Miscellaneous Theological Works. Standard Edition

638 Pages·2016·2.36 MB·English

by  Swedenborg Emanuel.

Miscellaneous
Theological
Works
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
Translated from the Original Latin by
John Whitehead
STANDARD EDITION
SWEDENBORG FOUNDATION
West Chester, Pennsylvania
© 2009 Swedenborg Foundation
This version was compiled from electronic files of the
Standard Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg as
further edited by William Ross Woofenden. Pagination of
this PDF document does not match that of the
corresponding printed volumes, and any page references
within this text may not be accurate. However, most if not
all of the numerical references herein are not to page
numbers but to Swedenborg’s section numbers, which are
not affected by changes in pagination. If this work appears
both separately and as part of a larger volume file, its
pagination follows that of the larger volume in both cases.
This version has not been proofed against the original, and
occasional errors in conversion may remain. To purchase the
full set of the Redesigned Standard Edition of Emanuel
Swedenborg’s works, or the available volumes of the latest
translation (the New Century Edition of the Works of
Emanuel Swedenborg), contact the Swedenborg Foundation
at 1-800-355-3222, www.swedenborg.com, or 320 North
Church Street, West Chester, Pennsylvania 19380.
Contents
Editor’s Preface
New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine
Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church
Interaction of Soul and Body
The White Horse
Appendix to the White Horse
Earths in the Universe
Last Judgment and Babylon Destroyed
Continuation on the Last Judgment
MISCELLANEOUS THEOLOGICAL WORKS 1
Editor’s Preface
This volume, Miscellaneous Theological Works, comprising eight
of Swedenborg’s shorter published works, was first issued in 1913.
It was translated from the original Latin by John Whitehead. No
explanation was given in the first printing for the order in which
the texts appeared. However, because this order has become
familiar to many readers, it has been retained in this redesigned
edition.
The first work in this volume, New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly
Doctrine, was the fourth of five books published in 1758 by
Swedenborg. It was drawn largely from his Arcana Coelestia
(1749–1756). Its topics range from a treatise on good and truth to
a final one on ecclesiastical and civil government.
Next is the late work (1769) Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the
New Church. The title is somewhat misleading since it is primarily
a detailed comparison of the principal doctrines of Roman
Catholicism, Protestantism, and of the New Jerusalem Church, or
what Swedenborg here calls the faith of the new heaven and of the
new church. It also includes some narrative accounts of his other-
world experiences drawn from his Apocalypse Revealed (1766).
The third item, also published in 1769, is titled Interaction of
Soul and Body. It is subtitled, “which is believed to be either by
physical influx, or by spiritual influx, or by preestablished
harmony.” He attributes these theories, in turn, to Aristotle, René
Descartes, and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz.
This is followed by two short documents, White Horse (named
after the symbolic creature mentioned in chapter 19 of Revelation),
published in 1758, and what has been traditionally called the
Appendix to the Treatise on the White Horse. This latter text was not
actually published by Swedenborg but was a memorandum he
MISCELLANEOUS THEOLOGICAL WORKS 2
wrote to Thomas Hartley in 1769, a copy of which Hartley sent to
Dr. Husband Messiter (an early believer of the new theology and
later close friend and supporter of Swedenborg). This appendix was
first published in an English translation by Charles Augustus Tulk.
The theme of both papers is the spiritual sense of the Bible. The
earlier paper contains a list of books of the Bible that Swedenborg
says contain a continuous inner sense. This list also appears in
Arcana Coelestia, n. 10325, and New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly
Doctrine, n. 266.
The sixth entry in this volume is popularly called Earths in the
Universe (Swedenborg referred to it by that name several times in
Heaven and Hell). Its full title is Earths in our solar system which are
called planets, and earths in the starry heavens and their inhabitants;
also the spirits and angels there, from things heard and seen. This may
well be Swedenborg’s most controversial work. In it he describes
talking with spirits from other planets in our solar system,
including the Earth’s moon.
The last two works are titled Last Judgment and Babylon Destroyed
(1758) and Continuation on the Last Judgment and on the Spiritual
World (1763). The subtitle of the first book says that the last
judgment predicted in the book of Revelation occurred in the
spiritual world in the year 1757. The second text gives details about
the effect of this judgment at that time on several nationalities and
people of various religious affiliations.
Since most of the notes found in this volume are those of the
author, and since they often give immediately relevant information
about the text, the notes are all included as footnotes rather than
endnotes (as is also true of the redesigned edition of Heaven and
Hell).
The text for this edition was electronically scanned from the
Foundation’s Standard Edition. This process has allowed the book
to be completely redesigned and set in a new and more readable
typeface. Certain stylistic changes have also been introduced. These
include modernized spelling and punctuation as well as substituting
new words for terms whose meanings have become obscure or have
MISCELLANEOUS THEOLOGICAL WORKS 3
changed since the nineteenth century. Arabic numerals have
replaced roman numerals in Bible passages, and certain capitalized
words including pronouns referring to God have been lowercased
to reflect contemporary usage. All these changes have been carefully
made in order to make the book easier to read and use while
preserving the dignity and power of the original Latin. On the
whole, however, the Whitehead translation has not been materially
altered.
As was the custom in his day, Swedenborg referred to the Psalms
as the book of David. As with previous printings, the bold
numerals in brackets, [2], [3], etc., indicate divisions of
Swedenborg’s long numbered sections, made for the convenience
of the reader by John Faulkner Potts in his six-volume Swedenborg
Concordance (London: Swedenborg Society, 1888–1902).
William Ross Woofenden
Sharon, Massachusetts
New Jerusalem
and Its
Heavenly Doctrine
from What Has Been Heard from Heaven
to Which is Prefixed
Something concerning the New Heaven
And the New Earth
1758
Seek first the Kingdom of God,
and all things shall be added unto you.
Matt. 6:33
Contents
The new heaven and the new earth, and what is meant by the new
Jerusalem (sections 1–7)
Introduction to the doctrine (8–10)
1. Good and truth (11–27)
2. The will and the understanding (28–35)
3. The internal and the external man (36–53)
4. Love in general (54–64)
5. The loves of self and of the world (65–83)
6. Love toward the neighbor or charity (84–107)
7. Faith (108–122)
8. Piety (123–129)
9. Conscience (130–140)
10. Freedom (141–149)
11. Merit (150–158)
12. Repentance and the remission of sins (159–172)
13. Regeneration (173–186)
14. Temptation (187–201)
15. Baptism (202–209)
16. The holy supper (210–222)
17. The resurrection (223–229)
18. Heaven and hell (230–240)
19. The church (241–248)
20. Sacred Scripture, or the Word (249–266)
21. Providence (267–279)
22. The Lord (280–310)
23. Ecclesiastical and civil government (311–325)
NEW JERUSALEM AND ITS HEAVENLY DOCTRINE 4
New Jerusalem and Its
Heavenly Doctrine
The new heaven and the new earth, and what is meant by the
new Jerusalem
1. It is written in Revelation:
I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from
God out of heaven, prepared as a bride before her husband. The city had a
wall, great and high, which had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels,
and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.
And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, in which were the names of
the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The city itself lieth foursquare, and the
length is as great as the breadth. And he measured the city with the reed,
twelve thousand stadia; the length and the breadth and the height of it were
equal. And he measured the wall thereof, a hundred forty-four cubits, the
measure of a man, which is, of an angel. And the wall of it was of jasper; and
the city itself was pure gold, like unto pure glass; and the foundations of the
wall of the city were of every precious stone. The twelve gates were twelve
pearls. And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were pellucid glass. The
glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp of it was the Lamb. The nations
which were saved shall walk in the light of it; and the Kings of the earth shall
bring their glory and honor into it. (21:1, 2, 12–24.)
The man who reads these things, understands them only
according to the sense of the letter; namely, that the visible heaven
and earth will perish, and a new heaven will exist, and that the holy
city Jerusalem, answering to the measures above described, will
descend upon the new earth; but the angels understand these things
altogether differently; namely, what man understands naturally,
they understand spiritually; and as the angels understand, so they
signify; and this is the internal or spiritual sense of the Word. In
the internal or spiritual sense, “a new heaven and a new earth”
means a new church, both in the heavens and on the earth, which