manifests itself; and if it be in mutual
agreement and sympathy, they continue to live together a conjugial life;
but if it be in disagreement and antipathy, their marriage is dissolved.
In case a man had had several wives, he successively joins himself with
them, while he is in his external state; but when he enters into his
internal state, in which lie perceives the inclinations of his love, and
of what quality they are, he then either adopts one or leaves them all;
for in the spiritual world, as well as in the natural, it is not
allowable for any Christian to have more than one wife, as it infests
and profanes religion. The case is the same with a woman that had had
several husbands: nevertheless the women in this case do not join
themselves to their husbands; they only present themselves, and the
husbands join them to themselves. It is to be observed that husbands
rarely know their wives, but that wives well know their husbands, women
having an interior perception of love, and men only an exterior.
48.* IV. BUT SUCCESSIVELY, AS THEY PUT OFF THEIR EXTERNALS AND ENTER
INTO THEIR INTERNALS, THEY PERCEIVE WHAT HAD BEEN THE QUALITY OF THEIR
LOVE AND INCLINATION FOR EACH OTHER, AND CONSEQUENTLY WHETHER THEY CAN
LIVE TOGETHER OR NOT. There is no occasion to explain this further, as
it follows from what is shewn in the previous section; suffice it here
to shew how a man (_homo_) after death puts off his externals and puts
on his internals. Every one after death is first introduced into the
world which is called the world of spirits, and which is intermediate
between heaven and hell; and in that world he is prepared, for heaven if
he is good, and for hell if he is evil. The end or design of this
preparation is, that the internal and external may agree together and
make a one, and not disagree and make two: in the natural world they
frequently make two, and only make a one with those who are sincere in
heart. That they make two is evident from the deceitful and the cunning;
especially from hypocrites, flatterers, dissemblers, and liars: but in
the spiritual world it is not allowable thus to have a divided mind; for
whoever has been internally wicked must also be externally wicked; in
like manner, whoever has been good, must be good in each principle: for
every man after death becomes of such a quality as he had been
interiorly, and not such as he had been exteriorly. For this end, after
his decease, he is let alternately int
|