Adulterous Love and its SinfulPleasures
1. "I am aware that many who read the following pages and theMemorable Relations annexed to the chapters, will believe that theyare fictions of the imagination; but I solemnly declare they arenot fictions, but were truly done and seen; and that I saw them,not in any state of the mind asleep, but in a state of perfectwakefulness: for it has pleased the Lord to manifest himself to me,and to send me to teach the things relating to the New Church,which is meant by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation: for whichpurpose he has opened the interiors of my mind and spirit; byvirtue of which privilege it has been granted me to be in thespiritual world with angels, and at the same time in the naturalworld with men, and this now (1768) for twenty-five years."
2. On a certain time there appeared to me an angel flyingbeneath the eastern heaven, with a trumpet in his hand, which heheld to his mouth, and sounded towards the north, the west, and thesouth. He was clothed in a robe, which waved behind him as he flewalong, and was girt about the waist with a band that shone likefire and glittered with carbuncles, and sapphires: he flew with hisface downwards, and alighted gently on the ground, near where I wasstanding. As soon as he touched the ground with his feet, he stooderect, and walked to and fro: and on seeing me he directed hissteps towards me. I was in the spirit, and was standing in thatstate on a little eminence in the southern quarter of the spiritualworld. When he came near, I addressed him and asked him his errand,telling him that I had heard the sound of his trumpet, and hadobserved his descent through the air. He replied, "My commission isto call together such of the inhabitants of this part of thespiritual world, as have come hither from the various kingdoms ofChristendom, and have been most distinguished for their learning,their ingenuity, and their wisdom, to assemble on this littleeminence where you are now standing, and to declare their realsentiments, as to what they had thought, understood, and inwardlyperceived, while in the natural world, respecting Heavenly Joy andEternal Happiness. The occasion of my commission is this: severalwho have lately come from the natural world, and have been admittedinto our heavenly society, which is in the east, have informed us,that there is not a single person throughout the whole Christianworld that is acquainted with the true nature of heavenly joy andeternal happiness; consequently that not a single person isacquainted with the nature of heaven. This information greatlysurprised my brethren and companions; and they said to me, 'Godown, call together and assemble those who are most eminent forwisdom in the world of spirits, (where all men are first collectedafter their departure out of the natural world,) so that we mayknow of a certainty, from the testimony of many, whether it be truethat such thick darkness, or dense ignorance, respecting a futurelife, prevails among