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.
All things in the body, which are called members, viscera, and organs, are nothing but natural corporeal forms corresponding to the spiritual form of the mind; from this each and all things of the body so correspond to each and all things of the mind that whatever the mind wills and thinks the body at its command instantly brings forth into act. When, therefore, two minds act as one their two bodies are potentially so united that they are no more two but one flesh. To will to become one flesh is marriage love; and such as the willing is, such is that love.
It is allowed to confirm this by a wonderful thing in the heavens. There are married pairs there in such marriage love that the two can be one flesh, and are one whenever they wish, and they then appear as one man. I have seen and talked with such; and they said that they have one life, and are like the life of good in truth and the life of truth in good, and are like the pairs in man, that is, like the two hemispheres of the brain enclosed in one membrane, the two ventricles of the heart within a common covering, likewise the two lobes of the lungs; these, although they are two, yet are one in regard to life and the activities of life, which are uses. They said that their life so conjoined is full of heaven, and is the very life of heaven with its infinite beatitudes, for the reason that heaven that heaven also is such from the marriage of the Lord with it, for all the angels of heaven are in the Lord and the Lord in them.
Furthermore, they said that it is impossible for them to think from any intention about an additional wife or woman, because this would be turning heaven into hell, consequently if an angel merely thinks of such a thing he falls from heaven. They added that natural spirits do not believe such conjunctions as theirs to be possible, for the reason that with those who are merely natural there is no marriage from a spiritual origin, which is of good and truth, but only a marriage from a natural origin; therefore there is no union of minds, but only a union of bodies from a lascivious disposition in the flesh; and this lust is from a universal law impressed upon and thus implanted in everything animate and inanimate from creation. The law is that everything in which there is force wills to produce its like and to multiply its kind to infinity and to eternity. As the posterity of Jacob, who were called the sons of Israel, were merely natural men, and thus their marriages were not spiritual but carnal, so they were permitted on account of the hardness of their hearts to take more wives than one. (A.E., n. 1004.)
But it is to be noted that adulteries are more and less infernal and abominable. The adulteries that spring from more grievous evils and their falsities are more grievous, and those from the milder evils and their falsities are milder; for adulteries correspond to adulterations of good and consequent falsifications of truth; adulterations of good are in themselves evils, and falsifications of truth are in themselves falsities. According to correspondences with these the hells are arranged into genera and species. (A.E., n. 1006.)
In brief, from every conjunction of evil and falsity in the spiritual world a sphere of adultery flows forth, but only from those who are in falsities in regard to doctrine and in evils in regard to life; not from those who are in falsities in regard to doctrine but are in goods in regard to life, for in such there is no conjunction of evil and falsity, but only in the former. That sphere flows forth particularly from priests who have taught falsely and lived wickedly; for these have adulterated and falsified the Word. Although such were not adulterers in the world, adultery is excited by them; but it is an adultery called sacerdotal [priestly] adultery, which is distinguishable from other adulteries. All this makes clear that the origin of adulteries is the love and consequent conjunction of evil and falsity. (A.E., n. 1007.)
Adulteries are less abhorrent to Christians than to the heathen, and even to some barbarous nations, for the reason that at present in the Christian world there is no marriage of good and truth, but a marriage or evil and falsity. For the religion and doctrine of faith separated from good works is a religion and doctrine of truth separated from good; and truth separated from good is not truth, but inwardly regarded is falsity; and good separated from truth is not good, but inwardly regarded is evil. Consequently in the Christian religion there is doctrine of falsity and evil, from which origin a desire and inclination for adultery from hell flow in; and this is why adulteries are believed in the Christian world to be allowable, and are practiced without shame. For, as has been said above, the conjunction of evil and falsity is spiritual adultery, from which according to correspondence natural adultery springs. For this reason "adulteries" and "whoredoms" signify in the Word adulterations of good and falsifications of truth; and for this reason Babylon is called in the Apocalypse a "harlot," and Jerusalem is so called in the Word of the Old Testament; and the Jewish nation was called by the Lord "an adulterous nation," and "from their father the devil." (A.E., n. 1008.)
He that abstains from adulteries from any other motive than because they are sins and are against God is still an adulterer; as for instance when anyone abstains from them from fear of the civil law and its penalties, from fear of the loss of reputation and thus of honor, from fear of resulting diseases, from fear of upbraidings at home from his wife and consequent intranquility of life, from fear of chastisement by the servants of the injured husband, from poverty, or from avarice; from infirmity arising from abuse or from age or impotence or disease; in fact, when one abstains because of any natural or moral law, and does not at the same time abstain because of the Divine law, he is interiorly unchaste and an adulterer, since he none the less believes that adulteries are not sins, and therefore declares them lawful in his spirit, and thus commits them in spirit, although not in the body; consequently after death when he becomes a spirit he speaks openly in favor of them, and commits them without shame.
It has been granted me in the spiritual world to see maidens who regarded whoredoms as wicked because they are contrary to the Divine law, and also maidens who did not regard them as wicked and yet abstained from them because the resulting bad name would turn away suitors. These latter I saw encompassed with a dusky cloud in their descent to those below, while the former I saw encompassed with a shining light in their ascent to those above. (A.E., n. 1009.)