|
| |
Human Prudence and the Love of
Offspring:
A Compilation of Passages from the Writings 1
by Rev. Robert S. Jungé
 The Lord's truth is unalterable, even though each of us sees a different
application of that truth to our particular state. The following passages are
assembled in the hope that they will serve as a basis for reflection for any
who seek understanding of the ideals, or guidance in difficult states.
Any such collection is bound to be influenced by the view of the compiler,
but I have tried to limit my comments and structure to the minimum which seemed
necessary to hold the study together. I sincerely hope that any of you will
call additional passages to my attention and add your reflections. Long as it
is, this is just a beginning of gathering together numbers on a subject where
our lives must be ordered by the Writings to establish the conjugial in an
increasingly alien world.
1. Human prudence is a servant and its judgments to be valid must be formed
by the Word. Reason according to which man is led looks to the basic laws of
order and Divine Providence, and must not be confused with natural reasonings.
Human prudence standing alone and founded on natural considerations is not the
servant of freedom, but hellish. Judgments concerning so basic a love as
procreation must be made in the light of clear principles drawn from Revelation
and those principles are not lacking in the Writings.
"...From this it follows that unless man, as if from his own prudence
directs all things belonging to his employment and life, he cannot be led and
directed by the Divine Providence; for he would be like one standing with
relaxed hands, opened mouth, closed eyes, and breath indrawn, awaiting influx….
(2) If therefore, you wish to be led by the Divine Providence use prudence, as
a servant and minister who faithfully dispenses the goods of his master. This
prudence is the talent given to the servants to trade with, of which they must
render an account. (Luke 19:13-18; Matt. 25:14-31). Prudence itself appears to
man to be his own; and he believes it to be his own so long as he keeps shut
up within him the deadliest enemy of God and of Divine Providence, the love of
self ....Man opens this door by shunning evils as sins as if from himself,
with the acknowledgment that he does it from the Lord. This is the prudence
with which the Divine Providence acts as one." (DP 210)
"There is a likeness between the spiritual things of the mind and the
natural things of the body, because all things of the mind correspond to all
things of the body; therefore also the mind actuates the body in externals, in
general with complete control. It moves the eye to see, the ear to hear,, the
mouth and tongue to eat arid drink; also to speak, the hands to act, the feet
to walk, the generative organs to propagate. The mind moves not only the
externals to those actions, but the internals also throughout the whole
series, the outmosts from the inmosts, and the inmosts from the outmosts. Thus
while it is moving the mouth to speak, it simultaneously moves the lungs, the
larynx, the glottis, the tongue, the lips, each one separately to the
performance of its function, also the face to fitting expression. (2) This
makes clear that what has been said of the natural forms of the body
can be said also of the spiritual forms of the mind; and that what has been
said of the natural operations of the body can be said of the spiritual
operations of the mind; consequently as man orders the externals so the
Lord orders the internals; thus in one way when man orders the externals from
himself, and in another way when he orders the externals from the Lord and at
the same time as if from himself. Moreover, man's mind in its entire form
is a man; for it is man's spirit; and this after death appears a man precisely
as in the world; consequently there are like things in body and mind. So what
has been said of the conjunction of externals with internals in the body can
also be applied to the conjunction of externals with internals in the mind,
with the difference only that one is natural and the other spiritual."
(DP 181).
"...(3) By means of His Divine Providence the Lord leads the
affections of a man's life's love, and at the same time leads his thoughts
from which human prudence is derived ...Those that have acknowledged nature
alone and human prudence alone constitute hell; while those that have
acknowledged God and His Divine Providence constitute heaven..." (DP
192).
2. Conjugial love goes hand in hand with an innocent willingness to be led
by the Lord. The playfulness between married pairs particularly in the
honeymoon state illustrates this, and hopefully this simple trust will remain
as much as is humanly possible throughout all subsequent states.
"As true conjugial love in its first essence is love to the Lord from
the Lord, it is also innocence. Innocence is loving the Lord as one's Father
by doing His commandments and wishing to be led by Him and not by oneself,
thus like an infant..."(AE 996:2). The number continues concerning the
playfulness of love (see section 33 for the full reference.)
"...marriage love viewed in itself is a state of innocence..."(HH
382a) this number also speaks of the sports of innocence).
3. Marriages are the seminary of the human race and thence of heaven. They
are therefore holy since through them man can cooperate with the inmost purpose
of creation - a heaven from the human race.
"How holy in themselves, that is, from creation marriages can be seen
from the fact that they are seminaries of the human race; and as the angelic
heaven is from the human race they are also the seminaries of heaven,
consequently by marriages not only the earths but also the heavens are filled
with inhabitants; and as the end of the entire creation is the human race and
thus heaven, where the Divine itself may dwell in its own and as it were in
itself, and as the procreation of mankind according to order is accomplished
through marriages, it is clear how holy marriages are in themselves, that is
from creation, and thus how holy they should be esteemed... (6) When
procreations of the human race are effected by marriages in which the holy
love of good and truth from the Lord reigns, then it is on earth as it is in
the heavens and the Lord's kingdom on earth corresponds to the Lord's kingdom
in heaven ...(AE 988:5-6)
"...Marriages are seed plots of men, and thus seed plots of
heaven..." (SD 6110:79).
"...That (adulteries) are heinous he might know from the fact that
marriages are the seminaries of the human race and thus also the seminaries of
the heavenly kingdom: consequently they must on no account be violated, but
must be esteemed holy ...that marriage love descends from the Lord through
heaven, and from that love, as from a parent, mutual love, which is the
foundation of heaven is derived..." (HH 385) (cf AC 2733:2, "...from
that love, as from a parent, is derived mutual love, which is the basis of
heaven...")
4. Thought of use must govern all consideration of the external delights of
marriage.
"...In uses all the delights of heaven are brought together and are
present, because uses are the goods of love and charity in which angels are;
therefore everyone has delights that are in accord with his uses, and in the
degree of his affection for use ...The delight of marriage, which is a purer
and more exquisite delight of touch, transcends all the rest because of its
use, which is the procreation of the human race and thereby of angels of
heaven. These delights are in these sensories by an influx of heaven, where
every delight pertains to use and is in accordance with use." (HH 402)
5. The use of marriage is the procreation of offspring.
"...For (conjugial love) expands the inmost things of the mind, and at
the same time the inmost things of the body, as the delicious current of its
fountain flows through and opens them. It is because of the superior
excellence of its use above all other uses that all delights from first to
last are gathered into this love. Its use is the propagation of the human race
and of the angelic heaven therefrom; and as this use was the end of ends of
the creation it follows that all the states of blessedness, satisfaction, delight,
gratification, and pleasure that could ever be conferred on man by the Lord
Creator are gathered into this love..." (CL 68)
6. The love of offspring cannot be separated from conjugial love. Two
universal spheres proceed from the Lord - conjugial love and the love of
offspring - or the love of procreating and the love of protecting what is
procreated. Note: the love of offspring which goes hand in hand with conjugial
love seems to apply primarily to providing for what has been procreated, not to
conceiving children. These two spheres with man, of procreating and then
protecting, are linked to the Divine Providence which has as its end a heaven
from the human race.
"That two universal spheres proceed from the Lord for the conservation
of the universe in the state created; one of which is the sphere of
procreating, and the other the sphere of protecting what is procreated ...The
operations of uses through these spheres are the Divine Providence." (CL
386)
"That the spheres of procreating and protecting what is procreated or
the spheres of conjugial love and the love of infants, inflow into all things
of heaven and into all things of the world, from the first to the last, is
because all things that proceed from the Lord, or from the sun which is from
Him and in which He is, pass together through the created universe even to the
very ultimates of all things thereof." (CL 389).
"The sphere of procreating, and the sphere of protecting what is
procreated make one in a continuous series, because the love of
procreating is continued into the love of the thing procreated. What is the
nature of the love of procreating is known from its delight that it is super
eminent and transcendent. In this is the state of procreation with men, and
notably the state of reception with women. This highest delight with its love,
follows into the bringing forth and there fills itself." (CL 390).
"...that the love of infants is conjoined perpetually with conjugial
love is evident from the origin from whence it flows in. Although varied
in those that receive, the loves yet remain unseparated, just as
the first end is in the final end which is the effect. The first end
of conjugial love is the procreation of offspring and the last end which is
the effect is the offspring procreated…" (CL 385).
"That these two universal spheres make one with the sphere of
conjugial love and with the sphere of the love of infants. That the sphere of
conjugial love makes one with the sphere of procreating is plain; for
procreation is the end, and conjugial love is the mediate cause, by which
it is effected; and the end and cause in the processes of effecting and in the
effects act as one, because together. That the sphere of the love of infants
makes one with the sphere of protecting what is procreated is also plain,
because it is an end proceeding from the prior end, which was procreation
and the love of infants is the mediate cause whereby it is effected. For ends
go forth in series, one after another, and in going forth the last end becomes
first, and so on, even to the limit where they subsist or cease." (CL
387)
7. It is important that we consider the series carefully when we read of
procreation as the end of marriages and conjugial love as the mediate cause,
lest we somehow degrade conjugial love itself. The final end is a heaven from
the human race in which conjugial love is established through a couple's mutual
regeneration, producing one angel in that heaven. Heaven itself is conjunction
with the Lord. This comes from the marriage of good and truth, and thus from
conjugial love. The end of propagation is first in time, and the ultimate. But
those who cannot have children or who have no partner in this world can still
cooperate with the highest end of creation which is conjunction with the Lord
and eternal happiness.
"The internal influx of conjugial love from the Lord is not perceived,
but it becomes more perceptible and gives the more enjoyment as it descends;
and from them in the ultimate effect it becomes the delight of delights (n
58). It becomes such delight from the highest end, which is in the Lord;
namely, the propagation of the human race, and the angelic heaven therefrom, conjunction
there with Himself and external happiness (n 58). (cf. CL 68, 69, 183)
" (Second index on marriage p. 550 Conjugial Love).
"In correspondence with these all things that appear in the natural
world have been created and for this reason like things exist there, with this
difference, that these like the others are from a spiritual origin, but at the
same time from a natural origin. This natural origin is added that they may be
at the same time material and therefore fixed, and this to the end that the
human race may be procreated, which can be done only in ultimates, where there
is fullness; and further, that from the human race as a seminary the
inhabitants of the spiritual world, who are angels, may exist. This is the
chief and final end of creation..." (Div Wis XII:5;3)
8. How intrinsic this ultimate use of propagation is to conjugial love and
its relation to other uses in marriage is also shown.
"That love truly conjugial is chastity itself. The reasons are
these: 1) Because it is from the Lord, and corresponds to the marriage of the
Lord and the Church. 2) Because it is spiritual from the marriage of good and
truth. 3) Because it is spiritual just in the decree that the church is with
men. 4) Because it is the fundamental love,-and the head of all loves
celestial and spiritual. 5) Because it is the true seminar of the human race,
and thence of the angelic heaven. 6) Because it therefore exists also among
the angels of heaven and with them spiritual offspring are born of it, which
are love and wisdom. 7) And because its use is thus pre-eminent above all the
other uses of creation..." (CL 143)
9. The love of producing offspring is a natural love then, from a spiritual
origin. With the good the spiritual origin is the conjunction of good and
truth; but with the evil, it is the conjunction of evil and falsity.
"It has been said that conjugial love, which is natural, descends from
the love of good and truth, which is spiritual ; this spiritual therefore is
in the natural love of marriage as a cause in its effect. So from the marriage
of good and truth there exists the love of bearing fruit, namely good through
truth and truth from good; and from that love the love of producing
offspring descends, in which there is all delight and pleasure... (3)
There is every delight and pleasure in the love of producing offspring because
all that is delightful, pleasurable, blessed and happy, in the whole heaven
and in the whole world has been from creation brought together in the
effort and thus into the act of producing uses; and these joys increase in
an ascending degree to eternity according to the goodness and excellence of
the uses. This makes evident why the pleasure of producing offspring which
surpasses every other pleasure is so great. It surpasses every other
because its use which is procreation of the human race, and thus of heaven,
surpasses all other uses. (4) From this too, comes the pleasure and delight of
adultery, but as prolification through adulteries corresponds to the
production of evil through falsity and of falsity from, evil, that pleasure or
delight decreases and becomes vile by degrees until it is changed at last into
loathing and nausea..." (AE 991:2-3).
"That there is a conjugial sphere which flows in from the Lord through
heaven into all things and every thing of the universe even to its ultimates.
That love and wisdom, or what is the same good and truth, proceed from the
Lord has been shown above in its own chapter. These two in marriage proceed
continually from the Lord, because they are Himself and all things are from
Him; and the things that proceed from Him fill the universe, for without this
nothing that exists would subsist. [NB:] There are several spheres,
which proceed from Him; as the sphere of the preservation of the created
universe; the sphere of the protection of good and truth against evil and
falsity; the sphere of reformation and regeneration; the sphere of innocence
and peace; the sphere of mercy and grace; besides more. But the universal of
all is the conjugial sphere; for this is also the sphere of propagation, and
is thus the supereminent sphere of the preservation of the created universe by
successive generations." (CL 222)
"...It is similar with the love of infants, because this by origin is
from conjugial love ...It appears as if mothers have the love of infants from
nourishing of them in the womb out of their own blood, and thence the
appropriation to them of their own life, and thus from sympathetic union; but
yet this not the origin of that love, for if, unknown to the mother, another
infant were substituted for the true one after birth, it would be loved with
equal tenderness as if it were her own. Besides, infants are sometimes loved
by nurses more than by their mothers. It flows from these considerations, that
this love is from no other source than the conjugial love inherent in every
woman to which is adjoined the love of conceiving, from the delight of
which the wife is prepared for reception; this is the first of that love,
which after the birth with its delight, passes over fully to the offspring.
(CL 393)
"That conjugial love is conjoined with the love of infants with
parents, by causes spiritual and hence natural. The spiritual causes
are: that the human race may be multiplied and from this the angelic heaven
enlarged ...That natural causes of conjunction of these two loves are that
those may be born who will perform uses in human societies and be incorporated
in them as members." (CL 404)
But note:
(An angel mother has) "...as many children as she desires from a
spiritual parental affection." (HH 332)
That the love of infants continues after death, especially with women
...These angels, because they loved all infants with maternal tenderness,
receive them as their own; and the infants there, as if from inherent
affection, love them as their own mothers. As many infants are with them as
from spiritual maternal love they desire…." (CL 410)
10. There can be an internal love of offspring where for various reasons the
couple is unable to procreate. There is a profound difference between not
wanting and not having children. The pleasure of producing offspring surpasses
other pleasures, but the love of offspring dwells within that pleasure, and
within the love of offspring dwells conjugial love, the origin of which is the
marriage of good and truth. Because these delights tie together in a series,
the Writings sanction separation from those who hide their impotence prior to
marriage.
"...When the understanding of truth which is with the man makes one
with the affection of good which is with the woman, there is a conjunction of
the two minds into one. This conjunction is the spiritual marriage from
which conjugial love descends. For when two minds are so conjoined as to
be one mind there is love between them; and when this love which is the love
of spiritual marriage, descends into the body it becomes the love of natural
marriage. That this is so anyone can clearly perceive if he will. A married
pair who interiorly or as to their minds love each other mutually and
reciprocally also love each other mutually and reciprocally as to their
bodies. It is known that all love descends into the body from an affection of
the mind, and that apart from such an origin no love exists...." (AE
983:3)
"...From this it follows that heavenly joys in their order and in
their degrees have their origins and their causes from conjugial
love..." (AE 993:2)
"...The love of marriage is so holy and heavenly because it has its
beginning in the inmosts of man from the Lord Himself, and it descends
according to order to the ultimates of the body, and thus fills the
whole man with heavenly love and brings him into a form of heaven, and is an
image of the Lord..." (AE 985:2)
"The procreation of offspring takes place on earth, because fullness
is there; and the Divine operation is from firsts by ultimates (n 75) (cf CL
51)" (Second Index on marriage GENERATION)
"The most universal sphere of propagation, which is accomplished through
conjugial love, perpetually inflows from the Lord. (n2)" (Second index on
Marriage SPHERE)
"These reasons why they were so created: first, that there may be
propagation of offspring [NB:] and of wisdom; second, it is from the
love of the Lord towards the human race that they may be happy, because they
would otherwise love themselves. (n54)" (Second Index on Marriage,
FEMININE AND WOMAN)
"They have conjugial love who are in truths by means of the Word, and
who wish to propagate them. (n 513-515, cf. CL 128)." (First Index on
Marriage RELIGION)
(The following is extracts from the First Index; the whole citation should
be read because it contains very broad food for thought)
"Procreations take place on earth, because they are from firsts by
ultimates...In the marriage of good and truth there is what is generative and
prolific, whence are the propagations of all things in the universe through
which there is a continuance of creation ...Because goods and truths are in
forms, therefore all things propagate themselves substantial and materially….Propagations
are continuations of creation; and in them there is the image of the infinite
and eternal,...The influx of the soul into the organs of generation, and the
formation of the seed, thus of man ...Spiritual conjugial love is that from
which, in which, and thus for which, there is conception, growth and formation….How
conjugial love progresses from firsts through mediates to ultimates...Prolification
corresponds to the love of producing and preserving the truths and goods of
the Church... In the heavens there is spiritual prolification but not
natural..." (First Index on Marriage PROCREATION, OFFSPRING,
PROLIFICATION, PROLIFIC)
"...The reason why (impotence) is a cause of separation is, that the
end of marriage is the procreation of offspring, and by such it is impossible
and as they know this beforehand they purposely deprive their married partner
of the hope of it, the hope which yet should nurse and
strengthen their conjugial love..." CL 254).
11. The love of sex is an external natural which serves the sphere of
propagation.
"That the love of the sex with man is not the origin of conjugial love
but is its first; this it is as the external natural in which the internal
spiritual is implanted ...The Lord foresees them and provides conjugial love
for them; which love begins with them, it is true, from the love of the sex,
or rather through that love, but it does not originate from that; for it
springs up just in proportion as wisdom advances its step and comes forth into
the life with him ...From this it is clear that the love of the sex is not the
origin of love truly conjugial, but that it is first in time though not in
end. For what is first in end is first in the mind and its intention,
because it is the chief thing. But this first is not attained, except
successively through means; and these are not in themselves first but are only
things leading to that which is first in itself." (CL 98)
"...It follows from this that a Universal Conjugial Sphere proceeds
from the Lord and pervades the universe from its first things to its last,
thus from angels even to worms. The reason why such a sphere of marriage of
good and truth goes forth from the Lord, is that it is the sphere also of
propagation, that is of prolification and fructification; and this is the same
as the Divine Providence for the conservation of the universe by successive
generations... And as this same sphere is the sphere of prolification, it
follows that from this comes the love of the sex." (CL 92)
12. A strong argument for the love of procreating as such an ultimate end of
marriage can be built from the correspondence of the spiritual marriage of good
and truth which produces uses. In this we should remember that correspondences
are based upon two planes which communicate as cause and effect. The delights
involved extend far beyond those associated with conception, even to the
delight in producing, protecting and caring for what is produced. (cf. Section
9 above). These delights are all interwoven, and the tendency to focus on the
delights of intercourse alone limits our whole understanding of the subject.
[NB:]"...There is correspondence of seminal potency with the
reception of spiritual truths from the Lord through the Word, and with the
affection for propagating them; thus with the spiritual affection of truth and
at the same time with use (n 1357 - 1360) (cf CL 127, 220, 433). The
correspondence of spiritual prolification is with the love of producing, and
in the state of creation of conserving the truths and goods of the Church. (n
1361, 1362, cf. CL 115, 127). The correspondence of parental love is with the
love of innocence, and of protecting it from evils and falsities. (n 1363 cf
CL 127, 395:e)" (First Index on Marriage CORRESPONDENCE)
"As it is now manifest that there is a correspondence between natural
and spiritual births, it follows that conception, gestation, birth and
education are not only predicable of the new birth, but are states actually
attending it,...At this point it is sufficient to say that man's seed is
conceived interiorly in the understanding, formed in the will and transferred
therefrom into the testes where it clothes itself with a natural covering. It
is thus conveyed into the womb and so emerges into the world..." (TCR
584)
"...That conjugial love corresponds to the affection of genuine truth,
to its chastity, purity, and holiness; that semination corresponds to the
potency of truth; and that prolification corresponds to the propagation of
truth; and that the love of infants corresponds to the protecting of truth and
good. Now as truth in man appears as his, and good is adjoined to it by the
Lord, it is plain that those correspondences are of the natural man with
the spiritual or internal man…" (CL 127)
"...just to the extent that the truths in man are conjoined to good
is man conjoined to the Lord and to heaven. This then is the very origin of
marriage love and for this reason that love is the very plane of Divine
influx..." (HH 371)
13. The love of offspring is the first derivation from conjugial love.
"It was related out of heaven, that the Most Ancients who were
celestial, called conjugial love the chief of all loves, and the very delight
of life, and (said) that love towards children is the nearest derivation from
it." (SD 6110:30)
"...this love flows in from the Lord through a man's inmost, From this
they have the Lord's kingdom in themselves and from this they have genuine
love toward little children for the sake of the Lord's kingdom; this comes
from that source as a stream from its fountain " (AC 2737) (cf de Conj.
118).
14. The procreation of offspring is therefore described as another purpose
of marriage. Marriages are said to be holy because they have that purpose and also
because they have a spiritual origin in the marriage of good and truth.
"Marriages in heaven differ from marriages on the earth in that the
procreation of offspring is another purpose of marriages on the earth
but not of marriages in heaven, since in heaven the procreation of good and
truth takes the place of the procreation of offspring. The former takes the
place of the latter because marriage in heaven is a marriage of good and
truth; and as in that marriage good and truth and their conjunction are loved
above all things so these are what are propagated by marriages in heaven. And
because of this in the Word births and generations signify spiritual births
and generations, which are births and generations of good and truth;..."
(HH 382(b) (See the refs. in the footnote for the correspondences described).
"Marriages on the earth are most holy in the sight of the angels of
heaven because they are seminaries of the human race, and also of the angels
of heaven (heaven being from the human race, as already shown under that
head), also because these marriages are from a spiritual origin, namely
from the marriage of good and truth, and because the Lord's Divine flows
especially into marriage love..." (HH 384).
15. Parental love, the love of infants or storgé, comes from the influx of
innocence and peace into the external mind and is the natural cause of love and
friendship between consorts. What can be inferred by the apparent drive of some
to prevent offspring for the supposed end of greater companionship and peace
between husband and wife?
"Parental love, or the love between parents and children (storgé).
Various things respecting the sphere of innocence and of its protection from
evils and falsities (n 1363) (cf. CL 127, 391, 395, 399)
"The love of infants and of children is an external or natural
cause of love or friendship between consorts (n 1618-1621, cf CL 28 , 387,
404). Concerning the love of infants or parental love (n 1642–1699, cf CL
385-414). From the Divine Providence proceed two universal spheres; one,
that of conjugial love; and the other, that of the love of infants (much
concerning these spheres n 1644 - 1657 (cf CL 386-397) (see Sphere)..." The
sphere of the love of infants flows into all living and animate things in the
universe, and fills them with the love of innocence and peace, which love is
receive b them in their own way. (n 1667, 1668 cf CL 392) ...Everyone
living and animate receives this state into himself or herself after birth;
nor is there knowledge that it inflows, because the influx is not felt (n
1669, cf. CL 391, 392)...This sphere of this love of innocence and peace
inflows into the external minds (animus) of parents and also into
infants, and it conjoins itself in their outmost parts, especially by the
touch (1678, 2679, cf CL 396) .. (N.B. CL 396 says "souls" is
the Latin manuscript an "a" or "o"?) The sphere of the
love of infants progresses in a certain series from and through causes into
effects, and it makes periods, by means of which creation is preserved and
continued in the state foreseen and provided (n 1690-1692, cf. CL 400). This
love between parents and children descends and does not ascend, and for this
there are many reasons (1693 - 1698 cf CL 402). The conjunction of conjugial
love with the love of infants or parental love (n 1701 - 1717, cf CL
404)...With consorts who love each other, conjugial love is conjoined with
parental love through spiritual and rational causes, and natural causes from
these which are with them from the Lord. n 1707 - 1709, cf CL 404) In the
case of such consorts, there is parental love through the husband with the
wife, and on the other hand there is parental love with the husband from the
Lord through the wife; in consequence, the love of the one is also
conjoined mutually and in its turn with the love of the other. (n 1710, 1711).
With consorts who do not love each other, although there is not conjunction of
those two loves from what is higher, interior, and prior, still there is a
conjunction from what is lower, exterior, or posterior; but such conjunction
is inverted, and consequently is light and wandering (n 1712, 1712 (cf CL
408). The love of parents towards their children remains after death, in the
case of consorts who have loved each other, it is otherwise with those who
have not loved each other (n 1714-17, cf. CL 410)." (First Index on
Marriage PARENTAL LOVE, whole number again is important)(cf Also AC 2732)
16. Uses of intercourse which are additional to the production of offspring
are clearly implied by love during pregnancy and in old age. (See sections 31 -
37 for a discussion of potency and the increase of delights as conjugial love
is perfected)
"It is allowable to love a pregnant wife. The reasons are numerous.
The arguments against it apply to the weakly; also during impotence and (in
case of) adulteries." (SD 6110:64).
"...the delight of true marriage love not only endures to old age in
the world, but after death becomes the delight of heaven and is there filled
with an interior delight that grows more and more perfect to eternity..."
(HH 379).
"A cause of apparent favor, as friendship or love is that the wife
does not cease to favor her husband when his potency ceases. This favor may
become love when they grow old together (n 1637 - 1640, cf CL 190)"
(First Index on Marriage, FRIENDSHIP).
"That if on the part of the wife favor towards the man does not cease
when faculty ceases with him, there may spring up a friendship emulating
conjugial friendship as they grow old ...That there may be friendship as of
that love between aged married partners is attested by experience as to the
tranquility, security, amiability and abundant comity of their close
companionship, intercourse, and consociation." (CL 290).
17. Intercourse in heaven also shows a use to the married partners other
than the production of natural offspring. That use is that they are more united
in the marriage of good and truth. It seems quite clear that this use can also
be fulfilled by the ultimates with truly married partners on earth.
"That married partners enjoy similar intercourse with each other as in
the world, but more delightful and blessed, yet without prolification, for
which, or in place of it, they have spiritual prolification, which is that of
love and wisdom. That married partners enjoy similar intercourse as in the
world is because after death the male is a male and the female a female, and
in both, an inclination to conjunction is implanted from creation. This
inclination is an inclination of the spirit and thence of the body. Therefore,
after death, when man becomes a spirit, the same mutual inclination is
continued, and this cannot exist without similar intercourse. For man
is man as before, nor is there anything lacking either in the male or in the
female. They are like themselves as to form, and equally so as to affections
and thoughts. What else can follow then, but that they have similar
intercourse? and since conjugial love is chaste, pure, and holy that
the intercourse is also complete? But see further on this subject in the
Memorable Relation, No. 44. That the intercourse is then more delightful and
blessed, is because, when that love becomes ,a love of the spirit, it becomes
more interior and purer and therefore more perceptible; for every delight
increases according to perception, and it so increases that its blessedness is
observed in its delight." (CL 52).
"That marriages in the heavens are without prolification, in place
whereof is spiritual prolification which is the prolification of love and
wisdom, is because, with those who are in the spiritual world, the third
thing, which is the natural is lacking. This is the containant of spiritual
things, and without their containant, spiritual things are not set as are
those which are procreated in the natural world. Regarded in themselves,
spiritual things relate to love and wisdom. It is these, therefore, that are
born of their marriages. It is said that they are born, because conjugial
love perfects an angel, so uniting him with his consort that he becomes more
and more a man; for as said above (n 50) two partners in heaven are not two
but one angel..." (CL 53).
"And the two angelic spirits answered: 'It is quite similar.' and
perceiving that they wished to know whether there are similar delights there,
they said: 'They are altogether similar, but far more blessed, because the
perception and sensation of 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? [NB:] 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 delight of conjugial love. Then the newcomers 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 more united in 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 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." (CL 44:e;
cf. CL 55, 65)
"...although the married pair have consociations there like those on
earth, children are not born, but instead of children goods and truths, and
thus wisdom, as has been said above. And this is why births, nativities, and
generations mean in the Word, in its spiritual sense, spiritual births,
nativities, and generations ...This also makes clear that marriages on the
earth correspond to marriages in the heavens; and that after death man comes
into the correspondence, that is, comes from natural bodily marriage into
spiritual heavenly marriage, which is heaven itself and the joy of
heaven." (AE 1000:5).
"Angelic wisdom grows by marriages, and it is in the place of
procreation to them; for which reason it is a procreation of wisdom, whence
daughters, sons, father, and mother in the Word signify such things as are
of good and truth, thus which are of wisdom ...(De Conj. 11) (cf Div Wis
VIII:3-4).
18. Man's spirit is said to cooperate in the sexual embrace, further
confirming its internal uses in addition to the production of natural
offspring.
"Man's spirit cooperates in the sexual embrace, because the spiritual
in its first origin is sown forth. Nevertheless, man's spirit inflows into the
natural. In man's spirit the inmost is the conjunction of good and truth, or
of delight, which imitates good and of propriety which imitates truth.
Therefore when angels and spirits embrace, it takes place in a similar manner.
They conceive and bring forth nothing but those things which are of love and
wisdom; for no prolification occurs apart from the natural." (SD 6110:40)
"...And because the sense of this love is touch and this is common to
all the senses, and is also full of delights, therefore it opens the interiors
of the minds as it opens the interiors of the sense, and with them the organic
forms of the whole body... The spiritual delight conjoined with the natural
delights, that they who are in love truly conjugial, cause amiability, and
thence the faculty of growing wise. Hence it is that with angels conjugial
love is according to their wisdom; and the increments of that love and at the
same time of its delights are according to the increments of wisdom; and that
the spiritual offspring that are born of their marriages are such things as
are of wisdom from the father, and such things as are of love from the mother,
which they love from spiritual parental affection - a love which adds itself
to their conjugial love, and continually elevates and conjoins them. CL
211-212 Cf De Conj. 22 . (Compare the use of "spiritual parental
affection" to HH 332).
19. Spiritual offspring and natural offspring both have the same origin,
i.e. the marriage of good and truth.
"After this the angel spoke of the marriage of good and truth with
married partners, saying that if their minds were in that marriage, the
husband truth and the wife its good, they would both be in the delights of the
blessedness of innocence, and thence in the happiness in which the angels of
heaven are. In that state the generative power of the husband would be in
perpetual spring, and thence in the effort and ability to propagate his truth;
and the wife would be in perpetual reception of it from love. The wisdom that
is with men from the Lord feels nothing more delightful than to propagate its
truths; and than to receive them, as in the womb and so to conceive, carry in
the womb and bring them forth. Of such kind are spiritual prolifications among
the angels of heaven. And if you will believe it, natural prolifications also
are from this origin." (CL 115:5)
20. It is therefore perfectly possible to have spiritual offspring while on
earth. In one place these seem to be called the good works of chastity. We note
particularly all the different uses associated with the home in addition to
procreation and care for children, all of which supply delights to chaste
marriages, which are carefully balanced in relation to the production of
offspring in AE 1002.
"From what has been thus far presented what the good is that results
from chastity in marriage can be inferred, consequently what the good works of
chastity are that man does who shuns adulteries as sins against God. The good
works of chastity concern either the married pair themselves, or their
offspring and posterity, or the heavenly societies. The good works of chastity
that concern the married pair themselves are spiritual and celestial loves,
intelligence and wisdom, innocence and peace, power and protection against the
hells and against evils and falsities therefrom, and manifold joys and
felicities to eternity. [NB:]Those who live in chaste marriages as
before described have all these. The good works of chastity that concern the
offspring and posterity are that so many and so great evils do not become
innate in families. For the ruling love of parents is transmitted into the
offspring and sometimes to remote posterity, and becomes their hereditary
nature. This is broken and softened with parents who shun adulteries as
infernal and love marriages as heavenly. (3) The good works of chastity that
concern the heavenly societies are that chaste marriages are the delights of
heaven, that they are its seminaries, and that they are its supports. They
supply delights to heaven by communications; they are seminaries to heaven by
producing offspring; and they are supports to heaven by their power against
the hells; for at the presence of conjugial love diabolical spirits become
furious, insane, and mentally impotent, and cast themselves into the
deep." (AE 1002:2-3)
"From the goods enumerated and described that result from chaste
marriages it may be concluded what the evils are that result from
adulteries; for such evils are the opposites of such goods; that is, in
place of the spiritual and celestial loves that those have who live in
chaste marriages, there are the infernal and diabolical loves that those
have who are in adulteries. So in place of intelligence and wisdom that
those have who live chastely in marriages are the insanities and follies
that those have who are in adulteries; in place a of innocence and peace
that those have who live in chaste marriages there are the deceit and no
peace that those have who are in adulteries. In place of the power and
protection against the hells that those have who live chastely in marriages
there are the very Asmodean demons and the hells that those have who live in
adulteries; in place of the beauty that those have who live chastely in
marriages there is the deformity that those have who live in adulteries,
which is monstrous according to their quality. Their final lot is that from
the extreme impotence to which they are at length reduced they become
emptied of all the fire and delight of life, and dwell alone in deserts as
images of the slothfulness and weariness of their own life." (AD
1003:3).
"Good and truth are not given apart from substances, and substances
are not given apart from forms, thus substance is form and form is substance-Propagations
therefore are substantial and material." (First Index on
Marriage, SUBSTANCE)
21. The love of venery for lusts alone without any desire for offspring is
strongly condemned. But where this teaching is given it clearly applies
primarily to adulterous relations, not necessarily except by inference to
marriage. It is still consistent with the teaching that there can be no
conjugial marriage apart from the desire for offspring. Are the Writings also
hinting at the dangers of homosexuality (unnatural conjunctions) as a result of
those who maliciously extinguish the desire for offspring - a sobering thought
in our day.
"There are many, both men and women, especially in Christendom who
because they contract matrimony late in life, and because they are punished if
they have offspring illegitimately thence acquire the (perverse) disposition
to exercise venery without any desire of offspring; -- thus they utterly
exclude that which is the center and inmost (end and principle of marriage).
Such desire of mere venery being damnable because devoid of love truly
conjugial, the are so long separate from heaven (As they cherish the same ;
and in case they thus live and die they are after death grievously punished...
I did not however, witness the (whole) punishment, I only saw that they were
then inverted, or (turned with their) head downward and their exteriors or
corporeal principles extracted, so as to appear drawn out in a long trail
upwards; their interiors however, that is their spiritual principles, are led
into the same direction (sursum); thus they are divested of that
profane cupidity of exercising venery merely for the lusts sake alone, without
any desire of offspring. Thus they are, as it were, put to death by those
(punishing) spirits -who even declared they were desirous to kill the; (for)
such is the disposition of those spirits, that they would slay them, wherefore
(as before stated) they lay them supine, and as it were with knives dissect
them. The souls also imagine themselves to be slain, but in this manner they
are (only) divested of such lascivious lust, 1748, Mar 7. (SD 1202-3).
"...Then it was given to speak concerning the pleasantness of life,
that pleasantness is the life of man, and that they are so created by the Lord
that they might create uses of pleasantness; as may be sufficiently evident
from the pleasure of the senses, as from taste, and from venery; which because
they have a use along with themselves, to wit that man may be nourished, and
that he may be procreated, therefore pleasantnesses are added to their use,
which pleasantnesses are increased wholly according to use. So it was
appointed. But those who seek for pleasantnesses without flowing from use, or
according to appearance without intending use, then indeed pleasantnesses are
felt by them, although of a gross sort; but because (they are) not from use,
or from the Lord through use, they are like those loathsome and hurtful
insects, and are such things as destroy; and are such pleasantnesses as
destroy them, because no spiritual and celestial life is in their
pleasantnesses; therefore (these persons) become unhappy; to wit are ejected
from societies, and so sit solitary and are vastated, till all their crafty
and injurious principle is vastated, so that they are no longer theirs (1748,
July 3). (SD 2506).
"It was said to those who are on high, inasmuch as they are interior
adulterers, that this single consideration demonstrated that adulteries are
diabolical, namely that as marriages are for the sake of the propagation of
offspring, thus of terrestrial societies and thence of celestial (heavenly)
which as they are acknowledged has in it a Divine end, -- therefore, whatever
destroys or prevents marriages and thus destroys propagation, that
is (essentially) diabolical. 1748, Oct 15 ."( SD 3697)
"Concerning the Lascivious. There are lascivious ones, who have
lasciviousness solely for an end. Though having wives, they care nothing for
the married state except in reference to the passion which is their end. For
the same reason they desire not children in wedlock because the situation of a
wife, with such a prospect, forbids the gratification which, as an end rules
everything. They are therefore prone to sexual indulgences beyond those which
are lawful with a wife, which they practice in base modes, and thus pervert
those who would otherwise make good wives and bear them away into
lascivious habits. And when such lascivious ones cannot cohabit with a
wife, they loathe her and give themselves up to wantoness with harlots,
thereby causing their wives to become harlots, utterly regardless of the
conjugial debt and of the procreation of offspring. Being thus prone to
licentiousness, they dread to be with other men's wives, both because they
have contracted a disgust for a wife, and loath all wives, and because they
persuade themselves that these are also of the same quality...(a wife of this
sort) was seen clothed with a simple garment of dark color. Lascivious males
who bear deceits and malice in their minds, invite such to their
companionship, and by their means devise deceitful and malicious plots; and
because they plotted deceits and malignities, they contrived how they might
produce infants by phantasies, and place them in the bed of another who was
delighted with infants, and thus might infuse the phantasy of his being a
husband, and that he too might thus incite some female to illicit
cohabitation; from which it appeared that they were not only malignities, but
basely deceitful, as thus wishing by means of the innocent to execute wily
machinations. The lascivious wife mentioned above, who was seen in the kitchen
apartment, had a knife in her hand, and in her phantasy was an infant. Her
phantasies were presented by different circumgyrations of her body, which were
quick like those of a wheel, she still holding knives in her hand. While in
this fantasy of an infant lying below (her) the idea assumed a character of
cruelty, as if prompting her to kill the infant, because such is their quality
that having lasciviousness for an end, they are prone to murder infants,
as they do not des- ire them, but would fain put them to death under the
promptings of their lustful passions..." (SD 3922-4). (cf. CL 407).
"they wished to kill them if they could; but as soon as it was told them,
though it was not true, that they were their own infants their fury and
ferocity at once left them and they loved them desperately."
"Concerning the punishment of the lascivious. There was a certain
spirit in a medium altitude above my head who in his lifetime had lived
lasciviously and yet had been at the same time an assiduous reader of the
Word. I heard respecting him what his quality had been during his life, namely
that he had been in the delight of variety so as to have cherished no constant
love towards any, but spent his time in brothels having intercourse with their
inmates, and yet afterwards rejecting each of them in turn. As a consequence
he had defrauded many, making no distinction whether those with whom he had to
do were married or unmarried. In this way he divested himself of all love
truly conjugial, as also of the desire of having children; and as he
eventually came to do what he did without rebuke of conscience, he thence
acquired that unnatural habit, or, as I might say, contracted an unnatural
nature." (SD 1663).
"There was a certain spirit in middle altitude above the head, who in
the life of the body had lived wantonly, delighted with variety, so that he
loved no one constantly, but passed his time in brothels, and thus had
scortated with many, every one of whom he afterwards rejected. I hence came to
pass that he had beguiled many, and had thereby extinguished the desire for
marriage, even for the procreation of children and thus had contracted an
unnatural nature. All these things were disclosed, and he was miserably
punished, and this in the sign of the angels; and afterwards he was cast into
hell" (AC 2746).
22. To adulterers the only real purpose they see in marriage is producing
children. So it doesn't matter much to them who they have children by. This
teaching is important for reflection lest by imbalance of attitude we destroy
something inadvertently in our desire to preserve the love of procreation.
"...And since adultery is hell it follows that unless a man abstains
from adulteries and shuns them and turns away from them as infernal he shuts
up heaven to himself, and does not receive the least influx therefrom.
Afterwards he reasons that marriages and adulteries are alike, but that
marriages must be maintained in kingdoms for the sake of order and on account
of the education of offspring; also that adulteries are not criminal, since
offspring are equally born from them; and they are not harmful to women since
they can endure them, and by them the procreation of the human race is
promoted... That such reasonings, which at this day possess the minds of most
men in the Christian world, are Stygian, will be seen in what follows."
(AE 982:5).
"There are many there (in the hell of adulterers) of family and social
position (not so much from the common people) because they have taken up the
principle that marriages are for the sake of offspring and it matters not
whether they are violated by others. And they laugh at the sanctity of
marriage, calling them silly..." (De Conj 79).
Continued
Back to
Pastor's Corner
| |
|
