NEUOFFENBARUNG1. THE DELIGHTS OF WISDOM
PERTAINING TO
CONJUGIAL LOVE.
PRELIMINARIES.
THE JOYS OF HEAVEN AND NUPTIALS THERE.
I foresee that many who read the following Relations and those after the chapters will believe they are fictions of the imagination; but I declare in truth that they are not fictions, but things actually done and seen. Nor were they seen in any state of the mind asleep, but in a state of full wakefulness. For it has pleased the Lord to manifest Himself to me, and to send me to teach the things that will belong to the New Church which is meant by the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse. To this end He has opened the interiors of my mind and spirit, whereby He has given me to be in the spiritual world with angels and at the same time in the natural world with men, and this now for five and twenty years.
2. I once saw an angel flying beneath the eastern heaven with a trumpet in his hand and to his mouth; and he sounded it to the north, to the west, and to the south. He was clad in a robe that waved behind him as he flew, and was girt about with a band flashing and sparkling as with rubies and sapphires. He flew downwards and descended slowly to the earth not far from where I was. As he touched the ground he stood upon his feet and walked to and fro; and then, seeing me he directed his steps toward me. I was in the spirit, and in that state was standing on a hill in the southern quarter. And when he came near I spoke to him, and asked:
“What is to come to pass now? I heard the sound of your trumpet and saw you descending through the air.”
The angel answered, “I am sent to call together the men most renowned for learning, of most penetrating genius, and most eminent reputation for wisdom, from the countries of the Christian world who are dwelling on this continent, that they may assemble on the hill where you now are, and from the heart express their minds as to what they had thought, understood, and conceived in the world, respecting Heavenly Joy and Eternal Happiness. The reason of my being sent was this: Certain new-comers from the world admitted into our heavenly society, which is in the east, have told us that not even one in the whole Christian world knows what heavenly joy and eternal happiness are, nor therefore what heaven is. This my brethren and companions greatly wondered at, and they said to me, Go down, call together, and assemble the wisest in the world of spirits’ (in which all mortals are first gathered after their departure from the natural world) �so that from the mouth of many we may make sure whether it is true that there is among Christians such thick darkness and dense ignorance of the future life.'” And he said, “Wait a little, and you will see companies of the wise flocking hither. The Lord will provide them an edifice of assembly.”
I waited, and lo! after half an hour I beheld two companies from the north, two from the west, and two from the south; and as they came they were conducted by the angel with the trumpet to the edifice provided, and took the places assigned them there according to the quarter from whence they came. There were six companies or groups. A seventh, from the east, was not seen by the others on account of the light. When they were assembled the angel disclosed to them the reason of their being called together, and requested that the companies would in order express their wisdom respecting Heavenly Joy and Eternal Happiness. And each company then gathered themselves into a circle, turned face to face, that they might recall this subject according to the ideas received in the former world, and now consider it, and after consideration and consultation present their conclusion.
3. The first company, which was from the north, after consultation said, “Heavenly joy and eternal happiness are one with the very life of heaven; and therefore every one who enters heaven, as to life enters into its festivities, just as one who goes to a wedding enters into its festivities. Is not heaven above us before our eyes and thus in a place? And there, and only there, are bliss upon bliss and pleasures upon pleasures. Into these a man is admitted when he enters heaven, as to every perception of the mind and every sensation of the body, from the fulness of the joy of that place. Heavenly happiness then, which is also eternal, is nothing else than admission into heaven, and admission by Divine Grace.”
When they had said this, the other company from the north, from their wisdom expressed this opinion: “Heavenly joy and eternal happiness are nothing but most delightful companionship with angels and sweetest converse with them, whereby the countenance is kept continually expanded with joy and the faces of the whole company are wreathed in smiles of gladness, from the courteous discourse and pleasantry. What are heavenly joys but the variations of such pleasures to eternity?”
The third company, which was the first of the wise from the western quarter, from the thoughts of their affections, declared: “What are heavenly joy and eternal happiness but feastings with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, upon whose tables will be rich and delicate viands, with generous and noble wines; and after the feasts, sports and dances of youths and maidens, tripping to the measures of symphonies and flutes, with intervening singing of sweetest songs; and then at evening there will be dramatic representations, and after these feastings again, and so on every day to eternity.”
After this utterance the fourth company, which was the second from the western quarter, announced their opinion, saying, “We have cherished many ideas respecting heavenly joy and eternal happiness, and have considered various joys, and compared them with each other, and have come to the conclusion that heavenly joys are paradisal joys. What else is heaven but a paradise, whose extent is from east to west and from south to north, wherein are fruit trees and delightful flowers, and in the midst of them the magnificent tree of life, about which the blessed will sit, eating fruits of delicate flavor, and adorned with wreaths of flowers of sweetest fragrance? And as these with the breath of perpetual spring come forth and forth again from day to day, with infinite variety, and as by their perpetual birth and blossom, and by the constant vernal temperature, their spirits are continually renewed, they cannot but inspire and breathe out new joys from day to day. And hence they return to the flower of their age, and thereby to the primeval state in which Adam and his wife were created, and thus they are brought again into their paradise translated from earth to heaven.”
The fifth company, which was the first of the gifted from the southern quarter, said, “Heavenly joy and eternal happiness are none other than super-eminent dominion, with boundless wealth, and consequent more than regal magnificence, and more than illustrious splendor. That the joys of heaven and their continual fruition, which is eternal happiness, are these, we have perceived clearly from those who had acquired. them in the former world; and from the fact, moreover, that. the blessed in heaven are to reign with the Lord, and are to be kings and princes, because they are the sons of Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords, and are to sit upon thrones, and the angels will minister unto them. We have gained a conception of the magnificence of heaven from the fact that the New Jerusalem, by which the glory of heaven is portrayed, is to have gates each of one pearl, and streets of pure gold, and a wall with foundations of precious stones; consequently that every one received into heaven has his own palace, resplendent with gold and precious things; and dominion in successive rank one above another. And as we know that joys and inborn happiness are inherent in such things, and that they are God’s promise which cannot be broken, we are unable to deduce the most happy state of heavenly life from any other source.”
After this the sixth company, which was the second from the southern quarter, lifted up their voice and said, “The joy of heaven and its eternal happiness are none other than the perpetual glorification of God, a solemn festival continuing to eternity, and most blessed worship, with songs and jubilee; and thus a constant uplifting of the heart to God, with full trust in His acceptance of prayers and praises for the Divine bounty of their beatitude.”
Some of this company added that this glorification would be attended with magnificent illuminations and most fragrant incense; and with processions of great pomp, a chief pontiff with great sound of the trumpet going before, primates and key-bearers great and small following him, and after them men carrying palms and women with golden images in their hands.
4. The seventh company, not visible to the others on account of the light, was from the east in heaven. They were angels from the same society whence the angel with the trumpet came. When they heard in their heaven that not a single person in the Christian world knew what the joy of heaven and eternal happiness are, they said one to another, “This certainly is not the truth. There cannot be such thick darkness and such mental stupor among Christians. Let us then go down and hear whether it is the truth, for if true it is indeed marvellous.” These angels then said to the angel with the trumpet, “You know that every man who had desired heaven, and had any definite thought about the joys there, is introduced after death into the joys of his imagination; and that when they have experienced what those joys are, that they are according to the vain conceits of their mind, and according to their delirious phantasies, then they are led out of them and instructed.”
This is done in the world of spirits, in the case of the most of those who in the former life have meditated about heaven, and have formed some conclusion respecting the joys there, even so far as to desire them.
Having heard these words the angel with the trumpet said to the six companies called together from the wise of the Christian world, “Follow me, and I will lead you into your joys, and so into your heaven.”
5. Having said this the angel went before and was followed, first by the company of those who had persuaded themselves that heavenly joys consisted solely of most delightful companionship and most agreeable conversation. The angel brought them to companies in the northern quarter, of those who in the former world had the same conception of the joys of heaven. There was a spacious house in which such were gathered. There were more than fifty rooms in the house, distinguished according to the various kinds of conversation. In some of the rooms they were talking about such things as they had seen and heard in public places and in the streets; in some they talked of the various loveliness of the fair sex, intermingled with pleasantries, which increased until the countenances of all in the company expanded with smiles of merriment; in other rooms they talked of the news about the court, about the ministries, state polity, various matters which had become known from privy councils, together with reasonings and conjectures respecting the events; in others, they talked of business; in others, on literary subjects; in others, of such things as pertain to civil prudence and to moral life; in others, about ecclesiastic affairs, and the sects; and so on. It was given me to look into this house; and I saw them running about from room to room, seeking companionships of their affections and thence of their joys. And among these companionships I observed three kinds; some panting as it were to speak, some longing to make inquiries, and others eager to hear. There were four entrances to the house, one towards each quarter; and I noticed that many left the companies and were hastening to get out. I followed some of them to the eastern door, and saw several sitting near it with sad countenances; and I approached and asked why they were sitting in such sadness. They answered, “The doors of this house are kept closed to those who wish to go out; and it is now the third day since we entered, and we have lived the life of our desire for company and conversation, and are utterly wearied with continual talking, insomuch that we can scarcely bear to hear the murmur of their sound. From irksomeness therefore we came to this door and knocked, but are answered that, The doors of this house are not opened for going out, but for coming in. Remain, and delight in the joys of heaven.’ From which answer we infer that we must continue here to eternity. This is the cause of the sadness that has entered our minds; and now our hearts begin to be oppressed and anxiety arises.”
The angel then spoke to them, and said, “This state is the death of your joys, which you believed to be alone heavenly although in truth they are but the accessories of heavenly joys.” And they asked the angel:
“What then is heavenly joy?”
To which the angel replied in these few words:
“It is the delight of doing something that is useful to ourselves and to others; and the delight of use derives its essence from love and its existence from wisdom. The delight of use springing from love by wisdom is the life and soul of all heavenly joys. There are most joyous companionships in the heavens, which gladden the minds of angels, amuse their spirits, fill their bosoms with delight, and revive their bodies; but they enjoy these delights when they have performed the uses of their employments and occupations. From these are the soul and life in all their joys and pleasures; but if you take away this soul or life the accessory joys successively become no joys, but become at first indifferent, then as if frivolous, and finally bring sadness and anxiety.” When these words had been said the door was opened, and those sitting near sprang out and fled to their homes, every one to his employment and to his occupation, and revived.
6. After this the angel addressed those who had induced upon themselves the idea that the joys of heaven and eternal happiness consisted in feastings with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and after the feasts sports and public shows, and then feasts again, and so on to eternity. And he said to them:
“Follow me, and I will bring you into the felicities of your j oys.”
And he led them through a grove to a level place covered with a floor, on which tables were placed, fifteen on one side and fifteen on the other.
And they asked, “Why so many tables?”
The angel answered, “The first table is that of Abraham, the second that of Isaac, the third that of Jacob; and next to these in order are the tables of the twelve apostles. On the other side is the same number of tables, those of their wives; the first three are those of Sarah the wife of Abraham, Rebecca the wife of Isaac, and Leah and Rachel the wives of Jacob; and the other twelve are those of the wives of the twelve apostles.”
After some delay all the tables appeared to be filled with dishes of food, and the little spaces between them were ornamented by small pyramids with sweetmeats. The guests stood around them in expectation of seeing the hosts of the tables. They who were expected were shortly seen to enter, in order of procession from Abraham to the last of the apostles; and presently each approached his own table, and reclined upon a couch at its head. And from their places they said to those that stood around, “Recline ye also with us.” And they did so, the men with the Fathers, and the women with their wives; and they ate and drank in joy and with veneration.
After the feast the Fathers went out, and then began the sports, the dances of youths and maidens, and after them the public shows.
These being ended they were invited to feast again, but with the condition that they were to eat on the first day with Abraham, on the second with Isaac, on the third with Jacob, on the fourth with Peter, on the fifth with James, on the sixth with John, on the seventh with Paul, and with the rest in order to the fifteenth day; from which again the festivities would be renewed in the same order, changing seats, and so on to eternity.
After this the angel called together the men of the company and said to them, “All those whom you saw at the tables had been in similar imaginary thought with yourselves concerning the joys of heaven and eternal happiness therefrom; and such mock festivities were provided and were permitted by the Lord to the end that they may themselves see the vanity of their ideas, and thereby be led out of them. The chief men whom you saw at the head of the tables were old men playing a part, most of them rustics, who being bearded and of some wealth were prouder than others, upon whom was induced the phantasy that they were these ancient Fathers. But follow me into the ways leading out of this place of discipline.”
And they followed and saw some fifty here and fifty there who had filled their bellies with food even to nausea, and were longing to return to the familiar scenes of their homes, some to their public offices, some to their merchandise, and some to their labor. But many were detained by the keepers of the grove, and were asked about their days of feasting, and whether they had yet eaten at the table with Peter and with Paul, and if they were going away before they had done so? For as this would be unbecoming, it would be to their shame. But most of them answered, “We are sated with our joys; food has become insipid to us; we have lost relish for it; our stomachs loathe it; we cannot bear to taste it. We have dragged on some days and nights in this luxury, and beg earnestly that we may be permitted to go away.” And being allowed to go, they with rapid pace and panting breath fled to their homes.
The angel then called together the men of the company, and on the way gave them this instruction concerning heaven: “In heaven, as in the world, there are foods and drinks, there are festive meals and banquets; and with the principal persons there are tables spread with sumptuous delicacies, with choice and delicious viands, wherewith they are exhilarated and refreshed in spirit. And there are also sports and exhibitions, and entertainments of music and song; and all these in the highest perfection. And such things give them joys, but not happiness. This must be within the joys, and thence from the joys. Happiness within joys makes them joys indeed. It enriches and sustains them, that they do not become worthless nor disdained. And this happiness every one has from the performance of use in his employment. There is a certain latent vein within the affection of the will of every angel which draws the mind on to do something. By this the mind tranquillizes and satisfies itself. This satisfaction and this tranquillity induce a state of mind receptive of the love of use from the Lord. And from the reception of this comes heavenly happiness, which is the life of their joys before mentioned. Heavenly food in its essence is nothing else than love, wisdom, and use together, that is, use from love by wisdom. Wherefore, in heaven, food for the body is given to every one according to the use that he performs, sumptuous to those who are in eminent use, moderate but of exquisite flavor to those in a medium degree of use, simple to those in inferior use, but none to the slothful.”
7. After this he called to him the company of the wise, so-called, who made heavenly joys and eternal happiness therefrom to consist in super-eminent dominion and boundless wealth, and in more than regal magnificence and more than illustrious splendor, because it is said in the Word, among other things, that they shall be kings and princes, and that they shall reign with Christ for ever, and be ministered unto by the angels, with many other things. The angel said to them:
“Follow me, and I will introduce you into your joys.”
And he brought them in to a portico constructed with columns and pyramids. In front of it was a lower palace through, which the way opened into the portico. Through this he introduced them. And lo! twenty here and twenty there were seen waiting. And then suddenly one appeared who personated an angel; and he said to them, “Through this portico is the way to heaven. Stay a little while and prepare yourselves; for the elder among you are to be kings, and the younger men princes.”
When this was said there appeared by each column a throne, upon the throne a robe of silk, and upon the robe a scepter and a crown; and by each pyramid there appeared a chair of state, elevated some three cubits from the ground, and on the chair a chain with links of gold, and the ribbon of an order of knighthood joined at the ends with circlets of diamonds. And then it was proclaimed, “Go now, enrobe yourselves, be seated, and wait.”
And immediately the elder men hastened to the thrones, and the younger to the chairs of state, and put on their robes and sat down. And then there appeared as it were a mist ascending from beneath, from inhaling which those sitting upon the thrones and chairs began to swell in the face and to be puffed up as to their chest and filled with the confidence that now they were kings and princes. The mist was an aura of the phantasy with which they were inspired. And suddenly young men flew to them, as if from heaven, and stood two behind each throne and one behind each chair of state, to minister. And then by turns some herald cried out, “Ye kings and princes, wait yet a little while. Your palaces are now being prepared in heaven. Courtiers with a retinue will presently come and conduct you in.” They waited and waited until their spirits panted for breath and they were utterly wearied with eager longing.
After three hours heaven was opened above their heads, and angels looked down and having compassion on them said,
“Why do you sit so foolish, and take an actor’s part? They have been playing tricks upon you, and have changed you from men to idols, because you have set your hearts upon the idea that you are to reign with Christ as kings and princes, and are to be ministered unto by the angels. Have you forgotten the Lord’s words, that he who would be great in heaven must become a servant? Learn then what is meant by kings and princes, and by reigning with Christ, that it is to be wise and perform uses; for the kingdom of Christ, which is heaven, is a kingdom of uses. For the Lord loves all, and from love wills good to all, and good is use. And as the Lord does goods or uses mediately through the angels, and in the world through men, therefore to them that perform uses faithfully He gives the love of use and its reward, which is internal blessedness; and this is eternal happiness. In the heavens as on earth there is pre-eminent dominion and boundless wealth; for there are governments and forms of governments, and therefore there are greater and lesser powers and dignities. And those who are in the highest dignity have palaces and courts, which in magnificence and splendor excel the palaces and courts of emperors and kings on earth; and they are surrounded with honor and glory from the number of courtiers, ministers, and attendants, and the splendor of their apparel. But the highest among these are chosen from them whose heart is in the public welfare, and whose bodily senses only are in the grandeur of magnificence for the sake of obedience. And as it is for the public welfare that every one in a society as in a common body shall be of some use, and as every use is from the Lord, and is done by angels and men as if of themselves, it is plain that this is to reign with the Lord.”
Hearing these words from heaven the mimic kings and princes decended from their thrones and chairs of state, threw down their scepters, crowns, and robes; and the mist wherein was the aura of phantasy departed from them, and a bright cloud overveiled them wherein was an aura of wisdom, whereby sanity was restored to their minds.
8. After this the angel returned to the house of assembly of the wise from the Christian world, and called those to him who had induced on themselves the belief that the joys of heaven and eternal happiness are paradisal delights. He said to them, “Follow me, and I will bring you into paradise, your heaven, that you may enter into the blessedness of your eternal happiness.”
And he led them through a lofty gateway formed of the interlacing boughs and branches of noble trees. After entering he led them about through winding ways from place to place. It was a paradise indeed, at the first entrance of the heaven to which they are sent who in the world had believed that the whole heaven is one paradise, because it is called paradise; and who had impressed upon themselves the idea that after death there is entire rest from labor, and that this rest is nothing else than breathing in the very soul of delights, walking upon roses, gladdened with most delicious juice of grapes, and celebrating festive banquets; and that this life is only found in a heavenly paradise. Being led by the angel they beheld a vast multitude of old and young men, and boys, and also women and girls, sitting three by three and ten by ten upon beds of roses, weaving garlands with which they adorned the heads of the aged, the arms of the young men, and twined as bands about the breasts of the boys; others plucking fruit from the trees and bearing it in osier baskets to their companies; others pressing into cups and genially quaffing the juice of grapes, cherries, and berries; others drawing into their nostrils the fragrance exhaled and diffused around from the flowers and fruits and fragrant leaves; others singing melodious songs with which they softly charmed the listeners’ ears; others sitting by fountains, and turning into various forms the waters of the gushing stream; others walking about, talking and scattering pleasantries; others running, playing, and dancing, here in rhythm and there in circles; others entering into little garden-houses that they might repose on couches; and many other paradisal delights.
When they had seen these the angel led his attendants hither and thither through winding ways, and finally to some who were sitting in a most beautiful rose-bed surrounded by olive, orange, and citron trees, who nodding, were holding their hands to their cheeks, wailing and weeping. The attendants of the angel spoke to them, and said “Why do you sit thus?”
They answered, “It is now the seventh day since we came into this paradise. When we entered our minds seemed as if elevated into heaven, and admitted to the inmost happiness of its joys. But after three days this happiness began to grow dull and to decrease in our minds and become imperceptible, and so it came to be no happiness. And when our imaginary joys thus ended, we feared the loss of all the delight of our life, and became doubtful about eternal happiness, even whether there is any eternal happiness. Afterwards we rambled through paths and open places seeking the gate by which we entered; but we wandered round and round in circles.
“And we inquired of those we met: Some of them said, The gate cannot be found, because this paradisal garden is a spacious labyrinth, and is such that whoever thinks to go out enters more deeply in. Therefore you cannot but stay here to eternity. You are in the midst of it where all delights are in their center.”
And they said further to the angel’s attendants, “Here now have we sat for a day and a half; and as we are without hope of finding the way out, we have been resting ourselves on this bed of roses and we see around us an abundance of olives, grapes, oranges, and citrons; but the more we look at them the more our eyes tire with looking, our nostrils with smelling, and our taste with tasting. This is the reason of the sadness, lamentation, and weeping in which you see us.”
Hearing this the angel of the company said to them, “This paradisal labyrinth is really an entrance to a heaven. I know the way out and will lead you forth.”
At these words the sitters arose and embraced the angel, and with his company followed him. And the angel taught them by the way what heavenly joy is, and the eternal happiness therefrom, saying, “They are not the outward paradisal delights, unless at the same time there are within them the inward paradisal delights. The outward paradisal delights are only delights of the bodily senses, but the inward paradisal delights are delights of the affections of the soul. Unless these are in the former there is no heavenly life in them, for there is no soul in them; and every delight without its correspondent soul gradually grows feeble and torpid, and wearies the mind more than labor. There are paradisal gardens everywhere in heaven, and the angels derive joys from them; but these joys are joys to them in so far as the delight of the soul is in them.”
Hearing this they all inquired, “What is the delight of the soul, and whence is it?”
The angel responded, “The delight of the soul is from love and wisdom from the Lord; and as love is effective, and is effective through wisdom, the seat of both is therefore in the effect, and the effect is use. This delight flows into the soul from the Lord, and descends through the higher and the lower degrees of the mind into all the senses of the body, and fills itself full in them. Thence the joy becomes joy indeed, and becomes eternal, from the Eternal from whom it is. You have seen things paradisal; and I assure you that there is not a thing therein, not so much as a little leaf, that is not from the marriage of love and wisdom in use. If therefore a man is in this marriage he is in a heavenly paradise, and so is in heaven.”
9. After this the angel guide returned again to the building, to those who had firmly persuaded themselves that heavenly joy and eternal happiness are a perpetual glorification of God and a festival continuing to eternity; because in the world they had believed that they should then see God, and because the life of heaven is called from the worship of God a perpetual sabbath.
The angel said to them, “Follow me, and I will introduce you into your joy.”
And he brought them to a small city, in the midst of which was a temple, and all the houses were called sacred buildings. In this city they saw a gathering from every corner of the surrounding country; and among them a number of priests, who received the comers, saluted them, and taking them by the hand led them to the gates of the temple, and from thence into some of the buildings around the temple, and initiated them into the perpetual worship of God, saying:
“This city is an entrance court of heaven; and the temple of the city is the entrance to a very magnificent and spacious temple which is in heaven, where God is glorified in prayers and praises by the angels to eternity. The regulations, both here and there, are, that they who come are first to enter the temple and abide there three days and three nights; and after this initiation are to go into the houses of the city, which are so many buildings consecrated by us, and go from building to building, and in communion with those assembled therein to pray, shout, and recite sermons:
“Take great care that you think nothing within yourselves and speak nothing with your companions, but what is holy, pious, and religious.”
The angel then introduced his company into the temple, which was filled and crowded with many who in the world had been in great dignity, and with many of the common people also; and guards were stationed at the gates lest any one should go out before abiding there three days. And the angel said:
“This is the second day since these entered. Observe them, and you will see their glorification of God.”
And they observed and saw most of them sleeping, and they that were awake were yawning and gaping; and some they saw-from the continual uplifting of their thoughts to God and no return of them into the body-as faces cut off from the body; for thus they appeared to themselves and thence also to others. Some looked wild in the eyes from their perpetual abstraction. In a word all were oppressed at heart and weary in spirit from tedium; and they turned away from the pulpit crying out:
“Our ears are stunned. End your preaching, we no longer hear a word, and are beginning to loathe the sound.”
And then they arose and rushed in a body to the gates, broke them open, and pressed upon the guards and drove them away. Seeing this the priests followed, and clung close beside them, teaching and teaching, praying, sighing, and saying:
“Celebrate the festival! Glorify God! Sanctify yourselves! In this entrance court of heaven we will induct you into the eternal glorification of God in a most magnificent and spacious temple which is in heaven, and so into the enjoyment of eternal happiness.”
But these entreaties were not understood and were scarcely heard by them, on account of their dullness from the two days’ suspension of mental activity and detention from their domestic and out-door affairs. But when they tried to tear themselves away from the priests, the priests seized them by their arms, and also by their garments, urging them to the buildings where they were to preach; but in vain, for they cried out, “Let us alone. We feel in our body as if we should drop down.”
At these words, lo! four men appeared in bright white raiment and wearing miters. One of them in the world had been an archbishop, and the three others had been bishops. They had now become angels. They called the priests together, and addressing them said:
“We saw you from heaven with these sheep, and how you feed them. You feed them even to insanity. You do not know what is meant by the glorification of God. It means, to bring forth the fruits of love; that is, faithfully, sincerely, and diligently to do the work of one’s employment-for this is of love to God and of love to the neighbor. And this is the bond of society and its good. By this God is glorified, and then by worship at stated times. Have you not read these words of the Lord:-
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. So shall ye become my disciples (John xv. 8).
You priests can be in the glorification of worship, because it is your office, and you have honor, glory, and recompense therefrom; but you no more than they could be in that glorification if there were not the honor, glory, and recompense connected with your office.”
Having said this the bishops commanded the keepers of the gate that they should let all go in and all go out, “for there is a multitude who can think of no other heavenly joy than perpetual worship of God, because they have known nothing about the state of heaven.”
10. After this the angel returned with his companions to the place of assembly, from which the companies of the wise had not yet departed, and called to him those there who believed that heavenly joy and eternal happiness are merely admission into heaven, and admission by Divine grace, and that then they will have joy, as they in the world have who on festive days enter the palaces of kings, or to a wedding on being invited. The angel said to them:
“Remain here a while, and I will sound the trumpet, and there will come hither men famed for wisdom in the spiritual things of the church.”
After some hours nine men came, each decked with laurel as a mark of his renown. The angel introduced them into the house of assembly in which all were present who had been called before. In their presence the angel addressed the laureled nine and said:
“I know that to you, by your wish and in furtherance of your idea, it was granted to ascend into heaven; and that you have returned into this lower or sub-celestial earth with full knowledge of the state of heaven. Relate therefore how heaven appeared to you.”
They answered in order: and the first said, “From very early boyhood to the end of my life in the world my idea of heaven had been that it was a place of all blessedness, happiness, enjoyment, delightfulness, and pleasure; and that if I should be admitted there I should be surrounded with an aura of such felicities, and should breathe them in with full breast, as a bridegroom when he celebrates his nuptials and when he enters the bridal chamber with his bride. With this idea I ascended into heaven, and passed the first guards, and also the second; but when I came to the third, the officer of the guard addressed me and said:
�Who are you, friend?’
I answered, Is not this heaven? From the wish of my desire I have ascended hither. I pray you admit me.’ And he did admit me.
And I saw angels in white raiment; and they came about me, and surveyed me, and murmured, �Lo! this new guest is not clad in heavenly raiment.’
And hearing this I thought, �This appears to me as with him of whom the Lord said that he had come in to the wedding not having a wedding garment.’ And I said, �Give me such raiment.’
And they smiled.
Then one came running from the court with the command: Strip him naked, cast him out, and throw his garments after him.’ And so I was cast out.”
The second in turn said, “I believed, as he did, that if only I could be admitted into the heaven which is above my head, joys would flow around me, and I should be animated. by them to eternity. And I too obtained my wish. But the angels fled when they saw me, and said among themselves, �What is this monster? How came this bird of night here?’ And I actually felt changed from a man, although I was not changed. This feeling came from drawing in the heavenly atmosphere. But presently one came running from the court with the command that two servants should lead me out, and take me back by the way I came, even to my own home. And when I reached home I appeared to others and to myself as a man.”
The third said, “The idea of heaven constantly with me was that from place, and not from love. Therefore when I came into this world I longed for heaven with a great longing; and seeing men ascending I followed them and was admitted, but not beyond a few steps. But when I would gladden my spirit according to my idea of the joys and beatitudes there, owing to the light of the heaven which was dazzling white as snow, the essence of which is said to be wisdom, a stupor came over my mind, and thence a thick darkness upon my eyes, and I began to rave. And presently, owing to the heat of heaven, which corresponded to its dazzling light, and the essence of which is said to be love, my heart palpitated, and I was seized with anxiety and racked with inward pain, and I threw myself on my back there upon the ground. And as I lay an attendant from the court came with the command to carry me gently away into my own light and heat. When I came into these my spirit and my heart returned to me.”
The fourth said that he also had the idea of a place respecting heaven, and not an idea of love. He said:
“When I first came into the spiritual world I asked the wise whether one would be permitted to ascend into heaven. They told me that it was permitted to every one, but that they must take heed lest they be cast down. I smiled at this, and ascended, believing, as others do, that all in the whole world are capable of receiving the joys of heaven in their fulness. But in truth, as soon as I was in I almost lost my breath; and from pain and consequent torment in head and body, I prostrated myself on the ground, and writhed as a serpent before a fire. And I crawled to a precipice and cast myself down; and then by some standing below, I was taken up and carried to an inn, where my health was restored to me.”
The other five also told wonderful things about their ascent into heaven, and compared the changes of the state of their life to the state of fishes when raised up out of the water into the air, and to the state of birds in the ether. And they said that after these severe experiences they no longer had any desire for heaven, but only for common life with their like, wherever they are. And that they know that “In the world of spirits where we are, all are first prepared, the good for heaven and the evil for hell; that when they are prepared they see ways open for them to societies of their like, with whom they will dwell to eternity; and that then they enter these ways joyously, because they are the ways of their love.”
All of the first convocation hearing these things, confessed that they too had no other idea of heaven than of a place, where with open mouth they would drink in circumfluent joys to eternity.
The angel with the trumpet then said to them, “You see now that the joys of heaven and eternal happiness are not the joys of a place, but of the state of a man’s life; and that the state of heavenly life is from love and wisdom; and since the containant of these two is use, the state of heavenly life is from the conjunction of these in use. It is the same if it be said that it is charity, faith, and good works; for charity is love, faith is truth whence comes wisdom, and good works are use. Moreover there are places in our spiritual world as in the natural world; otherwise there would not be habitations and separate abodes. And yet place there is not place, but an appearance of place according to the state of love and wisdom, or of charity and faith. Every one who becomes an angel carries his heaven within him, because he carries the love of his heaven; for man is by creation the least effigy, image, and type of the great heaven. The human form is nothing else. Each one therefore comes into the society of heaven whose form he is in an individual effigy. So that when he enters into that society he enters into a form corresponding to himself; thus, as it were, from himself he enters into that self, and as from that he enters into it within himself, and inhales its life as his own, and his own as its life. Each society is as something general; and the angels there are as similar parts whence this general body co-exists. Now, it follows from this that they who are in evils and thence in falsities, have formed an effigy of hell in themselves, and this in heaven is tormented by the influx and the violence of activity of opposite against opposite; for infernal love is opposite to heavenly love, and therefore the delights of the two loves clash with each other as enemies, and when they come together they destroy each other.”
11. These things having been transacted a voice was heard from heaven, saying to the angel with the trumpet, “Choose ten out of the whole assembly and introduce them to us. We have heard from the Lord that He will prepare them so that for three days the heat and light, or the love and wisdom of our heaven will do them no harm.”
And ten were chosen and followed the angel. And by a steep path they ascended a certain hill, and from this a mountain on which was the heaven of those angels, which had been seen by them before in the distance as an expanse among the clouds. And the gates were opened to them. And when they had passed the third gate the angel guide ran to the prince of that society, or of that heaven, and announced their coming. And the prince responded:
“Take some of my attendants and inform them that their coming is welcome to me; and bring them into my outer court, and assign to each his room with its bed-chamber; and take some of my courtiers and of my servants who will minister to them, and serve them at their pleasure.” And it was done.
But when they were introduced by the angel they asked whether they would be permitted to go and see the prince. The angel answered, “It is now morning, and it would not be permitted before noon. Until then all are engaged in their offices and employments. But you are invited to dine, and then you will sit at the table with our prince. Meanwhile I will conduct you into his palace, where you will see magnificent and splendid things.”
12. As they approached the palace they surveyed it first from without. It was large, built of porphyry, with a substructure of jasper, and before the entrance were six lofty columns of lapis lazuli. The roof was of plates of gold, the tall windows were of clearest crystal, and their frames also of gold. Then they were led into the palace and were conducted about from room to room, and saw ornaments of ineffable beauty, and on the ceilings decorations of inimitable carving. By the walls were silver tables inwrought with gold, and on them various utensils of precious stones and of entire gems in heavenly forms, many things which no eye on earth had seen, and such therefore as no one could bring himself to believe that there are in heaven. While they were in amazement at the sight of these magnificent things the angel said:
“Marvel not. The things that you see were made and fashioned by no angelic hand, but were formed by the Maker of the Universe, and bestowed as presents upon our prince. Here then is the art of architecture in its very art; and from the art here are all the rules of the art in the world.”
The angel said further, “You may suppose that such things enchant our eyes and infatuate them even that we believe them to be the joys of our heaven; but as our hearts are not in them they are only accessory to the joys of our hearts. In so far therefore as we look upon them as accessory, and as the workmanship of God, we contemplate the Divine omnipotence and benignity in them.”
13. After this the angel said to them, “It is not yet noon, come with me into the garden of our prince adjacent to the palace.” They went; and at the entrance he said:
“Behold the most magnificent garden in this heavenly society.”
But they replied, “What do you say? There is no garden here. We see only one tree; and among its branches and on its top fruit as if of gold, and leaves as of silver with their edges bedecked with emeralds, and under that tree little children with their nurses.”
To this with inspired voice the angel said, “This tree is in the midst of the garden, and is called by us the tree of our heaven, and by some the tree of life. But go on, draw near, and your eyes will be opened, and you will see the garden.”
They did so; and their eyes were opened, and they saw trees filled with delicious fruits, twined about with the tendrils of vines, their tops bending with fruit towards the tree of life in the midst. The trees were set in a continuous series, which ran out and onwards in endless circlings or gyres as of a perpetual spiral. It was a perfect spiral of trees, wherein kind after kind followed in succession according to the nobility of their fruits. The beginning of this gyration was separated by a considerable space from the tree in the midst; and the intervening space gleamed with a blaze of light wherefrom the trees of the spiral glowed with a graduated and continuous splendor from the first to the last. The first trees were the most excellent of all, luxuriant with exquisite fruits, and were called trees of paradise, never seen, because they do not and cannot exist in any country of the natural world; next came olive trees; after these trees with vines; then fragrant trees and lastly trees whose wood is useful for timber. Here and there in this spiral or gyre of trees were seats formed by training and interlacing the young branches of the trees behind and enriched and adorned by their fruits. In this perpetual cycle of trees there were openings which led to gardens of flowers, and thence to lawns, laid out in beds and plots.
Seeing these things the angel’s attendants exclaimed, “Lo! heaven in form! Whichever way we turn our eyes something heavenly, paradisal, flows in, which is ineffable.”
The angel rejoiced at hearing this, and said, “The gardens in our heaven are all representative forms or types of states of heavenly blessedness in their origin; and it is because an influx of these states of blessedness uplifted your minds that you exclaimed, Lo! heaven in form.’ But those that do not receive this influx see these paradises as nothing but forests. All who are in the love of uses receive the influx; but they who are in the, love of glory and not from use do not receive it.” Afterwards he explained and taught them what the several things in that garden represented and signified.
14. While they were thus engaged, a messenger came from the prince, who invited them to eat bread with him. And at the same time two of the court attendants brought garments of fine linen and said, “Put these on; for no one is admitted to the prince’s table unless arrayed in the garments of heaven.” And they made themselves ready, and accompanying their angel were led into an uncovered portico, an ambulatory of the palace, and awaited the prince; and there the angel brought them into intercourse with the great men and magistrates, who also were waiting for the prince. Within an hour, lo! the doors were opened, and by a wider door on the western side they saw him enter in the order and pomp of procession. Before him went the chief counselors, then chamberlains, and after them the chief men of the court. In the midst of these was the prince, and after him courtiers of various degree, and lastly guards, numbering in all a hundred and twenty. The angel standing before the ten new-comers, who now appeared from their apparel as inhabitants, approached the prince with them and reverently presented them; and the prince as he passed, without stopping, said to them, “Come with me to meat.” And they followed into the dining-hall, and saw a table magnificently spread. In the middle of it was a high pyramid of gold, with a hundred small dishes in triple order upon its forms, on which were cakes, condensed must of wines, and other delicacies made of bread and wine together; and through the center of the pyramid there issued as it were a springing fountain of nectareous wine, the streams of which divided from the top of the pyramid and filled the cups. On either side of this high pyramid were various heavenly forms in gold, on which were dishes and plates filled with food of every kind. The heavenly forms that held the dishes and plates were forms of art from wisdom, such as in the world no art can devise and no words describe. The dishes and plates were of silver, graven all around in relief upon a plane with forms similar to their supports. The cups were of pellucid gems. Such was the furniture of the table.
15. And this was the apparel of the prince and of his ministers: The prince was clad in a long purple robe, embroidered with stars of the color of silver; under the robe be wore a tunic of shining silk of violet color. This was open at the breast where the front part of a kind of belt was seen, bearing the badge of his society. The badge was an eagle on the top of a tree, brooding over her young. This was of shining gold in a circle of diamonds. The chief counselors were not very differently attired, but without the badge in place of which were graven sapphires pendent from the neck by a chain of gold. The courtiers were in togas of chestnut brown, into which were woven flowers encircling young eagles. The tunics under them were of opaline silk, as were also their breeches and stockings. Such was their apparel.
16. The chief counselors, chamberlains, and magistrates stood around the table, and at the beck of the prince folded their hands and together murmured an offering of praise to the Lord; and then, at a nod from the prince, they reclined upon the couches at the table.
And the prince said to the ten new-comers, “Recline yourselves also with me. See, there are your places.” And they reclined. And the court attendants who before were sent by the prince to minister to them stood behind them. The prince then said to them, “Take each a plate from its circle, and then a little dish from the pyramid.” And they took them; and lo! instantly new plates and dishes appeared set there in the place of them. And their cups were filled with wine from the fountain gushing out of the great pyramid, and they ate and drank. When they were moderately satisfied, the prince addressed the ten invited guests, and said:
“I have heard that on the earth which is beneath this heaven you have been called together to disclose your thoughts respecting the joys of heaven and the eternal happiness therefrom; and that you have declared your views differently, each according to the delights of his bodily senses. But what are the delights of the senses of the body without the delights of the soul? It is the soul which makes them delightful. The delights of the soul in themselves are imperceptible beatitudes; but as they descend into the thoughts of the mind, and from these into the sensations of the body they become more and more perceptible. In the thoughts of the mind they are perceived as states of happiness; in the sensations of the body as delights; and in the body itself as pleasures. Eternal happiness comes of all these together. But the happiness from the last alone is not eternal but transitory, which comes to an end and passes away, and sometimes becomes unhappiness. You have seen now that all your joys are joys of heaven also, and are more exquisite than ever you could have thought; and yet these do not affect our minds interiorly. There are three things which flow as one from the Lord into our souls. These three as one, or this trine, are love, wisdom, and use. But the love and wisdom do not appear except in idea, because in the affection and thought of the mind only; but in use they appear really, because together in bodily act and work; and where they really exist they also subsist; and as love and wisdom exist and subsist in use, it is use which affects us; and use is the faithful, sincere, and diligent performance of the works of one’s employment. The love of use, and from this love earnest activity in use, keeps the mind from dissipating itself, and from wandering about and drinking in all the lusts that with their allurements flow in from the body and from the world, through the senses, whereby the truths of religion and the truths of morality with their goods are scattered to all the winds. But earnest activity of the mind in use keeps and binds these together, and disposes the mind into a form receptive of wisdom from these truths; and then it thrusts aside the illusions and the mockeries of both falsities and vanities. But you will hear more on these subjects from wise men of our society whom I will send to you this afternoon.”
When he had said this the prince arose, and with him the guests, and after a salutation of peace he bade their angel guide return them to their chambers, and to show them every courteous attention; and also that he should invite urbane and affable men to entertain them with conversation concerning the various joys of this society.
17. When they returned it was so done. And the men came who were invited from the city to entertain them with conversation about the various joys of the society; and after salutations, walking up and down they talked with them with much refinement. But their angel guide said,
“These ten men were invited into this heaven that they might see its joys, and thus gain a new conception of eternal happiness. Tell them, therefore, something about its joys which affect the senses of the body; after that wise men will come who will speak of some things that render these joys satisfying and happy.” The men invited from the city then told them these things:
(1) There are days of festivity here appointed by the prince, that the mind may be relaxed from the weariness which is brought upon some by the zeal of emulation. On these days there are concerts of music with song in public places; and outside of the city are public games and shows. At such times orchestras are erected in the public places, surrounded by lattices thick with vines and hanging clusters, within which the musicians sit, at three elevations, with stringed instruments and wind instruments, of high and low tone, and loud and soft. On either side are singers, male and female; and they delight the citizens with most charming, melodious rejoicings and songs, in chorus and with solos, varying in character at intervals. These diversions continue there on such festive days from morning to noon, and afterwards until evening. (2) Besides this, every morning from out the houses around the public places are heard the sweetest songs of virgins and young girls-with which the whole city resounds. Each morning there is some one affection of spiritual love which they sing, that is, which is expressed by modifications or modulations of the voice in singing; and the affection is perceived in the singing as if the song were the affection itself. It flows into the souls of the listeners, exciting them into correspondence with it. Such is heavenly song. Those who sing say that the sound of their singing inspires and animates itself as it were from within, and is joyously exalted according as it is received by the listeners. This ended, the windows and also the doors of the houses on the public places are closed, and at the same time those of the houses on the streets, and the whole city is still, not a sound is anywhere heard, and no loiterers appear; all being ready then engage in the duties of their several occupations. (3) But at noon the doors are opened, and in some places in the afternoon the windows also, and boys and girls are seen playing in the streets, their nurses and tutors sitting in the porches of the houses overseeing them. (4) At the sides in the extreme parts of the city are various games for boys and youths; there are games of running; games at ball; games with balls driven back and forth called tennis; trials of skill among the boys as to which are more and which less ready in speech, in action, and in perception, and to the more active some laurel leaves are given as a reward. And there are many other games for calling forth the latent abilities of boys. (5) Outside of the city there are also spectacular entertainments by players on the stage, representing the various virtues and excellencies of the moral life, among whom are also actors for the sake of comparison.”
One of the ten asked, “Why for comparison?”
They answered, “No one of the virtues can be presented in its grace and excellence to the life, except by comparisons from the greatest of them to the least; the actors present their least even until they become none. But it is established by law that nothing of the opposite shall be exhibited, which is called dishonorable or unseemly, unless by metaphor and remotely as it were. The reason why it is so established is that nothing honorable or good of any virtue, passes by successive progression down to what is dishonorable and evil; but only to its least until it perishes; and when it perishes the opposite begins. And therefore heaven, where all things are honorable and good, has nothing in common with hell where all things are dishonorable and evil.”
18. In the midst of this conversation an attendant came, and announced that by command of the prince eight wise men were present and desired to enter. Hearing this the angel went out, received them and brought them in. And then after the customary social formalities and proprieties the wise men con. versed with them, first about the beginnings and the growths of wisdom, to which they joined various matters relating to its progress, saying, that with the angels wisdom has no limit nor end, but grows and is increased to eternity.
On hearing this the angel of the company said to the wise men, “Our prince at table spoke to these men about the seat of wisdom, that it is in use. Speak also to them, if you please, on this subject.” And they said:
“As first created man was imbued with wisdom and its love, not for himself, but that he might communicate it from himself to others. Hence it is inscribed in the wisdom of the wise that no one is wise and none lives for himself alone, but at the same time for others. From this comes society, which would not otherwise exist. To live for others is to perform uses. Uses are the bonds of society; which are as many as there are good uses, and uses are infinite in number. There are spiritual uses, which are of love to God and of love towards the neighbor; there are moral and civil uses, which are of the love of the society and the community in which a man resides, and of his companions and fellow-citizens among whom he dwells; there are natural uses, which belong to the love of the world and its necessaries; and there are uses of the body, which belong to the love of its conservation for the sake of the higher uses. All these uses are inscribed on man, and follow in order one after the other; and when they exist together one is within the other. They who are in the first uses, which are spiritual, are also in those that follow; and these are wise men. But those that are not in the first, and yet are in the second and thence in the following, are not so wise but only appear to be so from their outward morality and civility. They that are not in the first and second, but are in the third and fourth, are not at all wise; they in fact are satans because they love only the world, and themselves on account of the world. And they that are only in the fourth are the least wise of all; for they are devils, because they live for themselves alone, and if for others it is only for the sake of themselves. Every love, moreover, has its own delight, for love lives by this; and the delight of the love of uses is a heavenly delight which enters into the delights that follow in order, and in the order of succession exalts them and makes them eternal.”
Then they enumerated some heavenly delights proceeding from the love of use, and said, “They are myriads of myriads, and they who enter heaven enter into them.”
And in further discourses of wisdom respecting the love of use they passed the day with them until evening.
19. But towards evening there came a swift-footed messenger clothed in linen to the ten new-comers who accompanied the angel, and invited them to a wedding to be celebrated the following day; and the new-comers greatly rejoiced that they were also to witness nuptials in heaven. After this they were taken to one of the chief counselors, and supped with him. And after supper they returned and separated each to his own chamber, and slept until morning. And then awaking they heard the singing of maidens and of little girls from the houses around the public place, mentioned above. This time the affection of conjugial love was the subject of the song. Deeply affected and moved by its sweetness, they perceived a blessed pleasantness infused into their joys which exalted and renewed them.
When the time was come the angel said, “Make ready and array yourselves in the heavenly garments that our prince has sent for you.” And they put them on, and lo! the garments shone as with a flaming light.
And they asked the angel, “Why is this?” He replied, “Because you are going to a wedding. With us at such a time garments are resplendent and become wedding garments.”
20. After this the angel conducted them to the house of the nuptials and a porter opened the doors; and presently, being received within the threshold, they were saluted by an angel sent by the bridegroom, and were brought in and led to the seats assigned them. Soon afterwards they were invited into an ante-room of the bridal chamber, where they saw in the center a table on which was set a magnificent candlestick, with seven branches and sconces of gold; and against the walls hung silver lamps, which when lighted made the atmosphere appear as if it were golden. At the sides of the candlestick they saw two tables with loaves on them in triple order; and at the four corners of the room were tables on which were crystal cups. While they were looking at these things, lo! a door was opened from a room next to the bridal chamber, and they saw six virgins coming out, and after them the bridegroom and bride holding each other by the hand. And they led each other to an elevated seat which was placed opposite the candlestick, whereon they seated themselves, the bridegroom on the left and the bride at his right hand; and the six virgins stood by the side of the seat next to the bride. The bridegroom was clad in a radiant purple robe and a tunic of shining linen; with an ephod on which was a plate of gold set around with diamonds; and on the plate a young eagle was engraved, the nuptial badge of that society of heaven; and on his head the bridegroom wore a miter.
But the bride wore a scarlet mantle, and under that an embroidered dress reaching from the neck to the feet; and below the breast a golden girdle; and on her head was a crown of gold set with rubies.
After they had thus sat down together, the bridegroom turned to the bride and placed on her finger a gold ring; and drew forth bracelets and a necklace of large pearls, and fastened the bracelets upon her wrists and the necklace about her neck, and said, “Accept these pledges.” And as she took them he kissed her and said, “Now you are mine,” and called her his wife. This done the guests cried out, “A blessing on you;” each exclaimed this by himself and then all together. One sent by the prince in his stead joined also in the cry And at that moment the room was filled with an aromatic fragrance, a sign of blessing from heaven. The servants then took bread from the two tables beside the candlestick, and cups now filled with wine from the tables in the corners, and gave to each of the guests his bread and his cup, and they ate and drank. After this the husband and his wife arose, the six virgins with the silver lamps in their hands, now lighted, following to the threshold; and the married pair entered the bridal chamber, and the door was shut.
21. After this the angel guide spoke to the guests about his ten companions; telling them that by command he had introduced them, and had shown them the magnificence of the prince’s palace, and the wonders there; that they had eaten with the prince at his table; and afterwards had conversed with their wise men.
And he asked, “May they be permitted to have some conversation also with you?” And they came and spoke with them.
And one of the wedding-guests, a wise man, asked, “Do you understand what these things signify that you have seen?” They replied, “That they understood a little of them; and asked him then, why the bridegroom, now the husband, was arrayed in such apparel?”
He answered, “The bridegroom, now the husband, represented the Lord, and the bride, now the wife, represented the church, because in heaven nuptials represent the marriage of the Lord with the church. That is why he wore a miter on his head, and was arrayed like Aaron in a robe, a tunic, and an ephod; and why the bride, now the wife, wore upon her head a crown, and was attired in a mantle like a queen. But to-morrow they will be differently clad, for this representation lasts only to-day.”
They asked again, “Since he represented the Lord, and she the church, why did she sit at his right hand?”
The wise man replied, “Because there are two things which make the marriage of the Lord and the church, love and wisdom, and the Lord is love and the church is wisdom, and wisdom is at love’s right hand. For the man of the church has wisdom as if of himself, and as he becomes wise, he receives love from the Lord. Besides, the right hand signifies power, and the power of love is by wisdom. But as I said before, after the nuptials the representation is changed; for then the husband represents wisdom, and the wife the love of his wisdom. But this is not the prior, but a secondary love, which the wife has from the Lord through the wisdom of the husband The love of the Lord, which is the prior love, with the husband is the love of growing wise. Therefore after marriage both together, the husband and his wife, represent the church.”
Again they asked, “Why did you men not stand beside the bridegroom, now the husband, as the six virgins stood beside the bride, now the wife?”
The wise man replied, “The reason is that we to-day are numbered among the virgins, and the number six signifies all, and what is complete.” But they asked, “How is this?”
He answered, “Virgins signify the church, and the church is of both sexes, and therefore as respects the church also we are virgins. That this is so appears from these words in the Apocalypse:-
These are they that were not defiled with women, for they are virgins; and they follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth (xiv. 4).
And because virgins signify the church, therefore the Lord likened it to �ten virgins who were invited to the nuptials’ (Matt. xxv. 1-13). And it is because the church is signified by Israel, Zion, and Jerusalem, that �the virgin and daughter of Israel, of Zion, and of Jerusalem’ is so often spoken of in the Word; and that the Lord describes His marriage with the Church by the words in David:-
Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in pure gold of Ophir. Her clothing is of wrought gold; she shall be brought unto the King in embroideries; the virgins, her companions, that follow her, shall come into the king’s palace (Ps. xlv. 9-13-15).”
Afterwards they asked, “Whether it is not proper that a priest should be present and minister in these ceremonies?” The wise man answered, “It is proper on earth, but not in the heavens on account of the representation of the Lord Himself and the church. This is not known on earth. And even with us a priest ministers at betrothals, and hears, receives, confirms, and consecrates the consent. Consent is the essential of marriage; and the other things that follow are its formalities.”
22. After this the angel guide went to the six virgins and told them also about his companions, and asked that they would favor them with their company. And they approached, but when they came near they suddenly withdrew and went into the women’s apartment where their virgin friends also were. Seeing this the angel guide followed them and asked why they so suddenly withdrew without speaking to them.
And they replied, “We could not go near them.”
He asked, “Why?” And they answered, “We do not know. But we perceived something that repelled us and drove us back. They must excuse us.”
The angel returned to his companions and told them the answer, and added, “I surmise that you have not a chaste love of the sex. In heaven we love virgins for their beauty and loveliness of manner, and we love them exceedingly but chastely.” His companions smiled at this, and said, “You have rightly guessed. Who is able to behold such beauty near and feel no desire?”
23. After this social festivity the wedding-guests all departed, and the ten men also, with their angel. It was late in the evening, and they retired to rest.
At dawn they heard a proclamation, “To-day is the Sabbath.” And they arose, and asked the angel what that was. He answered, “It is for the worship of God which recurs at stated times and is proclaimed by the priests. It is celebrated in our temples, and continues about two hours. Come with me, therefore, if you like, and I will conduct you. And they made ready and went with the angel and entered. And lo! a large temple, capable of containing about three thousand, semi-circular, with benches or seats extending around in a continuous sweep, according to the form of the temple, the hinder seats more elevated than those before. The pulpit in front of them was a little back from the center. The door was behind the pulpit at the left. The ten new-comers went in with their angel guide, and the angel assigned them the places where they were to sit, saying to them, “Every one that enters the temple knows his place. He knows it from a something within and cannot sit elsewhere. If he sits in any other place he hears nothing and perceives nothing; and he also disturbs order, by reason of which disturbance the priest is not inspired.”
24. When the congregation was assembled, the priest ascended the pulpit and preached a sermon full of the spirit of wisdom. The sermon was on the holiness of the Sacred Scripture, and on the conjunction of the Lord both with the spiritual world and the natural by means of it. In the state of illustration in which he was he fully proved that this Holy Book was dictated by Jehovah, the Lord; and that therefore He is in it, even so that He is the wisdom therein; but that the wisdom which is Himself therein, lies concealed beneath the sense of the letter, and is only opened to those who are in truths of doctrine and at the same time in goods of life, and so are in the Lord and the Lord in them. To the sermon he added a votive prayer, and descended.
The audience having departed, the angel requested the priest to speak a few words of peace with his ten companions; and he came to them, and they conversed for about half an hour.
He spoke of the Divine Trinity that it is in Jesus Christ in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the God-head bodily, according to the declaration of the Apostle Paul. And afterwards he spoke of the union of charity and faith, but he said the union of charity and truth, because faith is truth.
25. After an expression of thanks they went home. And there the angel said to them, “This is the third day since your ascent into the society of this heaven, and you were prepared by the Lord to remain here three days. The time is therefore come when we must separate. Put off then the garments sent you by the prince and put on your own.” And as soon as they had put them on they were inspired with a desire to depart, and went away and descended, the angel accompanying them to the place of assembly. And there they gave thanks to the Lord that He had vouchsafed to bless them with knowledge and thence with intelligence respecting heavenly joys and eternal happiness.
26. Again I affirm in truth that these things were done and said as they are related, the former in the world of spirits which is intermediate between heaven and hell, and the latter in the society of heaven from which was the angel and guide with the trumpet. Who in the Christian world would have known anything about heaven, and about the joys and happiness there, a knowledge of which is also the knowledge of salvation, if it had not pleased the Lord to open to some one the sight of his spirit and show and teach them? That there are such things in the spiritual world is very plain from the things seen and heard by the Apostle John, which are described in the Apocalypse; as, that he saw in heaven the Son of man in the midst of the seven candlesticks; a tabernacle; a temple; an ark; an altar; a book sealed with seven seals; the book opened and horses going forth out of it; four animals about the throne; twelve thousand chosen out of every tribe; locusts coming up out of the bottomless pit; the dragon and his war with Michael; a woman that brought forth a son, a male, and fled into the wilderness because of the dragon; two beasts, one rising up out of the sea, another out of the earth; a woman sitting upon a scarlet beast; the dragon cast into a lake of fire and brimstone; a white horse; and a great supper; a new heaven and a new earth; and the holy Jerusalem descending, described as to its gates, its wall, and its foundations; and the river of water of life; and trees of life, yielding their fruits every month; and many other things that were all seen by John, and seen while as to his spirit he was in the world of spirits and in heaven. And besides, the things that were seen by the apostles after the Lord’s resurrection; and afterwards by Peter (Acts xi.); and things seen and heard by Paul; and those moreover which were seen by the prophets, as by Ezekiel, who saw four living creatures which were cherubim x.); a new temple and a new land, and an angel measuring them (xl-xlviii.); and was carried away to Jerusalem and saw abominations there; and also into Chaldea, to the captivity (viii. xi.). Similar things also took place with Zechariah, who saw a man riding among myrtle trees (i. 8, seq.); and saw four horns; and then a man with a measuring line in his hand (i. 18-21; ii. 1, seq.); and saw a candlestick and two olive trees (iv. 2, seq.); and a flying roll and an ephah (v. 1-6); and four chariots and horses coming out from between two mountains (vi. 1, seq.). And likewise with Daniel, who saw four beasts coming up out of the sea (vii. 3, seq.); and a fight between a ram and a he-goat (viii. 2, seq.); and saw and spoke much with the angel Gabriel (ix. 20, seq.). And the servant of Elisha saw chariots and horses of fire round about Elisha, and saw them when his eyes were opened (2 Kings vi. 17). From these and many other things in the Word it is evident that the things which exist in the spiritual world appeared to many before and after the Lord’s advent. Why wonder that they should appear now also, at the beginning of a church, or at the descent of the New Jerusalem from the Lord out of heaven?”
27. ON MARRIAGES IN HEAVEN.
That there are marriages in heaven cannot enter into the belief of those who think that man is a soul or spirit after death, and cherish an idea of the soul and spirit as of subtle ether or a breath of air; and who believe that man will not live as a man until after the last judgment-day; who in general know nothing about the spiritual world in which angels and spirits dwell, and therefore do not know where heaven and hell are. And because that world has been hitherto unknown, and it has been entirely unknown that the angels of heaven are men in perfect form-and infernal spirits also, but in imperfect form-for these reasons nothing could be revealed concerning marriages there. For men would have said, “How can a soul be conjoined with a soul, or a breath of air with a breath of air as consort with consort on earth?” and many things which the instant they were said would take away and dissipate belief in marriages there. But now, because many things have been revealed concerning that world, and what it is has been described in the work on Heaven and Hell, and also in the Apocalypse Revealed, it may be confirmed that there are marriages there, even by considerations addressed to the reason through the following propositions:
(1) That man lives as a man after death.
(2) That a male is then a male and a female is a female.
(3) That with every one his own love remains after death.
(4) That especially the love of the sex, and with those that come into heaven, who are those that become spiritual on earth, conjugial love remains.
(5) These things fully confirmed by actual sight.
(6) That consequently there are marriages in the heavens.
(7) That spiritual nuptials are meant by the Lord’s words that after the resurrection they are not given in marriage.
The exposition of these propositions follow now in their order.
28. (1) That man lives as a man after death. It has hitherto been unknown in the world that man lives as a man after death, for the reasons just given above, and what is extraordinary is that it should be so even in the Christian world, where the Word is, and illustration therefrom respecting eternal life; and wherein the Lord Himself teaches that:
All the dead are raised, and that God is not the God of the dead but of the living (Matt. xxii. 31-32; Luke xx. 37, 38).
And besides, as to the affections and the thoughts of his mind man is in the midst of angels and spirits, and is so consociated with them that if torn apart from them he would die. And it is still more extraordinary that this is unknown when it is considered that every man who has died, from the first creation, has come and comes to his own, or as it is said in the Word has been gathered and is gathered unto his fathers.* Moreover, man has a common perception, which is the same with the influx from heaven into the interiors of his mind, whereby he perceives truths interiorly in himself, and as it were sees them; and especially this truth, that he lives as a man after death, happy if he has lived well, unhappy if ill. For who does not think this, whilst he raises his mind a little above the body, and away from the thought that is nearest to his senses? which he does when inwardly he is in Divine worship, and when he lies upon the bed about to die and expects the end; likewise when he hears about the dead, and of their lot. I have related a thousand things about them, as, what was the condition of the brothers, consorts, and friends of some; and I have also written about the lot of the English, the Dutch, the Papists, the Jews, the Gentiles, and also of the lot of Luther, of Calvin, and Melancthon; and as yet I have never heard any one say: “How can their lot be such when they have not yet risen out of their sepulchres, for the last judgment has not yet taken place? Are they not in the mean time souls, which are breaths of air? and in a certain Pu? or somewhere?” By no one have I heard such things said, up to this time. Whence I may conclude that every one perceives within himself that he lives as a man after death. What man who has loved his wife, and his infants and children, does not say within himself when they are dying, or have died, if in thought he is elevated above the sensual things of the body, that they are in God’s hand, and he will see them again after his own death, and will be conjoined with them again in a life of love and joy?
* Judaea ii. 10; 2 Kings xxii. 20; etc.
29. Who cannot see, from reason, if he is willing to see, that man after death is not a breath, of which there is no notion but as of a puff of wind, or of air or ether, and that this or in this is man’s soul, which desires and expects to be conjoined with his body, so that he may enjoy the senses and their pleasures, as before in the world? Who cannot see that if it were so with man after death his state would be worse than that of the fishes and birds and animals of the earth, whose souls do not live, and therefore are not in such anxiety from desire and expectation? If after death man were such a breath and puff of wind, then must he either be flitting about in the universe, or according to the traditions of some, be reserved in a certain somewhere (Pu), or according to the Fathers in limbo until the last judgment. Who would not in reason conclude from this that they who have lived since the first creation-which is computed to be six thousand years-would still be in a like anxious state, and progressively in a more anxious state; for all expectation from desire causes anxiety and from time to time increases it. They would then either be still flitting about in the universe, or kept shut up in Pu, and thus be in extreme misery. So would it be with Adam and his wife; so with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and with all others since that time. Hence it would follow that nothing would be so lamentable as to be born a man. But the Lord,. who is Jehovah from eternity and the Creator of the universe, has provided the opposite of this; that the state of the man who conjoins himself with Him, by a life according to His commandments, is more blessed and happy after death than before it in the world; and that he is the more blessed and happy from the fact that man is then spiritual, and the spiritual man feels and perceives spiritual delight, which is pre-eminently above natural delight, for it exceeds it a thousand-fold.
30. That angels and spirits are men is evident from those seen by Abraham, by Gideon, and by Daniel and the prophets; and especially from those seen by John while he was writing the Apocalypse, and by the women also at the Lord’s sepulchre. Yea, the Lord Himself was seen by the disciples after His resurrection. They were seen because the eyes of the spirit were then opened, and when these are opened angels appear in their own form, which is the human form. But when these eyes are closed, that is, are veiled with the sight of the eyes which derive their all from the material world, they do not appear.
31. But it is to be known that after death man is not a natural but a spiritual man; and yet that he appears to himself altogether similar, and so similar that he knows no otherwise than that he is still in the natural world. For he has a similar body, a similar face, similar speech, and similar senses, because he has similar affection and thought, or a similar will and understanding. He is indeed not actually similar; for he is a spiritual and therefore an interior man. But the difference does not appear to him, because he cannot compare his state with his former natural state; for he has put that off and is in this. I have therefore often heard them say that they know no otherwise than that they are in the former world, with the only difference that they no longer see those whom they had left in that world, but see those who had departed from that world, or had died. But the reason why they now see these and not those is that they are not natural, but spiritual or substantial men, and the spiritual or substantial man sees the spiritual or substantial man, just as the natural or material man sees the natural or material man. But they do not see each other on account of the difference between the substantial and the material, which is as the difference between what is prior and posterior; and the prior, because in itself it is purer, cannot appear to the posterior because in itself it is grosser; nor can the posterior, because it is grosser, appear to the prior which in itself is purer. Consequently an angel cannot appear to a man of this world, nor a man of this world to an angel. After death man is a spiritual or substantial man, because the substantial was inwardly concealed within the natural or material man. The natural was to it as a garment, or as exuvioe, by the casting off of which the spiritual or substantial comes forth; thus what is purer, interior, and more perfect. That although the spiritual man does not appear to the natural he is yet a perfect man, is very plain from the fact that the Lord was seen by the apostles after the resurrection; that He appeared, and presently did not appear; and yet He was a man like unto Himself whether seen or not seen. They also said that they saw Him when “their eyes were opened.”
32. (2) That a male is then a male and a female is a female. Since man lives as a man after death, and man is male and female, and the masculine is one and the feminine another, and they are so different that one cannot be changed into the other, it follows that after death the male lives as a male and the female as a female, each a spiritual man (homo). It is said that the masculine cannot be changed into the feminine, nor the feminine into the masculine, and that therefore after death the male is a male and the female is a female; but as it is unknown in what the masculine and in what the feminine essentially consist, this shall here be briefly stated: The distinction essentially consists in the fact that in the male the inmost is love and its clothing is wisdom, or what is the same, he is love veiled over with wisdom; and that in the female the inmost is that wisdom of the male, and its clothing is the love therefrom. But this love is feminine love, and is given by the Lord to the wife through the wisdom of the husband; and the former love is masculine love, and is the love of growing wise, and is given by the Lord to the husband according to his reception of wisdom. It is from this that the male is the wisdom of love, and that the female is the love of that wisdom. There is therefore, from creation, implanted in each the love of conjunction into one. But of this more will be said hereafter That the feminine is from the masculine, or that the woman was taken out of the man, appears from these words in Genesis:-
Jehovah God took one of the ribs of the man and closed up the flesh instead thereof, and He builded the rib which He had taken out of the man into a woman, and brought her unto the man. And the man said, This is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; hence she shall be called woman (Ishah), because she was taken out of the man (Ish) (ii. 21-23).
What is signified by rib, and what by flesh, will be shown elsewhere.
33. It flows from this primitive formation that the male is born intellectual and the female volitional; or what is the same, that the male is born into the affection of knowing, understanding, and of growing wise, and the female into the love of conjoining herself with that affection in the male. And because the interiors form the exteriors to their likeness, and the masculine form is the form of the understanding, and the feminine form is the form of the love of that understanding, from this it comes that the male has a different face, a different voice, and a different body from the female; that is, a sterner face, a harsher voice, and a stronger body, and moreover a bearded chin-in general, a form less beautiful than the female. They differ also in gestures and in manners. In a word, nothing whatever is alike in them; and yet in every least thing there is what is conjunctive. Yea, in the male the masculine is masculine in every part of his body even the most minute; and also in every idea of his thought, and in every least impulse of his affection. And so is the feminine in the female. And as one cannot therefore be changed into the other, it follows that after death the male is a male and the female is a female.
34. (3) That with every one his own love remains after death. Man knows that there is love, but does not know what love is. He knows that there is love from common speech, in that it is said, this one loves me; the king loves his subjects and the subjects love their king; the husband loves his wife; the mother, her children, and vice versa; also that this or that man loves his country, his fellow-citizens, his neighbor. It is likewise said of things apart from person, that one loves this, or that. But although love is so universal in speech, yet scarcely any one knows what love is. Because he can form no idea of thought about it when he reflects upon it, and so cannot set it in the light of the understanding (for the reason that it is not a thing of light, but of heat), a man either says that it is nothing, or that it is merely a something flowing in from sight, hearing, and conversation, and thus affecting. It is entirely unknown to him that it is his very life, not only the common life of his whole body, and the common life of all his thoughts, but even the life of all the single things of them. A wise man can perceive it from considerations like this: If you take away the affection of love can you think anything? Can you do anything? In the degree that affection, which is of love, grows cold, do not thought, speech, and action grow cold? And as that grows warm do not these grow warm? Love then is the heat of man’s life, or his vital heat. The heat of the blood, and its redness also is from no other source. The fire of the angelic sun, which is pure love, effects this.
35. That every one has his own love, or a love distinct from another’s love, that is, that the love of one man is not the same as that of another, is evident from the infinite variety of faces. Faces are the types of loves. For it is known that countenances change and vary according to the affections of love. Desires also, which are of love, and its joys and sorrows, shine forth from the face. It is clear from this that a man is his own love, yea, is the form of his love. But it should be known that the form of his love is the interior man, which is the same as his spirit that lives after death; and not also his outward man in the world, because this has learned from infancy to conceal the desires of his love, yea, to pretend to and put forward other desires than his own.
36. Because love is man’s life, as has been stated just above (n. 34), and thence is the man himself, therefore his own love remains with every man after death. A man is also his own thought, and so his own intelligence and wisdom; but these form one with his love. For a man thinks from his love and according to it, yea, if he is in freedom he speaks and acts from and according to it. Whence it may be seen that love is the esse or essence of a man’s life, and that thought is the existere or existence of his life therefrom. Speech and action therefore, which flow forth from thought, do not flow really from the thought, but from the love by the thought. It has been given me to know from much experience that man after death is not his own thought, but is his own affection and the thought therefrom, or that he is his own love and intelligence thence; and that after death man puts off everything that does not accord with his love; yea, that he successively puts on the face, tone of voice, speech, gesture, and manner of his life’s love. Hence it is that the universal heaven is disposed in order according to all the varieties of the affections of the love of good; and the universal hell according to all the affections of the love of evil.
37. (4) That especially the love of the sex, and with those that come into heaven, who are those that become spiritual on earth, conjugial love remains. The reason why the love of the sex remains with man after death is that a male is then a male and a female is a female; and the masculine in the male is masculine in the whole and in his every part; likewise the feminine in the female; and in the single, yea, in the very least things pertaining to them there is a disposition to conjunction. Now as this conjunctive disposition was implanted in them by creation, and therefore perpetually inheres, it follows that the one desires and breathes forth conjunction with the other. Regarded in itself, love is nothing else than a desire and thence an effort towards conjunction; and conjugial love to conjunction into one. For the male man and the female man were so created that from two they may become as one man, or one flesh; and when they become one, then taken together they are a man (homo) in his fulness; but without this conjunction they are two, and each as it were a divided or half man. Since then this disposition to conjunction is inmostly latent in the least things of the male, and in the least things of the female, and in their least things there inheres the faculty and desire for conjunction into one, it follows that the mutual and reciprocal love of the sex remains with men (homines) after death.
38. The love of the sex and conjugial love are spoken of, because the love of the sex is different from conjugial love. The love .of the sex is with the natural man; but conjugial love with the spiritual. The natural man loves and desires only external conjunctions, and from them pleasures of the body; but the spiritual man loves and desires internal conjunction, and the states of happiness of the spirit therefrom. And he perceives that these are given with one wife, with whom he can be perpetually more and more conjoined into one. And the more he is thus conjoined the more he perceives his states of happiness ascending in like degree, and continuing to eternity. But the natural man has no thought of this. Hence it is said that conjugial love remains after death with those that come into heaven, who are those that become spiritual on earth.
39. (5) These things fully confirmed by actual sight. Thus far I have been content to establish by such considerations as are of the understanding, and are called rational, that man lives as a man after death; that a male is then a male and a female is a female; and that with every one his own love remains, and especially the love of the sex and conjugial love. But, because from infancy a man receives from his parents and masters, and afterwards from the learned and the clergy, a belief that he will not live as a man after death until the day of the last judgment (in the expectation of which they have been now for six thousand years), and because many hold these to be among the things that are to be received by faith and not by the understanding, it was necessary that these propositions should also be confirmed by evidence from actual sight. Otherwise the man who believes only from the senses would say, from the faith impressed upon him: “If men were living as men after death I should see and hear them. Who has come down from heaven or ascended from hell and told of them?” But as it could not and cannot be that any angel of heaven should descend, or any spirit of hell ascend, and talk with any man-except with those the interiors of whose mind, which are those of the spirit, have been opened by the Lord; and as this cannot be fully effected except with those who have been prepared by the Lord for the reception of the things of spiritual wisdom; therefore it has pleased the Lord so to prepare me, to the end that the state of heaven and of hell, and the state of the life of men after death may not be unknown and sleep in ignorance, and be finally buried in negation. But the ocular proofs of the facts above stated cannot be adduced here, on account of their abundance. They have been given however in the work On Heaven and Hell: and in The Continuation concerning the Spiritual World; and afterwards in The Apocalypse Revealed. And respecting marriages especially they will be given here in the Relations which follow the paragraphs or chapters of this work.
40. (6) That consequently there are Marriages in Heaven. Since this has now been confirmed by reason, and at the same time by experience, it needs no farther demonstration.
Emanuel Swedenborg · English translation by Samuel M. Warren, revised by Louis H. Tafel · Source edition · German edition.