4. Truly conjugial love contains no lasciviousness at all
Those who do not know what truly conjugial love is, and are not in that state, may think that it cannot exist without lasciviousness. However, there is as big a gap between them as there is between heaven and hell. For the pleasure may appear externally the same, but all externals get their quality and essence from internals; and the internal of conjugial love is from the Lord, and by this means from heaven, and from all its pleasantness and happiness. But the internal of lasciviousness or adultery is from the devil, and so from hell, and from all its unpleasantness and unhappiness. Every external gets its essence from internals, and consequently so does the external of conjugial love, and so does the external of adultery, and these are not alike. The external of conjugial love is full of all the delights of heaven, and the pleasure of heaven which is in that love casts out all the pleasure of hell. Thus those two which are in outward form pleasures are totally different as the result of their internals. The angels also clearly perceive from the sphere of love of two married persons whether it contains any lasciviousness; and in accordance with its quality and quantity they move away from them. The reason angels move away so far is that the lasciviousness of adultery communicates with the hells, but the chastity of marriage with heaven.
