Page:Marriage Its Origin, Uses, and Duties.pdf/17

 Marriage, as derived from the conjunction of love and wisdom, is to be carefully distinguished from all matrimonial connections that originate in merely natural affections; and it may be well to point out the distinction between them. There are two affections, perfectly distinct in themselves, and widely different in their character, in which marriage may originate. It may originate in THE LOVE OF THE SEX, or in CONJUGIAL LOVE. The love of the sex is a merely natural affection, common to man and to animals; but conjugial love is a spiritual affection peculiar to man, and which he has the capacity of acquiring by virtue of the rational nature with which the Creator has formed him. We say that man has the capacity of acquiring this love, for he is not born into it, as he is into the love of the sex, but comes into it when he is born again, it being an affection of that new nature which he acquires by regeneration. These two affections, while differing widely in their nature, have yet their first origin in the same Divine cause, for they are both derived from that CONJUGIAL SPHERE which proceeds from the Lord and pervades the universe, and from which all creatures are inspired with the affection of conjunctive love, and all inanimate creation with a principle analogous to it. This Divine sphere is received by every one and every thing according to their form and state. When it is received in the natural or animal mind of man, it gives birth to the natural love of the sex; but when it is received in the spiritual