XV.
ARE EARTHLY RELATIONSHIPS CONTINUED IN HEAVEN?.
HAVING ascertained the law that determines all associations in the Hereafter, an interesting question arises: Are the ties of natural consanguinity continued in heaven? In other words. Will those who have sustained on earth the relation of parents and children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, dwell together (supposing they all become regenerate) in the same angelic society, and maintain a similar relation toward each other in heaven to that they bore on earth? Or will these natural relationships cease with the death of the body, and new relationships take their place?
There is something surpassingly beautiful—something, indeed, holy—in the ties that bind kindred and friends together on earth. Every one recognizes the beauty and sacredness of these ties. The links in that chain of love formed by the members of a happy family, how golden and precious! The affection between brothers and sisters, how cordial and sincere! The love of children for their parents, how sweet and confiding! The love of parents for their children, how deep and tender! The affection between husband and wife, how beautiful and holy!
These natural relationships image more faithfully than anything else can, the higher and enduring spiritual relationships which exist in heaven. The relation of the children to each other, affords the truest type of the fraternal relation existing between the members of an angelic society. The relation of children to their parents—their affection for them, their dependence upon them, and their obedience to the parents' every wish and word—furnishes the best idea of the relation of the angels to the Lord, of their affection for, their dependence upon, and their obedience to, the Heavenly Father. The relation of the parents to the children—their tender love and ceaseless care for them, their consideration for their weakness, their patience with their faults, and their thoughtful provision for all their wants, what a beautiful image is this of the relation of the Lord to the angels, of his infinite love and ceaseless care for them, and his bountiful provision for all their wants!
Thus does a loving, well-ordered and happy family furnish the truest picture of heaven, of anything known on earth. Such a family is itself a heaven in miniature. Accordingly we find that, in the written Word (which, in its true sense, treats altogether of spiritual things) the terms which are employed in all languages to express the most intimate and tender earthly relationships, are used to express the relationships existing in heaven, and among heavenly-minded people on earth. Thus God, in respect to the inmost, paternal, heaven-begetting principle of his nature— Divine Love—is called the Heavenly Father. And in his relation to the church, or to those whose hearts have become wedded to Him by love and obedience, He is called Bridegroom and Husband. And those thus wedded (which is the case with all who have in themselves the heavenly marriage of good and truth) are called Mother. Wife and Bride. And the angels and regenerate men—all who are born of this heavenly Father and Mother, that is, born again, "born from above"—are called children. They are God's children, begotten of Him in his own image and likeness; and viewed in their relation to each other, they are brethren, and are so called in Scripture. Thus Jesus says to his disciples: "One is your Father—God; and all ye are brethren."
Here, as in other passages of Scripture, we are taught that there are spiritual relationships to which the natural correspond, and of which they are the representative image. And as spiritual things are superior to the natural whereby they are shadowed forth,—the spiritual sense of the Word superior to the natural sense,—the spiritual world superior to the natural world,—the soul or spirit of man superior to the body,—therefore spiritual relationships are, and must needs be, superior to the natural. They are more interior, more enduring, more perfect and blissful.
Now, when the natural body dies, man passes (in a spiritual body) out of the natural, and comes consciously into the spiritual realm. He leaves behind him all natural things; or, what is equivalent, he passes into a realm where these things are no longer seen or thought of. He leaves the natural body; but straightway finds himself in the enjoyment of superior faculties belonging to a superior kind of body, which has always been within the natural—a body that is spiritual and substantial. He leaves the natural world; but immediately enters, or has opened up to his consciousness, another world in which all things are more real and substantial, but spiritual in their nature. He leaves the natural or literal sense of the Scripture, that is, he no longer sees or thinks of this sense; but he comes into the perception and understanding of a vastly higher and more important sense, viz., the spiritual. He leaves the natural memory, that is, the memory of merely natural facts,—or, what is the same, this memory becomes quiescent; but a new, more interior and enduring memory is then developed, viz., the spiritual.
Now the logical inference from all this is, that natural relationships terminate when the body dies, and new and higher relationships are then established; and that these new relationships rest upon higher or more interior ground, and are determined by people's spiritual resemblance or proximity to each other. The members of the same family on earth are said to be closely related; and they are so naturally. But this is simply a flesh and blood relationship—often nothing more; and as such, we should expect it to cease when the body dies. For members of the same family are often quite different in character. Some are passionate and others calm, some bright and others dull, some deceitful and others frank—born, too, of the same parents, and subjected to the same nurture and discipline. Naturally, therefore, they are as near akin as they can be, and in their faces they may resemble cach other. But spiritually viewed, there is little or no resemblance between them; they are wholly unlike, and have no moral or spiritual affinity. And in view of the law that governs in every association of spirits, it is plain that they would have no desire to dwell together in the spiritual world. Their spheres would be mutually repulsive, and their society mutually disagreeable.
The conclusion, therefore, seems irresistible, that the natural relationships of this world will not be continued in the world beyond; but that new relationships based upon interior and spiritual resemblances, will be established there. The legitimate deductions of reason bring us to this conclusion. Now let us see how far Swedenborg's disclosures accord with these deductions.
"Consociations in the other life are comparatively like relationships on earth, in that there is an acknowledgment as of parents, children, brethren, kinsfolk and connections; according to such differences is their love. The differences are indefinite, and the communicative perceptions so exquisite as to admit of no description,—no respect whatever being had to parents, children, kinsfolk, and connections on earth, nor to any personal considerations of quality or character, consequently not to dignities, riches, and the like, but only to the differences of mutual love and faith, the faculty of receiving which each had obtained from the Lord during his abode in the world."—A. C. n. 685.
"That the truths of the church are called brethren, is manifest from this, that the sons of Jacob represented the truths of the church in the complex. That in ancient times they were called brethren from spiritual affinity, is because the new birth or regeneration made consanguinities and affinities in a degree superior to the natural birth; and because the former derive their origin from one Father, namely, from the Lord. Hence it is, that men after death who come into heaven, do not any longer acknowledge any brother, nor even mother or father, except from good and truth; according to these they enter there into new fraternities or brotherhoods. Hence it is, that they who were of the church called each other brethren,'—A. C. n. 6758.
"That in the spiritual world or heaven, there are no other consanguinities and affinities, except of love to the Lord and neighborly love, or, what is the same thing, of good, was made manifest to me from this consideration: that all the societies which constitute heaven and which are innumerable, are most distinct from each other, according to the degrees and differences of love and of faith thence derived; also from this circumstance, that they mutually know each other, not from any affinity which had existed in the life of the body, but solely from a principle of good and truth thence derived. A father does not know a son or a daughter, nor a brother a brother or sister, nor indeed a husband a wife, unless they have been principled in like good. They meet, indeed, on their first coming into another life, but they are soon dissociated, inasmuch as essential good, or love and charity, determines every one to his particular society and enrolls him in it. In the society in which every one is enrolled, consanguinity commences; and thence proceed affinities even to the circumferential parts."—Ibid. n. 3815.
"In another life, all are consociated according to affections, and they who are consociated constitute a brotherhood; not that they call themselves brethren, but that they are brethren by conjunction. Essential good and truth in another life make what is called on earth consanguinity and relationship; wherefore they correspond. For goods and truths considered in themselves do not acknowledge any other father but the Lord, for they are from Him alone. Hence all are in brotherhood who are in goods and truths. Nevertheless there are degrees according to the quality of goods and truths. These degrees are signified in the Word by brethren, sisters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, grandsons, granddaughters, and by several names of families. On earth, however, they are so named in respect to common parents, however they differ in affections; but in another life such brotherhood and relationship is dissipated, and they all come into other brotherhoods, unless on earth they have been in similar good. At first, indeed, they generally meet, but in a short time are disjoined; for gain in that life does not consociate, but, as was said, affection, the quality of which then appears as in clear day."—A. C, n. 4121.Here as elsewhere it will be seen that Swedenborg is perfectly consistent. And his revealings accord, too, with the verdict of enlightened reason and sound philosophy. Had he told anything essentially different, its want of agreement with his other teachings, as well as with reason and philosophy, would have been at once apparent. It also would have lacked—what it now clearly has—the undeniable support of Scripture. For the Bible tells of other and higher relationships than those of flesh and blood. It declares that before a man can enter the kingdom of heaven, he must be born again —"not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God"—thus clearly teaching us that there is a higher and nobler kind of birth than that into the realm of nature. The first birth is natural, the second is spiritual. "Howbeit," says the apostle, "that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual." (1 Cor. xv. 46.)
That which is first in the order of importance, is always last in the order of time. The fruit comes after and never before the flower. The development of the heavenly is always subsequent to that of the earthly or corporeal life. The angel is formed out of, and therefore subsequent to, the man. Consequently those relationships which are spiritual in their nature, or which result from regeneration, must be superior to those resulting from natural generation. They must be akin to the relationships existing in heaven. Accordingly the Lord desires that we shall all become his children—children of the Heavenly Father—his spiritual children, of course. And He tells us how we can become such, or what we must do; and among other things, that we must be willing, if need be, to sunder the ties of natural kindred,—be willing to forsake father, mother, brothers, sisters, wife, children, and whatsoever is dearest to the natural man, for his sake. He counsels his disciples to call no man their father upon earth; adding: "for One is your Father which is in heaven; and all ye are brethren." And at another time, "stretching forth his hand toward his disciples. He said: Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother." (Matt. xii. 49, 50.)
Who cannot see that in all such passages it is a spiritual relationship to which our Lord refers?—a relationship resulting from the new spiritual birth, and grounded in spiritual faith and love? Such is the only kind of relationship (and this should be conclusive of the whole question) which He ever recognizes as belonging to his kingdom in the heavens. And what other relationship should we expect—what other, indeed, can there be—in a kingdom that is purely spiritual?