Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/203

 "That the truths of the church are called brethren, is manifest from this, that the sons of Jacob represented the truths of the church in the complex. That in ancient times they were called brethren from spiritual affinity, is because the new birth or regeneration made consanguinities and affinities in a degree superior to the natural birth; and because the former derive their origin from one Father, namely, from the Lord. Hence it is, that men after death who come into heaven, do not any longer acknowledge any brother, nor even mother or father, except from good and truth; according to these they enter there into new fraternities or brotherhoods. Hence it is, that they who were of the church called each other brethren,'—A. C. n. 6758.

"That in the spiritual world or heaven, there are no other consanguinities and affinities, except of love to the Lord and neighborly love, or, what is the same thing, of good, was made manifest to me from this consideration: that all the societies which constitute heaven and which are innumerable, are most distinct from each other, according to the degrees and differences of love and of faith thence derived; also from this circumstance, that they mutually know each other, not from any affinity which had existed in the life of the body, but solely from a principle of good and truth thence derived. A father does not know a son or a daughter, nor a brother a brother or sister, nor indeed a husband a wife, unless they have been principled in like good. They meet, indeed, on their first coming into another life, but they are soon dissociated, inasmuch as essential good, or love and charity, determines every one to his particular society and enrolls him in it. In the society in which every one is enrolled, consanguinity commences; and thence proceed affinities even to the circumferential parts."—Ibid. n. 3815.

"In another life, all are consociated according to affec-