Angelic Chastity

Selection from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
— A Memorable Relation —

I once saw three spirits newly arrived from the world, who were wandering about, observing and inquiring. They were in astonishment that they were living as men, just as before, and that they saw similar things as before. For they knew that they had left the former or natural world, and had believed there that they should not live as men until after the day of the last judgment, when, they would be clothed with the flesh and bones that were laid away in the sepulchre. Therefore to relieve themselves of all doubt whether they really were men, they by turns examined and touched themselves and others, and felt of objects, and by a thousand things confirmed themselves in the fact that they were now men, just as in the former world, except that they saw each other in brighter light, and saw objects in greater splendor and thus more perfectly.

Two angelic spirits chancing to meet them at that time detained them, and asked:

"Whence are you?"

They answered:

"We have departed out of the world. And are living again in a world. So that we have migrated from world to world. Now, we are wondering at this."

And then they asked the two angelic spirits about heaven. And two of the new-comers being young men, a slight glow of lust for the sex shone from their eyes, and the angelic spirits said:

"Perchance you have seen women?"

They replied,

"We have."

As they were asking about heaven, the angelic spirits said this:

"In heaven all things are magnificent and splendid such as eye has never seen. And there are young men and maidens there, maidens of such beauty that they may be said to be beauty in its own form; and young men of such morality that they may be called morality in its own form. And the beauty of the maidens and the morality of the young men correspond to each other, as mutual and adapted forms."

The two new-comers asked,

"Whether human forms in heaven are altogether like those in the natural world?"

And it was answered:

"They are entirely like them; nothing is taken from the man, and nothing from the woman. In a word, a man is a man and a woman is a woman in all the perfection of form in which they were created. If you like, step aside and examine yourselves, and see whether anything whatever is wanting, and whether you are not men just as before."

Again the new-comers said:

"We have heard, in the world from whence we have departed, that in heaven they are not given in marriage, because they are angels. Is there then the love of the sex?"

The angelic spirits replied:

"Your love of the sex is not there, but the angelic love of the sex which is chaste, free from all allurement of lust."

To this the new-comers said:

"If there is the love of the sex without allurement, what is then the love of the sex?"

And as they thought of this love they sighed and exclaimed,

"O! how dry is the joy of heaven. What young man can then wish for heaven? Is not such love barren and devoid of life?"

The angelic spirits, smiling, replied:

"Yet the angelic love of the sex, or such love of the sex as there is in heaven is full of inmost delights. It is a most pleasing expansion of all things of the mind, and thence of all things in the breast. And within the breast it is as if the heart were playing with the lungs, and as if from this play, the breathing, the voice, and the speech went forth, making the companionship between the sexes, or between young men and maidens, heavenly sweetness itself, which is pure. All new-comers ascending into heaven are explored as to their chastity. For they are admitted into the companionship of maidens - the beauties of heaven - who perceive from the tone of voice, from the speech, from the countenance, from the eyes, from the gesture, and from the out-flowing sphere, what their quality is in respect to the love of the sex; and if it is unchaste they flee, and tell their companions that they have seen satyrs or priapi. And to the eyes of the angels such new-comers also are actually changed, and appear hairy, and as to their feet like calves or leopards. And very soon they are cast down, that they may not pollute the aura of heaven with their lust."

Hearing this the two new-comers said again:

"Then there is no love of the sex in heaven. What is a chaste love of the sex but the love emptied of the essence of its life? Are not then the companionships of young men and maidens there dry joys? We are not stones and stocks, but perceptions and affections of life."

Hearing this, the two angelic spirits, indignant, replied:

"You do not know at all what the chaste love of the sex is, because you are not yet chaste. That love is the very delight of the mind, and thence of the heart, but not at the same time of the flesh below the heart. Angelic chastity, which is common to both sexes, prevents the passing of that love beyond the enclosure of the heart; but within that and above that, the morality of the youth is delighted with the beauty of the maiden, with the delights of the chaste love of the sex that are too interior and too rich in pleasantness to be described by words. But the angels have this love of the sex because they have only conjugial love, and this cannot co-exist with the unchaste love of the sex. Love truly conjugial is a chaste love, and has nothing in common with unchaste love. It is with one only of the sex, all others being removed; for it is a love of the spirit and thence of the body, and not a love of the body and thence of the spirit. That is, it is not a love that infests the spirit."

The two young novitiates were rejoiced at hearing this, and said:

"There is still a love of the sex in heaven. What else is conjugial love?"

But to this the angelic spirits replied:

"Think more deeply, reflect, and you will perceive that your love of the sex is outside of conjugial love and that conjugial love is altogether different; that it is as different from the former as wheat from chaff, or rather as the human from the bestial. Ask women in heaven what love outside of the conjugial is, and I assure you they will answer: What is that? What do you say? How can such a question come out of your mouth that so offends the ears? How can a love that was not created be begotten in a man?' Then ask them what love truly conjugial is, and I know they will answer that, "It is not the love of the sex, but the love of one of the sex,' which only springs forth when a young man sees the maiden, and the maiden the young man whom the Lord has provided, and they mutually feel the conjugial enkindled in their hearts, and perceive, he that she is his, and she that he is hers. For love meets love and makes itself known, and instantly conjoins the souls, and afterwards the minds, and thence enters the breasts, and after the nuptials, farther; and thus it becomes a full love, which from day to day grows into conjunction, until they are no more twain but as one. I know also that they will solemnly aver that they know no other love of the sex. For they say, "How can there be a love of the sex unless it is so responsive and reciprocal that it breathes after an eternal union, which is that the twain may be one flesh?'"

To this the angelic spirits added:

"In heaven they do not know at all what scortation is, nor that it exists, nor that it can be. Angels are cold throughout the whole body towards unchaste love, or love outside of marriage; and, on the other hand, they grow warm throughout the whole body from chaste or conjugial love. As to the men in heaven, all their nerves are unstrung at the sight of a harlot, and grow tense at the sight of a wife."

Having heard these things the three new-comers asked

"Whether there is a similar love between married partners in heaven as on earth?"

And the two angelic spirits answered:

"It is quite similar."

And perceiving that they wished to know whether there are similar ultimate delights there, they said:

"They are altogether similar, but far more blessed, because the perception and sensation of the angels is far more exquisite than human perception and sensation. And what life has that love unless from a vein of potency? If this fails does not that love diminish and grow cold? And is not that vigor the very measure, the very degree, and the very basis of that love? Is it not the beginning, the foundation, and the complement of it? It is a universal law that first things exist, subsist, and endure from the last. And so it is also with this love. If then there were no ultimate delights, there would be no delights of conjugial love."

Then the new-comers asked,

"Whether from the ultimate delights of this love offspring are born there, and if there are not offspring, of what use are they?"

The angelic spirits replied,

"That there are no natural offspring, but spiritual offspring."

And they asked,

"What are spiritual offspring?"

They answered:

"Through ultimate delights married partners are the more united in the marriage of good and truth, and the marriage of good and truth is the marriage of love and wisdom; and love and wisdom are the offspring which are born of that marriage. And as the husband in heaven is wisdom, and the wife is the love of it, and as both of these are spiritual, therefore no other than spiritual offspring can be conceived and born there. Hence it is that the angels do not become sad after the delights, as some do on earth, but cheerful. And this comes of the perpetual inflowing of fresh powers succeeding the former, which renew and at the same time illustrate them; for all who come into heaven return into the springtime of their youth, and into the vigor of that age, and remain so to eternity."

Hearing these things the three new-comers said:

"Do we not read in the Word that in heaven there are no nuptials because they are angels?"

To this the angelic spirits replied:

"Look up into heaven and you will be answered."

And they asked:

"Why look up into heaven?"

They said:

"Because from thence we have all interpretations of the Word. The Word within is spiritual, and the angels being spiritual must teach the spiritual meaning of it."

And after some delay heaven was opened above their head, and two angels came in sight, and said:

"There are nuptials in heaven as on earth; but with none there but those who are in the marriage of good and truth, nor are any others angels. Therefore spiritual nuptials are there meant, which are marriages of good and truth. These take place on earth, and not after death, thus not in the heavens; as it is said of the five foolish virgins who also were invited to the nuptials, that they could not enter, because there was no marriage of good and truth in them for they had no oil, but only lamps; by oil, good is meant, and by lamps, truth, and to be given in marriage is to enter into heaven where that marriage is."

The three new-comers were rejoiced at hearing these things; and filled with desire for heaven and with the hope of nuptials there, they said:

"We will strive eagerly after morality and a virtuous life, that we may realize our desires."

(Conjugial Love 44)

As In First Principles So Also In Ultimates

Selection from The Doctrine of the Lord ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

That in the Lord were the Divine and the human — the Divine from Jehovah the Father, and the human from the virgin Mary. Hence He was God and Man, having a Divine essence and a human nature — a Divine essence from the Father, and a human nature from the mother; and therefore was equal to the Father as to the Divine, and less than the Father as to the human. It is also known that this human nature from the mother was not transmuted into the Divine essence, nor commingled with it, for this is taught in the Doctrine of Faith which is called the Athanasian Creed. For a human nature cannot be transmuted into the Divine essence, nor can it be commingled therewith.

In accordance with the same creed is also our doctrine, that the Divine assumed the Human, that is, united itself to it, as a soul to its body, so that they were not two, but one Person. From this it follows that the Lord [put off] the human from the mother, which in itself was like that of another man, and thus material, and [put on] a Human from the Father, which in itself was like His Divine, and thus substantial, so that the Human too became Divine. This is why in the Word of the Prophets the Lord even as to the Human is called Jehovah, and God; and in the Word of the Evangelists, Lord, God, Messiah or Christ, and the Son of God in whom we must believe, and by whom we are to be saved.

As from His birth the Lord had a human from the mother, and as He by successive steps [put it off], it follows that while He was in the world He had two states, the one called the state of humiliation or emptying out [exinanitio], and the other the state of glorification or unition with the Divine called the Father. He was in the state of humiliation at the time and in the degree that He was in the human from the mother; and in that of glorification at the time and in the degree that He was in the Human from the Father. In the state of humiliation He prayed to the Father as to one who was other than Himself; but in the state of glorification He spoke with the Father as with Himself. In this latter state He said that the Father was in Him and He in the Father, and that the Father and He were one. But in the state of humiliation He underwent temptations, and suffered the cross, and prayed to the Father not to forsake Him. For the Divine could not be tempted, much less could it suffer the cross. From what has been said it is now evident that by means of temptations and continual victories in them, and by the passion of the cross which was the last of the temptations, the Lord completely conquered the hells, and fully glorified His Human, as has been shown above.

That the Lord [put off] the human taken from the mother, and [put on] a Human from the Divine in Himself called the Father, is evident also from the fact that whenever He addressed His mother directly, He did not call her Mother, but Woman. Only three times in the Evangelists do we read that He thus addressed or spoke of her, twice calling her Woman, and once not recognizing her as His mother. Of the two occasions when He called her Woman we read in John:

The mother of Jesus said unto Him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what [belongs] to Me, and to thee? Mine hour is not yet come (2:3, 4).

When from the cross, Jesus sees His mother, and the disciple standing by whom He loved,

He saith to His mother, Woman, behold thy son; and then He saith to the disciple, Behold thy mother (19:26, 27).

And of the one occasion when He did not recognize her, in Luke:

It was told Jesus by certain who said, Thy mother and Thy brethren stand without, desiring to see Thee. Jesus answering said unto them, My mother and My brethren are these, who hear the Word of God, and do it (8:20, 21; Matt. 12: 46-49; Mark 3:31-35).

In other places Mary is called His "mother," but not from His own mouth.

The same inference is confirmed by the fact that the Lord did not admit that He was the son of David For we read in the Evangelists:

Jesus asked the Pharisees, saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is He? They say unto Him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool? If then David calls Him Lord, how is He his son? And no one was able to answer Him a word (Matt. 12:41-46; Mark 12:35-37; Luke 20:41-44; Ps. 110:1).

From what has been said it is evident that in respect to the glorified Human the Lord was the son neither of Mary nor of David.

Of what quality was His glorified Human, He showed to Peter, James, and John when transfigured before them:

That His face shone as the sun, and His raiment was like the light and then a voice out of the cloud said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him (Matt. 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36).

The Lord was also seen by John as the sun shining in his strength (Rev. 1:16).

That the Lord's Human was glorified, is evident from what is said about His glorification in the Evangelists:

The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Jesus said, Father, glorify Thy name: then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I both have glorified it and will glorify it again (John 12:23, 28).

As the Lord was glorified by successive steps, it is said "I both have glorified it, and will glorify it again."

Again in the same Evangelist:

After Judas had gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him: God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him (John 13:31, 32).

Jesus said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may also glorify Thee (John 17:1, 5).

And in Luke:

Behooved it not the Christ to suffer this, and to enter into His glory? (Luke 24:26).

These things are said concerning His Human.

The reason the Lord said "God is glorified in Him," and "God shall glorify Him in Himself," and also "Glorify Thy Son that Thy Son may also glorify Thee," is that the unition was reciprocal, being that of the Divine with the Human and of the Human with the Divine. On this account He said also, "I am in the Father, and the Father in Me" (John 14:10, 11); and "All Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine" (John 17:10); so that the unition was plenary. It is the same with all unition - unless it is reciprocal, it is not full. Such therefore must also be the uniting of the Lord with man, and of man with the Lord. As He teaches:

In that day ye shall know that ye are in Me, and I in you (John 14:20).

Abide in Me, and I in you; he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit (John 15:4, 5).

As the Lord's Human was glorified, that is, made Divine, He rose again after death on the third day with His whole body, which does not take place with any man; for a man rises again solely as to the spirit, and not as to the body. In order that men may know, and no one doubt, that the Lord rose again with His whole body, He not only said so through the angels in the sepulcher, but also showed Himself to His disciples in His human body, saying to them when they believed that they saw a spirit:

See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; handle Me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have; and when He had thus spoken, He showed them His hands and His feet (Luke 24:39, 40 John 20:20).

And He said to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side; and be not faithless but believing; then said Thomas, My Lord and my God (John 20:27, 28).

In order to evince still further that He was not a spirit but a Man, the Lord said to His disciples,

Have ye here any meat? And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and of a honeycomb; and He took it and did eat before them (Luke 24:41-43).

As His body was no longer material, but Divine substantial, He came in to His disciples when the doors were shut (John 20:19, 26); and after He had been seen He became invisible (Luke 24:31). Being such, the Lord was then taken up, and sat at the right hand of God; as we read:

It came to pass that while Jesus blessed His disciples, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven (Luke 24:51).

After He had spoken unto them, He was carried up into heaven, and sat at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19).

To "sit at the right hand of God," signifies Divine omnipotence.

As the Lord ascended into heaven, and sat at the right hand of God (by which is signified Divine omnipotence) with the Divine and the Human united into a one, it follows that His human substance or essence is just as is His Divine substance or essence. To think otherwise would be like thinking that His Divine was taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God, but not His Human together with it, which is contrary to Scripture, and also to the Christian Doctrine, which is that in Christ God and Man are like soul and body, and to separate these is contrary to sound reason. This unition of the Father with the Son, or of the Divine with the Human, is meant also in the following:

I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world, and go to the Father (John 16:28).

I go away, and come to Him that sent Me (John 7:33; 16:5, 16; 17:11, 13; 20:17).

If then ye shall see the Son of man ascending where He was before (John 6:62).

No one hath ascended into heaven but He that came down from heaven (John 3:13).

Every man who is saved ascends into heaven, but not of himself. He ascends by the Lord's aid. The Lord alone ascended of Himself.

Thus God became Man, as in first principles so also in ultimates. That God is a Man, and that every angel and every spirit is a man from God... From the beginning, however, God was a Man in first principles and not in ultimates; but after He had assumed the Human in the world, He became a Man in ultimates also. This follows from what has been already established — that the Lord united His Human to His Divine, and thus made His Human Divine. It is from this that the Lord is called the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega:

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty (Rev. 1:8, 11).

When John saw the Son of man in the midst of the seven lamp stands, he fell at His feet as dead; but He laid His right hand upon him, saying, I am the first and the last (Rev. 1:13, 17; 2:8; 21:6).

Behold, I come quickly, to give everyone according to his work: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last (Rev. 22:12-13).

Thus saith Jehovah the King of Israel, and his Redeemer Jehovah of Armies, I am the first and the last (Isa. 44:6; 48:12).

(from The Doctrine of the Lord 35 - 36)

All Things Created Regard The Angelic Heaven

From Canons of the New Church ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

THE END ITSELF OF CREATION

IT IS AN ANGELIC HEAVEN FROM THE HUMAN RACE

In the created world there are perpetual progressions of ends; from first ends, through mediate ends, to ultimate ends.

The first ends are of love, or relations to love; mediate ends are of wisdom, or relations to wisdom; ultimate ends are of use, or relations to use. These things are so, because all things which are infinite in God and from God are of love, wisdom, and use.

These progressions of ends proceed from firsts to ultimates, and return from ultimates to firsts, and they proceed and return by periods which are called the circles of things.

These progressions of ends are more or less universal, and they are the aggregate of particular ends.

The most universal end, which is the end of ends, is in God; and it proceeds from God, from the firsts of the spiritual world to the ultimates of the natural world; and from these ultimates it returns to those firsts, and thus to God.

This most universal end, or that end of ends from God, is an angelic heaven from the human race.

That most universal end is the complex of all ends, and of their progressions in both worlds, the spiritual and the natural.

That most universal end is the inmost, and, as it were, the life and soul, the force and endeavor, in all and each created thing.

Thence there is a continued connection of all things in the created universe — from firsts to ultimates, and from ultimates to firsts.

From this end implanted in created things, in general and in particular, is the preservation of the universe.

On the Other Hand. —

Love is spiritual conjunction.

True love cannot be quiescent in itself, and be restrained within its own limits, but it wills to go forth and embrace others with love.

True love wills to be conjoined to others, and to communicate with them, and to give of its own.

True love wills to dwell in others, and in itself from others.

The Divine Love, which is Love itself, and God Himself, wills that it may be in a subject which is His image and likeness; consequently He wills to be in man, and man to be in Him.

In order that this may be effected, it follows from the very essence of Love, which is in God, and hence from an urgent cause, that the universe must needs be created by God, in which are earths, and upon them men, and in the men minds and souls, with which the Divine Love can be conjoined.

Therefore all things which are created regard man as the end.

Since the angelic heaven is formed from men, from their spirits and souls, all things which are created regard the angelic heaven as the end.

The angelic heaven is the habitation itself of God with men, and of men with God.

Eternal beatitudes, felicities, and delights together, are the ends of creation, because they are of love.

This end is the inmost; thus as it were, the life and soul, and as force and endeavor in each and all created things.

That end is God in them.

This end implanted in created things, in general and in particular, causes the universe to be preserved in the created state, in so far as the ends of an opposite love do not obstruct and destroy.

God from His Divine Omnipotence, Omnipresence, and Omniscience, continually provides lest opposite ends from opposite loves should prevail, and the work of creation be ruined even to destruction.

Preservation is perpetual creation, as subsistence is perpetual existence.

~~~

THE OMNIPOTENCE, OMNISCIENCE, AND OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD

The Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence of God do not fall within the human understanding; because the Omnipotence of God is Infinite Power, the Omniscience of God is Infinite Wisdom, and the Omnipresence of God is Infinite Presence, in all things which have proceeded, and which do proceed, from Him; and the Divine Infinite does not fall within the finite understanding.
[All things proceed according to order. God is order.]

That God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent, is acknowledged without a rational investigation; since this flows in from God into the higher region of the human mind and thence into an acknowledgment with all who have religion and sound reason. That it also flows in with those who have no religion; but with them there is no reception, and hence no acknowledgment.

That God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent, man can confirm from innumerable things which are of reason, and at the same time of religion, as from the following: —

First.-God alone is and exists in Himself; and every other being and every other thing exists from Him.

Second.-God alone loves, is wise, and lives and acts from Himself; and every other being and every other thing does so from Him.

Third.-God alone has power from Himself; and every other being and every other thing has power from Him.

Consequently, God is the Soul of the whole; from whom all beings and all things are, live, and move.

Unless each and all things in the world and in heaven, relate to the One who is, lives, and has power from Himself, the universe would be dissipated in a moment.

Hence the universe created by God is the fullness of God; wherefore He Himself said that:

He Is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, who was, is, and will be, the Omnipotent (Revelation 1: 8, 11).

The preservation of the universe, which is perpetual creation, is a full testimony that God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent.

Opposites, which are evils, are not removed because God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent; since evils are outside of subjects, and outside created things, and do not penetrate to the Divine things which are within.

Evils, by the Divine Providence, which also is universal in the most particular things, are more and more removed from the interiors, and are cast out to the exteriors, and thus alienated and separated, lest they should inflict any injury on things internal, which are from the Divine.

[The Divine Omnipotence is [exercised] by means of His Human. This is "to sit at the right hand," and to be "The First and the Last" as is said of the Son of man in the Apocalypse, and there [it is said] that He is "Omnipotent." The reason is because God acts from firsts through ultimates and thus embraces all things.

The Lord acts from firsts through ultimates with men; not through anything belonging to the man but through His own in the man. With the Jews He acted through the Word, thus through His own; through the Word also He performed miracles through Elijah and Elisha; but because the Jews perverted the Word, God Himself came and made Himself the "Last." Then He performed miracles from Himself. Order was first created according to which God acts, wherefore God made Himself order.]

(from Canons of the New Church 10-12)