Title Page of the printed text in Posthumous Theological Works Volume Two.

Indexes to "the missing treatise" Angelic Wisdom Concerning Marriage

Compiled but not published by Swedenborg himself

Translated by John Whitehead, from the Latin Text transcribed and edited by Samuel H. Worcester from the photolithographs of these two indexes

First published in 1914 by the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society, 3 West Twenty-ninth Street, New York, as part of the Second Volume of Posthumous Theological Works by Emanuel Swedenborg

[Later scanned by the Stairs Project, Academy of the New Church Theological School, and now reformatted and edited by the Heavenly Doctrine Publishing Foundation.]

[Although this file contains the shorter and more detailed Index, the following preface is for both Indexes.]

[2] The following "Editor's Note" is found as a preface to the two Indexes published in 1914:

"The two indexes which follow belong to a work usually referred to as "the Missing Treatise on Conjugial Love." The manuscript of this work has not been found. It was probably the first draft of the work Conjugial Love, published by Swedenborg. There were about 2050 short paragraphs. It was divided into two parts, with sixteen chapters in the first part, and ten chapters in the second part. The subjects and wording of the indexes closely agree with those in the work Conjugial Love.

"The Latin text prepared from the Photolithograph Manuscripts by Dr. Samuel Howard Worcester has been compared with these Photolithograph Manuscripts, and a number of corrections have been made. The changes are noted in the critical notes. We desire to acknowledge our indebtedness to the Rev. Alfred Action for a list of corrections of the Latin text of these indexes, …

"Some references to paragraphs in the indexes do not agree; but as the original work is not extant, we have retained the figures as they are given in the original manuscript.

"John Whitehead, Editor and Translator."

[3] Preface to the electronic text of The Two Indexes to the Missing Treatise on Angelic Wisdom concerning Marriage published by the Heavenly Doctrine Publishing Foundation.

Using the scans made in the Stairs Project, sponsored by the Academy of the New Church Theological School, the Heavenly Doctrine Publishing Foundation (HDPF) has taken the translation and notes by John Whitehead and put them into a format that matches the Latin text (which the HDPF scanned earlier) so that the English and the Latin can be displayed side by side, together with the original manuscripts. Please see the Preface to the Electronic Latin text of this same work by the HDPF for more information.

The two indexes appear to be independent of each other, and it is not clear which index was compiled first. Dr. R. L. Tafel, in describing these indexes, on page 1004 of the Documents Concerning Swedenborg calls the smaller index the first, because it only covers the first 83 numbers in the work on marriage. But others, such as Samuel H. Worcester and John Whitehead, see the larger and more general index to be the first, in the nature of an outline of the entire work. It is conjectured by them that, as he began writing out the actual text of the work, Swedenborg was also making a detailed index of the work itself. But it seems he did not complete that work, and this is why the index covers only the first 83 numbers.

As the HDPF is desirous of making the scans of the Swedenborg collection available in the most accessible and usable form, we have undertaken to link these scans to the Latin electronic texts of the theological works. This is being done in such a way that the scans of the original manuscripts can be displayed together with the corresponding pages of the Latin e-texts, and along with the Latin text this English translation by John Whitehead. For this to happen the word order was changed to match the order of the Latin, and numbers were added to each subject so that the Latin and English would be in parallel.

[4] In general, text formatting of each subject is similar to that found in both the Latin text edited by Samuel Worcester, and in the English translation by John Whitehead. Both added certain things to the format and text, and we have retained these additions for the use they serve to those reading and studying these indexes. Worcester's additions include the following:

Parentheses are added around references to Angelic Wisdom concerning Marriage (AWM), e.g.:

Something about the love of heaven and the love of hell 13.

Parentheses are used to set off the original Latin word for the subject, e.g.:

Affection. (Affectio)

Parentheses are added around other related subjects being referenced, e.g.,

Erudition. (Eruditio) (See Wisdom and Understanding).

Quotation marks are added around words from Scripture, e.g.,

In the Word the Lord is called "the Bridegroom" and "Husband,"

Obvious cross references to the work Conjugial Love are added in square brackets, e.g.,

A man lives a man after death 2-5 [Conjugial Love 28-31, 44]).

In the longer, more general index a reference to the other shorter index is inserted in square brackets if the subject is also found there; e.g.,

Angel (Angelus).--[See the Other Index.]

The Editor's critical notes for these Indexes are found in the beginning of the Second Volume of Posthumous Theological Works. We have not included these notes as they were not marked in the text itself. Perhaps at a later date they will be included. We did, however, include the critical notes in the Latin text.

[5] Besides the extra formatting in the Whitehead's translation of these indexes, we found it necessary to add still more formatting, subsections and symbols. As can be seen from the following examples, this was done for the sake of comparison between the English text with the Latin e-text, and thus with the scans of the manuscripts, as well as comparison between the two indexes. This formatting will make the study and comparison much easier for the average student of the Heavenly Doctrine who knows some Latin. The following was added to the 1906 Latin text in the electronic version:

The # sign followed by a number has been added in front of subjects being cross referenced by the word vide. This allows the program to display that subject when it is double clicked, and this also makes it easier for those using a printed text to locate that word in the book, e.g.,

77. Nuptials (Nuptiae). - (See #101 Bridegroom.)

Subsection markers, such as [2] or [3+], were added to help in finding words in subjects with many entries, such as Dominus and Verbum. They were also used to divide the text at, or close to, where the entries for a specific subject continues from one page to the another. This allows for scrolling the Latin text alongside the manuscript pages, e.g..

[2] Causes of coldnesses, separations and divorces,

The % sign was added to indicate that the subsection only contains a portion of the entries for a specific subject in the index.

[6] It is hoped that the publication of this electronic version of the English translation of the two indexes of AWM in such a way that it parallels the original Latin will increase the use of this invaluable work in the study of the Heavenly Doctrine, as studies have been enhanced more and more by computer applications. In these indexes there are teachings not to be found elsewhere in the Heavenly Doctrine. For example, we have the following entry under the subject Influx:

"That the mind or spirit of man acts in an instant into the body; and that it acts simultaneously, and not successively, because the spiritual is not in a place; and that it is received by the material body not in an instant, but in a moment (n. 60, 61)."

Would that we had the full text of these teachings of the work Angelic Wisdom concerning Marriage! Then we could better understand this teaching about influx, which reveals to us that metric time begins when the spiritual inflows into the natural. Still, the essence of this teaching has been preserved in this index. Someday we hope the work itself will be found.

If you would like a copy of this file, or would like to share it with someone else, please contact the Heavenly Doctrine Publishing Foundation.

Andrew J. Heilman, secretary of the HDPF

Kempton, PA - November 2021

[email protected]

www.heavenlydoctrinepublishing.org

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. ¹ Is 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."

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