44、记事二：
有一次，我看见三个刚从尘世来的新灵到处游荡，四处观察求问。他们看到自己依然是活生生的人，和从前一样，又看到一样的事物，甚为诧异。他们知道自己已离开人世，原以为不会象人一样活着，直到最后审判之日再度披上坟墓里的肉体和尸骨。为了让他们不再质疑自己究竟是不是人，他们轮流检查和触摸自己、他人，又触摸身边的物体，通过上千个证据确信，自己的确是活生生的人，和从前一样。唯一不同的是，他们能看见彼此在更明亮的光中，物体则更瑰丽，因而更完美。
此时，恰好有两位天使灵遇见他们，就拦住他们问：“你们从哪来？”他们回答说：“我们刚刚离开人世，到了这里。就是说，我们从一个世界搬到了另一个世界。现在我们正纳闷呢！”
三个新灵便向天使灵打听有关天堂的事。其中有两个是年轻人，他们眼里闪烁着性欲的火花，故天使灵问：“你们在此见过女人吗？” “是的，我们见过”。 他们回答说。由于他们想了解天堂，天使灵就说：“天堂的一切都灿烂辉煌，是你们未曾见过的。那里有少男少女，少女极其美丽，可被称为美丽的化身，而少年人则具有美好的品格，可被称为美好品格的化身。少女的美貌和少年的美好品格形成对称，相得益彰。”两个新灵询问天堂之人的形体是否和世人的一样，天使灵回答说：“完全一样，无论男人、女人，都一无所缺。一言以蔽之，男人还是男人，女人还是女人，都有因着创造而被赋予的完美外形。请站到一边，私下检查一下，看看缺了什么没有，是否还和从前一样。”
新灵又问：“我们在世时听说，天堂没有婚姻，因为他们是天使。既如此，他们还有没有男女情爱呢？”天使灵回答：“你所想象的男女情爱在天堂不可能存在，但有一种纯洁的、不为淫欲所诱惑的爱。”新灵说：“若男女情爱真能免于诱惑，那它还算什么呢？”思及这种爱，他们叹了口气说：“天堂的欢乐何等枯燥！年轻人怎会渴望上天堂呢？这爱岂不枯燥乏味吗？”天使灵笑了笑，说：“非也。天使的两性情爱，也就是天堂的爱，充满最深妙的快乐。那是一种极乐的感受，仿佛心智的每一部分都舒展开来。这也影响了胸腔内的所有部位，心与肺仿佛在胸膛嬉戏玩耍，由此产生呼吸、声音和言语。少男少女的交往由是充满无上妙乐，同时也是纯洁的。”
凡即将升入天堂的新灵，都要经过考查，看他们是否纯洁。他们被带到美丽的天堂少女集会中，这些少女能通过他们的声调、言语、表情、眼神、姿态和散发的气质，测试出他们的两性情爱是什么性质。若不洁，她们就会跑开，告诉同伴说，她们看见了萨梯（希腊神话中半人半羊的神，好色之徒）和普里阿普斯（希腊神话中的生殖之神）。新灵的样貌也会发生变化，在天使眼里显得毛烘烘的，脚像牛犊或豹子的脚。他们很快被丢了下去，免得他们的欲望污染了那里的气氛。”听到这番话，两个新灵又说：“如此说来，天堂没有男女情爱了！纯洁的男女之情岂不了无生趣？少男少女之间不就只剩下干巴巴的乐趣了吗？我们又不是木石做的，而是有真情实感的！”
听到这里，两个天使灵气愤地反驳道：“你们根本不知道什么是对异性的圣洁之爱，因为你们自己尚不圣洁。这爱是心智和心脏的无上快乐，而非心之下的肉体之乐。天使般的圣洁，无论男女都可共享，它不会让这爱越过心的栅栏，而是将其保持在心之内之上。少年的良好品格和少女的美丽享有对异性的圣洁之爱的快乐。这些快乐极其深沉、饱满、无法用言语形容。这就是天使的两性情爱，因为他们只有婚姻之爱。这爱无法和淫乱之爱相结合，婚姻真爱是一种圣洁的爱，与淫乱之爱毫无共同之处。它钟情于异性中的一位，排斥其他异性，因为这是一种从灵魂到身体的爱，而非从身体到灵魂的爱，也就是说，不是一种损害灵性的爱。”
听到这些话，两位新人兴高采烈地说： “这么说，天堂还是有男女情爱了！再说说两相契合的婚姻之爱吧？”但天使灵回答说：“省察反思一下，你将发现你所想的是婚姻之外的两性情爱。两相契合的婚姻之爱与之截然不同，二者有如谷、糠之别，确切地说，是人、兽之别。若你问天堂中的女人何为婚姻之外的两性情爱，我保证她们会说：‘你什么意思？你在说什么？这种刺耳的话怎能从你嘴里说出来？未被创造出来的爱如何在人内生成？’再问问什么是两相契合的婚姻之爱，她们必告诉你，这不是两性情爱，而是钟情于一位异性的爱，是当少年看到主为他预备的少女，并且少女也看到少年时才会发生的事。然后，两人都感觉婚姻的火花在他们心中点燃。少年觉得少女就是他的，少女觉得她就是少年的。当爱遇见爱时，爱表现为倾慕，使他们有似曾相识的感觉，立时产生从灵魂到心智到胸膛的共鸣，再到婚后身体的交融。此时，爱得到完满的体现，交融感与日俱增，直到他们不再是二，而是成为一体。
“我还知道，她们会郑重地告诉你，她们不知道男女之间有其它情爱存在。她们会说：‘若非彼此钟情，渴望永远融为一体，怎称得上爱情？’”对此，天使灵补充说：“在天堂，没人知道什么是滥交，甚至不知道还有这种事。一想到不洁的爱或婚姻之外的两性情爱，天使就觉得浑身发冷。另一方面，圣洁或婚姻之爱会让他们觉得全身温暖。至于那里的男人，一看到妓女，他们浑身乏力，而一看到自己的妻子，就精神焕发。”
听到这里，三个新灵便问：“天堂的夫妻是否和地上的夫妻一样有肌肤之娱呢？”天使灵回答说：“它在各个方面都是一样的。”不过，马上意识到他们想知道是否有一样的肌肤之娱。于是，天使灵说：“它们也是完全一样的，但幸福快乐得多，因为天使的知觉和感受比世人敏锐细腻得多。若没有性的倾向，那爱还有何生机和活力可言呢？若性倾向衰退了，这爱岂不中断和冷却了吗？这种生机和活力不正是爱的度量、进展和基础，并开始、延续和实现吗？初始在最表层得以存在和维持，这是一个普世规律。这爱的规律也是如此。如果没有最终表现形式上的快乐，那婚姻之爱也就没有快乐可言了。”
然后，新灵询问天使因肌肤之娱是否会有孩子，如果没有，那欢娱又有何用处？天使灵说没有，但有灵性的生殖。“什么是灵性的生殖？”新灵问道。天使灵回答说：“通过肌肤之娱，夫妻在美善与真理的结合上更加紧密，美善与真理的结合就是爱与智慧的结合，爱与智慧的结合就是肌肤之娱的灵性生殖。因为在天堂，丈夫是智慧，妻子是对智慧的爱，二者都是属灵的，他们只能孕育和生出灵性的后代。因此，天使在欢娱之后不会象地上一些人那样变得沮丧，而是精神抖擞。因为他们能持续不断地获得新鲜力量，从而精神焕发，神采飞扬。所有进入天堂的人都能回到青春年华，拥有青春时期的生机和活力，并保持到永远。”
听完这番话，三位新灵问道：“圣经不是说天堂没有婚姻，因为他们是天使吗？”对此，天使灵回答说：“举目望天，你们会得到答案。”“为何要举目望天呢？”新灵问。被告知：“我们正是通过天堂解读圣言的。圣言的内在是属灵的，而天使既是属灵的，必照灵义教导我们。”过了一会，头顶上的天堂开了，两个天使出现了，他们说：“和世间一样，天堂也有婚礼，不过，只有已将美善与真理结合起来的人才有这婚礼，成为天使。因此，圣言所指的是属灵的婚姻，即美善与真理的婚姻。这些属灵的婚姻必须在地上完成，而不是死后，因而不是在天堂。所以，经上提到了五个愚拙的童女，虽然她们也受邀赴婚筵，但不得进入，因为她们没有完成美善与真理的结合，只预备灯，没预备油。油指的是良善，灯指的是真理。进入婚姻就进入了它所在的天堂。”三个新灵听这个解释很高兴，并充满对天堂的向往，希望在那里结婚。他们说：“我们要过道德、体面、高尚的生活，好让我们能得偿所愿。”
44、1）第二个见证
有一次我见到三个刚从世间到来的精灵，他们在四处询问。他们为自己仍然像从前一样生活，能像从前一样看到同样的事物而吃惊。因为他们知道自己已经与尘世分离，他们曾认为不会象人一样地生活直到最后的审判那一天。那一天他们将拥有被放置在他们坟墓中的躯体。
为了证实他们还是人，他们彼此触摸，摆弄看到的一切东西，用各种方法来使自己相信他们还与从前一样地生活着。唯一的区别就是他们彼此处于更明亮的光中，所见的事物更瑰丽，更完美。
2）后来，偶然间两个精灵看到他们并问道：“你们从哪里？”
他们答道：“我们告别了一个世界，来到了另一个世界，我们正在为此而吃惊。”
于是三个新来的人开始向精灵询问关于天堂的问题，因为三者中有两个是年轻人，从他们俩的眼中可以看到好像是对异性的奢望，天使说道：“你们也许已经看到了这里的女人们。”
他们答道：“是的。”
既然新来的人问到了，精灵们作了以下的陈述：
“在天堂中的一切都无比的美妙，这是双眼从前没有见过的。这里也有个小伙子，姑娘。姑娘们如此美丽以至于可以说她们就是一幅美丽的画。小伙子们有美好的品德，他们可以被称为品德的化身。姑娘们的美丽与小伙子们的品德相互呼应。”
两个新来的人问道是否天堂中的人与世间的人是一样的，精灵答道两者是完全一样的，没有人被剥夺任何东西。
“总而言之”，天使说道：“男人还是男人，女人还是女人，都以最完美的形式而存在。“如果你们愿意的话，检查一下自己，是否与从前有什么不同。”
3）新来的又说道：“我们在世间时听说，在天堂里不存在婚姻，因为这里的人都是天使。这样的话，男人和女人之间还有没有爱存在呢？”
精灵回答道：“你说的男、女之间的爱在这里是没有的，但是存在天使般对异性的爱，这是一种纯洁的爱，没有任何性欲的企图。”
听到这些，新来者说道：“如果对异性的有没有任何企图，那么两性之间所有是什么呢？”
当他们想到这种爱时，叹气地说道：“天堂之乐是多么枯燥啊！年轻小伙子怎么会因此而渴望天堂呢？那样的爱是不是贫瘠而无生气呢？”
听到这些，精灵们笑着回答道：“在天堂中的天使般的爱也是充满了快乐的。它是在思想和心胸中的一种快乐，在这种快乐之中，好像是心和肺在跳跃，由此而产生的气息、声音和话语形成了男女之间的相互的关系极甜美，极纯洁。
4）“所有新来的人都被根据他们的纯洁程度而作出判断，因为他们将被介绍给年轻姑娘们——天堂中的美女——她们根据新来者对异性的爱而了解他们。她们通过他们的声音、言语、面部表情、眼睛、他们的仪态以及由此而产生的一种氛围而了解他们。如果这种爱是不纯洁的，姑娘们就会跑开，并告诉她们的朋友们，自己见到了色狼。另外，新来的人会发生此变化，在天使看来，他们全身是毛，脚像是牛或豹的脚一样。这些人很快就被投到底下去，免得他们污染那儿的空气。”
听到这些，两个新来者说道：“那么说，天堂中不存在两性之间的爱了。没有了两性之间的爱的精髓，这种纯洁的爱是一种什么样的爱呢？那种男女之间的关系不是很枯燥吗。我们不是岩石、木头、而是有情感的人！”
5）两个精灵听到这些话后，气愤地反驳道：“你们根本不知道两性之间纯洁的爱是什么，因为你们是不纯洁的！那种爱是一种使思想和心灵愉悦的真正的爱。而不是肉体上的爱。天使般的纯洁，同样地存在于男人和女人之间，防止这种爱突破心灵的界限。在这种界限中，男人的品德，女人的美丽在纯洁的对异性的爱中得到喜悦——这种无比的喜悦是无法用语言来形容的。
“但是，这就是天使们对异性的爱，因为他们只拥有婚姻之爱，婚姻之爱与对异性不纯洁的爱是不可能并存的。真正的婚姻之爱是一种纯洁的爱，与不纯洁的爱没有共同之处，它是一种只对一个人的爱，与别的异性不相干，因为它是一种精神的爱，进而也是一种躯体上的爱，而不是因为是躯体上的爱，进而也是精神上的爱。
精灵答道：“思考一下，掂一下重量，你会看到你所说的两性之间的爱是婚姻之外的爱，婚姻之爱是完全不同的，就像是谷物与谷壳一样的不同，或者说，就像是人与动物一样的不同。
“如果你问天堂中的女人什么是婚外情，我保证她们会回答道“你说什么呢？这样刺耳的话怎么会从你的口中说出？人怎么会有事先不存在的爱呢？”
“你若问她们什么是真正的婚姻之爱，我知道她们会回答说，真正的婚姻之爱不是对异性的爱，而是对异性中的一个的爱。这种爱在男人看到由上帝送给他的女人时产生，这个男人和这个女人在内心中都有与对方结婚的意向，男的认为这个女人就是他的，女人会认为这个男人就是她的。此时爱呈现出来，使他们彼此认识对方，使他们的灵魂相连，之后使他们的思想相连，由此进入到他们的心灵，婚礼之后上升到更高处，因此它成为一种完整的爱，一天天地合二为一，直到最后，他们不再是两个人，而实际上成为一个人。
7）“我知道天堂中的这些女人决不知道两性之间还有其它的爱。因为他们说过，“除非两性之间的爱是真诚的，相互的，并且渴望永恒的结合，否则怎么会有两性之间的爱呢？”
这时候，精灵补充道：“在天堂中，人们不知道淫荡是什么，不知道它可能存在。在不纯洁的爱面前，天使们的身体会变凉，而纯洁的婚姻之爱会使天使们的身体变得温暖。在男人方面，他们在看到淫荡的女人时，精神就会颓废，而在看到他们的妻子时就会振作起来。”
8）三个新来的人又问道：“在天堂中是否有跟世间一样的夫妻间的亲密行为呢？
两个精灵说道，这点与世间完全相同。天使们感到新来者想要知道天堂中夫妻间的亲密行为是否有向世间时一样的快乐呢。天使们说道，这一点也是完全一样的，因为天使们的感觉和接受力比世间的人的感觉和接受力更强，所以他们会体会到更多的快乐。
“另外，这种爱之中的生命是怎样呢？”精灵们问道：“这种爱是不是来自于一种潜在的能力呢？如果这种能力衰竭，爱是不是也随之冷却了呢？这种能力是不是这的一种衡量尺度，一种基础呢？这种能力是不是爱的起源支柱及爱的实现呢？
最原始，最基础的因素相互作用，彼此存在并构成最终的物质。这种爱也是一样。因此，没有最终的快乐，婚姻之爱中也就不会存在任何快乐。”
9）新来者问到这种爱之中的快乐是否会带来孩子呢？若没有孩子作为结果，这种快乐又有什么用呢？
精灵们回答道，这种快乐不会产生自然的后代，但却会产生精神的后代。
“什么是精神的后代”，新来者问道。
精灵们回答道：“因为这种爱，夫妻两个更加统一在善和真理的婚姻之中，善与真理的结合就是爱和智慧的结合。因为在天堂中丈夫是一种智慧，妻子是一种对这种智慧的爱，两者都是精神的，因此他们只会产生精神的后代。”
“这就是为什么在经历了这种快乐之后，天使们不会象世间的一些人那样感到沮丧。他们会感到快乐，这种交流会使他们充满活力，感到快乐。因为到天堂里来的人都会进入到他们年轻时候的状态，拥有年轻时的力量，所以他们会永远存在。”
10）三个新来者听到这些说道，《圣经》中不是说在天堂中没有婚姻吗？因为人们都成了天使。”
精灵们回答道“抬头看看天堂，你就会知道了。”
他们又问为什么要抬头看看天堂？
精灵们回答道：“因为我们对《圣经》的理解来自于天国。《圣经》在内在上是精神的，作为精神的天使，一定要解释它的精神含义。”
之后，过了一会儿，天堂在他们头上敞开了，他们看到了两个天使。他们俩说道：“在天堂中与世间一样，也存在婚姻，但婚姻只存在于那些拥有善和真理的夫妇之中。只有他们才会变成天使。因此《圣经》中所讲的精神上的婚姻是指善和真理的婚姻。这种婚姻产生于世间而并不是产生于死后。所以《圣经》中说有五个愚拙的盲女，她们被邀请参加婚礼，但却进不去，因为他们没有善与真理的结合，她们只有灯却没有油。
“油在此是指善，灯在此是指真理，进入是指进入到善与真理相结合的天堂之中。”
三个新来者很高兴，听到这些解释，充满了对天堂及那里的婚姻的渴望，他们说：“我们在努力过一种道德的，高尚的生活，实现我们的祈祷。”
44. The second experience.
I once saw three spirits newly arrived from the world, who were wandering about, gazing around and asking questions. They were surprised to find that they were still living as human beings, and seeing familiar sights. For they knew that they had departed from the previous, natural, world, and that there they had not believed that they would live as human beings until after the day of the Last Judgment, when they would again be clothed in the flesh and bones they had left in their graves. So to free them of all doubt that they were really human beings, they took turns to examine and touch themselves and others, handling objects and finding a thousand proofs that they were just as much human beings as in their previous world, with the one difference that they could see one another in brighter light, and objects in greater splendour, that is to say, more perfectly.
[2] Then it happened that two angelic spirits came across them. They stopped them to ask, 'Where do you come from?' 'We have departed from the world,' they replied, 'and are living again in a world, so we have moved from one world to another; that is what is making us wonder.' The three newcomers then questioned the two angelic spirits about heaven; and since two of the newcomers were young men, and their eyes glittered with the spark of sexual lust, the angelic spirits said, 'Have you perhaps seen any women?' 'Yes, we have,' they answered.
In reply to their questions about heaven the angelic spirits said, 'In heaven everything is magnificent and splendid, things of a sort you have never set eyes on. There are girls and youths there, the girls so beautiful they could be called models of beauty, and the youths of such good character they could be called models of good character. The beauty of the girls and the good character of the youths match so well that they resemble shapes that fit snugly together.
The two newcomers enquired whether human form in heaven is exactly like that in the natural world. The reply was that they are exactly alike, with nothing taken away from the man or from the woman. In short, a man is a man, and a woman is a woman, with all the perfection of shape with which they were endowed by creation. Please go aside and check yourselves over, to make sure you are just as much a man as before.'
[3] The newcomers asked another question: 'We were told in the world we have left that in heaven there is no giving in marriage, because people are then angels. So is sexual love possible?' The angelic spirits replied, 'Your sort of sexual love is impossible, but there is angelic sexual love, which is chaste and free from all the allures of lust.' 'If sexual love,' said the newcomers, 'is devoid of allures, what is it then?' Thinking about that kind of love made them groan and say, 'How boring heavenly joy must be! How could any young man long to go to heaven? Is not such love barren and lifeless?'
The angelic spirits replied with a smile, 'Sexual love among the angels, the kind of love there is in heaven, is still full of the most intimate delights. It is an extremely pleasant feeling, as if every part of the mind were expanded. This affects all parts of the chest, and inside it is as if the heart were playing games with the lungs; and this play gives rise to breathing, sound and speech. These make contact between the sexes, that is, between young men and girls, the very model of heavenly sweetness, because it is pure.
[4] All newcomers who come up to heaven are tested to see how chaste they are. They are introduced into the company of girls of heavenly beauty, and these can detect from their sound, speech, face, eyes, gestures and the sphere they emit, what their sexual love is like. If it is unchaste, they run away and tell their friends they have seen satyrs and priapi. The newcomers too undergo a change and appear hairy to the eyes of angels, with feet like calves or leopards. They are quickly sent back down, so as not to pollute with their lust the atmosphere there.'
On hearing this the two newcomers said again, 'So there is no sexual love in heaven! What can chaste sexual love be but love stripped of its living essence? Surely the contacts between young men and women there are boring pleasures. We are not made of stone or wood, but sensations and the wish to live.'
[5] On hearing this the two angelic spirits indignantly replied, 'You are quite ignorant of what chaste sexual love is, because you are not yet chaste yourselves. That love is the supreme delight of the mind and so of the heart, but not of the flesh too below the heart. Angelic chastity, which is shared by either sex, prevents that love from passing beyond the barrier of the heart, but within and above it the young man's good character enjoys the delights of chaste sexual love with the beauty of the young woman. These are too inward and too rich in charm to be described in words. This sexual love is the prerogative of angels, because they have only conjugial love; and this cannot be combined with unchaste sexual love. Truly conjugial love is a chaste love, and has nothing in common with unchaste love. It is confined to one person of the opposite sex to the exclusion of all others, for it is a love of the spirit leading to love of the body, not a love of the body leading to love of the spirit, that is to say, not a love which attacks the spirit.'
[6] The two newcomers were pleased to hear this and said, 'So there is sexual love in heaven. What else is conjugial love?' But the angelic spirits replied, 'Think more deeply and check your thoughts; you will find that your sexual love is love outside marriage, quite different from conjugial love, which is as different from it as wheat from chaff, or rather what is human from what is bestial. If you ask women in heaven what is love outside marriage, I assure you they will reply, "What do you mean? What are you saying? How can you utter a question that hurts our ears like this? How can a love which was not created be generated in a person?"
'If you then ask them what truly conjugial love is, I know they will answer that it is not sexual love, but the love of one of the opposite sex, something that happens only when a young man sees the young woman the Lord has provided for him, and the young woman sees the young man. Then they both feel the fire of marriage catch alight in their heart, and he sees that she is his and she sees that he is hers. One love meets the other, makes itself known and instantly joins their souls, and thus their minds. From there it enters their chests, and after they are married spreads further, so becoming love in all its fulness, growing together day by day, until they are no longer two, but as if one person.
[7] 'I know too that these women in heaven will swear that they know no other kind of sexual love. For they say, "How can sexual love exist, if it does not go out to meet the other and receive it in return, so as to long for everlasting union, the two becoming one flesh?"' To this the angelic spirits added, 'In heaven no one knows what promiscuity means or even the possibility of its existence. Angels feel cold all over at the idea of unchaste love or love outside marriage; on the other hand chaste or conjugial love makes them feel warm all over. In the case of men, all their sinews go slack at the sight of a whore, and become tense on seeing their wives.'
[8] On hearing this the three newcomers asked whether married couples in the heavens have the same kind of love as they do on earth. The two angelic spirits replied that it is exactly the same. Then seeing they wanted to know whether the ultimate delights were the same there, they said they were exactly the same, but far more blessed, 'because,' they said, 'angels' perception and feeling is much more exquisite than those of human beings; and what brings love alive but the current of potency? Surely its failure leads to a cessation and cooling of that love? Is not that power the very measure, degree and basis for that love? Is it not its beginning, its strengthening and its completion? It is a universal law that first things are brought into being by ultimates, are kept in being by them and endure by their means. So it is with this love; so if the ultimate delights were absent, there would be no delights in conjugial love.'
[9] Then the newcomers asked whether the ultimate delights of that love led to the birth of children there, saying that, if not, what use were they? The angelic spirit replied that there are no natural, only spiritual children. 'What,' they asked, 'are spiritual children?' 'A married couple,' they answered, 'are more and more united by the ultimate delights in the marriage of good and truth. The marriage of good and truth is that of love and wisdom, and love and wisdom are the children born of that marriage. Since in heaven the husband is wisdom and the wife is the love of wisdom, both being spiritual, they cannot have any but spiritual children conceived and born there. This is why these delights do not leave angels depressed, as some on earth are, but cheerful; this is due to the constant inflow of fresh strength to replace the former, at once renewing and enlightening it. For all who reach heaven return to the springtime of their youth, recovering the strength of that age, and keeping this for ever.'
[10] On hearing this the newcomers said, 'Do we not read in the Word that in heaven people are not given in marriage, since they are angels?' 'Look up to heaven,' was the angelic spirits' answer to this, 'and you will receive your answer.' They asked why they should look up to heaven. 'Because,' they were told, 'it is from there we get our interpretation of the Word. The Word is deeply spiritual, and angels, being spiritual, will teach us its spiritual meaning.'
After a short while heaven was thrown open overhead, and two angels came into view, who said, 'There are weddings in the heavens as there are on earth, but only for those for whom good and truth are married, for no others are angels. So it is spiritual weddings, the marriage of good and truth, which are meant by this passage. These are possible on earth, but not after death, and so not in the heavens. So it is said of the five foolish maidens, who were also invited to the wedding, that they could not go in, because they lacked the marriage of good and truth; for they had no oil, but only lamps. Oil means good and lamps truth; and being given in marriage is entering heaven, where that marriage is.'
The three newcomers were very happy to hear this, being full of the longing for heaven and hoping to get married there. So they said, 'We shall devote ourselves to good behaviour and a decorous life, so that we can achieve our aims.'
44. The second account:
I once saw three spirits newly arrived from the world, who were wandering about, exploring and asking questions. They were in a state of astonishment that they were living as people just as before and that they were seeing the same things as before. For they knew they had departed from the former or natural world, and they had believed there that they would not live as people until after the day of the Last Judgment, when they would be clothed with the flesh and bones laid in their graves.
To remove all doubt that they were still truly people, therefore, they alternately inspected and touched themselves and others, and handled the things they found, and in a thousand ways kept convincing themselves that they were now people as they had been in the former world, except that they were seeing each other in a brighter light and the things they found in a greater splendor, thus seeing them more perfectly.
[2] Then by chance two angelic spirits met them and stopped them, saying, "Where are you from?"
And they answered, "We have departed from the world and are again living in a world, so we have traveled from one world to another. At this we are now marveling!"
Then the three newcomers began asking the two angelic spirits about heaven. And because two of the three newcomers were adolescents, and from their eyes darted what seemed to be a spark of lust for the opposite sex, the angelic spirits said, "You have, perhaps, seen some of the women."
And they replied, "We have."
So, because the newcomers had asked about heaven, the angelic spirits told them the following:
"In heaven all things are magnificent and splendid, and are such as eye has never seen. There are also young men and women there, young women of such beauty that they may be called the very pictures of beauty, and young men of such morality that they may be called the very pictures of morality. And the beauty of the young women and the morality of the young men correspond to each other, as reciprocal and mutually adaptable forms."
The two newcomers then asked whether human forms in heaven are entirely similar to human forms in the natural world. And the angelic spirits answered that they are completely alike, with nothing taken from either man or woman.
"In a word," the angelic spirits said, "a man is still a man, and a woman is still a woman, in all the perfection of the form in which they were created. Step aside, if you like, and investigate in your own case whether anything is missing to keep you from being the man you were before."
[3] Again the newcomers said, "We heard in the world from which we departed that in heaven they are not given in marriage, because they are angels. 1Is love between the sexes possible, then?"
The angelic spirits replied, "The love you mean between the sexes is not possible there, but an angelic love for the opposite sex is, which is chaste, free of any temptation arising from lust."
To this the newcomers said, "If love for the opposite sex is without temptation, then what is love between the sexes?"
And when they began to think about that love, they groaned and said, "How dry the joy of heaven is! What young man can then wish for heaven? Is not a love like that sterile and devoid of life?"
To this the angelic spirits laughingly replied, "Angelic love for the opposite sex, or the kind of love that exists in heaven, is still full of the deepest delights. It is a most pleasant swelling of everything in the mind and consequently of everything in the breast, and within the breast it is as if the heart were sporting with the lungs. From this sport comes a breathing, tone and speech which cause the companionships between the sexes, or between young men and women, to be heavenly sweetness itself, which is at the same time pure.
[4] "All newcomers on ascending to heaven are examined in respect to what their chastity is like, for they are introduced into companionships with young women - the beauties of heaven - and these perceive what the newcomers are like in regard to their love for the opposite sex. They perceive it from their tone of voice, their speech, their facial expression, their eyes, their bearing, and the atmosphere emanating from them. If the love is unchaste, the young women then run away and report to their friends that they have seen satyrs or lechers. And what is more, the newcomers undergo a change, and to the eyes of the angels they appear hairy, with feet like those of calves or leopards. They are also soon cast down, to keep them from polluting the atmosphere there with their lust."
Listening to this, the two newcomers again said, "Then there is no love between the sexes in heaven. What is chaste love between the sexes but love emptied of the essence of its life? Are the companionships of young men and women there not then dry joys? We are not made of stone and wood, but of living perceptions and affections!"
[5] When the two angelic spirits heard this, they indignantly retorted, "You do not know at all what a chaste love between the sexes is, because you are not yet chaste! That love is a true delight of the mind and so of the heart, and not at the same time of the flesh below the heart. Angelic chastity, which is found equally in both sexes, prevents that love from passing beyond the confines of the heart. But within those confines, and above them, the morality of the young man and the beauty of the young woman find delight in the delights of a chaste love for the opposite sex - delights which are deeper and richer for their pleasantness than can be described in words.
"But this is the love that angels have for the opposite sex, because they have only conjugial love, and conjugial love is not possible at the same time as an unchaste love for the opposite sex. Truly conjugial love is a chaste love, and has nothing in common with unchaste love. It is with one and only one of the opposite sex, with all others set aside, for it is a love of the spirit and consequently of the body, and not a love of the body and consequently of the spirit, that is, it is not a love that infests the spirit."
[6] On hearing this, the two adolescent newcomers rejoiced and said, "Then there is still love between the sexes in heaven! What else is conjugial love?"
But to this the angelic spirits replied, "Think more deeply, weigh the matter, and you will see that the love you mean between the sexes is a love outside of marriage, and that conjugial love is altogether different, being as different from the love you mean as the wheat is from the chaff, or better, as different as human life is from animal life.
"If you were to ask women in heaven what love outside of marriage is, I assure you they would respond, 'What is this? What are you saying? How can such a thing that so offends the ears come out of your mouth? How can a love not created in the first place be engendered in a person?'
"If you then asked them what truly conjugial love is, I know they would answer that it is not a love for the opposite sex, but love for one of the sex, which arises only when a young man sees a young woman provided by the Lord, and the young woman the young man, both feeling an inclination to marry kindled in their hearts, and perceiving, the young man that she is for him, and the young woman that he is for her. For love then presents itself to love and causes them to recognize each other, at once joining their souls, and afterwards their minds. From there it enters their hearts, and after the wedding goes on beyond. And so it becomes a full love, which daily grows into union, even to the point that they no longer are two, but virtually one person.
[7] "I know, too, that these same women would swear that they are not acquainted with any other love between the sexes. For they say, 'How can there be love between the sexes unless it is so honest and reciprocal that it aspires to eternal union, which is that the two may be one flesh?'"
To this the angelic spirits added, "In heaven they do not know at all what licentiousness is, not even that it exists or is possible. The angels grow cold with their whole body at unchaste love or love outside of marriage, and on the other hand, they grow warm with their whole body as a result of chaste or conjugial love. In the case of men there, all their sinews sink at the sight of a licentious woman, and grow taut at the sight of their wife."
[8] The three newcomers, hearing this, asked whether there is the same love-making between married partners in heaven as on earth.
The two angelic spirits answered that it is entirely the same. And because they perceived that the newcomers were wanting to know whether they had the same end delights in heaven, they also said that these are entirely the same, but much more blissful, since the perception and sensation of angels is much more exquisite than the perception and sensation of people.
"Moreover, what is the life accompanying that love," the angelic spirits asked, "if it does not stem from an underlying condition of ability? If this ability fails, does that love not fail and cool? Is this power not a real measure, a real progression and real foundation of that love? Is it not its beginning, support and fulfillment?
"It is a universal law that the primary elements in a series exist, subsist and persist on the basis of the final elements. So also with that love. Consequently, without the end delights, there would not be any delights in conjugial love."
[9] The newcomers then asked whether as a result of the end delights of that love, children are born in heaven. And if children were not born, of what use those delights were.
The angelic spirits replied that they do not have any natural offspring, but spiritual offspring.
"And what are spiritual offspring?" the newcomers asked.
The angelic spirits answered, "By the end delights the two partners become more united in a marriage of goodness and truth, and a marriage of goodness and truth is a marriage of love and wisdom, and love and wisdom are the offspring that are born of such a marriage. Because the husband in heaven is a form of wisdom, and his wife is a form of the love of it, and both moreover are spiritual, therefore no other than spiritual offspring can be conceived and begotten there.
"That is why, after experiencing these delights, angels do not become depressed as some do on earth, but joyful, and they have this characteristic as a result of a continual influx of fresh vigor to follow the first - fresh vigor that rejuvenates and at the same time enlightens them. For, all who come into heaven return into the springtime of their youth and into the powers of that age, and so they remain to eternity."
[10] When the three newcomers heard this, they said, "Does it not say in the Word that there are no marriages in heaven, because they are angels?" 2
To this the angelic spirits replied, "Look up into heaven, and you will receive an answer."
They then asked why they should look up into heaven.
"Because," the angelic spirits said, "we have all our interpretations of the Word from heaven. The Word is inwardly spiritual, and the angels, being spiritual, must explain its spiritual meaning."
Then, after some time, heaven opened over their heads and they caught sight of two angels. And the two angels said, "There are marriages in heaven, as on earth, but only in the case of people there who already possess a marriage of goodness and truth. They are the only ones who become angels. Therefore spiritual marriages are meant in the Word, which are marriages of goodness and truth. These spiritual marriages take place on earth and not after death, thus not in heaven. So it is said of the five foolish virgins - even though they, too, were invited to the wedding - that they could not go in, because they did not have a marriage of goodness and truth, since they had no oil, but only lamps. 3
"Goodness is meant by oil, and truth by lamps. And to be given in marriage is to enter into heaven where that marriage is."
The three newcomers were glad to hear this explanation, and were filled with a longing for heaven and the hope of being married there. And they said, "We will strive for morality and a decent and proper life, that we may obtain the object of our prayers."
Footnotes:
1. See Matthew 22:30, Mark 12:25, Luke 20:35-36.
2. See Matthew 22:30, Mark 12:25, Luke 20:35-36.
3. See Matthew 25:1-12.
44. Another story: Once I saw three spirits fresh from the world wandering around, looking, and finding things out. They were surprised that they were living people just as before and that the things they saw were the same. They did know that they had left the former or natural world and that there they had thought that they would not revive as people before the day of the Last Judgment, when they would be clothed by flesh and bones laid away in graves. So to remove all doubt about whether they were really people, by turns they examined and touched themselves and others and felt objects, and by a thousand ways assured themselves that they were now people the same as in the world before, except that they saw each other in a brighter light and objects in more brilliance and therefore much more perfectly.
Then two angelic spirits happened to fall in with them and stopped them, saying, "Where are you from?"
They answered, "We came from the world, and we're alive in a world again, so we migrated from one world to another.
We're amazed at this!"
Then the three newcomers asked the two angelic spirits about heaven, and because two of the three newcomers were adolescents and a spark of sexual eagerness glittered from their eyes, the angelic spirits said, "Maybe you saw some women."
They said, "We did!"
They had asked about heaven, so the spirits said, "In heaven everything is magnificent and splendid such as no eye has seen.
Young women and men are there - young women of such beauty that they can be called beauty's own image, and young men of such morality that you could call them morality's own image.
And the women's beauty and the men's morality suit each other like pieces in a puzzle."
The two newcomers asked, "Are human figures in heaven exactly like the ones in the natural world?"
The answer was, "Exactly the same. Nothing is taken away from a man and nothing from a woman. In a word, a man is a man and a woman is a woman in total perfection of the form that they were created in. Step aside and look at yourself if you want, and see if anything is missing - whether you are male as before."
Once again the newcomers spoke. "In the world we came from we have heard that there are no weddings in heaven because the people are angels. Then isn't there sexual love?"
"Your sexual love isn't found there," the angelic spirits answered, "but an angelic sexual love that is chaste, without any enticement of lust."
To this the newcomers said, "If there is sexual love without allurement, then what kind of sexual love is it?" And while they were thinking about this love they sighed and said, "Oh, what a dry heavenly joy! What young man can choose heaven, then?
Love like that is sterile and without life, isn't it?"
These words made the angelic spirits laugh, and they replied, "Angelic sexual love, the kind in heaven, is still full of deep delights. It is the most pleasant opening of everything in the mind, and therefore everything in your chest, and in your chest it is as if your heart plays with your lungs, and your breath, voice, and words come out of this play, which makes fellowship between the sexes, or between young men and women, precisely the pleasantness of heaven - which is pure.
"All newcomers going up to heaven are tested out to see what their chastity is like, for they are put in the company of young women - heavenly beauties - who can tell, from their voice, their speech, their face, eyes, gestures, and the sphere they give off, what they are like as far as sexual love goes. If the love is unchaste the women run away and tell their friends they saw satyrs or lechers. And those newcomers undergo a change, besides, and to the eyes of angels they look hairy, with feet like cows or leopards, and pretty soon they get thrown out to keep their lust from polluting the air there."
When they heard these things the two newcomers said once more, "So then there is no sexual love in heaven. What is chaste sexual love but love emptied of its essential life? Companionships of young men and women there are dry pleasures, aren't they?
We aren't stones and posts. We take in life and feel it!"
The angelic spirits resented this when they heard it and answered, "You definitely don't understand what chaste sexual love is, because so far you are not chaste. It's precisely the joy of your mind and therefore of your heart and not of the flesh below your heart at the same time. Angelic chastity, which both sexes have in common, does not let that love get past the confines of your heart, but within that and above it the joys of chaste sexual love, which are too deep and too rich in pleasure for words to describe, make a young man's morality delight in a young woman's beauty. But this sexual love is for angels, because they have only married love, and this love is incompatible with unchaste sexual love.
"Real married love is a chaste love and has nothing in common with unchaste love. It is love for just one of the other sex. All the others are out of the question. You see, it is a spiritual love and therefore bodily, not a bodily love and therefore spiritual.
That is, not a love that annoys your spirit."
Hearing these things pleased the two adolescent newcomers, and they said, "Then there is sexual love there yet! What else is love that belongs to marriage?"
But the angelic spirits answered them, "Think deeper. Consider and you will see that your sexual love is extramarital love and married love is totally different - as different as wheat from chaff, or rather human from bestial! If you asked women in heaven what extramarital love is, I assure you that the response would be, 'What's this? What are you saying? How can you let a thing that hurts our ears this way come out of your mouth? How can a person invent a love that was not created?'
"If you asked them what real married love is, I know what the answer would be: that it isn't a love for the other sex but a love for one member of the other sex, which happens only one way - when the Lord arranges for a young man to notice a young woman and the woman the man, and they both feel marriage take fire in their hearts, and they can tell that she is his and he is hers. For love meets love and makes itself known and joins both souls together at once, and then their minds join, and from there it goes into their breasts, and farther after their wedding, and this is how it becomes a complete love. It joins them together more every day, to the point where they are not two any more, but just like one. I also know that they will swear that they know of no other sexual love. In fact, they say, 'How can there be sexual love without its being so responsive and mutual that it aims at an eternal union, which is that two become one flesh?'"
The angelic spirits added to this. "In heaven they absolutely do not know what fornication is, nor that it exists, nor that it can exist. An angel's whole body is cold to unchaste or extramarital love, and, vice versa, his whole body gets warm from chaste or married love. Among men, every cord goes slack at the sight of a prostitute, and tunes up at the sight of their wives."
The three newcomers listened to this and asked, "Is love between married partners the same in heaven as on earth?"
"It is just the same," the two angelic spirits answered. They could tell that the newcomers wanted to know if there was the same physical pleasure, so they said, "Completely the same, but much richer, because angelic perception and sensation is much more exquisite than a mortal's is. And what vitality does that love have unless it comes from a vein of potency? If this is missing, doesn't that love diminish and cool off? And isn't that strength the very measure, the very degree, and the very basis of that love? Isn't it the beginning, the foundation, and the capstone of it? It is a universal law that the highest things exist, subsist, and persist in relation with the lowest. The same goes for this love as well, so without the physical pleasure there would not be any married love."
Then the newcomers asked, "Are babies born there from the physical pleasure of this love, and if not, what good does the pleasure do?"
The angelic spirits answered, "There aren't any worldly offspring, but there are spiritual offspring."
They asked what "spiritual offspring" are.
"The physical pleasure," they answered, "brings the partners closer together in a marriage of good and truth, and marriage of good and truth is a marriage of love and wisdom, and love and wisdom are the offspring that are born from this marriage. Since a husband in heaven is wisdom and a wife is its love, and since both are spiritual, it means that no offspring but spiritual offspring can be conceived and born there. This is why angels do not get depressed after the pleasure as some do on earth, but happy, and they get this from a constant fountain of resounding potency that refreshes and brightens them up as well. You see, everyone who comes to heaven returns to the springtime of his youth and the energy of that age, and stays that way forever."
When the three newcomers heard these things they said, "Don't we read in the Word that in heaven there are no weddings because they are angels?"
The angelic spirits answered this. "Look up to heaven and you will get the answer."
"Why look up to heaven?" they asked.
"Because all interpretations of the Word come to us from there," they said. "Inwardly the Word is spiritual, and angels, who are spiritual, will teach its spiritual meaning."
And pretty soon heaven opened over their heads, and two angels came into view for them and said, "There are weddings in heaven as on earth. But only for people there who have a marriage of good and truth - as all angels do - so this passage refers to spiritual marriages, which are marriages of good and truth.
These take place on earth and not after death, so not in heaven.
Thus it says of the five foolish virgins invited to the wedding that they could not go in. They had no marriage of good and truth, you see. They had no oil but only lamps. 'Oil' is a way of saying good and 'lamps' truth. And to 'get married' is to enter heaven, where that marriage is."
The three newcomers were glad to hear these things and they fully desired heaven and hoped to get married there, and they said, "We'll work on the morality and propriety of our life, to get our wish!"
44. The Second Memorable Relation:
I once saw three spirits newly arrived from the world, who were wandering about, observing and inquiring. They were in wonderment at the fact that they were living as men, just as before, and that they saw the same things as before; for they knew that they had departed from the former or natural world, and that there they had thought they would not live as men until after the day of the Last Judgment, when they would be clothed with the flesh and bones which had been laid in their graves. Therefore, to free themselves of all doubt whether they really were men, they now and again inspected and touched themselves and others. Moreover, they felt objects, and by a thousand proofs convinced themselves that they were now men as in the former world, except that they saw each other in brighter light, and saw objects in greater splendor and thus more perfectly.
[2] Just then, two angelic spirits chanced to meet them and, stopping, they asked them: "Whence are you?" They answered: "We have departed from a world, and are again living in a world; thus we have migrated from one world to another. We are now wondering at this."
The three novitiates then questioned the two angelic spirits about heaven; and because two of the novitiates were adolescents, and from their eyes gleamed a fire as though of lust for the sex, the angelic spirits said: "Perchance you have seen women?" and they replied, "We have."
Since they had inquired about heaven, the angelic spirits spoke as follows: "In heaven all things are magnificent and splendid such as eye has never seen. There are there maidens and young men, maidens of such beauty that they may be called beauty in its very form, and young men of such morality that they may be called morality in its very form; and the beauty of the maidens and the morality of the young men correspond to each other as reciprocal and mutually adaptable forms."
The two novitiates then asked whether human forms in heaven were exactly the same as those in the natural world, and they were answered: "They are exactly the same; nothing is taken from man and nothing from woman. In a word, a man is a man and a woman 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 lacking, and whether you are not men just as before."
[3] The novitiates further said: "In the world from whence we have departed, we heard that in heaven they are not given in marriage because they are angels. Is there then no love of the sex?" The angelic spirits replied: "Not your love of the sex but angelic love of the sex which is chaste, being devoid of all the allurement of lust.
To this the novitiates said: "If it is love of the sex without allurement, what then is love of the sex?" And, thinking of this love, they sighed and exclaimed: "Oh, how dry is the joy of heaven. What young man can then wish for heaven? Is not such a love barren and void of life?"
The angelic spirits, laughing, made answer: "Yet the angelic love of the sex, being that love as it 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 of the breast; and within the breast it is like the heart sporting with the lungs, from which sport comes respiration, sound, and speech. These delights make the companionship between the sexes, that is, between young men and women, to be heavenly sweetness itself, which is pure.
[4] All novitiates ascending into heaven are explored as to their chastity; for they are admitted into the companionship of maidens, the beauties of heaven, and from their tone, their speech, their face, their eyes, their gestures, and the sphere emanating from them, these maidens perceive what their nature is in respect to love of the sex. If it is unchaste, they flee away and tell their companions that they have seen satyrs or priapi. Moreover, before the eyes of angels, such new-comers actually undergo a change, appearing hairy, and as to their feet like calves or leopards; and soon they are cast down, lest with their lust they pollute the aura of heaven."
Hearing this, the two novitiates again said: "Then there is no love of the sex in heaven. What is a chaste love of the sex but a love emptied of the essence of its life? Are not then the companionships of young men and women there dry joys? We are not stones and stocks but perceptions and affections of life."
[5] Hearing this, the two angelic spirits indignantly replied: "Because you are not yet chaste, you are entirely ignorant of what chaste love of the sex is. 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 below the barrier of the heart; but within that barrier and above it, the morality of the youth is delighted with the beauty of the maid, being delighted with the delights of a chaste love of the sex, delights which are too interior and too rich in pleasantness to be described in words. Angels have this love of the sex because they have conjugial love, and this is not possible simultaneously with an 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 of the body and thence of the spirit, that is, not a love that infests the spirit."
[6] The two novitiate adolescents rejoiced at hearing this and said: "Then there is love of the sex there; 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 an extra-conjugial love, and that conjugial love is wholly different being as distinct from the other love as wheat from chaff, or rather as the human from the bestial. Ask women in heaven what extra-conjugial love is, and I assure you they will answer, "What thing is that? what are you speaking of? How can such an expression which so offends the ears come from your mouth? How can a love not created, be generated in man?" And if you were to ask them what love truly conjugial is, I know they would answer that it is not love of the sex but love of one of the sex. This exists only when a young man sees the virgin provided by the Lord, and the virgin the young man, and both feel the conjugial to be enkindled in their hearts, and perceive, he that she is his, and she that he is hers; for when love meets love, it meets itself, and causes it to recognize itself and at once conjoins their souls and then their minds; and from there it enters into their bosoms, and after the nuptials still farther, and so becomes plenary love; and from day to day this grows into conjunction until they are no more two but as though one.
[7] I know also that they would swear that they know no other love of the sex; for they say, "How can there be love of the sex unless it be so mutual and reciprocal that it breathes eternal union, a union which makes the two to be one flesh?"
To this, the angelic spirits added: "In heaven, they are entirely ignorant of what whoredom is, not knowing that it exists or that it is possible. Angels are cold in their whole body to an unchaste or extra-conjugial love, and, on the other hand, are warm in their whole body from chaste or conjugial love. With men there, all the nerves collapse at sight of a harlot, and recover their tension at sight of the wife."
[8] Hearing this, the three novitiates asked whether there is the same love between married partners in heaven as on earth, and the two angelic spirits answered that it is the same in every respect. Then, perceiving that they wished to know whether there were the same ultimate delights there, they said: "They are the same in every respect, but far more blessed, inasmuch as angelic perception and sensation is far more exquisite than human perception and sensation. And what is the life of that love if not from a vein of potency. If this fails, does not the love fail and grow cold? and is not that vigor the very measure, degree, and basis of the love? is it not its beginning, its foundation, and its completion? It is a universal law, that primes exist, subsist, and persist from ultimates. So is it also with this love. Therefore, unless there were ultimate delights, there would not be any delights of conjugial love."
[9] The novitiates then asked whether offspring are born there from the ultimate delights of that love? and if offspring are not born, of what use are those delights? The angelic spirits replied that there are no natural offspring but spiritual offspring.
The novitiates then asked, "What are spiritual offspring?" They answered: "By means of ultimate delights, married partners become more united in the marriage of good and truth, and the marriage of good and truth is the marriage of love and wisdom. It is love and wisdom that are the offspring born of that marriage; and because the husband there is wisdom, and the wife the love of that wisdom, and because both are spiritual, therefore no other than spiritual offspring can be conceived and born there. Hence it is, that angels do not become sad after the delights, as some do on earth, but cheerful. This comes from the continual influx of fresh powers which succeed the former and at the same time bring renovation and enlightenment; for all who come into heaven return into their vernal youth and into the vigor of that age, and remain so to eternity."
[10] Hearing this, the three novitiates 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 it is from thence that we have all interpretations of the Word. The Word within is spiritual, and angels, being spiritual, will teach its spiritual meaning."
Then, after some delay, heaven was opened above their head and two angels came into sight; and they said: "There are nuptials in heaven as on earth; but for none save those who are in the marriage of good and truth, nor are any others angels. Thus it is spiritual nuptials that are there meant, being the nuptials of the marriage of good and truth. These nuptials take place on earth and not after death, thus not in the heavens. Therefore it is said of the five foolish virgins who also were invited to the wedding, that they could not enter because there was in them no marriage of good and truth, for they had no oil but only lamps, by oil being meant good, and by lamps truth; and to be given in marriage is to enter into heaven where the marriage of good and truth is."
On hearing this, the three novitiates were made glad; 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."
44. II
I once saw three spirits newly arrived from the world, who were roaming about, observing and inquiring. They were astounded that they were living as men, just as before, and that they saw things similar to those they had seen before. For they were aware that they had left the former or natural world; there they had believed that they would not live as men until after the last judgment-day, when they would be reclothed with the flesh and bones which had been laid away in the grave. From time to time they examined and felt of themselves and of others, and touched things, in order to rid themselves of all doubt that they really were men. By a thousand evidences they convinced themselves of the fact that they were now men as in the former world, except that they beheld one another in brighter light and saw objects in greater splendor and more perfectly.
[2] Two angelic spirits happened on them at that time, and stopping them, asked, "Whence are you?"
They replied, "We left a world, and again are living in a world. We seem to have migrated from one world to another. We are astonished."
And then they asked the two angelic spirits about heaven. Two of the newcomers were young men, and a gleam of lust for the sex shone from their eyes. The angelic spirits remarked: "Perhaps you have seen some women?"
They replied that they had.
As they were asking about heaven, the angelic spirits said:
"In heaven all things are magnificent and splendid beyond anything the eye has ever seen. And there are young men and maidens in heaven - maidens of such beauty that they may be called beauty in its own form; and young men of such morality that they may be called morality in its own form. The beauty of the maidens and the morality of the young men answer to each other, as mutually adapted forms."
The two newcomers asked whether human forms in heaven are altogether like those in the natural world, and were told:
"They are altogether like them; nothing is subtracted from either the man or 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, withdraw and examine yourselves, and see whether anything whatever is wanting, and whether you are not men as before."
Again the newcomers said,
[3] "We heard in the world which we left by death that in heaven 'they are not given in marriage, because they are angels. Does sexual love not exist there then?"
The angelic spirits replied, "Not your love of the sex, but an angelic love of the sex which is chaste, devoid of all the allurement of lust."
"Just what is sexual love without allurement?" the newcomers wanted to know.
As they thought about this love, they sighed and exclaimed, "Oh, how insipid is the joy of heaven! What young man can desire heaven then? Is such love not empty and lifeless?"
The angelic spirits laughed and replied: "Angelic love of the sex, or love of the sex such as it 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 of the breast, in the breast resembling the interplay of heart and lungs whence are breath, voice and speech. These delights render the companionship of the sexes or of young men and maidens, heavenly sweetness itself, which is pure.
[4] All newcomers ascending into heaven are examined as to their chastity. They are admitted to the companionship of maidens - beauties of heaven - who perceive from the tone of voice and from the speech, face, eyes, bearing, and outflowing sphere, what their quality is in respect to love for the sex; and if it is unchaste they flee away, and tell their companions that they have seen satyrs or priapi. Such newcomers are also actually changed and appear hairy to the angels, and seem to have feet like calves or leopards. They are soon cast down, lest they defile the aura of heaven with their lust."
[5] Hearing this the two newcomers said again, "So there is no love of the sex in heaven. What is a chaste sexual love but a love emptied of the essence of its life? Are not then the companionships of your young men and maidens insipid joys? We are not stones and stocks, but perceptions and affections of life."
[6] Hearing this, the two angelic spirits replied indignantly:
"You are altogether ignorant what chaste love for 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 and above this, the morality of the youth delights in the beauty of the maiden, with the delights of a chaste love for the sex which are too interior and too rich in pleasantness to be described by words. But angels have this love of the sex because they have only marital love, along with which unchaste love of the sex cannot exist. True marital love is chaste and has nothing in common with unchaste love. It is love for only one of the sex to the removal of all others; for it is a love of the spirit and thence of the body, and not of the body and thence of the spirit or infesting the spirit."
The two young novitiates were glad to hear this, and said,
"Then there is such a thing as love for the sex in heaven after all. What else is married love?"
But to this the angelic spirits replied: "Think more deeply and reflect. You will perceive that your love for the sex is an extra-marital love and that marital love is altogether different - as different from it as wheat from chaff or rather as the human from the bestial. Ask women in heaven what extra-marital love is, and I assure you they will answer, 'What did you say? How can a question fall from your lips which so offends the ears? How can a love that was not created be engendered in a man?' Then ask them what true marital love is, and I know they will answer: 'It is not love for the sex, but love for one of the sex,' which springs up when a young man sees the maiden and the maiden the young man whom the Lord has provided, and they mutually feel the marital enkindled in their hearts, and perceive, he that she is his, and she that he is hers. For love meets love, makes itself known, conjoins the souls at once, and afterwards the minds, and thence enters the breast, and after the nuptials farther; so it becomes a full love, which grows daily to conjunction, until they are no more two, but like one.
[7] I know also that they will solemnly aver that they know no other love of the sex. For they say, 'How can there be love for the sex unless it is so meet and mutual that it breathes after eternal union, which is that the two may become one flesh?"
To this the angelic spirits added: "In heaven there is no knowledge at all what whoredom is, or that it exists, or can be. Angels turn cold in the whole body at unchaste or extra-marital love; and, on the other hand, they grow warm in the whole body at chaste or marital love. As for men in heaven, all their nerves are unstrung at the sight of a harlot and grow tense at the sight of a wife."
[8] Having heard these things the three newcomers asked, "Is there love between married partners in heaven like that on earth?"
The two angelic spirits answered: "It is quite similar."
Perceiving that they wished to know whether there are similar ultimate delights there, they said: "They are altogether similar, but far more blessed, because angelic perception and sensation is far more exquisite than human perception and sensation. What life has that love except from a vein of potency? If this fails, does not the love diminish and grow cold? And is not that vigor the very measure, degree and basis of that love? Is it not the beginning, foundation and completion of it? It is a universal law that first things exist, subsist and persist by last things. So also with this love. If there were no ultimate delights, there would not be any delights of marital love."
[9] Then the newcomers asked, "Are offspring born there from the ultimate delights of this love? If not, what use do those delights serve?"
The angelic spirits replied, "Spiritual offspring are, but not natural."
And they asked, "What are spiritual offspring?" They answered:
"By the ultimate delights married partners are more closely united in the marriage of good and truth, which is the marriage of love and wisdom; and love and wisdom are the offspring which are born of that marriage. Consider that there the husband is wisdom, and the wife is a love of wisdom, and that both of these are spiritual; then no other than spiritual offspring can be conceived and born there. Hence it is, too, that angels do not become sad after the delights, as some do on earth, but cheerful. This results from the perpetual influx of fresh powers succeeding the former, renewing and enlightening the angels. For all who come into heaven return into the springtime of their youth and into the vigor of those years, and remain so to eternity."
[10] Hearing these things the three newcomers said, "Do we not read in the Word that there are no nuptials in heaven 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 all our interpretations of the Word are from heaven. Inwardly the Word is spiritual, and the angels, being spiritual, are bound to teach a spiritual understanding of it."
After some delay heaven was opened above their heads, and two angels came into sight, and said:
"There are nuptials in heaven as on earth; but only with those who are in the marriage of good and truth; no others are angels. Therefore it is spiritual nuptials, or marriages of good and truth, which are meant in Scripture. These nuptials take place on earth and not after death, thus not in the heavens. So we are told that the five foolish virgins who also were invited to the nuptials, 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 newcomers rejoiced to hear these things. Filled with a desire for heaven and with the hope of nuptials there, they declared: "We will strive eagerly after morality and a right life, that we may realize our desires."
44. The Second 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 sepulcher. 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.'
44. Alterum Memorabile. Quondam vidi tres Spiritus novitios e Mundo, qui circumvagabantur, lustrabant, et sciscitabant; erant in admiratione, quod viverent homines prorsus sicut prius, et quod viderent similia quae prius; noverunt enim quod e Mundo priori seu naturali obiverint, et quod ibi crediderint, quod non victuri sint homines prius quam post diem ultimi Judicii, quando circumdabuntur carne et ossibus reconditis in sepulchris; quare ut deprivarentur omni dubio, quin vere homines essent, per vices inspexerunt ac tetigerunt se et alios, et palpaverunt objecta, et per millia confirmabant se, quod nunc essent homines, sicut in priori Mundo; praeter quod se mutuo in candidiore luce, et objecta in superiore splendore, et sic perfectius viderent.
[2] Tunc forte duo Spiritus Angelici illis occurrebant, et retinebant, dicendo, "unde estis," et responderunt, "obivimus e Mundo, ac iterum vivimus in Mundo, ita migravimus e Mundo in Mundum; hoc nunc miramur:" et tunc tres Novitii interrogabant duos Spiritus Angelicos de Coelo; et quia duo ex tribus Novitiis erant adolescentes, et ex illorum oculis emicabat sicut igniculus libidinis ad sexum, ajebant Spiritus Angelici, "forte vidistis foeminas," et responderunt, "vidimus;" et quia interrogaverunt de Coelo, dixerunt haec; "in Coelo sunt omnia magnifica et splendida, et talia quae oculus nusquam viderat; et sunt ibi virgines et juvenes, virgines tali pulchritudine, ut vocari possint Pulchritudines in sua forma; ac Juvenes tali moralitate, ut vocari possint Moralitates in sua forma; et correspondent sibi Pulchritudines virginum et Moralitates juvenum, sicut formae mutuae et coaptabiles:" et quaesiverunt duo Novitii, num in Coelo sint Formae humanae prorsus similares illis quae in Mundo naturali sunt, et respondebatur, quod prorsus similares; "nihil ablatum est e viro, et nihil e foemina; verbo, vir est vir, et foemina est foemina, in omni perfectione formae, in qua creati sunt; secede si vis, et explora apud te, num quidquam desit, quin sis vir sicut prius."
[3] Iterum dixerunt Novitii, "audivimus in Mundo, e quo decessimus, quod in Coelo non dentur nuptui, quia sunt Angeli; num sic datur Amor sexus;" et responderunt Spiritus Angelici, "vester amor sexus ibi non datur, sed amor sexus Angelicus, qui est castus, expers omnis illecebrae ex libidine:" ad haec dixerunt Novitii, "si datur amor sexus nullius illecebrae, quid tunc amor sexus;" et cum cogitabant de hoc Amore, ingemuerunt, et dixerunt, "o quam siccum gaudium Coeli; quis juvenis tunc potest optare Coelum; estne talis Amor sterilis et expers vitae:" ad haec Spiritus Angelici ridentes retulerunt, "Amor sexus Angelicus, seu qualis est in Coelo, est usque plenus delitiis intimis; est expansio amaenissima omnium mentis, et inde omnium pectoris, ac est intus in pectore sicut cor ludat cum pulmone, ex quo ludo exit respiratio, sonus et loquela, quae faciunt ut consortia inter sexus, seu inter juvenes et virgines, sint ipsae suavitates coelestes, quae sunt purae.
[4] Omnes Novitii, ascendentes in Coelum, explorantur quali castitate sunt, immittuntur enim in Consortia Virginum, Pulchritudinum Coeli, quae percipiunt ex sono, ex loquela, ex facie, ex oculis, ex gestu, et ex sphaera exundante, quales sunt quoad amorem sexus; qui si incastus est, aufugiunt et nuntiant suis, quod viderint satyros aut priapos; et quoque advenae illi mutantur, et apparent coram oculis Angelorum hirsuti, et quoad pedes sicut vituli aut pardi, et illi mox dejiciuntur, ne libidine sua inquinent auram ibi:" his auditis duo Novitii iterum dixerunt, "sic est nullus Amor sexus in Coelo; quid amor sexus castus nisi amor exinanitus suae vitae essentia; suntne sic consortia Juvenum et Virginum ibi gaudia sicca; non sumus saxa et stipites, sed perceptiones et affectiones vitae:"
[5] his auditis, duo Spiritus Angelici indignati responderunt, "vos prorsus nescitis quid amor sexus castus, quia non adhuc casti estis; est ille amor ipsum delitium mentis et inde cordis, et non simul carnis sub corde; castitas Angelica, quae est utrique sexui communis, inhibet transitum amoris illius ultra clausuram cordis, sed intra illam et supra illam delitiatur moralitas Juvenis cum pulchritudine Virginis delitiis amoris sexus casti, quae interiores et uberiores amaenitate sunt, quam ut possint describi per voces. Sed hic Amor sexus est Angelis, quia est illis modo Amor Conjugialis, et hic amor non dabilis est simul cum amore sexus incasto; amor vere conjugialis est amor castus, et nihil commune cum amore incasto habet; est solum modo cum una ex sexu, remotis omnibus aliis, est enim amor spiritus et inde corporis, et non amor corporis et inde spiritus, hoc est, non amor infestans spiritum:"
[6] his auditis, gavisi sunt bini adolescentes novitii, et dixerunt, "est usque ibi amor sexus; quid amor conjugialis aliud;" sed spiritus Angelici ad illa respondebant, "cogitate penitius, expendite, et percipietis, quod vester Amor sexus sit amor extraconjugialis, et quod amor conjugialis sit prorsus alius, et quod hic distinctus sit ab illo, sicut triticum a palea, aut potius sicut humanum a ferino: si quaesiveritis foeminas in Coelo, quid amor extraconjugialis, assevero 1quod responsurae sint, 'quid hoc; quid loqueris; quomodo potest tale exire ore tuo quod ita laedit aures; quomodo potest Amor non creatus ingenerari homini;' si tunc quaesiveris illas, quid Amor vere conjugialis, scio 2quod responsurae sint, quod non sit Amor sexus, sed amor unius e sexu, qui non aliter existit, quam dum Juvenis videt Virginem a Domino provisam, et virgo juvenem, utrinque sentiant conjugiale incendi in cordibus suis, ac percipiant, ille quod sua sit, et illa quod suus sit, obviat enim se amor amori, et facit se cognoscere, et conjungit illico animas, et postea mentes, et inde intrat pectora, ac post nuptias ultra, et sic fit plenus amor, qui indies in conjunctionem crescit, usque ut non amplius sint duo, sed sicut unus:
[7] scio etiam, quod juraturae sint, quod non sciant alium amorem sexus; dicunt enim, 'quomodo potest dari Amor sexus, nisi sit ita obvius et reciprocus, ut spiret aeternam unionem, quae est ut duo sint una caro:'" his addiderunt Spiritus Angelici, "in Coelo prorsus non sciunt, quid Scortatio, nec quod sit, nec quod dabilis; Angeli frigent toto corpore ad Amorem incastum seu extraconjugialem, ac vicissim calent toto corpore ex Amore casto seu conjugiali; apud viros ibi omnes nervi cadunt ad aspectum scorti, et se tendunt ad aspectum Uxoris."
[8] Tres novitii, his auditis, quaesiverunt, num similis Amor inter conjuges est in Coelis, sicut in terris; et duo Spiritus Angelici responderunt, quod prorsus similis; et quia perceperunt, quod vellent scire, num similes delitiae ultimae ibi essent, et dixerunt quod prorsus similes, sed multo beatiores, "quia perceptio et sensatio Angelica est multo exquisitior perceptione et sensatione humana; et quid vita amoris illius nisi ex vena potentiae; numne hac deficiente amor ille deficit et frigescit; estne virtus illa ipsa mensura, ipse gradus, et ipsa basis illius amoris; estne initium, firmamentum et complementum ejus; universalis lex est, quod prima existant, subsistant, et persistant ab ultimis; ita etiam ille Amor; quare nisi forent ultimae delitiae, non forent ullae amoris conjugialis."
[9] Tunc quaesiverunt Novitii, num ex ultimis delitiis illius amoris ibi nascantur proles, et si non nascerentur proles, cui usui sunt illae; responderunt Spiritus Angelici, quod non aliquae proles naturales, sed proles spirituales; et quaesiverunt, "quid proles spirituales," et responderunt, "duo conjuges per delitias ultimas plus uniuntur conjugio boni et veri, et conjugium boni et veri est conjugium amoris et sapientiae, ac amor et sapientia sunt proles, quae ex Conjugio illo nascuntur; et quia maritus ibi est sapientia, et uxor est amor ejus, et quoque ambo sunt spirituales, ideo non aliae proles, quam spirituales, possunt ibi concipi et gigni; inde est, quod Angeli post delitias, non fiant maesti, ut aliqui in terris, sed hilares, et hoc illis est ex jugi influxu recentium virium post priores, quae renovant et simul illustrant; omnes enim qui in Coelum veniunt, redeunt in vernam suam juventutem, inque vires ejus aetatis, et sic permanent in aeternum."
[10] Tres Novitii his auditis, dixerunt, "legiturne in Verbo, quod in 3Coelo non dentur Nuptiae, quia sunt Angeli;" ad haec Spiritus Angelici responderunt, "suspicite in Coelum, et vobis respondebitur;" et quaesiverunt, cur suspicerent in Coelum; dixerunt, "quia inde sunt nobis omnes interpretationes Verbi; Verbum est penitus spirituale, et Angeli, quia sunt spirituales, docebunt spiritualem intellectum ejus;" et post aliquam moram aperiebatur Coelum supra caput illorum, et in conspectum illorum venerunt duo Angeli, et dixerunt, "dantur Nuptiae in Coelis, sicut in terris; sed non aliis ibi, quam qui in Conjugio boni et veri sunt, neque alii sunt Angeli, quare Nuptiae spirituales, quae sunt conjugii boni et veri, ibi intelliguntur; hae dantur in terris, et non post obitum, ita non in Coelis; sicut dicitur de quinque virginibus stultis, in nuptias etiam invitatis, quod non potuerint intrare, quia illis non fuit conjugium boni et veri, non enim fuit illis oleum, sed modo lampades; per oleum intelligitur bonum, et per lampades verum; ac nuptui dari 4est intrare in Coelum, ubi est illud conjugium." Tres Novitii, his auditis laetificati sunt, ac pleni desiderio Coeli, et spe nuptiarum ibi, et dixerunt, "studebimus moralitati et decori vitae, ut votis potiamur."
Footnotes:
1. Prima editio:
2. Prima editio:
3. Prima editio: quodin
4. Prima editio: dari, et scio et assevero