Conjugial Love (Acton) n. 430

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430. VI. THAT THE UNCLEANNESS OF HELL IS FROM SCORTATORY LOVE, AND THE CLEANNESS OF HEAVEN FROM CONJUGIAL LOVE. All hell abounds in uncleanness, the universal origin of which is shameless and obscene scortatory love, the delights Whereof are turned into such uncleanness. Who can believe that in the spiritual world every delight of love is presented under the form of various appearances that it may be seen, of various odors, that it may be sensed, and of various forms of beasts and birds that it may be observed? In hell the appearances under which the lascivious delights of scortatory love are presented to be seen are excrements and mire; the odors under Which they are there presented to be sensed, are stenches and noisome vapors; and the forms of beasts and birds under which they are presented to be observed are swine, serpents, and the birds called ochim and tziim.* The reverse is the case with the chaste delights of conjugial love in heaven. The appearances under which these are there presented to be seen are gardens and flowery fields; the odors under which they are there presented to be sensed are odors from fruits and fragrances from flowers; and the forms of animals under which they are there presented to be observed are lambs, kids, turtle-doves, and birds of paradise. The delights of love are turned into these and like forms because all things which exist in the spiritual world are correspondences. The internals of the minds of the inhabitants of that World are turned into such correspondences when they pass over and become external things before the senses. It should be known, however, that there are innumerable varieties of uncleanness into which the lasciviousness of whoredoms is turned when it goes forth into its correspondences. These varieties are according to the general and specific nature of the lasciviousness as described in the following pages where adulteries and their degrees are treated of. But in the case of those who have repented, such uncleanness does not go forth from the delights of their love, for they have been cleansed in the world. * These are two Hebrew words occurring in the Psalms, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, the meaning of which is unknown; but in some passages, the context indicates that they sometimes mean some evil birds of night.


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