The reason why conjugial love in its supreme abode is
spiritual, holy, and pure, is because the soul of every man from its
origin is celestial; wherefore it receives influx immediately from the
Lord, for it receives from him the marriage of love and wisdom, or of
good and truth; and this influx makes him a man, and distinguishes him
from the beasts. From this union of souls, conjugial love, which is
there in its spiritual sanctity and purity, flows down into the life of
the whole body, and fills with blessed delights, so long as its channel
remains open; which is the case with those who are made spiritual by the
Lord. That nothing but adultery closes and stops up this abode of
conjugial love, thus its origin or fountain and its channel, is evident
from the Lord's words, that it is not lawful to put away a wife and
marry another, except on account of adultery: Matt. xix. 3-9; and also
from what is said in the same passage, that he that marries her that is
put away commits adultery, verse 9. When therefore, as was said above,
that pure and holy fountain is stopped up, it is clogged about with
filthiness of sundry kinds, as a jewel with ordure, or bread with vomit;
which things are altogether opposite to the purity and sanctity of that
fountain, or of conjugial love: from which opposition comes conjugial
cold, and according to this cold is the lascivious voluptuousness of
adulterous love, which consumes itself of its own accord.
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