Thus far five commandments of the Decalogue have been explained. Now
follows the explanation of the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not commit
adultery."
Who at this day can believe that the delight of adultery is hell in man,
and that the delight of marriage is heaven in him, consequently so far
as he is in the one delight he is not in the other, since so far as man
is in hell he is not in heaven? Who at this day can believe that the
love of adultery is the fundamental love of all hellish and devilish
loves, and that the chaste love of marriage is the fundamental love of
all heavenly and Divine loves; consequently so far as a man is in the
love of adultery he is in every evil love, if not in act yet in
endeavor; and on the other hand, so far as he is in the chaste love of
marriage he is in every good love, if not in act yet in endeavor? Who
at this day can believe that he who is in the love of adultery believes
nothing of the Word, thus nothing of the church, and even in his heart
denies God; and on the other hand, that he who is in the chaste love of
marriage is in charity and in faith, and in love to God; also that the
chastity of marriage makes one with religion, and the lasciviousness of
adultery makes one with naturalism?
All this is at this day unknown because the church is at its end, and is
devastated in respect to truth and in respect to good; and when the
church is such, the man of the church, by influx from hell, comes into
the persuasion that adulteries are not detestable things and
abominations, and thus comes into the belief that marriages and
adulteries do not differ in their essence, but only as a matter of
order, and yet the difference between them is like the difference
between heaven and hell. That such is the difference between them will
be seen in what follows. This, then, is why in the Word in its
spiritual sense heaven and the church are meant by nuptials and
marriages, and hell and rejection of all things of the church are meant
in the Word in its spiritual sense by adulteries and whoredoms. (A.E.,
n. 981.)
Since adultery is hell in man and marriage is heaven in him, it follows
that so far as a man loves adultery he removes himself from heaven;
consequently adulteries close heaven and open hell, and this they do so
far as they are believed to be allowable and are perceived to be more
delightful than marriages. The man, therefore, who confirms himself in
adulteries and commits them from the favor and consent of his will, and
turns away from marriage, closes heaven to himself, until finally he
ceases to believe anything of the church or of the Word, and becomes a
wholly sensual man, and after death an infernal spirit; for, as has been
said above, adultery is hell, and thus an adulterer is a form of hell.
And since adultery is hell it follows that unless a man abstains from
adulteries and shuns them and turns away from them as infernal he shuts
up heaven to himself, and does not receive the least influx therefrom.
Afterward he reasons that marriages and adulteries are alike, but that
marriages must be maintained in kingdoms for the sake of order and the
training of offspring; also that adulteries are not criminal, since
children are equally born from them; and they are not harmful to women,
since they can endure them, and by them the procreation of the human
race is promoted. He does not know that these and other like reasonings
in favor of adulteries ascend from the Stygian [extremely dark] waters
of hell, and that the lustful and bestial nature of man which inheres in
him from birth attracts them and sucks them in with delight, as a swine
does excrement. That such reasonings, which at this day possess the
minds of most men in the Christian world, are diabolical, will be seen.
(A.E., n. 982.)
That marriage is heaven and that adultery is hell cannot be better seen
than from considering their origin. The origin of true marriage love is
the Lord's love for the church; and this is why the Lord is called in
the Word a "Bridegroom" and a "Husband," and the church a "bride" and a
"wife." It is from this marriage that the church is a church in general
and in particular. The church in particular is a man in whom the church
is. From this it is clear that the Lord's conjunction with a man of the
church is the very origin of true marriage love; and how that
conjunction can be the origin shall be told.
The Lord's conjunction with a man of the church is a conjunction of good
and truth; good is from the Lord, and truth is a man, and from this is
the conjunction that is called the heavenly marriage, and from that
marriage true marriage love exists between the married pair that are in
such conjunction with the Lord.
From this it is now evident that true marriage love is from the Lord
alone, and exists in those who are in the conjunction of good and truth
from the Lord. As this conjunction is reciprocal it is said by the Lord
that
They are in Him, and He in them (John xiv. 20).
This conjunction or this marriage was thus established from creation.
The man was created to be an understanding of truth, and the woman to be
an affection for good; and thus the man to be a truth, and the woman to
be a good. When understanding of truth which is in the man makes one
with the affection for good which is in the woman, there is a
conjunction of the two minds into one. This conjunction is the
spiritual marriage from which marriage love descends. For when two minds
are so conjoined as to be one mind there is love between them; and when
this love, which is the love of spiritual marriage, descends into the
body it becomes the love of natural marriage. That this is so anyone
can clearly perceive if he will. A married pair who interiorly or in
respect to their minds love each other mutually and reciprocally also
love each other mutually and reciprocally in respect to their bodies.
It is well known that all love descends into the body from an affection
of the mind, and that apart from such an origin no love exists.
Since then the origin of marriage love is the marriage of good and
truth, which marriage in its essence is heaven, it is clear that the
origin of the love of adultery is a marriage of evil and falsity, which
in its essence is hell. Heaven is a marriage because all who are in the
heavens are in a marriage of good and truth; and hell is adultery
because all who are in the hells are in a marriage of evil and falsity.
From this it follows that marriage and adultery are as opposite as
heaven and hell are. (A.E., n. 983.)
Man was so created as to be spiritual and celestial love, and thus an
image and likeness of God. Spiritual love, which is a love for truth,
is an image of God; and celestial love, which is a love for good, is a
likeness of God. All angels in the third heaven are likenesses of God;
and all angels in the second heaven are images of God. Man can become
the love which is an image or likeness of God only by a marriage of good
and truth; for good and truth inmostly love one another, and ardently
long to be united that they may be one; and for the reason that Divine
good and Divine truth go forth from the Lord united, therefore they must
be united in an angel of heaven and in a man of the church.
This union is by no means possible except by a marriage of two minds
into one, since, as has been said before, man was created to be an
understanding of truth, and thus a truth, and woman was created to be an
affection for good, and thus a good; therefore in them a conjunction of
good and truth is possible. For marriage love which descends from that
conjunction is the veriest medium by which man (homo) becomes the love
that is an image or likeness of God. For the married pair who are in
conjugal love from the Lord love one another mutually and reciprocally
from the heart, thus from inmosts; and therefore although apparently two
they are actually one, two in respect to their bodies, but one in
respect to life.
This may be compared to the eyes, which are two as organs but one in
respect to the sight; also to the ears, which are two as organs but one
in respect to hearing; so, too, the arms and the feet are two as members
but one in respect to use, the arms one in respect to action, and the
feet one in respect to walking. So with the other pairs with man. All
these have reference to good and truth, the organ or member on the right
to good, and that on the left to truth. It is the same with a husband
and wife between whom there is a true marriage love; they are two in
respect to their bodies but one in respect to life; consequently in
heaven the married pair are not called two angels but one. All this
makes clear that through marriage man becomes a form of love, and thus a
form of heaven, which is an image and likeness of God.
Man is born into a love of evil and falsity, which love is the love of
adultery; and this love cannot be turned about and changed into
spiritual love, which is an image of God, and still less into celestial
love, which is a likeness of God, except by a marriage of good and truth
from the Lord, and not fully except by a marriage of two minds and two
bodies. From this it is clear why marriages are heavenly and adulteries
infernal; for marriage is an image of heaven, and true marriage love is
an image of the Lord, while adultery is an image of hell, and love of
adultery is an image of the devil. Moreover, marriage love appears in
the spiritual world in form like an angel, and love of adultery in form
like a devil. Reader, treasure this up within you, and after death,
when you are living as a spirit-man, inquire whether this is true, and
you will see. (A.E., n. 984.)
How profane and thus how much to be detested adulteries are can be seen
from the holiness of marriages. All things in the human body, from the
head to the sole of the feet, both interior and exterior, correspond to
the heavens, and in consequence man is a heaven in its least form, and
also angels and spirits are in form perfectly human, for they are forms
of heaven. All the members devoted to generation in both sexes,
especially the womb, correspond to societies of the third or inmost
heaven, and for the reason that true marriage love is derived from the
Lord's love for the church, and from the love of good and truth which is
the love of the angels of the third heaven; therefore marriage love,
which descends therefrom as the love of that heaven, is innocence, which
is the very being (esse) of every good in the heavens. And for this
reason embryos in the womb are in a state of peace, and when they have
been born as infants are in a state of innocence; so, too, is the mother
in relation to them.
As this is the correspondence of the genital organs in the two sexes, it
is evident that by creation they are holy, and therefore they are
devoted solely to chaste and pure marriage love, and are not to be
profaned by the unchaste and impure love of adultery, by which man
converts the heaven in himself into hell; for as the love of marriage
corresponds to the love of the highest heaven, which is love to the Lord
from the Lord, so the love of adultery corresponds to the love of the
lowest hell.
The love of marriage is so holy and heavenly because it has its
beginning in the inmosts of man from the Lord Himself, and it descends
according to order to the outmosts of the body, and thus fills the whole
man with heavenly love and brings him into a form of the Divine love,
which is the form of heaven, and is an image of the Lord. But the love
of adultery has its beginning in the outmosts of man from an impure
lascivious fire there, and thus, contrary to order, penetrates toward
the interiors, always into the things that are man's own, which are
nothing but evil, and brings these into a form of hell, which is an
image of the devil. Therefore a man who loves adultery and turns away
from marriage is in form a devil.
As the organs of generation in the two sexes correspond to the societies
of the third heaven, and the love of a married pair corresponds to the
love of good and truth, so those organs and that love correspond to the
Word. The reason is that the Word is Divine truth united to Divine good
going forth from the Lord; and this is why the Lord is called "the
Word," also why in every particular of the Word there is a marriage of
good and truth, or a heavenly marriage. That there is such a
correspondence is a mystery not yet known in the world, but it has been
made evident and proved to me by much experience.
From this also it is clear how holy and heavenly marriages are in
themselves, and how profane and diabolical adulteries are. And for this
reason adulterers make no account of Divine truths and thus of the Word,
and if they were to speak from the heart they would even blaspheme the
holy things that are in the Word. This they do when they have become
spirits after death, for every spirit is compelled to speak from the
heart, that his interior thoughts may be revealed. (A.E., n. 985.)
As all the delights that man has in the natural world are turned into
correspondent delights in the spiritual world, so are the delights of
the love of marriage and the delights of the love of adultery. The love
of marriage is represented in the spiritual world as a virgin, whose
beauty is such as to inspire the beholder with the charms of life; while
the love of adultery is represented in the spiritual world by an old
woman, whose deformity is such as to inspire in the beholder a coldness
and death to every charm of life. Therefore in the heavens the angels
are beautiful according to the quality of marriage love in them, and in
the hells the spirits are deformed according to the quality of the love
of adultery in them. In a word, the angels of heaven have life in their
faces, in the movements of the body, and in their speech, in the measure
of their marriage love, while the spirits of hell have death in their
faces in the measure of their love of adultery.
In the spiritual world the delights of marriage love are represented to
the sense by odors from fruits and flowers of various kinds, while the
delights of the love of adultery are there represented to the sense by
the stenches from excrements and putridities of various kinds.
Moreover, the delights of the love of adultery are actually turned into
such things, since all things pertaining to adultery are spiritual
filth. Therefore from the brothels in the hells stenches pour forth
that excite vomiting. (A.E., n. 986.)
How holy in themselves, that is, from creation, marriages are can be
seen from the fact that they are the nurseries of the human race; and as
the angelic heaven is from the human race they are also the nurseries of
heaven; consequently by marriages not only the earths but also the
heavens are filled with inhabitants; and as the end of the entire
creation is the human race, and thus heaven, where the Divine itself may
dwell as in its own and as it were in itself, and as the procreation of
mankind according to Divine order is accomplished through marriages, it
is clear how holy marriages are in themselves, that is, from creation,
and thus how holy they should be esteemed. It is true that the earth
might be filled with inhabitants by fornications and adulteries as well
as by marriages, but not heaven; and for the reason that hell is from
adulteries but heaven from marriages.
Hell is from adulteries because adultery is from the marriage of evil
and falsity, from which hell in the whole complex is called adultery;
while heaven is from marriages because marriage is from the marriage of
good and truth, from which heaven in its whole complex is called a
marriage. That is called adultery where its love, which is called a love
of adultery, reigns, whether it be within wedlock or apart from it, and
that is called marriage where its love, which is called marriage love,
reigns.
When procreations of the human race are effected by marriages in which
the holy love of good and truth from the Lord reigns, then it is on
earth as it is in the heavens, and the Lord's kingdom on earth
corresponds to the Lord's kingdom in the heavens. For the heavens
consist of societies arranged according to all the varieties of
celestial and spiritual affections, from which arrangement the form of
heaven springs, and this pre-eminently surpasses all other forms in the
universe. There would be a like form on the earth if the procreations
there were effected by marriages in which a true marriage love reigned;
for then, however many families might descend in succession from one
head of a family, there would spring forth as many images of the
societies of heaven in a like variety.
Families would then be like fruit-bearing trees of various kinds,
forming as many different gardens, each containing its own kind of
fruit, and these gardens taken together would present the form of a
heavenly paradise. This is said in the way of comparison, because
"trees" signify men of the church, "gardens" intelligence, "fruits"
goods of life, and "paradise" heaven. I have been told from heaven that
with the most ancient people, from whom the first church on this globe
was established, which was called by ancient writers the golden age,
there was such a correspondence between families on the earth and
societies in the heavens, because love to the Lord, mutual love,
innocence, peace, wisdom, and chastity in marriages then prevailed; and
it was also told me from heaven that they were then inwardly horrified
at adulteries, as at the abominable things in hell. (A.E., n. 987.)
That heaven is from marriages and hell from adulteries has been shown
above. What this means shall now be told. The hereditary evils into
which man is born are not from Adam's having eaten of the tree of
knowledge, but from the adulteration of good and the falsification of
truth by parents, thus from the marriage of evil and falsity, from which
a love of adultery springs. The ruling love of parents by means of a
germ from it passes over into the offspring and is transcribed upon it
and becomes its nature. If the love of the parents is a love of adultery
it is also a love of evil for falsity and of falsity for evil. From
this source man has all evil, and from evil he has hell. All this makes
clear that it is from adulteries that man has hell, until he is reformed
by the Lord by means of truths and a life according to them. And no one
can be reformed unless he shuns adulteries as infernal and loves
marriages as heavenly. In this and in no other way is hereditary evil
broken and rendered milder in the offspring.
It is to be noted, however, that while from adulterous parents man is
born a hell, he is not born for hell but for heaven. For the Lord
provides that no one shall be condemned to hell on account of hereditary
evils, but only on account of the evils that the man has actually made
his own by his life, as can be seen from the lot of infants after death,
all of whom are adopted by the Lord, educated under His auspices in
heaven, and saved. This makes clear that every man, although from the
evils with which he is born he is a hell, is born not for hell but for
heaven.
It is the same with every man born from adultery if he does not himself
become an adulterer. Becoming an adulterer means living in the marriage
of evil and falsity by thinking evils and falsities from a delight in
them and by doing them from a love for them. Every man who does this
becomes an adulterer. Moreover, it is from Divine justice that no one
suffers punishments on account of the evils of his parents, but only on
account of his own; therefore the Lord provides that hereditary evils
shall not return after death, but only one's own evils, and it is only
for those that return that a man is then punished. (A.E., n. 989.)
It has been said that the difference between a love of marriage and a
love of adultery is like that between heaven and hell. There is a like
difference between the delights of these loves; for delights derive
their all from the loves from which they spring. The delights of the
love of adultery derive what they are from the delights of doing evil
uses, thus of evil-doing; and the delights of the love of marriage from
the delights of doing good uses, thus of well-doing. Therefore such as
the delight of the evil is in doing evil such is the delight of their
love of adultery; because a love of adultery descends therefrom. That
it descends from that scarcely anyone can believe; and yet such is its
origin. From this it is evident that the delight of adultery ascends
from the lowest hell. But the delight of the love of marriage, since it
is from the love of the conjunction of good and truth and from the love
of doing good, is a heavenly delight; and it comes down from the inmost
or third heaven, where love to the Lord from the Lord reigns.
From this it can be seen that the difference between these two delights
is like that between heaven and hell. And yet, for a wonder, it is
believed that the delight of marriage and the delight of adultery are
similar; nevertheless the difference between them is such as has now
been described. But the difference can be discerned and felt only by one
who is in the delight of marriage love. One who is in that delight
plainly feels that in the delight of marriage there is nothing impure or
unchaste, thus nothing lascivious; and that in the delight of adultery
there is nothing but what is impure, unchaste, and lascivious. He feels
that unchastity comes up from beneath, and that chastity comes down from
above. But one who is in the delight of adultery is incapable of
feeling this, because he feels what is infernal as his heavenly.
From all this it follows that the love of marriage, even in its outmost
act, is purity itself and chastity itself; and that the love of adultery
in its acts is impurity itself and unchastity itself. Since the
delights of these two loves are alike in outward appearance, although
inwardly they are wholly unlike, because opposites, the Lord provides
that the delights of adultery shall not ascend into heaven and that the
delight of marriage shall not descend into hell; and yet that there
shall be some correspondence of heaven with prolification in adulteries,
though none with the delight itself in them. (A.E., n. 990.)
It has been said that marriage love, which is natural, descends from the
love of good and truth, which is spiritual; this spiritual therefore is
in the natural love of marriage as a cause is in its effect. So from
the marriage of good and truth there comes forth a love of bearing
fruit, that is, good through truth and truth from the good; and from
that love a love of producing offspring descends, and in that love there
is every delight and pleasure.
On the contrary, love of adultery, which is natural, springs from a love
of evil and falsity, which is spiritual; consequently this spiritual is
in the natural love of adultery as a cause is in its effect. So from
the marriage of evil and falsity by love there comes forth a love of
bearing fruit, namely, evil through falsity and falsity from evil; and
from that love a love of producing offspring in adulteries descends, and
in that love there is every delight and pleasure.
There is every delight and pleasure in the love of producing offspring,
because all that is delightful, pleasurable, blessed, and happy, in the
whole heaven and in the whole world, has been from creation brought
together into the effort and thus into the act of bringing forth uses;
and these joys increase in an ascending degree to eternity, according to
the goodness and excellence of the uses. This make evident why the
pleasure of producing offspring, which surpasses every other pleasure,
is so great. It surpasses every other because its use, which is the
procreation of the human race, and thus of heaven, surpasses all other
uses.
From this, too, comes the pleasure and delight of adultery; but as
prolification by adulteries corresponds to the bringing forth of evil
through falsity and of falsity from evil, that pleasure or delight
decreases and becomes vile by degrees until it is changed at last into
aversion and disgust. Because, as has been said above, the delight of
the love of marriage is a heavenly delight, so the delight of adultery
is an infernal delight, so the delight of adultery is from a certain
impure fire, which as long as it lasts, counterfeits the delight of the
love of good, but in itself it is the delight of the love of evil, which
is in its essence the delight of hatred against good and truth. And
because this is its origin there is not love between an adulterer and an
adulteress except such as the love of hatred is, which is such that they
can be in conjunction in externals but not in internals. For in the
externals there is something fiery, but in the internals there is
coldness; therefore after a short time the fire is extinguished and
coldness succeeds, either with impotence or a turning away as from
something filthy.
It has been granted me to see that love in its essence, and it was such
that within it was deadly hatred, while without it appeared like a fire
from burning dung and putrid and stinking matters. And as that fire
with its delight burnt out, so by degrees the life of mutual discourse
and intercourse expired, and hatred came forth, manifested first as
contempt, afterward as aversion, then as rejection, and finally as abuse
and contention. And what was wonderful, although they hated each other
they could from time to time come together and for the time feel the
delight of hatred as the delight of love; but this came from a hankering
of the flesh.
What the delight of hatred and thus of doing evil is with those who are
in hell can neither be described nor believed. To do evil is the joy of
their heart, and this they call their heaven. Their delight in doing
evil derives its all from hatred and vengeance against good and truth;
when, therefore, they are moved by a deadly and devilish hatred they
rage against heaven, especially against those who are from heaven and
who worship the Lord; for they violently burn to slaughter them, and
because they cannot destroy their bodies they desire to destroy their
souls. It is, therefore, the delight of hatred which, becoming a fire
in the extremes and being injected into the lusting flesh, becomes for
the moment the delight of adultery,--the soul in which the hatred lies
concealed then withdrawing itself. It is for this reason that hell is
called adultery, and also that adulterers are desperately unmerciful,
savage, and cruel. This, then, is the infernal marriage. (A.E., n.
991.)
It has been said that the love of adultery is a fire enkindled from
impurities that soon burns out and is turned into cold, and into an
aversion corresponding to hatred. But the reverse is true of the love of
marriage. This is a fire enkindled from a love of good and truth and
from a delight in well-doing, thus from love to the Lord and from love
toward the neighbor. This fire, which from its origin is heavenly, is
full of innumerable delights, as many, in fact, as are the delights and
blessednesses of heaven. It has been told me that the charms and
pleasantnesses of that love, which are manifested from time to time, are
so many and such that they cannot be numbered or described. Moreover,
they are multiplied with continued increase to eternity. These delights
have their origin in the fact that the married pair wish to be united
into one in respect to their minds, and into such a union heaven
breathes from the marriage of good and truth from the Lord in heaven.
(A.E., n. 992.)
That true marriage love contains in itself ineffable delights that can
neither be numbered nor described can be seen from the fact that this is
the fundamental love of all celestial and spiritual loves, since through
that love man becomes love; for from it each of the married pair loves
the other as good loves truth and truth loves good, thus
representatively as the Lord loves heaven and the church. Such a love
can come forth only through a marriage in which the man is truth and the
wife is good. When a man through marriage has become such a love he is
also in love to the Lord and in love toward the neighbor, and thus in a
love for all good and in a love for all truth. For from man as a love
loves of every kind must proceed; therefore marriage love is the
fundamental love of all the loves of heaven. And as it is the
fundamental love of all the loves of heaven it is also the foundation of
all the delights and joys of heaven, since every delight and joy is of
love. From this it follows that heavenly joys, in their order and in
their degrees, have their origins and their causes in marriage love.
From the felicities of marriages a conclusion may be drawn respecting
the infelicities of adulteries, namely, that the love of adultery is the
fundamental love of all infernal loves, which are in themselves not
loves, but hatreds, consequently from the love of adultery hatreds of
every kind gush forth, both against God and against the neighbor, and in
general against every good and truth of heaven and the church; therefore
to it all infelicities belong, for, as has been said before, from
adulteries man becomes a form of hell, and from the love of adulteries
he becomes an image of the devil. That from the marriages in which
there is true marriage love all delights and felicities increase even
till they become the delights and felicities of the inmost heaven, and
that all that is undelightful and unhappy in the marriages in which love
of adultery reigns increases in direfulness even to the lowest hell, can
be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 386). (A.E., n. 993.)
True marriage love is from the Lord alone. It is from the Lord alone
because it descends from the Lord's love for heaven and the church, and
thus from the love of good and truth; for good is from the Lord, and
truth is in heaven and the church; and from this it follows that true
marriage love in its first essence is love to the Lord. And from this
it is that no one can be in true marriage love and in its
pleasantnesses, delights, blessings, and joys, unless he acknowledges
the Lord alone, that is, that the trinity is in Him. One who approaches
the Father as a person by Himself, or the Holy Spirit as a person by
Himself, and not these as in the Lord, can have no marriage love.
The genuine conjugal principle is given especially in the third heaven,
because the angels there are in love to the Lord and acknowledge Him
alone as God, and do His commandments. To them doing the commandments
is loving the Lord. To them the Lord's commandments are the truths in
which they receive Him. There is conjunction of the Lord with them, and
of them with the Lord; for they are in the Lord because they are in
good, and the Lord is in them because they are in truths. This is the
heavenly marriage, from which true marriage love descends. (A.E., n.
995.)
As true marriage love in its first essence is love to the Lord from the
Lord it is also innocence. Innocence is loving the Lord as one's Father
by doing His commandments and wishing to be led by Him and not by
oneself, thus like a little child. As that love is innocence, it is the
very being (esse) of all good; and therefore man has so much of heaven
in himself, or he is so much in heaven, as he is in marriage love,
because he is so far in innocence. It is because true marriage love is
innocence that the playfulness between a married pair is like the play
of little children; and this is so in the measure in which they love
each other, as is evident in the case of all in the first days after the
nuptials, when their love emulates true marriage love. The innocence of
marriage love is meant in the Word by the "nakedness" at which Adam and
his wife blushed not; and for the reason that there is nothing of
lasciviousness, and thus nothing of shame, between a married pair, any
more than between little children when they are naked together. (A.E.,
n. 996.)
Since marriage love in its first essence is love to the Lord from the
Lord, and thus is innocence, marriage love is also peace, such as angels
in the heavens have. For as innocence is the very being (esse) of all
good, so peace is the very being (esse) of all delight from good,
consequently is the very being (esse) of all joy between the married
pair. As, then, all joy is of love, and marriage love is the
fundamental love of all the loves of heaven, so peace itself has its
seat chiefly in marriage love. Peace is bliss of heart and soul arising
from the conjunction of the Lord with heaven and the church, as well as
from conjunction of good and truth, when all conflict and combat of evil
and falsity with good and truth has ceased. And as marriage love
descends from such conjunction so all the delight of that love descends
and derives its essence from heavenly peace. Moreover, this peace
shines forth in the heavens as heavenly bliss from the faces of a
married pair who are in that love, and who mutually regard each other
from that love. But such heavenly bliss, which inmostly affects the
delights of loves, and is called peace, can be granted only to those who
can be joined together inmostly, that is, as to their very hearts.
(A.E., n. 997.)
Man has such and so much of intelligence and wisdom as he has of
marriage love. The reason is that marriage love descends from the love
of good and truth as an effect does from its cause, or as the natural
from its spiritual; and from the marriage of good and truth the angels
of the three heavens have all their intelligence and wisdom; for
intelligence and wisdom are nothing else than the reception of light and
heat from the Lord as a sun, that is, the reception of Divine truth
joined to Divine good, and of Divine good joined to Divine truth; thus
it is a marriage of good and truth from the Lord.
That it is such has been made clearly evident by angels in the heavens.
When these are separated from their consorts they are indeed in
intelligence, but not in wisdom; but when they are with their consorts
they are also in wisdom; and what seemed wonderful, as they turn the
face to their consort they are to the same extent in a state of wisdom;
for the conjunction of truth and good is effected in the spiritual world
by looking; and the wife there is good and the husband truth; therefore
as truth turns itself to good so truth becomes living. By intelligence
and wisdom ingenuity in reasoning about truths and goods is not meant,
but a capacity to see and understand truths and goods, and this capacity
man has from the Lord. (A.E., n. 998.)
True marriage love is a source of power and protection against the
hells, as it is against the evils and falsities that ascend from the
hells, and for the reason that through marriage love man has conjunction
with the Lord, and the Lord alone has power over all the hells; also
because through marriage love man has heaven and the church;
consequently as the Lord unceasingly protects heaven and the church from
the evils and falsities that rise up from the hells, so He protects all
who are in true marriage love, because such and no others have heaven
and the church. For heaven and the church are a marriage of good and
truth, from which is marriage love, as has been said above. And this is
why through marriage love man has peace, which is inmost joy of heart
from a complete safety from the hells and a protection from infestations
of the evil and falsity therefrom. (A.E., n. 999.)
Those who are in true marriage love, when after death they become
angels, return to their early manhood and to youth, the males, however
spent with age, becoming young men, and the wives, however spent with
age, becoming maidens. Each of the married pair returns to the flower
and joy of the age when marriage love begins to exalt the life with new
delights, and to inspire playfulness for the sake of prolification. The
man who while he lived in the world had shunned adulteries as sins, and
who has been inaugurated by the Lord into marriage love, comes into this
state first outwardly and afterward more and more interiorly to
eternity.
As such continue to grow young more interiorly it follows that true
marriage love continually increases and enters into its charms and
satisfactions, which have been provided for it from the creation of the
world, and which are the charms and satisfactions of the inmost heaven,
arising from the love of the Lord for heaven and the church, and thus
from the love of good for truth and truth for good, which loves are the
source of every joy in the heavens. Man thus grows young in heaven
because he then enters into the marriage of good and truth; and in good
there is the conatus [instinct] to love truth continually, and in truth
there is the conatus [instinct] to love good continually; and then the
wife is good in form and the husband is truth in form. From that conatus
[instinct] man puts off all the austerity, sadness, and dryness of old
age, and puts on the liveliness, gladness, and freshness of youth, from
which the conatus [instinct] becomes living and a joy.
I have been told from heaven that such then have the life of love, which
cannot otherwise be described than as the life of joy itself. That the
man who lives in true marriage love in the world comes after death into
the heavenly marriage, which is the marriage of good and truth springing
from the marriage of the Lord with the church, is clearly evident from
this, that from the marriages in the heavens, although the married pair
have consociations there like those on the earth, children are not
born, but instead of children goods and truths, and thus wisdom, as has
been said above. And this is why births, nativities, and generations
mean in the Word, in its spiritual sense, spiritual births, nativities,
and generations, and sons and daughters mean the truths and goods
of the church, and other like things are meant by daughters-in-law,
mothers-in-law, and fathers-in-law. This also makes clear that
marriages on the earth correspond to marriages in the heavens; and that
after death man comes into the correspondence, that is, comes from
natural bodily marriage into spiritual heavenly marriage, which is
heaven itself and the joy of heaven. (A.E., n. 1000.)
From marriage love angels have all their beauty; thus each angel has
beauty in the measure of that love. For all angels are forms of their
affections, for the reason that it is not permitted in heaven to
counterfeit with the face things that do not belong to one's affection;
consequently their faces are types of their minds. When, therefore,
they have marriage love, and love of wisdom, these loves in them give
form to their faces, and show themselves like vital fires in their eyes;
to which innocence and peace add themselves, which complete their
beauty. Such are the forms of the inmost angelic heaven; and they are
truly human forms. (A.E., n. 1001.)
From what has been thus far presented what the good is that results from
chastity in marriage can be inferred, consequently what the good works
of chastity are that a man does who shuns adulteries as sins against
God. The good works of chastity concern either the married pair
themselves, or their offspring and posterity, or the heavenly societies.
The good works of chastity that concern the married pair themselves are
spiritual and celestial loves, intelligence and wisdom, innocence and
peace, power and protection against the hells and against the evils and
the falsities therefrom, and manifold joys and felicities to eternity.
Those who live in chaste marriages, as before described, have all these.
The good works of chastity that concern the offspring and posterity are
that so many and so great evils do not become innate in families. For
the ruling love of parents is transmitted to the offspring and sometimes
to remote posterity, and becomes their hereditary nature. This is
broken and softened in parents who shun adulteries as infernal and love
marriages as heavenly. The good works of chastity that concern the
heavenly societies are that chaste marriages are the charms of heaven,
that they are its nurseries, and that they are its supports. They
supply charms to heaven by communications; they are nurseries to heaven
by producing offspring; and they are supports to heaven by their power
against the hells; for at the presence of conjugal love devilish spirits
become furious, insane, and mentally impotent, and cast themselves into
the deep. (A.E., n. 1002.)
From the goods enumerated and described that result from chaste
marriages it may be concluded what the evils are that result from
adulteries; for such evils are the opposites of such goods; that is, in
place of the spiritual and celestial loves that those have who live in
chaste marriages, there are the infernal and devilish loves that those
have who are in adulteries. So in place of the intelligence and wisdom
that those have who live chastely in marriages there are the insanities
and follies that those have who are in adulteries; in place of the
innocence and peace that those have who live in chaste marriages there
are the deceit and no peace that those have who are in adulteries; in
place of the power and protection against the hells that those have who
live chastely in marriages there are the very Asmodean demons and the
hells that those have who live in adulteries; in place of the beauty
that those have who live chastely in marriages there is the deformity
that those have who live in adulteries, which is monstrous according to
what they are. Their final lot is that from the extreme impotence to
which they are at length reduced they become emptied of all the fire and
light of life, and dwell alone in deserts as images of the slothfulness
and weariness of their own life. (A.E., n. 1003.)
True marriage love is impossible except between two, like the Lord's
love toward heaven, which is one from Him and in Him, or toward the
church, which like heaven is one from Him and in Him. All who are in
the heavens and who are in the church must be one through mutual love
from love to the Lord. An angel in heaven or a man in the church who
does not thus make one with the rest is not of heaven or of the church.
Moreover, in the whole heaven and in the whole world there are two
things to which all things have reference; these two are called good and
truth, from which, when joined into one, all things in heaven and in the
world have had existence and subsistence. When these are one, good is
in truth and truth is in good, and truth is of good and good is of
truth; thus one recognizes the other as its mutual and reciprocal, or as
an agent recognizes its reagent, each in its turn.
This universal marriage is the source of marriage love between husband
and wife. The husband has been so created as to be the understanding of
truth, and the wife so created as to be the will of good, and thus the
husband to be a truth and the wife a good, as well as that both may be
truth and good in form, which form is man, and an image of God.
Since, then, for truth to come to be of good and good to be of truth
mutually and reciprocally has its origin in creation, so it is
impossible for one truth to be united to two diverse goods, or the
reverse; neither is it possible for one understanding to be united to
two diverse wills or the reverse; neither for one person who is
spiritual to be united to two diverse churches; neither in like manner
for one man (vir) to be inmostly united to two women. Inmost union is
like that of soul and heart; the soul of the wife is the husband, and
the heart of the husband is the wife. The husband communicates and
conjoins his soul to the wife by actual love; it is in his seed; and the
wife receives it in her heart, and from this the two become one, and
then each and all things in the body of the one look to their mutual in
the body of the other. This is genuine marriage, which is possible only
between two. For it is by creation that all things of the husband, both
of his mind and of his body, have their mutual in the mind and in the
body of the wife; and thus the most particular things look mutually to
each other and will to be united. From this looking and conatus
[instinct] marriage love springs.
All things in the body, which are called members, viscera, and organs,
are nothing but natural corporeal forms corresponding to the spiritual
form of the mind; from this each and all things of the body so
correspond to each and all things of the mind that whatever the mind
wills and thinks the body at its command instantly brings forth into
act. When, therefore, two minds act as one their two bodies are
potentially so united that they are no more two but one flesh. To will
to become one flesh is marriage love; and such as the willing is, such
is that love.
It is allowed to confirm this by a wonderful thing in the heavens.
There are married pairs there in such marriage love that the two can be
one flesh, and are one whenever they wish, and they then appear as one
man. I have seen and talked with such; and they said that they have one
life, and are like the life of good in truth and the life of truth in
good, and are like the pairs in man, that is, like the two hemispheres
of the brain enclosed in one membrane, the two ventricles of the heart
within a common covering, likewise the two lobes of the lungs; these,
although they are two, yet are one in regard to life and the activities
of life, which are uses. They said that their life so conjoined is full
of heaven, and is the very life of heaven with its infinite beatitudes,
for the reason that heaven that heaven also is such from the marriage of
the Lord with it, for all the angels of heaven are in the Lord and the
Lord in them.
Furthermore, they said that it is impossible for them to think from any
intention about an additional wife or woman, because this would be
turning heaven into hell, consequently if an angel merely thinks of such
a thing he falls from heaven. They added that natural spirits do not
believe such conjunctions as theirs to be possible, for the reason that
with those who are merely natural there is no marriage from a spiritual
origin, which is of good and truth, but only a marriage from a natural
origin; therefore there is no union of minds, but only a union of bodies
from a lascivious disposition in the flesh; and this lust is from a
universal law impressed upon and thus implanted in everything animate
and inanimate from creation. The law is that everything in which there
is force wills to produce its like and to multiply its kind to infinity
and to eternity. As the posterity of Jacob, who were called the sons of
Israel, were merely natural men, and thus their marriages were not
spiritual but carnal, so they were permitted on account of the hardness
of their hearts to take more wives than one. (A.E., n. 1004.)
But it is to be noted that adulteries are more and less infernal and
abominable. The adulteries that spring from more grievous evils and
their falsities are more grievous, and those from the milder evils and
their falsities are milder; for adulteries correspond to adulterations
of good and consequent falsifications of truth; adulterations of good
are in themselves evils, and falsifications of truth are in themselves
falsities. According to correspondences with these the hells are
arranged into genera and species. (A.E., n. 1006.)
In brief, from every conjunction of evil and falsity in the spiritual
world a sphere of adultery flows forth, but only from those who are in
falsities in regard to doctrine and in evils in regard to life; not from
those who are in falsities in regard to doctrine but are in goods in
regard to life, for in such there is no conjunction of evil and falsity,
but only in the former. That sphere flows forth particularly from
priests who have taught falsely and lived wickedly; for these have
adulterated and falsified the Word. Although such were not adulterers in
the world, adultery is excited by them; but it is an adultery called
sacerdotal [priestly] adultery, which is distinguishable from other
adulteries. All this makes clear that the origin of adulteries is the
love and consequent conjunction of evil and falsity. (A.E., n. 1007.)
Adulteries are less abhorrent to Christians than to the heathen, and
even to some barbarous nations, for the reason that at present in the
Christian world there is no marriage of good and truth, but a marriage
or evil and falsity. For the religion and doctrine of faith separated
from good works is a religion and doctrine of truth separated from good;
and truth separated from good is not truth, but inwardly regarded is
falsity; and good separated from truth is not good, but inwardly
regarded is evil. Consequently in the Christian religion there is
doctrine of falsity and evil, from which origin a desire and inclination
for adultery from hell flow in; and this is why adulteries are believed
in the Christian world to be allowable, and are practiced without shame.
For, as has been said above, the conjunction of evil and falsity is
spiritual adultery, from which according to correspondence natural
adultery springs. For this reason "adulteries" and "whoredoms" signify
in the Word adulterations of good and falsifications of truth; and for
this reason Babylon is called in the Apocalypse a "harlot," and
Jerusalem is so called in the Word of the Old Testament; and the Jewish
nation was called by the Lord "an adulterous nation," and "from their
father the devil." (A.E., n. 1008.)
He that abstains from adulteries from any other motive than because they
are sins and are against God is still an adulterer; as for instance when
anyone abstains from them from fear of the civil law and its penalties,
from fear of the loss of reputation and thus of honor, from fear of
resulting diseases, from fear of upbraidings at home from his wife and
consequent intranquility of life, from fear of chastisement by the
servants of the injured husband, from poverty, or from avarice; from
infirmity arising from abuse or from age or impotence or disease; in
fact, when one abstains because of any natural or moral law, and does
not at the same time abstain because of the Divine law, he is interiorly
unchaste and an adulterer, since he none the less believes that
adulteries are not sins, and therefore declares them lawful in his
spirit, and thus commits them in spirit, although not in the body;
consequently after death when he becomes a spirit he speaks openly in
favor of them, and commits them without shame.
It has been granted me in the spiritual world to see maidens who
regarded whoredoms as wicked because they are contrary to the Divine
law, and also maidens who did not regard them as wicked and yet
abstained from them because the resulting bad name would turn away
suitors. These latter I saw encompassed with a dusky cloud in their
descent to those below, while the former I saw encompassed with a
shining light in their ascent to those above. (A.E., n. 1009.)