The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love: To Which is Added The Pleasures of Insanity Pertaining To Scortatory LoveSwedenborg, Emanuel
Religion
The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love: To Which is Added The Pleasures of Insanity Pertaining To Scortatory Love
Swedenborg, Emanuel
Marriage -- Religious aspects -- New Jerusalem Church; New Jerusalem Church -- Doctrines; Sexual ethics
ignorant what conjugial love is, because it is cold with you; from what
you have said we are convinced that you are of the age which has its
name from and consists of iron and clay, which do not cohere, according
to the prophecy in Daniel, chap. ii. 43; for you make conjugial love and
adulterous love the same thing; and do these two cohere any more than
iron and clay? You are believed and called wise, and yet you have not
the smallest pretensions to that character." On hearing this, they were
inflamed with rage and made a loud cry, and called the crowd together to
cast us out; but at that instant, by virtue of power given us by the
Lord, we stretched out our hands, and lo! the flying serpents, vipers,
and hydras, and also the dragons from the wilderness, presented
themselves, and entered and filled the city; at which the inhabitants
being terrified fled away. The angel then said to me, "Into this region
new comers from the earth daily enter, and the former inhabitants are by
turns separated and cast down into the gulphs of the west, which appear
at a distance like lakes of fire and brimstone. All in those gulphs are
spiritual and natural adulterers."
80. THE SIXTH MEMORABLE RELATION. As the angel said this, I looked to
the western boundary, and lo! there appeared as it were lakes of fire
and brimstone; and I asked him, why the hells in that quarter had such
an appearance? He replied, "They appear as lakes in consequence of the
falsifications of truth; because water in the spiritual sense signifies
truth; and there is an appearance as it were of fire round about them,
and in them, in consequence of the love of evil, and as it were of
brimstone in consequence of the love of what is false. Those three
things, the lake, the fire, and the brimstone, are appearances, because
they are correspondences of the evil loves of the inhabitants. All in
that quarter are shut up in eternal work-houses, where they labor for
food, for clothing, and for a bed to lie on; and when they do evil, they
are grievously and miserably punished." I further asked the angel, why
he said that in that quarter are spiritual and natural adulterers, and
why he had not rather said, that they were evil doers and impious? He
replied, "Because all those who make light of adulteries, that is, who
commit them from a confirmed persuasion that they are not sins, and thus
are in the purpose of committing them from a belief of their being
harmless, are in their hearts evil doers and impious; for the conjugial
human principle ever goes hand in hand with religion; and every step and
movement made under the influence of religion, and leading to it, is
also a step and movement made under the influence of the conjugial
principle, and leading to it, which is peculiar and proper to the
Christian." On asking what that conjugial principle was, he said, "It is
the desire of living with one wife; and every Christian has this desire
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account