(ML) - Wisdom's Delight in Marriage Love: Followed by Insanity’s Pleasure in Promiscuous Love

ML 432

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432. VIII. THAT SCORTATORY LOVE MAKES MAN TO BE MORE AND MORE NOT A MAN AND NOT A MALE; AND THAT CONJUGIAL LOVE MAKES MAN TO BE MORE AND MORE A MAN AND A MALE. That conjugial love makes man [to be man] is illustrated and confirmed by all that has been demonstrated in light before the reason in the First Part, on [Conjugial] Love and its Delights of wisdom, as: 1. That one who is in love truly conjugial becomes more and more spiritual; and the more he becomes spiritual, the more he is a man. 2. That he becomes more and more wise; and the more one becomes wise, the more he is a man. 3. That with him, the interiors of the mind are opened more and more, even to his seeing the Lord, that is, acknowledging Him interiorly; and the more one is in that sight or that acknowledgment, the more he is a man. 4. That he becomes more and more moral and civil,* there being a spiritual soul in his morality and civility; and the more one is morally civil, the more he is a man. 5. Also, that after death he becomes an angel of heaven; and an angel is a man in essence and form; moreover, what is genuinely human shines out in his face [and is seen] from his speech and manners. Thus it is evident that conjugial love makes man more and more a man.
[2] That the contrary is the case with adulterers follows inevitably from the opposition of adultery and marriage treated of previously in the present chapter, and also now, as: 1. That they are not spiritual but in the lowest degree natural; and the natural man separate from the spiritual is a man only as to his understanding but not as to his will. This he immerses in the body and in the concupiscences of the flesh, and at such times the understanding accompanies it. That he is but half a man, he himself can see from the reason of his own understanding if he elevates it. 2. That adulterers are not wise except in their conversation and also in their behavior when in company with men eminent in dignity, renowned for erudition or of good morals; and that when alone they are insane, making light of the Divine and holy things of the Church, and defiling the moralities of life with things shameless and unchaste--this will be proved in the chapter on Adulteries. Who does not see that such gesticulators are men only as to their external figure, and are not men as to their internal form? 3. That adulterers become more and more not men. As to this, my own observation from having seen them in hell has served me as clear confirmation; for there they are demons, whose faces, when seen in the light of heaven, are pustulous, their bodies humpbacked, their speech rough, and their gestures theatrical.** [3] It should be known, however, that it is adulterers from purpose and confirmation that are such, not unpremeditated adulterers; for there are four kinds of adulterers, concerning whom, see the chapter on Adulteries and their Degrees. Adulterers from purpose are those who are adulterers from the lust of the will; adulterers from confirmation are those who are adulterers from the persuasion of the understanding; adulterers from premeditation are those who are adulterers from the allurements of the senses; and unpremeditated adulterers are those who do not have the ability or the freedom of consulting their understanding. It is the first two kinds of adulterers who become more and more not men; but the latter two kinds become men as they recede from those errors and afterwards become wise.
* The word civil is used by Swedenborg in its root meaning--civis, a citizen. Thus a civil man is one who performs his duties as a citizen or member of society.
** In the original, the remainder of this paragraph is inserted between inverted commas.

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