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SWEDENBORG’S STATE IN 1744. 1087
years already it was granted me to feel heavenly delights mani
festly in various ways; and they are so many and of such various
kinds, that they cannot be described at all. Had I tried to describe
them, they could not have been believed and understood at all
by men."
In his Private Diary for 1744 he makes many descriptions of
such states of heavenly delight; of these we select the following:
"Both in my mind and body I had a sensation of an indescribable
delight, that, had it been more intense, the body would have been,
as it were, dissolved in pure bliss" (no. 25).
“This night .... a feeling of supreme bliss was shed over my
whole body, and indeed for a long time ... immediately before I
fell asleep, and after I awoke for a half, nay, for a whole hour ...
I saw and perceived that the Supreme Love was the source of that
inmost and real feeling of gladness ; and that in proportion as I
could be in that Love, I was in a state of bliss ; but as soon as I
came into another love, which did not centre in that Supreme Love,
I was no longer in that state of gladness" (no. 52).
"The Spirit came with its heavenly and almost ecstatic life in
so high a degree, and permitted me, as it were, to rise higher and
higher in it, that if I had ascended still higher, I should have been
dissolved in this real life of joy" (no. 78).
"I was interiorly tranquil and peaceful, being contented with the
Lord’s dispensation ; the whole time also I felt the strong influence
of the Holy Spirit, and the whole body was filled with a delight in
the heavenly kingdom upon earth" (no. 139).
"The internal state of delight continued so strong in the mornings,
evenings, and during the day, especially when I was by myself
alone, without company, that it may be compared to heavenly joy
on earth. In this state I hope to continue, so long as by our Lord’s
grace alone I walk in pure paths and have right intentions ; for as
soon as I turn aside, and try to find my joy in worldly things, this
state of delight ceases" (no. 141).
III. In the "Spiritual Diary," no. 3904, we read as follows :
"Some one who during his life had been known to me among those
of his time, and who more than others knew what faith and the
knowledges of faith were, came to me and said, that he now knew
nothing, but that he was in such an obscure state that he scarcely
knew what truth was. I knew that he had been among those who
had not only known above others the knowledges of faith, but also
had defended them with zeal ; and, nevertheless, he now said that
he was in such an obscure state, that he knew nothing. To him it
was granted me to say, that he was reduced to this state of
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