71. Conjugial love makes man be love

Man is created to be love and consequently wisdom, since the Lord is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. It is by creation that man is an image and likeness of the Lord,Genesis 1:26-27; and this could not happen without true conjugial love. By this man's all can be turned into love, for in marriage either may love from the heart the body too, and thus dispose the soul and consequently everything to the form of love. This is not otherwise possible; the inmost and the outermost there make one and bring about that form, which is the form of heaven.

7490. It is also evident that to the extent that a person is moved by self-love and love of the world he is not conscious of what charity is, till at length he is unaware of its existence. Also such a person is to the same extent unconscious of what faith is, till at length he is unaware of its being anything at all. He is to the same extent unconscious of what conscience is, as well, till at length he is not aware of its existence. Indeed he is to that same extent unaware of what the spiritual is, and so of what the life of heaven is. Finally, it is evident that he has no belief in the existence of heaven or in the existence of hell, and consequently has no belief in the existence of life after death. These are the things that self-love and love of the world bring about when they reign.