305. IX. WITHIN THE TIME OF BETROTHING IT IS NOT ALLOWABLE TO BE
CONNECTED CORPOREALLY. For thus the order which is inscribed on
conjugial love, perishes. For in human minds there are three regions, of
which the highest is called the celestial, the middle the spiritual, and
the lowest the natural. In this lowest man is born; but he ascends into
the next above it, the spiritual, by a life according to the truths of
religion, and into the highest by the marriage of love and wisdom. In
the lowest or natural region, reside all the concupiscences of evil and
lasciviousness; but in the superior or spiritual region, there are no
concupiscences of evil and lasciviousness; for man is introduced into
this region by the Lord, when he is re-born; but in the supreme or
celestial region, there is conjugial chastity in its love: into this
region a man is elevated by the love of uses; and as the most excellent
uses are from marriages, he is elevated into it by love truly conjugial.
From these few considerations, it may be seen that conjugial love, from
the first beginnings of its warmth, is to be elevated out of the lowest
region into a superior region, that it may become chaste, and that
thereby from a chaste principle it may be let down through the middle
and lowest regions into the body; and when this is the case, this lowest
region is purified from all that is unchaste by this descending chaste
principle: hence the ultimate of that love becomes also chaste.
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