(Continuation respecting the Sixth Commandment)

[2] Man was so created as to be spiritual and celestial love, and thus an image and likeness of God. Spiritual love, which is the love of truth, is the image of God; and celestial love, which is the love of good, is the likeness of God. All the angels in the third heaven are likenesses of God; and all the angels in the second heaven are images of God. Man can become the love which is an image or likeness of God only by a marriage of good and truth; for good and truth inmostly love one another, and ardently long to be united that they may be one; and for the reason that the Divine good and the Divine truth proceed from the Lord united, therefore they must be united in an angel of heaven and in a man of the church. This union is by no means possible except by the marriage of two minds into one, since, as has been said before, man was created to be the understanding of truth, and thus truth, and woman was created to be the affection of good, and thus good; therefore in them the conjunction of good and truth is possible. For conjugial love which descends from that conjunction is the veriest means by which man [homo] becomes the love that is the image or the likeness of God. For the two partners who are in conjugial love from the Lord love one another mutually and reciprocally from the heart, thus from inmosts; and therefore although apparently two they are actually one, two as to their bodies, but one as to life. This may be compared to the eyes, which are two as organs but one as to the sight; also to the ears, which are two as organs but one as to hearing; so, too, the arms and the feet are two as members but one as to use, the arms one as to action, and the feet one as to walking. So with the other pairs with man. All these have reference to good and truth, the organ or member on the right to good, and that on the left to truth. It is the same with a husband and wife between whom there is love truly conjugial; they are two as to their bodies but one as to life; consequently in heaven two partners are not called two angels but one. All this makes clear that through marriage man becomes a form of love, and thus a form of heaven, which is the image and likeness of God. [3] Man is born into the love of evil and falsity, which love is the love of adultery; and this love cannot be converted and changed into spiritual love, which is the image of God, and still less into celestial love, which is the likeness of God, except by the marriage of good and truth from the Lord, and not fully except by the marriage of two minds and two bodies. From this it is clear why marriages are heavenly and adulteries infernal; for marriage is an image of heaven, and love truly conjugial is an image of the Lord, while adultery is an image of hell, and love of adultery is an image of the devil. Moreover, conjugial love appears in the spiritual world in form like an angel, and the love of adultery in form like a devil. Reader, treasure this up within you, and after death, when you are living as a spirit-man, inquire whether this is true, and you will see.