Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 304
there can be no source of marriage love; but below those
interiors, in the external or natural man separated from the
internal, there can be a conjunction of falsity and evil, which is
called infernal marriage. I have been permitted to see what this
marriage is between those that are in the falsities of evil, which
is called infernal marriage. Such converse together, and are
united by a lustful desire, but inwardly they burn with a deadly
hatred toward each other, too intense to be described.
378. Nor can marriage love exist between two partners
belonging to different religions, because the truth of the one
does not agree with the good of the other; and two unlike and
discordant kinds of good and truth cannot make one mind out
of two; and in consequence the love of such does not have its
origin in anything spiritual. If they live together in harmony it
is solely on natural grounds. 245
And this is why in the heavens
marriages are found only with those who are in the same
society, because such are in like good and truth and not with
those outside of the society. It may be seen above (n. 41 seq.)
that all there in a society are in like good and truth, and differ
from those outside the society. This was represented in the
Israelitish nation by marriages being contracted within tribes,
and particularly within families, and not outside of them.
379. Nor is true marriage love possible between one husband
and several wives; for its spiritual origin, which is the formation
of one mind out of two, is thus destroyed; and in consequence
interior conjunction, which is the conjunction of good and
truth, from which is the very essence of that love, is also
destroyed. Marriage with more than one is like an
understanding divided among several wills; or it is like a man
attached not to one but to several churches, since his faith is so
distracted thereby as to come to naught. The angels declare
245. Marriages between those of different religions are not permissible,
because there can be no conjunction of like good and truth in the interiors
(n. 8998).