Spiritual Life and the Word of GodSwedenborg, Emanuel
Religion
Spiritual Life and the Word of God
Swedenborg, Emanuel
Spiritual life; Ten commandments; Word of God (Christian theology)
Those who give themselves up wholly to a life of piety, who walk
continually in pious meditations, who pray frequently upon their knees,
and talk about salvation, faith, and love at all times and in all
places, and yet do not shun frauds, adulteries, hatreds, blasphemies,
and the like, as sins against God, nor fight against them, such are the
kind that are more fully profaners; for by the impurities of their minds
they defile the piety of their lips, especially when they renounce the
world and lead solitary lives. Of this kind there are some who are
still more profaners; these are like those just described, but by
reasonings and by the Word falsely interpreted they defend their vices
as adulteries and lusts that belong to their nature, and thus to their
enjoyment. Such first regard themselves as free from danger, afterward
as blameless, and at length as holy; and thus under the veil of sanctity
they cast themselves into uncleannesses with which both themselves and
their garments are polluted. (A.E., n. 1062.)
To this class of profaners those especially belong who read the Word and
know about the Lord; because from the Lord through the Word are all
things holy that can be profaned; things not from that source cannot be
profaned. That is said to be profane that is the opposite of what is
holy, and that offers violence to what is holy and destroys it. From
this it follows that those who do not read the Word and do not approach
the Lord, as is the case with the Papists, still less those who know
nothing about the Lord and the Word, like the Gentiles, do not belong to
this class of profaners.
Those who belong to this class of profaners appear after death at first
with a face of human color, around which float many wandering stars; and
those of them that had been leaders sometimes appear shining about the
lips. But as they are brought into the light of heaven, the stars and
the shining of the lips vanish, and the color of the face is changed to
black, and likewise their garments. But the blackness of these
profaners tends to blue, as the blackness of the other kind of profaners
tends to red, for the reason that the latter profane the goods of the
Word and of the church, while the others profane the truths of the Word
and of the church. For red derives from the sun its signification of
good, while blue derives from the sky its signification of truth.
(A.E., n. 1063.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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