Earths In Our Solar System Which Are Called Planets, and Earths In The Starry Heaven Their Inhabitants, And The Spirits And Angels ThereSwedenborg, Emanuel
Religion
Earths In Our Solar System Which Are Called Planets, and Earths In The Starry Heaven Their Inhabitants, And The Spirits And Angels There
Swedenborg, Emanuel
Cosmology -- Early works to 1800
162. While the spirit who had been a prelate and a preacher was with
those who were clothed, a woman with a very pretty face appeared. She
was simply attired; her robe hung gracefully behind her, and was also
drawn over her arms, and she wore a beautiful head-dress, in the form
of a chaplet of flowers. That spirit was greatly delighted at the
sight of this virgin; he spoke to her, and also took her by the hand;
but, apperceiving that he was a spirit, and not of that earth, she
hurried hastily away from him. Afterwards there appeared to him on the
right several other women, who had the care of sheep and lambs, which
they were then leading to a watering-trough, into which water was led
by means of a trench from some lake. They were similarly clothed, and
had shepherds' crooks in their hands, by which they led the sheep and
lambs to drink; they said the sheep went whichever way they pointed
with their crooks: the sheep which we saw were large, with woolly
tails, broad and long. The faces of the women, when seen nearer, were
full and beautiful. Some men were also seen; their faces were of a
human flesh colour, like that of the men of our Earth, but with this
difference, that the lower part of the face, instead of being bearded,
was black, and the nose more of a snowy-white than of a flesh colour.
Afterwards the spirit who, as already mentioned, had been a preacher
in the world, was led further on, but reluctantly, because he was
still thinking about that woman with whom he had been delighted, as
was evident from the circumstance that there still appeared something
of his shadow in the former place. He then came to those who were
naked. They were seen walking together by twos, husband and wife, girt
with a girdle about the loins, and some sort of covering around the
head. That spirit, when he was with them, was led into the state in
which he had been in the world when he was disposed to preach, and
then he said he would preach before them the Lord crucified; but they
said they would not hear such a thing, because they did not know what
it was, but that they knew that the Lord lives. He then said he would
preach the Lord living; but this too they refused, saying that they
apperceived in his speech something not heavenly, because it had much
respect to himself, and his own fame and honour; and that they could
hear from the tone of voice whether what was said came from the heart
or not; and that, as he was of such a character, he was unable to
teach them; wherefore he was silent. During his life in the world he
had been extremely pathetic, so that he could deeply move his hearers
to holiness; but this pathetic manner had been acquired by art, thus
from self and the world, and not from heaven.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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