Spiritual Life and the Word of GodSwedenborg, Emanuel
Religion
Spiritual Life and the Word of God
Swedenborg, Emanuel
Spiritual life; Ten commandments; Word of God (Christian theology)
True marriage love is impossible except between two, like the Lord's
love toward heaven, which is one from Him and in Him, or toward the
church, which like heaven is one from Him and in Him. All who are in
the heavens and who are in the church must be one through mutual love
from love to the Lord. An angel in heaven or a man in the church who
does not thus make one with the rest is not of heaven or of the church.
Moreover, in the whole heaven and in the whole world there are two
things to which all things have reference; these two are called good and
truth, from which, when joined into one, all things in heaven and in the
world have had existence and subsistence. When these are one, good is
in truth and truth is in good, and truth is of good and good is of
truth; thus one recognizes the other as its mutual and reciprocal, or as
an agent recognizes its reagent, each in its turn.
This universal marriage is the source of marriage love between husband
and wife. The husband has been so created as to be the understanding of
truth, and the wife so created as to be the will of good, and thus the
husband to be a truth and the wife a good, as well as that both may be
truth and good in form, which form is man, and an image of God.
Since, then, for truth to come to be of good and good to be of truth
mutually and reciprocally has its origin in creation, so it is
impossible for one truth to be united to two diverse goods, or the
reverse; neither is it possible for one understanding to be united to
two diverse wills or the reverse; neither for one person who is
spiritual to be united to two diverse churches; neither in like manner
for one man (vir) to be inmostly united to two women. Inmost union is
like that of soul and heart; the soul of the wife is the husband, and
the heart of the husband is the wife. The husband communicates and
conjoins his soul to the wife by actual love; it is in his seed; and the
wife receives it in her heart, and from this the two become one, and
then each and all things in the body of the one look to their mutual in
the body of the other. This is genuine marriage, which is possible only
between two. For it is by creation that all things of the husband, both
of his mind and of his body, have their mutual in the mind and in the
body of the wife; and thus the most particular things look mutually to
each other and will to be united. From this looking and conatus
[instinct] marriage love springs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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