355. THE SECOND MEMORABLE RELATION. On a time as I was looking into the spiritual world, I saw in a certain green field some men, whose garments were like those worn by men of this world; from which circumstance I knew that they were lately deceased. I approached them and stood near them, that I might hear what they were conversing about. Their conversation was about heaven; and one of them who knew something respecting it, said, "In heaven there are wonderful things, such as no one can believe unless he has seen them: there are paradisiacal gardens, magnificent palaces constructed according to the rules of architecture, because the work of the art itself, resplendent with gold; in the front of which are columns of silver; and on the columns heavenly forms made of precious stones; also houses of jasper and sapphire, in the front of which are stately porticos, through which the angels enter; and within the houses handsome furniture, which no art or words can describe. The angels themselves are of both sexes: there are youths and husbands, also maidens and wives: maids so beautiful, that nothing in the world bears any resemblance to their beauty; and wives still more beautiful, who are genuine images of celestial love, and their husbands images of celestial wisdom; and all these are ever approaching the full bloom of youth; and what is more, they know no other love of the sex than conjugial love; and, what you will be surprised to hear, the husbands there have a perpetual faculty of enjoyment." When the novitiate spirits heard that no other love of the sex prevailed in heaven than conjugial love, and that they had a perpetual faculty of enjoyment, they smiled at each other, and said, "What you tell us is incredible; there cannot be such a faculty: possibly you are amusing us with idle tales." But at that instant a certain angel from heaven unexpectedly stood in the midst of them, and said, "Hear me, I beseech you; I am an angel of heaven, and have lived now a thousand years with my wife, and during that time have been in the same flower of my age in which you here see me. This is in consequence of the conjugial love in which I have lived with my wife; and I can affirm, that the above faculty has been and is perpetual with me; and because I perceive that you believe this to be impossible, I will talk with you on the subject from a ground of rational argument according to the light of your understanding. You do not know anything of the primeval state of man, which you call a state of integrity. In that state all the interiors of the mind were open even to the Lord; and hence they were in the marriage of love and wisdom, or of good and truth; and as the good of love and the truth of wisdom perpetually love each other, they also perpetually desire to be united; and when the interiors of the mind are open, the conjugial spiritual love flows down freely with its perpetual endeavour, and presents the above faculty. The very soul of a man (homo), being in the marriage of good and truth, is not only in the perpetual endeavour of that union, but also in the perpetual endeavour of the fructification and production of its own likeness; and since the interiors of a man even from the soul are open by virtue of that marriage, and the interiors continually regard as an end the effect in ultimates that they may exist, therefore that perpetual endeavor for fructifying and producing its like, which is the property of the soul, becomes also of the body: and since the ultimate of the operation of the soul in the body with two conjugial partners is into the ultimates of love therein, and these depend on the state of the soul, it is evident whence they derive this perpetuality. Fructification also is perpetual, because the universal sphere of generating and propagating the celestial things which are of love, and the spiritual things which are of wisdom, and thence the natural things which are of offspring, proceeds from the Lord, and fills all heaven and all the world; and that celestial sphere fills the souls of all men, and descends through their minds into the body even to its ultimates, and gives the power of generating. But this cannot be the case with any but those with whom a passage is open from the soul through the superior and inferior principles of the mind into the body to its ultimates, as is the case with those who suffer themselves to be led back by the Lord into the primeval state of creation. I can confirm that now for a thousand years I have never wanted faculty, strength, or vigor, and that I am altogether a stranger to any diminution of powers, which are continually renewed by the influx of the above-mentioned sphere, and in such case also cheer the mind (animum), and do not make it sad, as is the case with those who suffer the loss of those powers. Moreover love truly conjugial is just like the vernal heat, from the influx of which all things tend to germination and fructification; nor is there any other heat in our heaven: wherefore with conjugial partners in that heaven there is spring in its perpetual conatus, and it is this perpetual conatus from which the above virtue is derived. But fructifications with us in heaven are different from those with men on earth. With us fructifications are spiritual, which are the fructifications of love and wisdom, or of good and truth: the wife from the husband's wisdom receives into herself the love thereof; and the husband from the love thereof in the wife receives into himself wisdom; yea the wife is actually formed into the love of the husband's wisdom, which is effected by her receiving the propagations of his soul with the delight arising therefrom, in that she desires to be the love of her husband's wisdom: thus from a maiden she becomes a wife and a likeness. Hence also love with its inmost friendship with the wife, and wisdom with its happiness with the husband, are continually increasing, and this to eternity. This is the state of the angels of heaven." When the angel had thus spoken, he looked at those who had lately come from the world, and said to them, "You know that, while you were in the vigor of love, you loved your married partners; but when your appetite was gratified, you regarded them with aversion; but you do not know that we in heaven do not love our married partners in consequence of that vigor, but that we have vigor in consequence of love and derived from it; and that as we perpetually love our married partners, we have perpetual vigor: if therefore you can invert the state, you may be able to comprehend this. Does not he who perpetually loves a married partner, love her with the whole mind and with the whole body? for love turns every thing of the mind and of the body to that which it loves; and as this is done reciprocally, it conjoins the objects so that they become a one." He further said, "I will not speak to you of the conjugial love implanted from the creation in males and females, and of their inclination to legitimate conjunction, or of the faculty of prolification in the males, which makes one with the faculty of multiplying wisdom from the love of truth; and that so far as a man loves wisdom from the love thereof, or truth from good, so far he is in love truly conjugial and in its attendant vigor."
356. When he had spoken these words, the angel was silent; and from the spirit of his discourse the novitiates comprehended that a perpetual faculty of enjoyment is communicable; and as this consideration rejoiced their minds, they exclaimed, "O how happy is the state of angels! We perceive that you in the heavens remain for ever in a state of youth, and thence in the vigor of that age; but tell us how we also may enjoy that vigor." The angel replied, "Shun adulteries as internal, and approach the Lord, and you will possess it." They said, "We will do so." But the angel replied, "You cannot shun adulteries as infernal evils, unless you in like manner shun all other evils, because adulteries are the complex of all; and unless you shun them, you cannot approach the Lord; for the Lord receives no others." After this the angel took his leave, and the novitiate spirits departed sorrowful.
ON JEALOUSY.
357. The subject of jealousy is here treated of, because it also has relation to conjugial love. There is a just jealousy and an unjust;—a just jealousy with married partners who mutually love each other, with whom it is a just and prudent zeal lest their conjugial love should be violated, and thence a just grief if it is violated; and an unjust jealousy with those who are naturally suspicious, and whose minds are sickly in consequence of viscous and bilious blood. Moreover, all jealousy is by some accounted a vice; which is particularly the case with whoremongers, who censure even a just jealousy. The term JEALOUSY (zelotypia) is derived from ZELI TYPUS (the type of zeal), and there is a type or image of just and also of unjust zeal; but we will explain these distinctions in the following series of articles: I. Zeal, considered in itself, is like the ardent fire, of love. II. The burning or flame of that love, which is zeal, is a spiritual burning or flame, arising from an infestation and assault of the love. III. The quality of a man's (homo) zeal is according to the quality of his love; thus it differs according as the love is good or evil. IV. The zeal of a good love and the zeal of an evil love are alike in externals, but altogether unlike in internals. V. The zeal of a good love in its internals contains a hidden store of love and friendship; but the zeal of an evil love in its internals contains a hidden store of hatred and revenge. VI. The zeal of conjugial love is called jealousy. VII. Jealousy is like an ardent fire against those who infest love exercised towards a married partner, and like a terrible fear for the loss of that love. VIII. There is spiritual jealousy with monogamists, and natural with polygamists. IX. Jealousy with those married partners who tenderly love each other, is a just grief grounded in sound reason lest conjugial love should be divided, and should thereby perish. X. Jealousy with married partners who do not love each other, is grounded in several causes: arising in some instances from various mental weaknesses. XI. In some instances there is not any jealousy; and this also from various causes. XII. There is a jealousy also in regard to concubines, but not such as in regard to wives. XIII. Jealousy likewise exists among beasts and birds. XIV. The jealousy of men and husbands is different from that of women and wives. We proceed to an explanation of the above articles.