535. After that I heard a hostile murmur from people below, and at the same time this cry, "Do miracles and we will believe!" In response I asked whether these revelations were not miracles, and received the reply, "They are not." So I asked what miracles they meant, then, and was told, "Show us and reveal to us things to come and we will believe." But I replied, "Such knowledge is not granted from heaven, since to the degree that a person knows things to come, his reason and understanding fall with his prudence and wisdom into a state of passivity, become inactive, and are overthrown." Again therefore I asked, "What other miracles shall I do?" Whereupon I then heard the cry, "Do miracles like the ones Moses did in Egypt!" To that I replied, "Perhaps you will harden your hearts to them as Pharaoh and the Egyptians did." And they answered that they would not. Again I said, however, "Swear to me that you will not dance around a golden calf and worship it like the posterity of Jacob,* which they did within the space of a month after they saw the whole of Mount Sinai ablaze and heard Jehovah Himself speaking from out of the fire,** thus which they did following a miracle which was the greatest of all. A golden calf in the spiritual sense is the pleasure of the flesh." And the people replied from below, "We will not be like the posterity of Jacob." But at that I then heard this declaration to them from heaven, "If you do not believe Moses and the prophets, which is to say, the Word of the Lord, you will not believe as a result of miracles any more than the children of Jacob did in the wilderness; neither any more than those others believed when they saw with their own eyes the miracles the Lord Himself performed when He was in the world."*** * Exodus 32. ** Exodus 19:16-20:18. *** Cf. Luke 16:31.
INDEX OF NARRATIVE ACCOUNTS
Conjugial love seen in its embodiment in a married couple conveyed down from heaven (nos. 42, 43).
Three newcomers from the world instructed about marriages in heaven (no. 44).
Concerning a chaste love for the opposite sex (no. 55).
The Temple of Wisdom, where wise men discussed the reasons for the beauty in the female sex (no. 56).
Conjugial love among people who lived in the golden age (no. 75).
Among people who lived in the silver age (no. 76).
Among people who lived in the copper age (no. 77).
Among people who lived in the iron age (no. 78).
Among peoples who lived after those ages (nos. 79, 80).
A glorification of the Lord by angels in the heavens on account of His advent, and celebrating then conjugial love (no. 81).
The precepts of the New Church (no. 82).
The origin of conjugial love and its vigor or potency, discussed by wise men assembled from the European world (nos. 103-114).
A piece of paper sent down from heaven to the earth, on which was written, "The marriage between good and truth" (no. 115).
What the image and likeness of God are, and what the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil are (nos. 132-136).
Two angels from the third heaven on conjugial love there (no. 137).
Some men of olden times in Greece, who inquired of newcomers what news they had from earth and learned of people found in a forest there (nos. 151 [repeated]-154 [repeated]).
Golden rain, and a hall where some wives made various comments on the subject of conjugial love (no. 155 [repeated]).
Some sages of olden times in Greece on people's life after death (no. 182).
A wedding garden called Adramandoni, where a conversation took place on the influx of conjugial love (no. 183).
Some sages of olden times in Greece on occupations in heaven (no. 207).
The golden rain and hall, where some wives spoke again on the subject of conjugial love (no. 208).
The judges swayed by partiality, who were the subject of the cry, "Oh, how just!" (no. 231).
The reasoners who were the subject of the cry, "Oh, how learned!" (no. 232).
The confirmers who were the subject of the cry, "Oh, how wise!" (no. 233).
On people who are motivated by a love of governing from love of self (nos. 261-266).
On people who are motivated by a love of possessing all the goods of the world (nos. 267, 268).
"Lucifer" (no. 269).
On coldness in marriage (no. 270).
Seven wives sitting in a rose garden, who made various comments on the subject of conjugial love (no. 293).
The same wives on the prudence of women (no. 294).
A discussion of what the soul is and the nature of it (no. 315).
A garden where a discourse occurred on the subject of Divine providence in relation to marriages (no. 316).
The difference between the spiritual and the natural (nos. 326-329).
Discussions as to whether a woman loves her husband if she loves herself on account of her beauty, and whether a man loves his wife if he loves himself on account of his intelligence (nos. 330, 331).
On one's own prudence (nos. 353, 354).
On the continual ability to make love to one's wife in heaven (nos. 355, 356).
A discussion as to whether nature is a product of life, or life a product of nature, and how this applies to the center and expanse of life and nature (no. 380). Some lecturers speaking on the origin of the beauty of the feminine sex (nos. 381-384).
On the point that everything that arises or occurs in the natural world comes from the Lord through the spiritual world (nos. 415-422).
Some angels who did not know what licentiousness was (no. 444).
On delight, that it is the universal characteristic of heaven and hell (no. 461).
An adulterer taken up into heaven, where he saw contrary sights (no. 477).
Three priests whom adulterers denounced (no. 500).
On purposeful and deliberate adulterers, that they do not acknowledge anything having to do with heaven and the church (nos. 521, 522).
The new things revealed by the Lord (nos. 532-535).
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED BY ME
Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven), which contain an exegesis of Genesis and Exodus. 8 volumes. London, 1747-1758.
Heaven and Hell. The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine. The Last Judgment. The White Horse. The Earths in the Universe. London, 1758.
The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord. The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture. The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem. [The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding Faith.] A Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment and the Spiritual World. Amsterdam, 1763.
Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Providence. Also, Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom. Amsterdam, 1763-1764.*
The Apocalypse Revealed. Amsterdam, 1766.
These books are still being sold in London, at the establishment of Mr. John Hart, Printer, in Poppings Court, Fleet Street, and at the establishment of Mr. John Lewis, in Paternoster Row, near Cheapside.
In two years you will see the doctrine of the New Church, the church foretold by the Lord in the book of Revelation, chapters 21 and 22, presented in fullness.**
* Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom was in fact published before the work on Divine providence, toward the end of 1763, and Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Providence in 1764. ** A reference to True Christian Religion, Containing the Universal Theology of the New Church, which was published in Amsterdam in 1771.
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