Conjugial Love (Acton) n. 180

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180. XXI. THAT THE STATES OF THIS LOVE ARE INNOCENCE, PEACE, TRANQUILLITY, INMOST FRIENDSHIP, FULL CONFIDENCE, AND A MUTUAL DESIRE OF ANIMUS AND HEART TO DO TO THE OTHER EVERY GOOD; AND FROM ALL THESE, BLESSEDNESS, HAPPINESS, DELIGHT, PLEASURE; AND FROM THE ETERNAL FRUITION OF THESE, HEAVENLY FELICITY. The reason why all these are within conjugial love and thus come from it, is because its origin is the marriage of good and truth, and this marriage is from the Lord. The nature of love is such that it desires to be in communion with another whom it loves from the heart, yea, to confer joys on that other and therein to take its own joys. Infinitely more is this true of the Divine Love which is in the Lord, in respect to man whom He created a receptacle of the love and wisdom proceeding from Himself. And because He created him for the reception of these--man for the reception of wisdom, woman for the reception of the love of man's wisdom--therefore, from their very inmost, He infused into them conjugial love, that into this, and consequently into those who are in love truly conjugial, these alone being recipients, He might gather all things blessed, happy, delightful, and pleasurable, which, together with life, proceed and flow in solely from His Divine Love through His Divine Wisdom. Innocence, peace, tranquillity, inmost friendship, full confidence, and the mutual desire of animus and heart to do to the other every good, are mentioned, because innocence and peace are predicated of the soul, tranquillity of the mind, inmost friendship of the breast, full confidence of the heart, and the mutual desire of animus and heart to do to the other every good, of the body from these.


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