Selection from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
A Memorable Relation
"There are some not far from you who are reasoning sharply about God and about nature. The vibration of light like lightning and the rumbling of the air like thunder are the correspondences and thence the appearances of the contest and collision of arguments on one side in favor of God and on the other in favor of nature."The cause of this spiritual contest was this. There were certain satans in hell who said among themselves,
"Would that we might be permitted to speak with the angels of heaven, and we would show conclusively and fully that nature is that which they call God, from whom all things are, and thus that God is only a word unless nature is meant."And as the satans with their whole heart and soul believed this, and also longed to speak with the angels of heaven, it was given them to ascend out of the mire and darkness of hell, and to speak with two angels then come down from heaven. They were in the world of spirits, which is intermediate between heaven and hell.
The satans seeing the angels there, quickly ran up to them, and in a furious voice exclaimed,
"Are you the angels of heaven with whom it is permitted us to engage in reasoning about God and about nature? You are called wise because you acknowledge God; but O how simple you are! Who sees God? Who understands what God is? Who comprehends that God governs, and can govern, the universe and all and each thing of it? Who, but the common people and the rabble, (a large, noisy, uncontrolled group of people; people of a low social position), acknowledges what he does not see and understand? What is more obvious than that nature is all-in-all? Who sees anything but nature with the eye? Who hears anything but nature with the ear? Who perceives anything but nature by the smell? Who tastes anything but nature with the tongue? Who feels anything but nature by the touch of the hand and of the body? Are not the senses of our body the only witnesses of truth? Who cannot from then swear that a thing is so? Are not your heads in nature? Whence the influx into the thoughts of the head but from her? Take her away can you think anything?"Besides much other like matter.
Hearing this the angels responded,
"You speak in this way because you are merely sensual. All in the hells have the ideas of their thought immersed in the senses of the body, and cannot elevate the minds above them. We therefore excuse you. A life of evil, and thence the belief in what is false, have so closed the interiors of your minds that elevation above things sensual is with you impossible, except in a state removed from the evils of life and the falsities of faith. For a satan equally with an angel can understand truth when he hears it, but he does not retain it, because evil obliterates the truth and brings in falsity. But we perceive that you are now in a state thus removed, and that thus it is possible for you to understand the truth which we speak. Give attention then to what we say."And they said,
"You were in the natural world, died there, and now you are in the spiritual world. Did you before now know anything about a life after death? Did you not before deny it, and make yourselves equal with beasts? Did you before now know anything about heaven and hell? Or anything about the light and heat of this world? Or about the fact that you are no longer within nature, but above it? For this world and all things pertaining to it are spiritual; and spiritual things are above natural, so that not even the least of nature can flow into this world. But you, because you have believed nature to be a god or a goddess believe also the light and heat of this world to be the light and heat of the natural world; when in fact it is not so at all, for here natural light is thick darkness and natural heat here is cold. Did you know anything about the sun of this world from which our light and heat proceed? Did you know that this sun is pure love, and the sun of the natural world is pure fire? And that the sun of the world, which is pure fire, is that from which nature exists and subsists? And that the sun of heaven, which is pure love, is that whence life itself, which is love with wisdom, exists and subsists? And thus that nature, which you make a god or goddess, is manifestly dead? You can, if a guard is granted you, ascend with us into heaven; and we, if a guard is granted us can descend with you into hell. And in heaven you will see things magnificent and splendid; but in hell things squalid and unclean. The differences arise from the fact that all in heaven worship God, and all in hell worship nature; and those magnificent and splendid things in the heavens are the correspondences of the affections of good and of truth; and the squalid and unclean things in the hells are correspondences of the lusts of the evil and false. Judge now from these things and those whether God or nature is all-in-all."To this the satans replied,
"In the state in which we now are we are able to conclude from what we have heard that it is God; but when the delight of evil takes possession of our minds we see nothing but nature."The two angels and the two satans were standing not far from me on the right, so that I saw and heard them.
And lo! I saw many spirits around them, who in the natural world had been celebrated for learning, and I was surprised that these learned men stood now beside the angels, now beside the satans, and that they favored those beside whom they stood. And I was told that their changes of place were changes of their state of mind, favoring now one side now the other;
"For they are Vertumni.* And we will tell you a mystery. We have looked down upon earth, to those celebrated for learning who have thought according to their own judgment about God and about nature, and we find 600 out of a 1000 in favor of nature, and the rest in favor of God; but they were in favor of God because they had frequently said that nature is from God, not from any understanding, but only from what they had heard; and frequent speech from memory and recollection, though not at the same time from thought and intelligence, induces a sort of faith."After this a guard was given the satans and with the two angels they ascended into heaven, and saw magnificent and splendid things. And being then in illustration from the light of heaven there, they acknowledged that there is a God, and that nature is created to subserve the life which is in God and from God; and that nature in itself is dead, and so does nothing of itself, but is actuated by life.
Having seen and perceived these things they descended; and as they descended the love of evil returned, and closed their understanding above and opened it beneath. And then there appeared as it were a veil above it, flashing from infernal fire; and the instant their feet touched the earth the ground opened beneath them, and they sank down to their own.
After this the two angels, seeing me near, said of me to those standing by,
"We know that this man has written about God and about nature; let us hear him."And they came and asked that what had been written respecting God and nature might be read to them; and I read therefrom the following:
"They who believe in Divine operation in the single things of nature can confirm themselves in favor of the Divine by very many things that they see in nature, equally with, yea, better than those who confirm themselves in favor of nature. For those who confirm themselves in favor of the Divine consider the wonders that are visible in the production both of vegetables and animals. In the Productions of Vegetables, how that from a small seed cast into the earth there comes forth a root, by means of the root a stem, and successively branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit, even to new seeds, just as if the seed knew the order of succession or procession by which it is to renew itself. Can any rational man think that the sun which is pure fire knows this? Or that it can put it into its heat and light to effect such things? And that it can form the wonderful things within them and purpose use? A man whose rational is elevated when he sees and contemplates these things cannot but think that they are from Him who has infinite wisdom, that is from God. They also who acknowledge the Divine see and think this. But those that do not acknowledge do not see and think this, because they will not, and thus let their rational so far down into the sensual that it derives all its ideas from the light in which the senses of the body are and confirms their fallacies, saying, "Do you not see the sun operating these things by its heat and light? What is that which you do not see? Is it anything?
"They that confirm themselves in favor of the Divine consider also the wonders that are observable in The Production of Animals. To mention here only with respect to eggs, that within them lies hidden a chicken in its seed or inception, with every requisite until it is hatched from the shell, and also for its progression after it leaves the shell until it becomes a bird or flying thing in the form of its parent. And if one takes notice of the form, it is such that it cannot but excite amazement if he thinks profoundly; for that in the least as well as in the greatest of them, yea, in the invisible as in the visible, that is, in the minutest insects as in the large birds and beasts, there are organs of the senses, of sight, smell, taste, and touch; and organs of motion which are muscles, for they fly and walk; and viscera also around the heart and lungs which are actuated by brains. That even poor insects rejoice in such organs is known from their anatomy described by some, especially by Swammerdam in his Biblia Naturoe. They who ascribe all things to nature indeed see such things but think only that they exist, and say that nature produces them, and they say this because they have turned their mind away from thinking of the Divine, and those who have turned away from thought of the Divine, when they behold the wonderful things in nature cannot think rationally, much less spiritually, but think sensually and materially, and then think in nature from nature and not above it, in like manner as do those who are in hell, with only this difference from beasts, that they have the power of rationality, that is, that they can understand and so can think otherwise if they will.
"They who have turned themselves away from the thought of the Divine when they behold the wonderful things in nature, and thereby become sensual, do not reflect that the sight of the eye is so gross that it sees many minute insects as one obscure object, and yet that each one of these is organized to feel and to move itself, and so is provided with fibers, and vessels, and a little heart, and pulmonary tubes, and minute viscera, and brains, and that these are woven together out of the purest things in nature, and that these contextures correspond to some life by which the minutest of them are distinctly actuated. Since the sight of the eye is so gross that many such creatures, with the innumerable things in each, appear to it as one little obscure thing, and yet they who are sensual think and judge from that sight, it is manifest how their mind has become gross, and hence in what thick darkness they are as to spiritual things.
"Everyone can confirm himself in favor of the Divine from the visible things of nature if he will, and he in fact does confirm himself who thinks of God from life; as when he beholds the fowls of heaven, how every species of them knows its own food and where it is; knows its kind by sound and sight; and which among others are their friends and which their enemies; that they mate together, know how to copulate, skilfully build nests, lay eggs therein, sit upon them, know the period of incubation, which accomplished they hatch out the young, tenderly love them, cherish them under their wings, offer them their food and feed them, and this until they become mature and able to do the like and to procreate families to perpetuate their kind. Everyone who will think of the Divine influx through the spiritual world into the natural can see it in these things, and can also, if he will, say from his heart: Such knowledge cannot flow into these creatures from the sun through the rays of its light, for the sun from which nature takes its origin and its essence is pure fire, and the rays of its light are therefore altogether dead; and thus he can conclude that such things come from the influx of Divine wisdom into the ultimates of nature.
"Anyone can confirm himself in favor of the Divine from the visible things of nature, when he considers the caterpillars (vermes), which, from the delight of a certain longing, affect and aspire to a change of their terrestrial state for one having some analogy to the heavenly state; and to that end creep into hiding-places and commit themselves as it were to a womb that they may be born again; and there become chrysalids, aurelias, nymphs, and at length butterflies. And when this metamorphosis is passed, and according to their species they are invested with beautiful wings, they fly away into the air as into their heaven, and there disport genially, pair together, lay eggs, and provide for themselves a posterity, and nourish themselves the while with pleasant and sweet food from the flowers. Who that confirms himself in favor of the Divine from the visible things of nature does not see some image of the earthly state of man in these creatures as caterpillars? And an image of his heavenly state in them as butterflies? But those who confirm themselves in favor of nature see them indeed; but as they have rejected out of their mind the heavenly state of man, they call them mere instincts of nature.
"Everyone can confirm himself in favor of the Divine from the visible things of nature, if he considers what is known about bees; that they know how to gather wax and suck honey out of herbs and flowers; and to build cells like little houses, and dispose them in the form of a city, with streets through which they go in and by which they pass out; that from a long way off they scent the flowers and the herbs from which they gather wax for their house and honey for their food, and laden with these fly back, according to the quarter of the heavens, directly to their hive, and thus provide for themselves food and habitation for the coming winter just as if they knew and foresaw it. They also appoint over them a mistress like a queen, from whom a posterity is propagated, and build for her as it were a palace above them, with guards round about; and when the time of bringing forth is at hand she goes with her attendants from cell to cell and lays eggs, which the following crowd anoint that they may not be injured by the air. Thence comes to them a new progeny. Afterwards, when these are advanced to the age at which they can do the like they are expelled from the hive; and the excluded host gather themselves together in a swarm, in order that the band may not be scattered; they then fly thence to seek for them a home. Also about autumn they bring out the useless drones and deprive them of their wings, so that they may not return and consume the food whereon they bestowed no labor. Besides many other things, from which it is evident, that for the sake of the use that they perform for the human race, they have, by virtue of the influx from the spiritual world, a form of government such as there is with men on earth, yea, with the angels in heaven. What man with reason unimpaired does not see that such things with them are not from the natural world? What has the sun from which nature is in common with a government emulating and analogous to heavenly government? From these and things like these among brute animals, the confessor and worshiper of nature confirms himself in favor of nature; while from the same evidence the confessor and worshiper of God confirms himself in favor of the Divine, for the spiritual man sees spiritual things in them, and the natural man sees in them natural things. Thus everyone sees as he is.
For myself, such things have been to me testimonies of the influx of the spiritual into the natural, or of the spiritual world into the natural world, thus from the Divine wisdom of the Lord. Consider, also, whether you can think analytically of any form of government, or of any civil law, or of any moral virtue, or of any spiritual truth, unless the Divine out of His wisdom flows in through the spiritual world. As for me, I could not and cannot. Indeed I have perceptibly and sensibly observed the influx now continually for five and twenty years.** I therefore affirm this from having witnessed it.
"Can nature have use as an end? And dispose uses into orders and forms? This none but one who is wise can do. And none but God, who has infinite wisdom, can thus ordinate and form a universe. Who else could foresee and provide all things that men require for food and for raiment, food from the fruits of the earth and from animals, and raiment from the same? It is among the marvels that the vile caterpillars called silk-worms, clothe with silk and magnificently adorn both women and men, from queens and kings down to maidservants and menservants; and that creatures so lowly as bees furnish wax for the lights from which temples and palaces have their brightness. These facts, and many more, are conspicuous proofs that the Lord, for Himself through the spiritual world operates all things that are in nature.
"To this should be added, that there have been seen in the spiritual world those who have so confirmed themselves in favor of nature, from the visible things of the world, that they have become atheists; and that in spiritual light their understanding appeared open beneath but closed above, because in thought they look downwards to the earth, and not upwards towards heaven; above their sensual, which is the lowest of the understanding, appeared a veil as it were, with some flashing from infernal fire, with some black as from soot, and with some livid as a corpse.
Let everyone then be on his guard against confirmations in favor of nature; let him confirm himself in favor of the Divine. There is no lack of material."Some indeed are to be pardoned for having ascribed certain visible things to nature, for the reason that they have not known anything about the sun of the spiritual world where the Lord is and of influx therefrom; nor anything about that world and the state of it, no, nor of its presence with men; and that therefore they could not but think of the spiritual as a purer natural, and so that angels either were in the ether or in the stars; and of the devil, that either he is the evil of man, or, if he actually exists, that he is in the air or in the deep; and that the souls of men after death are either in the inmost of the earth, or in a somewhere or other (in aliquo ubi seu pu), until the day of judgment; and other like notions that fancy has induced from want of knowledge of the spiritual world and of its sun. This is the reason why they are to be pardoned who have believed that nature produces the things that they see from something inherent from creation. But still they cannot be pardoned who by confirmations in favor of nature have made themselves atheists; because they could have confirmed themselves in favor of the Divine. Ignorance indeed excuses but does not take away the confirmed falsity; for this falsity coheres with evil and evil with hell.(from Divine Love and Wisdom 351-357)
* Vertumnus was a god among the Romans who could assume various shapes; Vertumni is the plural of Vertumnus.
** In the work from which this was being read (D. L. W.), which was published in 1763, and written probably in 1762, the number of years is given as nineteen, and the statement here has in some editions been changed to make it conform to that. This not only appears unwarrantable, but a substantial error. The author, in making new use of this material, simply brings the time of this remarkable experience down to the then present, which was about 1768, the date of this work. A year later, in using yet again some of the same material, and referring to the same experience (in The True Christian Religion 12) he extends the period another year and makes it twenty-six years. [TR.]
(Conjugial Love 415-422)