ON MARRIAGES IN HEAVEN.
27. That there are marriages in heaven cannot be admitted as an article of faith by those who imagine that a man after death is a soul or spirit, and who conceive of a soul or spirit as of a rarefied ether or vapor; who imagine also, that a man will not live as a man till after the day of the last judgment; and in general who know nothing respecting the spiritual world, in which angels and spirits dwell, consequently in which there are heavens and hells: and as that world has been heretofore unknown, and mankind have been in total ignorance that the angels of heaven are men, in a perfect form, and in like manner infernal spirits, but in an imperfect form, therefore it was impossible for anything to be revealed concerning marriages in that world; for if it had it would have been objected, "How can a soul be joined with a soul, or a vapor with a vapor, as one married partner with another here on earth?" not to mention other similar objections, which, the instant they were made, would take away and dissipate all faith respecting marriages in another life. But now, since several particulars have been revealed concerning that world, and a description has also been given of its nature and quality, in the treatise on Heaven and Hell, and also in the Apocalypse Revealed, the assertion, that marriages take place in that world, may be so far confirmed as even to convince the reason by the following propositions: I. A man (homo) lives a man after death. II. In this case a male is a male, and a female a female. III. Every one's peculiar love remains with him after death. IV. The love of the sex especially remains; and with those who go to heaven, which is the case with all who become spiritual here on earth, conjugial love remains. V. These things fully confirmed hy ocular demonstration. VI. Consequently that there are marriages in the heavens. VII. Spiritual nuptials are to he understood by the Lord's words, where he says, that after the resurrection they are not given in marriage. We will now give an explanation of these propositions in their order.
28. I. A man lives a man after death. That a man lives a man after death has been heretofore unknown in the world, for the reasons just now mentioned; and, what is surprising, it has been unknown even in the Christian world, where they have the Word, and illustration thence concerning eternal life, and where the Lord himself teaches, That all the dead rise again; and that God is not the God of the dead hut of the living, Matt. xxii. 31, 32. Luke xx. 37, 38. Moreover, a man, as to the affections and thoughts of his mind, is in the midst of angels and spirits, and is so consociated with them that were he to be separated from them he would instantly die. It is still more surprising that this
