162. All the laws of truth and right stem from celestial sources, that is, from the order of life as it exists with the celestial man; for the whole of heaven is the celestial man, because the Lord alone is the Celestial Man and the All of every single thing in heaven and in the celestial man. This is why they are called celestial. Since every law of truth and right comes down from heavenly sources, that is, from the order of life as it exists with the celestial man - above all the law that concerns marriages - the heavenly marriage ought to be the source of and pattern for all marriages on earth. This marriage consists of one Lord and one heaven, or one Church whose head is the Lord. The consequent law for marriages is that there must be one man (vir) and one wife. When this is the case they represent the heavenly marriage, and are a model of the celestial man. This law was not merely revealed to men (vir) of the Most Ancient Church, but was also inscribed on their internal man. Consequently a man (vir) in those times had but one wife, and they formed one house. But when their descendants fell away from being internal men and became external they began to marry several wives.

[2] Because the men (vir) of the Most Ancient Church by their marriages represented the heavenly marriage, conjugial love was to them like heaven and heavenly happiness. But when that Church went into decline they no longer perceived any happiness in conjugial love, but only in the pleasure obtained from having several wives, which is characteristic of the external man. This the Lord calls 'hardness of heart', on account of which Moses allowed them to marry several wives, as the Lord Himself teaches,

On account of your hardness of heart Moses wrote you this commandment, but from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this reason man (homo) will leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two will be as one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together man (homo) must not put asunder. Mark 10:5-9.

6818. EXODUS CHAPTER 3.

TEACHINGS ABOUT CHARITY

More needs to be stated regarding the neighbour, for unless one is aware of what is meant by the neighbour one cannot know how charity should be exercised. In the preliminary section to the previous chapter it was stated that each individual person is the neighbour, yet no one person in the same way as another, and that one governed by good is pre-eminently the neighbour, which means that the good present with a person is what one should love. For when one loves good one loves the Lord since the Lord is the One from whom Good comes, who is present within Good, and who is Good itself.