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THE DOCTRINE OF CHARITY AND FAITH

AC 10167. Few know from what origin comes forth conjugial love. They who think from the world believe that it comes forth from nature; but they who think from heaven believe that it comes forth from the Divine in heaven.

AC 10168. Love truly conjugial is the union of two minds, which is a spiritual union; and all spiritual union descends from heaven. From this it is that love truly conjugial is from heaven, and that its first being is from the marriage of good and truth there. The marriage of good and truth in heaven is from the Lord; wherefore in the Word the Lord is called the "Bridegroom" and "Husband," while heaven and the church are called the "bride" and "wife;" and therefore heaven is compared to a marriage.

AC 10169. From all this it is evident that love truly conjugial is the union of two persons in respect to their interiors which belong to the thought and the will, thus to truth and good; for truth belongs to the thought, and good to the will. For one who is in love truly conjugial loves what the other thinks and what the other wills; thus he also loves to think as the other does, and he loves to will as the other does; consequently to be united to the other, and to become as one man. This is what is meant by the Lord‘s words in Matthew:--

"And they twain shall be one flesh, therefore they are no more twain, but one flesh" (Matt 19:4-6; Gen. 2:24).

AC 10170. The delight of love truly conjugial is an internal delight, because it belongs to the minds, and is also an external delight from this, which belongs to the bodies. But the delight of love not truly conjugial is only an external delight without an internal one, and such a delight belongs to the bodies and not to the minds. But this delight is earthly, being almost like that of animals, and therefore in time perishes; whereas the first-mentioned delight is heavenly, as that of men should be, and therefore is permanent.

AC 10171. No one can know what love truly conjugial is, and what is the nature of its delight, except one who is in the good of love and in the truths of faith from the Lord; because, as has been said, love truly conjugial is from heaven, and is from the marriage of good and truth there.

AC 10172. From the marriage of good and truth in heaven and in the church we can learn what must be the nature of marriages on earth, namely, that they must be between two, one husband and one wife, and that love truly conjugial is never possible if there are a number of wives to one husband.

AC 10173. That which is done from love truly conjugial is done from freedom on both sides, because all freedom is from love, and both have freedom when one loves that which the other thinks and that which the other wills. From this it is that the wish to command in marriages destroys genuine love, for it takes away its freedom, thus also its delight. The delight of commanding, which follows in its place, brings forth disagreements, and sets the minds at enmity, and causes evils to take root according to the nature of the domination on the one side, and the nature of the servitude on the other.

AC 10174. From all this it can be seen that marriages are holy, and that to injure them is to injure that which is holy; consequently that adulteries are profane; for as the delight of conjugial love descends from heaven, so the delight of adultery ascends from hell.

AC 10175. Therefore those who take delight in adulteries can no longer receive any good and truth from heaven. From this it is that those who have taken delight in adulteries, afterward make light of and also at heart deny the things of the church and of heaven. The reason of this is that the love of adultery is from the marriage of evil and falsity, which is the infernal marriage.

ON THE THIRD EARTH IN THE STARRY HEAVEN

AC 10311. There appeared spirits from afar who were not willing to come near, for the reason that they could not be with the spirits of our earth who were then about me. From this I perceived that they were from another earth, and I was afterward told that they were from a certain earth in the universe; but where that earth is, was not told me.

AC 10312. Differently from the spirits of our earth, they were unwilling to think at all about their bodies, or even about anything bodily and material; and for this reason they were not willing to come near; for spirits are associated and dissociated in accordance with the affections and the thoughts thence derived. But after the removal of some spirits from our earth they came nearer and spoke with me; yet there was still felt an anxiety arising from the collision of spheres; for spiritual spheres that emanate from the life of their affections and consequent thoughts encompass all spirits and societies of spirits; and therefore if the affections are contrary, there results a collision which gives rise to anxiety.

AC 10313. The spirits of our earth declared that they did not dare to approach them, because when they do so they are not only seized with anxiety, but also, from phantasy, they seem to themselves to be as it were bound hand and foot with serpents, from which they cannot be loosed until they retire. Such a phantasy is from correspondence; for the bodily sensuous of man is represented in the other life by serpents, and therefore by "serpents" in the Word is also signified the sensuous, which is the lowest of the life of man.

AC 10314. As the spirits of that earth are of this nature, they do not appear as do other spirits, in a clearly defined human form, but as a cloud; the better of them as a dusky cloud with a human whiteness scattered about in it. They said that inwardly they are white, and that when they become angels this duskiness is turned into a beautiful blue, which also was shown me.

AC 10315. I asked them whether they had been in such an idea concerning their bodies when they lived in the world as men. They said that the men of their earth make no account of their bodies. but only of the spirit therein, because they know that the spirit is to live forever, and that the body will perish. The face however they do not call the body, because the affections of their spirits appear from the face, and the thoughts that come from the affections, from the eyes. They also said that some in their earth believe that the spirits of their bodies have existed from eternity, and were infused into the body at conception; but they added that now they know that it is not so, and they repent of having been in so false an opinion.

AC 10316. When I asked them whether they wished to see anything on our earth, which it was possible to do through my eyes, they first replied that they could not do so, and afterward said that they did not wish it, because they could see nothing but earthly and material things, from which they remove their thoughts as far as possible.

AC 10317. A continuation about this third earth in the universe will be found at the end of the following chapter.

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