Conjugial Love (Acton) n. 147

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147. VII. THAT THE CHASTITY OF MARRIAGE COMES INTO EXISTENCE BY THE TOTAL RENUNCIATION OF WHOREDOMS FROM RELIGION. The reason is because chastity is the removal of unchastity. It is a universal rule that so far as any one removes evil, so far an opportunity is given for good to succeed it; and further, so far as evil is hated, so far good is loved, and vice versa; consequently, so far as whoredom is renounced, so far the chastity of marriage enters in. That conjugial love is purified and rectified in proportion to the renunciation of whoredoms, is seen by every one from common perception, as soon as it is stated and heard, thus prior to any confirmation; but because all men do not have common perception, it is important that this be made clear by confirmations also. The confirmations are as follows: As soon as conjugial love is divided, it grows cold, and this coldness causes it to perish; for the heat of unchaste love extinguishes it, it being impossible for two opposite heats to be together without the one rejecting the other and depriving it of its power. When therefore the heat of conjugial love removes and rejects the heat of scortatory love, conjugial love begins to grow pleasantly warm, and from the sensation of its delights, begins to bud and blossom, like an orchard and rosebed in the time of spring, the one from the vernal temperature of the light and heat of the sun of the natural world, the other from the vernal temperature of the light and heat of the sun of the spiritual world.


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