Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/545

Rh heavens. As it is said of the five foolish virgins who also were invited to the wedding, that they could not enter in, because they were not in the marriage of good and truth; 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 this marriage is. (ib. n. 44.)

Marriages in the heavens differ from the marriages on earth in this, that marriages on earth, in addition to [their other uses], are for the procreation of offspring; but not in the heavens. In place of that procreation there is in the heavens a procreation of good and truth. The reason why there is this procreation in place of the former is, that marriage in the heavens is a marriage of good and truth, as was shown above; and in that marriage good and truth and their conjunction above all things are loved. These, therefore, are what are propagated from marriages in the heavens. Hence it is that in the Word by births and generations spiritual births and generations are signified, which are those of good and truth; by mother and father truth conjoined to good, which procreates; by sons and daughters, the truths and goods that are procreated; and by sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, the conjunctions of these; and so on. It is evident from this that marriages in the heavens are not like marriages on earth. The nuptials in the heavens are spiritual,—which ought not to be called nuptials, but conjunctions of minds from the marriage of good and truth; but they are nuptials on earth, because they are not only of the spirit but also of the flesh. And as in the heavens they are not nuptials, therefore the two consorts are there not called husband and wife; but the consort of another,—from the angelic idea of the conjunction of the two minds in one,—is called by a word which signifies, reciprocally, his [or her] mutual (suum mutuum vicissim). From these considerations it may be known how the Lord's words respecting marriages (nuptials) in Luke xx. 35, 36 are to be understood. (H. H. n, 382.)

The reason why marriages in the heavens are without prolification, and there is instead of this a spiritual prolification, which is that of love and wisdom, is that the third [degree] which is natural is wanting with those that are in the spiritual world, and this is the containant of things spiritual; and spiritual things without their containant do not abide, after the manner of those that are procreated in the natural world. And in themselves regarded spiritual things relate to love and wisdom;