SPIRITUAL LIFE AND THE WORD OF GOD { PT. 59 }


 { PT.  59 } - Spiritual love, which is a love for truth, is an image of God; and celestial love, which is a love for 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 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. Thin 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 women 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 in-mosts; and therefore although apparently two they are actually one, two in respect to their bodies, but one in respect of 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. 

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