Visions, and Conversation with the Dead

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
NO ONE IS REFORMED BY VISIONS OR BY CONVERSATIONS WITH THE DEAD

No one is reformed by visions or by conversations with the dead, because they compel.

IT IS OF THE LORD'S DIVINE PROVIDENCE
MAN SHOULD ACT FROM FREEDOM
IN ACCORDANCE WITH REASON

Visions are of two kinds, Divine and diabolical.

Divine visions are produced by means of representations in heaven

Diabolical visions by means of magic in hell

There are also fantastic visions, which are delusions of an abstracted mind.

Divine visions, which are produced (as has been said) by means of representations in heaven, are such as the prophets had, who were not in the body but in the spirit when they were in these visions; for visions can not appear to any one in the waking states of the body, When, therefore, they appear to the prophets they are said to have been "in the spirit," as is evident from the passages that follow.

Ezekiel says:-

Moreover, the spirit lifted me up, and brought me in the vision of God, in the spirit of God, into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up over me (10: 1, 24).

Again —

that the spirit lifted him up between the earth and the heaven, and brought him in the visions of God to Jerusalem (8: 3, seq.).

In like manner —

he was in the vision of God or in the spirit when he saw the four living creatures which were cherubim (1 and 10).

As also —

when he saw the new temple and the new earth, and the angel measuring them (40 - 48).

That he was then in the visions of God he says (40: 2, 26); and in the spirit (43: 5).

In a like state was Zechariah —

When he saw a man riding among the myrtle trees (Zech. 1: 8, seq.)

When he saw four horns (1: 18)

and a man in whose hand was a measuring line (2: 1-3, seq.)

When he saw a lampstand and two olive trees (4: 1, seq.)

When he saw the flying roll and the ephah (5: 1, 6)

When he saw four chariots coming out from between two mountains, and horses (6: 1, seq.).

In a like state was Daniel —

When he saw four beasts coming up from the sea (Dan. 7: 1, seq.)

When he saw the combat between a ram and a he-goat (8: 1, seq.).

That he saw these things in the vision of his spirit is stated (7: 1, 2, 7, 13; 8: 2; 10: 1, 7, 8)

that the angel Gabriel was seen by him in vision (9: 21).

John, also, was in the vision of the spirit when he saw what he described in the Apocalypse: —

As when he saw seven lampstands, and in their midst the Son of man (1: 12-16)

When he saw a throne in heaven, and One sitting upon the throne, and four animals which were cherubim round about it (4)

When he saw the book of life taken by the Lamb (5)

When he saw horses going out from the book (6)

When he saw seven angels with trumpets (8)

When he saw the pit of the abyss opened, and locusts going out of it (9)

When he saw the dragon, and its combat with Michael (12)

When he saw two beasts, one rising up out of the sea and the other out of the earth (13)

When he saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet colored beast (17)

And Babylon destroyed (18)

When he saw a white horse and Him who sat upon it (19)

And when he saw the new heaven and the new earth; and the Holy Jerusalem coming down out of heaven (21)

And when he saw the river of the water of life (22)

That he saw these things in the vision of the spirit is said (1: 10; 4: 2; 5: 1; 6: 1; 21: 1, 2)

Such were the visions that appeared to them from heaven, not before the sight of the body but before the sight of the spirit. Such visions do not take place at the present day; if they did, they would not be understood, because they are produced by means of representations, each one of which is significative of the internal things of the church and the arcana of heaven.

Moreover, it was foretold by Daniel (9:24) that they would cease when the Lord came into the world.

But diabolical visions have sometimes appeared, induced by enthusiastic and visionary spirits, who from the delirium that possessed them called themselves the Holy Spirit. But these spirits have now been gathered up by the Lord and cast into a hell separate from the hells of others.

All this makes clear that by no other visions than those in the Word can one be reformed.

There are also fantastic visions: but these are mere delusions of an abstracted mind.

NO ONE IS REFORMED BY CONVERSATIONS WITH THE DEAD

That no one is reformed by conversations with the dead is evident from the Lord's words respecting the rich man in hell and Lazarus in Abraham's bosom.

for the rich man said: —

I pray thee, father Abraham, that thou wouldst send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come unto this place of torment. Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them. But he said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one come to them from the dead they will repent. He answered him, If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rise from the dead (Luke 16: 27-31).

Conversation with the dead would have the same effect as miracles, namely, man would be persuaded and forced into a state of worship for a short time. But as man is thus deprived of rationality, and at the same time evils are shut in, this spell or internal bond is loosed, and the evils that have been shut in break out, with blasphemy and profanation. But this takes place only when some dogma of religion has been imposed upon the mind by spirits, which is never done by any good spirit, still less by any angel of heaven.

(from Divine Providence 134)

A Faith Induced by Miracles

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
NO ONE IS REFORMED BY MIRACLES AND SIGNS

No one is reformed by miracles and signs, because they compel.

It has been shown that man has an internal and an external of thought, and that the Lord flows into man through the internal of thought into its external, and thus teaches and leads him.

IT IS OF THE LORD'S DIVINE PROVIDENCE
MAN SHOULD ACT FROM FREEDOM IN ACCORDANCE WITH REASON

Both of these would perish in man if miracles were wrought and man were thereby driven to believe. That this is true can be seen rationally in this way.

It cannot be denied that miracles induce a belief and powerfully persuade that what is said and taught by him who does the miracles is true, and that this at first so occupies man's external thought as to bind and fascinate it, as it were. But by this, man is deprived of his two faculties called rationality and liberty, and thus of the ability to act from freedom in accordance with reason; and then the Lord can no longer flow in through the internal into the external of his thought, except merely to leave the man to confirm by his rationality what he has been made through the miracle to believe.

The state of man's thought is such as to enable him from the internal of his thought to see any matter in the external of his thought as in a sort of mirror; for, as has been said above, a man is able to see his own thought, which would not be possible except from a more internal thought. And when he thus sees a matter as in a mirror, he can turn it this way and that, and shape it until it appears to him beautiful; and if the matter is a truth it may be likened to a virgin or a youth, beautiful and living. But when one cannot turn it this way and that, and shape it, but can simply believe it from the persuasion induced by the miracle, it may be likened, if it is a truth, to a virgin or a youth carved from stone or wood, in which there is no life. It may also be likened to an object that is constantly before the sight, and being alone seen conceals every thing that is on either side of it and behind it. Or it may be likened to a sound continually in the ear that takes away the perception of harmony from many sounds. Such blindness and deafness are induced on the human mind by miracles. It is the same with every thing confirmed that is not looked into with some rationality before it is confirmed.

From all this it can be seen that a faith induced by miracles is not faith but persuasion — for there is nothing rational in it, still less anything spiritual — for it is only an external without an internal. The same is true of every thing that a man does from such a persuasive faith, whether he acknowledges God, worships Him at home or in churches, or does good deeds.

When a miracle alone leads a man to acknowledgment, worship, and piety, he acts from the natural man and not from the spiritual.

For a miracle imparts faith through an external way and not through an internal way, thus from the world and not from heaven; and the Lord enters into man through no other than an internal way, which is through the Word, and doctrine and preachings from the Word. And as miracles close this way, at this day no miracles are wrought.

That miracles are such can be seen very clearly from the miracles wrought before the people of Judah and Israel. Although these had seen so many miracles in the land of Egypt, and afterwards at the Red Sea, and others in the desert, and especially on Mount Sinai when the law was promulgated, yet only a month afterwards, while Moses tarried on that mountain, they made themselves a golden calf and acknowledged it as Jehovah who led them forth out of the land of Egypt (Exod. 33:4-6). So again, from the miracles afterwards wrought in the land of Canaan; and yet the people relapsed so many times from the prescribed worship. And again, from the miracles that the Lord wrought before them when He was in the world; and yet they crucified Him.

Miracles were wrought among them because the men of Judah and Israel were wholly external men, and were led into the land of Canaan merely that they might represent the church and its internals by means of the externals of worship, a bad man equally with a good man being able to represent; for externals are rituals, and all of their externals were significative of spiritual and celestial things. Aaron even, although he made the golden calf and commanded the worship of it (Exod. 32:2-5, 35), could represent the Lord and His work of salvation. And because they could not be brought by the internals of worship to represent those things they were brought to it and even driven and forced to it by miracles.

They could not be brought to it by the internals of worship because they did not acknowledge the Lord, although the whole Word that was in their possession treats of Him alone; and he that does not acknowledge the Lord is unable to receive any internal of worship. But when the Lord had manifested Himself, and had been received and acknowledged in the churches as the eternal God, miracles ceased.

But the effect of miracles on the good and on the evil is different.

• The good do not desire miracles, but they believe in the miracles recorded in the Word. And when they hear anything about a miracle they give thought to it only as an argument of no great weight that confirms their faith; for they think from the Word, thus from the Lord, and not from the miracle.

• It is not so with the evil. They may be driven and compelled to a belief by miracles, and even to worship and piety, but only for a short time; for their evils are shut in; and the lusts of their evils and the enjoyments therefrom continually act upon their external of worship and piety; and in order to get out of their confinement and break away they reflect upon the miracle, and at length call it a trick or artifice, or a work of nature, and thus go back to their evils. And he who returns to his evils after he has worshiped profanes the goods and truths of worship; and the lot after death of those who commit profanation is the worst of all. Such as these are meant by the Lord's words (Matt. 12:43-45), that their last state becomes worse than the first. Furthermore, if it is needful to work miracles for the sake of those who do not believe from miracles in the Word, they must be wrought for all such continually and visibly. All this makes clear why miracles are not wrought at this day.

(from Divine Providence 130-133)

Acting from Freedom in Accordance with Reason

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

MAN SHOULD NOT BE COMPELLED BY EXTERNAL MEANS
TO THINK AND WILL AND THUS TO BELIEVE AND LOVE THE THINGS OF RELIGION
BUT SHOULD GUIDE HIMSELF AND SOMETIMES COMPEL HIMSELF

This law of the Divine providence — man should act from freedom in accordance with reason — he should do this from himself and yet from the Lord, therefore as if from himself.

Everyone admits, moreover, that it is impossible to compel any one to think what he is not willing to think, and to will what his thought forbids him to will, thus to believe what he does not believe, and wholly so what he is unwilling to believe; or to love what he does not love, and wholly so what he is unwilling to love. For a man's spirit or mind has full liberty in thinking, willing, believing, and loving. It has this liberty by influx from the spiritual world, which does not compel (for man's spirit or mind is in that world), and not by influx from the natural world, which is received only when it acts in harmony with spiritual influx.

A man may be forced to say that he thinks and wills and believes and loves the things of religion; but he does not think, will, believe, and love them unless they are matters of affection and consequent reason with him, or come to be so. Also, a man may be compelled to speak in favor of religion and to do what it inculcates; but he cannot be compelled to favor it in his thought from any belief in it, or to favor it in his will from any love for it. Moreover, in kingdoms where justice and judgment are guarded, men are compelled not to speak against religion, and to do nothing in opposition to it, and yet no one can be compelled to favor it in his thought and will. For it is within every one's freedom to think in harmony with hell and to will in favor of hell, and also to favor heaven in thought and will. But the reason teaches what hell is and what heaven is, and what the abiding condition is in the one and in the other; and it is from the reason that the will has its preference and choice.

From all this it can be seen that the external cannot compel the internal. Nevertheless, this is sometimes done; but that it is pernicious.

More to follow.

(from Divine Providence 129)