good itself, truth itself, life itself; which, unless they each were the Itself in God, there would not be any thing of the kind in heaven and in the world, because there would not be any thing of them having relation to the Itself or Him; all quality derives its quality from this condition of its existence, that there be an essential self from whence it is derived, and to which it has relation as the cause of its peculiar quality. This essential Self or this Itself, which is the Divine Esse, is not in place, but with those and in those who are in place, according to reception of love and wisdom; and seeing that of goodness and truth, which are the Itself in God, yea, God himself, place cannot be predicated, or progression from place to place, but progression without place, whence there is omnipresence: wherefore the Lord says, that he is in the midst of them; also that he is in them and they in him. But since he cannot be received by any one such as he is in himself, he appears such as he is in himself as a sun above the angelic heavens, from which that which proceeds as light is himself as to wisdom, and that which proceeds as heat is himself as to love. He himself is not that sun; but the divine love and divine wisdom in their proximate emanation from him, and round about him, appear as a sun before the angels: himself in the sun is man, being our Lord Jesus Christ both with respect to the all-begetting divinity, (divinum a quo,) and with respect to the Divine Humanity, inasmuch as the Itself, which is love itself and wisdom itself, was his soul from the

As I listened to this discourse, the angels perceived in my thought the common ideas entertained in the Christian church of a trinity of person's in unity, and their unity in trinity with respect to God, as also of the birth of the Son of God from eternity; whereupon they said to me, "What notions are these which thou entertainest? are they not the offspring of natural light, wherewith our spiritual light hath no agreement? Unless, therefore, you remove these ideas from your mind, we must shut heaven against you and take our leave;" but I replied, "Enter, I beseech you, more deeply into my thought, and possibly you will discover it to be in agreement with your own." And they did so, and perceived that by three persons I understood three proceeding divine attributes, which are creation, salvation, and reformation, and that these attributes belong to the one God; and that by the birth of the Son of God from eternity, I understood his birth foreseen from eternity, and provided for in time: and then I told them, that my natural idea concerning the trinity and unity of persons, and concerning the birth of the Son of God from eternity, had been contracted from the doctrine of faith of the church, which has its name from Athanasius, and that that doctrine is just and right, provided, instead of a trinity of persons you there understand a trinity of person, which exists only in the Lord Jesus Christ, and instead of the birth of the Son of God, you understand his birth foreseen from eternity and provided for in time, because with respect to the humanity, which he took upon him in time, he is expressly called the Son of God. Then said the angels, "It is well;" and they desired me to declare upon their testimony, that whosoever does not approach the true God of heaven and earth cannot have entrance into heaven, inasmuch as heaven is heaven from that one God, and that that God is Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah the Lord, from eternity Creator, in time Savior, and to eternity Regenerator, who is therefore at once the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. After this the heavenly light, which I had before seen, returned over the aperture, and by degrees descended thence and filled the interiors of my mind, and illuminated my natural ideas concerning the unity and trinity of God; and then I perceived that the ideas which I had originally entertained on this subject, and which were merely natural, were separated as chaff is separated from the wheat by winnowing, and carried away as by a wind to the northern part of heaven, and there disappeared.-A. R. 961.

Infinity and Eternity of God.

19. Men cannot but confound the Divine Infinity with infinity of space; and as they cannot conceive of the infinity of space as being other than a mere nothing, as it really is, they disbelieve the Divine