116. THE MARRIAGE OF THE LORD AND THE CHURCH AND CORRESPONDENCE TO IT

This chapter also takes up the marriage of the Lord and the church and correspondence to it, because without a knowledge and understanding of the subject, scarcely anyone can see that conjugial love in its origin is sacred, spiritual and heavenly, and that it comes from the Lord. Some in the church indeed say that marriage has a relationship to the marriage of the Lord with the church, but they do not know what the nature of that relationship is.

In order to make this relationship perceptible to some sight of the understanding, therefore, we must discuss in detail that sacred marriage which exists with and in those people who form the Lord's church. They, too, and not others, possess truly conjugial love.

To explain this secret, however, we must divide our treatment into sections under the following headings:

1. In the Word, the Lord is called a Bridegroom and Husband, and the church a bride and wife; and the conjunction of the Lord with the church and the reciprocal conjunction of the church with the Lord is called a marriage.

2. The Lord is also called Father, and the church, mother.

3. The offspring from the Lord as Husband and Father and from the church as wife and mother are all spiritual offspring, and this is what is meant in the spiritual sense of the Word by sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, and by other terms which have to do with descending generations.

4. The spiritual offspring that are born from the marriage of the Lord with the church are truths, from which come understanding, perception and all thought; and also qualities of goodness, from which come love, charity and all affection.

5. From the marriage of good and truth that emanates and flows in from the Lord, a person acquires truth, to which the Lord joins good, and in this way the church is formed in the person by the Lord.

6. A husband does not represent the Lord and his wife the church, because both husbands and wives together form the church.

7. Therefore neither in the marriages of angels in heaven nor in the marriages of people on earth does the husband correspond to the Lord and the wife to the church.

8. Rather, the correspondence rests with conjugial love, insemination, procreation, love for little children, and other things of a similar sort that occur in marriage and result from it.

9. The Word is the means of conjunction, because it is from the Lord and thus is the Lord.

10. The church comes from the Lord and it exists in people who go to Him and live according to His commandments.

11. Conjugial love depends on the state of the church in a person, because it depends on the state of his wisdom.

12. So, then, because the church comes from the Lord, conjugial love comes from Him as well.

Now follows the development of these points.

458. As for the statement that this love is the repository of Christian religion, that is because that religion is coupled with and lodges together with this love. For we have shown that no others come into this love and no others can be in it but those who go to the Lord and love the truths of the church and do the good things it teaches (nos. 70-72); that this love comes from the Lord alone, and consequently is found with people who are of the Christian religion (nos. 131, 336, 337); and that this love depends on the state of the church in a person, because it depends on the state of his wisdom (no. 130). The truth of all this was established in the whole chapter on the correspondence of this love with the marriage of the Lord and the church (nos. 116-131); and in the chapter on the origin of this love from the marriage between good and truth (nos. 83-102).

83. THE ORIGIN OF CONJUGIAL LOVE FROM THE MARRIAGE BETWEEN GOOD AND TRUTH

The origins of conjugial love are internal and external, there being many internal origins, likewise many external ones. The inmost or fundamental origin of them all, however, is one. This is the marriage between good and truth, as we will show in the following paragraphs.

No one has traced the origin of this love from this source before, because no one has seen that there is any union between good and truth. No one has seen it, moreover, because goodness is not visible to the sight of the understanding as truth is, and therefore knowledge of it has remained hidden and eluded investigation. Since goodness is consequently one of the unknowns in life, no one has been able to discern any marriage between it and truth.

Indeed, to the natural sight of reason, good appears so far removed from truth as to have no connection with it. The fact of this can be seen from people's remarks whenever they mention goodness and truth. For instance, when they say, "This is good," they have no thought of truth. And when they say, "This is true," neither do they have any thought of good.

As a result, many people today believe that truth is something completely separate, likewise goodness. Many also believe as well that a person is intelligent and wise and thus truly human according to the truths that he thinks, speaks, writes, and believes, and not at the same time according to his goodness.

Nevertheless, we will now explain that good does not exist apart from truth, nor truth apart from good, consequently that there is an eternal marriage between them, and that this marriage is the origin of conjugial love. The explanation will be developed according to the following outline:

1. Goodness and truth are universal in creation, and are therefore in all created things, but they are present in their created vessels according to each one's form.

2. Good does not exist by itself, nor truth by itself, but they are everywhere united.

3. There is good's truth and from this truth's good, or truth resulting from good and good resulting from that truth, and implanted in these two from creation is an inclination to join together into one.

4. In members of the animal kingdom, good's truth or truth resulting from good is masculine, and truth's consequent goodness or good resulting from that truth is feminine.

5. From the marriage of good and truth flowing in from the Lord comes love for the opposite sex and also conjugial love.

6. A love for the opposite sex is a love of the external or natural man, and is therefore common to every animal.

7. But conjugial love is a love of the internal or spiritual man, and is therefore peculiar to mankind.

8. Conjugial love in a person lies within love for the opposite sex, like a gem in its native rock.

9. A love for the opposite sex in a person is not the origin of conjugial love, but it is its first stage, being thus like any external natural quality in which an internal spiritual one is implanted.

10. When conjugial love has been implanted, love for the opposite sex turns around and becomes a chaste love for the opposite sex.

11. Male and female were created to be the very image of the marriage between good and truth.

12. They are an image of that marriage in their inmost qualities and thus in their subsequent ones as the inner faculties of their minds are opened.

Explanation of these statements now follows.