TRULY CONJUGIAL LOVE

There are countless varieties of conjugial love; no one has exactly the same conjugial love as another. It may indeed seem similar in many people, but this is the result of applying bodily judgment, and this judgment does not allow one readily to make distinctions, being gross and dull. Bodily judgment means mental judgment which relies on the outward senses. But those whose sight comes from the judgment of the spirit can see the differences, and the more clearly if people are able to lift this power of judgment to a higher level, something which can be done by withdrawing it from the senses and raising it into a higher light. Those who reach this level are finally able to confirm intellectually and thus see that no one has exactly the same conjugial love as another.

Still no one can see the countless varieties of this love, however enlightened and raised his intellect may be, unless he first knows what that love is like in its essence and integrity; what it was like, in fact, when conferred on man by God together with life. Without knowing the most perfect state it then had, it is vain to expect any amount of research to reveal its distinctions. For there would not then be any fixed point from which distinctions could be seen to depart, or target at which they could be said to aim, so as to show whether they were truly or fallaciously made. This is why we here begin with a description of conjugial love in its true essence; and since it was in this state when it was introduced by God into man together with life, we begin by describing its primeval state. Because at that stage it was truly conjugial, this section is headed 'Truly Conjugial Love.' The description will proceed in the following order. (i) Truly conjugial love exists, but is so rare that today its nature is unknown and almost its very existence. (ii) This love arises from the marriage of good and truth. (iii) This love stands by correspondence for the marriage of the Lord with the church. (iv) This love, having regard to its origin and correspondence, is more celestial, spiritual, holy, pure and clean than any other love the Lord confers on angels in heaven or people in the church. (v) This love is also the foundation of all celestial and spiritual loves, and thus of all natural ones. (vi) All joys and all delights, from first to last, have been conferred on this love. (vii) The only people who can acquire and enjoy that love are those who approach the Lord, loving the truths the church teaches and doing the good deeds it prescribes. (viii) This was the highest form of love among the people of antiquity, who lived in the Golden, Silver and Copper Ages, but after this it gradually came to an end.

There now follows an explanation of these propositions.