79、记事五：
陪我拜访黄金时代、白银时代、青铜时代、铁器时代的天使向导又来找我，说：“想不想参观一下后来的时代，了解它过去、现在的特征？跟我走吧，你会看到的。论到他们，但以理曾预言说：‘那四国之后必另兴一国，其中铁与泥搀杂…他们也必通过人的种搀杂，却不能彼此相合，正如铁与泥不能相合一样（但以理2:41–43）。’”天使解释说：“‘铁与泥通过人的种搀杂，却不能相合’，其中‘人的种’是指被歪曲的圣言真理。”
听了天使的话，我起身相随。途中，他告诉我，这些人住在西南边界，不过离前四个时代的人很远，而且住在更深的地方。我们取道南方，来到西方一个边界，经过一个可怕的森林。里面有许多沼泽，不时有鳄鱼浮出水面，向我们张开血盆大口，露出锋利的牙齿。沼泽间还不时有野狗出没，有的三个头（如希腊神话中的看门狗），有的两个头。我们经过的时候，它们用饥饿凶狠的眼光盯着我们。进入此地西部，我们还看到龙和豹，正如启示录（启示录12:3，13:2）所描述的。
天使对我说：“我们所看见的兽其实不是兽，而是相应欲望的显现，象征我们所要拜访之人心中的欲望。这些欲望以野狗的形像显现出来，令人毛骨悚然；鳄鱼表现欲望狡猾诡诈的特征；龙和豹则代表信仰方面的错谬和败坏。不过这些形像所代表的居民并不住在森林附近。森林过后还有一个大旷野，将他们与以前时代的人彻底隔绝开来。在性质上，他们与以前时代的人也截然不同。诚然，他们头在胸上，胸在腰上，腰在脚上，就像原始人。但是他们头上无一点金，胸上无一点银，腰上无一点铜，甚至脚上无一点铁。相反，他们的头是泥铁搀杂，胸是泥铁铜搀杂，腰是泥铁铜银搀杂，脚是泥铁铜银金搀杂。因为颠倒，他们从人变成了人形的雕塑，不能相合，因为上成了下，头成了脚，反之亦然。从天堂看来，他们好像头下脚上用手肘移动的小丑，或像背朝黄土脚朝天，把头埋到土里去看天的动物。
我们穿越森林，来到一片旷野，气氛就没那么恐怖了。旷野当中有很多石堆，毒蛇在石穴中出没，也有火蛇从洞口飞出。旷野一直向下延伸。我们走过一段长长的斜坡，最后来到一个山谷。我们要访问的人就住在这里。我们看到零零落落的棚屋，棚屋越来越密集，形成一个城镇。我们进城，发现棚屋皆由焦木和泥修建而成，屋顶盖着黑瓦。街道显得并不整齐，起初相当狭窄，里头越来越宽，最后是一个大广场。街道有多少，广场就有多少。进城的时候，黑暗笼罩着我们，暗无天日。因此，我们举目望天，就有光赐给我们。我们询问所遇见的人：“天空昏暗无光，你们看得见吗？”他们回答说：“这是什么话？我们看得清清楚楚。天空亮堂堂的，如同正午。”听了他的话，天使告诉我说：“对他们来说，暗是光，光是暗，正如夜间活动的鸟儿，因为他们注视下面，不注视上面。”
我们随意进入一些棚屋，看到每个棚屋内都有一男一女。我们就问，这里的人是否都和唯一的妻子共同生活。谁知他们竟戏笑着说：“什么？唯一的妻子？为何不问我们是否和唯一的妓女共同生活？妻子不就是妓女吗？我们的律法禁止我们与多个女人发生关系，然而这种事对我们来说并不丢脸，也不可耻，只要我们不在家里行事就可以了。我们之间甚至以此相互炫耀。这样，相比娶多个妻子的人，我们能享受更多的快乐和欢娱。过去允许有多个妻子，现在我们周围的整个世界也允许有多个妻子，我们为何就不可以有多个妻子？只与一个女人生活岂不是一种牢笼吗？但是我们打破了牢笼，将自己从奴役的状态释放了出来。谁会对一个获得自由的囚犯愤愤不平呢？”
对此，我们回答说：“朋友，你说话好像无信仰的人。任何稍具理性的人，谁不知道奸淫是亵渎的，属地狱的，而婚姻是神圣的，属天堂的？奸淫不是存在于地狱的魔鬼当中，而婚姻存在于天堂的天使当中吗？你没读过十诫的第六诫吗？保罗不也说犯奸淫的断不能进天堂吗（歌林多前书6:9）？”谁知他们竟哈哈大笑起来，上下打量着我，仿佛我是一个傻瓜，甚至把我当成一个疯子。就在此时，城里的首领差一个使者前来，说：“把那两个陌生人带到广场去，他们若不从，就拉他们去。我们看到他们为阴暗所笼罩。他们是偷偷进来的，是奸细。”天使对我说：“我们之所以看似为阴暗所笼罩，是因为天堂的光在他们看来是阴暗，而地狱的阴暗对他们来说是光明。因为他们视罪如无物，甚至不以奸淫为罪，把虚假完全当作真理。对地狱的撒旦来说，虚假是他们的光，而真理却像黑夜遮蔽他们的眼睛。”我们对使者说：“用不着催促，更用不着拉扯，我们自己会走。”我们就去了，看到广场聚拢了黑压压一大片人。人群中走来几位律法师，在我们耳边低声说：“切莫说任何反对信仰，反对我们政府，反对道德的话。”“不会，我们只会说赞同的话。”我们回答说，又问，“对于婚姻，你们的信仰是什么？”群众对此窃窃私语，说：“我们在婚姻上的信仰如何与你何干？婚姻就是婚姻啰。”我们又问：“对于奸淫，你们的信仰又是什么？”群众对此依然窃窃私语，说：“我们在奸淫上的信仰如何与你何干？奸淫就是奸淫啰。谁是没有罪的，谁就可以扔第一块石头。”我们再问：“信仰是否指教你们婚姻是神圣的、属天堂的，而奸淫是亵渎的、属地狱的？”对此，群众中有许多人发出讥诮嘲笑的声音，说：“信仰方面的问题去问我们的牧师吧，不要问我们。他们说什么，我们都毫无异议地接受，因为信仰方面的问题超出了理性判断的范畴。你没听说在信仰的奥秘上，理性是无用的吗？这些奥秘就是信仰的全部。再说了，我们的行为与信仰何干？以虔诚的心低声祷告，求主代求赎罪，不就得神祝福吗？与行为何干？”
此时，城里有几位所谓的智者走过来，对我们说：“你们快走吧。群众已经情绪激昂了，很快就演变为一场骚乱。这事就让我们单独和你们谈。法庭后面有一条小径，我们去那。跟我们走吧。”于是，我们便跟着他们。他们问我们从何而来，到此有何贵干。我们说：“我们来为要了解这里的婚姻情况，看你们是否如黄金时代、白银时代、青铜时代的古人一样视婚姻为神圣的结合。”他们竟回答说：“什么？神圣的结合？不就是夜间肉体的行为吗？”我们反驳道：“难道不也是灵魂的行为吗？肉体为灵魂所驱使，那么肉体的行为不就是灵魂的行为吗？而灵魂的一切行为，都缘于良善与真理的结合。促使丈夫和妻子肉体结合的，不是灵里良善与真理的结合吗？”对此，所谓的智者回答说：“你们把这事看得太过高深了，竟越过理性的思考，跳到灵性的高度。谁能从灵性的高度出发，然后从那里下来判断一切呢？”对此，他们还揶揄道：“或许你们有雄鹰的翅膀，能在天空高处翱翔，将这些事尽收眼底。我们却不能。”
我们只好再问，按照他们理性所能领会的程度，是否知道有一夫一妻的真爱存在，其中囊括天堂无尽的祝福、喜乐、幸福和满足？是否知道这爱是照着对良善和真理的接受从主而来，因而取决于教会的状态？听了我们的话，他们转身离开，说：“这些人真是疯了！竟胡思乱想，凭空猜测，向我们说一些稀奇古怪的话。”
然而他们又转过来，对我们说：“对于你们的胡思乱想，我们不妨作一个直截了当的答复。”于是，他们说：“婚姻之爱与信仰，与神的启示有何相干？任何人，只要有性能力，不都能做爱吗？教外的人不照样能做爱，和教内的人一样吗？非基督徒和基督徒不是一样吗？甚至说，不敬畏神的人和敬畏神的人不是一样吗？做爱的能力难道不是取决于遗传、健康的身体、有节制的生活甚至气候吗？不也能靠药物刺激和增强吗？动物，特别是双宿双飞的鸟儿，不也能做爱吗？这样，婚姻之爱不就是肉体的事吗？肉体的事与教会的灵性状态有何相干？当这爱作用于最表层时，与妻子做爱相比与妓女做爱，有什么区别吗？不是一样的欲望，一样的快乐吗？所以说，婚姻之爱源于良善与真理的结合这一论断是有害无益的。”
听到这样的话，我们说：“你们的推理是出于淫乱猥亵的心，不是出于真爱。你们根本不知何为婚姻之爱，因为在你们中间，这爱是冷淡的。你们的话让我们确信，你们是来自但以理所预言的‘铁与泥搀杂却不相合’的时代（但以理2:43），因为你们将真爱与淫欲混为一谈。真爱与淫欲比铁与泥更能相合吗？群众以为你们聪明，称你们为智者，其实你们一点智慧也没有。”听了我们的话，他们怒不可遏，召唤群众过来驱赶我们。然而此时，凭着主的能力，我们伸手，就有火蛇、毒蛇，还有龙，从旷野飞来，到处都是，群众就四散逃遁了。天使告诉我：“每天都有从地上来的新人到这里来，之前的居民轮流被送走，投入西边的无底深渊。这无底深渊从远处看仿佛烧着硫磺的火湖。那儿的人无论灵性上还是身体上，都是犯奸淫的人。”
79、第五点是：
曾经带我到金、银、铜、铁纪的天使后来又出现了，对我说：“你想看到那四个时代之后的情况吗？看看它是什么样的，今天又是什么样的。跟我来，你会看到，这就是但以理预言中的提到的人们：（那四个国之后又会兴起一国，它是铁与泥相混合的），他们将与各种人搀杂，但却不会相结合，就象铁不会与泥相结合一样。（《但以理书》2:41—43）
天使补充说：“在人种中掺杂泥，没法混合在一起——这里的人种是指扭曲了的圣经里的真理。”
听到这些后，我跟随着他一起走了。路上他说：“他们住在西和南交界处，但与从前四个时代的人相距很远，而且更深。”
于是继续朝南来到西边境地带，经过了一个可怕的森林。在那里的池塘里有鳄鱼探出头来，张着嘴，牙齿露着。在池塘之间，我们看到可怕的狗，长着三个头，有些有两个头。它们都瞪着眼睛看着我们，进入这一地带的西部后，我们见到龙和豹，就象是《启示录》中所描述的样子。见《启示录》12:3和13:2。
天使告诉我，“所有这些野兽并不是兽，而是我们将要去看的人们的淫欲的象征形象。这些恶狗象征着他们的淫欲，鳄鱼象征着他们的诡诈，龙和豹象征着他们在崇拜方面的错误及不正确的想法。
“这的居民并不住在森林的另一侧，而是有一个大沙漠隔着。以此来将他们与从前几个时代的人相隔开。另外，他们完全与从前世纪的人不同。他们的头长在胸部，胸长在腰部，腰长在脚部。象最早的人那样，但是他们头中没有一点金子，胸部没有一点银子，腰部也没有一点铜。在脚上也没有一点纯净的铁。他们的头中是铁与泥的混合物，铜混合在他们胸部，银的混合物在他们的腰部，金的混合物在他们的脚上。
“因为他们是完全颠倒的，所以他们把人给扭曲了。他们的内部没有任何东西能够结合在一起。因为最高层的变成最低层的了。所以头变成了脚根儿，反之亦然。从天国里看，他们就象是演员一样，身体倒立，胳膊肘支撑着身体来回走动。或者说他们像是动物，倒立着，腿蹬在空中，头垂在地上，仰面看着天空。
我们经过森林来到沙漠中，这里一样的恐惧恐怖。有一堆堆的大石头，石头堆之间有大沟，其中穿梭着各种阴险可怕的毒蛇。
沙漠向下倾斜着，我们沿一个长斜坡下来一直来到一个那时代的人住的村庄。我们看到小房子，后来是一座城市。
我们走进城中，那里的房子是用烧焦了的树枝用泥巴粘在一起的，房顶是黑瓦。街道也不规则，先是窄，后来渐宽，最后与广场交接，所以那里有同街道一样多的广场。
城中是黑的，因为看不到天，我们必须照明才能看得见路。
我问见到的人：“看不见天空，黑暗中你们能看到东西吗？”
他们回答道：“你问的是什么问题？我们看得清楚，我们是在光亮之中。”
听到这些天使说：“黑暗对他们来说是光明，光明对他们来说是黑暗，就和夜间行动的鸟一样。他们不是向上看而是向下看。”
我们路过一个又一个的棚子，里面是一对对男女，我问他们这里的人是不是一夫一妻。
他们嘲笑地说：“你是什么意思，一个妻子？你是说我们是不是只与一个妓女一起生活？妻子与妓女有什么区别？”
“我们的法律不准与一个以上的女人混在一起，但是同更多的女人在一起也不是什么不荣耀或可耻的，我们彼皮炫耀，从中我们可以得到比多妻制更多的快乐。”
为什么过去和我们周围的人有多个妻子，而我们却不能？与一个女人在一起岂不是跟关在囚笼中一样。？
“在我们这儿，我们打破了枷锁，给我们自己自由。若监牢中的人能使自己自由，有谁会为此而不悦呢？”
听到这儿，我们说：“听你说的你好像是没有什么宗教信仰。有一点头脑的人都会知道通奸是可耻的事，是与地狱相联系的，而婚姻是圣洁的，是天国的。地狱中的恶魔们不是存在于奸情之中，而天国的天使存在于婚姻之中吗？你没有读过摩西十诫中的第六条吗？在《哥林多前书》中的保罗篇，不是说通奸的人不可能进天堂吗？听到这些，主人大笑起来，他看着我，好象我是个傻瓜或者疯子一样。
这时有个来自于城中头领的报信儿的人来了。把这两个人带到城中的广场上去，若他们不肯来就拉他们去。我们看到他们存在于白天笼罩的黑暗之中，他们秘密前来，是间谍。
天使对我说：“我们之所以看上去是在白天笼罩的黑暗之 中，是因为我们存在于天国之光中，这种光对他们来讲是黑暗，而地狱中的黑暗对他们来说却是光明。这是因为他们不认为任何事情是罪恶的，连通奸也一样，所以他们把错误看成是真理，错误在他们罪恶的眼中是闪亮的，而真理对他们来说却是黑暗的。”
我之后对报信儿的人说：“不用拉我们，我们自己去广场。”
我们去了。看哪，我们见到那里有一大群人。其中有些律师在我们耳边说：“小心，你不说任何违背宗教的东西，不要违背我们的政府，不要违背我们的美德。”
我们回答说：“我们会服从这些的。”
我们问：“你们的宗教对于婚姻是怎样的态度？”
听到这儿，人群中开始有人低声说：“婚姻就是婚姻，你有什么想法？”
我们又问：“你们的宗教对淫乱的关系有怎样的态度？”
人群又开始低咕：“淫乱就是淫乱，你有什么想法，没有罪的，可以先抛石头”（见《约翰福音》8:7）。
我们又一次问：“你们的宗教是不是认为婚姻是神圣的，是天国的，而奸情就是污秽的，是地狱的？”
听到这儿，许多人大笑起来，嘲笑我们说：“你应该问你们的牧师关于宗教的事宜，不要问我们。我们对牧师说的毫不反驳，宗教中没有什么是可以理解的，你们没听说吗，宗教是建立在不可推理的基础上的？”
“另外，我们的行为与宗教有何关系？难道不是虔诚的祷告使得灵魂得救，而并非是行为来决定是否灵魂能够得救吗？”
这时城里所谓的智者来了，他们说：“快离开这里，人们被激怒了，马上就会有骚动，我们到后面的房子里去谈论这个问题。”
于是，我们跟他们去了。他们问我们从处来，到此处做什么。
我们说：“我们到这来了解一下你们这里的婚姻情况，看一看这里的婚姻是不是象古时金纪、银纪、铜纪时一样是一种圣洁的结合。”
他们回答道：“你说的圣洁是什么意思。难道婚姻不就是肉体的结全，是一种夜生活吗。”
我们回复道：“婚姻不是与精神有关吗？难道肉体不是受精神驱动吗？因此婚姻不是有灵性的吗？另外，精神是基于善与真理的结合而行为。夫妻之间存在的自然的婚姻结合难道不是来自于这种精神的结合吗？”
听到这些，所谓的智者答道：“你们对婚姻探讨得太精细了。人都跃过理性而探索精神，有谁能够从精神的高度上来对所有事物做出判断呢？他又嘲笑般地说：‘也许你们有天使之翼，能够飞越到高空，从高处来审视这些事情，但是我们不能。”
于是我们请他们告诉我们，是否从他们思想的高度上能够知道在一夫一妻的婚姻中存在着一切祝福，喜悦及天国之乐。是否他们知道这种婚姻之爱是基于人们对善和真理的接受程度及他们的教会的境界而来自于主。
听到这些，智者们转过身去说道：“这些人是疯子，他们脱离理性而到真空状态中去做出推测，对我们胡说他们的猜测。”
之后，他们转向我们说道：“我们将对你们空虚的推测做出一个直接的答复。”
他们说：“婚姻与宗教及受神的启示有什么关系？难道婚姻之爱不是根据每个人的性能力而存在于每个人之中吗？难道它不是既存在于教会中的人之中又存在于教会之外的人之中吗？存在于基督教徒中又存在于异教徒之中吗？并且象存在于虔诚的人之中一样而存在于不虔诚的人之中吗？
那种爱不是与遗传、健康程度、生活态度及气候有关吗？这种爱不是能通过药物而加强吗？
“这种爱不是也存在于动物中，尤其是成对的鸟中吗？这种爱不就是肉体上-的吗？肉体上的事情怎么会与教会的精神境界有关？
“对一个妻子的爱与对一个荡妇的爱在表现上不是一样吗？“
“所以，从神性那里来追溯婚姻之爱的来源是不对的。”
听到这些后我们对他们说：“你的推理是基于对情色的爱而非婚姻之爱，你们不了解真正的婚姻之爱，因为在你们中婚姻之爱是冷却的。从你们所说的我们知道你们是来自于那个铁和泥相混合的时代。正象《但以理》2:43中所说的，你们将婚姻之爱和淫荡的爱混于一谈。这两者象铁和泥不能相互结合一样不能够相互融合，人们称你们智者，事实上，你们决称不上智者。”
他们被我们所说的激怒了。他们向人群喊道标 “赶走这些人。”
这时主使得巨蟒、毒蛇、恶龙等充满城中，人群见此都跑了。
天使对我说：“每天都有新人从世间到这里来，这里从前的人就依次被投入到西方的深坑中。这个深坑从远处看就是象是火海及硫磺石一样，那的人都是或是精神上，或是事实上的奸夫淫妇。”
79. The fifth experience.
The angel who had previously been my guide and companion on my visits to the people of antiquity, who had lived in the four ages, golden, silver, copper and iron, came to me again and said: 'If you want to see what the age which followed those ancient ones was and still is like, follow me and you will see. These are the people of whom Daniel prophesied:
There shall arise after those four a kingdom in which iron will be mixed with common clay. They will mix together by the seed of man, but one will not stick together with another, even as iron will not mix with clay. Daniel 2:41-43.
'The seed of man,' he said, 'by which iron will be mixed with clay, but without sticking together, means the truth of the Word falsified.'
[2] After this speech I followed him, and on the way he informed me: 'They live on the border between the south and the west, but a long way behind those who lived in the four earlier ages, and also lower down.' We travelled through the south until we came to the region bordering the west, and passed through a terrifying forest. For it had lakes in it, from which crocodiles raised their heads, gaping at us with their wide, toothy jaws. Among the lakes there were frightening hounds, some with three heads like Cerberus, some with two; all with horrid jaws, watching us pass with their savage eyes. On entering the western sector of this region we saw dragons and leopards, as described in Revelation 12:3; 13:2.
[3] 'All these beasts,' the angel told me, 'which you have seen are not beasts at all, but correspondences and so forms which represent the lusts of the inhabitants we are to visit. The lusts themselves are represented by those horrid hounds, their tricks and cunning by the crocodiles, their falsities and erroneous attitude to religious matters by the dragons and leopards. But the inhabitants, of whom they are a picture, live not near the end of the forest, but across a great intervening desert, so that they can be kept apart and separated from the peoples of earlier ages. They are too of quite an alien and different nature from them. Admittedly they have their heads above their chests, their chests above their hips, their hips above their feet, like the primeval people. But their heads contain not a scrap of gold, their chests not a scrap of silver, and their hips not a scrap of bronze; nor indeed is there a scrap of unmixed iron in their feet. But their heads contain iron mixed with clay, their chests iron and clay mixed with bronze, their hips the same too mixed with silver, their feet these mixed with gold. This inversion has turned them from human beings into sculptures of human beings, lacking all internal cohesion. For what was highest has become lowest, the head has become the heel and vice versa. As we look from heaven they seem like clowns who stand upside down and walk on their hands; or like animals that lie flat on their backs, lifting their feet in the air, and burying their heads in the ground, to look up to the sky.
[4] Crossing the forest we entered the desert, which was no less frightening. It was composed of heaps of stones, with ditches between them, out of which crept poisonous snakes and vipers, and fiery serpents flew out. The whole of this desert kept sloping downwards, and we went down a long descent, finally reaching a valley inhabited by the peoples of that region and age.
Here and there we saw huts, which eventually seemed to come together and join up to form a town. We went into it and found the houses were built of tree-branches, charred and stuck together with mud; they were roofed with black slates. The streets were irregular, all of them narrow to begin with, but opening out as you went on, and widening out at the end to form squares. So there were as many squares as were streets.
On entering the town it grew dark, as the sky was not to be seen. So we looked up and light was granted us to see by. Then I asked any I met on the way, 'Surely you can't see, since the sky is not to be seen above you?' 'What sort of a question is that?' they answered, 'we can see clearly, we walk in broad daylight.' On hearing this the angel told me: 'Darkness is light to them, and light is darkness, just as it is for night birds. They look down and not up.'
[5] We went into some houses here and there, and saw in each a man with his woman. So we asked whether they all live in their own homes with only one wife. To this they replied with a whistle, 'Why do you say with one wife? Why not with only one trollop? What is a wife but a trollop? Our laws do not allow us to fornicate with more than one woman; still there is nothing indecent or improper in doing it with more, so long as it is not at home. We boast about this among ourselves, thus taking more delight and pleasure in it than polygamous people. Why is it that we are not allowed to have several wives, when it used to be allowed, and is still today in all parts of the world around us? What is living with only one woman, but being shut up and imprisoned? But we are breaking down the bars of this prison, rescuing ourselves from slavery and setting ourselves free. No one can be cross with a prisoner who grabs his freedom when he can.'
[6] We replied to this: 'Friend, you speak as if you had no knowledge of religion. Is there anyone with any rationality, who does not know that adultery is profane and hellish, and that marriage is holy and heavenly? Surely adultery is to be found among the devils in hell, and marriage among the angels in heaven? Haven't you read the sixth commandment, or Paul's statement that adulterers can by no means reach heaven? [1 Corinthians 6:9]'
This amused our host so much he roared with laughter, looking on me as a simpleton and almost crazy. But then suddenly a messenger arrived from the chief man of the town, who said: 'Bring the two newcomers to the court, and if they refuse, drag them there. We have seen them in the shades of light; 1they have crept in secretly to spy on us.'
The angel said to me: 'They saw us in shade, because the light of heaven we brought with us is shade to them; their light is in the shade of hell. This happens because they think nothing of sinning, not even of committing adultery, so that falsity to them looks exactly like truth. Falsity shines brightly before the satans in hell, and the truth darkens their eyes like the shades of night.'
[7] 'We shall not,' we told the messenger, 'be forced, much less dragged, to court, but we shall go with you of our own free will.' So we went and found there a large crowd. Some lawyers detached themselves from the crowd and whispered in our ears: 'Take care not to say anything against religion, our kind of government and good behaviour.' 'No,' we replied, 'we shall not say anything against them, but speak in their favour and as they dictate.'
'What,' we asked, 'is the rule of your religion about marriage?' This produced a murmuring among the crowd, 'What business of yours are marriages?' they said, 'marriages are marriages.'
We asked another question: 'What is the rule of your religion about licentious conduct?' Again there was a murmur from the crowd. 'What business of yours is licentious conduct?' they said. 'Licentiousness is licentiousness. Let him who is without guilt throw the first stone.'
Our third question was: 'Surely your religion teaches that marriages are holy and heavenly and that adulteries are profane and hellish?' This made many in the crowd cackle, laughing and making fun of us. 'Address,' they said, 'your questions on religion to our priests, not to us. We fully accept their pronouncements, because no religious matters fall within the scope of intellectual judgment. Surely you have been told that the intellect is deranged when it comes to mysteries, and these are what religion is all about. And what have actions to do with religion? Isn't it heartfelt mumbling about expiation, satisfaction and imputation which make souls blessed, not deeds?'
[8] Then some men came up sent by the so-called wise men of the town, who said: 'Leave here at once. The crowd is growing angry and there will soon be a riot. Let us have a talk about this subject by ourselves. Behind the courthouse there is a walk, where we can be private. Come with us.'
So we followed them, and then they asked us where we came from and what our business was there. 'We came,' we said, 'to learn about marriage, whether like the ancient peoples of the golden, silver and copper ages you regarded marriages as sacraments or not.' 'Sacraments indeed!' they answered, 'Aren't they the work of flesh and darkness?' 'Aren't they too,' we replied, 'the work of the spirit? Isn't what the flesh does under the direction of the spirit itself spiritual? Everything the spirit does is directed by the marriage of good and truth. So isn't it this spiritual marriage which enters into the natural marriage, that between husband and wife?'
To this the so-called wise men replied: 'You are being too sharp and lofty in your treatment of the subject. You are going beyond the realm of reason into the spiritual realm. How can anyone start there, and come down from there to make any judgment?' They added with a mocking grin, 'Perhaps you have eagle's wings so that you can soar to the heights of heaven and spy such things out? We cannot.'
[9] Then we asked them to tell us, from their height, that is, the region where the volatile ideas of their minds flit about, whether they knew or could know of the existence of the conjugial love of one man with one wife, a love on which are conferred all the blessedness, bliss, pleasures, charms and gratifications of heaven; this love being given by the Lord in proportion to one's ability to receive good and truth from Him, and so depending on the state of the church.
[10] On hearing this they turned away and said: 'These men are crazy. They soar about the atmosphere with their judgments, and indulge in the folly of playing with toys.' Then turning back to us, they said: 'We will give you a straight answer to your vain and vacuous prognostications. What connexion is there between conjugial love and religion or Divine inspiration? Surely everyone has this love in proportion to his sexual potency? Don't those outside the church feel it just as much as those inside? The heathen just as much as Christians? In fact, the irreligious as much as the religious? Doesn't the strength of that love depend on heredity, state of health, self-discipline or climate? It can also be strengthened and aroused by drugs. Isn't it shared with animals, especially with birds, which form loving pairs? Surely it is a fleshly love. What has the flesh to do with the spiritual state of the church? When it comes to the effects at the lowest level, there is surely not the slightest difference between a wife and a trollop. The lust is the same and the delight felt is the same. It is therefore disrespectful to derive the origin of conjugial love from the holy things of the church.'
[11] On hearing this we told them: 'Your reasoning arises from the goadings of lewdness, not from conjugial love. You are totally ignorant of what conjugial love is, because for you it is cold. Your remarks have proved to us that you come from the age named after a mixture of iron and clay, which do not hold together, as prophesied by Daniel (Daniel 2:43). You make conjugial love and scortatory love one and the same. Can these two hold together any more than iron and clay? You think you are wise and you have that reputation, yet you are in fact anything but wise.'
On hearing this they shouted out in fury and summoned the crowd to throw us out. Then by the power given us by the Lord we held out our hands, and at once fiery serpents, poisonous snakes and vipers, and also dragons, appeared from the desert, moving into and filling the town, so that the inhabitants were terrified and fled.
The angel said to me: 'Newcomers from earth are daily arriving in this region, and the earlier inhabitants are from time to time banished and cast into quagmires in the west. These look from a distance like lakes of fire and brimstone. All the people there are both spiritually and naturally adulterers.'
79. The fifth account:
The same angel as before, who had been my guide and companion to the ancient peoples who had lived in the four ages called golden, silver, copper and iron - the same angel appeared again and said to me, "You would like to see the age that followed those ancient ages, to find out what it was like, and what it is still like today. Follow me, then, and you will see. These are the people of whom Daniel prophesied when he said:
(A kingdom will arise after those other four, in which iron will be mixed with miry clay.) They will mingle together through the seed of man, but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. (Daniel 2:41-43)"
The angel added, "The seed of man, through which iron will be mingled with clay, and yet without their adhering together - this seed means the truth of the Word falsified."
[2] After these words I followed him, and on the way he told me this. "They live," he said, "in the border region between the south and the west, but at a great distance beyond those who lived in the previous four ages, and also deeper down."
So we continued through the south to a region bordering on the west, and we passed through a dreadful forest. For we found pools of water there from which crocodiles raised their heads, gaping at us with jaws open wide and showing their teeth. And between the pools we saw horrible dogs, some of them with three heads like Cerberus, some of them with two heads, all of them with hideous mouths and watching us with savage eyes as we passed by. Entering the western part of this area, we also saw dragons and leopards, like the ones described in the book of Revelation,chapters 12:3 and 13:2.
[3] Then the angel said to me, "All these wild beasts you have seen are not beasts but correspondent and thus representative forms of the lusts that motivate the inhabitants we are going to visit. Those hideous dogs represent the lusts themselves; the crocodiles, their deceits and deceptions; the dragons and leopards, their falsities and corrupt feelings towards things that have to do with worship.
"The inhabitants thus represented, however, do not live just the other side of the forest, but beyond a great desert that lies between, to keep them completely away and separate from the inhabitants of the preceding ages. Moreover, they are altogether alien - totally different from those other people. Indeed, they have heads above their breasts, breasts above their loins, and loins above their feet, like the earliest people. But there is not a bit of gold in their heads, or of silver in their breasts, or of bronze in their loins. In fact, there is not a bit of just plain iron in their feet. Instead, they have iron mixed with clay in their heads, both of these mixed with bronze in their breasts, both of these also mixed with silver in their loins, and these mixed with gold in their feet.
"By this inversion they have been transformed from human beings into caricatures of human beings, in which nothing inwardly holds together. For what had been uppermost has become lowermost, so that what was the head has become the heel, and vice versa. Viewed from heaven, they look to us like play-actors who turn their bodies upside down, support themselves on their elbows and thus move about. Or they look like animals that lie upside down on their backs, raise their feet in the air, and, digging their heads into the ground, from that position look up at the sky."
[4] We passed through the forest and proceeded into the desert, which was no less horrible. It consisted of piles of rocks, with pits in between, out of which crept poisonous snakes and vipers and from which flew fiery serpents.
This whole desert kept sloping downward, and we descended by a long decline, until at last we came to a valley inhabited by the people of that region and age. We saw huts here and there, which finally appeared to come together and be joined into the form of a city.
We went into the city, and behold, the houses were constructed out of charred tree branches mortared together with clay. The roofs were made of black tiles. The streets were irregular, all narrow at first, but widening as they went, becoming finally quite broad and terminating in squares. Consequently there were as many squares as there were streets.
Darkness fell as we entered the city, because the sky was not visible. We looked up, therefore, and we were given light by which to see.
I then asked the people I encountered, "Can you see, since the sky does not appear above you?"
And they replied, "What sort of question is this? We see clearly. We walk in full light."
Hearing this the angel said to me, "Darkness to them is light, and light to them is darkness, as it is for nocturnal birds. For they look downwards instead of upwards."
[5] We went into some of the shacks here and there, and in each we saw a man with his woman. And we asked whether all of them here lived each in his own house with only one wife.
But they replied to this with a hiss, "What do you mean, with only one wife? Why not ask whether we live with only one harlot? What is a wife but a harlot?
"According to our laws we are not allowed to commit whoredom with more than just one woman, but still it is not dishonorable or shameful for us to do so with more than one, provided we do it away from the house. We boast about it with each other! In this way we enjoy license and its pleasure more than polygamists do.
"Why is having more than one wife denied to us, when it has been permitted in the past and is permitted today in the whole world around us? What is life with just one woman but captivity and imprisonment?
"But here we break open the bar of this prison and so rescue ourselves from slavery and set ourselves free. Who is angry with a prisoner if he liberates himself when he can?"
[6] To this we replied, "You speak, my friend, like one devoid of religion. What person endowed with any power of reason does not know that adulterous affairs are profane and hellish, and that marriages are sacred and heavenly? Are not adulterous relationships found among devils in hell, and marriages among angels in heaven? Have you not read the sixth commandment in the Decalogue? And in Paul, that adulterers can by no means come into heaven? 1"
At this our host laughed heartily, and he looked on me as a simpleton - almost, even, as insane.
But at that very moment a messenger came running from the headman of the city and said, "Bring the two strangers to the city square, and if they will not come voluntarily, drag them there! We saw them under the dark cover of daylight. They have come here in secret. They are spies!"
The angel then said to me, "The reason we seemed to be under dark cover is that we were in the light of heaven, and the light of heaven to them is darkness, while the darkness of hell to them is light. This is because they regard nothing as sinful, not even adultery, and consequently they see falsity altogether as truth. Falsity shines with light in hell, in the eyes of satanic spirits, while truth darkens their eyes like the gloom of night."
[7] Then we said to the messenger, "We will not be forced, still less dragged to the city square, but we will go with you voluntarily."
So we went, and behold, we found a great crowd there. From it came some lawyers who whispered in our ear, "Take care that you do not say anything against religion, against our form of government, or contrary to good manners."
But we kept answering, "We will only speak in favor of them and in accordance with them."
Then we asked, "What is your religion in regard to marriage?"
At this the crowd began to murmur, and they said, "What concern do you have here with marriage? Marriages are marriages."
So we asked a second time, "What is your religion in regard to licentious relationships?"
At this the crowd began to murmur again, saying, "What concern do you have here with licentious relationships? Illicit affairs are illicit affairs. He who is without guilt, let him throw the first stone. 2"
So we asked a third time, "Does your religion teach regarding marriages that they are sacred and heavenly, and regarding adulterous affairs that they are profane and hellish?"
In response to this many in the crowd guffawed, mocked, and jeered, saying, "Ask our priests about matters of religion, not us. We accept without comment whatever they say, since nothing of religion falls within the ability of the understanding to judge. Have you not heard that the understanding is devoid of reason in the mysteries on which the whole of religion is based?
"Besides, what do our actions have to do with religion? Is it not the pious murmurings of the heart that makes souls blessed - murmurings about expiation, satisfaction and imputation - and not works?"
[8] But then some of the so-called wise men of the city came over and said, "Get away from here. The crowd is becoming inflamed. There will be a riot in a minute. Let us talk about this by ourselves. There is an alley behind the courthouse. Let us go back there. Come with us."
So we followed. And then they asked us where we came from and what our business was there.
We said, "We have come to be instructed about marriage, to find out whether or not marriages among you are sacred unions as they were among the ancient peoples who lived in the golden, silver and copper ages."
But they replied, "What do you mean, sacred unions? Are they not deeds of the flesh and the night?"
Then we began to answer, "Are they not also deeds of the spirit? And what the flesh does impelled by the spirit, is that not spiritual? Moreover, everything that the spirit does, it does from a marriage of goodness and truth. Is it not this spiritual marriage which enters into the natural marriage that exists between husband and wife?"
To this the so-called wise men replied, "You probe and refine the matter too much. You leap over rational considerations to spiritual ones. Who can begin there, then descend and thus form a judgment about anything?" To which they added sarcastically, "Perhaps you have the wings of an eagle and can soar to the uppermost regions of the sky and look down on such matters. But we cannot."
[9] So we then asked them to tell us, from the height or region to which the ideas of their minds flew aloft, whether they knew or were able to know that such a thing exists as the conjugial love of one man with one wife, into which have been gathered all the blessings, felicities, delights, gratifications and pleasures of heaven. Moreover, that this love comes from the Lord according to people's reception of goodness and truth from Him, thus according to the state of the church.
[10] Hearing this they turned away and said, "These men are crazy. They go into outer space with their rational faculties, form empty conjectures and shower us with nutty speculations."
Afterwards they turned around to us and said, "We will give a straight answer to your airy conjectures and dreams."
Then they said, "What does conjugial love have in common with religion and with being inspired by God?
"Does that love not exist in everyone according to the condition of his sexual powers? Is it not found among people who are outside the church as well as among people who are in the church? Among gentiles as well as among Christians? In fact, among impious people as well as among pious ones?
"Does the vigor of that love in everyone not come either from heredity, or from good health, or from temperance of life, or from the warmth of the climate? And can it not also be strengthened and stimulated by drugs?
"Is the same love not found in animals, especially in birds which mate in pairs? Is that love not a matter of the flesh? What does a matter of the flesh have to do with the spiritual state of the church?
"Does that love with a wife in its ultimate expression differ one bit from love with a harlot in its ultimate expression? Is the lust not the same, and the delight the same?
"It is harmful, therefore, to trace the origin of conjugial love from the sacred things of the church."
[11] When we heard this we said to them, "You are reasoning from the heat of lasciviousness and not from conjugial love. You do not know at all what conjugial love is because among you that love is cold. We are convinced by what you have said that you come from the age that is named after and consists of iron and clay, which do not cohere, according to the prophecy in Daniel 2:43. For you make conjugial love and licentious love the same thing. Can these two cohere any more than iron and clay? People believe you are wise and call you wise, yet you are anything but wise!"
Inflamed with anger at these words, they began to cry out and call the crowd to throw us out. But then, by a power given us by the Lord, we stretched out our hands, and suddenly fiery serpents, vipers and poisonous snakes came from the desert, and dragons, too, and they invaded and filled the city, so that the inhabitants became frightened and fled away.
And the angel said to me, "New people keep coming from earth to this region every day, and the previous inhabitants are by turns removed and cast down into chasms in the west, which at a distance look like lakes of fire and brimstone. The people there are all adulterers, both spiritually and naturally."
Footnotes:
1. See 1 Corinthians 6:9.
2. Cf. John 8:7.
79. The fifth story: The angel from before who was my guide and companion to the ancient people who lived in the four ages - gold, silver, copper, and iron - came again and said to me, "You'd like to see the age after those ancient ones - what it was, and still is, like.
Follow me and you'll see. They are the ones that Daniel prophesied about, saying that a kingdom would arise after those four ages, when iron would be mixed with clay, that human seed would mix the iron and clay together, but that they would not cohere with one another, as iron does not mix with clay" (Daniel 2:41-43).
And he said, "The 'human seed' that will mix the iron with the clay, although they won't cohere, can be taken to mean the Truth of the Word changed to falsehood."
When he said this I followed him, and on the way he reported these things to me. "They live on the border between the south and the west but a long way past the people who lived in the four earlier ages, and also deeper down."
We went ahead through the south to a region bordering the west and went through a terrible forest. It had swamps where crocodiles raised their heads and gaped at us with their toothy jaws wide open. And between swamps there were terrible dogs, some with three heads like Cerberus, some with two. They all watched us pass with horrible hunger and savage eyes. We entered the western stretches of this region and saw dragons and leopards such as the Book of Revelation describes (12:3; 13:2).
"All those wild animals you saw," the angel told me, "are not wild animals. They are symbolic, and therefore representational, images of desires that the inhabitants have. We're going to visit them. Those horrible dogs represent the desires themselves, the crocodiles their trickery and shrewdness, the dragons and leopards their lies and their twisted attitudes toward anything related to worship.
"Actually the inhabitants they represent do not live just beyond the forest but beyond a large desert that is in between to keep them away and quite separate from the inhabitants of the earlier ages. And they certainly are an alien race and different from them!
They do have a head above their chest, a chest above their waist, and waists above their feet, just like the first people, but in their heads is nothing of gold, nor anything of silver in their chests, nor in their waists anything of brass, and indeed nothing in their feet of pure iron. In their heads is iron mixed with clay, in their chests both of these mixed with brass, in their waists both also mixed with silver. In their feet it is mixed with gold.
"By being turned upside - down that way they are changed from people into human statues with nothing that holds together inwardly, because what was highest has become lowest, so what was a head has become a heel and vice versa. To us from heaven they look like acrobats with their bodies upside - down, walking on their elbows. Or like animals that lie on their backs with their feet up and look at the sky with their heads in the ground."
We passed through the forest and entered the desert, which was no less terrible. It was all heaps of stone and between them gulches that water snakes and vipers crawled out of. And fiery serpents flew out of them.
This whole desert sloped steadily down. We descended the long decline and finally came to the valley peopled by the inhabitants of this region and its epoch.
Here and there were huts that we could see became closer together after a while and joined to form a town. We went into it.
The houses were made of tree limbs scorched and mudded together! The roofs were black slate. The streets were irregular.
They started out narrow, but they widened out as they went on, becoming quite broad where they ended at public spaces, so there were as many public spaces as streets.
When we entered the city it got dark because we couldn't see the sky. So we looked upward and had light and could see.
Then on the way we asked people we bumped into, "Can you see? Because the sky above you isn't visible!"
They said, "What's that? We see clearly. We're walking in broad daylight!"
When the angel heard this he told me, "Darkness is light to them, and light to them is darkness, the same as to night birds, for they look down and not up."
We went into the huts here and there, and in each hut we saw a man with his woman. We asked if everyone here lives at home with just one wife.
They answered this with a hiss. "Just one wife! Why not say with just one prostitute? What is a wife but a prostitute? By our laws you can only fornicate with one woman. Still, to us it's not dishonest or indecent with several - but not at home. Among ourselves we take pride in it. This way we enjoy freedom and its pleasure more than polygamy. Why can't we have many wives, when all over the world around us they could, and can today?
What is life with one woman but captivity and imprisonment?
But here we break open the walls of this jail, escape from servitude, and free ourselves. Who blames a captive who escapes when he can?"
To this we answered, "You talk as if you have no religion, my friend. Who doesn't know that adulteries are profane and infernal, if he has a drop of sense, and that marriages are holy and heavenly? Aren't adulteries for devils in hell and marriages for angels in heaven? Haven't you read the seventh commandment in the Decalogue? And, in Paul [1 Corinthians 6:9-10], that there's no way adulterers can come into heaven?"
Our host had a belly laugh at this and looked at me as if I were a simpleton - almost as if I were crazy.
But just then a messenger from the headman of the town ran up and said, "Bring the two strangers into the forum! And if they won't come, drag them there! We saw them skulking in the shadows.
They came in secret. They are spies!"
The angel told me that we looked shady to them because we were in light from heaven, which is shade to them. The darkness of hell is light to them. "This is because they don't consider anything a sin, not even adultery, so they see falsehood as the plain truth. In hell falsity shines to the satans, and truth dims their eyes like the darkness of night."
We told the messenger, "We won't be pushed around, let alone be dragged to the forum. But we will go with you on our own volition." And we went.
A great mob was there! Some trial lawyers emerged from it and said in our ear, "Take care not to say anything against religion, our form of government, or proper behavior."
We answered, "We only speak in favor of these things - and according to them." And we asked, "What are your beliefs about marriage?"
The crowd murmured at that and said, "What are our marriages to you? Marriages are marriages."
We spoke up again, "What are your beliefs about fornication?"
The crowd murmured at this, too, saying, "What is our fornication to you? Prostitution is prostitution. Someone guiltless can throw the first stone."
A third time we asked, "Does your religion teach that marriages are holy and heavenly and that adulteries are profane and infernal?"
At these words many in the crowd gave a horselaugh, jeered, and joked, saying, "Find out about things to do with religion from our priests, not us! We accept what they say without a question, because nothing to do with religion makes any sense intellectually. Haven't you heard that intellect is senseless when it comes to mysteries - which is all that religion is made of? And what do actions have to do with religion? Just mumbling from a devout heart about expiation, satisfaction, and imputation beatifies your soul, eh? Not the things you do."
But then some of the so - called wise men of the town came up and said, "Get out of here. The crowd is smoldering. They'll soon riot! We'll discuss this business alone. There's a walk back of the court. We'll withdraw to there. You come with us."
We followed them. Then they asked us where we were from and what we wanted here.
"To find out about marriages," we said, "whether the ones you have are sacred or not - as they were with the ancient people who lived in the Golden, Silver, and Copper Ages."
Their response was, "Sacred! They're physical acts in the night, aren't they?"
We answered, "Aren't they spiritual acts, too? And what your body does in response to your spirit is spiritual, isn't it? And your spirit does everything it does thanks to a marriage of good and truth. Isn't this a spiritual marriage, which enters the marriage on a natural plane, which is a husband and a wife?"
To this the so - called wise men answered, "You've got this thing too finely honed and high - flown. You soar above rational things to spiritual ones. Who can begin up there, come down here, and decide anything that way?" They added with a sneer, "Maybe you have eagle wings and can fly into the highest reach of heaven and see into everything that way. We can't."
So we begged them, "From whatever altitude or reach the winged ideas of your minds do fly in, do you know, or can you know, that there is such a thing as love in marriage between one man and one wife with all the blessings, pleasures, joys, gladness, and passions of heaven gathered in it? And do you know that the Lord supplies this love according to the way you receive good and truth from Him - in other words, according to the state of the church?"
They turned aside when they heard this and said, "These men are crazy. They go into outer space with their judgment and dream up nothings. They're pulling our legs." Then they turned back to us and said, "We'll give a straight answer to your divinations and dreams." And they said, "What does married love have in common with religion and with inspiration from God?
That love goes according to the state of someone's potency, doesn't it? It's the same for people outside the church as with those in it, isn't it? And the same for non - Christians as for Christians.
Even the same for the impious as for the pious. Doesn't a person have the vigor of this love according to either heredity or his good health or his temperate life or the heat of the climate?
And also, medicines can invigorate and stimulate it. Isn't it the same for animals - especially birds, who love pair by pair? Isn't that love physical? What do physical things have in common with the spiritual condition of a church? The final effect of that love with a wife doesn't differ a shred from the final effect of love with a prostitute, does it? Isn't it the same desire and the same pleasure? So it's wrong to derive the origin of married love from religious principles."
When we heard this we said to them, "You're reasoning from a fit of lust and not from love for marriage. You don't know what married love is at all, because in you it cools right off. What you say confirms for us that you are of the age called, and formed of, iron and clay - which don't hold together - according to the prophecy in Daniel (2:43). So you're making the love in marriage and the love in fornication one thing. Do these two hold together better than iron and clay? People call you wise, and think you are wise, but there's nothing you're less of than wise."
When they heard this they shouted, burning with rage, and called the mob together to throw us out. But then, with a power the Lord gave us we stretched out our hands and fiery serpents, hydras, vipers, and dragons, too, came from the desert and swarmed in and filled the town! The terrified inhabitants fled from this.
"Newcomers from Earth arrive in this place daily," the angel said to me, "and in turn older ones are removed and thrown into chasms west of here that look like lakes of fire and brimstone from a distance. There they are all adulterers, both spiritually and naturally."
79. The Fifth Memorable Relation:
The angel who had previously been my guide and companion to the ancient peoples who had lived in the four Ages, the Golden, Silver, Copper, and Iron, came to me once more and said: "You would like to see the nature of the Age which followed these ancient Ages and which still continues. Follow me then, and you shall see. They are those of whom Daniel prophesied:
A kingdom shall arise after those four, wherein iron shall be mixed with miry clay; they shall mingle themselves through the seed of man, but they shall not cleave the one with the other, even as iron is not commingled with clay." Daniel 2:41-43
And he added, "By the seed of man through which the iron shall be mingled with clay and yet they shall not cleave together, is meant the truth of the Word falsified."
[2] After he had thus spoken, I followed him, and on the way he told me the following: "They dwell on the border between the south and the west, but at a great distance behind those who lived in the four former Ages, and also at a greater depth." Proceeding through the south to a region bordering upon the west, we passed through a dreadful forest; for in it were stagnant pools, from which crocodiles raised their heads and gaped at us with their wide open jaws beset with teeth. Moreover, between the pools were terrible dogs, some with three heads like Cerberus, some with two; and as we passed they all glared at us with a horrible ravenous look and fierce eyes. We entered the western part of this region and saw dragons and leopards such as are described in the Apocalypse 12:3,13:2.
[3] The angel then told me: "All those wild beasts which you saw are not beasts but correspondences. Thus they are representative forms of the lusts in which are the inhabitants whom we are to visit. Their lusts are represented by those horrible dogs; their deceits and cunning by the crocodiles; their falsities and their depraved inclinations in respect to things pertaining to worship, by the dragons and leopards. The inhabitants who are thus represented do not dwell immediately behind the forest but behind a great desert, the desert itself being an intermediate region; and this to the end that they may be kept entirely separate and apart from the peoples of the preceding Ages. Moreover, they are utter aliens, being entirely different from them. Like the primeval men, they do indeed have heads above their breasts, breasts above their loins, and loins above their feet, but there is nothing of gold in their heads, nothing of silver in their breasts, nothing of brass in their loins, yea, nothing of pure iron in their feet; but in their heads is iron mixed with clay; in their breasts, both these mixed with brass; in their loins, both mixed also with silver; and in their feet, all these mixed with gold. By this inversion they have been changed from men into graven images of men within whom nothing is coherent. That which was the highest has become the lowest. Thus what was the head has become the heel, and vice versa. From heaven they appear to us like clowns who rest on their elbows and move forwards with their body upside down; or like beasts lying on their backs, with upraised legs and looking at the sky from a head which they bury in the earth."
[4] We passed through the forest and entered the desert, which was no less terrible. It consisted of heaps of stones, and between them ditches from which crawled hydras and vipers, and out of which flew fiery flying serpents. The whole desert was one continuous descent. Descending the long declivity, we came at last into the valley where dwell the inhabitants of that region and Age.
Here and there were huts, and finally these were seen to be closer to each other and to be joined together into the form of a city. This we entered, and lo, the houses were constructed of scorched branches of trees stuck together with mud. The roofs were of black slate. The streets were irregular, all narrow at their beginnings but wider as they went on, and quite spacious at their end where they terminated in an open space or forum, there being as many such spaces as there were [converging] streets.
As we entered the city, it became dark because heaven 1was not visible. We therefore looked up, and light was given us and we saw. I then asked those whom I met, "can you see, now that the heaven above you is not visible?" They replied, "What are you asking? We see clearly. We walk in full light." Hearing this, the angel said to me, "To them, just as to birds of night, darkness is light and light darkness, for they look downwards and not upwards."
[5] Here and there we went into the hovels, and in each hovel we saw a man with his woman. We asked whether all here live in their own house with one wife only. The men answered this with a hissing, [and our host said] "Why with only one wife? Why do you not ask whether we live with only one harlot? What is a wife but a harlot? Our laws do not permit us to go a-whoring with more than one woman, yet we do not count it dishonorable or disgraceful to do this with many--but outside the house. Among ourselves we boast of it. In this way we enjoy license and its pleasures more than do polygamists. Why is a plurality of wives denied us, when yet it was formerly allowed; and even now it is allowed in all the countries around us? What is life with one woman alone but captivity and imprisonment? Here we break down the barrier of this prison and, delivering ourselves from servitude, set ourselves free. Who can be angry with a captive if he sets himself free when he can?"
[6] To this we answered: "Friend, you talk as if you were without religion. Who that is imbued with any reason does not know that adulteries are profane and infernal, and that marriages are holy and heavenly? Do not adulteries exist with the devils in hell, and marriages with the angels in heaven? Have you not read the seventh commandment of the Decalogue? and in Paul, 2that adulterers can in no wise come into heaven?" At this, our host laughed heartily and looked upon me as a simpleton and almost as a madman.
At that moment a messenger from the chief man of the city rushed up and said, "Bring the two strangers into the forum, and if they will not come, drag them. We have seen them in the shade of night. 3They came in secret; they are spies."
The angel then said to me: "The reason we were seen in a shade was because to them the light of heaven, in which we were, is shade, while the shade of hell is light, and this because they count nothing as a sin, not even adultery. Therefore they regard that which is false as being wholly true. Moreover, to satans in hell, that which is false shines, and that which is true darkens their eyes like the shade of night."
[7] We then said to the messenger, "We will not be forced to the forum, still less will we be dragged, but will go with you of our own accord." So we went. And lo, a great crowd was there, and from the crowd came men skilled in the law who whispered in our ears, "Take heed that you say nothing against religion, the form of government, and good manners." We replied, "We speak not against these but for them and from them."
We then asked them, "What is your religion regarding marriages?" At this, the crowd murmured and said, "What have you to do here with marriages? marriages are marriages."
We then asked, "What is your religion respecting whoredoms?" At this also the crowd murmured, saying, "What have you to do here with whoredoms? whoredoms are whoredoms. Let him who is without guilt cast the first stone."
And thirdly we asked, "Does your religion teach concerning marriages, that they are holy and heavenly? and concerning adulteries, that they are profane and infernal?" At this, many in the crowd laughed aloud and mocked and jeered, saying: "As to matters of religion, ask our priests not us; we give entire assent to their utterances, for nothing of religion falls within the judgment of the understanding. Have you not heard that the understanding is insane as regards the mysteries of which the whole of religion consists? And what have deeds to do with religion? Is it not the murmurings of a devout heart concerning expiation, satisfaction, and imputation, and not works, that beatify souls?"
[8] But then some of the city's wise men, so called, came to us and said, "Go away from here; the crowd is getting angry and soon there will be an outbreak. Let us talk with you on this matter in private. Behind the court is an ambulatory; let us retire thither. Come with us." So we followed them. They then asked us, "From where do you come and what is your business here?" and we said, "To be informed concerning marriages with you, whether they are sacred as they were with the ancients who lived in the Golden, Silver, and Copper Ages."
They replied, "Why sacred? are they not deeds of the flesh and the night?" and we answered, "Are they not also deeds of the spirit? What the flesh does from the spirit, is not that spiritual? and whatever the spirit does, it does from the marriage of good and truth. Is not this the spiritual marriage which enters into natural marriage which is the marriage of husband and wife?"
To this, the so-called wise men responded: "You refine and sublimate this thing overmuch. You are passing over things rational and mounting to things spiritual. Who can commence there? Come down and then form a judgment." To this they added in derision, "Perhaps you have the wings of an eagle and can fly into the uppermost region of heaven and see such things. We cannot."
[9] We then asked them to tell us from the height or region in which the winged ideas of their minds fly, whether they knew or could know that there is such a thing as the conjugial love of one man with one wife, into which are gathered all the blessings, happiness, delights, amenities and pleasures of heaven; and that this love is from the Lord, according to the reception of good and truth from Him, that is, according to the state of the Church.
[10] Hearing this, they turned away and said, "These men are insane; they enter into the ether with their judgment and, conjecturing vanities, act like little children." 4
Thereupon, turning to us they said, "We will give a straight answer to your windy conjectures and dreams." They then said: "What has conjugial love in common with religion and with inspiration from God? Is not that love with every man according to the state of his potency? And is it not just as much with those who are outside the Church as with those who are within it? just as much with Gentiles as with Christians? nay, just as much with the impious as with the pious? And has not every one the strength of that love from heredity, or from good health, or from temperance of life, or from the heat of the climate? Can it not also be strengthened and stimulated by medicines? Is it not the same with beasts, especially birds, which love in pairs? Is not that love carnal? and what has a carnal matter in common with the spiritual state of the Church? As to the ultimate effect, does love with a wife differ in the least from love with a harlot? Is not the lust the same? and the delight the same? Therefore it is wrongful to deduce the origin of conjugial love from the holy things of the Church."
[11] On hearing this, We said to them: "You are reasoning from the heat of lasciviousness and not from conjugial love. You are wholly ignorant of what conjugial love is because with you it is cold. From what you have said, we are assured that you are of that Age which has its name from and consists of iron and clay which do not cohere, according to the prediction by Daniel II. 43; for you make conjugial love and scortatory love to be one and the same thing. Do these two loves cohere any more than iron and clay? You are believed to be wise and are called wise; yet you are anything but wise."
Inflamed with anger at hearing these words, they raised a cry and called the crowd together to cast us out. But then, by power given us by the Lord, we stretched forth our hands, and lo, the fiery flying serpents, vipers, and hydras from the desert were at hand, and also the dragons; and they rushed in and filled the city, from which the inhabitants fled in terror.
The angel then told me: "New arrivals from the earth come into this region every day and, by turns, the former inhabitants are sent away and cast down into gulfs at the west which at a distance appear like pools of fire and brimstone. All who are there are spiritual adulterers and also natural."
Footnotes:
1. As in English, the Latin word for heaven means also the sky.
2. 1 Corinthians 6:9.
3. The Latin is lucis (of light), but the context indicates that this is a misprint or a slip of the pen for noctis.
4. Literally, they scatter nuts. Because children played with nuts, relinguere noces (to leave the nuts) became a proverbial saying for to give up childish ways.
79. V 1
The angel who had been my guide and companion to the ancient peoples who had lived in the four ages, the golden, silver, copper, and iron, came to me again and said, "Do you wish to see what the age was like, and still is like, which succeeded those earlier epochs? Follow me, then, and you shall see. They are the people of whom Daniel prophesied:
A kingdom shall arise after those four wherein iron shall be mixed with miry clay; they shall mingle themselves by the seed of man, but they shall not cleave the one to the other, even as iron is not commingled with clay (Daniel 2:41-43)."
He added, "'The seed of man by which the iron shall be mingled with clay and yet they shall not cohere,' means the truth of the Word falsified."
[2] Whereupon I followed him, and on the way he told me: "These people dwell in the southwest, but at a great distance behind those who lived in the four earlier ages and also at a greater depth."
We came by the south to a region bordering on the west and passed through a dreadful forest. In it were stagnant pools, out of which crocodiles lifted their heads and opened wide on us their gaping jaws set with teeth. Between the pools were frightful dogs, some three-headed like Cerberus, others two-headed; and as we passed they all glared at us with a horrible ravenous look and ferocious eyes. We entered the western part of this region and saw dragons and leopards, like those described in Revelation 12:3, 13:2.
[3] The angel said to me, "All the wild beasts which you have seen are not beasts but correspondences, and thus representative forms, of the lusts in which are the people whom we are about to visit. The lusts themselves are represented by those frightful dogs; the deceitfulness and craftiness of the people by the crocodiles; their falsities and depraved interest in the things of worship by the dragons and leopards. But the inhabitants represented do not dwell next to the forest, but beyond a great desert which intervenes, so that they can be kept entirely separate and apart from the peoples of the preceding ages. They are also totally alien and different from them. They have heads indeed above their breasts, and breasts above their loins, and loins above their feet, like the earliest men; but there is nothing of gold in their heads, or silver in their breasts, or of bronze in their loins, no, not even anything of pure iron in their feet; but in their heads is iron mixed with clay; in their breasts, both of these mixed with brass; in their loins, both also mixed with silver; and in their feet these are mixed with gold. By this inversion they have been changed from men into graven images of men, in whom nothing within coheres; for that which was highest has become lowest, so that what was the head has become the heel, and vice versa. To us in heaven they look like acrobats who, with the body upside down, lie upon their elbows and hitch forward; or like beasts which lie upon their backs, lift up their feet, and with the head buried in the earth, look up to heaven."
[4] We passed through the forest and entered the desert which was no less terrible. There were mounds of stone with gullies between, from which hydras and vipers stealthily crept, and fiery serpents flew forth. The whole desert was a continuous descent, and going down the long decline, we came at length into a valley where dwell the inhabitants of that region and age.
Huts here and there grew in number and at length clustered in the form of a city. We entered the city, and lo! the houses were constructed of charred branches of trees cemented with mud. The roofs were covered with black slates. The streets were irregular, all narrow at first, but widening as they ran on, and broad at the ends, where there were squares. There were as many squares as there were streets.
As we entered the city darkness fell, for heaven could not be seen. We therefore looked up and light was given us and we saw. I asked those whom I met, "Can you see when heaven is not visible above you?"
"What makes you ask that?" they wanted to know. "We see clearly. We walk about in full light."
Hearing this, the angel said to me, "Darkness is light to them and light darkness, just as with birds of night; for they look down and not up."
[5] We stepped into hovels here and there, and in each saw a man with his woman. We asked whether all of them dwelt each in a house with only one wife.
They answered, hissing, "Why do you say with only one wife? Why not ask whether we live with only one harlot? What is a wife but a harlot? It is not permissible under our laws to commit whoredom with more than one woman. And yet, to do so with more is not dishonorable or disgraceful among us, but it must be done outside the home. We boast about it among ourselves. In this way we enjoy license and its pleasure more than polygamists do. Why is a plurality of wives denied to us, when it has been granted and is granted to all the world around us? What is life with only one woman but captivity and imprisonment? But then, we break the bars of our prison and deliver and liberate ourselves from this slavery. Who is angry with a captive who frees himself when he can?"
[6] To this we answered, "Friend, you talk like one devoid of religion. Who that is imbued with any reason does not know that adulteries are profane and infernal? And that marriages are holy and heavenly? Are not adulteries to be found among the devils in hell, and marriages with the angels in heaven? Have you not read the sixth commandment 2of the Decalogue? Or in Paul 3that adulterers can in no wise enter heaven?"
At this our host laughed heartily and looked on me as a simpleton and almost as a madman. At that moment a messenger came running from the head of the city and said, "Bring the two strangers into the square. If they will not come, drag them there. We have seen them in the shadows. They came in secretly. They are spies."
And the angel said to me, "The reason we appeared to them in shadow is that the light of heaven in which we are is shadow to them, and the darkness of hell is light to them. This befalls them because they consider nothing sin, not even adultery, and therefore they see falsity altogether as truth. For falsity emits light to the satans in hell; while truth darkens their eyes like the shade of night."
[7] We said to the messenger, "We are not going to be forced, still less dragged to the forum, but will go with you of our own accord."
And we went. There was a great crowd there out of which some lawyers stepped and whispered in our ears, "Take care not to say anything against religion or the form of government or good manners."
We replied, "We mean to speak in favor of them and according to them."
And we asked, "What is your religion regarding marriages?"
At this the crowd muttered, and said, "What concern are marriages to you here? Marriages are marriages."
We asked again, "What is your religion about whoredoms?"
The crowd murmured at this, too, saying, "What have you to do here with whoredoms? Whoredoms are whoredoms. Let him that is without guilt first cast a stone." 4
We asked a third time, "Does your religion teach that marriages are holy and heavenly? and that adulteries are profane and infernal?"
At this many in the crowd laughed aloud and mocked and jeered, saying, "Ask our priests, not us, about matters of religion. We acquiesce entirely in their pronouncements; for nothing of religion falls within the judgment of the understanding. Have you not heard that the understanding is insane as to the mysteries of which religion altogether consists? And what have deeds to do with religion? Is it not the utterances of a devout heart about expiation, satisfaction and imputation, and not works which render souls blessed?"
[8] Then some of the so-called wise of the city came to us and said,
"Leave the place! The crowd is inflamed. There will be a riot. We will talk with you about this matter alone.
There is a walk behind the court; let us withdraw there. Come along."
And we followed. Then they asked us whence we came and what our errand was. We said:
"To be instructed about marriages; whether with you as with the ancients who lived in the golden, silver and copper ages they are sacred or not."
They replied, "What! Sacred! Are they not deeds of the flesh and of the night?"
We answered, "Are they not also deeds of the spirit? And is not what the flesh does from the spirit, spiritual? And all that the spirit does, it does from the marriage of good and truth. Does not this spiritual marriage enter into the natural marriage of husband and wife?"
To this the so-called wise men responded, "You refine and exalt this thing too much. You climb above rational things to spiritual. Who can start there, descend thence, and thus form a judgment about anything?" and they added derisively, "Perhaps you have the wings of an eagle and can fly into the topmost region of heaven and see such things. We cannot."
[9] Then we asked them to tell us from the height or element in which the winged ideas of their minds flew, whether they knew or could know that there is such a thing as a marital love of one man with one wife, into which are gathered all heaven's beatitudes, satisfactions, joys, gladness and pleasure, and that this love is from the Lord according to the reception of good and truth from Him, that is, according to the state of the Church.
[10] Hearing this they turned away and said, "These men rave. They soar with their judgment into the ether; in empty speculation they disseminate nothings."
Then they turned to us and replied, "We will make a direct answer to your windy conjectures and dreams." And they said, "What has marital love in common with religion or with inspiration from God? Has not every man that love according to the state of his potency? Is it not equally with those outside the Church and with those inside it? Equally with Gentiles and with Christians? Yes, equally with the impious and the pious? Is not the strength of that love either from heredity, or good health, or temperate living, or the warmth of the climate? Can it not also be strengthened and stimulated by medicines? Is it not like that of beasts, especially birds, which love in pairs? Is that love not carnal? What has a carnal thing in common with the spiritual state of the Church? Does that love in its ultimate expression with a wife differ in the least from love in its ultimate expression with a harlot? Is there not similar lust? Similar delight? It is therefore damaging to trace the origin of marital love to holy things of the Church."
[11] On hearing this we said to them, "You reason from the heat of lasciviousness and not from marital love. You are totally ignorant what marital love is because it is cold with you. We are convinced by what you have said that you are from the age named from and composed of iron and clay, which do not cohere, according to the prophecy in Daniel (Daniel 2:43). For you make marital love and scortatory love to be one and the same. Do these cohere any more than iron and clay do? You are reputed to be wise and are so called; and yet you are anything but wise."
Enraged, they shouted, and rallied the crowd to cast us out. But then by power given us by the Lord we held up our hands, and fiery serpents, vipers, hydras and dragons appeared from the desert, and rushed in and filled the city, from which the inhabitants fled in terror.
The angel informed me, - Newcomers from the earth arrive in this vicinity daily. The inhabitants are removed at intervals and cast down into gulfs at the west, which at a distance look like lakes of fire and brimstone. All these men are both spiritual and natural adulterers. -
Footnotes:
1. These Memorabilia are repeated with some variations in Coronis,37.
2. In dividing the Commandments, Swedenborg followed the custom of the church of his upbringing, the Lutheran Church, taking Exodus 20:3-6 as one commandment, and making two of verse 37. The Commandment numbered the seventh in other Protestant churches is then the sixth.
3. 1 Corinthians 6:9 Exodus 6:9.
4. John 8:7.
79. The Fifth Relation:
The former angel who had been my guide and companion to the ancient peoples that lived in the four ages, the golden, silver, copper, and iron, came to me again and said, 'Do you wish to see the age that followed those ancient ones, what was its nature and what it still is? Follow me, then, and you shall see. They are those of whom Daniel prophesied thus:
A kingdom shall arise after those four wherein iron shall be mixed with miry clay; they shall mingle themselves by the seed of man, but they shall not cleave the one to the other, even as iron is not commingled with clay (Daniel 2:41-43).'
And he added, ''The seed of man by which the iron shall be mixed with clay and yet they shall not cohere,' means the truth of the Word falsified.'
These things said I followed him, and on the way he told me that, 'These people dwell on the border between the south and the west, but a great distance behind those that lived in the four former ages and also at a profounder depth.'
We proceeded by the south to a region bordering upon the west and passed through a dreadful forest. For in it there were stagnant pools, out of which crocodiles raised their heads and opened upon us their gaping jaws set with teeth; and between the pools were terrible dogs, some three-headed like cerberus, some two-headed; and all glared at us as we passed with a horrible ravenous look and ferocious eyes. We entered the western part of this region and saw dragons and leopards, such as are described in Revelation 12:3; 13:2.
And the angel said to me, 'All these wild beasts that we have seen are not beasts but corresponding and thus representative forms of the lusts in which the people are whom we are to visit. The lusts themselves are represented by those horrible dogs; their evil cunning and slyness by the crocodiles; their falsities and depraved leaning to the things of their worship by the dragons and leopards. But the inhabitants represented do not dwell next to the forest, but behind a great desert that intervenes, that they be kept entirely separate and apart from the peoples of the preceding ages. They are also totally alien and different from them. They have indeed heads above their breasts, and breasts above their loins, and loins above their feet, like the primeval men; but there is nothing of gold in their heads, or silver in their breasts, nor of brass in their loins, nay, nor even anything of pure iron in their feet; but in their heads is iron mixed with clay; in their breasts, both of these mixed with brass; in their loins, both also mixed with silver; and in their feet these are mixed with gold. By this inversion they have been changed from men into graven images of men, in whom nothing within is coherent; for that which was highest has become lowest, so that what was the head has become the heel, and vice versa. They appear to us from heaven like acrobats who, with the body upside down, lie upon their elbows and move forward; or like beasts that lie upon their backs, lift up their feet, and from the head which they bury in the earth look up to heaven.'
We passed through the forest and entered the desert which was not less terrible. It consisted of heaps of stones with gulches between, out of which hydras and vipers stealthily crept, and fiery serpents flew forth. The whole desert was a continuous descent, and we went down the long decline and came at length into a valley where dwell the inhabitants of that region and age.
There were huts here and there which were seen to come together at length and to be connected in the form of a city. We entered it, and lo! the houses were constructed of scorched branches of trees cemented with mud. The roofs were covered with black slates. The streets were irregular, all narrow at their beginnings, but grew wider as they went on and were broad at the ends where there were public places. Thus there were as many public places as streets.
As we entered the city it became dark, because heaven was not visible. We therefore, looked up and light was given us and we saw. And then we asked those whom we met, 'Can you see when heaven is not visible above you?'
They replied, 'What do you ask? We see clearly. We walk about in full light.'
Hearing this, the angel said to me, 'Darkness to them is light and light darkness, just as it is with the birds of night, for they look downwards and not upwards.'
We went into the cabins here and there, and in everyone we saw a man with his woman. And we asked whether all here live in their own house with only one wife.
They answered with a hissing, 'What! with only one wife? Why not ask whether we live with only one harlot? What is a wife but a harlot? By our laws it is not permissible to fornicate with more than one woman. And yet with more it is not dishonorable or disgraceful among us, but it must be out of the house. We glory in this among ourselves. In this way we rejoice in license and in the pleasure of it more than polygamists. Why is a plurality of wives denied to us, and yet has been conceded, and is at this day conceded, to the whole world round about us? What is life with one woman alone but captivity and imprisonment? But here we break down the barrier of this prison and deliver and free ourselves from this servitude. Who is angry with a captive that sets himself free when he can?'
To this we answered, 'You talk, friend, as if you were without religion. Who that is imbued with any reason does not know that adulteries are profane and infernal? And that marriages are holy and heavenly? Are not adulteries with the devils in hell, and marriages with the angels in heaven? Have you read the sixth commandment of the Decalogue? And in Paul, 1that adulterers can in no wise enter into heaven?'
Our host laughed heartily at this and looked upon me as a simpleton and almost as a madman. At that moment a messenger came running from the chief man of the city and said, 'Bring the two strangers into the forum. And if they will not come, drag them there. We have seen them in a shade of light. They came in secretly. They are spies.'
And the angel said to me, 'The reason we were seen in the shade was that the light of heaven in which we were is shade to them, and the shade of hell to them is light. And this is so because they regard nothing as sin, not even adultery, and therefore, see falsity altogether as truth. And falsity gives out light before the satans in hell; and truth darkens their eyes like the shade of night.'
We said to the messenger, 'We need not be urged, still less dragged to the forum, but will go with you of our own accord.'
And we went. And lo! a great crowd was there out of which some lawyers came and whispered in our ears, 'Have a care for yourselves that you do not say anything against religion, or the form of government, or against good manners.'
We replied, 'No, but we shall speak for them and according to them.'
And we inquired, 'What is your religion regarding marriages?'
At this the crowd murmured, and said, 'What have you to do with marriages here? Marriages are marriages.'
And we asked, again, 'What is your religion respecting scortations?'
At this also the crowd murmured, saying, 'What have you to do here with scortations? Scortations are scortations. Let him that is without guilt cast the first stone.'
And the third time we asked, 'Does your religion teach concerning marriages that they are holy and heavenly? and concerning adulteries that they are profane and infernal?'
At this many in the crowd laughed aloud, and mocked and jeered, saying, 'Ask of our priests about matters of religion, and not of us. We acquiesce entirely in their declarations; for nothing of religion falls within the judgment of the understanding. Have you not heard that the understanding is insane as to the mysteries of which religion entirely consists? And what have actions to do with religion? Are not the mutterings from a devout heart about expiation, satisfaction, and imputation the things that make souls blessed and not works?'
Then some of the so-called wise of the city came to us and said, 'Go away from here. The crowd is excited. It will shortly become riotous. We will talk with you about this matter alone. There is a walk behind the court; let us withdraw to that. Come with us.'
And we followed. And then they asked us whence we came? and what was our business here? We said:
'That we may be instructed respecting marriages; whether with you as with the ancients who lived in the golden, silver, and copper ages they are sacred or not.'
They replied, 'What! Sacred! Are they not doings of the flesh? and of the night?'
And we answered, 'Are they not also deeds of the spirit? And what the flesh does from the spirit is it not spiritual? And all that the spirit does it does from the marriage of good and truth. Is not this a spiritual marriage that enters into the natural marriage which is of husband and wife?'
To this the so-called wise men responded, 'You refine and exalt this thing too much. You climb above things rational to spiritual. Who can begin there, descend thence, and thus form a judgment about anything?' To this they added in derision, 'Perhaps you have the pinions of an eagle and can fly into the uppermost region of heaven and see such things. We cannot.'
We then asked them to tell us from the height or region in which the winged ideas of their minds fly, whether they know or can know that there is a conjugial love of one man with one wife, into which are brought together all the blessings, satisfactions, joys, amenities, and pleasures of heaven, and that this love is from the Lord, according to the reception of good and truth from Him, that is, according to the state of the Church?
Hearing this they turned away and said, 'These men are mad. They enter with their judgment into the ether, and conjecturing vain things scatter nuts.' 2
Then they turned to us and replied, 'We will make a direct answer to your windy conjectures and dreams.' And they said, 'What has conjugial love in common with religion and with inspiration from God? Has not every man that love according to the state of his potency? And is it not as much with those out of the church as with those that are within it? Equally with Gentiles as with Christians? Nay, equally with the impious as with the pious? And is not the strength of that love with everyone either from his heredity, or his bodily health, or from temperance of life, or the warmth of the climate? And can it not also be strengthened and stimulated by medicines? Is it not similar as with beasts, especially birds, which love in pairs? Is not that love carnal? What has a thing that is carnal in common with the spiritual state of the church? Does the love with a wife, as to its last effect, differ in the least, as to that effect, from love with a harlot? Is not the lust similar? And the delight similar? It is therefore, harmful to deduce the origin of conjugial love from the holy things of the church.'
On hearing this we said to them, 'You reason from the frenzy of lasciviousness and not from conjugial love. You know not at all what conjugial love is because it is cold with you. We are convinced by what you have said that you are from the age that is called 'from iron and clay,' and which consists of it, which do not cohere according to the prophecy in Daniel 2:43, for you make conjugial love and scortatory love to be one. Do these cohere more than iron and clay? You are believed to be and are called wise; but you are anything but wise.'
Inflamed with anger at these words they shouted and called the crowd together to cast us out. But then by power given us by the Lord we stretched forth the hand, and lo! fiery serpents, vipers, and hydras, and dragons also, appeared from the desert; and rushed in and filled the city from which the inhabitants fled in terror.
And the angel told me, 'In this region new-comers from the earth arrive daily, and by turns the former inhabitants are sent away and are cast down into gulfs at the west, which at a distance appear as lakes of fire and brimstone. All these are both spiritual and natural adulterers.'
Footnotes:
1. 1 Corinthians 6:9.
2. That is problems to solve. [ED.]
79. Quintum Memorabile. Prior Angelus, qui meus ductor et comes fuerat ad Antiquos, qui in quatuor Saeculis, Aureo, Argenteo, Cupreo, et Ferreo, vixerant, rursus aderat et mihi dixit, "vis videre Saeculum post illa antiqua, quale fuit, et adhuc est; et sequere me, et videbis; sunt illi, de quibus Daniel prophetavit haec. "Surget Regnum post illa quatuor, in quo Ferrum erit mixtum cum Argilla luti; commiscebunt se per semen hominis, sed non cohaerebunt unum cum altero, quemadmodum ferrum non commiscetur cum argilla." Dan. 2:41, 42, 43; et dixit, "per semen hominis, per quod commiscebitur ferrum cum argilla, et usque non cohaerebunt, intelligitur verum Verbi falsificatum."
[2] His dictis sequutus sum illum, et in via retulit mihi haec; "habitant illi in confinio inter Meridiem et Occidentem, sed ad magnam distantiam post illos, qui in quatuor prioribus Saeculis vixerant, et quoque profundius;" et perreximus per Meridiem ad regionem conterminam Occidenti; et transivimus formidabilem Sylvam; erant enim ibi Stagna, e quibus Crocodili attollebant capita, et suis latis et dentatis rictibus in nos hiabant; et inter stagna erant terribiles Canes, quorum aliqui erant tricipites 1sicut Cerberi, aliqui bicipites, omnes horribili ingluvie, et trucibus oculis nos praetereuntes aspectabant. Intravimus Occidentalem hujus regionis tractum, et vidimus Dracones et Pardos, quales describuntur Apoc: Cap: Apoc. 12:3: Cap: Apoc. 13:2;
[3] et dixit mihi Angelus, "omnes illae ferae, quas vidisti, non sunt ferae, sed correspondentiae et sic formae repraesentativae cupiditatum, in quibus sunt Incolae, quos visitabimus; ipsae cupiditates repraesentantur 2per horribiles illos canes, illorum doli et astutiae per crocodilos, illorum falsitates, et pravae inclinationes ad illa quae cultus sunt, per dracones et pardos; verum Incolae repraesentati non habitant proxime post Sylvam, sed post magnum Desertum, quod intermedium est, ut plene distineantur et separentur ab Incolis Saeculorum antecedentium; sunt etiam prorsus alienigenae seu diversi ab illis: habent quidem capita supra pectora, ac pectora supra lumbos, et lumbos supra pedes, sicut primaevi homines, sed in capitibus non est aliquid auri, non in pectoribus aliquid argenti, nec in lumbis aliquid aeris, imo nec in pedibus aliquid puri ferri; sed in illorum capitibus est ferrum mixtum argilla, in pectoribus est utrumque mixtum aere, in lumbis est quoque utrumque mixtum argento, et in pedibus sunt illa mixta auro; per illam inversionem mutati sunt ab hominibus in sculpturas hominum, in quibus intus nihil cohaeret; nam quod supremum fuit, factum est infimum, ita quod fuit caput, factum est calcaneum, et vice versa; illi nobis e Coelo apparent similes histrionibus, qui inverso corpore jacent super cubitis, et progrediuntur; aut sicut bestiae, quae resupinae incumbunt dorsis, ac pedes extollunt sursum, et ex capite, quod infodiunt terrae, spectant Coelum."
[4] Transivimus Sylvam, et ingressi sumus Desertum, quod non minus terribile fuit; constabat ex struibus lapidum, et inter illas scrobibus, e quibus subrepserunt hydrae et echidnae, et evolabant presteres: totum hoc desertum continue declinabat, et nos per longum declive descendimus, et tandem venimus in Vallem ab incolis regionis ac aetatis illius habitatam: erant hic et ibi mapalia, quae visa sunt tandem coire et conjungi in formam urbis; hanc intravimus, et ecce domus erant structae ex ramis arborum circumustis, et luto conglutinatis; tectae laminis nigris; plateae erant irregulares, omnes in principiis angustae, sed in progressu dilatatae, et in fine spatiosae, ubi fora; unde quot plateae tot fora. Dum intravimus urbem, factae sunt tenebrae, quia non apparuit Coelum, quare suspeximus, et data nobis est lux, et vidimus; et tunc quaesivi obvios, quos offendi, "num potestis videre, quia Coelum super vobis non apparet;" et responderunt, "quid hoc quod quaeris; videmus clare; ambulamus in plena luce;" his auditis dixit mihi Angelus, "tenebrae sunt illis lux, et lux illis sunt tenebrae, sicut est avibus noctis, spectant enim deorsum et non sursum."
[5] Intravimus in casas hic et ibi, et vidimus in qualibet virum cum sua muliere, et quaesivimus, num vivant hic omnes in sua domo cum una sola uxore, et responderunt ad haec cum sibilo, "quid cum una sola uxore; cur non quaeritis, num cum una sola meretrice; quid uxor nisi meretrix; ex nostris legibus non licet cum pluribus, quam cum una sola foemina, moechari; at usque nobis non est inhonestum et indecorum cum pluribus, sed extra domum; gloriamur de hoc inter nos; sic gaudemus licentia, et ejus voluptate, plus quam polygami; cur pluralitas uxorum nobis negatur, et tamen concessa fuit, et hodie conceditur in universo terrarum orbe circum circa nos; quid vita cum una sola foemina, nisi captivitas et incarceratio; sed nos hic obicem hujus carceris effringimus, et nos eripimus e servitute, et manumittimus; quis succenset captivo, qui se vindicat cum potest:"
[6] ad haec respondimus, "loqueris, amice, sicut expers religionis; quis aliqua ratione imbutus non scit quod adulteria sint prophana et infernalia, et quod conjugia sint sancta et coelestia; suntne adulteria apud diabolos in inferno, et conjugia apud Angelos in Coelo; legistine sextum praeceptum Decalogi; et apud Paulum, quod adulteri nequaquam possint venire in Coelum;" ad haec hospes risit toto pectore, et aspexit me sicut simplicem, et paene sicut insanum. At illico tunc accurrit nuntius ex Primore urbis, et dixit, "adduc binos advenas in forum, et si non volunt, illos trahe illuc; vidimus illos in umbra lucis, intraverunt in occulto, sunt exploratores;" et dixit mihi Angelus, "quod visi simus in umbra, est quia lux Coeli, in qua fuimus, est illis umbra, ac umbra inferni est illis lux; et hoc fit, quia nihil reputant peccatum, ne quidem adulterium, et inde vident falsum plane sicut verum, ac falsum lucet in inferno coram satanis, ac verum atrat oculos illorum sicut umbra noctis."
[7] Et diximus ad nuntium, "non urgebimur, minus trahemur in forum, sed sponte ibimus tecum;" ac ivimus: et ecce ibi multa turba, e qua exiverunt aliqui legisperiti, et nobis in aurem dixerunt; "cavete vobis ne aliquid loquamini contra Religionem, Regiminis formam, et bonos Mores;" et respondebamus, "non loquemur, sed pro illis et ex illis;" et quaesivimus, "quae vestra religio est de Conjugiis;" ad haec murmurabat turba, et dixit, "quid vobis hic cum Conjugiis; conjugia sunt conjugia;" et iterum quaesivimus, "quae vestra religio est de Scortationibus;" ad haec etiam turba murmurabat dicens, "quid vobis hic cum scortationibus; scortationes sunt scortationes; qui insons est mittat primum lapidem;" et tertio quaesivimus, "num vestra Religio docet de conjugiis quod sint sancta et coelestia, et de adulteriis, quod sint profana et infernalia;" ad haec plures in turba cachinnati sunt, irriserunt, et cavillati, dicentes, "inquirite illa quae Religionis sunt a Sacerdotibus nostris, et non a nobis; nos prorsus acquiescimus in effatis illorum, quia non aliquid religionis cadit in judicia intellectus; audivistisne quod intellectus insaniat in mysteriis, ex quibus est tota Religio: et quid Facta cum Religione; suntne Murmura ex corde devota de expiatione, satisfactione, et imputatione, quae animas beatificant, et non Opera."
[8] Sed tunc accesserunt aliqui ex sapientibus urbis ita vocatis, et dixerunt, "recedite abhinc, excandescit turba, fit brevi tumultus; colloquamur de hac re soli; est ambulacrum post Curiam, secedamus illuc, venite nobiscum;" et sequuti sumus: et tunc quaesiverunt nos, unde sumus, et quid negotii hic; et diximus, "ut instruamur de Conjugiis, num illa apud vos, quemadmodum apud Antiquos, qui in Saeculis, Aureo, Argenteo, et Cupreo, vixerant, sint sanctimonia, vel non;" et responderunt, "quid sanctimonia; suntne opera carnis et noctis;" et respondebamus, "suntne etiam opera spiritus; et quod caro ex spiritu agit, estne id spirituale; et spiritus omne quod agit, ex conjugio boni et veri agit; estne hoc Conjugium spirituale, quod intrat Conjugium naturale, quod est Mariti et Uxoris;" ad haec sapientes ita vocati responderunt, "acuitis et sublimatis nimis hanc rem; transcenditis supra rationalia ad spiritualia; quis potest ibi inchoare, inde descendere, et sic judicare aliquid;" his subsannando addiderunt, "forte habetis alas aquilae, et potestis volare in suprema regione Coeli, et perspicere talia; nos non possumus;"
[9] et tunc rogavimus illos, ut dicerent ex altitudine seu regione, in qua volucres ideae mentium illorum volant, num sciant aut num possint scire, quod detur Amor conjugialis unius viri cum una uxore, in quem collatae sunt omnes beatitudines, faustitates, jucunditates, amaenitates et voluptates Coeli; et quod hic Amor sit a Domino secundum receptionem boni et veri ab Ipso, ita secundum statum Ecclesiae:
[10] his auditis averterunt se, et dixerunt, "insaniunt hi viri; intrant aetherem cum suo judicio, et augurando vana spargunt nuces;" post haec converterunt se ad nos, et dixerunt, "respondebimus directe ad ventosa vestra auguria et somnia," et dixerunt, "Quid commune habet Amor conjugialis cum Religione, et cum inspiratione a Deo; annon amor ille apud unumquemvis est secundum statum ejus potentiae; estne aeque apud illos, qui extra Ecclesiam sunt, sicut apud illos qui intra; aeque apud gentes sicut apud Christianos; imo aeque apud impios sicut apud pios; estne cuivis illius amoris robur vel ex haereditario, vel ex valetudine, vel ex temperantia vitae, vel ex calore climatis; et quoque per pharmaca potest corroborari et exstimulari; estne simile apud bestias, imprimis apud aves quae se amant paria et paria; estne amor ille carnalis; quid carnale commune habet cum statu spirituali Ecclesiae; num amor ille quoad effectum ultimum cum uxore differt hilum ab amore quoad illum effectum cum meretrice; estne similis libido, et simile delitium; quare injuriosum est deducere originem Amoris conjugialis a sanctis Ecclesiae."
[11] His auditis diximus ad illos, "ratiocinamini ex oestro lasciviae, et non ex amore conjugiali; prorsus non scitis quid Amor conjugialis, quia friget ille apud vos; ex dictis vestris confirmati sumus, quod vos sitis ex Saeculo, quod vocatur et consistit ex ferro et argilla, quae non cohaerent, secundum praedictionem a Daniele Cap: Daniel 2:43; facitis enim Amorem conjugialem et amorem scortatorium unum; num hi duo plus cohaerent quam ferrum et argilla: vos credimini et vocamini sapientes, attamen nihil minus quam sapientes estis." His auditis, accensi ira clamabant, et convocabant turbam, ut nos ejicerent; sed tunc ex potentia nobis a Domino data extensimus manus, et ecce presteres, echidnae et hydrae, et quoque dracones e deserto aderant, et invadebant, et implebant urbem, ex quo habitatores territi facti aufugerunt: et dixit mihi Angelus, "in Regionem hanc quotidie accedunt novi e Tellure, ac priores per vices relegantur et dejiciuntur in voragines Occidentis, quae e longinquo apparent sicut Stagna ignis et sulphuris; omnes ibi sunt et spirituales et naturales adulteri."
Footnotes:
1. Prima editio: tticipites
2. Prima editio: representantur