The Swedenborg Library Vol 1/Chapter 20

by Emanuel Swedenborg

XX.

BABYLON AND ITS FALL.

I WILL now give an account of the manner in which the last judgment was executed upon the Papists who are understood by the Babylon treated of in many parts of the Apocalypse, and whose destruction is the special subject of the 18th chapter, where it is thus described: "An angel cried vehemently with a loud voice, Babylon has fallen, has fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird" (v. 2). But before it is told how that destruction was effected, I will premise:—What is meant by Babylon, and the kind of thing it is.

By Babylon are meant all who seek to rule by religion. To rule by religion, is to rule over men's souls, that is, over their very spiritual lives, and to use the Divine things in their religion as means. In general, all those who have dominion for an end and religion for the means, are Babylon. They are called Babylon, because such dominion began in ancient times; but it was destroyed in its beginning. Its commencement is described by the city and the tower whose head was to be in heaven; and its destruction, by the confusion of tongues, whence its name Babel was derived (Genesis xi. 1 to 9).

This dominion began and was instituted in Babel, as appears in Daniel where it is said of Nebuchadnezzar, that he set up an image which all were to adore (chap, iii.); and is understood by Belshazzar and his peers drinking out of the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from the temple of Jerusalem, at the same time that they worshiped gods of gold, silver, copper, and iron. Wherefore it was written on the wall: "He hath numbered: He hath weighed: He hath divided;" and on the same night the king himself was slain (chap. v.). The vessels of gold and silver of the temple of Jerusalem, signify the goods and truths of the church; drinking out of them, and at the same time worshiping gods of gold, silver, copper and iron, signify profanation; and the writing upon the wall and the death of the king signify visitation, and destruction denounced against those who make use of divine goods and truths as means.

What manner of men those who are called Babylon are, is also described continually in the prophets; as in Isaiah xiv. 4, 12, 13, 14, 15, 23: xxi. 9; see also chaps, xlvii., xlviii. 14 to 20; and Jer. 1. 1, 2, 3. From these passages it is evident what Babylon is.

It ought to be known that the church becomes a Babylon when charity and faith cease, and the love of self begins to rule in their stead; for this love, in proportion as it is unchecked, rushes on, aiming to dominate not merely over all whom it can subject to itself on earth, but even over heaven; nor does it rest there, but climbs to the very throne of God, and transfers to itself his Divine Power. That it did this, even before the Lord's coming, appears from the passages of the Word above referred to. But the Babylon here treated of was destroyed by the Lord when He was in the world; both by those who composed it being reduced to mere idolaters, and by a last judgment upon them in the spiritual world, which is understood by the prophetic sayings, that "Lucifer," who there is Babylon, "was cast into hell," and that "Babylon has fallen;" and moreover by the writing on the wall, and the death of Belshazzar; and also by the stone hewn from the rock, which destroyed the statue of which Nebuchadnezzar dreamed.

THE ROMISH CHURCH IN 1757.

But the Babylon treated of in the Apocalypse, is the Babylon of to-day, which arose after the Lord's coming, and is known to be among the Papists. This Babylon is more pernicious and abominable than that which existed before the Lord's coming, because it profanes the interior goods and truths of the church which the Lord revealed to the world when He revealed Himself. How pernicious and abominable it is, may appear from the following summary:—

They who belong to it, acknowledge and adore the Lord apart from all power of saving. They entirely separate his Divine from his human, and transfer to themselves his Divine power which belonged to his Human; for they remit sins; they send to heaven; they cast into hell; they save whom they will; they sell salvation; thus arrogating to themselves things which belong to the Divine power alone. And since they exercise this power, it follows that they make gods of themselves, each one according to his station, by transferrence from their highest whom they call Christ's vicar, down to the lowest of them; thus they regard themselves as the Lord, and adore Him not for his but for their sakes. They not only adulterate and falsify the Word, but even take it away from the people lest they should enter into the smallest light of truth; and not satisfied with this, they even annihilate it, acknowledging a divinity in the decrees of Rome superior to the Divinity in the Word; so that they exclude all from the way to heaven; for the acknowledgment of the Lord, faith in Him, and love to Him, are the way to heaven; and the Word is what teaches the way. Whence it is, that without the Lord through the medium of the Word, there is no salvation. They strive with all diligence to extinguish the light of heaven which is from divine truth, in order that ignorance may exist in the place of it; and the denser the ignorance, the more acceptable it is to them. They extinguish the light of heaven by prohibiting the reading of the Word, and of books which contain its doctrines; instituting worship by masses destitute of divine truth, in a language unintelligible to the common people. And besides, they fill their world (orbem suum) with falsities, those essential darknesses which remove and dissipate the light. They teach the vulgar, moreover, that they have life eternal in the faith of their priests, consequently not in their own, but in that of other men. They also place all worship in a devout external apart from the internal, making the internal of no account, for they deprive it of the knowledges of good and truth; and yet Divine worship is external only in so far as it is internal, since the external proceeds from the internal.

Besides, they introduce idolatries of various kinds. They make and multiply saints; they see and tolerate the adoration of these saints, and even the prayers put up to them almost as to gods; they expose their idols in all sorts of places; boast of their multitudinous miracles; set them over cities, temples and monasteries: make sacred their bones—their veriest cast-away bones, which have been taken out of sepulchres; thus turning the minds of all from the worship of God to the worship of men.

Moreover, they use much artful precaution lest any one should come out of their darkness into light, from idolatrous to Divine worship. For they multiply monasteries, from which they send out spies and guards in all directions; they extort the confessions of the heart, which are also confessions of the thoughts and intentions; and if any one will not confess, they threaten him with infernal fire and torments in purgatory; and those who dare to speak against the Papal throne and their dominion, they shut up in a horrible jail called the Inquisition. All this they do for one sole end;—that they may possess the world and its treasures, live in congenial delights and be the mightiest of men while the rest are their slaves.

But such domination is not that of heaven over hell, but of hell over heaven; for in so far as the love of ruling prevails in man, especially in the man of the church, hell reigns in him. This love rules in hell and makes hell. From this summary it may appear that they have no church, but a Babylon among them. The church is where the Lord Himself is worshiped, and where the Word is read.

BABYLONIANS IN THE OTHER LIFE.

What manner of men they of Babylon are in the other life, can be known only to one who has been allowed by the Lord to be together with those who are in the spiritual world. As this has been granted me, I am able to speak from experience; for I have seen them, heard them, and spoken with them.

Every man after death is in a life similar to his life in the world. This cannot be changed, save only as to the delights of one's love, which are turned into things correspondent. The same holds of the life of those now treated of, which is altogether such as it was in the world, with this difference: that the hidden things of their hearts are there uncovered, for they are in the spirit, in which reside the interior things of the thoughts and intentions which they had concealed in the world, and had covered over with a devout external. And as these hidden things were now laid open, it was perceived that more than half of those who had usurped the power of opening and shutting heaven, were downright atheists. But since dominion is rooted in their minds as in the world, and is based on this, that all power was given by the Father to the Lord Himself, and that it was transferred to Peter, and by order of succession to the heads of the church, therefore an oral confession about the Lord remains adjoined to their atheism. But even this remains only so long as they enjoy some dominion by means of it. But the rest of them who are not atheists, are so empty as to be entirely ignorant of man's spiritual life, of the means of salvation, of the divine truths which lead to heaven; and they know nothing at all of heavenly love aud faith, believing that heaven may be granted of the Pope's grace to any one of whatever character.

Now since every one is in a life in the spiritual world similar to his life in the natural world, without any difference, so long as he is neither in heaven nor in hell, and since the spiritual world as to its external appearance is altogether like the natural world, therefore they also live a similar moral and civil life, and above all have similar worship, for this is inrooted and inheres in man's inmost; nor can anyone after death be withdrawn from it, unless he be in good from truths and in truths from good.

But it is more difficult to withdraw the people now treated of from their own worship, than other people, because they are not in good from truths, and still less in truths from good; for their truths are not derived from the Word, with the exception of some few which they have falsified by applying them to dominion; and hence they have none other than spurious good,—for such as the truths are, the good becomes. These things are said, in order that it may be known that the worship of this people in the spiritual world, is altogether similar to their worship in the natural world.

THEIR WORSHIP IN THE OTHER WORLD.

I will now relate some particulars of the worship and life of the Papists in the spiritual world. They have a certain session, in place of the session or consistory at Rome, in which their leaders meet, and consult on various matters touching their religion, especially on the means of holding the vulgar in blind obedience, and of enlarging their own dominion. There is another convention in the western quarter near the north, whose business is the intromission of the credulous vulgar into heaven. There they dispose around them a number of societies which live in various external jollities. In some of the societies they play, in some they dance, in some they compose the face into the various expressions of hilarity and mirthfulness; in some they converse in a friendly way; in some they discuss civil, in others religious matters; in other societies, again, they talk obscenities; and so on. They admit their dependents into such of these societies as each may desire, and call it heaven; but all of them, after being there a few hours, are wearied and depart because those joys are external and not internal. In this way, moreover, many are withdrawn from a belief in their doctrinal concerning intromission into heaven.

As regards their worship in particular, it is almost like their worship in the world. As in the world it consists in masses, not performed in the common language of spirits, but in one composed of high-sounding words which induce an external devoutness and awe, and are utterly unintelligible. In like manner they adore saints, and expose idols to view. But their saints are nowhere to be seen; for all those who have sought to be worshiped as gods, are in hell; the rest who did not seek it, are among common spirits. This their prelates know, for they seek and find them; and when found they despise them. Yet they conceal it from the people, that the saints may still be worshiped as tutelar gods, but that the primates themselves who rule over the people, may be worshiped as the lords of heaven. In like manner, moreover, they multiply churches and monasteries as they did in the world; they scrape together riches, and accumulate costly things which they hide in cellars; for costly things exist in the spiritual as well as in the natural world, and far more abundantly. In like manner they send forth monks to allure the Gentiles to their religion, in order that they may subject them to their rule. They commonly have towers of espial erected in the middle of their assemblies, from which they are enabled to enjoy an extended vision into all the surrounding region: and moreover, by various means and arts they establish for themselves communications with persons far and near, joining in league with them, and drawing them over to their own party.

ROMISH PRELATES.

Such is their state in general. But as to particulars, many prelates of that religion take away all power from the Lord, and claim it for themselves; and doing this, they acknowledge no Divine. They still counterfeit a devoutness in externals; yet this devoutness in itself is profane, because in their internals there is no acknowledgment of the Divine. Hence it is that they communicate with certain societies of the ultimate heaven by a devout external, and with the hells by a profane internal; so that they are at once in both. On which account, moreover, they allure simple good spirits, and appoint them habitations near themselves; and also congregate evil spirits, and dispose them around the society in all directions, by the simple good conjoining themselves with heaven, and by the evil with hell. Hence they are enabled to accomplish abominations which they perpetrate from hell. For the simple good who are in the lowest heavens, look only to their devotional external, and their very devout adoration of the Lord in outward things; but they see not their wickedness, and therefore they favor them, and this favor from the good is their greatest protection. Yet in process of time they all recede from their devout external; and then, being separated from heaven, they are cast into hell. It may now be known in some degree what manner of men they of Babylon are in the other life.

But I am aware that they who are in this world and have no idea of man's state after death, of heaven or of hell, but an empty one, will wonder at the existence of such things in the spiritual world.

But that man is equally a man after death, that he lives in fellowships as he did in the world, that he inhabits houses, hears preaching in churches, discharges duties, and sees things in that world similar to those in the former world he has left, may appear from all that has been said and shown of the things I have heard and seen, in the work on Heaven and Hell. (See Vol. 2 of this series.)

THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM.

I have spoken with certaiu Romanists concerning the keys given to Peter; whether they believed that the power of the Lord over heaven and earth was transferred to him? And because this was a fundamental of their religion, they vehemently insisted on it, saying, that there was no doubt about it, because it was plainly said so. But when I asked them whether they knew that in each expression of the Word there is a spiritual sense which is the sense of the Word in heaven, they said at first that they did not know it, but afterwards they said they would inquire. And on inquiring, they were instructed that there is a spiritual sense within each expression of the Word, which differs from the sense of the letter as spiritual differs from natural. And they were also instructed that no person named in the Word is named in heaven, but that some spiritual thing is there understood in place of him. Finally, they were informed that Peter in the Word means the truth of the faith of the church derived from the good of charity; and that the same is meant by a rock which is there named with Peter, for it is said, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church" (Matt. xvi. 18); by which is not meant that any power was given to Peter, but that power belongs to truth derived from good; for in heaven all power is in truth from good, or from good by means of truth; and since all good and all truth are from the Lord and nothing from man, that all power is from the Lord.

When they heard this they replied indignantly, that they wished to be certain whether that spiritual sense is contained in the words. Whereupon the Word which is in heaven was given them, in which Word there is not the natural but the spiritual sense, because it is for the angels who are spiritual. And when they read it, they saw manifestly that Peter is not named there, but truth from good which proceeds from the Lord, instead. Seeing this, they rejected it with anger, and would have torn it in pieces with their teeth, had it not instantly been taken away from them. Hence they were convinced, although unwilling to be convinced, that that power belongs to the Lord alone, and not to any man, because it is a Divine power. . .

PRIESTLY LUST OF DOMINION.

In general, all the consultations of the Babylonish race tend to this: that they may dominate not only over heaven but over the whole earth; and thus that they may possess heaven and earth, obtaining each by means of the other. To effect this, they continually devise and hatch new laws and new doctrinals. They make the same endeavor also in the other life as they had made in the world; for every one after death is such as he was in the world, especially as regards his religion.

It was granted me to hear certain of the primates consulting about a doctrine which was to be a law to the people. It consisted of many articles, but they all tended to one thing: fraudulent dominion over heaven and earth, and the ascription of all power to themselves and none to the Lord. These doctrinals were afterwards read before the bystanders; whereupon a voice was heard from heaven, declaring that they were dictated from the deepest hell, though the hearers knew it not. Which was further proved by this: a crowd of devils from that hell, of the blackest and direst appearance, ascended and tore those doctrinals from them, not with their hands but with their teeth, and carried them down to their own hell; to the amazement of those who saw it.

WHY TOLERATED SO LONG.

The reason why they were there tolerated until the day of the last judgment, was, that it is of Divine order that all who can possibly be preserved, shall be preserved, even until they can no longer remain among the good. All those, therefore, who can imitate spiritual life in externals, and present it to appearance in a moral life as if it were really within, whatever they may be as to love and faith in internals, are preserved; as are those also who have outward though they have not inward sanctity. Such were many of that people, for they could discourse piously with the vulgar, and adore the Lord devotionally with them; could implant religion in their minds, and lead them to think of heaven and hell, and could uphold them in doing good by preaching works.

Thus they were enabled to lead numbers to a life of good, and therefore into the way to heaven; on which account also many of that religion were saved, although few of their leaders,—the leaders being such as the Lord means by "false prophets who come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves" (Matt. vii. 15). By prophets in the internal sense of the Word, are meant those who teach truth and lead to good by means of it; and by false prophets, those who teach the false and seduce by means of it. They are also like the scribes and pharisees, described by the Lord in Matt, xxiii. 1-34.

Another reason, moreover, why they were there tolerated was, that every man after death retains the religion he has imbibed in the world; into which therefore, when he first comes into the other life, he is yielded up. Now with this people the religious principle was implanted by those who gave an oral preference to sanctity, and feigned holy gestures, and moreover impressed the people with a belief in their power of saving; on which ground also they were not removed, but were preserved among their own.

But the principal reason was, that all are preserved from one judgment to another, who live the semblance of a spiritual life in externals, and imitate, as it were, internal piety and sanctity; all, indeed, from whom the simple may receive instruction and guidance,—for the simple in faith and heart look no farther than to see what is external, and apparent before the eyes. Hence all such were tolerated from the commencement of the Christian church until the day of the last judgment. . .

It was granted me to see how the last judgment was brought about and thoroughly accomplished upon all, especially upon the Babylonians. I will therefore describe it. This was granted me principally in order to reveal to the world that all things predicted in the Apocalypse are divinely inspired; and that the Apocalypse is a prophetic book of the Word. For if this, and at the same time the internal sense which there is in each expression of that book, as in each expression of the Prophets of the Old Testament, were not revealed to the world, that book might possibly be rejected, on account of not being understood; which would further make men totally incredulous of its contents, nay, of any such thing as a last judgment to come. . .

ITS VISITATION AND DESTRUCTION.

Destruction was effected after visitation, for visitation always precedes. The act of exploring what the men are, and moreover the separation of the good from the evil, is visitation; and the good are then removed, and the evil left behind. This having been done, there were great earthquakes, from which they perceived that the last judgment was at hand, and trembling seized them all. Then those in the southern quarter, and especially in the great city there, were seen running to and fro; some with the intention of betaking themselves to flight, some of hiding themselves in the crypts, others of hiding in the cellars and caves beside their treasures, out of which others again carried anything they could lay their hands on.

But after the earthquakes there burst forth an eruption from below, which overturned everything in the city and in the region around it. After this eruption came a vehement wind from the east, which laid bare, shook, and overthrew everything to its foundation, upon which all who were there were led forth from every part and from all their hiding-places, and cast into a sea of black waters: those who were cast into it, amounted to many myriads.

Afterwards, from that whole region a smoke ascended as after a conflagration, and finally a thick dust which was borne by the east wind to the sea, and strewn over it; for their treasures were turned into dust, with all those things which they had called holy because they possessed them. This dust was strewn over the sea, because such dust signifies damnation.

In the last place there was seen as it were a blackness flying over that whole region, which, when it was viewed narrowly, appeared like a dragon; a sign that the whole of that vast city and region was become a desert. This was seen, because dragons signify the falsities of such a religion, and the abode of dragons signifies the desert state which remains after their overthrow (Jer. ix. 11; x. 22; xlix. 33; Mai. i. 3). Certain persons were also seen to have, as it were, a mill-stone around their left arms, which was a representative of their having confirmed their abominable dogmas from the Word,—a mill-stone signifying such things. Hence it was plain what these words in the Apocalypse signify: "The angel took up a stone like a great mill-stone, and hurled it into the sea, saying: Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall no more be found" (Apoc. xviii. 21).

But they who were in the session, which also was in that region, but nearer to the east, and in which they were consulting on the modes of enlarging their dominion, and of keeping the people in ignorance, and thence in blind obedience, were not cast into that black sea, but into a gulf which yawned into length and depth beneath and around them. Such was the accomplishment of the last judgment upon the Babylonians in the southern quarter.

But the last judgment upon those in the Western and Northern Quarters, where the great city stood, was thus effected: After great earthquakes which rent everything in those quarters to the very foundations (see Matthew xxiv. 7; Luke xxi. 11; Apoc. vi. 12; viii. 5; xi. 13; xvi. 18; and the prophesies of the Old Testament, which do not refer to any earthquakes in this world), an east wind went forth, . . despoiling the whole region; first that part of it in front of the western quarter where the people of the dark ages dwelt underground; and afterwards the great city which extended from that quarter quite through the north to the east, and laid it bare so utterly that all things were exposed to view. But because there were not such riches there, no eruption and sulphurous treasure-consuming fire were seen, but mere overturn and destruction, and at length exhalation of the whole into smoke; for the east wind went forth continually, blowing to and fro; it overthrew and destroyed all things, and blew them clean away. The monks and common people were led forth to the number of many myriads; some were cast into the black sea, on that side of it which faces the west; some into the great southern gulf mentioned above; some into a western gulf, and some into the hells of the Gentiles,—for a part of those who lived in the dark ages were idolaters like the Gentiles. A smoke also was seen to ascend from that region, and to proceed as far as the sea, over which it hovered, depositing a black crust there; for that part of the sea into which they were cast, was encrusted over with the dust and smoke, into which their dwellings and riches had been reduced; wherefore that sea has no longer a visible existence, but in its place is seen as it were a black soil, and their hell is under it.

The last judgment upon those who dwelt upon the mountains in the Eastern Quarter, was thus accomplished. Their mountains were seen to subside into the deep, and all those who were upon them to be swallowed up; and he whom they had placed upon one of the mountains, and whom they proclaimed to be God, was seen to become first black, then fiery, and with his worshipers to be cast headlong into hell. For the monks of the various orders who dwelt upon those mountains, declared that he was God and that they were Christ; and wherever they went, they took with them the abominable persuasion that themselves were Christ.

Finally, judgment was accomplished upon those who dwelt more remotely in the Western Quarter, upon the mountains there, and who are understood by the woman sitting upon the scarlet beast, who had seven heads which are seven mountains. Their mountains too were seen, of which some yawned in the middle, and the apertures widened into huge spiral gulfs, into which those on the mountains were cast. Other mountains were torn up from their foundations and turned upside down, so that summit and base were inverted. Those who were thence in the plains were inundated as with a deluge, and covered over; and those who were among them from other quarters were cast into gulfs. But the things now related are only a small part of all I saw; more will be given in the explication of the Apocalypse. They were brought about and thoroughly accomplished in the beginning of the year 1757.

THE ANGELS REJOICED.

Thus was the spiritual world freed from such spirits, and the angels rejoiced on account of its liberation from them; because they of Babylon infested and seduced whomsoever they could, and in that world more than in this, their cunning being more mischievous there because they are spirits. For it is the spirit of each in which all his wickedness is hidden, since the spirit of the man is what thinks, wills, intends and devises. Many of them were explored, and it was found that they had no belief in anything at all; and that the abominable lust of seducing,—the rich for the sake of their riches, and the poor for the sake of dominion,—was rooted in their minds, and that they kept all men in the densest ignorance in order to obtain that end; thus blocking up the way to light, and therefore the way to heaven: for the way to light and to heaven is obstructed when the knowledges of spiritual things are overwhelmed by idolatries, and when the Word is adulterated, invalidated and taken away.

Such among them as were in the affection of truth from good were preserved. Those of the Papal religion who lived piously, and were in good although not in truths, and still from affection desired to know truths, were taken and carried into a certain region in front in the western quarter near the north, habitations being given them, and societies of them instituted there; and then priests from the Reformed were sent thither, who instructed them from the Word; and as they are instructed, they are received into heaven.

Since the last judgment is now accomplished, and all things are reduced by the Lord to order by means of it, and since all who are inwardly good are taken into heaven, and all who are inwardly evil are cast into hell, it is no longer permitted them, as heretofore, to form societies below heaven and above hell, or to have anything in common with other spirits; but as soon as they come thither, that is, at the death of each of them, they are altogether separated; and after passing a certain time in the world of spirits, they are carried to their own places.

They therefore who profane holy things, that is, who claim for themselves the power of opening and shutting heaven, and of remitting sins (which power belongs to the Lord alone), and who place Papal bulls on an equality with the Word, and have dominion for an end, are henceforth carried away into that black sea, or into those gulfs which are the hells of profaners. But it was declared to me from heaven that those of that religion who are of such a nature, do not look at all to the life after death, because they deny it in their hearts; but look solely to the life in the world; and that hence they care not a straw for this lot of theirs after death, which yet is to endure to eternity, but laugh at it as a thing of nought. (L. J. n. 53-64.)