Conjugial Love · §§ 321–360

321. (4) That those who have lived together in love truly conjugial do not wish to marry again, unless for reasons apart from conjugial love. Why those who have lived in love truly conjugial do not desire to marry again after the death of their married partner, is for these reasons. (1) Because they are united as to souls, and thence as to minds, and this unition being spiritual is an actual adjunction of the soul and mind of the one to those of the other, which can by no means be dissolved. That such is the nature of spiritual conjunction has been shown here and there before. (2) That as to the body also they are united, through the reception by the wife of the propagations of the soul of the husband, and thus by the insertion of his life into hers, whereby the virgin becomes a wife; and on the other hand through the reception of the conjugial love of the wife by the husband, which arranges the interiors of his mind, and at the same time the interiors and exteriors of his body, into a state receptive of love and perceptive of wisdom, which state makes him from a young man into a husband; about which see above at n. 198. (3) That a sphere of love from the wife and a sphere of understanding from the man flows forth continually, and that this perfects the conjunctions; and that this with its pleasant aroma surrounds them, and unites them, may be seen above at n. 223. (4) That married partners thus united in marriage think and breathe what is eternal, and upon this idea their eternal happiness is founded, may be seen at n. 216. (5) It is by virtue of all these realities that they are “no more twain but one man,” that is, “one flesh.” (6) That such a one cannot be torn asunder by the death of either is very manifest to the ocular vision of the spirit. (7) To these reasons may be added this, which is new, that the two are still not separated, after the death of the one, since the spirit of the deceased dwells continually with the spirit of the one not yet deceased, and this even until the death of the other, when they meet again, and reunite themselves, and love each other more tenderly than before, because in a spiritual world. From all this comes the irrefragable consequence, that they who have lived in love truly conjugial do not wish to marry again; and if they contract anything like marriage afterwards, it is done for reasons apart from conjugial love. And these reasons are all external, such as-if there are small children in the house, and the care of them must be provided for; if the house is large and equipped with servants of both sexes; if out-of-door occupations withdraw the mind from family affairs at home; if there are necessities for mutual aid and services; and other like reasons.

322. (5) That the state of marriage of a young man with a virgin is of one kind, and that of a young man with a widow of another. By the states of marriage are meant the states of the life of both, of the husband and of the wife, after the nuptials; thus, as to the quality of their cohabitation during the marriage, whether it is internal, of souls and minds (which is cohabitation in the principal idea), or whether it is only external, of the lower mind (animi), of the senses, and of the body. The state of marriage of a young man with a virgin is itself initiatory to genuine marriage; for conjugial love between them can proceed in its just order, which is from the first heat to the first torch, and after that, from the first seed with the youth-husband and from the flower with the virgin-wife, and so can germinate, grow, and fructify, and thus introduce itself into those states mutually; if otherwise, then the young man was not a young man or the virgin not a virgin except in external form. Between a young man and a widow there is not a like initiation from the beginnings up to marriage, nor a like progression in marriage, since a widow is more at her own will and disposal than a virgin, and therefore a young man bestows his attentions upon a widow-wife with another look than upon a virgin-wife. But in these matters there are many varieties and diversities, for which reason only this general statement is made.

323. (6) Also, that the state of marriage of a widower with a virgin is of one kind, and that of a widower with a widow of another. For the widower has already been initiated into marriage life, and the virgin is to be initiated, yet conjugial love perceives and feels its pleasantness and delight in mutual initiation. A youth-husband and a virgin-wife are all the time perceiving and feeling what is new in the things that come to pass, whereby they are in a kind of perpetual initiation and thence in a lovely progression. It is otherwise in the state of the marriage of a widower with a virgin; the virgin-wife has an internal inclination, but with the man that has passed away. But in these respects there is much variety and diversity; in like manner in the marriage between a widower and a widow, and therefore beyond this general notion it is not allowed to add anything specific.

324. (7) That the varieties and diversities of these marriages, as to love and its attributes, exceed all number. There is an infinite variety of all things, and their diversity also is infinite. By varieties here are meant differences between things of one kind or of one species, and also between genera and between species; and by diversities here are meant differences between things that are in the opposite. Our idea of the distinction between varieties and diversities may be illustrated by this fact: The angelic heaven, which coheres as one, is in infinite variety; not one there is absolutely like another, not as to souls and minds, nor as to affections, perceptions, and thence thoughts; nor as to inclinations, and thence intentions; nor as to the tones of voice, as to the face, body, walk, and many other things. And yet, though they are myriads of myriads, they have been and are arranged by the Lord into one form, in which there is full unanimity and concord, which could not be if all, so various, were not led by One, universally and singly. These are what we mean here by varieties. But by diversities we mean the opposites of these varieties, which are in hell. For there each one and all are diametrically opposite to those that are in heaven; and the hell composed of them is kept together as one by the varieties among them, the very opposites to the varieties in heaven; thus by perpetual diversities. From these illustrations what is meant by infinite variety, and what by infinite diversity is evident. It is similar with marriages, in that there are infinite varieties among those who are in conjugial love, and infinite varieties among those who are in scortatory love; and hence that there are infinite diversities between the latter and the former. From which this conclusion follows: That the varieties and diversities in marriages, of whatever kind and species, whether of a young man with a virgin, or of a young man with a widow, or of a widower with a widow, exceed all number. Who can divide infinity into numbers?

325. (8) That the state of a widow is more grievous than that of a widower. The causes are external and internal. The external every one can see, as: (1) That a widow cannot provide the necessaries of life for herself and her household, nor dispose of what is acquired, like a man, and as was done before by the man and with the man. (2) Nor can she protect herself and her house as is needful; for while she was a wife the man was her defence, and as it were her arm, and when she herself was so she yet relied upon her husband. (3) That of herself she is lacking in counsel in such matters as are of interior wisdom and thence of prudence. (4) That a widow is without the reception of the love in which she is as a woman, and so is in a state alien from that innate within her and into which she was inducted by marriage.

These external causes which are natural, also take their origin from internal causes which are spiritual, as do all other things in the world and in the body (about which see above at n. 220). The external, natural causes are perceived from the internal, spiritual causes, which come from the marriage of good and truth, and chiefly from these facts of that marriage. That good cannot provide nor dispose anything except by truth; that good cannot protect itself except by truth, and therefore that truth is the defence and as it were the arm of good; that good without truth is destitute of counsel, because it has counsel, wisdom, and prudence by truth. Now, as from creation man is truth, and by creation the wife is its good, or what is the same, as from creation the man is understanding, and from creation the wife is the love of that, it is clear that the external or natural causes which aggravate the widowhood of a woman take their rise from internal or spiritual causes. These spiritual causes, conjoined with the natural, are what are meant by the things said concerning widows in many places in the Word, as may be seen in the Apocalypse Revealed, n. 764.

326. To these things I shall add two Relations. First:

When the problem concerning the soul had been discussed and solved in the gymnasium, I saw them passing out in order, the chief teacher before them, and after him the elders, in the midst of whom were the five young men who made answer, and following them, the rest. And as they passed out they withdrew to the sides round about the house, where there were walks surrounded by shrubbery; and assembled there, they divided themselves into small groups, which were so many gatherings of young men conversing on matters pertaining to wisdom; in each of which groups was one of the wise men from the orchestra.

Seeing them from my lodging I came into the spirit, and in the spirit went out to them; and I approached the chief teacher, who lately had proposed the question concerning the soul.

When he saw me he said, “Who are you? I wondered, when I saw you approaching in the way, that now you came into my sight and the next moment passed out of sight, or that at one moment you were visible to me and suddenly became invisible. You certainly are not in our state of life.”

To this I answered, smiling, “I am not a player of tricks, nor a Vertumnus; but am an alternate, now in your light, now in your shade, and thus foreign and also native.”

At this the chief teacher looked at me and said, “You say strange and amazing things. Tell me who you are.”

I said, “I am in the world in which you were, and from which you departed, which is called the natural world; and I also am in the world to which you came and in which you are which is called the spiritual world. I am therefore in a natural state, and at the same time in a spiritual state; in the natural state with men on earth, and in the spiritual state with you; and when I am in the natural state I am not visible to you, but when in the spiritual state I am visible. That I am so has been given by the Lord. To you, O enlightened man, it is known that the man of the natural world does not see the man of the spiritual world, nor the reverse; therefore when I let my spirit down into the body, I was not visible to you, and when I raised it out of the body I became visible. You also taught in your instruction in the gymnasium that you are souls, and that souls see souls, because they are human forms; and you know that you did not see yourselves, or your souls within your bodies, when you were in the natural world; and this comes from the difference that there is between the spiritual and the natural.”

When he heard of a difference between the spiritual and the natural he said, “What is the difference? Is it not as between the purer and the less pure? What then is the spiritual but a purer natural?”

I replied, “The difference is not of that kind, but is as between prior and posterior, between which there is no finite ratio, for the prior is within the posterior as the cause is within its effect; and the posterior is from the prior as the effect from its cause. Hence it is that the one does not appear to the other.”

To this the chief teacher responded, “I have thought and pondered upon this distinction, but hitherto in vain. Would that I could perceive it.”

I said, “You shall not only perceive, but shall also see the difference between the spiritual and the natural.” And then I added, “You are in the spiritual state when with your own, but in the natural state when with me. For with them you converse in spiritual language, which is common to all spirits and angels; but with me you talk in my vernacular tongue. For every angel and spirit talking with a man speaks his language, thus French with the French, English with the English, Greek with the Greek, Arabic with an Arabian, and so on. That you may know, then, the difference between the spiritual and the natural as to language, do this: Go among your own and say something there, and keep the words in mind, and with them in memory return and utter them before me.”

He did so and returned to me with the words to them in his mouth, and spoke them, and he did not understand one; the words were entirely strange and foreign, such as are not in any language of the natural world. By this experience, several times repeated, it was made clearly evident that all in the spiritual world have a spiritual language, which has nothing in common with any language of the natural world, and that every man comes into that language after death, of himself. He then also found by experience, at the same time, that the sound itself of spiritual language differs so much from the sound of natural language that spiritual sound, though loud, could not in the least be heard by the natural man; nor natural sound by the spiritual man.

Afterwards I requested the chief teacher and those standing about to go in among their own and write some sentence upon paper, and to come out with the paper to me and to read it. They did so and returned with the paper in the hand; but when they read it they could not understand anything, since the writing consisted merely of certain alphabetic letters with flexions above, each one of which signified some sense of the subject. From the fact that, there, some sense is signified by each letter in the alphabet, it is evident whence it is that the Lord is said to be “the Alpha and the Omega.” When again and again they had gone in, had written, and returned, they came to know that their writing involved and comprehended things without number which no natural writing can ever express; and it was said that this is because the spiritual man thinks thoughts that are incomprehensible and ineffable to the natural man; and that these cannot flow into and be conveyed in any other writing and other language.

Then, as the bystanders were unwilling to comprehend that spiritual thought so greatly excels natural thought as to be relatively ineffable, I said to them, “Make the trial. Go into your spiritual society and think something, and retain it, and return and utter it before me.” And they went in, thought, kept it in mind, came out, but when they would utter the thing they thought they could not, for they found no idea of natural thought adequate to any idea of spiritual thought, and thus no word to express it; for the ideas of thought become the words of speech. And they went in again and returned, and convinced themselves that spiritual ideas are supernatural, inexpressible, ineffable, and incomprehensible to the natural man. And because they are so super-eminent, they said that spiritual ideas or thoughts relatively to natural are the ideas of ideas, and the thoughts of thoughts; and that therefore qualities of qualities and affections of affections are expressed by them; consequently that spiritual thoughts are the beginnings and origins of natural thoughts. And from this it is plain that spiritual wisdom is the wisdom of wisdom, and thus is imperceptible to any wise man in the natural world. It was then told them, from the third heaven, that there is wisdom still more interior or higher, called celestial, the relation of which to spiritual wisdom is like the relation of this to natural; and that these flow in in order, according to the heavens, from the Lord’s Divine wisdom which is infinite.

327. These things having been finished, I said to the bystanders, “From these three proofs of experience you have seen what the difference is between the spiritual and the natural; and also the reason why the natural man does not appear to the spiritual, nor the spiritual man to the natural, although as to affections and thoughts and thence as to presence they are consociated. Hence it is, chief teacher, that on the way I was at one moment seen by you, and then again not seen.”

After this a voice was heard from the higher heaven saying to the chief teacher, “Coma up hither.” And he ascended and returned, and said that the angels like himself had not before known the differences between the spiritual and the natural, for the reason that there had not before been any opportunity for comparison with any man who was at the same in both worlds, and without comparison these differences are not known.

328. We then drew aside and talked further on this subject. I said, “These differences arise only from the fact that you, who are in the spiritual world and therefore are spiritual, are in things substantial, and not in things material, and things substantial are the beginnings of things material. You are in principles, and thus in things single, while we are in things derived from principles, and composite; you are in particulars, we in generals; and as generals cannot enter into particulars, so neither can things natural, which are material, enter into things spiritual which are substantial, just as a ship’s cable cannot enter or be drawn through the eye of a sewing needle, or a nerve enter or be drawn into one of the fibers of which it consists, nor a fiber into one of the fibrils which compose it. This is also known in the world; wherefore it is agreed to by the learned, that there is no influx of the natural into the spiritual but of the spiritual into the natural. Now this is the reason why the natural man cannot think the thoughts which the spiritual man thinks, nor therefore speak them; and why Paul says that the things which he heard out of the third heaven were unutterable.* Add to this, that to think spiritually is to think without time and space, and that to think naturally is to think with time and space, for to every idea of natural thought something of time and space adheres, but not to any spiritual idea. The reason is that the spiritual world is not in space and time like the natural world, but is in the appearance of these two; in this respect the thoughts and perceptions also differ. Therefore you can think of the essence and the omnipresence of God from eternity, that is, of God before the creation of the world, because you think of the essence of God from eternity without time, and of His omnipresence without space, and so comprehend such things as transcend the idea of the natural man.”

And then I related that, once I was thinking about the essence and omnipresence of God from eternity, that is, about God before the creation of the world, and that because I could not yet remove spaces and times from the ideas of my thought I became troubled, for the idea of nature entered in place of God. But I was told, “Remove the ideas of space and time, and you will see;” and it was given me to remove them, and I saw. And from that time I could think of God from eternity, and not at all of nature from eternity, because God in all time is without time, and in all space is without space, but nature in all time is in time, and in all space is in space; and nature with its time and space could not but begin and arise, but not God who is without time and space. Wherefore nature is from God, not from eternity but in time, that is, together with its time and at the same time with its space.

* 2 Cor. xii: 4.

329. After the chief teacher and the rest had left me, some of the boys who also were at the exercises in the gymnasium, followed me home and stood by me there for a time while I was writing. And lo! they saw a moth running over my paper, and asked in surprise, “What is this so swift little animalcule?” I said, “It is called a mite. And I will tell you wonderful things about it. In so small a living thing there are as many members and viscera as in a camel-there are brains, heart, pulmonary organs, organs of sense, of motion, and of generation, a stomach, intestines, and many other things; and each one of these is woven together of fibers, nerves, blood-vessels, muscles, tendons, and membranes; and each of these is woven together of still purer things that lie deeply hidden beyond the reach of every eye.”

Then they said, “Yet the little living thing appears to us only as a simple substance.”

And I said, “Nevertheless, there are innumerable things within it. I tell you this that you may know that it is similar with every object that appears before you as one simple and least thing, as well in your actions as in your affections and thoughts. I can assure you that every single grain of thought, and every drop of your affection is divisible, even ad infinitum, and that in so far as your ideas are divisible you are wise. Know, that everything divided is more and more manifold, and not more and more simple, because being divided and divided it approaches nearer and nearer to the infinite, in which all things are infinitely. This is a new thing that I relate to you, before unheard of.”

Having listened to these things the boys went from me to the chief teacher and requested of him that he would sometime propose in the gymnasium something new and unheard of as a problem. He asked, “What?”

They said, “That everything divided is more and more manifold, and not more and more simple, because it approaches nearer and nearer to the infinite, in which all things are infinitely.”

He promised to propose it, and said, “I see this, because I have perceived that one natural idea is the containant of innumerable spiritual ideas; yea, that one spiritual idea is the containant of innumerable celestial ideas. Hence the difference between celestial wisdom, in which the angels of the third heaven are, and spiritual wisdom in which the angels of the second heaven are; and also between natural wisdom in which the angels of the ultimate heaven and also men are.”

330. The Second Relation:

I once heard a pleasant discussion among men which was about the female sex: Whether any woman can love her husband who constantly loves her own beauty, that is who loves herself on account of her form. They agreed among themselves first: That women have a twofold beauty, one natural which is of the face and body, and another spiritual which is of love and manners. They also agreed that the two kinds of beauty are quite often divided in the natural world and that they are always united in the spiritual world; for in the spiritual world beauty is the form of love and manners, and therefore after death it very often occurs that deformed women become beauties and beautiful women become deformed.

While the men were discussing the subject certain wives came and said, “Permit us to be present, because knowledge teaches you the matter you are discussing, while experience teaches it to us. And you also know so little about the love of wives that it is scarcely anything. Do you know that it is the prudence of the wisdom of wives to conceal their love for their husbands in the inmost of their breast, or in the middle of their heart?”

The discussion began and the first conclusion by the men was, that: “Every woman wishes to appear beautiful in face and beautiful in manners because she is born an affection of love, and beauty is the form of this affection; a woman therefore who does not desire to be beautiful is not a woman who wishes to love and be loved, and thence is not truly a woman.”

To this the wives said, the beauty of woman dwells in soft tenderness, and therefore in exquisite sensation. Thence is the love of woman for man, and the love of man for woman. Perhaps you do not understand this?”

The second conclusion of the men was, that: “A woman before marriage wishes to be beautiful for men, but after marriage, if she be chaste, only for a man and not for men.”

To this the wives said, “After a husband has tasted the natural beauty of the wife he no longer sees it, but sees her spiritual beauty and from this loves anew; and yet he recalls the natural but under a different aspect.”

The third conclusion from their discussion was, that: “If after marriage a woman desires to appear beautiful in like manner as before it, she loves men and not the man; for a woman loving herself for her own beauty is continually in the wish that her beauty be tasted, and as this no longer appears to the man, as you have said, she wishes it may be tasted by the men before whom it does appear. It is clear that she has the love of the sex, and not the love of one of the sex.”

At this the wives were silent, but murmured these words, “What woman is so free from vanity as not to wish to appear beautiful to men also, at the same time as to her only one?”

Several wives from heaven, who were beautiful because they were heavenly affections, heard these things, and confirmed the three conclusions of the men; but added, “Let them love their own beauty and adornments only for the sake of their husbands, and from them.”

331. The three wives, indignant that the three conclusions of the men had been confirmed by the wives from heaven, said to the men, “You have asked whether a woman who loves herself for her own beauty loves her husband. We now on the other hand will consider whether a man who loves himself for his own intelligence can love his wife. Be present and hear.” And they drew this first conclusion: “No wife loves her husband for his face, but for the intelligence in his employment and in his manners. Know therefore that the wife unites herself with the intelligence of the man, and thus with the man. If then a man loves himself for his own intelligence he withdraws his love from his wife to himself, whence comes disunion and not union. Moreover, to love his own intelligence is to be wise of himself, and this is to be insane, and is therefore to love his own insanity.”

To this the men responded: “Perhaps the wife unites herself with the ability of the man.” The wives laughed at this, saying, “Ability is not wanting so long as the man loves the wife from intelligence, but it is wanting if he loves from insanity. Intelligence is to love the wife only and to this love ability is not wanting; but it is insanity to love, not the wife, but the sex. You comprehend this?”

The second conclusion was: “We women are born into the love of the intelligence of men. If then men love their own proper intelligence, the intelligence cannot be united with its genuine love, which is with the wife. And if the intelligence of the man is not united with its own genuine love, which is with the wife, his intelligence becomes insanity from pride, and conjugial love becomes cold. What woman then can unite her love with cold? And what man can unite the insanity of his pride with the love of intelligence?”

“But,” said the men, “whence has a man honor from his wife, if he does not magnify his own intelligence?” The wives answered, “From love; for love honors. Honor cannot be separated from love; but love can be from honor.”

Afterwards they came to this third conclusion: “You seem as if you love your wives, and do not see that you are loved by your wives, and thus that you love in return, and that your intelligence is the receptable. If then you love your own intelligence within you that becomes the receptacle of your love; and the love of one’s own, because it does not tolerate an equal, never becomes conjugial love, but so long as it prevails, it remains scortatory.”

At this the men were silent, but murmured, “What is conjugial love?”

Certain husbands in heaven heard these things and thence confirmed the three conclusions of the wives.

332. CONCERNING POLYGAMY.

If the reason be sought why polygamic marriages have been utterly condemned by the Christian world, no one, endowed with whatever gift of acutely penetrating a subject by his genius, can clearly see the cause unless he is first instructed, That there is love truly conjugial: That this cannot exist otherwise than between two: Nor between two except from the Lord alone: And that on this love heaven is inscribed with all its felicities. Unless these knowledges precede, and lay as it were the first stone, to no effect does the mind busy itself to draw out from the understanding any reasons, in which it may rest, and on which it may stand, as a house upon its stone or foundation, why polygamy is condemned by the Christian world.

It is known that the institution of monogamic marriage is founded on the Lord’s Word, that:-

Whosoever shall put away his wife except for scortation, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and that from the beginning, or from the first institution of marriages, it was ordained that two should become one flesh; and that man should not put asunder what God hath joined together (Matt. xix. 3-11).

But although the Lord dictated these words out of the Divine law inscribed on marriage, yet, if the understanding cannot support it with some reason of its own, it may even, by turns to which it is wont, and by sinister interpretations, get around that Divine law and bring it into obscure ambiguity, and finally into an affirmative-negative, affirmative because it is according to the civil law also, and negative because it is not according to their own rational sight. Into this state will the human mind fall if it be not first instructed respecting the knowledges mentioned above, which shall serve the understanding as an introduction to its reasonings, which knowledges are, that there is a love truly conjugial; that it can exist only between two; that it cannot exist between two except from the Lord alone; and that upon that love heaven is inscribed with all its felicities. But these and many other things that relate to the condemnation of polygamy by the Christian world are to be shown in order according to the following articles:-

(1) That there cannot be any love truly conjugial except with one wife; consequently there cannot be true conjugial friendship, confidence, and potency, nor such a conjunction of minds that the two may be one flesh.

(2) That thus it is only with one wife that there can be the celestial beatitudes, the spiritual satisfactions, and the natural delights which, from the beginning, have been provided for those who are in love truly conjugial.

(3) That all these cannot be given except by the Lord only; and that they are not given to others than those who come to Him alone, and at the same time, live according to His commandments.

(4) Consequently, that there cannot be love truly conjugial with its felicities, except with those who are of the Christian church.

(5) That this is the reason why it is not permitted a Christian to marry more than one wife.

(6) That if a Christian marries more than one wife he commits not only natural adultery but also spiritual adultery.

(7) That the Israelitish nation were permitted to marry more wives than one, because with them there was not a Christian church and therefore they could not have love truly conjugial.

(8) That the Mahometans at this day are permitted to marry more wives than one, because they do not acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ to be one with Jehovah the Father, and thus as the God of heaven and earth, and therefore cannot receive love truly conjugial.

(9) That the Mahometan heaven is outside the Christian heaven; and that it is divided into two heavens, a lower and a higher; and that none are elevated into their higher heaven but those who renounce concubines and live with one wife, and acknowledge our Lord as equal to God the Father, to whom dominion is given over heaven and earth.

(10) That polygamy is lasciviousness.

(11) That with polygamists there cannot be conjugial chastity, purity, and holiness

(12) That polygamists, so long as they remain polygamists, cannot become spiritual.

(13) That polygamy is not a sin with those with whom it is a matter of religion.

(14) That polygamy is not sin with those who are in ignorance concerning the Lord.

(15) That of these, they are saved although polygamists, who acknowledge a God, and from religion live according to the civil laws of justice.

(16) But that none from either of these heavens can be consociated with the angels in the Christian heavens.

333. Now follows the exposition of these.

(1) That there cannot be love truly conjugial except with one wife; consequently there cannot be true conjugial friendship, confidence, potency, and such a conjunction of minds that the two may be one flesh. That at this day love truly conjugial is so rare as to be generally unknown has been stated several times above. That nevertheless it does actually exist, has also been shown in its own chapter, and after that here and there in those that followed. But, apart from this, who does not know that there is such a love, which in excellence and delightfulness so transcends all other loves that they all seem relatively of small account? That it surpasses the love of self, the love of the world, yea, the love of life, experiences testify. Have there not been, and are there not, those who for the woman desired and solicited as a bride prostrate themselves on their knees, adore her as a goddess, and submit as the vilest slaves to her good pleasure? A proof that this love exceeds the love of self. Have there not been, and are there not, those who for the woman chosen and solicited as a bride count wealth, yea, treasures if they possess them as nothing, and who lavish them also? A proof that this love exceeds the love of the world. Have there not been, and are there not, those who for the woman chosen and solicited for a bride esteem their very life of no account, and crave death if she does not yield to their petition? And to this the many encounters of rivals even unto death testify. A proof that this love is greater than the love of life. Have there not been, and are there not, those who for the woman chosen and solicited for a bride have been made insane by refusal? May one not rationally conclude from this beginning of that love with many, that from its essence this love dominates over every other love as supreme, and that at the time the soul of the man is in it, and promises to itself eternal beatitudes with her who is his choice and solicitation? Who, wheresoever he may search, can discover any other cause for this than that he has given up his soul and his heart to the one? For if a lover while in that state were given the option to elect the most worthy, the most wealthy, and the most beautiful of all the sex from the universe, would he not spurn the option and hold to his chosen one? For his heart is hers alone. These things are said that you may acknowledge that there is a conjugial love of such super-eminence, and that it exists while one only of the sex is loved. What understanding that looks with a keen sight at reasonings, in just connection, cannot deduce from this that, if from his soul, or from inmosts, the lover abides constantly in his love to her, he would realize those eternal beatitudes which he had promised to himself before consent and which he promises in consent? It has been shown above that he also does attain them, if he comes to the Lord and from Him lives true religion. Who else than He enters into the life of man from above, imparts internal, heavenly joys, and carries them into their sequences? And this the more when at the same time He also gives constant potency. That there is no such love and cannot be because it is not with one’s self, or this person or that, is not a valid conclusion.

334. Since love truly conjugial conjoins the souls and hearts of two, therefore it is united also with friendship, and through this with confidence, and makes them both conjugial, which are so eminent above other friendships and confidences that, just as this love is the love of loves, so also is this friendship the friendship of friendships, and the confidence likewise. There are many reasons why in truth it is so with its potency too, some of which are revealed in the Second Relation after this chapter, from which potency follows the continued perpetuity of that love. That by love truly conjugial two consorts become one flesh has been shown above in its proper chapter, n 156-183.

335. (2) That thus it is only with one wife that there can be the celestial beatitudes, the spiritual satisfactions, and the natural delights which, from the beginning, have been provided for those who are in love truly conjugial. They are called celestial beatitudes, spiritual satisfactions, and natural delights, because the human mind is distinguished into three regions, the highest of which is called celestial, the second spiritual, and the third natural, and with those who are in love truly conjugial these three regions stand open, and influx follows in order according to the openings. And as the amenities of this love in the highest region are most eminent, they are perceived as beatitudes; and as in the middle region they are less eminent, they are perceived as satisfactions; and finally, in the lowest region, as delights. That these amenities are real, are perceived and felt, is established from the Relations in which they are described. All these felicities were provided from the beginning for those who are in love truly conjugial, because in the Lord there is an infinity of all beatitudes; and He Himself is Divine love, and the essence of love is that it wills to communicate all its own goods to another whom it loves; and therefore together with man He created this love, and inscribed upon it the faculty of receiving and perceiving these felicities. Who is so dull and unreasoning in mind that he cannot see that there is some love on which are bestowed by the Lord all the blessings, satisfactions, and delights that can ever be bestowed?

336. (3) That all these cannot be given except by the Lord only; and that they are not given to others than those who come to Him alone, and live according to His commandments. This has been shown before in many places; to which it must be added, that because all these beatitudes, satisfactions, and delights can be granted only by the Lord, for that reason no other should be approached. Who else can be since:-

By Him all things were made that have been made? (John i. 3).

Since:-

He is the God of heaven and earth? (Matt. xxviii. 18).

Since:

No one hath ever seen the form of God the Father, nor heard His voice, except through Him? (John i. 18; v. 37; xiv. 6-11).

From these and very many other passages in the Word. it is evident that the marriage of love and wisdom, or of good and truth, from which only marriages derive their origin, proceeds from Him alone. From this it follows that that love with its felicities is given to no others but those who come to Him; and that it is given to those who live according to His commandments is because with them He is conjoined by love (John xiv. 21-24).

337. (4) Consequently, that there cannot be love truly conjugial except with those who are of the Christian Church. The reason why conjugial love, such as is described in its own chapter n. 57-73 and in those following it, that is, such as it is in its essence, is not with any but those that are of the Christian church is, because that love is from the Lord only, and the Lord is not elsewhere so known that He can be approached as God; also, because the love is according to the state of the church with every one (n. 130), and a genuine state of the church is from no other source than the Lord, and thus is with no others but those who receive it from Him. That these’ two are the first beginnings, introductions, and establishings of that love, has already been confirmed by such abundance of clear and conclusive reasons that it would be entirely superfluous to add anything more. That love truly conjugial is nevertheless rare in the Christian world (n. 58, 59), is because so few there approach the Lord, and among these are some who, although they believe the church, do not live it; besides the many facts that are disclosed in the Apocalypse Revealed, where the state of the Christian Church at this day is fully described. But the truth nevertheless holds good that there cannot be love truly conjugial except with those who are of the Christian Church; and for that reason polygamy has also been absolutely condemned. That this also is of the Lord’s Divine Providence, is very clear to those who think justly respecting providence.

338. (5) That this is the reason why it is not permitted a Christian to marry more than one wife. This follows as confirmed from the things established in the preceding sections, to which it should be added: That the genuine conjugial is inscribed on the minds of Christians more profoundly than on the minds of the Gentiles who have embraced polygamy; and hence that the minds of Christians are more susceptible to that love than the minds of polygamists. For this conjugial is inscribed on the interiors of the mind of Christians, because they acknowledge the Lord and His Divine, and is inscribed upon the exteriors of their minds by the civil laws.

339. (6) That if a Christian marries more than one wife he commits not only natural adultery but also spiritual adultery. That a Christian who marries more than one wife commits natural adultery is according to the Lord’s words, that:-

It is not lawful to put away a wife, because from the beginning they were created to be one flesh; and that, Whosoever shall put away his wife without just cause, and shall marry another, committeth adultery (Matt. xix. 3-11).

Still more he that does not put away but retains his wife, and marries another in addition. This law, proclaimed by the Lord concerning marriages, derives its internal cause from spiritual marriage, for whatever the Lord spoke was in itself spiritual, which is meant by the saying:

The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life (John vi. 63).

The spiritual which is within these words is this: That by polygamic marriage in the Christian world the marriage of the Lord and the church is profaned; likewise the marriage of good and truth; and moreover the Word, and with the Word the church; and the profanation of these is spiritual adultery.

That the profanation of the good and truth of the church out of the Word corresponds to adultery, and that it therefore is spiritual adultery; and that the falsification of good and truth is so likewise, but in a less degree, may be seen confirmed in The Apocalpyse Revealed, n. 134. The reason why the marriage of the Lord and the church would be profaned by polygamic marriages with Christians is, that there is a correspondence between that Divine marriage and the marriages of Christians, concerning which see above (n. 83-102), which correspondence is altogether destroyed if wife is added to wife; and when that is destroyed the man consort is no longer a Christian.

The reason why the marriage of good and truth would be profaned by polygamic marriages with Christians is, that marriages on earth are derived from that spiritual marriage, and the marriages of Christians differ from the marriages of other nations in this, that as good loves truth and truth good, and they are one, so is it with the wife and husband. If therefore a Christian should add wife to wife he would disrupt the spiritual marriage within him, and thus profane the origin of his marriage and so commit spiritual adultery. That marriages on earth are derived from the marriage of good and truth, may be seen above at n. 116-131. That a Christian would profane the Word and the church by polygamic marriage, is because the Word viewed in itself is the marriage of good and truth, and likewise the church in the degree that this is from the Word (see above at n. 128-131).

Now, it is plain that a Christian man-because he knows the Lord, has the Word; and the church in him is from the Lord through the Word,-has, more than a man not a Christian, the faculty of being regenerated and so of becoming spiritual; and also of attaining love truly conjugial, for they go together. Since those from among Christians who marry more wives than one not only commit natural adultery, but at the same time also spiritual adultery, it follows that the damnation of Christian polygamists after death is more severe than the damnation of those who only commit natural adultery. To a question concerning their state after death I heard the answer, that heaven is altogether closed to them; and that in hell they appear as if lying in hot water in a bath house in a bath tub, and that from a distance they thus appear, although they stand and walk upon their feet; and that it is so with them from inward frenzy; and that some such are cast into the gulfs that are at the borders of the worlds.*

* See A. C. n. 9582; E. U. n. 123. (TR.)

340. (7) That the Israelitish nation were permitted to marry more wives than one, because with them there was not a Christian church, and therefore they could not have love truly conjugial. There are at this day those who think doubtfully respecting the institution of monogamic marriages, or the marriage of one man with one wife, and debate with themselves in their reason about it, thinking that because polygamic marriages were openly permitted to the Israelitish people and their kings, as to David and Solomon, they should in themselves be permissible also to Christians. But they have no distinct knowledge of the Israelitish and of Christian nations; nor respecting the externals and the internals of the church, neither concerning the change of the church by the Lord from external to internal; consequently they know nothing from interior judgment respecting marriages.

It must be kept in mind, in general, that man is born natural that he may become spiritual; and so long as he remains natural he is in night, and as in sleep, respecting spiritual things; and that then he does not even know the distinction between the external natural and the internal spiritual man. That there was not a Christian Church with the Israelitish nation is known from the Word. For they were looking, as they are still looking, for a Messiah who would exalt them above all nations and peoples in the world; wherefore, if it had been said and were now said to them that the Messiah’s kingdom is over the heavens, and from thence over all nations, they would have set it down among trifles. Hence it was that when the Christ, or the Messiah, our Lord, came into the world, they not only did not acknowledge Him, but even atrociously put Him away out of the world. From these facts it is evident that there was not a Christian Church with that nation as there is not at this day; and they with whom the Christian Church is not are external and internal natural, and with them polygamy is not prejudicial, for it is inscribed upon the natural man, and he in fact perceives no other love in marriages than such as is of lust. This is meant in the saying of the Lord:-

Moses for the hardness of their heart permitted them to put away their wives; but from the beginning it was not so (Matt. xix. 8).

It is said that Moses permitted in order that it may be known that it was not the Lord. And it is known from His precepts, and from His abrogation of the rituals which served only for the use of the natural man, that the Lord teaches the internal spiritual man: From His precepts concerning washing, that it is the purification of the internal man (Matt. xv. 1, 17-20; xxiii. 25, 26; Mark vii. 14-23). Concerning adultery, that it is the lust of the will (Matt. v. 28). Concerning the putting away of wives, that it is unlawful; and concerning polygamy, that it is not agreeable to the Divine law (Matt. xix. 3-9).

These, and many other things the Lord taught, which are of the internal and spiritual man, because He alone opens the internals of human minds and makes them spiritual; and He puts these within things natural in order that they also may derive a spiritual essence, as in fact they do if He is approached, and if the life is according to His precepts; which are in brief, that one should believe in Him and shun evils because they are of the devil and from the devil; and do goods because they are of the Lord and from the Lord; and do both as if of one’s self, and at the same time believe that they are done by the Lord through him. The very reason why the Lord alone opens the internal spiritual man, and brings this into the external natural man, is that every man thinks naturally and acts naturally, and for that reason could not perceive anything spiritual and receive it into his natural if God had not put on the natural human, and made also that Divine. From these considerations the truth is now evident, that the Israelitish nation were permitted to take more than one wife because there was not a Christian Church with them.

341. (8) That the Mahometans at this day are permitted to marry more wives than one, because they do not acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ to be one with Jehovah the Father, and thus as the God of heaven and earth, and therefore cannot receive love truly conjugial. Mahometans, from the religion handed down by Mahomet, acknowledged Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and as a very great Prophet, and that He was sent into the world by God the Father to teach men; but not that God the Father and He are one; and that His Divine and Human are one Person, united as soul and body, according to the belief of all Christians from the Athanasian creed. Therefore the followers of Mahomet could not acknowledge our Lord as any God from eternity, but only as a perfect natural man; and because Mahomet was of this opinion, and thence his disciple followers are of this opinion, and because they know that God is one, and that that God is He who created the universe, they could not but pass Him by in their worship, and this the more because they also declare Mahomet to be a very great Prophet; neither do they know what the Lord taught. It is for this reason that the interiors of their mind, which in themselves are spiritual, could not be opened, since they can be opened only by the Lord, as may be seen just above at n. 340. The real reason why they are opened by the Lord when He is acknowledged, and is approached as God of heaven and earth, and with those who live according to His precepts is, that otherwise there is no conjunction, and without conjunction there is no reception. There is the presence of the Lord with man, and there is conjunction with Him. To go to Him brings presence, and to live according to his precepts effects conjunction. And His presence only is without reception; but presence and at the same time conjunction is with reception. Concerning these matters I will relate this that is new from the spiritual world: There, every one is made present by thought about him; but no one is conjoined to another except from the affection of love, and the affection of love is insinuated by doing his words and his pleasure. This fact, familiar in the spiritual world, takes its origin from the Lord, in that He is thus present and is thus conjoined.

These things are said that it may be known why it is permitted Mahometans to take more wives than one; that it is because with them there cannot be any love truly conjugial, which is only between one man and one wife, for the reason that they have not, from religion, acknowledged the Lord as equal to God the Father, and thus as the God of heaven and earth. That conjugial love is according to the state of the church with every one, see above at n. 130, and in several other places in the foregoing pages.

342. (9) That the Mahometan heaven is outside the Christian heaven; and that it is divided into two heavens, a lower and a higher; and that none are elevated into their higher heaven but those who renounce concubines and live with one wife, and acknowledge our Lord as equal to God the Father to whom dominion is given over heaven and earth. Before anything is said in particular respecting these heavens, it is important that some things should first be said about the Lord’s Divine Providence in relation to the rise of the Mahometan religion. That this religion was received by more kingdoms than the Christian religion may be a stumbling-block to those who think of Divine Providence, and at the same time believe that no one can be saved but he who is born a Christian. But the Mahometan religion is not a stumbling-block to those who believe that all things are of the Divine Providence. They inquire and also discover wherein it is [of Divine Providence]. It is in this: That the Mahometan religion acknowledges our Lord as the Son of God, as the wisest of men, and as a very great prophet, who came into the world that he might teach men. But as the Mahometans make the Koran only the book of their religion, and consequently Mahomet who wrote it is seated in their thoughts, and they follow him with a kind of worship, they therefore think little about our Lord. That it may be fully known that that religion was raised up by the Lord’s Divine Providence, for the destruction of the idolatries of many nations, it shall be explained in some order:

First, then, respecting the origin of idolatries: Before that religion there was the worship of idols in every country on earth. The cause of it was, that previous to the coming of the Lord the churches were all representative. Such also was the Israelitish Church; the tabernacle there, the garments of Aaron, the sacrifices, all things of the temple at Jerusalem, and the statutes also, were representative. And with the ancients the knowledge of correspondences, which is also the knowledge of representations, was the very knowledge of the wise, cultivated especially by the Egyptians. Hence their hieroglyphics. From this knowledge they knew what animals of every kind signified; as also trees of every kind.; and what mountains, hills, rivers, and fountains; and what the sun, the moon, and the stars signified. By that knowledge they also had cognition of things spiritual; because the things that were represented, which were such as are matters of spiritual wisdom with the angels, were their origins. Now as all their worship was representative, consisting only of correspondences, therefore they held their worship upon mountains and hills, and also in groves and gardens; and for that reason they consecrated fountains, and in adorations turned their faces to the rising sun; and besides made sculptured horses, oxen, calves, lambs, yea, birds, fishes, serpents, and set them up at home and elsewhere in order, wording to the spiritual things of the church to which they corresponded, or which they represented. Similar objects they also placed in their temples, that they might call to remembrance the holy things of worship which they signified. In the course of time, when the knowledge of correspondences was obliterated, their posterity began to worship the sculptured images themselves, as in themselves holy, not knowing that the ancients, their forefathers, saw nothing holy in them, but only that they represented and therefore signified holy things, according to correspondences. Hence arose the idolatries which filled all countries of the world, the Asiatic with the surrounding islands, the African, and the European.

That all these idolatries might be extirpated, it was brought to pass of the Lord’s Divine Providence that a new religion should begin, accommodated to the genius of the orientals, in which there should be something from each Testament of the Word, and which should teach that the Lord came into the world, and that He was the greatest Prophet, the wisest of all, and the Son of God. This was done through Mahomet, from whom that religion has its name.

From this it is plain that this religion was raised up by the Lord’s Divine Providence, and accommodated, as was said, to the genius of the orientals; to the end that it might destroy the idolatries of so many nations, and give them some knowledge of the Lord before they should come into the spiritual world, which takes place after death with every one; which religion would not have been received by so many kingdoms, and could not have extirpated their idolatries, if it had not been accommodated to their ideas, especially if polygamy had not been permitted. This was permitted also for the reason that without that permission the orientals would have been inflamed with filthy adulteries more than Europeans, and would have perished.

343. The reason why the Mahometans also have a heaven is, that all throughout the whole world are saved who acknowledge God, and from religion shun evils as sins against Him. That the Mahometan heaven is distinguished into two, a lower and a higher, I have heard from themselves; and that in the lower heaven they live with several wives and concubines, as in the world; but that those who renounce concubines and live with one wife are elevated into their higher heaven. I have also heard that it is impossible for them to think that our Lord is one with the Father; but that it is possible for them to think Him equal, as also that dominion is given to Him over heaven and earth, because He is His Son. This therefore is the faith of those to whom ascent is given by the Lord into their higher heaven.

344. It was once given me to perceive the quality of the heat of the conjugial love of polygamists. I spoke with one who occupied the place of Mahomet. Mahomet himself is never present, but a substitute deputed in his place, to the end that those recently from the world may as it were see him. This substitute, after some conversation with him from a distance, sent me an ebony spoon, and other things which were indications that it was from him. And at the same time communication was opened for the heat of the conjugial love of those who are there, and it was perceived by me as the fetid heat of a bagnio, perceiving which I turned away and the channel of communication was closed.

345. (10) That polygamy is lasciviousness is because its love is divided among several, and is the love of the sex, and is a love of the external or natural man, and so is not conjugial love, which alone is chaste. That polygamic love is divided among several is known, and divided love is not conjugial love, which cannot be severed from the one of the sex. That love is therefore lascivious, and polygamy is lasciviousness. That polygamic love is the love of the sex, is because it only differs from it in being limited to the number that the polygamist can take to himself, and in being held to certain laws established for the public good; also in that it permits the addition of concubines to wives. And being thus the love of the sex it is the love of lasciviousness. Polygamic love is a love of the external or natural man because it is inscribed on that man; and whatever the natural man does from himself is evil, out of which he cannot be led except by elevation into the internal spiritual man, which is done by the Lord alone. And the evil respecting the sex which inheres in the natural man is scortation; and because this is destructive of society, in place of scortation a similitude of it was introduced which is called polygamy. All the evil into which a man is born from his parents is implanted in his natural man, but none in the spiritual man, because into this he is born from the Lord. From the reasons that have been adduced, and from many others also, it may be seen clearly that polygamy is lasciviousness.

346. (11) That with polygamists there cannot be conjugial chastity, purity, and holiness. This follows from the things established just above, and manifestly from what was shown in the chapter on, The Chaste and the Non-chaste, especially from these things in that chapter: That chaste, pure, and holy,. are only predicable of monogamic marriages, or those of one man with one wife (n. 141); also that love truly conjugial is chastity itself; and that thence all the delights of that love, even the ultimate, are chaste (n. 143, 144). And moreover from the things which were adduced in the chapter, On Love Truly Conjugial, as, from these things in that chapter: That love truly conjugial, which is of one man with one wife, by virtue of its origin and of its correspondence, is celestial, spiritual, holy, and pure, beyond every love (n. 64, and following numbers). Now, as chastity, purity, and holiness, are only in love truly conjugial, it follows that they are not and cannot be in polygamous love.

347. (12) That a polygamist, so long as he remains a polygamist, cannot become spiritual. To become spiritual is to be elevated out of the natural, that is, out of the light and heat of the world into the light and heat of heaven. No one knows of this elevation but one who is elevated; and the natural man not elevated does not perceive but that he is elevated. The reason is that although natural he, equally with the spiritual man, can elevate his understanding into the light of heaven, and can think and talk spiritually. But, if the will does not at the same time follow the understanding into that elevation he is not elevated; for he does not abide in that elevation, but after some moments lets himself down to his will, and fixes his station there. It is said the will, but the love also is meant, because the will is the receptacle of love, for what a man loves he wills. From these few considerations it is evident that a polygamist, so long as he remains a polygamist, or what is the same, a natural man so long as he remains natural, cannot become spiritual.

348. (13) That polygamy is not a sin with those with whom it is from religion. Everything that is contrary to religion is believed to be a sin because against God; and on the other hand, everything that is with religion is believed not to be a sin because with God. And as with the sons of Israel polygamy was from religion, and is so likewise with the Mahometans of to-day, it could not and cannot be imputed to them as a sin. Moreover, that it may not be a sin to them, they remain natural and do not become spiritual, and the natural man cannot see that there is any sin in such things as are of the received religion; this only the spiritual man sees. It is for this reason that, although from the Koran they acknowledge our Lord as the Son of God, yet they do not approach Him but Mahomet, and so long as they do this they remain natural, and therefore do not know that there is any evil, nor indeed that there is any lasciviousness, in polygamy. The Lord moreover says:-

If ye were blind ye would not have sin, but now that ye say ye see, your sin remaineth (John ix. 41).

Since polygamy cannot convict them of sin they therefore after death have a heaven of their own (n. 342), where they have joys according to their life.

349. (14) That polygamy is not sin with those who are in ignorance concerning the Lord. The reason is, that love truly conjugial is from the Lord alone, and cannot be given by the Lord to others than those who know Him, acknowledge Him, believe in Him, and live the life which is from Him; and they to whom that love cannot be given do not know but that the love of sex and conjugial love are the same, consequently polygamy also. Add to this that polygamists who know nothing of the Lord remain natural, for man becomes spiritual from the Lord only, and to the natural man that is not imputed as a sin which is according to the laws of his religion and at the same time of society. He also acts according to his reason, and the reason of the natural man is in utter thick darkness respecting love truly conjugial, and this love in its excellency is spiritual. And yet their reason is taught, by experience, that it is for the public and private peace that promiscuous lust, in general, should be restricted, and relegated to every one within his own house. Hence is polygamy.

350. It is known that man is born viler than a beast. All beasts are born into the knowledges corresponding to the love of their life. As soon as they fall from the womb, or are excluded from the egg, they see, hear, walk, know their food, their mother, their friends and enemies, and not long after know the sex, and know how to love, and also how to rear their offspring. Man alone when he is born has no such knowledge, for no knowledge is connate with him. He has only a faculty and inclination for receiving the things which are of knowledge and of love, and if he does not receive them from others he remains viler than a beast. Man is born such, to the end that he may attribute nothing to himself but to others, and finally everything of wisdom and of the love of it to God alone, and that thereby he may become an image of God, as may be seen in the Relation at n. 132-136. From these considerations it follows that the man who does not know from others that the Lord came into the world, and that He is God, and who has only imbibed some notions of the religion and laws of his country, is not to blame if he does not think more of conjugial love than of the love of the sex, and that he believes polygamic love to be the only conjugial love. The Lord leads them in their ignorance, and under Divine auspices providently conducts those away from the imputation of guilt who from religion shun evils as sins, to the end that they may be saved. For every man is born for heaven and none for hell; and every one comes into heaven of the Lord and goes to hell of himself.

351. (15) That of these, they are saved, although polygamists, who acknowledge a God, and from religion live according to the civil laws of justice. All, throughout the whole world, who acknowledge a God and live according to the civil laws of justice, from religion, are saved. By the civil laws of justice are meant precepts such as are in the Decalogue, which are: That a man must not kill must not commit adultery; must not steal; must not bear false witness. These precepts are civil laws of justice in all kingdoms on earth; for without them no kingdom could endure. But they are lived by some for fear of the penalties of the law, by some from civil obedience, and by some from religion also; and they by whom they are lived also from religion are saved. The reason is that then God is in them, and the man in whom God is, is saved. Who does not see that with the sons of Israel, from the time they went forth out of Egypt, it was among their laws that one must not kill, must not commit adultery, must not steal, must not bear false witness, since without these laws their community or society could not have subsisted? And yet the same laws were promulgated by Jehovah God upon Mount Sinai with a stupendous miracle. But the reason of their promulgation was, that the same laws might also be made laws of religion, and so, that they should do them not only for the good of society but also for the sake of God, and that through doing them from religion for the sake of God they might be saved.

From these considerations it is evident that pagans who acknowledge a God and live according to the civil laws of justice are saved. For it is not their fault that they know nothing about the Lord, and consequently nothing about the chastity of marriage with one wife. For it is contrary to Divine justice that they who acknowledge a God and from religion live the laws of justice-which are, to shun evils because they are sins against God and to do goods because they are with God, should be condemned.

352. (16) But none from either of these heavens can be consociated with the angels in the Christian heavens. The reason is, that in the Christian heavens there is heavenly light which is Divine truth, and heavenly heat which is Divine love, and these two discover of what kind goods and truths are, as well as of what kind are evils and falsities. It is on this account that all communication between the Christian heavens and the Mahometan heavens is taken away; likewise between them and the heavens of the Gentiles. If there were communication none could have been saved but they who were in heavenly light, and at the same time in heavenly heat, from the Lord. Nay, nor could these have been saved if there were conjunction of the heavens, for all the heavens would be so shaken by the conjunction that the angels could not subsist. For from the Mahometans the unchaste and lascivious would flow into the Christian heaven, which could not be endured there; and from the Christian heaven the chaste and pure would flow into the Mahometan heaven, which would be insufferable there. And then, by the communication and thence conjunction Christian angels would become natural and thus adulterers, or if they remained spiritual they would feel what is lascivious around them continually, which would take away all the blessedness of their life. Something like this would be the effect in the Mahometan heaven; for the spiritual influences of the Christian heaven would continually surround and torment them, and deprive them of every enjoyment of their life; and moreover would insinuate that polygamy is sin, and they would thus be perpetually reproved. This is the reason why all the heavens are altogether distinct, so that there is no conjunction between them, except through the influx of light and heat from the Lord out of the sun in the midst of which He is; and this influx enlightens and vivifies every one according to reception, and the reception is according to the religion. There is this communication, but not of the heavens between themselves.

353. To this I will add two Relations. First:-

I was once in the midst of angels, and heard their discourse. The discourse was on the subject of intelligence and wisdom: “That a man does not perceive but that both are in himself, and thus that whatever he thinks from the understanding or intends from the will is from himself, when yet not the least of it is from the man, except the faculty of receiving from God the things that are of the understanding and of the will. And because every man from birth is inclined to love himself, lest from love of himself and conceit of his own intelligence man should perish, it was provided from creation that this love of man should be transcribed into the wife, and that it be implanted from birth in her, that she shall love the intelligence and wisdom of her man, and thus the man, by which means the wife continually attracts the man’s pride in his own intelligence to herself, and extinguishes it with him and vivifies it with herself, and so turns it into conjugial love, and fills it with amenities beyond measure This is provided by the Lord in order that conceit of his own intelligence may not infatuate the man to such a degree that he would believe that he is intelligent and wise of himself, and not from the Lord, and thus eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and thence believe himself like God, and even a God, as the serpent (which is the love of one’s own intelligence) said and persuaded; for which the man after eating was cast out of paradise, and the way to the tree of life was guarded by a cherub.”

A paradise, spiritually, is intelligence; to eat of the tree of life, spiritually, is to understand and have wisdom from the Lord; and to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, spiritually, is to understand and be wise of one’s self.

354. The conversation being ended the angels went away, and two priests came, having with them a man who in the world had been an ambassador of a kingdom; and I related to them what I had heard from the angels, hearing which they began to dispute among themselves on the subject of intelligence and wisdom, and of prudence therefrom, whether they are from God or from man. There was a warm discussion. In heart the three alike believed that they are from man, because in man, and that the very perception and sensation that they are so confirms it. But the priests, who were then in theologic zeal, said that nothing of intelligence and wisdom, and consequently nothing of prudence is from man; and when the ambassador retorted that, “If so there is not anything of thought,” they said, “Not anything.”

But, as it was perceived in heaven that the three were in similar belief, it was said to the ambassador, “Put on the garments of a priest and believe yourself to be a priest, and then speak.”

And he put them on and believed, and then said in a loud voice that nothing of intelligence and wisdom, and thence nothing of prudence, can ever be except from God; and he maintained it with accustomed eloquence, full of rational arguments.

It is peculiar in the spiritual world that a spirit thinks himself to be such as the garment upon him is. The reason is that there the understanding clothes every one.

Afterwards it was said from heaven to the two priests also, “Put off your garments and put on the garments of ministers of state, and believe that you are such.”

And they did so, and then at once thought from their interior selves, and they spoke from reasonings which they had inwardly cherished in favor of man’s own intelligence.

At that moment there appeared a tree by the way, and it was told them, “This is the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Have a care that you do not eat of it.”

But nevertheless the three, infatuated with their own Intelligence, were inflamed with a desire to eat of it, and said among themselves, “Why not? Is the fruit not good?” And they went to it and ate.

Then immediately the three, because they were in similar faith, became cordial friends, and went together in the way of their own intelligence which tends towards hell; but yet I saw them coming back, for they were not yet prepared.

355. The Second Relation:-

Once when I was looking abroad in the world of spirits I saw, in a certain meadow, men clothed in garments like those of men in the world, from which I knew that they were lately come from the world. I approached them and stood at their side, that I might listen to what they were saying among themselves. They were speaking about heaven, and one among them, who had some knowledge of heaven, said:-

“Wonderful things are there, such as can never be believed by any one unless he has seen them. There are paradisal gardens, magnificent palaces, architecturally constructed because by the very art itself, resplendent as if from gold, in front of which are columns of silver upon which there are heavenly forms of precious stones; and also houses of jasper and of sapphire, in front of which are majestic porticos through which the angels enter; and within the houses are decorations which no art nor language can describe. As to the angels themselves, they are of both sexes, young men and husbands, and maidens and wives, maidens so beautiful that there is no likeness of such beauty in the world. Yet the wives are still more beautiful and appear as very effigies of heavenly love. And their husbands appear as effigies of heavenly wisdom, and all these are in the bloom of early manhood. And what is more, it is not known there that there is any love of the sex other than conjugial love; and, what you will wonder at, the husbands have a perpetual faculty of enjoyment.”

The newly arrived spirits smiled at each other when they heard that there is no love of the sex there other than conjugial love, and that they have a perpetual faculty of enjoyment, and said, “You tell things that are past belief. There is no such faculty. You are perhaps relating fables.”

But a certain angel from heaven then unexpectedly stood in their midst, and said, “Hear me, I pray you. I am an angel of heaven, and have lived with my wife now a thousand years, and through all those years have been in the flower of age like as you see me here. This comes to me from conjugial love with my wife; and I can assure you that the faculty with me has been and is perpetual. But as I perceive that you believe this is not possible, I will speak to you of the matter from reason, according to the light of your understanding. You know nothing of the primeval state of mankind which is called by you the state of integrity. In that state all the interiors of the mind were open even to the Lord, and thence they were in the marriage of love and wisdom, or of good and truth. And as the good of love and the truth of wisdom love each other perpetually, they perpetually will to be united, and the interiors of the mind being open, that spiritual conjugial love with its perpetual effort flows freely down and presents that faculty. The soul itself of man, being in the marriage of good and truth, is not only in the perpetual effort to that unition, but is also in the perpetual effort to fructification and to the production of its own likeness. And as the interiors of man are opened by that marriage even from the soul, and the interiors continually look to the effect in the ultimates as an end, that they may come forth into existence, hence that perpetual effort to fructify and produce the likeness of itself, which is of the soul, becomes an effort of the body; and as the ultimate of the soul’s operation in the body, with two married partners, is in the ultimates of love there, and is dependent on the state of the soul, it is plain from whence this perpetual is in them. There is also perpetual fructification, because the universal sphere of generating and propagating the celestial things which are of love and the spiritual things which are of wisdom, and thence the natural things which are of their offspring, proceeds from the Lord and fills the universal heaven and the universal world; and that heavenly sphere fills the souls of all men, and descends through their minds into the body, even to its ultimates, and gives the power of generating. But this cannot be given to others than those with whom the passage is open from the soul, through the higher and lower things of the mind into the body, down to its ultimates, which is the case with those who suffer themselves to be led back by the Lord to the primeval state of creation. I can affirm that with me now, for a thousand years, neither the faculty, nor strength, nor ability has ever failed; and that I have known nothing at all of any diminution of powers, for they are continually renewed by the continually inflowing universal sphere that I have spoken of; and then they gladden and do not sadden the spirit, as with those who suffer the loss of them. Moreover, love truly conjugial is just like the warmth of spring, from the in-flowing of which all things aspire to germination and fructification, and there is no other heat in our heaven, so that with married partners there it is spring in its perpetual effort; and it is this perpetual effort from which the ability comes. But with us in the heavens fructifications are different from those on earth. With us they are spiritual fructifications, which are of love and of wisdom, or of good and of truth; the wife, from the wisdom of her husband, receives in herself the love of it; and the husband, from the love of it in his wife, receives in himself the wisdom. Yea, the wife is actually formed into the love of the wisdom of her husband, which is effected by receptions of the propagations of his soul, with the delight arising from the fact that she wills to be the love of her husband’s wisdom. Thus does she from a virgin become a wife and a likeness. And from this, love with its inmost friendship with the wife, and wisdom with its felicity with the husband, perennially increase and this to eternity. This is the state of the angels of heaven.”

When the angel had thus spoken he looked upon those who were newly come from the world, and said to them: “You know that when you have been in the vigor of love, you loved your married partners, and that after the delight you have turned away; but you do not know that in heaven we do not love our married partners from that vigor, but that we have the vigor from love, and that because we love our married partners perpetually it is perpetual in us. If then you can invert your state you can comprehend this. Who that loves his married partner perpetually does not love her with his whole mind and with his whole body? For love turns all things of the mind and all things of the body towards that which it loves; and the fact that it is so reciprocally, conjoins them so that they become as it were one.”

And he said further: “I shall not speak to you of the conjugial love inherent from creation in the male and in the female, and of their inclination to legitimate conjunction; nor of the faculty of prolification in the male which makes one with the faculty of multiplying wisdom from love of truth; and that in so far as a man loves wisdom from love of it, or loves truth from good, in so far he is in love truly conjugial and in the accompanying vigor of it.”

356. Saying this the angel ceased; and the new-comers comprehended from the spirit of his speech that there can be a perpetual faculty of enjoyment, and as this gladdened their minds, they exclaimed, “O, how happy the state of the angels. We perceive that you in heaven remain to eternity in the state of youth, and hence in the vigor of that age. But tell us how may we also attain that vigor?”

And the angel responded, “Shun adulteries as infernal and come to the Lord, and you will have it.”

And they replied, “We will thus shun them and come to the Lord.”

But the angel answered, “You cannot shun adulteries as infernal evils unless you shun all other evils likewise, for adulteries are the complex of them all; unless you shun them you cannot come to the Lord. Others than such the Lord does not receive.”

After this the angel departed, and the new spirits went away sorrowful.

357. CONCERNING JEALOUSY.

Jealousy is here treated of because it also pertains to conjugial love. But there is a just and an unjust jealousy. Just jealousy is with married partners who mutually love each other; there is with them a just and prudent zeal lest their conjugial love be violated, and therefore just grief if it be violated.

But unjust jealousy is with those who by nature are suspicious, and of sickly mind, from viscous and bilious blood. Moreover, all jealousy is by some considered a fault. Especially is it so by whoremongers, who cast blame upon just jealousy.

The word zelotypia, jealousy, is from zelus typos, and there is a type or form of zeal which is just, and a zeal which is unjust; and the differences shall now, in what follows, be unfolded. It shall be done in this order:-

(1) That, regarded in itself, zeal is as the fire of love burning.

(2) That the burning or flame of that love, which is zeal, is a spiritual burning or flame, arising from an infestation and assault of the love.

(3) That the zeal of a man (homo) is of such kind as his love, thus of one kind with him whose love is good, and of another kind with him whose love is evil.

(4) That the zeal of good love and the zeal of evil love are alike in externals, but in internals they are altogether unlike.

(5) That the zeal of a good love in its internals conceals love and friendship; but that the zeal of an evil love in its internals conceals hatred and vindictiveness.

(6) That the zeal of conjugial love is called jealousy.

(7) That jealousy is as a flaming fire against those who infest the love with a married partner, and that it is as a horrible fear for the loss of that love.

(8) That there is spiritual jealousy with monogamists, and natural with polygamists

(9) That jealousy with married partners who tenderly love each other is a just grief, from sound reason, lest conjugial love be divided and so perish.

(10) That with married partners who do not love each other jealousy is from several causes; with some from a variety of infirmities of mind.

(11) That with some there is no jealousy, also from various causes.

(12) That there is also jealousy for concubines, but not of such kind as for wives.

(13) That there is jealousy also among beasts; and among birds.

(14) That jealousy with men and husbands is of another kind than with women and wives.

Now follows the explanation of these propositions.

358. (1) That, regarded in itself, zeal is as the fire of love burning. The nature of jealousy cannot be known unless there is a cognition of what zeal is, for jealousy is the zeal of conjugial love. Zeal is as the fire of love burning because zeal is of love, and love is spiritual heat, and this in its origin is as fire. As regards the first statement it is known that zeal is of love; nothing else is meant by being zealous, and by acting from zeal, than acting with the force of love. But as when it is manifested it does not appear as love, but as an antagonist and foe, enraged and fighting against him who does injury to love, it may be called also the defender and protector of love. For all love is of such a nature that it breaks forth into indignation and anger, yea, into fury, when cast out from its delights. Therefore if love be touched, especially the ruling love, it becomes an emotion of the mind, and if the touch hurts it becomes a flaming passion. Whence it may be seen that zeal is not the highest degree of love, but is love burning. The love of one and the corresponding love of another are as two confederates; but when the love of the one rises up against the love of the other they become as enemies. The reason is that love is the being (esse) of man’s life, and therefore he who assaults the love assaults the life itself, and then a state of wrath arises against the assailant, as the state of any man whom another attempts to kill. Such passion pertains to every love, even the most peaceful, as is plainly seen from hens, geese, and birds of every kind, in that they, without fear, rise up against, and fly at those who molest their young or take away their food. Some beasts it is well known are angry, and wild beasts are furious if their whelps are threatened, or their prey is taken from them.

Love is said to flame like fire, because love is nothing else than spiritual heat, arising from the fire of the angelic sun, which is pure love. That love is heat, as if from fire, is very manifest from the heat of living bodies, which is from no other source than their love; and from the fact that men grow warm, and are inflamed, according to the exaltations of love. From which it is plain that zeal is as the fire of love burning.

359. (2) That the burning or flame of that love, which is zeal, is a spiritual burning or flame, arising from an infestation and assault of the love. That zeal is a spiritual burning, or flame, is clear from what has been said above. Since love in the spiritual world is heat, arising from the sun there, it therefore also appears from a distance there as flame. Thus heavenly love appears with the angels of heaven, and thus does infernal love appear with the spirits of hell. But it should be known that the flame does not consume like flame in the natural world. Zeal arises from an assault of love, because love is the heat of the life of every one, and therefore when the life’s love is assailed the heat of life sets itself aflame, resists, and breaks forth against the assailant, and of its own force and power acts as an enemy, just as the flame bursts forth from a fire against him who agitates it. That zeal is as a fire appears from the eyes, in that they flash; from the face, that it is inflamed; and from the tone of voice, and the gestures. Love does this because it is the heat of life, lest it be extinguished, and with it all alacrity, vivacity, and perceptibility of enjoyment from its love.

360. How love is kindled and inflamed into zeal by an assault upon it, as fire into a blaze, shall be explained: Love resides in man’s will; but it is not enkindled in the will itself but in the understanding. For in the will it is as fire, and in the understanding as a flame. Love in the will knows nothing about itself,-because it feels nothing of itself there, and does nothing of itself there; but this takes place in the understanding and its thought. When therefore love is attacked it exasperates itself in the understanding. This is done by various reasonings. These reasonings are as sticks of wood which the fire sets aflame, and which thence burn. They are thus as so much kindling, or so much combustible material, from which that spiritual flame arises which is of much variety.