Swedenborg Collected Works of Emanuel Swedenborg. Illustrated

Heaven and Hell, Divine love and Divine Wisdom, Divine Providence and others
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-0-88001-313-0
Verlag: Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 18169 Seiten

Emanuel Swedenborg became best known for his book on the afterlife, Heaven and Hell. At 53, he entered into a spiritual phase in which he began to experience dreams and visions. His experiences culminated in a 'spiritual awakening' in which he received a revelation that Jesus Christ had appointed him to write The Heavenly Doctrine to reform Christianity. The New Church, a new religious movement originally founded in 1787 and comprising several historically-related Christian denominations, reveres Swedenborg's writings as revelation. Contents:  Arcana Coelestia Heaven and Hell The Last Judgment The White Horse Earths in the Universe The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine The Athanasian Creed De Domino Prophets and Psalms The Word of the Lord from Experience Last Judgment Posthumous The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Concerning the Lord Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture Doctrine of Life Doctrine of Faith Continuation of The Last Judgement Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom Divine Providence Charity Apocalypse Revealed The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugal Love God the Saviour Canons Brief Exposition Interaction of the Soul and the Body Coronis Invitation to the New Church True Christian Religion Journal of Dreams  

Emanuel Swedenborg ( 8 February 1688 - 29 March 1772) was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, Heaven and Hell (1758).

Autoren/Hrsg.

Swedenborg, Emanuel

Weitere Mitwirkende

Potts, John Faulkner

Ager, John Curtis

Whitehead, John

Worcester, Samuel H.

Schreck, J.

Barrett, Benjamin Fiske

Theophilus, Carl

Leseproben

CHAPTER 2 (67) AS OF the Lord’s Divine mercy it has been given me to know the internal meaning of the Word, in which are contained deepest arcana that have not before come to anyone’s knowledge, nor can come unless the nature of the other life is known (for very many things of the Word’s internal sense have regard to, describe, and involve those of that life), I am permitted to disclose what I have heard and seen during some years in which it has been granted me to be in the company of spirits and angels. (68) I am well aware that many will say that no one can possibly speak with spirits and angels so long as he lives in the body; and many will say that it is all fancy, others that I relate such things in order to gain credence, and others will make other objections. But by all this I am not deterred, for I have seen, I have heard, I have felt. (69) Man was so created by the Lord as to be able while living in the body to speak with spirits and angels, as in fact was done in the most ancient times; for, being a spirit clothed with a body, he is one with them. But because in process of time men so immersed themselves in corporeal and worldly things as to care almost nothing for aught besides, the way was closed. Yet as soon as the corporeal things recede in which man is immersed, the way is again opened, and he is among spirits, and in a common life with them. (70) As it is permitted me to disclose what for several years I have heard and seen, it shall here be told, first, how the case is with man when he is being resuscitated; or how he enters from the life of the body into the life of eternity. In order that I might know that men live after death, it has been given me to speak and be in company with many who were known to me during their life in the body; and this not merely for a day or a week, but for months, and almost a year, speaking and associating with them just as in this world. They wondered exceedingly that while they lived in the body they were, and that very many others are, in such incredulity as to believe that they will not live after death; when in fact scarcely a day intervenes after the death of the body before they are in the other life; for death is a continuation of life. (71) But as these matters would be scattered and disconnected if inserted among those contained in the text of the Word, it is permitted, of the Lord’s Divine mercy, to append them in some order, at the beginning and end of each chapter; besides those which are introduced incidentally. (72) At the end of this chapter, accordingly, I am allowed to tell how man is raised from the dead and enters into the life of eternity.   CHAPTER 2 1. And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the army of them. 2. And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. 3. And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it, because that in it He rested from all His work which God in making created. 4. These are the nativities of the heavens and of the earth when He created them, in the day in which Jehovah God made the earth and the heavens. 5. And there was no shrub of the field as yet in the earth, and there was no herb of the field as yet growing, because Jehovah God had not caused it to rain upon the earth. And there was no man to till the ground. 6. And He made a mist to ascend from the earth, and watered all the faces of the ground. 7. And Jehovah God formed man, dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, and man became a living soul. 8. And Jehovah God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9. And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree desirable to behold, and good for food; the tree of lives also, in the midst of the garden; and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and was into four heads. 11. The name of the first is Pishon; that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12. And the gold of that land is good; there is bdellium and the onyx stone. 13. And the name of the second river is Gihon; the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Cush. 14. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel; that is it which goeth eastward toward Assyria; and the fourth river is Euphrates. 15. And Jehovah God took the man, and put him in the garden of Eden, to till it and take care of it. 16. And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden eating thou mayest eat. 17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, dying thou shalt die. (73) THE CONTENTS. When from being dead a man has become spiritual, then from spiritual he becomes celestial, as is now treated of (verse 1). (74) The celestial man is the seventh day, on which the Lord rests (verses 2, 3). (75) His knowledge and his rationality [scientificum et rationale ejus] are described by the shrub and the herb out of the ground watered by the mist (verses 5, 6). (76) His life is described by the breathing into him of the breath of lives (verse 7). (77) Afterwards his intelligence is described by the garden in Eden, in the east; in which the trees pleasant to the sight are perceptions of truth, and the trees good for food are perceptions of good. Love is meant by the tree of lives, faith by the tree of knowledge [scientiae] (verses 8-9). (78) Wisdom is meant by the river in the garden. From thence were four rivers, the first of which is good and truth; the second is the knowledge [cognitio] of all things of good and truth, or of love and faith. These are of the internal man. The third is reason, and the fourth is memory-knowledge [scientia], which are of the external man. All are from wisdom, and this is from love and faith in the Lord (verses 10-14). (79) The celestial man is such a garden. But as the garden is the Lord’s, it is permitted this man to enjoy all these things, and yet not to possess them as his own (verse 15). (80) He is also permitted to acquire a knowledge of what is good and true by means of every perception from the Lord, but he must not do so from himself and the world, nor search into the mysteries of faith by means of the things of sense and of memory-knowledge [sensualia et scientifica]; which would cause the death of his celestial nature (verses 16, 17). (81) THE INTERNAL SENSE. This chapter treats of the celestial man, as the preceding one did of the spiritual, who was formed out of a dead man. But as it is unknown at this day what the celestial man is, and scarcely what the spiritual man is, or a dead man, it is permitted me briefly to state the nature of each, that the difference may be known. First, then, a dead man acknowledges nothing to be true and good but what belongs to the body and the world, and this he adores. A spiritual man acknowledges spiritual and celestial truth and good; but he does so from a principle of faith, which is likewise the ground of his actions, and not so much from love. A celestial man believes and perceives spiritual and celestial truth and good, acknowledging no other faith than that which is from love, from which also he acts. [2] Secondly: The ends which influence a dead man regard only corporeal and worldly life, nor does he know what eternal life is, or what the Lord is; or should he know, he does not believe. The ends which influence a spiritual man regard eternal life, and thereby the Lord. The ends which influence a celestial man regard the Lord, and thereby His kingdom and eternal life. [3] Thirdly: A dead man, when in combat almost always yields, and when not in combat, evils and falsities have dominion over him, and he is a slave. His bonds are external, such as the fear of the law, of the loss of life, of wealth, of gain, and of the reputation which he values for their sake. The spiritual man is in combat, but is always victorious; the bonds by which he is restrained are internal, and are called the bonds of conscience. The celestial man is not in combat, and when assaulted by evils and falsities, he despises them, and is therefore called a conqueror. He is apparently restrained by no bonds, but is free. His bonds, which are not apparent, are perceptions of good and truth. (82) Verse 1. And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the army of them. By these words is meant that man is now rendered so far spiritual as to have become the “sixth day;” “heaven” is his internal man, and “earth” his external; “the army of them” are love, faith, and the knowledges thereof, which were previously signified by the great luminaries and the stars. That the internal man is called “heaven” and the external “earth” is evident from the passages of the Word already cited in the preceding chapter, to which may be added the following from Isaiah: I will make a man more rare than solid gold, even a man than the precious gold of Ophir; therefore I will smite the heavens with terror, and the earth shall be shaken out of its place (Isa. 13:12-13). Thou forgettest Jehovah thy Maker, that stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundations of the earth; but I will put My words in thy mouth, and I will hide thee in the shadow of My hand, that I may stretch out the heaven, and lay the foundation of the earth (Isa. 51:13, 16). From these words it is evident that both “heaven” and “earth” are predicated of man; for although they refer primarily to the Most Ancient church, yet the interiors of the Word are of such a nature that...