The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love
by
Emanuel Swedenborg
Part 9 out of 12
distinction, ante-nuptial stipulation with a woman is signified by
keeping a mistress, and post-nuptial by concubinage. Concubinage is here
treated of for the sake of order; for from order it is discovered what
is the quality of marriage on the one part, and of adultery on the
other. That marriage and adultery are opposites has already been shewn
in the chapter concerning their opposition; and the quantity and quality
of their opposition cannot be learnt but from their intermediates, of
which concubinage is one; but as there are two kinds of concubinage,
which are to be carefully distinguished, therefore this section, like
the foregoing, shall be arranged into its distinct parts as follows; I.
_There are two kinds of concubinage, which differ exceedingly from each
other, the one conjointly with a wife, the other apart from a wife._ II.
_Concubinage conjointly with a wife, is altogether unlawful for
Christians, and detestable._ III. _That it is polygamy which has been
condemned, and is to be condemned, by the Christian world._ IV. _It is
an adultery whereby the conjugial principle, which is the most precious
jewel of the Christian life, is destroyed._ V. _Concubinage apart from a
wife, when it is engaged in from causes legitimate, just, and truly
excusatory, is not unlawful._ VI. _The legitimate causes of this
concubinage are the legitimate causes of divorce, while the wife is
nevertheless retained at home._ VII. _The just causes of this
concubinage are the just causes of reparation from the bed._ VIII. _Of
the excusatory causes of this concubinage some are real and some not._
IX. _The really excusatory causes are such as are grounded in what is
just._ X. _The excusatory causes which are not real are such as are not
grounded in what is just, although in the appearance of what is just._
XI. _Those who from causes legitimate, just, and really excusatory, are
engaged in this concubinage, may at the same time be principled in
conjugial love._ XII. _While this concubinage continues, actual
connection with a wife is not allowable._ We proceed to an explanation
of each article.
463. I. THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF CONCUBINAGE, WHICH DIFFER EXCEEDINGLY
FROM EACH OTHER, THE ONE CONJOINTLY WITH A WIFE, THE OTHER APART FROM A
WIFE. That there are two kinds of concubinage, which differ exceedingly
from each other, and that the one kind consists in taking a substituted
partner to the bed and living conjointly and at the same time with her
and with a wife; and that the other kind is when, after a legitimate and
just separation from a wife, a man engages a woman in her stead as a
bed-fellow; also that these two kinds of concubinage differ as much from
each other as dirty linen from clean, may be seen by those who take a
clear and distinct view of things, but not by those whose view of things
is confused and indistinct: yea, it may be seen by those who are in
conjugial love, but not by those who are in the love of adultery. The
latter are in obscurity respecting all the derivations of the love of
the sex, whereas the former are enlightened respecting them:
nevertheless, those who are in adultery, can see those derivations and
their distinctions, not indeed in and from themselves, but from others
when they hear them: for an adulterer has a similar faculty with a
chaste husband of elevating his understanding; but an adulterer, after
he has acknowledged the distinctions which he has heard from others,
nevertheless forgets them, when he immerses his understanding in his
filthy pleasure; for the chaste and the unchaste principles, and the
sane and the insane, cannot dwell together; but, when separated, they
may be distinguished by the understanding. I once inquired of those in
the spiritual world who did not regard adulteries as sins, whether they
knew a single distinction between fornication, keeping a mistress, the
two kinds of concubinage, and the several degrees of adultery? They said
they were all alike. I then asked them whether marriage was
distinguishable? Upon this they looked around to see whether any of the
clergy were present, and as there were not, they said, that in itself it
is like the rest. The case was otherwise with those who in the ideas of
their thought regarded adulteries as sins: these said, that in their
interior ideas, which are of the perception, they saw distinctions, but
had not yet studied to discern and know them asunder. This I can assert
as a fact, that those distinctions are perceived by the angels in heaven
as to their minutiae. In order therefore that it may be seen, that there
are two kinds of concubinage opposite to each other, one whereby
conjugial love is destroyed, the other whereby it is not, we will first
describe the kind which is condemnatory, and afterwards that which is
not.
464. II. CONCUBINAGE CONJOINTLY WITH A WIFE IS ALTOGETHER UNLAWFUL FOR
CHRISTIANS, AND DETESTABLE. It is unlawful, because it is contrary to
the conjugial covenant; and it is detestable, because it is contrary to
religion; and what is contrary to religion, and at the same time to the
conjugial covenant, is contrary to the Lord: wherefore, as soon as any
one, without a really conscientious cause, adjoins a concubine to a
wife, heaven is closed to him; and by the angels he is no longer
numbered among Christians. From that time also he despises the things of
the church and of religion, and afterwards does not lift his face above
nature, but turns himself to her as a deity, who favors his lust, from
whose influx his spirit thenceforward receives animation. The interior
cause of this apostasy will be explained in what follows. That this
concubinage is detestable is not seen by the man himself who is guilty
of it; because after the closing of heaven he becomes a spiritual
insanity: but a chaste wife has a clear view of it, because she is a
conjugial love, and this love nauseates such concubinage; wherefore also
many such wives refuse actual connection with their husbands afterwards,
as that which would defile their chastity by the contagion of lust
adhering to the men from their courtezans.
465. III. IT IS POLYGAMY WHICH HAS BEEN CONDEMNED, AND IS TO BE
CONDEMNED, BY THE CHRISTIAN WORLD. That simultaneous concubinage, or
concubinage conjoined with a wife, is polygamy, although not
acknowledged to be such, because it is not so declared, and thus not so
called by any law, must be evident to every person of common
discernment; for a woman taken into keeping, and made partaker of the
conjugial bed is like a wife. That polygamy has been condemned, and is
to be condemned by the Christian world, has been shewn in the chapter on
polygamy, especially from these articles therein: A Christian is not
allowed to marry more than one wife; n. 338: If a Christian marries
several wives, he commits not only natural, but also spiritual adultery;
n. 339: The Israelitish nation was permitted to marry several wives,
because the Christian church was not with them; n. 349. From these
considerations it is evident, that to adjoin a concubine to a wife, and
to make each a partner of the bed, is filthy polygamy.
466. IV. IT IS AN ADULTERY WHEREBY THE CONJUGIAL PRINCIPLE, WHICH IS THE
MOST PRECIOUS JEWEL OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS DESTROYED. That it is more
opposed to conjugial love than simple adultery; and that it is a
deprivation of every faculty and inclination to conjugial life, which is
implanted in Christians from birth, may be evinced by arguments which
will have great weight with the reason of a wise man. In regard to the
FIRST POSITION,--that simultaneous concubinage, or concubinage conjoined
with a wife, is more opposed to conjugial love than simple adultery, it
may be seen from these considerations: that in simple adultery there is
not a love analogous to conjugial love; for it is only a heat of the
flesh, which presently cools, and sometimes does not leave any trace of
love behind it towards its object; wherefore this effervescing
lasciviousness, if it is not from a purposed or confirmed principle, and
if the person guilty of it repents, detracts but little from conjugial
love. It is otherwise in the case of polygamical adultery: herein there
is a love analogous to conjugial love; for it does not cool and
disperse, or pass off into nothing after being excited, like the
foregoing; but it remains, renews and strengthens itself, and so far
takes away from love to the wife, and in the place thereof induces cold
towards her; for in such case it regards the concubine courtezan as
lovely from a freedom of the will, in that it can retract if it pleases;
which freedom is begotten in the natural man: and because this freedom
is thence grateful, it supports that love; and moreover, with a
concubine the unition with allurements is nearer than with a wife; but
on the other hand it does not regard a wife as lovely, by reason of the
duty of living with her enjoined by the covenant of life, which it then
perceives as far more constrained in consequence of the freedom enjoyed
with another woman. It is plain that love for a wife grows cold, and she
herself grows vile, in the same degree that love for a courtezan grows
warm, and she is held in estimation. In regard to the SECOND
POSITION--that simultaneous concubinage, or concubinage conjoined with a
wife, deprives a man of all faculty and inclination to conjugial life,
which is implanted in Christians from birth, it may be seen from the
following considerations: that so far as love to a wife is changed into
love to a concubine, so far the former love is rent, exhausted, and
emptied, as has been shewn just above: that this is effected by a
closing of the interiors of the natural mind, and an opening of its
inferior principles, may appear from the seat of the inclination with
Christians to love one of the sex, as being in the inmost principles,
and that this seat may be closed, but cannot be destroyed. The reason
why an inclination to love one of the sex, and also a faculty to receive
that love, is implanted in Christians from birth, is, because that love
is from the Lord alone, and is esteemed religious, and in Christendom
the Lord's divine is acknowledged and worshipped, and religion is from
his Word; hence there is a grafting, and also a transplanting thereof,
from generation to generation. We have said, that the above Christian
conjugial principle perishes by polygamical adultery: we thereby mean,
that with the Christian polygamist it is closed and intercepted; but
still it is capable of being revived in his posterity, as is the case
with the likeness of a grandfather or a great-grandfather returning in a
grandson or a great-grandson. Hence, that conjugial principle is called
the most precious jewel of the Christian life, and (see above, n. 457,
458,) the storehouse of human life, and the reservoir of the Christian
religion. That that conjugial principle is destroyed with the Christian
who practises polygamical adultery, is manifest from this consideration;
that he cannot like a Mahometan polygamist, love a concubine and a wife
equally; but so far as he loves a concubine, or is warm towards her, so
far he does not love his wife, but is cold towards her; and, what is yet
more detestable, so far he also in heart acknowledges the Lord only as a
natural man, and the son of Mary, and not at the same time as the Son of
God, and likewise so far he makes light of religion. It is, however,
well to be noted, that this is the case with those who add a concubine
to a wife, and connect themselves actually with each; but it is not at
all the case with those, who from legitimate, just, and truly excusatory
causes, separate themselves, and keep apart from a wife as to actual
love, and have a woman in keeping. We now proceed to treat of this kind
of concubinage.
467. V. CONCUBINAGE APART FROM A WIFE, WHEN IT IS ENGAGED IN FROM CAUSES
LEGITIMATE, JUST, AND TRULY EXCUSATORY, IS NOT UNLAWFUL. What causes we
mean by legitimate, what by just, and what by truly excusatory, shall be
shewn in their order: the bare mention of the causes is here premised,
that this concubinage, which we are about to treat of, may be
distinguished from that which we have previously described. (See note to
No. 450, and the Preliminary note.)
468. VI. THE LEGITIMATE CAUSES OF THIS CONCUBINAGE ARE THE LEGITIMATE
CAUSES OF DIVORCE, WHILE THE WIFE IS NEVERTHELESS RETAINED AT HOME. By
divorce is meant the annulling of the conjugial covenant, and thence an
entire separation, and after this a full liberty to marry another wife.
The one only cause of this total separation or divorce, is adultery,
according to the Lord's precept, Matt. xix. 9. To the same cause are to
be referred manifest obscenities, which bid defiance to the restraints
of modesty, and fill and infest the house with flagitious practices of
lewdness, giving birth to adulterous immodesty, and rendering the whole
mind abandoned. To these things may be added malicious desertion, which
involves adultery, and causes a wife to commit whoredom, and thereby to
be divorced, Matt. v. 32. These three causes, being legitimate causes of
divorce,--the first and third before a public judge, and the middle one
before the man himself, as judge, are also legitimate causes of
concubinage, when the adulterous wife is retained at home. The reason
why adultery is the one only cause of divorce is, because it is
diametrically opposite to the life of conjugial love, and totally
destroys and annihilates it; see above, n. 255.
469. The reasons why, by the generality of men, the adulterous wife is
still retained at home, are, 1. Because the man is afraid to produce
witnesses in a court of justice against his wife, to accuse her of
adultery, and thereby to make the crime public; for unless
eye-witnesses, or evidences to the same amount, were produced to convict
her, he would be secretly reproached in companies of men, and openly in
companies of women. 2. He is afraid also lest his adulteress should have
the cunning to clear her conduct, and likewise lest the judges should
show favor to her, and thus his name suffer in the public esteem. 3.
Moreover, there may be domestic reasons, which may make separation from
the house unadvisable: as in case there are children, towards whom also
the adulteress has natural love; in case they are bound together by
mutual services which cannot be put an end to; in case the wife is
connected with and dependent upon her relatives, whether on the father's
or mother's side, and there is a hope of receiving an increase of
fortune from them; in case he lived with her in the beginning in habits
of agreeable intimacy; and in case she, after she became meretricious,
has the skill to soothe the man with engaging pleasantry and pretended
civility, to prevent blame being imputed to herself; not to mention
other cases, which, as in themselves they are legitimate causes of
divorce, are also legitimate causes of concubinage; for the causes of
retaining the wife at home do not take away the cause of divorce,
supposing her guilty of adultery. Who, but a person of vile character,
can fulfil the duties of the conjugial bed, and at the same time have
commerce with a strumpet? If instances of this sort are occasionally to
be met with, no favorable conclusions are to be drawn from them.
470. VII. THE JUST CAUSES OF THIS CONCUBINAGE ARE THE JUST CAUSES OF
SEPARATION FROM THE BED. There are legitimate causes of separation, and
there are just causes: legitimate causes are enforced by the decisions
of judges, and just causes by the decisions come to by the man alone.
The causes both legitimate and just of separation from the bed, and also
from the house, were briefly enumerated above, n. 252, 253; among which
are VITIATED STATES OF THE BODY, including diseases whereby the whole
body is so far infected, that the contagion may prove fatal: of this
nature are malignant and pestilential fevers, leprosies, the venereal
disease, cancers; also diseases whereby the whole body is so far weighed
down, as to admit of no sociability, and from which exhale dangerous
effluvia and noxious vapors, whether from the surface of the body, or
from its inward parts, in particular from the stomach and the lungs:
from the surface of the body proceed malignant pocks, warts, pustules,
scorbutic pthisis, virulent scab, especially if the face is disfigured
by it; from the stomach proceed foul, stinking, and rank eructations;
from the lungs, filthy and putrid exhalations arising from imposthumes,
ulcers or abscesses, or from vitiated blood or serum. Besides these
there are also other various diseases; as _lipothamia_, which is a total
faintness of body, and defect of strength; _paralysis_, which is a
loosening and relaxation of the membranes and ligaments which serve for
motion; epilepsy; permanent infirmity arising from apoplexy; certain
chronical diseases; the iliac passion; rupture; besides other diseases,
which the science of pathology teaches. VITIATED STATES OF THE MIND,
which are just causes of separation from the bed and the house, are
madness, frenzy, furious wildness, actual foolishness and idiocy, loss
of memory, and the like. That these are just causes of concubinage,
since they are just causes of separation, reason sees without the help
of a judge.
471. VIII. OF THE EXCUSATORY CAUSES OF THIS CONCUBINAGE SOME ARE REAL
AND SOME ARE NOT. Since besides the just causes which are just causes of
separation, and thence become just causes of concubinage, there are also
excusatory causes, which depend on judgement and justice with the man,
therefore these also are to be mentioned: but as the judgements of
justice may be perverted and be converted by confirmations into the
appearances of what is just, therefore these excusatory causes are
distinguished into real and not real, and are separately described.
472. IX. THE REALLY EXCUSATORY CAUSES ARE SUCH AS ARE GROUNDED IN WHAT
IS JUST. To know these causes, it may be sufficient to mention some of
them; such as having no natural affection towards the children, and a
consequent rejection of them, intemperance, drunkenness, uncleanliness,
immodesty, a desire of divulging family secrets, of disputing, of
striking, of taking revenge, of doing evil, of stealing, of deceiving;
internal dissimilitude, whence comes antipathy; a froward requirement of
the conjugial debt, whence the man becomes as cold as a stone; being
addicted to magic and witchcraft; an extreme degree of impiety; and
other similar evils.
473. There are also milder causes, which are really excusatory and which
separate from the bed, and yet not from the house; as a cessation of
prolification on the part of the wife, in consequence of advanced age,
and thence a reluctance and opposition to actual love, while the ardor
thereof still continues with the man; besides similar cases in which
rational judgement sees what is just, and which do not hurt the
conscience.
474. X. THE EXCUSATORY CAUSES WHICH ARE NOT REAL ARE SUCH AS ARE NOT
GROUNDED IN WHAT IS JUST, ALTHOUGH IN THE APPEARANCE OF WHAT IS JUST.
These are known from the really excusatory causes above mentioned, and,
if not rightly examined, may appear to be just, and yet are unjust; as
that times of abstinence are required after the bringing forth of
children, the transitory sicknesses of wives, from these and other
causes a check to prolification, polygamy permitted to the Israelites,
and other like causes of no weight as grounded in justice. These are
fabricated by the men after they have become cold, when unchaste lusts
have deprived them of conjugial love, and have infatuated them with the
idea of its likeness to adulterous love. When such men engage in
concubinage, they, in order to prevent defamation, assign such spurious
and fallacious causes as real and genuine,--and very frequently also
falsely charge them against their wives, their companions often
favorably assenting and applauding them.
475. XI. THOSE WHO FROM CAUSES LEGITIMATE, JUST, AND REALLY EXCUSATORY,
ARE ENGAGED IN THIS CONCUBINAGE, MAY AT THE SAME TIME BE PRINCIPLED IN
CONJUGIAL LOVE. We say that such may at the same time be principled in
conjugial love; and we thereby mean, that they may keep this love stored
up in themselves; for this love, in the subject in which it is, does not
perish, but is quiescent. The reasons why conjugial love is preserved
with those who prefer marriage to concubinage, and enter into the latter
from the causes above mentioned, are these; that this concubinage is not
repugnant to conjugial love; that it is not a separation from it; that
it is only a clothing encompassing it; that this clothing is taken away
from them after death. 1. That this concubinage is not repugnant to
conjugial love, follows from what was proved above; that such
concubinage, when engaged in from causes legitimate, just, and really
excusatory, is not unlawful, n. 467-473. 2. That this concubinage is not
a separation from conjugial love; for when causes legitimate, or just,
or really excusatory, arise, and persuade and compel a man, then,
conjugial love with marriage is not separated, but only interrupted; and
love interrupted, and not separated, remains in the subject. The case in
this respect is like that of a person, who, being engaged in a business
which he likes, is detained from it by company, by public sights, or by
a journey; still he does not cease to like his business: it is also like
that of a person who is fond of generous wine, and who, when he drinks
wine of an inferior quality, does not lose his taste and appetite for
that which is generous. 3. The reason why the above concubinage is only
a clothing of conjugial love encompassing it, is, because the love of
concubinage is natural, and the love of marriage spiritual; and natural
love is a veil or covering to spiritual, when the latter is interrupted:
that this is the case, is unknown to the lover; because spiritual love
is not made sensible of itself, but by natural love, and it is made
sensible as delight, in which there is blessedness from heaven: but
natural love by itself is made sensible only as delight. 4. The reason
why this veil is taken away after death, is, because then a man from
natural becomes spiritual, and instead of a material body enjoys a
substantial one, wherein natural delight grounded in spiritual is made
sensible in its perfection. That this is the case, I have heard from
communication with some in the spiritual world, even from kings there,
who in the natural world had engaged in concubinage from really
excusatory causes.
476. XII. WHILE THIS CONCUBINAGE CONTINUES, ACTUAL CONNECTION WITH A
WIFE IS NOT ALLOWABLE. The reason of this is, because in such case
conjugial love, which in itself is spiritual, chaste, pure, and holy,
becomes natural, is defiled and disregarded, and thereby perishes;
wherefore in order that this love may be preserved, it is expedient that
concubinage grounded in really excusatory causes, n. 472, 473, be
engaged in with one only, and not with two at the same time.
* * * * *
477. To the above I will add the following MEMORABLE RELATION. I heard a
certain spirit, a youth, recently deceased, boasting of his libertinism,
and eager to establish his reputation as a man of superior masculine
powers; and in the insolence of his boasting he thus expressed himself;
"What is more dismal than for a man to imprison his love, and to confine
himself to one woman? and what is more delightful than to set the love
at liberty? Who does not grow tired of one? and who is not revived by
several? What is sweeter than promiscuous liberty, variety,
deflorations, schemes to deceive husbands, and plans of adulterous
hypocrisy? Do not those things which are obtained by cunning, deceit,
and theft, delight the inmost principles of the mind!" On hearing these
things, the bystanders said, "Speak not in such terms; you know not
where and with whom you are; you are but lately come hither. Hell is
beneath your feet, and heaven over your head; you are now in the world
which is between those two, and is called the world of spirits. All who
depart out of the world, come here, and being assembled are examined as
to their quality; and here they are prepared, the wicked for hell, and
the good for heaven. Possibly you still retain what you have heard from
priests in the world, that whoremongers and adulterers are cast down
into hell, and that chaste married partners are raised to heaven." At
this the novitiate laughed, saying, "What are heaven and hell? Is it not
heaven where any one is free; and is not he free who is allowed to love
as many as he pleases? and is not it hell where any one is a servant:
and is not he a servant who is obliged to keep to one?" But a certain
angel, looking down from heaven, heard what he said, and broke off the
conversation, lest it should proceed further and profane marriages; and
he said to him, "Come up here, and I will clearly shew you what heaven
and hell are, and what the quality of the latter is to continued
adulterers." He then shewed him the way, and he ascended: after he was
admitted he was led first into the paradisiacal garden, where were
fruit-trees and flowers, which from their beauty, pleasantness and
fragrance, tilled the mind with the delights of life. When he saw these
things, he admired them exceedingly; but he was then in external vision,
such as he had enjoyed in the world when he saw similar objects, and in
this vision he was rational; but in the internal vision, in which
adultery was the principal agent, and occupied every point of thought,
he was not rational; wherefore the external vision was closed, and the
internal opened; and when the latter was opened, he said, "What do I see
now? is it not straw and dry wood? and what do I smell now? is it not a
stench? What is become of those paradisiacal objects?" The angel said,
"They are near at hand and are present; but they do not appear before
your internal sight, which is adulterous, for it turns celestial things
into infernal, and sees only opposites. Every man has an internal and an
external mind, thus an internal and an external sight: with the wicked
the internal mind is insane, and the external wise; but with the good
the internal mind is wise, and from this also the external; and such as
the mind is, so a man in the spiritual world sees objects." After this
the angel, from the power which was given him, closed his internal
sight, and opened the external, and led him away through gates towards
the middle point of the habitations: there he saw magnificent palaces of
alabaster, marble, and various precious stones, and near them porticos,
and round about pillars overlaid and encompassed with wonderful
ornaments and decorations. When he saw these things, he was amazed, and
said, "What do I see? I see magnificent objects in their own real
magnificence, and architectonic objects in their own real art." At that
instant the angel again closed his external sight, and opened the
internal, which was evil because filthily adulterous: hereupon he
exclaimed, "What do I now see? Where am I? What is become of those
palaces and magnificent objects? I see only confused heaps, rubbish, and
places full of caverns." But presently he was brought back again to his
external sight, and introduced into one of the palaces; and he saw the
decorations of the gates, the windows, the walls, and the ceilings, and
especially of the utensils, over and round about which were celestial
forms of gold and precious stones, which cannot be described by any
language, or delineated by any art; for they surpassed the ideas of
language and the notions of art. On seeing these things he again
exclaimed, "These are the very essence of whatever is wonderful, such as
no eye had ever seen." But instantly, as before, his internal sight was
opened, the external being closed, and he was asked what he then saw? He
replied, "Nothing but decayed piles of bulrushes in this place, of straw
in that, and of fire brands in a third." Once again he was brought into
an external state of mind, and some maidens were introduced, who were
extremely beautiful, being images of celestial affection; and they, with
the sweet voice of their affection, addressed him; and instantly, on
seeing and hearing them, his countenance changed, and he returned of
himself into his internals, which were adulterous; and since such
internals cannot endure any thing of celestial love, and neither on the
other hand can they be endured by celestial love, therefore both parties
vanished,--the maidens out of sight of the man, and the man out of sight
of the maidens. After this, the angel informed him concerning the ground
and origin of the changes of the state of his sights; saying, "I
perceive that in the world, from which you are come, you have been
two-fold, in internals having been quite a different man from what you
were in externals; in externals you have been a civil, moral, and
rational man; whereas in internals, you have been neither civil, moral,
nor rational, because a libertine and an adulterer: and such men, when
they are allowed to ascend into heaven, and are there kept in their
externals, can see the heavenly things contained therein; but when their
internals are opened, instead of heavenly things they see infernal.
Know, however, that with every one in this world, externals are
successively closed, and internals are opened, and thereby they are
prepared for heaven or hell; and as the evil of adultery defiles the
internals of the mind above every other evil, you must needs be conveyed
down to the defiled principles of your love, and these are in the hells,
where the caverns are full of stench arising from dunghills. Who cannot
know from reason, that an unchaste and lascivious principle in the world
of spirits, is impure and unclean, and thus that nothing more pollutes
and defiles a man, and induces in him an infernal principle? Wherefore
take heed how you boast any longer of your whoredoms, as possessing
masculine powers therein above other men. I advertise you before hand,
that you will become feeble, so that you will scarce know where your
masculine power is. Such is the lot which awaits those who boast of
their adulterous ability." On hearing these words he descended, and
returned into the world of spirits, to his former companions, and
converse with them modestly and chastely, but not for any considerable
length of time.
* * * * *
ON ADULTERIES AND THEIR GENERA AND DEGREES.
478. None can know that there is any evil in adultery, who judge of it
only from its externals; for in these it resembles marriage. Such
external judges, when they hear of internals, and are told that
externals thence derive their good or their evil, say with themselves,
"What are internals? Who sees them? Is not this climbing above the
sphere of every one's intelligence?" Such persons are like those who
accept all pretended good as genuine voluntary good, and who decide upon
a man's wisdom from the elegance of his conversation; or who respect the
man himself from the richness of his dress and the magnificence of his
equipage, and not from his internal habit, which is that of judgement
grounded in the affection of good. This also is like judging of the
fruit of a tree, and of any other eatable thing, from the sight and
touch only, and not of its goodness from a knowledge of its flavor: such
is the conduct of all those who are unwilling to perceive any thing
respecting man's internal. Hence comes the wild infatuation of many at
this day, who see no evil in adulteries, yea, who unite marriages with
them in the same chamber, that is, who make them altogether alike; and
this only on account of their apparent resemblance in externals. That
this is the case, was shewn me by this experimental proof: on a certain
time, the angels assembled from Europe some hundreds of those who were
distinguished for their genius, their erudition, and their wisdom, and
questioned them concerning the distinction between marriage and
adultery, and in treated them to consult the rational powers of their
understandings: and after consultation, all, except ten, replied, that
the judicial law constitutes the only distinction, for the sake of some
advantage; which distinction may indeed be known, but still be
accommodated by civil prudence. They were next asked, Whether they saw
any good in marriage, and any evil in adultery? They returned for
answer, that they did not see any rational evil and good. Being
questioned whether they saw any sin in it? they said, "Where is the sin?
Is not the act alike?" At these answers the angels were amazed, and
exclaimed, Oh, the gross stupidity of the age! Who can measure its
quality and quantity? On hearing this exclamation, the hundreds of the
wise ones turned themselves, and said one among another with loud
laughter, "Is this gross stupidity? Is there any wisdom that can bring
conviction that to love another person's wife merits eternal damnation?"
But that adultery is spiritual evil, and thence moral and civil evil,
and diametrically contrary to the wisdom of reason; also that the love
of adultery is from hell and returns to hell, and the love of marriage
is from heaven and returns to heaven, has been demonstrated in the first
chapter of this part, concerning the opposition of adulterous and
conjugial love. But since all evils, like all goods, partake of latitude
and altitude, and according to latitude have their genera, and according
to altitude their degrees, therefore, in order that adulteries may be
known as to each dimension, they shall first be arranged into their
genera, and afterwards into their degrees; and this shall be done in the
following series: I. _There are three genera of adulteries,--simple,
duplicate, and triplicate._ II. _Simple adultery is that of an unmarried
man with another's wife, or of an unmarried woman with another's
husband._ III. _Duplicate adultery is that of a husband with another's
wife, or of a wife with another's husband._ IV. _Triplicate adultery is
with relations by blood._ V. _There are four degrees of adulteries,
according to which they have their predications, their charges of blame,
and after death their imputations._ VI. _Adulteries of the first degree
are adulteries of ignorance, which are committed by those who cannot as
yet, or cannot at all, consult the understanding, and thence check
them._ VII. _In such cases adulteries are mild._ VIII. _Adulteries of
the second degree are adulteries of lust, which are committed by those
who indeed are able to consult the understanding, but from accidental
causes at the moment are not able._ IX. _Adulteries committed by such
persons are imputatory, according as the understanding afterwards favors
them or not._ X. _Adulteries of the third degree are adulteries of the
reason, which are committed by those who with the understanding confirm
themselves in the persuasion that they are not evils of sin._ XI. _The
adulteries committed by such persons are grievous, and are imputed to
them according to confirmations._ XII. _Adulteries of the fourth degree
are adulteries of the will, which are committed by those who make them
lawful and pleasing, and who do not think them of importance enough, to
consult the understanding respecting them._ XIII. _The adulteries
committed by these persons are exceedingly grievous, and are imputed to
them as evils of purpose, and remain with them as guilt._ XIV.
_Adulteries of the third and fourth degrees are evils of sin, according
to the quantity and quality of understanding and will in them, whether
they are actually committed or not._ XV. _.Adulteries grounded in
purpose of the will, and adulteries grounded in confirmation of the
understanding render men natural, sensual, and corporeal._ XVI. _And
this to such a degree, that at length they reject from themselves all
things of the church and of religion._ XVII. _Nevertheless they have the
powers of human rationality like other men._ XVIII. _But they use that
rationality while they are in externals, but abuse it while in their
internals._ We proceed to an explanation of each article.
479. I. THERE ARE THREE GENERA OF ADULTERIES,--SIMPLE, DUPLICATE, AND
TRIPLICATE. The Creator of the universe has distinguished all the things
which he has created into genera, and each genus into species, and has
distinguished each species, and each distinction in like manner, and so
forth, to the end that an image of what is infinite may exist in a
perpetual variety of qualities. Thus the Creator of the universe has
distinguished goods and their truths, and in like manner evils and their
falses, after they arose. That he has distinguished all things in the
spiritual world into genera, species, and differences, and has collected
together into heaven all goods and truths, and into hell all evils and
falses, and has arranged the latter in an order diametrically opposite
to the former, may appear from what is explained in a work concerning
HEAVEN AND HELL, published in London in the year 1758. That in the
natural world he has also thus distinguished and does distinguish goods
and truths, and likewise evils and falses, appertaining to men, and
thereby men themselves, may be known from their lot after death, in that
the good enter into heaven, and the evil into hell. Now, since all
things relating to good, and all things relating to evil, are
distinguished into genera, species, and so forth, therefore marriages
are distinguished into the same, and so are their opposites, which are
adulteries.
480. II. SIMPLE ADULTERY IS THAT OF AN UNMARRIED MAN WITH ANOTHER'S
WIFE, OR AN UNMARRIED WOMAN WITH ANOTHER'S HUSBAND. By adultery here and
in the following pages we mean the adultery which is opposite to
marriage; it is opposite because it violates the covenant of life
contracted between married partners: it rends asunder their love, and
defiles it, and closes the union which was begun at the time of
betrothing, and strengthened in the beginning of marriage: for the
conjugial love of one man with one wife, after engagement and covenant,
unites their souls. Adultery does not dissolve this union, because it
cannot be dissolved; but it closes it, as he that stops up a fountain at
its source, and thence obstructs its stream, and fills the cistern with
filthy and stinking waters: in like manner conjugial love, the origin of
which is a union of souls, is daubed with mud and covered by adultery;
and when it is so daubed with mud there arises from beneath the love of
adultery; and as this love increases, it becomes fleshly, and rises in
insurrection against conjugial love, and destroys it. Hence comes the
opposition of adultery and marriage.
481. That it may be further known how gross is the stupidity of this
age, in that those who have the reputation of wisdom do not see any sin
in adultery, as was discovered by the angels (see just above, n. 478), I
will here add the following MEMORABLE RELATION. There were certain
spirits who, from a habit they had acquired in the life of the body,
infested me with peculiar cunning, and this they did by a sottish and as
it were waving influx, such as is usual with well-disposed spirits; but
I perceived that they employed craftiness and similar means, to the
intent that they might engage attention and deceive. At length I entered
into conversation with one of them who, it was told me, had while he
lived in the world been the general of an army: and as I perceived that
in the ideas of his thought there was a lascivious principle, I
conversed with him by representatives in the spiritual language which
fully expresses what is intended to be said, and even several things in
a moment. He said that, in the life of the body in the former world, he
had made no account of adulteries: but it was granted me to tell him,
that adulteries are wicked, although from the delight attending them,
and from the persuasion thence resulting, they appear to the adulterer
as not wicked but allowable; which also he might know from this
consideration, that marriages are the seminaries of the human race, and
thence also the seminaries of the heavenly kingdom, and therefore that
they ought not to be violated, but to be accounted holy; also from this
consideration, that he ought know, as being in the spiritual world, and
in a state of perception, that conjugial love descends from the Lord
through heaven, and that from that love, as a parent, is derived mutual
love, which is the main support of heaven; and further from this
consideration, that adulterers, whenever they only approach the heavenly
societies, are made sensible of their own stench, and throw themselves
headlong thence towards hell: at least he might know, that to violate
marriages is contrary to the divine laws, to the civil laws of all
kingdoms, also to the genuine light of reason, and thereby to the right
of nations, because contrary to order both divine and human; not to
mention other considerations. But he replied, that he entertained no
such thoughts in the former life: he wished to reason whether the case
was so or not; but he was told that truth does not admit of reasonings,
since they favor the delights of the flesh against those of the spirit,
the quality of which latter delights he was ignorant of; and that he
ought first to think about the things which I had told him, because they
are true; or to think from the well-known maxim, that no one should do
to another what he is unwilling another should do to him; and thus, if
any one had in such a manner violated his wife, whom he had loved, as is
the case in the beginning of every marriage, and he had then been in a
state of wrath, and had spoken from that state, whether he himself also
would not then have detested adulteries, and being a man of strong
parts, would not have confirmed himself against them more than other
men, even to condemning them to hell; and being the general of an army,
and having brave companions, whether he would not, in order to prevent
disgrace, either have put the adulterer to death, or have driven the
adulteress from his house.
482. III. DUPLICATE ADULTERY IS THAT OF A HUSBAND WITH ANOTHER'S WIFE,
OR OF A WIFE WITH ANOTHER'S HUSBAND. This adultery is called duplicate,
because it is committed by two, and on each side the marriage-covenant
is violated; wherefore also it is twofold more grievous than the former.
It was said above, n. 480, that the conjugial love of one man with one
wife, after engagement and covenant, unites their souls, and that such
union is that very love in its origin; and that this origin is closed
and stopped up by adultery, as the source and stream of a fountain. That
the souls of two unite themselves together, when love to the sex is
confined to one of the sex, which is the case when a maiden engages
herself wholly to a youth, and on the other hand a youth engages himself
wholly to a maiden, is clearly manifest from this consideration, that
the lives of both unite themselves, consequently their souls, because
souls are the first principles of life. This union of souls can only
take place in monogamical marriages, or those of one man with one wife,
but not in polygamical marriages, or those of one man with several
wives; because in the latter case the love is divided, in the former it
is united. The reason why conjugial love in its supreme abode is
spiritual, holy, and pure, is because the soul of every man from its
origin is celestial; wherefore it receives influx immediately from the
Lord, for it receives from him the marriage of love and wisdom, or of
good and truth; and this influx makes him a man, and distinguishes him
from the beasts. From this union of souls, conjugial love, which is
there in its spiritual sanctity and purity, flows down into the life of
the whole body, and fills with blessed delights, so long as its channel
remains open; which is the case with those who are made spiritual by the
Lord. That nothing but adultery closes and stops up this abode of
conjugial love, thus its origin or fountain and its channel, is evident
from the Lord's words, that it is not lawful to put away a wife and
marry another, except on account of adultery: Matt. xix. 3-9; and also
from what is said in the same passage, that he that marries her that is
put away commits adultery, verse 9. When therefore, as was said above,
that pure and holy fountain is stopped up, it is clogged about with
filthiness of sundry kinds, as a jewel with ordure, or bread with vomit;
which things are altogether opposite to the purity and sanctity of that
fountain, or of conjugial love: from which opposition comes conjugial
cold, and according to this cold is the lascivious voluptuousness of
adulterous love, which consumes itself of its own accord. The reason why
this is an evil of sin is because the holy principle is covered and
thereby its channel into the body is obstructed, and in the place
thereof a profane principle succeeds, and its channel into the body is
opened, whence a man from celestial becomes infernal.
483. To the above I will add some particulars from the spiritual world,
which are worthy to be recorded. I have been informed in that world,
that some married men are inflamed with the lust of committing whoredom
with maidens or virgins; some with those who are not maidens but
harlots; some with married women or wives; some with women of the above
description who are of noble descent; and some with such as are not of
noble descent: that this is the case, was confirmed to me by several
instances from the various kingdoms in that world. While I was
meditating concerning the variety of such lusts, I asked whether there
are any who find all their delight with the wives of others, and none
with unmarried women? Wherefore to convince me that there are some such
spirits, several were brought to me from a certain kingdom, who were
obliged to speak according to their libidinous principles. These
declared that it was, and still is their sole pleasure and delight to
commit whoredom with the wives of others; and that they look out for
such as are beautiful, and hire them for themselves at a great price
according to their wealth, and in general bargain about the price with
the wife alone. I asked, why they do not hire for themselves unmarried
women? They said, that they consider this would be cheap and worthless,
and therefore undelightful to them. I asked also, whether those wives
afterwards return to their husbands and live with them? They replied,
that they either do not return, or they return cold, having become
courtezans. Afterwards I asked them seriously, whether they ever
thought, or now think, that this is twofold adultery, because they
commit this at the time they have wives of their own, and that such
adultery deprives a man of all spiritual good? But at this several who
were present laughed, saying, "What is spiritual good?" Nevertheless I
was still urgent, and said, "What is more detestable than for a man to
mix his soul with the soul of a husband in his wife? Do you not know,
that the soul of a man is in his seed?" Hereupon they turned themselves
away and muttered, "What harm can this do her?" At length I said,
"Although you do not fear divine laws, do you not fear civil laws?" They
replied, "No, we only fear certain of the ecclesiastical order; but we
conceal this in their presence; and if we cannot conceal it, we keep
upon good terms with them." I afterwards saw the former divided into
companies, and some of the latter cast into hell.
484. IV. TRIPLICATE ADULTERY IS WITH RELATIONS BY BLOOD. This adultery
is called triplicate, because it is threefold more grievous than the two
former. The relations, or remains of the flesh, which are not to be
approached, are mentioned in Levit. xviii. 6-18. There are internal and
external reasons why these adulteries are threefold more grievous than
the two above-mentioned: the internal reasons are grounded in the
correspondence of those adulteries with the violation of spiritual
marriage, which is that of the Lord and the church, and thence of good
and truth; and the external reasons are for the sake of guards, to
prevent a man's becoming a beast. We have no leisure, however, to
proceed to the further disclosure of these reasons.
485. V. THERE ARE FOUR DEGREES OF ADULTERIES, ACCORDING TO WHICH THEY
HAVE THEIR PREDICATIONS, THEIR CHARGES OF BLAME, AND AFTER DEATH THEIR
IMPUTATIONS. These degrees are not genera, but enter into each genus,
and cause its distinctions between more and less evil or good; in the
present case, deciding whether adultery of every genus from the nature
of the circumstances and contingencies, is to be considered milder or
more grievous. That circumstances and contingencies vary every thing is
well known. Nevertheless things are considered in one way by a man from
his rational light, in another by a judge from the law, and in another
by the Lord from the state of a man's mind: wherefore we mention
predications, charges of blame, and after death imputations; for
predications are made by a man according to his rational light, charges
of blame are made by a judge according to the law, and imputations are
made by the Lord according to the state of the man's mind. That these
three differ exceedingly from each other, may be seen without
explanation: for a man, from rational conviction according to
circumstances and contingencies, may acquit a person, whom a judge, when
he sits in judgement, cannot acquit from the law: and also a judge may
acquit a person, who after death is condemned. The reason of this is,
because a judge gives sentence according to the actions done, whereas
after death every one is judged according to the intentions of the will
and thence of the understanding, and according to the confirmations of
the understanding and thence of the will. These intentions and
confirmations a judge does not see; nevertheless each judgement is just;
the one for the sake of the good of civil society, the other for the
sake of the good of heavenly society.
486. VI. ADULTERIES OF THE FIRST DEGREE ARE ADULTERIES OF IGNORANCE,
WHICH ARE COMMITTED BY THOSE WHO CANNOT AS YET, OR CANNOT AT ALL,
CONSULT THE UNDERSTANDING, AND THENCE CHECK THEM. All evils, and thus
also all adulteries, viewed in themselves, are at once of the internal
and the external man; the internal intends them, and the external does
them; such therefore as the internal man is in the deeds done by the
external, such are the deeds viewed in themselves: but since the
internal man with his intention, does not appear before man, every one
must be judged in a human court from deeds and words according to the
law in force and its provisions: the interior sense of the law is also
to be regarded by the judge. But to illustrate the case by example: if
adultery be committed by a youth, who does not as yet know that adultery
is a greater evil than fornication; if the like be committed by a very
simple man; if it be committed by a person who is deprived by disease of
the full powers of judgement; or by a person, as is sometimes the case,
who is delirious by fits, and is at the time in a state of actual
delirium; yet further, if it be committed in a fit of insane
drunkenness, and so forth, it is evident, that in such cases, the
internal man, or mind, is not present in the external, scarcely any
otherwise than in an irrational person. Adulteries in these instances
are predicated by a rational man according to the above circumstances;
nevertheless the perpetrator is charged with blame by the same rational
man as a judge, and is punished by the law; but after death those
adulteries are imputed according to the presence, quality, and faculty
of understanding in the will of the perpetrators.
487. VII. IN SUCH CASES ADULTERIES ARE MILD. This is manifest from what
was said just above, n. 486, without further confirmation; for it is
well known that the quality of every deed and in general the quality of
every thing, depends upon circumstances, and which mitigate or aggravate
it; but adulteries of this degree are mild at the first times of their
commission; and also remain mild so far as the offending party of either
sex, in the future course of life, abstains from them for these
reasons;--because they are evils against God, or against the neighbour,
or against the goods of the state, and because, in consequence of their
being such evils, they are evils against reason; but on the other hand,
if they are not abstained from for one of the abovementioned reasons,
they are reckoned amongst grievous adulteries; thus it is according to
the divine law, Ezek. xviii, 21, 22, 24, and in other places: but they
cannot, from the above circumstances, be pronounced either blameless or
culpable, or be predicated and judged as mild or grievous, because they
do not appear before man, neither are they within the province of his
judgement; wherefore it is meant, that after death they are so accounted
or imputed.
488. VIII. ADULTERIES OF THE SECOND DEGREE ARE ADULTERIES OF LUST, WHICH
ARE COMMITTED BY THOSE WHO INDEED ARE ABLE TO CONSULT THE UNDERSTANDING,
BUT FROM ACCIDENTAL CAUSES AT THE MOMENT ARE NOT ABLE. There are two
things which, in the beginning, with every man who from natural is made
spiritual, are at strife together, which are commonly called the spirit
and the flesh; and since the love of marriage is of the spirit, and the
love of adultery is of the flesh, in such case there is also a combat
between those loves. If the love of marriage conquers, it gains dominion
over and subjugates the love of adultery, which is effected by its
removal; but if it happens that the lust of the flesh is excited to a
heat greater than what the spirit can control from reason, it follows
that the state is inverted, and the heat of lust infuses allurements
into the spirit, to such a degree, that it is no longer master of its
reason, and thence of itself: this is meant by adulteries of the second
degree, which are committed by those who indeed are able to consult the
understanding, but by reason of accidental causes at the moment are not
able. But the matter may be illustrated by particular cases; as in case
a meretricious wife by her craftiness captivates a man's mind
(_animum_), enticing him into her chamber, and inflaming his passions to
such a degree as to leave him no longer master of his judgement; and
especially if, at the same time, she also threatens to expose him if he
does not consent: in like manner, in case any meretricious wife is
skilled in deceitful allurements, or by powerful stimulants inflames the
man to such a degree, that the raging lust of the flesh deprives the
understanding of the free use of reason: in like manner, in case a man,
by powerful enticements, so far works upon another's wife, as to leave
her no longer mistress of herself, by reason of the fire kindled in her
will; besides other like cases. That these and similar accidental
circumstances lessen the grievousness of adultery, and give a milder
turn to the predications of the blame thereof in favor of the party
seduced, is agreeable to the dictates and conclusions of reason. The
imputation of this degree of adultery comes next to be treated of.
489. IX. ADULTERIES COMMITTED BY SUCH PERSONS ARE IMPUTATORY, ACCORDING
AS THE UNDERSTANDING AFTERWARDS FAVORS THEM OR NOT. So far as the
understanding favors evils, so far a man appropriates them to himself
and makes them his own. Favor implies consent; and consent induces in
the mind a state of the love of them: the case is the same with
adulteries, which in the beginning were committed without the consent of
the understanding, and are favored: the contrary comes to pass if they
are not favored. The reason of this is, because evils or adulteries,
which are committed in the blindness of the understanding, are committed
from the concupiscence of the body; and such evils or adulteries have a
near resemblance to the instincts of beasts: with man (_homo_) indeed
the understanding is present, while they are committing, but in a
passive or dead potency and not in active and living potency. From these
considerations it follows of course, that such things are not imputed,
except so far as they are afterwards favored or not. By imputation we
here mean accusation after death, and hence judication, which takes
place according to the state of a man's spirit: but we do not mean
inculpation by a man before a judge; for this does not take place
according to the state of a man's spirit, but of his body in the deed;
and unless there was a difference herein, those would be acquitted after
death who are acquitted in the world, and those would be condemned who
are condemned in the world; and thus the latter would be without any
hope of salvation.
490. X. ADULTERIES OF THE THIRD DEGREE ARE ADULTERIES OF THE REASON,
WHICH ARE COMMITTED BY THOSE WHO WITH THE UNDERSTANDING CONFIRM
THEMSELVES IN THE PERSUASION THAT THEY ARE NOT EVILS OF SIN. Every man
knows that there exist such principles as the will and the
understanding; for in his common speaking he says, "This I will, and
this I understand;" but still he does not distinguish them, but makes
the one the same as the other; because he only reflects upon the things
which belong to the thought grounded in the understanding, and not upon
those which belong to the love grounded in the will; for the latter do
not appear in light as the former. Nevertheless, he that does not
distinguish between the will and the understanding, cannot distinguish
between evils and goods, and consequently he must remain in entire
ignorance concerning the blame of sin. But who does not know that good
and truth are two distinct principles, like love and wisdom? and who
cannot hence conclude, while he is in rational illumination, that there
are two faculties in man, which distinctly receive and appropriate to
themselves those principles, and that the one is the will and the other
the understanding, by reason that what the will receives and reproduces
is called good, and what the understanding receives is called truth; for
what the will loves and does, is called truth, and what the
understanding perceives and thinks, is called truth? Now as the marriage
of good and truth was treated of in the first part of this work, and in
the same place several considerations were adduced concerning the will
and the understanding, and the various attributes and predicates of
each, which, as I imagine, are also perceived by those who had not
thought at all distinctly concerning the understanding and the will,
(for human reason is such, that it understands truths from the light
thereof, although it has not heretofore distinguished them); therefore,
in order that the distinctions of the understanding and the will may be
more clearly perceived, I will here mention some particulars on the
subject, that it may be known what is the quality of adulteries of the
reason and the understanding, and afterwards what is the quality of
adulteries of the will. The following points may serve to illustrate the
subject: 1. That the will of itself does nothing; but whatever it does,
it does by the understanding. 2. On the other hand also, that the
understanding alone of itself does nothing; but whatever it does, it
does from the will. 3. That the will flows into the understanding but
not the understanding into the will; yet that the understanding teaches
what is good and evil, and consults with the will, that out of those two
principles it may choose and do what is pleasing to it. 4. That after
this there is effected a twofold conjunction; one, in which the will
acts from within, and the understanding from without; the other in which
the understanding acts from within, and the will from without: thus are
distinguished the adulteries of the reason, which are here treated of,
from the adulteries of the will, which are next to be treated of. They
are distinguished, because one is more grievous than the other; for the
adultery of the reason is less grievous than that of the will; because
in adultery of the reason, the understanding acts from within, and the
will from without; whereas in adultery of the will, the will acts from
within, and the understanding from without; and the will is the man
himself, and the understanding is the man as grounded in the will; and
that which acts within has dominion over that which acts without.
491. XI. THE ADULTERIES COMMITTED BY SUCH PERSONS ARE GRIEVOUS, AND ARE
IMPUTED TO THEM ACCORDING TO CONFIRMATIONS. It is the understanding
alone that confirms, and when it confirms, it engages the will to its
party, and sets it about itself, and thus compels it to compliance.
Confirmations are affected by reasonings, which the mind seizes for its
use, deriving them either from its superior region or from its inferior;
if from the superior region, which communicates with heaven, it confirms
marriages and condemns adulteries; but if from the inferior region,
which communicates with the world, it confirms adulteries and makes
light of marriages. Every one can confirm evil just as well as good; in
like manner what is false and what is true; and the confirmation of evil
is perceived with more delight than the confirmation of good, and the
confirmation of what is false appears with greater lucidity than the
confirmation of what is true. The reason of this is, because the
confirmation of what is evil and false derives its reasonings from the
delights, the pleasures, the appearances, and the fallacies of the
bodily senses; whereas the confirmation of what is good and true derives
its reasons from the region above the sensual principles of the body.
Now, since evils and falses can be confirmed just as well as goods and
truths, and since the confirming understanding draws the will to its
party, and the will together with the understanding forms the mind, it
follows that the form of the human mind is according to confirmations,
being turned to heaven if its confirmations are in favor of marriage,
but to hell if they are in favor of adulteries; and such as the form of
a man's mind is such is his spirit; consequently such is the man. From
these considerations then it is evident, that adulteries of this degree
after death are imputed according to confirmations.
492. XII. THE ADULTERIES OF THE FOURTH DEGREE ARE ADULTERIES OF THE WILL
WHICH ARE COMMITTED BY THOSE WHO MAKE THEM LAWFUL AND PLEASING, AND WHO
DO NOT THINK THEM OF IMPORTANCE ENOUGH TO CONSULT THE UNDERSTANDING
RESPECTING THEM. These adulteries are distinguished from the foregoing
from their origins. The origin of these adulteries is from the depraved
will connate to man, or from hereditary evil, which a man blindly obeys
after he is capable of exercising his own judgement, not at all
considering whether they are evils or not; wherefore it is said, that he
does not think them of importance enough to consult the understanding
respecting them: but the origin of the adulteries which are called
adulteries of reason, is from a perverse understanding; and these
adulteries are committed by those who confirm themselves in the
persuasion that they are not evils of sin. With the latter adulterers,
the understanding is the principal agent; with the former the will. The
distinctions in these two cases do not appear to any man in the natural
world; but they appear plainly to the angels in the spiritual world. In
the latter world all are in general distinguished according to the evils
which originate in the will and in the understanding, and which are
accepted and appropriated; they are also separated in hell according to
those evils: those who are in evil from the understanding, dwell there
in front, and are called satans; but those who are in evil from the
will, dwell at the back, and are called devils. It is on account of this
universal distinction that mention is made in the Word of satan and the
devil. With those wicked ones, and also those adulterers, who are called
satans, the understanding is the principal agent; but with those who are
called devils, the will is the principal agent. It is not however
possible to explain these distinctions, so as to render them visible to
the understanding, unless the distinctions of the will and the
understanding be first known; and also unless a description be given of
the formation of the mind from the will by the understanding, and of its
formation from the understanding by the will. The knowledge of these
subjects is necessary, before the distinctions above-mentioned can be
seen by reason; but to express this knowledge on paper would require a
volume.
493. XIII. THE ADULTERIES COMMITTED BY THESE PERSONS ARE EXCEEDINGLY
GRIEVOUS, AND ARE IMPUTED TO THEM AS EVILS OF PURPOSE, AND REMAIN IN
THEM AS GUILT. The reason why they are exceedingly grievous, and more
grievous than the foregoing, is, because in them the will is the
principal agent, whereas in the foregoing the understanding is the
principal agent, and a man's life essentially is his will, and formally
is his understanding: the reason of this is, because the will acts in
unity with the love, and love is the essence of a man's life, and forms
itself in the understanding by such things as are in agreement with it:
wherefore the understanding viewed in itself is nothing but a form of
the will; and since love is of the will, and wisdom of the
understanding, therefore wisdom is nothing but a form of love; in like
manner truth is nothing but a form of good. That which flows from the
very essence of a man's life, thus which flows from his will or his
love, is principally called purpose; but that which flows from the form
of his life, thus from the understanding and its thought is called
intention. Guilt also is principally predicated of the will: hence comes
the common observation, that everyone has the guilt of evil from
inheritance, but that the evil is from the man. Hence these adulteries
of the fourth degree are imputed as evils of purpose, and remain in as
guilt.
494. XIV. ADULTERIES OF THE THIRD AND FOURTH DEGREES ARE EVILS OF SIN,
ACCORDING TO THE QUANTITY AND QUALITY OF UNDERSTANDING AND WILL IN THEM,
WHETHER THEY ARE ACTUALLY COMMITTED OR NOT. That adulteries of the
reason or the understanding, which are of the third degree, and
adulteries of the will, which are of the fourth, are grievous,
consequently evils of sin, according to the quality of the understanding
and of the will in them, may be seen from the comment above concerning
them, n. 490-493. The reason of this is, because a man (_homo_) is a man
by virtue of the will and the understanding; for from these two
principles exist not only all the things which are done in the mind, but
also all those which are done in the body. Who does not know, that the
body does not act of itself, but the will by the body? also that the
mouth does not speak of itself, but the thought by the mouth? Wherefore
if the will were to be taken away, action would instantly be at a stand,
and if thought were to be taken away, the speech of the mouth would
instantly cease. Hence it is clearly manifest, that adulteries which are
actually committed, are grievous according to the quantity and quality
of the understanding of the will in them. That they are in like manner
grievous, if the same are not actually committed, appears from the
Lord's words: _It was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit
adultery; but I say unto you, that if any one hath looked at another's
woman, to lust after her, he hath already committed adultery with her in
heart_; Matt. v. 27, 28: to commit adultery in the heart is to commit it
in the will. There are many reasons which operate to prevent an
adulterer's being an adulterer in act, while he is still so in will and
understanding: for there are some who abstain from adulteries as to act
through fear of the civil law and its penalties; through fear of the
loss of reputation and thence of honor; through fear of disease thence
arising; through fear of quarrels at home on the part of a wife, and the
consequent loss of tranquillity; through fear of revenge on the part of
the husband and the next of kin; thus also through fear of being beaten
by the servants; through poverty or avarice; through imbecility arising
from disease, from abuse, from age, or from impotence, and consequent
shame: if any one restrains himself from actual adulteries, under the
influence of these and like reasons, and yet favors them in his will and
understanding, he is still an adulterer: for he believes nevertheless
that they are not sins, and he does not make them unlawful before God in
his spirit; and thus he commits them in spirit, although not in body
before the world; wherefore after death, when he becomes a spirit, he
speaks openly in favor of them.
495. XV. ADULTERIES GROUNDED IN PURPOSE OF THE WILL, AND ADULTERIES
GROUNDED IN CONFIRMATION OF THE UNDERSTANDING, RENDER MEN NATURAL,
SENSUAL, AND CORPOREAL. A man (_homo_) is a man, and is distinguished
from the beasts, by this circumstance, that his mind is distinguished
into three regions, as many as the heavens are distinguished into: and
that he is capable of being elevated out of the lowest region into the
next above it, and also from this into the highest, and thus of becoming
an angel of one heaven, and even of the third: for this end, there has
been given to man a faculty of elevating the understanding thitherto;
but if the love of his will is not elevated at the same time, he does
not become spiritual, but remains natural: nevertheless he retains the
faculty of elevating the understanding. The reason why he retains this
faculty is, that he may be reformed; for he is reformed by the
understanding: and this is effected by the knowledges of good and truth,
and by a rational intuition grounded therein, if he views those
knowledges rationally, and lives according to them, then the love of the
will is elevated at the same time, and in that degree the human
principle is perfected, and the man becomes more and more a man. It is
otherwise if he does not live according to the knowledges of good and
truth: in this case the love of his will remains natural, and his
understanding by turns becomes spiritual: for it raises itself upwards
alternately, like an eagle, and looks down upon what is of its love
beneath; and when it sees this, it flies down to it, and conjoins itself
with it: if therefore it loves the concupiscences of the flesh, it lets
itself down to these from its height, and in conjunction with them,
derives delight to itself from their delights; and again in quest of
reputation, that it may be believed wise, it lifts itself on high, and
thus rises and sinks by turns, as was just now observed. The reason why
adulterers of the third and fourth degree, who are such as from purpose
of the will and continuation of the understanding have made themselves
adulterers, are absolutely natural, and progressively become sensual and
corporeal, is, because they have immersed the love of their will, and
together with it their understanding, in the impurities of adulterous
love, and are delighted therewith, as unclean birds and beasts are with
stinking and dunghill filth as with dainties and delicacies: for the
effluvia arising from their flesh fill the recesses of the mind with
their dregs, and cause that the will, perceives nothing more dainty and
desirable. It is these who after death become corporeal spirits, and
from whom flow the unclean things of hell and the church, spoken of
above n. 430, 431.
496. There are three degrees of the natural man; in the first degree are
those who love only the world, placing their heart on wealth; these are
properly meant by the natural: in the second degree are those who love
only the delights of the senses, placing their heart on every kind of
luxury and pleasure; these are properly meant by the sensual: in the
third degree are those who love only themselves, placing their heart on
the quest of honor; these are properly meant by the corporeal, because
they immerse all things of the will, and consequently of the
understanding, in the body, and look backward at themselves from others,
and love only what belongs to themselves: but the sensual immerse all
things of the will and consequently of the understanding in the
allurements and fallacies of the senses, indulging in these alone;
whereas the natural pour forth into the world all things of the will and
understanding, covetously and fraudulently acquiring wealth, and
regarding no other use therein and thence but that of possession. The
above-mentioned adulteries change men in these degenerate degrees, one
into this, another into that, each according to his favorite taste for
what is pleasurable, in which taste his peculiar genius is grounded.
497. XVI. AND THIS TO SUCH A DEGREE THAT AT LENGTH THEY REJECT FROM
THEMSELVES ALL THINGS OF THE CHURCH AND OF RELIGION. The reason why
determined and continued adulterers reject from themselves all things of
the church and religion is, because the love of marriage and the love of
adultery are opposite, n. 425, and the love of marriage acts in unity
with the church and religion; see n. 130, and throughout the former
part; hence the love of adultery, as being opposite, acts in unity with
those things which are contrary to the church. A further reason why
those adulterers reject from themselves all things of the church and of
religion, is, because the love of marriage and the love of adultery are
opposite, as the marriage of good and truth is opposite to the
connection of evil and the false: see n. 427, 428; and the marriage of
good and truth constitutes the church, whereas the connection of evil
and the false constitutes the anti-church. A further reason why those
adulterers reject from themselves all things of the church and of
religion, is because the love of marriage and the love of adultery are
as opposite as heaven and hell, n. 429; and in heaven there is the love
of all things of the church, whereas in hell there is hatred against
them. A further reason why those adulterers reject from themselves all
things of the church and of religion, is, because, their delights
commence from the flesh, and are of the flesh also in the spirit, n.
440, 441; and the flesh is contrary to the spirit, that is, contrary to
the spiritual things of the church: hence also the delights of
adulterous love are called the pleasures of insanity. If you desire
demonstration in this case, go, I pray, to those whom you know to be
such adulterers, and ask them privately, what they think concerning God,
the church, and eternal life, and you will hear. The genuine reason is,
because as conjugial love opens the interiors of the mind; and thereby
elevates them above the sensual principles of the body, even into the
light and heat of heaven, so, on the other hand, the love of adultery
closes the interiors of the mind, and thrusts down the mind itself, as
to its will, into the body, even into all things which its flesh lusts
after; and the deeper it is so thrust down, the further it is removed
and set at a distance from heaven.
498. XVII. NEVERTHELESS THEY HAVE THE POWERS OF HUMAN RATIONALITY LIKE
OTHER MEN. That the natural man, the sensual, and the corporeal, is
equally rational, in regard to understanding, as the spiritual man, has
been proved to me from satans and devils arising by leave out of hell,
and conversing with angelic spirits in the world of spirits; concerning
whom, see the MEMORABLE RELATIONS throughout; but as the love of the
will makes the man, and this love draws the understanding into consent,
therefore such are not rational except in a state removed from the love
of the will; when they return again into this love, they are more
dreadfully insane than wild beasts. But a man, without the faculty of
elevating the understanding above the love of the will, would not be a
man but a beast; for a beast does not enjoy that faculty; consequently
neither would he be able to choose any thing, and from choice to do what
is good and expedient, and thus he would not be in a capacity to be
reformed, and to be led to heaven, and to live for ever. Hence it is,
that determined and confirmed adulterers, although they are merely
natural, sensual, and corporeal, still enjoy, like other men, the powers
of understanding or rationality: but when they are in the lust of
adultery, and think and speak from that lust concerning it, they do not
enjoy that rationality; because then the flesh acts on the spirit, and
not the spirit on the flesh. It is however to be observed, that these at
length after death become stupid; not that the faculty of growing wise
is taken away from them, but that they are unwilling to grow wise,
because wisdom is undelightful to them.
499. XVIII. BUT THEY USE THAT RATIONALITY WHILE THEY ARE IN EXTERNALS,
BUT ABUSE IT WHILE THEY ARE IN INTERNALS. They are in externals when
they converse abroad and in company, but in their internals when at home
or with themselves. If you wish, make the experiment; bring some person
of this character, as, for example, one of the order called Jesuits, and
cause him to speak in company, or to teach in a temple, concerning God,
the holy things of the church, and heaven and hell, and you will hear
him a more rational zealot than any other; perhaps also he will force
you to sighs and tears for your salvation; but take him into your house,
praise him excessively, call him the father of wisdom, and make yourself
his friend, until he opens his heart, and you will hear what he will
then preach concerning God, the holy things of the church, and heaven
and hell,--that they are mere fancies and delusions, and thus bonds
invented for souls, whereby great and small, rich and poor, may be
caught and bound, and kept under the yoke of their dominion. Let these
observations suffice for illustration of what is meant by natural men,
even to corporeal, enjoying the powers of human rationality like others,
and using it when they are in externals, but abusing it when in their
internals. The conclusion to be hence deduced is, that no one is to be
judged of from the wisdom of his conversation, but of his life in union
therewith.
* * * * *
500. To the above I will add the following MEMORABLE RELATION. On a
certain time in the spiritual world I heard a great tumult: there were
some thousands of people gathered together, who cried out, LET THEM BE
PUNISHED, LET THEM BE PUNISHED: I went nearer, and asked what the cry
meant? A person that was separate from the crowd, said to me, "They are
enraged against three priests, who go about and preach every where
against adulterers, saying, that adulterers have no acknowledgement of
God, and that heaven is closed to them and hell open; and that in hell
they are filthy devils, because they appear there at a distance like
swine wallowing in mire, and that the angels of heaven abominate them."
I inquired, "Where are the priests? and why is there such a vociferation
on that account?" He replied, "The three priests are in the midst of
them, guarded by attendants; and those who are gathered together are of
those who believe adulteries not to be sins, and who say, that
adulterers have an acknowledgement of God equally with those who keep to
their wives. They are all of them from the Christian world; and the
angels have been to see how many there were there who believe adulteries
to be sins; and out of a thousand they did not find a hundred." He then
told me that the nine hundred say concerning adulteries, "Who does not
know that the delight of adultery is superior to the delight of
marriage; that adulterers are in continual heat, and thence in alacrity,
industry, and active life, superior to those who live with only one
woman; and that on the other hand, love with a married partner grows
cold, and sometimes to such a degree, that at length scarce a single
expression or act of fellowship with her is alive; that it is otherwise
with harlots; that the mortification of life with a wife, arising from
defect of ability, is recruited and vivified by adulteries; and is not
that which recruits and vivifies of more consequence than that which
mortifies? What is marriage but allowed adultery? Who knows any
distinction between them? Can love be forced? and yet love with a wife
is forced by a covenant and laws. Is not love with a married partner the
love of the sex, which is so universal that it exists even among birds
and beasts? What is conjugial love but the love of the sex? and the love
of the sex is free with every woman. The reason why civil laws are
against adulteries is, because lawgivers have believed that to prohibit
adultery was connected with the public good; and yet lawgivers and
judges sometimes commit adultery, and say among themselves, 'Let him
that is without sin cast the first stone.' Who does not know that the
simple and religious alone believe adulteries to be sins, and that the
intelligent think otherwise, who like us view them by the light of
nature? Are not adulteries as prolific as marriages? Are not
illegitimate children as alert and qualified for the discharge of
offices and employments as the legitimate? Moreover families, otherwise
barren, are provided with offspring; and is not this an advantage and
not a loss? What harm can come to a wife from admitting several rivals?
And what harm can come to a man? To say that it brings disgrace upon a
man, is a frivolous idea grounded in mere fancy. The reason why adultery
is against the laws and statutes of the church, is owing to the
ecclesiastic order for the sake of power; but what have theological and
spiritual things to do with a delight merely corporeal and carnal? Are
not there instances of adulterous presbyters and monks? and are they
incapable on that account of acknowledging and worshipping God? Why
therefore do those three priests preach that adulterers have no
acknowledgement of God? We cannot endure such blasphemies; wherefore let
them be judged and punished." Afterwards I saw that they called judges,
whom they requested to pass sentence of punishment upon them: but the
judges said, "This is no part of our jurisdiction; for the point in
question is concerning the acknowledgement of God, and concerning sin,
and thus concerning salvation and damnation; and sentence in these cases
must come from heaven: but we will suggest a method to you, whereby you
may know whether these three priests have preached truths. There are
three places which we judges know, where such points are examined and
revealed in a singular manner: One place is, where a way into heaven is
open to all; but when they come into heaven, they themselves perceive
their own quality as to the acknowledgement of God: the second is, where
also a way is open into heaven; but no one can enter into that way
unless he has heaven in himself: and the third is where there is a way
to hell; and those who love infernal things enter that way of their own
accord, because from delight. We judges charge all to go to those places
who require judgement from us concerning heaven and hell." On hearing
this, those who were gathered together, said, "Let us go to those
places;" and while they were going to the first, where a way into heaven
is open to all, it suddenly became dark; wherefore some of them lighted
torches and carried them before. The judges who were with them said,
"This happens to all who go to the first place; as they approach, the
fire of the torches becomes more dim, and is extinguished in that place
by the light of heaven flowing in, which is a sign that they are there;
the reason of this is, because at first heaven is closed to them, and
afterwards is opened." They then came to that place, and when the
torches were extinguished of themselves, they saw a way tending
obliquely upwards into heaven: this those entered who were enraged
against the priests; among the first, these who were determined
adulterers, after them those who were confirmed adulterers; and as they
ascended, the first cried out, "Follow;" and those who followed cried
out, "Make haste;" and they pressed forward. After near an hour, when
they were all within in the heavenly society, there appeared a gulph
between them and the angels; and the light of heaven above the gulph
flowing into their eyes, opened the interiors of their minds, whereby
they were bound to speak as they interiorly thought; and then they were
asked by the angels, whether they acknowledged that God is? The first,
who were determined adulterers, replied, "What is God?" And they looked
at each other, and said, "Which of you has seen him?" The second, who
were confirmed adulterers, said, "Are not all things of nature? What is
there above nature but the sun?" And instantly the angels said to them,
"Depart from us; now you yourselves perceive that you have no
acknowledgement of God: when you descend, the interiors of your mind
will be closed and its exteriors opened, and then you can speak against
the interiors, and say that God is. Be assured that as soon as a man
actually becomes an adulterer, heaven is closed to him; and when heaven
is closed, God is not acknowledged. Hear the reason; every filthy
principle of hell is from adulterers, and it stinks in heaven like
putrid mire of the streets." On hearing these things they turned
themselves and descended by three ways; and when they were below, the
first and second groups conversing together said, "The priests have
conquered there; but we know that we can speak of God equally with them:
and when we say that he is, do we not acknowledge him? The interiors and
exteriors of the mind, of which the angels told us, are devised
fictions. But let us go to the second place pointed out by the judges,
where a way is open into heaven to those who have heaven in themselves,
thus to those who are about to come into heaven." When they were come
thither, a voice proceeded from that heaven, saying, "Shut the gates;
there are adulterers at hand." Then suddenly the gates were shut, and
the keepers with sticks in their hands drove them away; and they
delivered the three priests, against whom they had been tumultuous, from
the hands of their keepers, and introduced them into heaven: and
instantly, when the gates were open for the priests, there issued from
heaven upon the rebels the delightful principle of marriage, which, from
its being chaste and pure, almost deprived them of animation; wherefore,
for fear of fainting away through suffocation, they hastened to the
third place, concerning which the judges said, that thence there was a
way to hell; and instantly there issued from thence the delight of
adultery, whereby those who were either determined or confirmed
adulterers, were so vivified, that they descended as it were dancing,
and there like swine immersed themselves in filth.
* * * * *
ON THE LUST OF DEFLORATION.
501. The lusts treated of in the four following chapters, are not only
lusts of adultery, but are more grievous than those since they exist
only from adulteries, being taken to after adulteries are become
loathsome; as the lust of defloration, which is first treated of, and
which cannot previously exist with any one; in like manner the lust of
varieties, the lust of violation, and the lust of seducing innocencies,
which are afterwards treated of. They are called lusts, because
according to the quantity and quality of the lust for those things, such
and so great is their appropriation. In reference specifically to the
lust of defloration, its infamous villany shall be made manifest from
the following considerations: I. _The state of a maiden or undeflowered
woman before and after marriage._ II. _Virginity is the crown of
chastity, and the certificate of conjugial love._ III. _Defloration,
without a view to marriage as an end, is the villany of a robber._ IV.
_The lot of those who have confirmed themselves in the persuasion that
the lust of defloration is not an evil of sin, after death is grievous._
We proceed to explain them.
502. I. THE STATE OF A MAIDEN OR UNDEFLOWERED WOMAN BEFORE AND AFTER
MARRIAGE. What is the quality of the state of a maiden, before she has
been instructed concerning the various particulars of the conjugial
torch, has been made known to me by wives in the spiritual world, who
have departed out of the natural world in their infancy, and have been
educated in heaven. They said, that when they arrived at a marriageable
state, from seeing conjugial partners they began to love the conjugial
life, but only for the end that they might be called wives, and might
maintain friendly and confidential society with one man; and also, that
being removed from the house of obedience, they might become their own
mistresses: they also said, that they thought of marriage only from the
blessedness of mutual friendship and confidence with a husband, and not
at all from the delight of any flame; but that their maiden state after
marriage was changed into a new one, of which they previously had not
the least knowledge: and they declared, that this was a state of the
expansion of all things of the life of their body from first principles
to last, to receive the gifts of their husband, and to unite these gifts
to their own life, that thus they might become his love and his wife;
and that this state commenced from the moment of defloration, and that
after this the flame of love burned to the husband alone, and that they
were sensible of the heavenly delights of that expansion; and further,
that as each wife was introduced into this state by her own husband, and
as it is from him, and thereby his in herself, it is altogether
impossible for her to love any other than him alone. From this account
it was made manifest what is the quality of the state of maidens before
and after marriage in heaven. That the state of maidens and wives on
earth, whose first attachments prove successful, is similar to this of
the maidens in heaven, is no secret. What maiden can know that new state
before she is in it? Inquire, and you will hear. The case is different
with those who before marriage catch allurement from being taught.
503. II. VIRGINITY IS THE CROWN OF CHASTITY AND THE CERTIFICATE OF
CONJUGIAL LOVE. Virginity is called the crown of chastity, because it
crowns the chastity of marriage: it is also the badge of chastity;
wherefore the bride at the nuptials wears a crown on her head: it is
also a badge of the sanctity of marriage; for the bride, after the
maiden flower, gives and devotes herself wholly to the bridegroom, at
that time the husband, and the husband in his turn gives and devotes
himself wholly to the bride, at that time the wife. Virginity is also
called the certificate of conjugial love, because a certificate has
relation to a covenant; and the covenant is, that love may unite them
into one man, or into one flesh. The men themselves also before marriage
regard the virginity of the bride as a crown of her chastity, and as a
certificate of conjugial love, and as the very dainty from which the
delights of that love are about to commence and to be perpetuated. From
these and the foregoing considerations, it is manifest, that after the
zone is taken away, and the virginity is sipped, a maiden becomes a
wife, and if not a wife, she becomes a harlot; for the new state into
which she is then introduced, is a state of love for her husband, and if
not for her husband, it is a state of lust.
504. III. DEFLORATION, WITHOUT A VIEW TO MARRIAGE AS AN END, IS THE
VILLANY OF A ROBBER. Some adulterers are impelled by the cupidity of
deflowering maidens, and thence also of deflowering young girls in their
state of innocence: the enticements offered are either persuasions
suggested by pimps, or presents made by the men, or promises of
marriage; and those men after defloration leave them, and continually
seek for others: moreover, they are not delighted with the objects they
have left, but with a continual supply of new ones; and this lust
increases even till it becomes the chief of the delights of their flesh.
They add also to the above this abominable deed, that by various cunning
artifices they entice maidens about to be married or immediately after
marriage, to offer them the first-fruits of marriage, which also they
thus filthily defile. I have heard also, that when that heat with its
potency has failed, they glory in the number of virginities, as in so
many golden fleeces of Jason. This villany, which is that of committing
a rape, since it was begun in an age of strength, and afterwards
confirmed by boastings, remains rooted in, and thereby infixed after
death. What the quality of this villany is, appears from what was said
above, that virginity is the crown of chastity, the certificate of
future conjugial love, and that a maiden devotes her soul and life to
him to whom she devotes it; conjugial friendship and the confidence
thereof are also founded upon it. A woman likewise, deflowered by a man
of the above description, after this door of conjugial love is broken
through, loses all shame, and becomes a harlot, which is likewise to be
imputed to the robber as the cause. Such robbers, if, after having run
through a course of lewdness and profanation of chastity, they apply
their minds (_animus_) to marriage, have no other object in their mind
(_mens_) than the virginity of her who is to be their married partner;
and when they have attained this object, they loathe both bed and
chamber, yea also the whole female sex, except young girls: and whereas
such are violators of marriage, and despisers of the female sex, and
thereby spiritual robbers, it is evident that the divine Nemesis pursues
them.
505. IV. THE LOT OF THOSE WHO HAVE CONFIRMED THEMSELVES IN THE
PERSUASION THAT THE LUST OF DEFLORATION IS NOT AN EVIL OF SIN, AFTER
DEATH IS GRIEVOUS. Their lot is this: after they have passed the first
time of their stay in the spiritual world, which is a time of modesty
and morality, because spent in company with angelic spirits, they are
next, from their externals, led into their internals, and in this case
into the concupiscences with which they had been ensnared in the world,
and the angelic spirits into theirs, to the intent that it may appear in
what degree they had been ensnared; and if a lesser degree, that after
they have been let into them, they may be let out again, and may be
covered with shame. But those who had been principled in this malignant
lust to such a degree as to be made sensible of its eminent delight, and
to make a boast of those thefts as of the choicest spoils, do not suffer
themselves to be drawn away from it; wherefore they are let into their
freedom, and then they instantly wander about, and inquire after
brothels, and also enter them when they are pointed out; (these brothels
are on the sides of hell:) but when they meet with none but prostitutes
there, they go away, and inquire where there are maidens; and then they
are carried to harlots, who by phantasy can assume supereminent beauty,
and a florid girlish complexion, and boast themselves of being maidens;
and on seeing these they burn with desire towards them as they did in
the world: wherefore they bargain with them; but when they are about to
enjoy the bargain, the phantasy induced from heaven is taken away, and
then those pretended maidens appear in their own deformity, monstrous
and dark, to whom nevertheless they are compelled to cleave for a time:
those harlots are called sirens. But if by such fascinations they do not
suffer themselves to be draw away from that wild lust, they are cast
down into the hell lying to the south and west, beneath the hell of the
crafty courtezans, and there they are associated with their companions.
I have also been permitted to see them in that hell, and have been told
that many of noble descent, and the more opulent, are therein; but as
they had been such in the world, all remembrance of their descent and of
the dignity derived from their opulence is taken from them, and a
persuasion is induced on them that they have been vile slaves, and
thence were unworthy of all honor. Among themselves indeed they appear
as men: but when seen by others, who are allowed to look in thither,
they appear as apes, with a stern look instead of a courteous one, and a
horrid countenance instead of one of pleasantry. They walk with their
loins contracted, and thereby bent, the upper part of the body hanging
forward in front, as if they were ready to fall, and they emit a
disagreeable smell. They loathe the sex, and turn away from those they
see; for they have no desire towards them. Such they appear when seen
near at hand; but when viewed from afar, they appear like dogs of
indulgences, or whelps of delight; and there is also heard somewhat like
barking in the tone of their speech.
* * * * *
ON THE LUST OF VARIETIES.
506. The lust of varieties here treated of, does not mean the lust of
fornication, which was treated of above in its proper chapter: the
latter lust, notwithstanding its being usually promiscuous and vague,
still does not occasion the lust of varieties, unless when it is
immoderate, and the fornicator looks to number, and boasts thereof from
a principle of cupidity. This idea causes a beginning of this lust; but
what its quality is as it advances, cannot be distinctly perceived,
unless in some such series as the following: I. _By the lust of
varieties is meant the entirely dissolute lust of adultery._ II. _That
lust is love and at the same time loathing in regard to the sex._ III.
_That lust altogether annihilates conjugial love appertaining to
itself._ IV. _The lot of those (who have been addicted to that lust),
after death, is miserable, since they have not the inmost principle of
life._ We proceed to an explanation of each article.
507. I. BY THE LUST OF VARIETIES IS MEANT THE ENTIRELY DISSOLUTE LUST OF
ADULTERY. This lust insinuates itself with those who in youth have
relaxed the bonds of modesty, and have had opportunities of association
with many loose women, especially if they have not wanted the means of
satisfying their pecuniary demands. They implant and root this lust in
themselves by immoderate and unlimited adulteries, and by shameless
thoughts concerning the love of the female sex, and by confirming
themselves in the idea that adulteries are not evils, and not at all
sins. This lust increases with them as it advances, so much so that they
desire all the women in the world, and wish for whole troops, and a
fresh one every day. Whereas this love separates itself from the common
love of the sex implanted in every man, and altogether from the love of
one of the sex, which is conjugial love, and inserts itself into the
exteriors of the heart as a delight of love separate from those loves,
and yet derived from them; therefore it is so thoroughly rooted in the
cuticles, that it remains in the touch when the powers are decayed.
Persons addicted to this lust make light of adulteries; wherefore they
think of the whole female sex as of a common harlot, and of marriage as
of a common harlotry, and thereby mix immodesty in modesty, and from the
mixture grow insane. From these considerations it is evident what is
here meant by the lust of varieties, that it is the lust of entirely
dissolute adultery.
508. II. THAT LUST IS LOVE AND AT THE SAME TIME LOATHING IN REGARD TO
THE SEX. Persons addicted to that lust have a love for the sex, because
they derive variety from the sex; and they have a loathing for the sex,
because after enjoying a woman they reject her and lust after others.
This obscene lust burns towards a fresh woman, and after burning, it
grows cold towards her; and cold is loathing. That this lust is love and
at the same time loathing in regard to the sex, may be illustrated as
follows: set on the left side a company of the women whom they have
enjoyed, and on the right side a company of those whom they have not;
would not they look at the latter company from love, but at the former
from loathing? and yet each company is the sex.
509. III. THAT LUST ALTOGETHER ANNIHILATES CONJUGIAL LOVE APPERTAINING
TO ITSELF. The reason of this is, because that lust is altogether
opposite to conjugial love, and so opposite, that it not only rends it
asunder, but as it were grinds it to powder, and thereby annihilates it:
for conjugial love is confined to one of the sex; whereas that lust does
not stop at one, but within an hour or a day is as intensely cold as it
was before hot towards her; and since cold is loathing, the latter by
forced cohabitation and dwelling together is so accumulated as to become
nauseous, and thus conjugial love is consumed to such a degree that
nothing of it is left. From these considerations it may be seen, that
this lust is fatal to conjugial love; and as conjugial love constitutes
the inmost principle of life with man, that it is fatal to his life; and
that that lust, by successive interceptions and closings of the
interiors of the mind, at length becomes cuticular, and thus merely
alluring; while the faculty of understanding or rationality still
remains.
510. IV. THE LOT OF THOSE (WHO HAVE BEEN ADDICTED TO THAT LUST) AFTER
DEATH IS MISERABLE, SINCE THEY HAVE NOT THE INMOST PRINCIPLE OF LIFE.
Every one has excellence of life according to his conjugial love; for
that excellence conjoins itself with the life of the wife, and by
conjunction exalts itself; but as with those of whom we are speaking
there does not remain the least principle of conjugial love, and
consequently not anything of the inmost principle of life, therefore
their lot after death is miserable. After passing a certain period of
time in their externals, in which they converse rationally and act
civilly, they are let into their internals, and in this case into a
similar lust and its delights, in the same degree as in the world: for
every one after death is let into the same state of life which he had
appropriated to himself, to the intent that he may be withdrawn from it;
for no one can be withdrawn from this evil, unless he has first been led
into it; if he were not to be led into it, the evil would conceal
itself, and defile the interiors of the mind, and spread itself as a
plague, and would next burst through all barriers and destroy the
external principles of the body. For this end there are opened to them
brothels, which are on the side of hell, where there are harlots with
whom they have an opportunity of varying their lusts; but this is
granted with the restriction to one harlot in a day, and under a penalty
in case of communication with more than one on the same day. Afterwards,
when from examination it appears that that lust is so inbred that they
cannot be withdrawn from it, they are conveyed to a certain place which
is next above the hell assigned for them, and then they appear to
themselves as if they fall into a swoon, and to others as if they fall
down with the face upward; and also the ground beneath their backs is
actually opened, and they are absorbed, and sink down into hell among
their like; thus they are gathered to their own. I have been permitted
to see them there, and likewise to converse with them. Among themselves
they appear as men, which is granted them lest they should be a terror
to their companions; but at a certain distance they seem to have white
faces consisting only of skin, and this because they have no spiritual
life in them, which every one has according to the conjugial principle
sown in him. Their speech is dry, parched, and sorrowful: when they are
hungry, they lament; and their lamentations are heard as a peculiar
clashing noise. Their garments are tattered, and their lower garments
are drawn above the belly round about the breast; because they have no
loins, but their ankles commence from the region of the bottom of the
belly: the reason of this is, because the loins with men (_homines_)
correspond to conjugial love, and they are void of this love. They said
that they loathe the sex on account of their having no potency.
Nevertheless, among themselves they can reason as from rationality; but
since they are cutaneous, they reason from the fallacies of the senses.
This hell is in the western quarter towards the north. These same
persons, when seen from afar, appear not as men or as monsters, but as
frozen substances. It is however to be observed, that those become of
this description who have indulged in the above lust to such a degree as
to rend and annihilate in themselves the conjugial human principle.
* * * * *
ON THE LUST OF VIOLATION.
511. The lust of violation does not mean the lust of defloration, which
is the violation of virginities, but not of maidens when it is effected
from consent; whereas the lust of violation, which is here treated of,
retreats in consequence of consent, and is sharpened in consequence of
refusal; and it is the passion of violating all women whatever, who
altogether refuse, and violently resist, whether they be maidens, or
widows, or wives. Persons addicted to this lust are like robbers and
pirates, who are delighted with spoil and plunder, and not with what is
given and justly acquired; and they are like malefactors, who covet what
is disallowed and forbidden, and despise what is allowed and granted.
These violators are altogether averse to consent, and are set on fire by
resistance, which if they observe to be not internal, the ardor of their
lust is instantly extinguished, as fire is by water thrown upon it. It
is well known, that wives do not spontaneously submit themselves to the
disposal of their husbands as to the ultimate effects of love, and that
from prudence they resist as they would resist violation, to the end
that they may take away from their husbands the cold arising from the
consideration of enjoyments being cheap in consequence of being
continually allowed, and also in consequence of an idea of
lasciviousness on their part. These repugnancies, although they
enkindle, still are not the causes, but only the beginnings of this
lust: its cause is, that after conjugial love and also adulterous love
have grown insipid by practice, they are willing, in order that those
loves may be repaired, to be set on fire by absolute repugnances. This
lust thus begun, afterwards increases, and as it increases it despises
and breaks through all bounds of the love of the sex, and exterminates
itself, and from a lascivious, corporeal, and fleshly love, becomes
cartilaginous and bony; and then, from the periosteurns, which have an
acute feeling, it becomes acute. Nevertheless this lust is rare, because
it exists only with those who had entered into the married state, and
then had lived in the practice of adulteries until they became insipid.
Besides this natural cause of this lust, there is also a spiritual
cause, of which something will be said in what follows.
512. The lot of persons of this character after death is as follows:
these violators then separate themselves from those who are in the
limited love of the sex, and altogether from those who are in conjugial
love, thus from heaven: afterwards they are sent to the most cunning
harlots, who not only by persuasion, but also by imitation perfectly
like that of a stage-player, can feign and represent as if they were
chastity itself. These harlots clearly discern those who are principled
in the above lust: in their presence they speak of chastity and its
value; and when the violator comes near and touches them, they are full
of wrath, and fly away as through terror into a closet, where there is a
couch and a bed, and slightly close the door after them, and recline
themselves; and hence by their art they inspire the violator with an
ungovernable desire of breaking down the door, of rushing in, and
attacking them; and when this is effected, the harlot raising herself
erect with the violator begins to fight with her hands and nails,
tearing his face, rending his clothes, and with a furious voice crying
to the harlots her companions, as to her female servants, for
assistance, and opening the window with a loud outcry of thief, robber,
and murderer; and when the violator is at hand she bemoans herself and
weeps: and after violation she prostrates herself, howls, and calls out
that she is undone, and at the same time threatens in a serious tone,
that unless he expiates the violation by paying a considerable sum, she
will attempt his destruction. While they are engaged in these venereal
scenes, they appear at a distance like cats, which nearly in like manner
before their conjunctions combat together, run forward, and make an
outcry. After some such brothel-contests, they are taken away, and
conveyed into a cavern, where they are forced to some work: but as their
smell is offensive, in consequence of having rent asunder the conjugial
principle, which is the chief jewel of human life, they are sent to the
borders of the western quarters, where at a certain distance they appear
lean, as if consisting of bones covered over with skin only; but when
seen at a distance they appear like panthers. When I was permitted to
see them nearer, I was surprised that some of them held books in their
hands, and were reading; and I was told that this is the case, because
in the world they said various things concerning the spiritual things of
the church, and yet defiled them by adulteries, even to their
extremities, and that such was the correspondence of this lust with the
violation of spiritual marriage. But it is to be observed, that the
instances of those who are principled in this lust are rare: certain it
is, that women, because it is unbecoming for them to prostitute love,
are repugnant thereto, and that repugnance enervates; nevertheless this
is not from any lust of violation.
* * * * *
THE LUST OF SEDUCING INNOCENCIES.
513. The lust of seducing innocencies is neither the lust of
defloration, nor the lust of violation, but is peculiar and singular by
itself; it prevails more especially with the deceitful. The women, who
appear to them as innocencies, are such as regard the evil of adultery
as an enormous sin, and who therefore highly prize chastity, and at the
same time piety: these women are the objects which set them on fire. In
Roman Catholic countries there are maidens devoted to the monastic life;
and because they believe these maidens to be pious innocencies above the
rest of their sex, they view them as the dainties and delicacies of
their lust. With a view of seducing either the latter or the former
because they are deceitful, they first devise arts, and next, when they
have well digested them, without receiving any check from shame, they
practise them as from nature. These arts are principally pretences of
innocence, love, chastity, and piety; by these and other cunning
stratagems, they enter into the interior friendship of such women, and
thence into their love, which they change from spiritual into natural by
various persuasions and at the same time by insinuations, and afterwards
into corporeal-carnal by irritations, and then they take possession of
them at pleasure; and when they have attained this end, they rejoice in
heart, and make a mock of those whom they have violated.
514. The lot of these seducers after death is sad, since such seduction
is not only impiety, but also malignity. After they have passed through
their first period in the spiritual world, which is in externals,
wherein they excel many others in the elegance of their manners and the
courteousness of their speech, they are reduced to another period of
their life, which is in internals, wherein their lust is set at liberty,
and commences its sport; and then they are first conveyed to women who
had made vows of chastity, and with these they are examined as to the
quality of their malignant concupiscence, to the intent that they may
not be judged except on conviction: when they are made sensible of the
chastity of those women, their deceit begins to act, and to attempt its
crafty arts; but as this is to no purpose, they depart from them. They
are afterwards introduced to women of genuine innocence; and when they
attempt to deceive these in like manner, by virtue of a power given to
those women, they are heavily fined; for they occasion in their hands
and feet a grievous numbness; likewise in their necks, and at length
make them feel as it were a swoon; and when they have inflicted this
punishment, they run away and escape from the sufferers. After this
there is a way opened to them to a certain company of courtezans, who
have been versed in the art of cunningly feigning innocence: and these
first expose them to laughter among themselves, and at length after
various engagements suffer themselves to be violated. After some such
scenes, a third period takes place, which is that of judgement; and in
this case, being convicted, they sink down, and are gathered to their
like in the hell which is in the northern quarter, and there they appear
at a distance like weasels; but if they have allured by deceit, they are
conveyed down from this hell to that of the deceitful, which is in the
western quarter at a depth to the back; in this hell they appear at a
distance like serpents of various kinds; and the most deceitful like
vipers: but in the hell into which I was permitted to look, they
appeared to me as if they were ghastly pale, with faces of chalk: and as
they are mere concupiscences, they do not like to speak: and if they do
speak, they only mutter and stammer various things, which are understood
by none but their companions who are near them; but presently, as they
sit or stand, they make themselves unseen, and fly about in the cavern
like phantoms; for on this occasion they are in phantasy, and phantasy
appears to fly: after flying they rest themselves, and then, what is
wonderful, one does not know another; the cause of this is, because they
are principled in deceit, and deceit does not believe another, and
thereby withdraws itself. When they are made sensible of any thing
proceeding from conjugial love, they fly away into hiding places and
conceal themselves. They are also void of all love of the sex, and are
real impotencies, and are called infernal genii.
* * * * *
ON THE CORRESPONDENCE OF ADULTERIES WITH THE VIOLATION OF SPIRITUAL
MARRIAGE.
515. I should here say something, in the way of preface, concerning
correspondence; but the subject does not properly belong to the present
work. The nature and meaning of correspondence may be seen in a brief
summary above, n. 76, and n. 342; and fully in the APOCALYPSE REVEALED,
from beginning to end, that it is between the natural sense of the Word
and the spiritual sense. That in the Word there is a natural and a
spiritual sense, and a correspondence between them, has been
demonstrated in the DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED
SCRIPTURE, and especially, n. 5-26.
516. The spiritual marriage means the marriage of the Lord and the
church, spoken of above, n. 116-131; and hence also the marriage of good
and truth, likewise spoken of above, n. 83-102; and as this marriage of
the Lord and the church, and the consequent marriage of good and truth,
is in everything of the Word, it is the violation of this which is here
meant by the violation of the spiritual marriage; for the church is from
the Word, and the Word is the Lord: the Lord is the Word, because he is
divine good and divine truth therein. That the Word is that marriage,
may be seen fully confirmed in the DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE, n. 80-90.
517. Since therefore the violation of the spiritual marriage is the
violation of the Word, it is evident that this violation is the
adulteration of good and the falsification of truth, for the spiritual
marriage is the marriage of good and truth; whence it follows, that when
the good of the Word is adulterated, and its truth falsified, the above
marriage is violated. How this violation is effected, and by whom, is in
some measure evident from what follows.
518. Above, in treating of the marriage of the Lord and the church, n.
116, and the following numbers, and in treating of the marriage of good
and truth, n. 83, and the following numbers, it was shewn, that that
marriage corresponds to marriages in the world: hence it follows, that
the violation of that marriage corresponds to whoredoms and adulteries.
That this is the case, is very manifest from the Word itself, in that
whoredoms and adulteries there signify the falsifications of truth and
the adulterations of good, as may be plainly seen from numerous passages
adduced out of the Word in the APOCALYPSE REVEALED, n. 134.
519. The Word is violated by those in the Christian church who
adulterate its goods and truths; and those do this who separate truth
from good and good from truth; also, who assume and confirm appearances
of truth and fallacies for genuine truths; and likewise, who know truths
of doctrine derived from the Word, and live evil lives, not to mention
other like cases. These violations of the Word and the church correspond
to the prohibited degrees, mentioned in Levit, chap. xviii.
520. As the natural principle and the spiritual appertaining to every
man (_homo_), cohere as soul and body, (for a man without the spiritual
principle which flows into and vivifies his natural principle, is not a
man), it hence follows, that whoever is in spiritual marriage is also in
happy natural marriage; and on the contrary, that whoever is in
spiritual adultery is also in natural adultery, and whoever is in
natural adultery is also in spiritual adultery. Now since all who are in
hell are in the nuptial connection of evil and the false, and this is
essential spiritual adultery; and all who are in heaven are in the
marriage of good and truth, and this is essential marriage; therefore
hell in the total is called adultery, and heaven in the total is called
marriage.
* * * * *
521. To the above shall be added this MEMORABLE RELATION. My sight being
opened, I saw a shady forest, and therein a crowd of satyrs: the satyrs
as to their breasts were rough and hairy, and as to their feet some were
like calves, some like panthers, and some like wolves, and they had
beasts' claws instead of toes. These were running to and fro like wild
beasts, crying out, "Where are the women?" and instantly I saw some
harlots who were expecting them, and who in various ways were monstrous.
The satyrs ran towards them, and laid hold of them, dragging them into a
cavern, which was in the midst of the forest deep beneath the earth; and
upon the ground round about the cavern lay a great serpent in spiral
foldings, breathing poison into the cavern: in the branches of the
forest above the serpent dismal birds of night croaked and screeched.
But the satyrs and harlots did not see these things, because they were
the correspondences of their lasciviousnesses, and therefore their usual
appearances at a distance. Afterwards they came out of the cavern, and
entered a certain low cottage, which was a brothel; and then being
separated from the harlots they talked together, and I listened; for
conversation in the spiritual world may be heard by a distant person as
if he was present, the extent of space in that world being only an
appearance. They talked about marriages, nature, and religion. Those who
as to the feet appeared like calves, spoke concerning MARRIAGES, and
said, "What are marriages but licit adulteries? and what is sweeter than
adulterous hypocrisies, and the making fools of husbands?" At this the
rest clapped their hands with a loud laugh. The satyrs who as to the
feet appeared as panthers, spoke concerning NATURE, and said, "What is
there but nature? What distinction is there between a man and a beast,
except that a man can speak articulately and a beast sonorously? Does
not each derive life from heat, and understanding from light, by the
operation of nature?" Hereupon the rest exclaimed, "Admirable! you speak
from judgement." Those who as to the feet appeared like wolves, spoke
concerning RELIGION, saying, "What is God or a divine principle, but the
inmost principles of nature in action? What is religion but a device to
catch and bind the vulgar?" Hereupon the rest vociferated, "Bravo!"
After a few minutes they rushed forth, and in so doing they saw me at a
distance looking attentively at them. Being provoked at this, they ran
out from the forest, and with a threatening countenance directed their
course hastily towards me, and said, "What are you doing here, listening
to our whispers?" I replied, "Why should I not? what is to hinder me?
you were only talking together:" and I related what I had heard from
them. Hereupon their minds (_animi_) were appeased, which was through
fear lest their sentiments should be divulged; and then they began to
speak modestly and to act bashfully; from which circumstance I knew that
they were not of mean descent but of honorable birth; and then I told
them, how I saw them in the forest as satyrs, twenty as calf-satyrs, six
as panther-satyrs, and four as wolf-satyrs; they were thirty in number.
They were surprised at this, because they saw themselves there as men,
and nothing else, in like manner as they saw themselves here with me. I
then taught them, that the reason of their so appearing was from their
adulterous lust, and that this satyr-like form was a form of dissolute
adultery, and not a form of a person. This happened, I said, because
every evil concupiscence presents a likeness of itself in some form,
which is not perceived by those who are in the concupiscence, but by
those who are at a distance: I also said, "To convince you of it, send
some from among you into that forest, and do you remain here, and look
at them." They did so, and sent away two; and viewing them from near the
above brothel-cottage, they saw them altogether as satyrs; and when they
returned, they saluted those satyrs, and said, "Oh what ridiculous
figures!" While they were laughing, I jested a good deal with them, and
told them that I had also seen adulterers as hogs; and then I
recollected the fable of Ulysses and the Circe, how she sprinkled the
companions and servants of Ulysses with poisonous herbs, and touched
them with a magic wand, and turned them into hogs,--perhaps into
adulterers, because she could not by any art turn any one into a hog.
After they had made themselves exceedingly merry on this and other like
subjects, I asked them whether they then knew to what kingdoms in the
world they had belonged? They said, they had belonged to various
kingdoms, and they named Italy, Poland, Germany, England, Sweden; and I
enquired, whether they had seen any one from Holland of their party? And
they said, Not one. After this I gave the conversation a serious turn,
and asked them, whether they had ever thought that adultery is sin? They
replied, "What is sin? we do not know what it means." I then inquired,
whether they ever remembered that adultery was contrary to the sixth
commandment of the Decalogue. [Footnote: According to the division of
the commandments adopted by the Church of England, it is the _seventh_
that is here referred to.] They replied, "What is the Decalogue? Is not
it the catechism? What have we men to do with that childish pamphlet?" I
asked them, whether they had ever thought at all about hell. They
replied, "Who ever came up thence to give us information?" I asked,
whether they had ever thought at all in the world about a life after
death. They said, "Just as much as about the future life of beasts, and
at times as about phantoms, which exhale from dead bodies and float
about." I further asked them, whether they had heard any thing from the
priests on any of these subjects. They replied, that they had attended
only to the sound of their voices, and not to the matter; and what is
it? Being astonished at these answers, I said to them, "Turn your faces,
and direct your eyes to the midst of the forest, where the cavern is in
which you have been;" and they turned themselves, and saw that great
serpent around the cavern in spiral foldings, breathing poison, and also
the doleful birds in the branches over the serpents. I then asked them,
"What do you see?" But being much terrified, they did not answer; and I
said, "Do you see the dreadful sight? Know then that this is a
representative of adultery in the baseness of its lust." Suddenly at
that instant an angel presented himself, who was a priest, and opened
the hell in the western quarter into which such spirits are at length
collected; and he said, "Look thither:" and they saw that firy lake, and
knew there some of their friends in the world, who invited them to
themselves. Having seen and heard these things, they turned themselves
away, and rushed out of my sight, and retired from the forest; but I
observed their steps, that they only pretended to retire, and that by
winding ways they returned into the forest.
522. After this I returned home, and the next day, from a recollection
of these sad scenes, I looked to the same forest, and saw that it had
disappeared, and in its place there was a sandy plain, and in the midst
thereof a lake, in which were some red serpents. But some weeks after
when I was looking thither again, I saw on its right side some fallow
land, and upon it some husbandmen; and again, after some weeks I saw
springing out of that fallow land some tilled land surrounded with
shrubs; and I then heard a voice from heaven, "Enter into your chamber,
and shut the door, and apply to the work begun on the Apocalypse, and
finish it within two years."
* * * * *
ON THE IMPUTATION OF EACH LOVE, ADULTEROUS AND CONJUGIAL.
523. THE LORD SAITH, JUDGE NOT, THAT YE BE NOT CONDEMNED, Matt. vii. 1;
which cannot in any wise mean judgement respecting any one's moral and
civil life in the world, but respecting his spiritual and celestial
life. Who does not see, that unless a man was allowed to judge
respecting the moral life of those who live with him in the world,
society would perish? What would society be if there were no public
judicature, and if every one did not exercise his judgement respecting
another? But to judge what is the quality of the interior mind, or soul,
thus what is the quality of any one's spiritual state, and thence what
his lot is after death, is not allowed; for that is known only to the
Lord: neither does the Lord reveal this till after the person's decease,
to the intent that every one may act freely in whatever he does, and
thereby that good or evil may be from him, and thus be in him, and that
thence he may live to himself and live his own to eternity. The reason
why the interiors of the mind, which are kept hid in the world, are
revealed after death is, because this is of importance and advantage to
the societies into which the man then comes; for in them all are
spiritual. That those interiors are then revealed, is plain from these
words of the Lord: _There is nothing concealed, which shall not be
revealed, or hidden, which shall not be known: therefore whatsoever
things ye have said in darkness, shall be heard in light: and that which
ye have spoken into the ear in closets shall be preached on the
house-tops_, Luke xii. 2, 3. A common judgement, as this for
instance,--"If you are such in internals as you appear to be in
externals, you will be saved or condemned," is allowed; but a particular
judgement, as this, for instance,--"You are such in internals, therefore
you will be saved or condemned," is not allowed. Judgement concerning
the spiritual life of a man, or the internal life of the soul, is meant
by the imputation which is here treated of. Can any human being know and
decide who is in heart an adulterer, and who a conjugial partner? And
yet the thoughts of the heart, which are the purposes of the will, judge
every one. But we will explain this subject in the following order: I.
_The evil in which every one is principled is imputed to him after
death; and so also the good._ II. _The transference of the good of one
person into another is impossible._ III. _Imputation, if by it is meant
such transference, is a frivolous term._ IV. _Evil is imputed to every
one according to the quality of his will and his understanding; in like
manner good._ V. _Thus adulterous love is imputed to every one._ VI. _In
like manner conjugial love._ We proceed to the explanation of each
article.
524. I. THE EVIL IN WHICH EVERY ONE IS PRINCIPLED, IS IMPUTED TO HIM
AFTER DEATH; AND SO ALSO THE GOOD. To make this proposition in some
degree evident, it shall be considered according to the following
arrangement: 1. That every one has a life peculiar to himself. 2. That
every one's life remains with him after death. 3. That to an evil person
is then imputed the evil of his life, and to a good person the good of
his life. As to the first point,--that everyone has a life peculiar to
himself, thus distinct from that of another, it is well known; for there
is a perpetual variety, and there is not any thing the same as another,
consequently everyone has his own peculiar principle. This is evident
from men's faces, the faces of no two persons being absolutely alike,
nor can there be two alike to eternity: the reason of this is, because
there are no two minds (_animi_) alike, and faces are derived from
minds; for the face, as it is said, is a type of the mind, and the mind
derives its origin and form from the life. Unless a man (_homo_) had a
life peculiar to himself, as he has a mind and a face peculiar to
himself, he would not have any life after death, separate from that of
another; yea, neither would there be a heaven, for heaven consists of
perpetual varieties; its form is derived solely from the varieties of
souls and minds arranged into such an order as to make a one; and they
make a one from the One, whose life is in every thing therein as the
soul is in a man: unless this was the case, heaven would be dispersed,
because form would be dissolved. The One from whom all things have life,
and from whom form coheres, is the Lord. In general every form consists
of various things, and is such as is their harmonic co-ordination and
arrangement to a one: such is the human form; and hence it is that a
man, consisting of so many members, viscera, and organs, is not sensible
of any thing in himself and from himself but as of a one. As to the
SECOND point,--that every one's life remains with him after death, it is
known in the church from these passages of the Word: _The Son of Man
will come and will then render to every one according to his deeds_,
Matt. xvi. 27. _I saw the books open; and all were judged according to
their works_, Rev. xx. 12. _In the day of judgement God will render to
every one according to his works_, Rom. ii. 6; 2 Cor. v. 10. The works,
according to which it will be rendered to every one, are the life,
because the life does the works, and they are according to the life. As
I have been permitted for several years to be associated with angels,
and to converse with the deceased, I can testify for certain, that every
one is then examined as to the quality of the life which he has led, and
that the life which he has contracted in the world abides with him to
eternity. I have conversed with those who lived ages ago, whose life I
have been acquainted with from history, and I have known it to be like
the description given of it; and I have heard from the angels, that no
one's life after death can be changed, because it is organized according
to his love and consequent works; and that if it were changed the
organization would be rent asunder, which cannot be done in any case;
also that a change of organization can only be effected in the material
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