What the Writings Testify
What the Writings Testify
CHAPTER 4
The inspiration of Swedenborg differed widely from that of the prophets
"It is given me to behold the marvels of heaven, to be together with the angels as
one of them, and at the same time draw forth truths in light, and thus to perceive and
teach them; consequently to be led by the Lord."
- Invitation to the New Church 52
"The Most Ancient Church had immediate revelation from the Lord by consort with
spirits and angels and by visions and dreams, whereby it was given them to have a general
knowledge of what is good and true; and after they had [this], then these general
principles were confirmed by innumerable things through perceptions..."
- Arcana Coelestia 597
"I have been told how the Lord spoke with the prophets, through whom the Word was
given. He did not speak to them as with the ancients, by an influx into their interiors,
but through spirits who were sent to them, whom the Lord infilled with His aspect, and
thus inspired the words which they dictated to the prophets... The spirits themselves even
called themselves Jehovah..."
- Heaven and Hell 254
"All revelation [is] either from speech with angels through whom the Lord speaks,
or from perception... It is to be known that they who are in good and thence in truth, and
especially those who are in the good of love to the Lord, have revelation from perception;
whereas they who are not in good and thence in truth, can indeed have revelations, yet not
from perception, but by a living voice heard in them, and thus by angels from the Lord.
This revelation is external, but the former is internal. Angels, especially the celestial,
have revelation from perception, as also had the men of the Most Ancient Church, and some
also of the Ancient Church, but scarce any one has at this day; whereas very many, even
those who have not been in good, have had revelations from speech without perception, and
also by visions and dreams. Such were most of the revelations of the prophets in the
Jewish Church. They heard a voice, they saw a vision, and they dreamed a dream; but as
they had no perception, they were merely verbal or visual revelations without perception
of what they signified. For genuine perception comes through heaven from the Lord, and
affects the understanding spiritually, and leads it perceptively to think as the thing
really is, with an internal assent, the source of which it is ignorant of. It supposes
that it is in itself, and that it flows from the connection of things; whereas it is a
dictate through heaven from the Lord, inflowing into the interiors of the thought,
concerning such things as are above the natural and sensual, that is, concerning such
things as are of the spiritual world or of heaven."
- Arcana Coelestia 5121
"The prophets of the Old Testament... did not have their understanding
enlightened, but the words which they were to say or write they received merely by the
hearing, and did not even understand their interior sense, still less their spiritual
sense."
- Apocalypse Explained 624:15
"The prophets through whom the Word was written... wrote as the spirit from the
Divine dictated, for the very words which they wrote ,were uttered in their ears. With
them was the truth which proceeds mediately from the Divine, that is, through heaven, but
not the truth which proceeds immediately; for they had not a perception of what each thing
signified..."
- Arcana Coelestia 7055:3
"That the things which I learned from representations, visions, and discourses
with spirits and angels were from the Lord alone.
"Whenever there was any representation, vision, and discourse, I was kept interiorly
and intimately 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 spoke; yea, sometimes they were indignant when
they found 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 anything but what was
false: wherefore I was prohibited from believing anything that they said; 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 intimate persuasion that the thing was so and so,
and not as they wished; which they also wondered at. The perception was manifest, but
cannot easily be described to the apprehension of men. -1748, March 22."
- Spiritual Diary 1647
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