3090. And she said, Drink, my lord. That this signifies reciprocation, is evident from the assent or consent. What the reciprocation of truth is when it is to be conjoined with good, is apparent from marriages; for marriage comes from the fact that there is consent on both sides. This has its origin from the marriage of good and truth; on the side of good there is will, and on that of truth there is consent, and from this comes the conjunction. Although this reciprocation is not apparent with man when he is being regenerated, that is, when he is entering into the heavenly marriage, it nevertheless takes place. The same is more manifest from the fact that when a man is being regenerated, there is effected a likeness of a marriage between the will and the understanding; good being of the will, and truth of the understanding. Therefore the ancients instituted a marriage between the will and the understanding, and between the several things of the will and those of the understanding (n. 54, 55).

54. Male and female created He them. What is meant by “male and female” in the internal sense, was well known to the Most Ancient Church, but when the interior sense of the Word was lost among their posterity, this arcanum also perished. Their marriages were their chief sources of happiness and delight, and whatever admitted of the comparison they likened to marriage, in order that in this way they might perceive its felicity. Being also internal men, they were delighted only with internal things. External things they merely saw with the eyes, but thought of what was represented. So that outward things were nothing to them, save as these could in some measure be the means of causing them to turn their thoughts to internal things, and from these to celestial things, and so to the Lord who was their all, and consequently to the heavenly marriage, from which they perceived the happiness of their marriages to come. The understanding in the spiritual man they therefore called male, and the will female, and when these acted as a one they called it a marriage. From that church came the form of speech which became customary, whereby the church itself, from its affection of good, was called “daughter” and “virgin”—as the “virgin of Zion” the “virgin of Jerusalem”—and also “wife.” But on these subjects see the following chapter, at verse 23, and chapter 3, verse 15.