1023. The symbolism of And I — yes, I — am setting up my pact as the presence of the Lord in charity can be seen from the symbolism of a pact, given in §§ [665,] 666. That section showed that a pact symbolizes rebirth, and more especially the Lord's close connection with a regenerate person through love. It also showed that the heavenly marriage is the most genuine compact, and in consequence that the heavenly marriage inside everyone who has regenerated is such a covenant too.

The nature of this marriage — this covenant — has also been shown before [§§155, 162, 252].

[2] For the people of the earliest church, the heavenly marriage existed within the sensation that they had their own power of will. For the people of the ancient church, however, the heavenly marriage developed within the sensation that their power of understanding was their own. When the human race's willpower had become thoroughly corrupt, you see, the Lord split our intellectual sense of self off from that corrupted voluntary sense of self in a miraculous way. Within our intellectual selfhood he formed a new will, which is conscience, and into conscience he injected charity, and into charity innocence. In this way he joined himself to us or, to put it another way, entered into a compact with us.

[3] To the extent that our self-will can be detached from this sense of intellectual autonomy, the Lord can be present with us, or bind himself to us, or enter into a pact with us.

Times of trial and other similar means of regeneration suppress our self-will to the point where it seems to disappear and almost die out. To the extent that this happens, the Lord can work through the conscience implanted in charity within our intellectual selfhood. This, then, is what is being called a pact in the present verse.

162. All laws ordaining what is true and right flow from heavenly origins, or from the structure of the inner life in a person who belongs to heaven. Heaven, taken as a whole, is a heavenly person because the Lord alone is a heavenly person. He is the totality of each and every thing in heaven and in the heavenly individual. This is how the inhabitants there come to be called heavenly.

Since heavenly origins or the structure of a heavenly person's life is the source from which arises every law ordaining what is true and right — most of all the law for marriage — the heavenly marriage is the source and pattern for all marriages on earth. The heavenly marriage allows for one Lord and one heaven, or one church with the Lord as head. The resulting law for marriage is that there must be one man and one wife. When there are, they represent the heavenly marriage and provide a model of the heavenly person.

Not only was this law revealed to the men of the earliest church, it was also written on their inner being. Consequently a man in those times had just one wife and set up one household. But when the descendants of those earliest people stopped being deep people and became shallow instead, they began to marry many wives.

[2] For the men of the earliest church, the love that belongs to marriage was like heaven itself and its happiness, because their marriages represented the heavenly marriage. When that church started to go downhill, they no longer found happiness in marriage love but in the enjoyment of many partners instead — a pleasure that resides in the outer self. The Lord calls this phenomenon hard-heartedness, the grounds on which Moses allowed them to marry multiple wives. As the Lord himself teaches:

Because of your hardness of heart Moses wrote you this commandment. From the beginning of creation, though, God made them male and female. Therefore a person shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two will become one flesh; so they are no longer two but one flesh. What God has joined together, then, no human shall separate. (Mark 10:5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

155. The words a woman was built out of a rib conceal more than anyone can ever see in the literal meaning, since the Lord's Word is such that deep down it concerns itself with the Lord himself and his kingdom. This is the source of all life in the Word. In the same vein, the inmost concern here is the heavenly marriage. ¹

The heavenly marriage is something that exists in our selfhood. Moreover, it is because of the heavenly marriage that our selfhood, after being brought to life by the Lord, is called the Lord's bride and wife.

When the Lord brings it to life, our sense of self gives us the ability to perceive all the good desired by love and all the truth taught by faith. So it holds within it all wisdom and understanding, joined to an indescribable happiness.

Still, a few words will not be enough to explain the nature of this living autonomy called the Lord's bride and wife. I can offer only this much: that angels perceive that they live from the Lord, although when not reflecting, they are under the full impression that they live on their own. This living selfhood is a sensation affecting all of them, telling them something has changed whenever they depart in the least from a loving goodness and religious truth. They enjoy their customary peace and happiness, which defies description, when they share in a perception that they live from the Lord.

A living sense of self is also what Jeremiah refers to when he says,

Jehovah has created something new in the earth: a woman will encircle a man. (Jeremiah 31:22)

This too is talking about the heavenly marriage, the woman symbolizing a sense of autonomy brought to life by the Lord. She is said to encircle the man because our self-life encircles us as the fleshed-out rib encircles the heart.

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