The Bible

 

Genesis 1

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1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first Day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

The Bible

 

Matthew 19:4

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4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Conjugial Love #482

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482. 3. Double adultery is the adultery of a married man with the wife of another, or vice versa. We call this double adultery, because it is committed by each of the two and the covenant of marriage is violated on both sides. Therefore it is doubly more grave than the first kind.

We said above (no. 480) that following the pledge and covenant, the conjugial love of one man with one wife unites their souls; that this union is the love itself in its origin; and that adultery closes it off and stops it up, like one who closes off and stops up the source and flow of a spring. It is clearly apparent that the souls of the two unite when love for the opposite sex is confined to one of the sex - as happens when a young woman has pledged herself wholly to a young man and the young man conversely has pledged himself wholly to the young woman - from the fact their two lives unite, consequently their souls, because these are their life in its beginnings. This union of souls is possible only in monogamous marriages or marriages of one man with one wife; but not in polygamous marriages or marriages of one man with more than one wife; because in the latter love is divided, in the former united.

Conjugial love in this, its highest seat, is spiritual, holy and pure, because the soul of every person from its origin is celestial; consequently it receives influx from the Lord directly; for it receives from Him a marriage of love and wisdom or good and truth, and this influx makes the person a human being and sets him apart from animals.

[2] From this union of souls, where it is in its spiritual holiness and purity, conjugial love flows down into the life of the entire body and fills it with blessed delights, so long as its course remains open, as is the case in people who from the Lord become spiritual.

Nothing else closes off and stops up this seat, source, or wellspring of conjugial love and its flow but adultery, as is apparent from the Lord's words, that only on the ground of licentiousness is it lawful for one to divorce his wife and marry another (Matthew 19:4-9); and from this statement in the same passage, that whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery (Matthew 19:9). When, therefore, this pure and holy wellspring is stopped up, as described above, it is, like a jewel in excrement or bread in vomit, encompassed by foul pollutions that are altogether opposed to the purity and sanctity of that spring which is conjugial love. From that opposition arises coldness to the marriage, and in the measure of that coldness the libidinous lasciviousness of licentious love, which spontaneously consumes itself. This is a sinful evil, because it covers over something holy and thus obstructs its course into the body, allowing something profane to take its place and open its course into the body, so that from being heavenly the person becomes hellish.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.