Conjugial Love (Acton) n. 121

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121. IV. THAT THE SPIRITUAL OFFSPRING WHICH ARE BORN FROM THE MARRIAGE OF THE LORD WITH THE CHURCH ARE TRUTHS, FROM WHICH ARE UNDERSTANDING, PERCEPTION, AND ALL THOUGHT; AND GOODS, FROM WHICH ARE LOVE, CHARITY, AND EVERY AFFECTION. That truths and goods are the spiritual offspring born of the Lord by the Church is 1. because the Lord is good itself and truth itself, and in Him these are not two but one, and 2. because nothing else can proceed from the Lord but what is in Him and is Himself. That the marriage of good and truth proceeds from the Lord and flows in with men and is received according to the state of the mind and life of those who are of the Church, has been shown in the preceding chapter on The Marriage of Good and Truth. That by truths, man has understanding, perception, and all thought, and by goods, love, charity, and every affection, is because all things of man have reference to truth and good, and there are two things in him which make him, namely, will and understanding, the will being the receptacle of good and the understanding the receptacle of truth. That the things proper to the will are love, charity, and affection, and those proper to the understanding are perception and thought, needs no light from demonstration, for in the statement is light from the understanding itself.


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