I've recently enjoyed reading the experiences of Emanuel
Swedenborg. He claimed visions and spiritual gifts seldom enjoyed in his
day or ours. Some of his writings seem to verify his claim. His visions apparently began Easter weekend on 6 April 1744 and persisted thereafter. He was in his 50s at the time.
Since I recently mentioned the ministry of angels, I thought I'd share something I read earlier today. The following is from one of his
books, originally published in Latin in 1758 and translated to English in 1886:
"I have seen a thousand times that angels are human
forms, or men; for I have conversed with them as man with man, sometimes with
one alone, sometimes with many in company; nor did I discover in their form
anything different from the form of man; and I have repeatedly wondered that
they were such. And lest it should be said that it was a fallacy, or a visionary
fancy, I have been permitted to see them in a state of full wakefulness, when I
was in the exercise of every bodily sense, and in a state of clear perception.
I have also frequently told them that men in the Christian world are in such
blind ignorance concerning angels and spirits, as to believe them to be minds
without form, and mere thoughts, concerning which they have no other idea than
as of something ethereal, in which there is somewhat vital; and because they
thus ascribe to them nothing human except a thinking principle, they imagine
that they cannot see, because they have no eyes; nor hear because they have no
ears; nor speak, because they have neither mouth nor tongue. The angels said in
reply, that they knew such a belief exists with many in the world, and that it
is the prevailing belief among the learned, and also, to their astonishment,
among the clergy. They also assigned as a reason for this, that the learned,
who were the leaders, and who first broached such ideas concerning angels and
spirits, thought of them from the sensual conceptions of the external man; And
they who think from these, and not from interior light, and the general idea
implanted in everyone, must of necessity adopt such fictions; because the
sensuals of the external man can comprehend only what is within nature but not
what is above it, thus nothing whatever of the spiritual world. From these
leaders as guides, the false notion concerning the angels was communicated to
others, who did not think for themselves, but from them; and they who first
think from others, and make the things so thought matters of their faith, and
afterwards view them as such from their own understanding, can with difficulty
recede from them; wherefore they generally acquiesce in confirming them. They
further said that the simple in faith and heart have no such idea concerning
the angels, but think of them as heavenly men, because they have not
extinguished by erudition what was implanted in them from heaven, nor can they
conceive of anything without a form. Hence it is that angels are always
represented in temples, both in sculpture and painting, as men. Concerning what
is thus implanted from heaven, they added, that it is the Divine communicated
by influx to those who are in the good of faith and life.
"From all my experience, which is now for many years, I
can declare and affirm that the form of the Angels is in every respect human;
that they have faces, eyes, ears, breasts, arms, hands, feet; that they see,
hear, and converse with each other; in a word, that they lack nothing which
belongs to man, except the material body. I have seen them in a light, which
exceeds by many degrees the noonday light of the world; and in that light I
observed all parts of their faces more distinctly and clearly than ever I did
the face of man on earth. I have also been permitted to see an angel of the
inmost heaven. His countenance was brighter and more resplendent than the faces
of the angels of the inferior heavens. I examined him closely, and his form was
perfectly human. It is, however, to be observed, that angels cannot be seen by
man with his bodily eyes, but with the eyes of the spirit which is within him;
because the spirit is in the spiritual world, and all things of the body are in
the natural world. Like sees like, because from like. Besides, everyone knows
that the organ of bodily vision, which is the eye, is so gross that it cannot
see even the smaller things of nature except by the aid of optical glasses;
much less, then, can it discern those which are above the sphere of nature, as
are all things in the spiritual world: nevertheless, these are seen by man when
he is withdrawn from the bodily sight, and the sight of his spirit is opened.
This is effected in a moment, when it pleases the Lord that man should see
spiritual things" (Swedenborg, Heaven and Hell, pp. 49-51).
