Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence, Emanuel Swedenborg [best ereader for graphic novels .txt] 📗

in man if miracles were done and he were driven by them to believe. That this is so can be seen rationally in this way: undeniably miracles induce belief and powerfully persuade a person that what the miracle-doer says and teaches is true, and at first this engages man's external of thought, virtually holding it spellbound. But one is deprived by this of the two faculties called rationality and liberty, thus cannot act in freedom according to reason, nor can the Lord then inflow into the external of man's thought through the internal save only to leave man to confirm from his rationality what has been made a matter of his belief by the miracle.

[2] The state of man's thought is such that from the internal of thought he can see a piece in the external of his thought as in a mirror—for as was said above, one can behold one's own thought, which is possible only from more interior thought. Beholding the item as in a mirror he can turn it this way and that and shape it to look attractive to him. If there is truth in it, it may be likened to an attractive and animated maiden or youth. But if a man cannot turn it this way and that and shape it, but only believe it persuaded of it by a miracle, then if there is truth in it, it may be likened to a maiden or youth carved in stone or wood, in which is nothing alive. It may also be compared to an object which is constantly in view and looked at alone, keeps one from seeing what is to either side and behind it. It can also be compared to a continual sound in the ear, which does away with perceiving the harmony of many sounds. Such are the blindness and deafness induced on the mind by miracles. It is the same with anything confirmed but not regarded from rationality before it is confirmed.

131. Plain it is from this that a faith induced by miracles is not faith, but persuasion. For it has nothing rational in it, still less anything spiritual, as it is only external without an internal. This is true of everything a man does from such persuasive faith, whether he is acknowledging God, worshiping Him at home or in church, or doing good deeds. When only a miracle leads a person to acknowledgment of God and to adoration and piety, he acts from the natural and not the spiritual man. For a miracle infuses belief by an external and not an internal way, thus from the world and not from heaven. The Lord enters man by an internal way, by the Word and by doctrine and preaching from it. As miracles close this way, no miracles are done today.

132. That miracles are of this nature can be clearly established from those performed in the presence of the people of Judah and Israel. Although they beheld many miracles in the land of Egypt and later at the Red Sea and others in the Wilderness and particularly on Mt. Sinai when the Law was promulgated, nevertheless, in a month's time while Moses tarried on that mountain, they made themselves a golden calf and hailed it as Jehovah who had led them out of the land of Egypt (Ex 32:4-6). Again, it is plain from the miracles done later in the land of Canaan; nevertheless the people fell away time and again from the prescribed worship. It is equally plain from the miracles which the Lord did before their eyes when He was in the world; yet they crucified Him.

[2] Miracles were done among the Jews and Israelites because they were altogether external men and had been brought into the land of Canaan merely to represent a church and its eternal verities by the externalities of worship—something a bad man as well as a good man can do. For the externals are rituals which with that people signified spiritual and celestial things. Indeed Aaron, although he made the golden calf and ordered worship of it (Ex 32:2-5, 35 ), could still represent the Lord and His work of salvation. As the people could not be brought by the internal things of worship to represent them, they were brought to do so by miracles—in fact, were driven and forced to it.

[3] They could not be led by internals of worship because they did not acknowledge the Lord although the entire Word which they had treats of Him alone. One who does not acknowledge the Lord cannot receive anything internal in worship. But miracles ceased after the Lord had manifested Himself and was received and acknowledged as eternal God in the churches.

133. The effect of miracles on the good and on the evil differs, however. The good do not desire miracles, but believe those in the Word. If they hear of some miracle, they regard it only as a slight indication confirming their faith; for they draw their thought from the Word and thus from the Lord, and not from a miracle. It is different with the evil. They can be driven and compelled, of course, to belief, to worship, too, and to piety, but only for a little while. For their evils are enclosed, and the lusts of those evils and the enjoyments of the lusts continually press against the outward worship and piety; and in order that the evils may come out of their confinement and burst forth, the wicked ponder the miracle, finally call it ridiculous and a ruse or a natural phenomenon, and so return to their evils. One who returns to his evils after having worshiped profanes the truths and goods of worship, and the lot of profaners after death is the worst of all fates. They are meant by the Lord's words in Matthew (12:43-45) about those whose last state is worse than the first. Besides, if miracles were to be done for those who have no faith from the miracles in the Word, they would have to be done constantly and before their eyes. It may be plain from all this why miracles are not done at this day.

134. (ii) No one is reformed by visions or by communication with the dead, for they coerce. Visions are of two kinds, divine and diabolic. Divine visions are effected by representations in heaven; diabolic by magic in hell. There are also phantasmal visions, which are illusions of an estranged mind. Divine visions, produced as we said by representative things in heaven, are such as the prophets had who at the time were not in the body but in the spirit, for visions cannot appear to anyone in bodily wakefulness. When these came to the prophets, therefore, it is remarked that they were "in the spirit," as is plain from the following:

Ezekiel said, The Spirit picked me up and carried me to Chaldea to the captivity in a vision of God, in the spirit of God; so the vision rose over me which I saw (11:1, 24).

Again that the Spirit bore him between earth and heaven and brought him to Jerusalem in visions of God (8:3, 4).

He was likewise in visions of God or in the spirit when he saw four beasts which were cherubim (1 and 10).

So, too, when he saw a new temple and a new earth, and an angel measuring them (40-48 ).

That he was in "visions of God" then, he says at 40:2, 26, and that he was "in the spirit" at 43:5.

[2] Zechariah was in a similar state when he saw

a horseman among myrtle trees (1:8 ff)

four horns (1:18) and a man with a measuring line in his hand (2:1-3 ff )

a candlestick and two olive trees (4:1 ff)

a flying roll and an ephah (5:1, 6)

four chariots coming out between two mountains, and horses (8:1 ff).

In a like state was Daniel when he saw

four beasts coming up from the sea (7:1 ff )

a combat between a ram and a he-goat (8:1 ff).

That he saw these things "in the vision of his spirit" is stated at 7:1, 2, 7, 13; 8:2; 10:1, 7, 8, and that the angel Gabriel was seen by him in a "vision" at 9:21.

[3] John was also in the vision of the spirit when he beheld what he has described in the Apocalypse, as when he saw

seven candlesticks and the Son of man in the midst of them (1:12-16)

a throne in heaven, and One sitting on the throne, and around it four beasts, which were cherubim (4)

the book of life taken by the Lamb (5)

horses coming out from the book (6)

seven angels with trumpets (8)

the pit of the abyss opened, and locusts coming out a dragon, and its battle with Michael (12)

two beasts, rising, one from the sea and the other from the land (13)

a woman seated on a scarlet beast (17)

Babylon destroyed (18)

a white horse, and One seated on it (19)

a new heaven and a new earth, and the holy Jerusalem descending from heaven (21)

the river of the water of life (22).

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

[4] Such were the visions which appeared from heaven to the sight of the spirit of these men, but not to their bodily sight. Such visions do not occur at this day because if they did, they would not be understood inasmuch as they are produced by representations the details of which signify internal things of the church and arcana of heaven. Daniel also foretold (9:24) that they would cease when the Lord came into the world.

Diabolic visions, however, have occurred at times, incited by fanatical and visionary spirits who in their delirium called themselves the Holy Spirit. But those spirits have now been gathered together by the Lord and cast into a hell separate from the hells of others. There are also phantasmal visions which are merely the illusions of an estranged mind.

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

134 r. The fact that no one is reformed by communication with the dead is plain from the Lord's words about the rich man in hell and Lazarus in Abraham's bosom.

For the rich man said, I ask you, father Abraham, to send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers, to testify to them lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham said to him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. But he said, No, father Abraham, but if some one will go to them from the dead, they will repent. He replied, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded either if one should arise from the dead (Lu 16:27-31).

Communication with the dead would have the same result as miracles (of which just above), namely, that a man would be influenced and driven into worship for a short time. But as this deprives a man of rationality and at the same time shuts his evils in, as was said above, the captivation or the inward bond is undone, and the imprisoned evils break out, with blasphemy and profanation; this last occurs, however, only when spirits introduce something dogmatic from religion, which is never done by a good spirit, still less by an angel of heaven.

135. Nevertheless, speech with spirits—rarely with angels of heaven—is possible and has been granted to many for ages. When it is granted, spirits speak with a man in his native tongue and briefly. And those who speak with the Lord's permission never say anything that takes away the freedom of the reason, nor do they instruct, for the Lord alone teaches man, doing so by means of the Word to the man's enlightenment (of this in numbers to come). I have been given to know this in my own experience. I have spoken with spirits and angels for many years now. No spirit has dared and no angel has wished to tell me, still less to instruct me, about things in the Word or about any of its doctrine. The Lord alone has taught me, who revealed Himself to me and afterwards continued to appear to me as He does now, as the Sun in which He is, as He appears to the angels, and He has enlightened me.

136. (iii) No one is reformed by threats or penalties, as these coerce. It is known that the external cannot compel the internal, but the internal can