55.但启示录所描述的巴比伦是指今日的巴比伦，是主降临以后兴起的；众所周知，它存在于天主教徒当中。该巴比伦比主降临前的巴比伦危害更大，更令人发指，因为它亵渎了主在揭示自己时向世人所显示的教会的内在良善和真理。至于它何等危险，内在何等恶毒，这从接下来的概述明显看出来。
他们承认且敬拜主，却剥夺祂拯救的一切权柄，将祂的神性与祂的人身完全分离，并把属于其人身的神性权柄转给自己。因为他们赦罪，准许人进入天堂或将人投入地狱，贩卖救恩，从而擅自将唯独属于神性权柄的特权归给自己。由于他们行使这种权柄，所以可推知，他们各照自己的等级，通过将权力从他们称之为基督代理者的最高者依次转到最低者而把自己变成了神。就这样，他们视自己为主，崇拜主不是为了祂，而是为了他们自己。
他们不仅玷污和歪曲圣言，甚至还把它从百姓那里夺走，免得有一丝真理之光到达他们那里。他们犹以为不足，还要消灭圣言，承认罗马教令中的神性胜过圣言中的神性，以至于把所有人都拦挡在通往天堂的道路之外；因为通往天堂的道路就是承认主，信祂，爱祂；而教导这条路的，正是圣言。因此，没有主藉由圣言的行动，救恩是不可能的。他们极尽所能地扑灭来自神性真理的天堂之光，好叫无知取而代之。无知越甚，他们就越欢喜。他们阻止人们阅读圣言和包含取自圣言的教义的书籍，以简单人听不懂又缺乏任何神性真理的弥撒形式建立敬拜，以此扑灭天堂之光。此外，他们使自己的世界充满虚假，而虚假就是黑暗本身，会移除并驱散光明。他们还说服普通人相信，神父的信仰会赋予他们生命；也就是说，这信仰是别人的信仰，而不是他们自己的。
另外，他们将一切敬拜都置于一种没有内在的外在，使内在成为空虚，因为这内在没有良善和真理的知识。然而，神性敬拜只有在它是内在的情况下才是外在的，因为外在从内在发出。除此之外，他们又引进各种偶像崇拜，制造大量圣徒，看见并容忍对这些圣徒的崇拜，甚至向他们，几乎如同向神那样献上的祷告。他们到处展示圣徒的画像，吹嘘他们所行的大量神迹，将城镇、教堂和修道院奉献给他们，又把他们的骨头从坟墓里拿出来，视之为神圣；而事实上，它们污秽至极。他们通过这些手段使所有人的心智从对神的敬拜转向对人的敬拜。
而且，他们利用各种技巧来阻止任何人从这漆黑中出来进入光明，从偶像崇拜转向神性敬拜。他们建造大量修道院，从那里往四面八方派出密探和守卫。他们强夺内心的忏悔，也就是思维和意图的忏悔；若有人不忏悔，他们就用地狱之火和炼狱的折磨来吓唬他。凡胆敢出言反对教皇宝座及其权力者，他们都将其关进可怕的监狱，就是所谓的宗教裁判所。
他们做这一切只有一个目的，就是占有全世界及其财富，过奢侈的生活，幻想自己是至高无上者，而其他人都是他们的奴隶。但这种统治并不是天堂对地狱的统治，而是地狱对天堂的统治，因为一个人，尤其一个教会之人的权力欲，或说对权力的爱越强烈，地狱就越在他身上掌权。这爱在地狱掌权，并构成地狱（参看《天堂与地狱》一书，551-565节）。这些概述可以证实，他们那里没有教会，只有巴比伦；因为教会是主自己受到敬拜，并且圣言被诵读的地方。
55. The Babylon the Book of Revelation is talking about, though, is the present-day Babylon that arose after the Lord's Coming and is generally understood to be part of the Catholic world. It is actually more destructive and atrocious than the Babylon that existed before the Lord's Coming because it profanes the church's inner forms of goodness and truth, which the Lord revealed to the world when he revealed himself. What now follows will provide an overview of how destructive and profoundly atrocious it is.
[2] [The Catholic clergy] 1have no reverence for and acknowledgment of the Lord that possesses any belief in his power to save. They completely separate his divine nature from his human nature and transfer to themselves the divine power that belonged to his human nature. 2They forgive sins, admit people into heaven, cast people into hell, save whomever they choose, and sell salvation. So they claim for themselves functions that actually belong to divine power alone; and since they exercise this divine power, it follows that they are making themselves gods-each one at his own level of the hierarchy, by the transfer of power from the highest of them, whom they call the vicar of Christ, 3to the lowest of them. By so doing they view themselves as the Lord and worship him not for his sake but for their own.
[3] They not only contaminate and falsify the Word, they also keep it from the people 4to deny them access to any of its light of truth. Even this is not enough-they also destroy the Word, believing in a divinity in the decrees of Rome that is superior to the divinity of the Word. So they close the way to heaven for everyone, since the path to heaven is the acknowledgment of the Lord and faith in him and love for him, and the Word is what teaches us that path; and without the Lord in the Word, there is no salvation. They concentrate all their efforts on extinguishing the light of heaven that comes from divine truth so that ignorance may take its place-the denser the better, as far as they are concerned. They extinguish the light of heaven by forbidding the reading of the Word and the reading of books that contain teachings from the Word. They have made worship into masses conducted in a language that ordinary people do not understand 5and in which there is no divine truth; and in general they fill their world with false teachings that are darkness itself, that take away and scatter the light. They even persuade the common people that their life depends on trusting the clergy-relying on someone else's faith, that is, rather than their own.
[4] Further, they make all worship consist of an outward holiness with nothing inside it. They make the inside utterly empty because it contains no knowledge of goodness or truth. In reality, though, a ritual is only as outwardly worshipful of the Divine as it is inwardly worshipful, because outward worship comes from inward worship.
They have also introduced all kinds of idolatrous practices. They keep making more and more saints, and both see and tolerate people's adoration of them and prayers to them, almost as though the saints were gods. They display images of them everywhere; they boast of vast numbers of miracles performed by them; they devote communities and cathedrals and monasteries to them; they bring their bones out of their tombs and treat them as sacred objects even though they are absolutely worthless-in all these ways they steer the minds of all away from the worship of God to the worship of humans. 6
[5] Not only that, they go to great lengths to prevent anyone from emerging from that darkness into light or from the worship of idols to the worship of God. They keep founding monastic orders and stationing members of them everywhere as observers and investigators. They extort confessions of the heart, including what people are merely thinking about or wishing for, and if people do not make such confessions, they threaten their spirits with hellfire and torments in purgatory; and any who dare to speak out against the papal throne and priestly dominion are locked away in a horrendous prison that is called the prison of the Inquisition. 7
[6] All this is done with the sole purpose of gaining possession of the world and all its treasures and living in luxury. The clergy are the great ones, and the rest of humanity are their servants. 8This is not the rule of heaven over hell, though. It is the rule of hell over heaven, because to the extent that a love of being in control gains strength in anyone-especially someone of the church-hell is in control. On the fact that this love is in control in hell and actually is hell, see Heaven and Hell 551-565.
This shows that what we are dealing with here is not the church, it is Babylon; because the church exists where the Lord himself is worshiped and the Word is read.
Footnotes:
1. Though there is no explicit subject in the original Latin here, the specification of the Catholic clergy is called for by the subsequent description of this “Babylon” in terms of clerical functions such as forgiving sins (Last Judgment 55:2), regulating the use of the Bible and access to it (55:3), conducting masses (55:3), creating saints (55:4), founding monastic orders (55:5), and hearing confessions (55:5). These people are also contrasted with “ordinary people” and “the common people” (55:3), as well as with “the rest of humanity” (55:6). See also note 1 in Last Judgment 54. [JSR]
2. [Swedenborg note] The [Roman Catholic] church ascribes two distinct natures to the Lord; it separates his divinity from his humanity. This was arrived at in a council for the sake of the papacy, so that the pope could be acknowledged as the vicar of Christ. This was disclosed to me by a heavenly source: see Secrets of Heaven 4738.
3. In Catholic thought, the concept that the pope is the vicar of Christ (meaning an agent or substitute for him) is based on two passages in Scripture: Christ's command to Peter to feed his lambs and his sheep (John 21:15-17), and his statement in Matthew 16:18-19: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (New Revised Standard Version). The current Catechism of the Catholic Church expresses the traditional Catholic view: “The Lord made St. Peter the visible foundation of his Church. He entrusted the keys of the Church to him. The bishop of the Church of Rome, successor to St. Peter, is head of the college of bishops, the Vicar of Christ and Pastor of the universal Church on earth” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 936). Compare note in New Jerusalem 316. [JSR, RS]
4. On the charge that Roman Catholics were forbidden to read the Bible, see note 4 in New Jerusalem 8. [Editors]
5. Swedenborg refers here to a major distinction between Catholic and Protestant practice in his day, the Catholic Church's use of Latin rather than vernaculars in church worship. Compare similar statements in True Christianity 159:4, 819:2; Spiritual Experiences (= Swedenborg 1998-2013) 5218. [SS]
6. Swedenborg here voices a complaint common to most Protestant movements from the Reformation onward: that worship in the Roman Catholic Church is focused on externals, the veneration of saints being, in the view of the Reformers, a particularly egregious example. Compare the current Catechism of the Catholic Church: “The religious sense of the Christian people has always found expression in various forms of piety surrounding the Church's sacramental life, such as the veneration of relics, visits to sanctuaries, pilgrimages, processions, the stations of the cross, religious dances, the rosary, medals, etc” (1674). The Catechism goes on to say, however, “These expressions of piety extend the liturgical life of the Church, but do not replace it” (1675). With respect to saints in particular, Catholic teaching makes several clear distinctions: veneration (Latin doulia) is due to the saints, and exceptional veneration (hyperdoulia) is due to the Virgin Mary because of her unusually high status; but worship (latria) is due to God alone. As Swedenborg notes in this passage, Catholics do not worship the saints as gods, though he asserts that they “almost” do so. For the Catholic response to Protestant charges about worship of the saints, see the Council of Trent, Twenty-fifth Session, December 3-4, 1653 (= Schaff 1931, 2:199-205); and the Roman Catechism of 1566, under “On the Decalogue: The First Commandment,” specifically “On the Honor and Invocation of Saints” (= Donovan 1829, 245-248). See also note 3 in New Jerusalem 8. [RS, SS]
7. The Inquisition grew up piecemeal in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries to combat heresies such as that of the Cathars in southern France and northern Italy. It functioned as an ecclesiastical court (although offenders were handed over to the secular authority for actual punishment), except in Spain, where the Spanish Inquisition was set up in 1478 directly under royal authority. The Congregation of the Holy Office of the Inquisition was established as a permanent body by Pope Paul III in 1542 as part of the Counter-Reformation. Its influence was much attenuated in Swedenborg's time, and it had more or less completely lost its influence over the political bodies of Europe by the end of the eighteenth century. See Johnson 1987, 253-255, 308-309, 354. [RS]
8. The implicit allusion here is to biblical passages calling on leaders to be servants of their people (see, for example, Matthew 20:25-28; Mark 9:33-35; 10:42-45; Luke 9:46-48), or predicting that those most exalted on earth will be condemned in the next life (see, for example, Mark 10:31; Luke 1:52; 6:25; 13:30; 16:25). [SS]
55. But the Babylon mentioned in the book of Revelation is the present-day Babylon, which began after the Lord's coming; it is well known that it exists among the Roman Catholics. It is more dangerous and dreadful than the one before the Lord's coming, because it profanes the church's interior forms of good and truth, which the Lord revealed to the world when He revealed Himself. How dangerous and inwardly wicked it is can be summarily established from what now follows.
[2] The Roman Catholics acknowledge and worship the Lord without having any power to save. They totally divide His Divine from His human, and transfer to themselves His Divine power, which belonged to His human. 1For they forgive sins, grant entry to heaven, cast into hell, and save whomsoever they wish, putting a price on salvation and so claiming for themselves the prerogatives which belong to God's power alone. By exercising that power, it follows that they make themselves into gods, each in his own rank down to the lowest, by deriving it from their chief, whom they call the Vicar of Christ. Thus they look on themselves as the Lord and worship Him not for His sake, but for their own.
[3] They not only adulterate and falsify the Word, but even deprive the people of it, so that not a glimmer of the truth reaches them. Nor is this enough for them, they actually reduce it to nothing by accepting the decrees of Rome as containing a Divine element superior to that in the Word. By so doing they bar the way to heaven for all; for the way to heaven is the acknowledgment of the Lord and faith in Him and love to Him, and it is the Word which teaches the way. As a result, without the Lord acting by means of the Word, salvation is impossible. They devote their best efforts to quenching the light of heaven which comes from Divine truth, putting in its place ignorance, the more welcome to them the denser it is. They quench the light of heaven by preventing people reading the Word, and books containing teachings from the Word; and by establishing worship in the form of masses in a language simple people do not understand, and lacking any Divine truth. Moreover, they fill their world with false ideas, which are utter darkness, absorbing and scattering the light. They also persuade the common people that it is their faith that gives them life, that is, someone else's faith, not their own.
[4] In addition, they make all worship a matter of outward holiness, with no inward holiness; this they make empty, because it is devoid of the knowledge of good and truth. Yet Divine worship can only be outward to the extent that it is inward, for the outward comes from the inward. Besides this they bring in idolatrous practices of many kinds. They create saints in large numbers, and watch tolerantly while they are adored and have prayers addressed to them almost as if they were gods. They set up statues of them on every side, boast of their numerous miracles, making them patrons of their towns, churches and monasteries, and taking their bones - such utter trash - out of their graves and turning them into holy relies. By such means they divert the minds of all from the worship of God to the worship of human beings.
[5] Moreover, they have employed much skill in preventing anyone being brought out of that murky darkness into light, from the worship of idols to the worship of God. They have built numbers of monasteries to supply spies and guardians whom they post everywhere. They extort heartfelt confessions, even of thoughts and intentions, and if they do not succeed they frighten people's minds with hell-fire and the torments of purgatory. Those who dare to utter a word against the Papal throne and their power they shut up in a repulsive prison, called that of the Inquisition.
[6] Their only purpose in all these acts is to possess the world and its treasures, and to indulge their fancy making themselves supreme and all the rest their slaves. But such rule is not that of heaven over hell, but of hell over heaven, for the stronger the love of power grows in a person, especially if he belongs to a church, the more hell reigns in him. This is the reigning love of hell and makes it hell (see HEAVEN AND HELL 551-565). These facts can establish that what we have there is no church, but a Babylon; for a church is where the Lord Himself is worshipped and the Word is read.
Footnotes:
1. It was disclosed from heaven that the church's attribution of two natures to the Lord, thus separating His Divine from His human, took place in a Council for the Pope's sake, so that he should be recognised as Christ's vicar (4738).
55. But Babylon treated of in the Apocalypse, is the Babylon of this day, which arose after the Lord's coming, and is known to be with the Papists. This Babylon is more pernicious and more heinous 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, how inwardly heinous it is, may appear from the following summary. They 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; 1for they remit sins; they send to heaven; they cast into hell; they save whom they will; they sell salvation; thus they arrogate to themselves what belongs 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 transference from the highest of them, whom they call Christ's vicar, down to the lowest; thus they regard themselves as the Lord, and adore Him, not for His own sake, but for theirs. 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 moreover annihilate it, acknowledging the Divine in the decrees of Rome, superior to the Divine 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, by means 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 doctrines from the Word; instituting worship by masses in a language not understood by the simple, and in which there is no Divine truth; and besides, they fill their world with falsities which are darkness itself, and which remove and dissipate the light. They likewise persuade the common people, that they have life in the faith of their priests, thus in the faith of another and not in their own. They also place all worship in a holy external, without the internal, making the internal empty, because it is without the knowledges of good and truth; and yet Divine worship is external, only so far as it is internal, since the external proceeds from the internal. Besides this, they introduce idolatries of various kinds. They make and multiply saints; they see and tolerate the adoration of these saints, and even the prayers offered to them almost as to gods; they set up their idols everywhere; boast of the great abundance of miracles done by them; set them over cities, temples, and monasteries; their bones taken out of their tombs they account holy, which yet are most vile; 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 that thick darkness into light, from idolatrous worship 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 prison, which is called the inquisition. All these things they do for the sole end that they may possess the world and its treasures, and live in luxury and be the greatest, while the rest are slaves. But domination such as this, is not that of heaven over hell, but of hell over heaven, for as far as the love of having dominion is with man, especially with the man of the church, so far hell reigns. That this love reigns in hell, and makes hell, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell (551-565). From this summary it may appear that they have no church there, but Babylon; for the church is where the Lord Himself is worshiped, and where the Word is read.
Footnotes:
1. The attribution by the church, of two natures to the Lord, and thus the separation of His Divine from His Human, was effected in a council, for the sake of the Pope, that the Pope might he acknowledged as the Lord's vicar (as disclosed from heaven in the Arcana Coelestia, n. 4738).
55. Sed Babylonia, de qua agitur in Apocalypsi, est hodierna Babylonia, quae coepta est post adventum. Domini; quae quod sit apud Pontificios, notum est. Haec prae illa, quae fuit ante adventum Domini, magis perniciosa et nefanda est, quia profanat ecclesiae bona et vera interiora, quae Dominus, cum Semet Ipsum, revelavit mundo. Quam perniciosa ac interius nefaria est, constare potest in summa ex his sequentibus. Dominum agnoscunt et adorant absque ulla potestate salvandi; separant Divinum Ipsius prorsus ab Humano Ipsius, ac Divinam Ipsius potestatem, quae fuit Humano Ipsius, in se transferunt; 1remittunt enim peccata, immittunt in caelum, conjiciunt in infernum, salvant quemcunque volunt, vendunt salutem, ita arrogant sibi talia quae sunt solius Divinae potestatis: et quia illam exercent, sequitur quod se faciant deos, quisque in suo loco per translationem a Supremo eorum, quem vocant Vicarium Christi, ad postremos; ita se spectant Dominum, ac Ipsum adorant non Ipsius sed sui causa. Verbum non modo adulterant et falsificant, sed etiam auferunt populo, ne in aliquam lucem veri intret; nec hoc satis, etiam illud annihilant, Divinum agnoscentes in statutis e Roma supra Divinum in Verbo; ita precludunt omnibus viam ad caelum, via enim ad caelum est agnitio Domini, ac fides et amor in Ipsum, ac Verbum est quod docet viam; unde absque Domino, medio Verbo, nulla salus. Omni studio connituntur, ut lux caeli, quae est ex Divino Vero, exstinguatur, ac ut loco ejus sit ignorantia, quae quo densior eo illis acceptius: lucem caeli exstinguunt per inhibitionem lectionis Verbi, et lectionis librorum in quibus doctrinae ex Verbo; cultum instituentes per missas in idiomate a simplicibus non intellecto, et in quibus non verum Divinum; et praeterea implent orbem suum falsis, quae sunt ipsae tenebrae, quae removent et dissipant lucem; persuadent etiam ut vulgus in illorum fide vitam habeat, ita in aliena et non in sua. Insuper omnem cultum ponunt in sancto externo absque interno, internum faciunt ut vacuum sit, quia absque cognitionibus boni et veri; et tamen cultus Divinus tantum externus est quantum est internus, ex hoc enim ille procedit. Praeter illa inducunt quoque idololatrias plurium generum; sanctos faciunt et multiplicant, quorum adorationes vident et tolerant, et quoque preces ad illos paene sicut ad deos; idola eorum exponunt undequaque, miracula ab illis multa copia venditant, praeficiunt illos civitatibus, templis et monasteriis, ossa eorum sepulcris exempta sancta faciunt, quae tam abjectissima sunt; avertentes sic omnium animos a cultu Dei ad cultum hominum. Praeterea ne aliquis ex caligine illa in lucem veniat, et ne a cultu idololatrico ad cultum Divinum, multa arte praecavent; multiplicant enim monasteria, ex quibus exploratores ubivis et custodes ponunt; confessiones cordis, quae etiam sunt cogitationum et intentionum, extorquent, et si non faciant, territant animos igne infernali, et cruciatibus in purgatorio; et illos, qui contra Papale solium, et contra dominium eorum, audent loqui, horrendo carceri, qui Inquisitionis vocatur, includunt. Haec omnia ob solum finem, ut possideant mundum, et ejus thesauros, ac vivant genio, et illi maximi sint, ac reliqui servi. Sed talis dominatus non est caeli super infernum, sed est inferni super caelum; nam quantum amor dominandi apud hominem, imprimis apud hominem ecclesiae, invalescit, tantum regnat infernum; quod ille amor regnet in inferno ac faciat infernum, videatur in opere De Caelo et Inferno (551-565). Ex his constare potest,, quod ibi non sit ecclesia sed Babylonia; nam ibi ecclesia est, ubi Ipse Dominus colitur, et Verbum legitur.
(EX ARCANIS CAELESTIBUS.)
Footnotes:
1. Quod ecclesia Domino binas naturas attribuat, et sic Divinum Ipsius separet ab Humano Ipsius, factum sit in Concilio propter Papam, ut pro Vicario Ipsius agnosceretur, detectum e caelo, in Arcanis Caelestibus (3035 (4738?)).