The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love. Standard Edition

696 Pages·2016·2.22 MB·English

by  Swedenborg Emanuel.

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.
CONJUGIAL LOVE 6
3. The first company, which was from the north, after
consultation said, “Heavenly joy and eternal happiness are one with
the very life of heaven; and therefore everyone who enters heaven,
as to life enters into its festivities, just as one who goes to a wedding
enters into its festivities. Is not heaven above us before our eyes and
thus in a place? And there, and only there, are bliss upon bliss and
pleasures upon pleasures. Into these a man is admitted when he
enters heaven, as to every perception of the mind and every
sensation of the body, from the fullness of the joy of that place.
Heavenly happiness then, which is also eternal, is nothing else than
admission into heaven, and admission by Divine grace.”
[2] When they had said this, the other company from the north
expressed this opinion from their wisdom: “Heavenly joy and
eternal happiness are nothing but most delightful companionship
with angels and sweetest converse with them, whereby the
countenance is kept continually expanded with joy and the faces of
the whole company are wreathed in smiles of gladness, from the
courteous discourse and pleasantry. What are heavenly joys but the
variations of such pleasures to eternity?”
[3] The third company, which was the first of the wise from the
western quarter, from the thoughts of their affections, declared,
“What are heavenly joy and eternal happiness but feastings with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, upon whose tables will be rich and
delicate viands, with generous and noble wines; and after the feasts,
sports and dances of youths and maidens, tripping to the measures
of symphonies and flutes, with intervening singing of sweetest
songs; and then at evening there will be dramatic representations,
and after these feastings again, and so on every day to eternity.”
[4] After this utterance the fourth company, which was the
second from the western quarter, announced their opinion, saying,
“We have cherished many ideas respecting heavenly joy and eternal
happiness, and have considered various joys, and compared them
with each other, and have come to the conclusion that heavenly
joys are paradisal joys. What else is heaven but a paradise, whose
extent is from east to west and from south to north, wherein are