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Miscellaneous Theological Works 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.
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