Conjugial Love · §§ 521–535

521. To this shall be added the following Relation:-

My eye was opened and I saw a shady wood and a crowd of satyrs there. As to their breasts the satyrs were hairy; and as to the feet some like calves, some like panthers, and some like wolves; and they had the claws of wild beasts on their feet in place of toes. They were running about like wild beasts, and calling out, “Where are the women?” And then strumpets appeared, who were waiting for them. They also were monstrous in divers ways. The satyrs ran up to and seized them and bore them into a cavern, which was deep down beneath the earth in the middle of the wood. And on the earth round about the cavern there lay a great serpent, in spiral coil, which breathed its venom into the cave. And upon the branches of the trees above the serpent, dismal birds of night were croaking and screeching among the branches. But the satyrs and strumpets did not see these things, because they were correspondences of their lewdness and thus were the usual appearances at a distance. They afterwards came out of the cavern and went into a sort of low cabin, which was a brothel; and then apart from the strumpets they had a conversation together, to which I bent my ear, for in the spiritual world conversation can be heard at a distance as if present, because extension of space is only an appearance. They were talking about marriages, about nature, and about religion.

Those who as to the feet appeared like calves, were speaking of Marriages, and said; “What are marriages but licensed adulteries? And what is sweeter than scortatory hypocrisies, and making sport of husbands?” At this the others in loud laughter clapped their hands.

The satyrs who as to the feet appeared like panthers, spoke of Nature and said; “What else is there but nature? What difference is there between man and beast, except that a man has articulate speech and a beast only that of sound? Have they not both life from heat and understanding from light, by the operation of nature?” At this the rest exclaimed, “Ha! you speak from judgment.”

Those who as to the feet appeared like wolves, spoke of Religion, and said, “What is God, or the Divine, but the inmost of nature operating? What is religion but an invention to captivate and bind the common people?” To this the others cried out, “Bravo!”

Some moments afterwards they rushed out, and in the rush descried me at a distance, with eyes intent, observing them. Exasperated at this they ran out of the wood and with menacing looks hastened their course towards me, and said:

“Why do you stand here and listen to our whisperings?”

I answered, “Why not? What hinders? It was talk.” And I repeated what I had heard from them. Their minds were quieted by this, that is, quieted from fear that their sayings should be divulged. And then they began to speak modestly and to act becomingly, from which I recognized that they were not of the common crowd, but of more honorable birth. I then told them that I had seen them in the wood as satyrs, twenty as calf satyrs, six as panther satyrs, and four as wolf satyrs, for they were thirty in number.

They were astonished at this, for to themselves they had appeared no otherwise than as men, just as they saw themselves here with me.

And I informed them that they appeared so from a distance because of their scortatory lust, and this satyrlike form is the form of dissolute adultery, and not of the person. “The cause,” I said, “is that every evil concupiscence presents its own likeness in a certain form, which is not visible to themselves but to those standing at a distance.” And I said, “That you may believe, send out some of you into the wood, while you remain here and look at them.”

And they did so, and sent two, and saw them near the brothel-cabin exactly like satyrs. And when they returned they saluted them as satyrs and said, “O what laughing stocks!”

As they were laughing I said various things to them in jest, and told them I had seen adulterers as swine; and then recalled the fable of Ulysses and Circe, how that she sprinkled the companions and servants of Ulysses with enchanter’s herbs and touched them with her magic wand and turned them into swine, perhaps into adulterers, “for by no art could she turn any man into a hog.”

When they were through with their loud laughter at this and other like things, I asked them if they knew from what kingdoms of the world they came. They said they were from different kingdoms, and mentioned Italy, Poland, Germany, England, and Sweden. And I asked whether they had seen any one from Holland among them? And they said “Not one.”

After this I turned the conversation to serious things, and asked whether they had ever thought that adultery was a sin?

They answered, “What is sin? We do not know what it is.” I asked whether they ever remembered that adultery was against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue?

They replied, “What is the Decalogue? Is it the Catechism? What have we men to do with that childish little book?”

I asked them whether they ever thought anything about hell?

They answered, “Who has ever come up from there and told about it?”

I asked whether in the world they had ever thought about a life after death?

They said, “As about that of beasts. And sometimes as that of ghosts, which if they exhale from dead bodies are dissipated.”

I asked again whether they had heard about one or the other of these things from the priests?

They answered, “That they gave attention only to the sound of their voices, and not to the subject. And what is this?”

Astounded at these answers, I said to them, “Turn your faces and your eyes toward the middle of the wood, where the cavern is in which you were.”

And they turned and saw that great serpent in spiral coil around it, breathing its venom into it, and also the dismal birds in the branches above it.

And I asked, “What do you see?”

But they were terrified, and made no answer. And I said, “Did you not see the horrible thing? Know, that this is a representative of adultery in the atrociousness of its lust.”

Then suddenly a certain angel stood by. He was a priest; and he opened the hell in the western region where such are finally gathered together, and said, “Look there!” And they saw a lake as it were of fire, and recognized some friends there whom they had known in the world who invited them to come to them.

On seeing and hearing these things they turned away, rushed from my sight and left the wood; but I observed their steps, that they seemed to withdraw, but by a roundabout way returned into the wood.

522. After this I went home. And the next day, from a recollection of these sad scenes I looked towards the same wood, and saw that it had disappeared, and in its place was a sandy plain, and in the midst of this a pool, in which were some red serpents. But some weeks afterwards I looked again at the place, and saw on the right side of it a fallow field and several husbandmen upon it. And again, after some weeks, I saw that the fallow land had become a cultivated field, surrounded by small trees. And then I heard a voice from heaven, “Enter into your chamber and shut the door, and go on with the work begun upon the Apocalypse, and pursue it to the end within two years.”

523. ON THE IMPUTATION OF EACH LOVE, SCORTATORY AND CONJUGIAL.

The Lord says: “Judge not, that ye be not condemned.” (Matt. vii. 1; by which can by no means be meant the judgment of the moral and civil life of any one in the world, but the judgment as to his spiritual and celestial life. Who does not see, that if one may not judge as to the moral life of those that dwell with him in the world, society would perish? What would society be if there were no public judgments? Or if every one might not form his judgment of another? But to judge what his interior mind or soul is, thus what is his spiritual state and therefore his lot after death, of this one may not judge for it is known to the Lord only; and the Lord does not reveal it until after death, in order that every one may do what he does in freedom, and that by this fact the good or the evil shall be from him, and thus in him; and thence that he may live to himself and be his own to eternity. That the interiors of the mind, hidden in the world, are revealed after death, is because it is of interest and of advantage to the societies into which man then comes; for there all are spiritual. That they are then revealed is plain from these words of the Lord:-

There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hidden that shall not be made known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets, shall be proclaimed from the housetops (Luke xii. 2, 3).

A general judgment like this is allowable: “If in internals you are such as you appear in externals you will be saved, or will be condemned.” But a particular judgment such as “You are such in internals and therefore will be saved, or will be condemned,” is not allowable.

Judgment of man’s spiritual life, or of the internal life of his soul, is meant by the imputation here treated of. Who among men knows which one is a whoremonger at heart? Or which a consort at heart? And yet the thoughts of the heart, which are the purposes of the will, judge every man. But these subjects shall be laid open in the following order:-

(1) That to every one after death is imputed the evil in which he is; likewise the good.

(2) That a transcription of the good of one into another is impossible.

(3) That imputation, if such a transcription is meant by it, is an idle word.

(4) That the evil of every one is imputed according to the quality of his will and according to the quality of his understanding; likewise the good.

(5) It is in this wise that scortatory love is imputed to any one.

(6) That conjugial love is imputed in like manner. The explanation of these follows.

524. (1) That to every one after death is imputed the evil in which he is; likewise the good. That this may appear in some clearness it shall be illustrated under distinct heads, thus: (1) That every one has his peculiar life. (2) That his own life remains with every one after death. (3) That to an evil man is then imputed the evil of his life, and to the good man is imputed the good of his life.

(1) That every one has his peculiar life, thus a life distinct from that of another, is known; for there is a perpetual variety and no one thing is the same as another. Each one therefore has what is his own. This is very manifest from the faces of men, in that there is no one face just like another, and cannot be to eternity. The reason is that there are no minds alike, and the faces are from the mind; for the face, as has been said, is the type of the mind, and the mind derives its origin and form from the life. If a man had not his own life, just as he has his own mind and his own face, he would have no life after death distinct from that of another. Yea, neither would there be any heaven, for heaven consists of perpetually distinct individuals. Its form is solely from the varieties of souls and minds disposed in such order as to make one, and they make one from the One whose life is in all and in the single ones therein, as the soul is in man. If it were not so heaven would be dispersed because its form would be dissolved. The One, from whom all and each single individual have life, and from whom the form coheres, is the Lord. Every form in general is from various things, and is such as is their harmonious co-ordination and disposition into one. Such is the human form. Hence it is that man, consisting of so many members, viscera and organs, has no feeling within himself or from himself but that he is one.

(2) That his own life awaits every one after death is known in the church from the Word, as from these things there:-

The Son of man shall come, and then He shall reward every man according to his works (Matt. xvi. 27).

I saw the books opened, and they were judged every man according to his works (Rev. xx. 12, 13).

In the day of judgment God shall render to every man according to his deeds (Rom. ii. 5, 6; 2 Cor. v. 10).

The deeds, according to which it will be rendered to every one, are the life, because the life does them and they are according to the life.

As it has been given to me for many years to be with the angels, and to talk with those that were coming from the world, I can testify for a certainty that every one is explored there as to what his life has been; and that the life which he has contracted in the world remains with him to eternity. I have conversed with those who lived ages ago whose life was known to me from history, and have recognized that it was like the description. I have also heard from the angels that the life of no one can be changed after death, because it is organized, in accordance with his love and thence his works, and if they were changed the organization would be torn to pieces, which can never be done. And that a change in organization only takes place while in the material body, and is entirely impossible in the spiritual body, after the former is cast off.

(3) That then is imputed to an evil man the evil of his life; and to the good man is imputed the good of his life. The imputation of evil is not accusation, crimination, inculpation, and judgment, as in the world, but the evil itself works this; for the evil, of their own free will, separate themselves from the good, because they cannot be together. The delights of the love of evil have an aversion to the delights of the love of good, and from every one his delights exhale, as do the odors from every plant on earth; for they are not absorbed and concealed by a material body as before, but flow freely forth from their loves into the spiritual aura. And as evil is there sensibly perceived as in its odor, it is this that accuses, criminates, inculpates, and judges, not before any judge, but before every one who is in good. And this is what is meant by imputation. Moreover an evil man chooses his companions, with whom he may live in his delight; and as he has an aversion to the delight of good, he of his own accord, betakes himself to his own in hell

The imputation of good is effected in like manner. This takes place with those who in the world acknowledged that all the good in them is from the Lord and none from themselves. These are let into the interior delights of good, after they are prepared, and then the way is opened for them into heaven, to the society where its delights are homogeneous. This is done by the Lord.

525. (2) That transcription of the good of one into another is impossible. The evidence of this also can be seen from these considerations in order: (1) That every man is born in evil (2) That he is led into good by the Lord, through regeneration. (3) That this is done by a life according to His commandments. (4) Therefore the good which is thus implanted cannot be transcribed.

(1) That every man is born in evil is known in the church. It is said that this evil is by inheritance from Adam; but it is from the parents. Every one derives his disposition, which is inclination, from them. Reason and experience prove that this is so, for the likeness to the parents, in face, in genius, and in manners, is manifest, in the immediate children, and in the posterities from them. Hence families are known by many, and judgment as to their minds is formed. The evils therefore in which men are born are those that the parents themselves have contracted, and have passed on by derivation to their offspring. The reason why it is believed that the guilt of Adam is inscribed upon the whole human race, is that few reflect upon any evil in themselves, and thence know it.

They therefore suppose it to be so deeply hidden as not to appear except before God.

(2) That man is led into good by the Lord, through regeneration. That there is regeneration, and that no one can enter heaven unless he is regenerated, is very plain from the Lord’s words in John iii. 3, 5. That regeneration is purification from evils, and thus renovation of the life, cannot be unknown in the Christian world; for reason also sees this, when it acknowledges that every one is born in evil, and that evil cannot be washed and purged away like filth with soap and water, but by repentance.

(3) That man is led into good by the Lord, through a life according to His commandments. The commandments of regeneration are five, which may be seen above, n. 82. Among them are these: That evils are to be shunned because they are of the devil, and from the devil; and, That goods are to be done because they are of God, and from God; and, That the Lord is to be approached in order that He may lead men to the doing of these commandments. Let every one consult himself, and consider whether a man has good from any other source, and if not good he has not salvation.

(4) That good when thus implanted cannot be transcribed. By transcription is meant the transcription of the good of one into another. It follows from what has been said above, that by regeneration a man as to his spirit is made altogether new, and that this is effected by a life according to the Lord’s commandments. Who does not see that this renovation cannot be accomplished except from time to time, scarcely otherwise than as a tree successively takes root and grows from the seed, and is perfected. Those who conceive otherwise of regeneration know nothing of man’s state; nor anything about evil and good, that these two are altogether opposite, and that good cannot be implanted except as evil is removed. Nor do they know that so long as any one is in evil he is averse to good which in itself is good. If therefore the good of one could be transferred into any one who is in evil, it would be as if a lamb were cast to a wolf, or as a pearl tied to the snout of a hog. From which it is manifest that inscription is impossible.

526. (3) That imputation, if such a transcription is meant by it, is an idle word. It has been shown above in n. 524, that after death to every one is imputed the evil in which he is; likewise the good. What is meant by imputation is thence evident. But if transcription of good into any one who is in evil be meant by imputation, it is an idle word, because the thing is impossible, as also was shown just above at n. 525.

By men in the world merits can in a manner be transcribed. That is, good can be done to children on account of their parents, or to the friends of an adherent out of favor; but the good of merit cannot be inscribed upon their souls, it can only be adjoined from without. The like cannot be done with men as their spiritual life. This, as has been shown above, must be implanted; and if it be not implanted by the life according to the Lord’s commandments, mentioned above, the man remains in the evil in which he was born. Until this is done no good. can reach him, or if it touches him it is instantly repelled and recoils, like an elastic ball falling upon a rock, or is swallowed up as a diamond cast into a bog. Man not reformed is as to his spirit like a panther, or like an owl, and may be compared to a briar and a nettle. But man regenerated is as a sheep, or as a dove, and may be compared to an olive tree and a vine.

Think, I pray you if you please, How can a man-panther be converted into a man-sheep? Or an owl into a dove? Or a briar into an olive tree? Or a nettle into a vine, by any imputation; if by that be meant a transcription? That the conversion may be effected, must not the wild nature of the panther and the owl, and the noxiousness of the briar and the nettle be first removed, so that the truly human and innocuous can be implanted? And how this is done the Lord teaches in John xv. 1-7.

527. (4) That the evil of every one is imputed according to the quality of his will, and according to the quality of his understanding. It is known that there are two things which make man’s life, will and understanding; that all things done by a man are done by his will and by his understanding; and that without these acting, man would have no action nor speech other than as a machine. From which it is plain that such as is the quality of his will and understanding such is the man; and that the action of man in itself is such as the affection of his will is which produces it; and that a man’s speech in itself is such as is the thought of his understanding which produces it. Therefore a number of men may act and speak alike, and yet act and speak unlike, one of them from a depraved will and thought, another from an upright will and thought. From this it is evident what is meant by the deeds or works, according to which every one will be judged, namely, the will and the understanding; consequently that by evil deeds are meant the deeds of an evil will, of what quality soever they may outwardly appear; and that by good deeds are meant the deeds of a good will, although outwardly they appear similar to the works of an evil man.

All things that are done from a man’s interior will are done for a purpose, for that will does the thing which it purposes to itself in its intention. And all things that are done from the understanding are done from confirmation, since the understanding confirms. It is evident from this that the evil or the good imputed to any one is according to the quality of his will in the things done, and according to the quality of his understanding concerning them. This may be confirmed by the following.

I have met with many in the spiritual world who in the natural world had lived like others, clothing themselves splendidly, faring sumptuously, trafficking for gain like others, attending dramatic performances, jesting about love affairs as if from lust, and other like things, and yet with some the angels accounted these as evils of sin, and with others accounted them not as evils; and these they declared innocent, but those guilty. To the question why it was so, when yet they had done like things, they answered that they regard all from their purpose, intention, or end, and according to this distinguish them, and that therefore those whom the end excuses or condemns they excuse or condemn, for all in heaven have an end of good, and all in hell have an end of evil.

528. To this is added the following. It is said in the church that no one can fulfil the law, and the less so for the reason that if a man offends against one commandment of the Decalogue, he offends against all. But this form of speech is not as it sounds. For it must be thus understood, that he who of purpose or from confirmation acts against one commandment acts against the rest, because to act thus from purpose or from confirmation is to deny altogether that it is a sin, and he who denies it to be a sin makes nothing of acting against the other commandments. Who does not know that one who is an adulterer is not therefore a murderer, a thief, and a false witness, and does not wish to be? But a man who from purpose and from confirmation is an adulterer makes nothing of anything pertaining to religion, and so makes nothing of murder, of theft, and of false witness, and abstains from them, not because they are sins, but because he has fear of the law and of his reputation. That adulterers from purpose and from confirmation regard the sacred things of the church and of religion of no account may be seen above, n. 490-493, and in the two Relations, n. 500, 521, 522. It is similar if one from purpose or from confirmation acts against any other commandment of the Decalogue, he acts also against the rest, because he does not regard anything as a sin.

529. It is quite similar with those who are in good from the Lord. If they from will and understanding, or from purpose and confirmation, abstain from one evil because it is a sin, they abstain from all, and more yet if they abstain from several; for as soon as one from purpose, or from confirmation, abstains from any evil because it is a sin, he is kept by the Lord in the purpose of abstaining from the rest. If then he does devil from ignorance, or from some prevailing concupiscence of the body, it is yet not imputed to him, because he did not propose it to himself, and does not confirm it with himself. A man comes into this purpose if once or twice in a year he examines himself, and repents of the evil that he discovers with himself. It is otherwise with him who never examines himself. From these considerations it is manifest who it is to whom evil is imputed and to whom it is not imputed.

530. It is in this wise that scortatory love is imputed to any one. That is to say, not according to the deeds as they appear outwardly to men, yea, nor as they appear before a judge, but as they appear inwardly before the Lord, and from Him before the angels, which is according to the quality of the man’s will, and the quality of his understanding in them. There are various circumstances in the world which mitigate and excuse crimes, and which aggravate and incriminate. But still after death imputations are not made according to circumstances that are the externals of the deed, but according to internal circumstances of the mind, and these are regarded according to the church in every one.

For example, a man impious of will and understanding, one who has no fear of God nor love of the neighbor, and there. fore no reverence for any holiness of the church: After death he is accounted guilty of all the crimes that he committed in the body, and his good deeds do not come into remembrance; because his heart, from which they issued as from a fountain, was turned away from heaven and turned towards hell, and the deeds of every one flow from the place of his heart’s abode. That this may be understood I will mention a secret.

Heaven is distinguished into innumerable societies. Likewise, by opposition, hell. And the mind of every man, according to his will and thence his understanding, is actually dwelling in some one society, and intends and thinks in like manner with those who are there. If his mind is in some society of heaven, then he intends and thinks in like manner with those who are there; if it is in some society of hell, in like manner with those who are there. But as long as he lives in the world he migrates from one society to another, according to the changes of the affections of his will and thence of the thoughts of his mind. But after death his wanderings are brought together, and from the wanderings collected in one, the place for him is designated, if evil, in hell; if good, in heaven. Now as all in hell have a will of evil, from that all there are regarded; and as all in heaven have a will of good, from that all there are regarded. And therefore imputations after death are made according to the quality of the will and the understanding of every one. Thus it is with scortations, whether they are fornications or pellicacies or concubinages or adulteries; because they are imputed to every one not according to the deeds, but according to the state of mind in the deeds; for deeds follow the body in the tomb, but the mind rises again.

531. (6) That in like manner conjugial love is imputed to every one. There are marriages in which conjugial love does not appear and yet is there; and there are marriages in which conjugial love appears and yet is not there. The reasons for each are many, knowable in part from what has been written respecting love truly conjugial, n. 57-73; respecting the causes of colds and separations, n. 234-260; and respecting the causes of apparent love and friendship in marriages, n. 271-292. But the appearances in externals determine nothing as to imputation. The one thing that determines is the conjugial, which is seated in the will of every one, and is guarded, in whatsoever state of marriage the man is; for that conjugial is as the balance wherein that love is weighed. For the conjugial of one man with one wife is the precious treasure of human life and the repository of the Christian religion, as was shown above in n. 457, 458. And because this is so the love can be with one married partner and not with the other; and the love can lie so deeply concealed that the man himself takes no notice of it; and it may be inscribed too in the course of the life. The reason is, that this love in its steps goes hand in hand with religion, and religion, because it is the marriage of the Lord and the church, is the initiament and ingrafting of this love; therefore conjugial love is imputed to every one after death according to his spiritual rational life. And for him to whom this love is imputed after death, marriage is provided in heaven, of whatsoever kind his marriage may have been on earth.

From all these considerations comes now this final conclusion: That not from the appearances of marriages, nor from the appearances of scortations, is it to be determined respecting any one, whether he is in conjugial love or not. Wherefore, “Judge not, that ye be not condemned” (Matt. vii. 1).

532. Hereto I will add this Relation:-

I was once, as to my spirit, taken up into the angelic heaven, and into one of its societies, and then some of the wise there came to me and said, “What is there new from earth?”

I said to them, “This is new: That the Lord has revealed secrets that surpass in excellence the secrets revealed hitherto from the beginning of the church.”

They asked, “What are they?”

I replied, “They are these: (1) That in the Word, in all and in the single things of it, there is a Spiritual Sense corresponding to the natural sense; and that through that sense there is conjunction of the men of the church with the Lord, and consociation with the angels; and that therein resides the holiness of the Word. (2) That the Correspondences of which the spiritual sense of the Word consists have been disclosed.”

The angels asked, “Have not the inhabitants of the globe known about correspondences before?”

I replied, “Nothing at all. And they have lain hidden now for some thousands of years, ever since the time of Job; yet with those who lived at that time, and before, the knowledge of correspondences was the knowledge of knowledges, from which they had wisdom, because cognition concerning things spiritual, which are those of heaven and thence of the church. But because that knowledge was converted to idolatrous purposes, it was, of the Lord’s Divine Providence, so blotted out of remembrance and lost that no one saw any sign of it. But now, at last, it has been laid open by the Lord, in order that there may be brought to pass conjunction of the men of the church with Him, and consociation with the angels, and this is effected through the Word, wherein all and the single things are correspondences.”

The angels were greatly rejoiced that it had pleased the Lord to reveal this great secret, which for several thousands of years had lain so deeply concealed, and said, “It is to the end that the Christian church, which is founded upon the Word, and is now at its end, may revive again and draw breath through heaven from the Lord.” And they asked whether through this knowledge it has at this day been made known what is signified by baptism and the holy supper, about which hitherto men have thought so variously?

I answered that it has been made known.

(3) I said further that a revelation has at this day been made by the Lord respecting the life of men after death.

The angels said, “What about life after death? Who does not know that man lives after death?”

I replied, “They know and they do not know. They say it is not the man but his soul that lives, and that this lives as a spirit and of the spirit they cherish the idea that it is as wind or ether, and that the man does not live until after the day of the last judgment; and that then the bodies that men had left behind in the world, though eaten by worms, mice, and fishes, will be gathered up and brought together again into a body, and that thus men will rise again.”

The angels said, “What is this? Who does not know that man lives as a man after death, with the difference only that then he lives as a spiritual man, and that the spiritual man sees the spiritual man as the material man sees the material. And that they know not a single difference except that they are in a more perfect state?”

(4) The angels asked, “What do they know about our world? And about heaven and hell?”

I said, “They know nothing. But at this day the Lord has disclosed the nature of the spiritual world in which angels and spirits live, and thus what the nature of heaven is, and of what quality hell is, as also that angels and spirits are in conjunction with men, and many wonderful things about them.”

The angels were glad that the Lord had been pleased to make such things known, so that men may no longer grope in uncertainty from ignorance respecting his immortality.

(5) I told them further: “At this day the Lord has revealed that in your world there is an other sun from that in ours, and that the sun of your world is pure love, and the sun of our world is pure fire. And that therefore all that proceeds from your sun, because it is pure love, partakes of life; and that all that proceeds from our sun, because it is pure fire, partakes nothing of life, and that thence is the difference between the spiritual and the natural; which difference, hitherto unknown, has also been disclosed. From which it has become known whence the light is that enlightens the human understanding with wisdom, and whence is the heat which enkindles the human will with love. (6) It has besides been made known that there are three degrees of life; and that thence there are three heavens; and that the human mind is distinguished into three degrees, and thence man corresponds to the three heavens.”

The angels said, “Did they not know this before?”

I answered that, “They knew of degrees between greater and less, but nothing of the degrees between prior and posterior.”

(7) The angels asked whether any more things than these have been revealed?

I said, “Many more. Namely: Respecting the Last Judgment: Respecting the Lord, that He is the God of heaven and earth: That God is one, both in Person and in Essence, in whom is a Divine Trinity, and that He is the Lord: And respecting the New Church to be established by Him; and concerning the Doctrine of that church: Respecting the Holiness of the Sacred Scripture: Also that the Apocalypse has been revealed, which could not have been revealed, even as to one little verse, except by the Lord: Moreover, respecting the Inhabitants of the planets, and of the Earths in the Universe: besides many notable and wonderful things out of the spiritual world, whereby many things that pertain to wisdom have been revealed from heaven.”

533. The angels were greatly rejoiced on hearing these things, but they perceived a sadness in me, and inquired, “Whence is your sadness?”

I said, “Because the secrets at this day revealed by the Lord, although in excellence and worth they surpass the knowledges hitherto made known, are yet on earth esteemed as of no value.”

The angels were astounded at this, and besought the Lord that they might be permitted to look down into the world. And they looked down, and lo! mere darkness there! And they were told to write these secrets upon paper, and to let the paper down upon the earth, and they would see a marvel. And it was done. And behold, the paper on which the secrets were written was let down from heaven, and in its descent while still in the spiritual world it shone like a star; but as it passed down into the natural world the light disappeared, and by degrees as it descended it was veiled in darkness. And when it was let down by the angels into companies where there were doctors and learned men-from some of the clergy and of the laity-a murmur was heard from many, in which were these words:

“What is this? Is it anything? What matters it whether we know these things or do not know them? Are they not offspring of the brain?”

And there was an appearance as if some took the paper and folded and rolled and unrolled it with their fingers, in order to obliterate the writing. And it appeared as if some tore it in pieces, and as if some wished to trample it under their feet. But they were withheld by the Lord from such an outrage, and the angels were commanded to withdraw it and guard it. And as the angels were made sad, and were thinking, “How long will this be?” it was declared:-

For a time, and times, and half a time (Rev. xii. 14).

534. After this I spoke with the angels, and said that yet another thing is revealed in the world by the Lord.

They asked, “What is it?”

I said, “Respecting love truly conjugial, and its heavenly delights.”

The angels said, “Who does not know that the delights of conjugial love excel the delights of all other loves? And who cannot see that into some love are brought together all the states of blessedness, satisfaction, and delight that can ever be conferred by the Lord? And that the receptacle of these is love truly conjugial, which can receive and perceive them even to full sensation.”

I answered, “That men do not know this, because they have not come to the Lord, and lived according to His commandments, by shunning evils as sins, and doing good, and love truly conjugial with its delights is from the Lord only, and is given to those that live according to His commandments. That thus it is given to those who are received into the New Church of the Lord, which is meant by “the New Jerusalem” in the Apocalypse. To this I added that I am in doubt whether at this day in the world they are willing to believe that this is in itself a spiritual love, and is therefore from religion, for the reason that they cherish only a corporeal idea of it.”

They then said to me, “Write about it, and follow the revelation. And afterwards the book written about it shall be let down by us out of heaven, and we shall see whether the things therein are received, and at the same time whether they are willing to acknowledge that this love is according to religion with man, spiritual with the spiritual, natural with the natural, and merely carnal with adulterers.”

535. After this I heard a hostile murmur from those below, and at the same time these words, “Work miracles and we will believe.”

I asked, “Are not these miracles?”

And they answered, “No!”

I asked, “What miracles then?”

And it was said: “Discover and reveal things to come, and we shall have faith.”

“But,” I replied, “such things are not given from heaven, because in so far as man knows the future his reason and understanding, with his prudence and wisdom, fall into inaction, and become torpid and decay.” And I asked again, “What other miracles shall I do?”

“And then the cry was made, “Perform miracles like those which Moses did in Egypt.”

To this I answered, “Perhaps you would harden your hearts at them, as Pharaoh and the Egyptians did.”

It was answered that they would not.

And again I said, “Assure me that you will not dance around a golden calf and adore it, as the posterity of Jacob did within the space of a month after they had seen the whole of Mount Sinai on fire, and heard Jehovah Himself speaking out of the fire, thus after a miracle which was the greatest of all.” (“A golden calf” in the spiritual sense is the pleasure of the flesh.)

And it was answered from below, “We shall not be like the posterity of Jacob.”

But I then heard it said to them from heaven, “If you believe not Moses and the Prophets, that is, the Word of the Lord, you would no more believe from miracles, than did the sons of Jacob in the wilderness, no more indeed than they believed when they saw with their own eyes the miracles which the Lord Himself wrought when He was in the world.”