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The Ten Commandments
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 with man, and that the delight of marriage is heaven with him, consequently so far as man is in the one delight so far he is not in the other, because so far as man is in hell so far he is not in heaven? Who at this day can believe that the love of adultery is the fundamental love of all infernal and diabolical 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 so far he is in every evil love, if not in act yet in endeavor; and on the other hand, so far as man is in the chaste love of marriage so far 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 at this day is unknown because the church is at its end, and is devastated as to truth and as 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 the rejection of all things of the church are meant in the Word in its spiritual sense by adulteries and whoredoms. AE 981
Since adultery is hell with man and marriage is heaven with 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 there from. Afterwards he reasons that marriages and adulteries are alike, but that marriages must be maintained in kingdoms for the sake of order and on account of the education of offspring; also that adulteries are not criminal, since offspring 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 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 Stygian, will be seen in what follows. AE 982
That marriage is heaven and that adultery is hell cannot be better seen than from considering their origin. The origin of love truly conjugial is the Lord’s love for the church‘ and this is why the Lord is called in the Word the "Bridegroom" and the "Husband," and the church the "bride" and the "wife." It is from this marriage that the church is the church in genera 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 love truly conjugial; 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 with man, and from this is the conjunction that is called the heavenly marriage. From that marriage love truly conjugial exists between two partners that are in such conjunction with the Lord. From this it is now evident that love truly conjugial is from the Lord alone, and exists with 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 14:20).
This conjunction or this marriage was thus established from creation. The man was created to be the understanding of truth, and the woman to be the affection of good; and thus the man to be truth, and the woman good. When the understanding of truth which is with the man makes one with the affection of good which is with the woman, there is a conjunction of the two minds into one. This conjunction is the spiritual marriage from which conjugial 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 as to their minds love each other mutually and reciprocally also love each other mutually and reciprocally as to their bodies. It is 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 conjugial 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 the marriage of evil and falsity, which in its essence is hell. Heaven is a marriage because all who are in the heavens are in the marriage of good and truth; and hell is adultery because all who are in the hells are in the marriage of evil and falsity. From this it follows that marriage and adultery are as opposite as heaven and hell are. AE 983
Man was so created as to be spiritual and celestial love, and thus an image and likeness of God. Spiritual love, which is the love of truth, is the image of God; and celestial love, which is the love of good, is the likeness of God. All the angels in the third heaven are likenesses of God; and all the 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 the Divine good and the Divine truth proceed 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 the marriage of two minds into one, since, as has been said before, man was created to be the understanding of truth, and thus truth, and woman was created to be the affection of good, and thus good; therefore in them the conjunction of good and truth is possible. For conjugial love which descends from that conjunction is the veriest means by which man (homo) becomes the love that is the image or the likeness of God. For the two partners who are in conjugial 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 as to their bodies, but one as to life. This may be compared to the eyes, which are two as organs but one as to the sight; also to the ears, which are two as organs but one as to hearing; so, too, the arms and the feet are two as members but one as to use, the arms one as to action, and the feet one as 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 love truly conjugial; they are two as to their bodies but one as to life; consequently in heaven two partners 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 the image and likeness of God.
Man is born into the love of evil and falsity, which love is the love of adultery; and this love cannot be converted and changed into spiritual love, which is the image of God, and still less into celestial love, which is the likeness of God, except by the marriage of good and truth from the Lord, and not fully except by the 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 love truly conjugial is an image of the Lord, while adultery is an image of hell, and love of adultery is an image of the devil. Moreover, conjugial love appears in the spiritual world in form like an angel, and the 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. AE 984
How profane and thus how much to be detested adulteries are can be seen from the holiness of marriage. All things in the human body, from the head to the heel of the foot, 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 love truly conjugial 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 conjugial love, which descends therefrom as the love of the heavens, 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 after birth 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 of both sexes, it is evident that from creation they are holy, and therefore they are devoted solely to chaste and pure conjugial love, and are not to be profaned by the unchaste and impure love of adultery, by which man converts the heaven with 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 ultimates 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, as has been said above. But the love of adultery has its beginning in the ultimates of man from an impure lascivious fire there, and thus, contrary to order, penetrates towards the interiors, always into the things that are man’s own (proprium), 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 for"‘ a devil.
As the organs of generation in each sex correspond to the societies of the third heaven, and the love of a marriage 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 the Divine truth united to the Divine good proceeding 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 an arcanum 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. AE 985
As all the delights that a man has in the natural world are turned into correspondences 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 conjugial love with them, and in the hells the spirits are deformed according to the quality of the love of adultery with them. In a word, the angels of heaven have life in their faces, in the movements of their body, and in their speech, according to their conjugial love, while the spirits of hell have death in their faces according to their love of adultery. In the spiritual world the delights of conjugial 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. AE 986
How holy in themselves, that is, from creation, marriages are can be seen from the fact that they are seminaries of the human race; and as the angelic heaven is from the human race they are also the seminaries 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, as has been shown above in its proper article. That is called adultery where its love reigns, which is called the love of adultery, whether it be within matrimony or out of it, and that is called marriage where its love reigns, which is called conjugial love. Whether the earth might be filled with inhabitants by fornications and adulteries as well as by marriages will be further considered in the following article.
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 love truly conjugial 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 marriage then reigned; and it was also told me from heaven that they were then inwardly horrified at adulteries, as at the abominable things of hell. AE 988
That heaven is from marriages and hell from adulteries has been shown above. What this means shall now he 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 the love of adultery exists. The ruling love of parents by means of an offshoot is derived from them and transcribed into the offspring and becomes its nature. If the love of the parents is the love of adultery it is also the 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, unless 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 is born not for hell but for heaven, although from connate evils he is a hell. 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. It is from Divine justice that no one is punished for the evils of his parents, but for his own; therefore the Lord provides that hereditary evils shall not return after death, but one’s own evils, and it is for those that return that a man is then punished. AE 989
It has been said above that the difference between the love of marriage and the love of adultery is like that between heaven and bell. 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 the 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, what is wonderful, 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 he discerned and felt only by one who is in the delight of conjugial love. One who is in that delight very clearly 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 ultimate 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 delights 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. AE 990
It has been said that conjugial 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 exists the love of bearing fruit, namely, good through truth and truth from good; and from that love the love of producing offspring descends, in which there is all delight and pleasure. On the contrary, the love of adultery, which is natural, exists from the 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 exists the love of bearing fruit, namely, evil through falsity and falsity from evil; and from that love descends the love of producing offspring in adulteries, 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 in the effort and thus into the act of producing uses; and these joys increase in an ascending degree to eternity, according to the goodness and excellence of the uses. This makes 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 through adulteries corresponds to the production 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 loathing and nausea. Because, as has been said above, the delight of the love of marriage is a heavenly delight, and 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 no 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 icy coldness; therefore after a short time the fire is extinguished and icy coldness succeeds, either with impotence or with aversion as from one 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 batters. 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, afterwards as aversion, then as rejection, and finally as blasphemy and fighting. 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 an itching 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 vindictiveness against good and truth; when, therefore, they are moved by a deadly and diabolical 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 will 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.
As adultery is fiery in the externals but cold in the internals, and as therefore the internal does not produce the external, as it does in marriages, but they mutually act against each other, so the man feels impotence if the woman desires the act, and still more if she importunes it; for the internal which is cold then comes into the effort and flows into what is fiery in the externals and extinguishes it, and so casts it off as unfit. Add to this that the lust of violating, which also enkindles that impure fire, then perishes. AE 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 the love of good and truth and from the delight in well-doing, thus from love to the Lord and from love towards 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 continual increase to eternity. These delights have their origin in the fact that the married pair wish to be united into one as to their minds, and into such a union heaven breathes from the marriage of good and truth from the Lord in heaven.
I will here say something about the marriages of angels in heaven. They declare that they are in continual potency, that after the acts there is never any weariness, still less any sadness, but eagerness of life and cheerfulness of mind, that the married pair pass the night in each other’s bosoms as if they were created into one, that effects are constantly open, that they are never lacking when they have desire, since without these their love would he like the channel of a fountain stopped up. The effect opens that channel and causes continuance and conjunction that they may become as one flesh; for the vital of the husband adds itself to the vital of the wife and binds together. They declare that the delights of the effects cannot be described in the expressions of any language in the natural world, nor he thought of in any except spiritual ideas, and that even these do not exhaust them. These things have been told me by the angels. AE 992
That true conjugial love contains in itself so many ineffable delights that can neither be numbered nor described can be seen from the fact that this love is the fundamental love of all celestial and spiritual loves, since through that love man becomes love; for from it each of the marriage pair loves the other as good loves truth and truth loves good, thus representatively as the Lord loves heaven and the church. Such love can exist only through a marriage in which the man is truth and the wife is good. When a man through marriage has become such love he is also in love to the Lord and in love towards the neighbor, and thus in the love of all good and in the love of all truth. For from man as love there must proceed loves of every kind; therefore conjugial 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 fundamental 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 from conjugial 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 conjugial love all delight and felicities increase even to the delights and felicities of the inmost heaven, and that all that is undelightful and unhappy in the marriages in which the love of adultery reigns increases in direfulness even to the lowest hell, (HH 386). AE 993
True conjugial 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 conjugial love in its first essence is love to the Lord. And from this it is that no one can be in true conjugial love and its pleasantnesses, delights, happiness, and joys, unless he acknowledges the Lord alone, that is, that the trinity is in Him. He who approaches the Father as a person by Himself, or the Holy Spirit as a person by Himself, and these not in the Lord, can have no conjugial love. The genuine conjugial is given especially in the third heaven, because the angels there are in love to the Lord, they acknowledge Him alone as God, and they 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 conjugial love descends. AE 995
As true conjugial 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 an infant. 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 conjugial love, because he is so far in innocence. It is because true conjugial love is innocence that the playfulness between a married pair is like the play of infants together; 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 conjugial love. The innocence of conjugial 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. AE 996
Since conjugial love in its first essence is love to the Lord from the Lord, and thus is innocence, conjugial love is also peace, such as the 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 marriage pair. As then, all joy is of love, and conjugial love is the fundamental love of all the loves of heaven, so peace itself has its seat chiefly in conjugial love. Peace is happiness of heart and soul arising from the conjunction of the Lord with heaven and the church, as well as from the conjunction of good and truth, when all conflict and combat of evil and falsity with good and truth has ceased, (AE 365). And as conjugial 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 happiness from the faces of a marriage pair who are in that love, and who mutually regard each other from that love. But such heavenly happiness, 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. AE 997
Man has such and so much of intelligence and wisdom as he has of conjugial love. The reason is that conjugial 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 conjoined to Divine good, and of Divine good conjoined to Divine truth; thus it is the marriage of good and truth from the Lord. That it is so 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 is 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 the faculty of seeing and understanding truths and goods, and this faculty man has from the Lord. AE 998
From true conjugial love there is power and protection against the hells, because it is against the evils and falsities that ascend from the hells, and for the reason that through conjugial love man has conjunction with the Lord, and the Lord alone has power over all the hells; also because through conjugial 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 conjugial love because heaven and the church is with these and with no others. For heaven and the church are the marriage of good and truth, from which is conjugial love, as has been said above. And this is why through conjugial 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. AE 999
Those who are in true conjugial love, after death, when 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 young women. Each partner returns to the flower and joys of the age when conjugial 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 conjugial love, comes into this state first exteriorly and afterwards more and more interiorly to eternity. As such continue to grow young more interiorly it follows that true conjugial 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 to love truth continually, and in truth there is the conatus to love good continually; and then the wife is good in form and the husband is truth in form. From that conatus 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 lives and becomes 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 conjugial 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. AE 1000
From conjugial 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 conjugial love, love to the Lord, mutual love, love of good and love of truth, 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. AE 1001
From what has been thus far presented what the good is that results from chastity in marriage can he 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 into the offspring and sometimes to remote posterity, and becomes their hereditary nature. This is broken and softened with 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 delights of heaven, that they are its seminaries, and that they are its supports. They supply delights to heaven by communications; they are seminaries to heaven by producing offspring; and they are supports to heaven by their power against the hells; for at the presence of conjugial love diabolical spirits become furious, insane, and mentally impotent, and cast themselves into the deep. AE 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 diabolical 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 their quality. 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. AE 1003
True conjugial love cannot be given except between two, like the Lord’s love towards heaven, which is one from Him and in Him, or towards 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 and a man in the church who does not thus make one with the rest is not of heaven nor 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 acknowledges the other as its mutual and reciprocal, or as an agent recognizes its re-agent, each in its turn. This universal marriage is the source of conjugial 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 truth and the wife good; thus that both may be truth and good in form, which form is man, and the image of God. And because it is from creation that truth should be of good, and good of truth, thus mutually and reciprocally, therefore 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 from 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 conjugial love exists.
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 conjugial 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 conjugial 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 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 every thing animate and inanimate from creation. The law is that every thing 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 several wives. AE 1004
That adultery is hell, and consequently an abomination, anyone can perceive from the idea of the mixture of diverse seed in the womb of one woman, for in man’s seed there lies hidden the inmost of his life, and thus the rudiment of a new life; and for this reason it is holy. To make this common with the inmosts and rudiments of others, as is done in adulteries, is profane. This is why adultery is hell, and why hell in general is called adultery. And as from such a mixture nothing but corruption, also from a spiritual origin, can exist, it follows that adultery is an abomination.
Consequently in the brothels that are in hell, foulnesses of every kind appear; and when light out of heaven is let into them, adulteresses are seen lying with adulterers, like swine in filth itself; and what is wonderful, like swine they are in their delights when they are in the midst of filth. But these brothels are kept closed, because when they are opened a stench is exhaled that excites vomiting. It is otherwise in chaste marriages. In these the life of the husband adds itself through the seed to the life of the wife; and from this there is inmost conjunction, by which they become not two, but one flesh. And according to conjunction by means of that conjugial love increases, and with it every good of heaven. AE 1005
But it is to be known 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. There are cadaverous hells for those whose delights were the violations of wives; there are excrementitious hells for those whose delights were the debauching of virgins; there are direful, slimy hells for those whose delights were varieties and changes of harlots; for others there are filthy hells. There are sodomitic hells for those who were in evils from a love of ruling over others from mere delight in ruling, and who were in no delight of use.
From those who have separated faith from good works both in doctrine and in life there exhale adulteries like that of a son with a mother or a mother-in-law; from those who have studied the Word only for the sake of glory, and not for the sake of spiritual uses, there exhale adulteries like that of a father with a daughter-in-law; from those who believe that sins are remitted by the Holy Supper, and not by repentance of life, there exhale adulteries like that of a brother with a sister; from those who altogether deny the Divine, there exhale heinous things with beasts; and so on. Such hells are for them because of the correspondence with the adulterations or defilements of good and truth. AE 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 as to doctrine and in evils as to life; but not from those who are in falsities as to doctrine yet are in goods as to life, for with these there in no conjunction of evil and falsity, but only with the former. That sphere flows forth particularly from priests who have taught falsely and lived wickedly; for these have adulterated and falsified the Word. Even though these were not adulterers in the world, adultery is excited by them; but it is an adultery called sacerdotal 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. AE 1007
Adulteries are less abhorrent with Christians than with the Gentiles, and even with some barbarous nations, for the reason that at present in the Christian world there is no marriage of good and truth, but a marriage of 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 interiorly regarded is falsity; and good separated from truth is not good, but interiorly regarded is evil. Consequently in the Christian religion there is the doctrine of falsity and evil, from which origin a desire and favor 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 exists. 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." But on this see above from the Word, (AE 141). AE 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 still interiorly unchaste and an adulterer, since he none the less believes that adulteries are not sins, and therefore in his spirit, declares them allowable, and thus he 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 heinous because they are contrary to the Divine law, and also maidens who did not regard them as heinous 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. AE 1009
Thus far adulteries have been considered; and now it shall be told what adultery is. Adulteries are all the whoredoms that destroy conjugial love. Whoredom of a husband with the wife of another or with any woman, whether a widow or a virgin or a harlot, is adultery when done from loathing or aversion to marriage; likewise the whoredom of a wife with a married man, or with a single man when done for a like reason. Again, the whoredoms of any unmarried man with the wife of another, and of any unmarried woman with the husband of another, are adulteries, because they destroy conjugial love by turning their minds away from marriage to adultery. The delights of varieties although with harlots are the delights of adultery, for the delight of variety destroys the delight of marriage. So, too, the delight of the defloration of virgins without the end of marriage is also the delight of adultery; for those who are in that delight afterwards desire marriage only for the sake of defloration, and when that is accomplished they loathe marriage. In a word, all whoredom that destroys the conjugial and extinguishes its love is adultery or pertains to adultery; while that which does not destroy the conjugial and does not extinguish its love is fornication springing from a certain instinct of nature towards marriage, which for various reasons cannot yet be entered into. AE 1010