The Angels In Heaven

Commentary From Sophy Burnham, A Book of Angels

Angels, he [Swedenborg] tells us, breathe an atmosphere adapted to their angelic lungs. They not only speak but write… But how they speak is wondrous, for they express affection with vowels, Swedenborg says, ideas with consonants, and their total communication with words. They cannot voice, he says, the human language of doubt and ideas, conflict and argument. The reason is simple: angels can utter only what expresses with perfect sincerity the love that lies in them, so that their message is always one of total and unconditional overwhelming love…
Angels, says Swedenborg, have no power of their own. They are agents of God, and if an angel doubted where his power comes from, he would instantly become so weak he could not resist a single evil spirit. “For this reason,” says Swedenborg in Heaven and Hell, angels ascribe no merit whatever to themselves, and are averse to all praise and glory on account of anything they do, ascribing all the praise and glory to the Lord.”
Swedenborg’s angels stayed with him always, whispering and singing to him. He writes of their communicating spiritually—by thoughts flashing into his mind, and in one of these instructions he learned that angels look on all events as proceeding from God—not as men or evil spirits do, who want everything to come out their way and, when it doesn’t, give way to doubt or even deny the existence of God, but rather in an outpouring of faith. His angels repeated again and again that we poor beings should not worry about the future but only trust to Providence. For Providence will bring all things that we desire—not necessarily while we desire them, “but yet, if it be for their good, they obtain them afterward, when not thinking of them.”

—Burnham, Sophy. A Book of Angels: Reflections on Angels Past and Present and True Stories of How They Touch Our Lives. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 1990, 2004. Pp. 190-191.

Additional Emmanuel Swedenborg Quotations About Angels

“Angels never attack, as infernal spirits do. Angels only ward off and defend.”

—Emanuel Swedenborg, Arcana Coelestia (1749 – 1756) translated as “Heavenly Secrets” #1683.

“They set the battle in array with them. That this signifies that they began the attack, is evident from the signification of “setting the battle in array, as meaning to fight against, for it is said above (verse 5) that they rebelled. The same is evident also from the fact that evil spirits are those who make the assault. For it is the case that the Lord never began the combat with any hell, but the hells assaulted Him, as is also the case with every man who is in temptation, or in combat with evil spirits in man’s case the angels never make the assault, but always and continually the evil or infernal spirits do so, the angels only ward off and defend. This comes from the Lord, who never desires to bring evil upon anyone, or to thrust him down into hell, even if he were the worst and the most bitter enemy of all, but it is he who brings the evil upon himself, and precipitates Himself [Herself] into hell. This also follows from the nature of evil, and from the nature of good. It is the nature of evil to desire to maltreat everyone, but that of good to desire to maltreat no one The evil are in their very life when they are assaulting, for they continually desire to destroy. The good are in their very life when they are assaulting no one, and when they can be of use in defending others from evils.”

—Emanuel Swedenborg, Arcana Coelestia (1749 – 1756) translated  by John F. Potts [#1683].