SPIRITUAL LIFE AND THE WORD OF GOD - { PT. 60 }


 { PT.  60 } - 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 of 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 ).

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