Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/562

466 that the will of the one is that of the other, and this mutually and reciprocally. This the love of dominion destroys in marriage; for he who domineers wishes that his will alone should be in the other, and none of the other's reciprocally in himself. There is therefore nothing mutual, and accordingly no communication of any love and its delight with the other, and no reciprocal return; yet this communication, and the consequent conjunction, is the very interior delight that is called blessedness in marriage. This blessedness the love of domination utterly extinguishes, and with it all that is heavenly and spiritual in that love, even to such a degree that it is unknown that there is [anything heavenly and spiritual in it]. (ib. n. 379, 380.)

Neither is there love that is truly conjugial between two who are of different religion; since the truth of the one does not accord with the good of the other, and two dissimilar and discordant principles cannot make of two one mind. The origin of their love takes nothing therefore from the spiritual. If they cohabit and agree, it is only from natural causes. For this reason marriages in the heavens are formed with those that are within the same society, because they are in similar good and truth; and not with those that are out of the society. (C. L. n. 378.)

They that are born within the church, and from infancy have imbibed the principles of truth of the church, ought not to unite in marriage with those who are out of the church and so have imbibed such principles as are not of the church. The reason is that there is no conjunction between them in the spiritual world; for in that world every one is consociated according to good and the truth therefrom. And as there is no conjunction between such in the spiritual world, there ought to be no conjunction on earth; for in themselves regarded marriages are conjunctions of the inner and outer minds (animorum et mentium), the spiritual life of which is from goods and truths of faith and charity. For this reason marriages on earth between those who are of different religion are ever regarded in heaven as heinous; and more so between those who are of the church and those that are out of the church. This too was a reason why the Jewish and Israelitish nation was prohibited from contracting marriages with the Gentiles (Deut. vii 3, 4); and that it was utterly heinous to commit fornication with them (Numb. xxv. 1-9). This is the more evident from the