Conjugial Love (Acton) n. 243

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243. VIII. THAT OF THE INTERNAL CAUSES [OF COLD], THE FOURTH IS [IMBUED] FALSITY OF RELIGION. The reason is because falsity in spiritual things either takes away religion or defiles it. It takes it away with those with whom genuine truths are falsified. It defiles it with those with whom there are indeed falsities but no genuine truths and consequently none which could be falsified. With such men there may be goods with which by application those falsities can be conjoined by the Lord; for their falsities are like various discordant tones which, by skilful combinations and insinuations, are drawn into a harmony with its resultant gratefulness. With these, some conjugial love is possible; but with those who have falsified the genuine truths of the Church, it is not possible. From the latter comes the prevailing ignorance as to love truly conjugial, or the negative doubt as to whether it is possible. From them also is the insanity inseated in the minds of many, that adulteries are not evils of religion.


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