Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/203

Rh "The angels regard marriages on earth as most holy, because they are the seminaries of the human race and also of the angels of heaven, for heaven is from the human race; also because they are from a spiritual origin, namely, from the marriage of good and truth; and because the Divine of the Lord flows primarily into conjugial love." (H. H. 384.) "I once heard an angel describing love truly conjugial and its heavenly delights, in this manner: That it is the Divine of the Lord in the heavens,—which is the divine good and divine truth,—united in two beings, yet in such a manner that they are not two, but as one. He said that two conjugial partners in heaven are that love,—because every one is his own good and his own truth, as to mind as well as to body; for the body is the effigy of the mind, because formed in its likeness. Hence he concluded that the Divine is effigied in two, who are in love truly conjugial; and because the Divine is effigied in them, so also is heaven." (H. H, 374.)

"The essential of marriage is the union of minds. . . . And the union of minds is altogether such as are the truths and goods from which the minds are formed. Consequently the union is most perfect between minds that are formed of genuine truths and goods. It is to be observed that no two things mutually love each other more than truth and good. Therefore love truly conjugial descends from that love." (Ibid. 375.)

"Love truly conjugial cannot exist between one husband and more wives than one; for this destroys its spiritual origin, which is the