The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love. Emanuel Swedenborg

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СКАЧАТЬ that the love of one man with one wife is conjugial love, into which are collected all the beatitudes, satisfactions, delights, pleasantnesses, and pleasures of heaven; and that this love is from the Lord according to the reception of good and truth from him; thus according to the state of the church? On hearing this, they turned away, and said, "These men are out of their senses; they enter the ether with their judgement, and scatter about vain conjectures like nuts and almonds." After this they turned to us, saying, "We will give a direct answer to your windy conjectures and dreams;" and they said, "What has conjugial love in common with religion and inspiration from God? Is not this love with every one according to the state of his potency? Is it not the same with those who are out of the church as with those who are in it, with Gentiles as with Christians, yea, with the impious as with the pious? Has not every one the strength of this love either hereditarily, or from bodily health, or from temperance of life, or from warmth of climate? By medicines also it may be strengthened and stimulated. Is not the case similar with the brute creation, especially with birds which unite in pairs? Moreover, is not this love carnal? and what has a carnal principle in common with the spiritual state of the church? Does this love, as to its ultimate effect with a wife, differ at all from love as to its effect with a harlot? Is not the lust similar, and the delight similar? Wherefore it is injurious to deduce the origin of conjugial love from the holy things of the church." On hearing this, we said to them, "You reason from the stimulus of lasciviousness, and not from conjugial love; you are altogether ignorant what conjugial love is, because it is cold with you; from what you have said we are convinced that you are of the age which has its name from and consists of iron and clay, which do not cohere, according to the prophecy in Daniel, chap. ii. 43; for you make conjugial love and adulterous love the same thing; and do these two cohere any more than iron and clay? You are believed and called wise, and yet you have not the smallest pretensions to that character." On hearing this, they were inflamed with rage and made a loud cry, and called the crowd together to cast us out; but at that instant, by virtue of power given us by the Lord, we stretched out our hands, and lo! the flying serpents, vipers, and hydras, and also the dragons from the wilderness, presented themselves, and entered and filled the city; at which the inhabitants being terrified fled away. The angel then said to me, "Into this region new comers from the earth daily enter, and the former inhabitants are by turns separated and cast down into the gulphs of the west, which appear at a distance like lakes of fire and brimstone. All in those gulphs are spiritual and natural adulterers."

      

      80. THE SIXTH MEMORABLE RELATION. As the angel said this, I looked to the western boundary, and lo! there appeared as it were lakes of fire and brimstone; and I asked him, why the hells in that quarter had such an appearance? He replied, "They appear as lakes in consequence of the falsifications of truth; because water in the spiritual sense signifies truth; and there is an appearance as it were of fire round about them, and in them, in consequence of the love of evil, and as it were of brimstone in consequence of the love of what is false. Those three things, the lake, the fire, and the brimstone, are appearances, because they are correspondences of the evil loves of the inhabitants. All in that quarter are shut up in eternal work-houses, where they labor for food, for clothing, and for a bed to lie on; and when they do evil, they are grievously and miserably punished." I further asked the angel, why he said that in that quarter are spiritual and natural adulterers, and why he had not rather said, that they were evil doers and impious? He replied, "Because all those who make light of adulteries, that is, who commit them from a confirmed persuasion that they are not sins, and thus are in the purpose of committing them from a belief of their being harmless, are in their hearts evil doers and impious; for the conjugial human principle ever goes hand in hand with religion; and every step and movement made under the influence of religion, and leading to it, is also a step and movement made under the influence of the conjugial principle, and leading to it, which is peculiar and proper to the Christian." On asking what that conjugial principle was, he said, "It is the desire of living with one wife; and every Christian has this desire according to his religion." I was afterwards grieved in spirit to think that marriages, which in the most ancient times had been most holy, were so wretchedly changed into adulteries. The angel said, "The case is the same at this day with religion; for the Lord says 'In the consummation of the age there will be the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel. And there will be great affliction, such as there has not been from the beginning of the world,' Matt. xxiv. 15, 21. The abomination of desolation signifies the falsification and deprivation of all truth; affliction signifies the state of the church infested by evils and falses; and the consummation of the age, concerning which those things are spoken, signifies the last time or end of the church. The end is now, because there does not remain a truth which is not falsified; and the falsification of truth is spiritual whoredom, which acts in unity with natural whoredom, because they cohere."

      

      81. As we were conversing and lamenting together on this occasion, there suddenly appeared a beam of light, which, darting powerfully upon my eyes, caused me to look up: and lo! the whole heaven above us appeared luminous; and from the east to the west in an extended series we heard a GLORIFICATION: and the angel said to me, "That is a glorification of the Lord on account of his coming, and is made by the angels of the eastern and western heavens." From the northern and southern heavens nothing was heard but a soft and pleasing murmur. As the angel understood everything, he told me first, that glorifications and celebrations of the Lord are made from the Word, because then they are made from the Lord; for the Lord is the Word, that is, the essential divine truth therein; and he said, "Now in particular they glorify and celebrate the Lord by these words, which were spoken by Daniel the prophet, 'Thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay; they shall mingle themselves together by the seed of man; but they shall not cohere. Nevertheless in those days the God of the heavens shall cause a kingdom to arise, which shall not perish for ages. It shall bruise and consume those kingdoms; but itself shall stand for ages.' Dan. ii. 43, 44." After this, I heard as it were the voice of singing, and further in the east I saw a glittering of light more resplendent than the former; and I asked the angel what was the subject of their glorification? He said, "These words in Daniel; 'I saw in the visions of the night, and lo! with the clouds of heaven there came as it were the SON OF MAN: and to him was given dominion and a kingdom; and all people and nations shall worship him. His dominion is the dominion of an age, which shall not pass away; and his kingdom that which shall not perish,' Dan. vii. 13, 14. They are further celebrating the Lord from these words in the Revelation: 'To JESUS CHRIST be glory and strength: behold he cometh with clouds. He is alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last; who is, who was, and who is to come, the almighty. I, John, heard this from the SON OF MAN, out of the midst of the seven candlesticks,' Rev. i. 5–7, 10–13; chap. xxii. 13; Matt. xxiv. 30, 31." I looked again into the eastern heaven: it was enlightened on the right side, and the light entered the southern expanse. I heard a sweet sound; and I asked the angel, what was the subject of their glorification in that quarter respecting the Lord? He said, "These words in the Revelation: 'I saw a new heaven and a new earth; and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a BRIDE for her HUSBAND: and the angel spake with me, and said, Come, I will shew thee the BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE: and he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me the holy city, Jerusalem,' Rev. xxi. 1, 2, 9, 10: also these words, 'I JESUS am the bright and morning star; and the spirit and the bride say, COME; AND HE SAID, EVEN I COME QUICKLY; Amen: even COME, LORD JESUS,' Rev. xxii. 16, 17, 20." After these and several other subjects of glorification, there was heard a common glorification from the east to the west of heaven, and also from the south to the north; and I asked the angel, "What now is the subject?" He said, "These words from the prophets; 'Let all flesh know that I, JEHOVAH, AM THY SAVIOUR AND THY REDEEMER,' Isaiah xlix. 26. 'Thus saith JEHOVAH, the King of Israel, and HIS REDEEMER, JEHOVAH ZEBAOTH, I am the first and the last, and BESIDE ME THERE IS NO GOD,' Isaiah xliv. 6. 'It shall be said in that day, LO! THIS IS OUR GOD, whom we have expected to deliver us; THIS is JEHOVAH WHOM WE HAVE EXPECTED.' Isaiah xxv. 9. 'The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare a way for JEHOVAH. Behold the LORD JEHOVAH cometh in strength. He shall feed his flock like a SHEPHERD,' Isaiah xl. 3, 10, 11. 'Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; whose name is Wonderful Counsellor, GOD, Hero, СКАЧАТЬ