Continuation concerning the Sixth Precept:-

[2] Love truly conjugial is possible only between two, as is the Lord's love towards heaven, which is one from Him and in Him; or towards the church, which like heaven is one from Him and in Him. All those who are in the heavens and also in the church must be one by mutual love from love to the Lord. An angel in heaven, or a man in the church, who does not make one with the rest, belongs neither to the one nor the other. Moreover, in the whole heaven, and in the whole world, there are two things to which all others have reference. These two are called good and truth; from these united into one, all things in heaven and in the world have existed and subsist. When they are one, then good is in truth, and truth is in good; and truth belongs to good, and good to truth. Thus the one acknowledges the other mutually and reciprocally, as an agent its proper re-agent, and interchangeably. From this universal marriage the conjugial love between husband and wife is derived. The husband is so created as to be the understanding of truth, and the wife is so created as to be the will of good; consequently the husband is truth, and the wife is good; thus both are truth and good in their form, which form is man (homo), and the image of God. And because it is from creation that truth should belong to good, and good to truth, thus also mutually and interchangeably, therefore there cannot be one truth united to two different goods, and the reverse: nor can there be one understanding united to two different wills, and the reverse. Thus neither can there be one man (homo), who is spiritual, united to two different churches; nor, similarly, one man (vir) intimately united to two women. Intimate union is like that of the soul and heart. The soul of the wife is the man, and the heart of the man is the wife. The man communicates and unites his soul to the wife by actual love: it is in his seed, and the wife receives it in her heart. Hence the two become one, and then everything in general and particular in the body of the one looks each to that which is mutual in the body of the other. This is the genuine marriage, which is possible only between two. For it is from creation that all things pertaining to the man, both mind and body, should each have that which is mutual in the mind and body of the wife; and thence that the least particulars should mutually look to each other, and desire to be united.

[3] From this aspect and effort conjugial love exists. All things in the body, called members, viscera, and organs, are nothing else but natural corporeal forms corresponding to the spiritual forms of the mind. Consequently, all things of the body, in general and particular, have such correspondence with all things of the mind, in general and particular, that whatever the mind wills and thinks, the body instantly brings out into act and according to its wish. When, therefore, two minds act as one, then also the two bodies are potentially so united that they are no more two but one flesh. To will to become one flesh is conjugial love, and that love is according to the quality of that will.

[4] It is allowed to confirm this by a wonderful thing in the heavens. There are married partners there who are in such conjugial love that both can be one flesh, and also are one when they will so to be, then they appear as one man. I have seen and discoursed with them, and they said, that they have one life, and that they are as the life of good in truth, and the life of truth in good; and that they are like the pairs in man - the two hemispheres of the brain encompassed with one meninx, the two ventricles of the heart within a common covering, and also the two lobes of the lungs, which, although they are two, yet are one as to life and as to the activities of life, which are uses. They said that their life, thus conjoined, is full of heaven, and that it is the very life of heaven, with its infinite beatitudes, because heaven also is such from the marriage of the Lord therewith. For all the angels of heaven are in the Lord, and the Lord in them.

[5] They said, moreover, that it is impossible for them to think from any intention of a secondary wife or woman, because this would be to turn heaven into hell. Therefore if an angel merely thought of such a thing he would fall from heaven. They added also that natural-minded spirits do not believe unions such as theirs to be possible, because with those who are merely natural, there is no marriage from a spiritual origin, which is that of good and truth, but only marriage from a natural origin. Consequently, there is no union of minds (mentes), but only a union of bodies from a lustful disposition in the flesh, and this lust is from a universal law impressed upon and thus implanted from creation in everything animate and inanimate. This law is, that everything in which there is power wills to produce its like, and to multiply its species to infinity and to eternity. Because the posterity of Jacob, who were called the sons of Israel, were merely natural men, and consequently their marriages were not spiritual but carnal, therefore, on account of the hardness of their hearts, it was allowed them to take several wives.