The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love
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The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love After which follow the pleasures of insanity pertaining to promiscuous love EMANUEL SWEDENBORG Translated from the Original Latin by Samuel M. Warren Revised and Edited by Louis H. Tafel STANDARD EDITION SWEDENBORG FOUNDATION West Chester, Pennsylvania © 2009 Swedenborg Foundation This version was compiled from electronic files of the Standard Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg as further edited by William Ross Woofenden. Pagination of this PDF document does not match that of the corresponding printed volumes, and any page references within this text may not be accurate. However, most if not all of the numerical references herein are not to page numbers but to Swedenborg’s section numbers, which are not affected by changes in pagination. If this work appears both separately and as part of a larger volume file, its pagination follows that of the larger volume in both cases. This version has not been proofed against the original, and occasional errors in conversion may remain. To purchase the full set of the Redesigned Standard Edition of Emanuel Swedenborg’s works, or the available volumes of the latest translation (the New Century Edition of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg), contact the Swedenborg Foundation at 1-800-355-3222, www.swedenborg.com, or 320 North Church Street, West Chester, Pennsylvania 19380. Contents Editor’s Preface Part 1: The Wisdom of Conjugial Love Joys of Heaven and a Wedding There (n. 1–26) Marriages in Heaven (27–44) Married Partners after Death (45–56) Love Truly Conjugial (57–82) On the Origin of Conjugial Love from the Marriage of Good and Truth (83–115) Marriage of the Lord and the Church, and Its Correspondence (116–137) The Chaste and the Unchaste (138–155a) On the Conjunction of Souls and Minds by Marriage (156a–183) Change of State of Life by Marriage with Men and Women (184–208) General Concepts about Marriage (209–233) Causes of Coldness, Separation, and Divorce in Marriage (234–270) Causes of Apparent Love, Friendship, and Goodwill in Marriage (271–294) Concerning Betrothals and Weddings (295–316) Remarriage (317–331) Polygamy (332–356) Jealousy (357–384) Conjunction of Conjugial Love with the Love of Infants (385–422) Part 2: The Insanity of Promiscuous Love Opposition of Promiscuous Love and Conjugial Love (423–444) Fornication (444a–461) Taking a Mistress (426–477) Adulteries and Their Kinds and Degrees (478–500) Lust for Defloration (501–505) Lust for Variety (506–510) Lust for Rape (511–512) Lust to Seduce Innocent Women (513–514) Correspondence of Promiscuities with the Violation of Spiritual Marriage (515–522) Imputation of Each Love, Promiscuous and Conjugial (523–535) Index to Memorable Relations Index of Scripture Passages General Index CONJUGIAL LOVE 1 Editor’s Preface All of the theological works of Swedenborg from 1749 through 1766 were published anonymously. This work, Conjugial Love, is the first to have the author’s name on the title page. At the back of the volume he appended a list of “theological works hitherto published by me.” This list has been omitted in most English editions to date. This present edition was first translated from the Latin by Samuel Warren for the Rotch edition of Swedenborg’s works and published as Marriage Love. Warren’s text was later revised by Louis Tafel and published as Conjugial Love. The text of the Warren/Tafel version was electronically scanned from the Swedenborg Foundation’s Standard Edition. This has allowed the book to be completely redesigned and set in a new and more readable typeface. Certain stylistic changes have also been introduced. These include modernized spelling and punctuation as well as the substitution of new words for terms whose meanings have become obscure or have changed since the nineteenth century. Arabic numerals have replaced roman numerals in Bible passages, and certain capitalized words, including pronouns referring to God, have been lowercased to reflect contemporary usage. All these changes have been carefully made in order to make the book easier to read and use while preserving the dignity and power of the original Latin. On the whole, however, the Warren/Tafel translation has not been materially altered. A word needs to be said about the translation of the Scripture passages in this work, some of which Swedenborg translated from biblical Hebrew and Greek, others of which he cited from Latin bibles in his personal library. The reader will note that the archaic language of the 1611 King James Bible, commonly called the CONJUGIAL LOVE 2 Authorized Version, has for the most part been retained in the Scripture citations in this edition. Thus verbs will often have the suffix “-eth,” and pronoun forms such as “thee,” “thou,” and “thine” are retained. This custom, based on the almost universal use of the King James version at that time, dates back to the earliest English translations of Swedenborg. The decision was made by the early translators to follow the familiar language of that Bible wherever it did not conflict with the Latin of Swedenborg’s Scripture citations. Although it would be desirable to update this language, these citations appear so frequently that changing them throughout the entire work would have required a major revision. Numbers indicating the paragraph subdivisions used in John Faulkner Potts’ six-volume Swedenborg Concordance (London: Swedenborg Society, 1888–1902) appear in bracketed boldface type at the beginning of paragraphs. The numbers in parentheses—(6), (7), etc.—are divisions of the exposition by the author. Italicized letters following a number (518a, 518b) are subdivisions added by the Latin editor, Samuel H. Worcester. All footnotes are editorial. Words or phrases in brackets are also editorial insertions into Swedenborg’s text. William Ross Woofenden Sharon, Massachusetts CONJUGIAL LOVE 3 The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love CONJUGIAL LOVE 4 The Joys of Heaven and a Wedding There Preliminaries 1. I foresee that many who read the following relations and those after the chapters will believe they are fictions of the imagination; but I declare in truth that they are not fictions, but things actually done and seen. Nor were they seen in any state of the mind asleep, but in a state of full wakefulness. For it has pleased the Lord to manifest himself to me, and to send me to teach the things that will belong to the new church which is meant by the new Jerusalem in Revelation. To this end he has opened the interiors of my mind and spirit, whereby he has given me to be in the spiritual world with angels and at the same time in the natural world with men, and this now for five and twenty years. 2. I once saw an angel flying beneath the eastern heaven with a trumpet in his hand and to his mouth; and he sounded it to the north, to the west, and to the south. He was clad in a robe that waved behind him as he flew, and was girt about with a band flashing and sparkling as with rubies and sapphires. He flew downwards and descended slowly to the earth not far from where I was. As he touched the ground he stood upon his feet and walked to and fro; and then, seeing me, he directed his steps toward me. I was in the spirit, and in that state was standing on a hill in the southern quarter. And when he came near I spoke to him, and asked, “What is to come to pass now? I heard the sound of your trumpet and saw you descending through the air.” CONJUGIAL LOVE 5 The angel answered, “I am sent to call together the men most renowned for learning, of most penetrating genius, and most eminent reputation for wisdom from the countries of the Christian world who are dwelling on this continent, that they may assemble on the hill where you now are, and from the heart express their minds as to what they had thought, understood, and conceived in the world, respecting heavenly joy and eternal happiness. [2] “The reason of my being sent was this: certain newcomers from the world admitted into our heavenly society, which is in the east, have told us that not even one in the whole Christian world knows what heavenly joy and eternal happiness are, nor therefore what heaven is. This my brethren and companions greatly wondered at, and they said to me, ‘Go down, call together, and assemble the wisest in the world of spirits’ (in which all mortals are first gathered after their departure from the natural world) ‘so that from the mouth of many we may make sure whether it is true that there is among Christians such thick darkness and dense ignorance of the future life.’” And he said, “Wait a little, and you will see companies of the wise flocking hither. The Lord will provide them an edifice of assembly.” [3] I waited, and lo, after half an hour I beheld two companies from the north, two from the west, and two from the south; and as they came they were conducted by the angel with the trumpet to the edifice provided, and took the places assigned them there according to the quarter from whence they came. There were six companies or groups. A seventh, from the east, was not seen by the others on account of the light. When they were assembled the angel disclosed to them the reason of their being called together, and requested that the companies would in order express their wisdom respecting heavenly joy and eternal happiness. And each company then gathered themselves into a circle, turned face to face, that they might recall this subject according to the ideas received in the former world, and now consider it, and after consideration and consultation present their conclusion.