for it's subject the united mind of a husband and wife. This also plainly appears to be the doctrine of the Lord concerning marriage: "Have ye not read, (says he to the Pharisees,) that he, who made them at the beginning, made them male and female? and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh. "Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder," Matt. xix. 4 to 6.
Since then the celestial marriage of good and truth generates in the mind of man a corresponding love; and since this love cannot exist in all it's fulness, perfection, and blessedness, while received singly by either a male or a female form, but must be implanted and confirmed in both by a mutual and reciprocal intercourse; it follows, that the state of marriage keeps pace with the state of religion in man, and that, when under the influence of true conjugial love, it is the most holy, chaste, and perfect state, as well as the happiest and most blessed, that either men or angels are capable of attaining. It is therefore maintained, from the original design of creation, and from the general testimony of the Word, rightly understood, that true conjugial love, which can only exist between one husband and one wife, inasmuch as it is grounded in the marriage of good and truth, and corresponds with the marriage of the Lord and his church, is a primary characteristic of the true christian religion; being the very ground or plane, which receives the divine influx, and together with it all the joys, pleasures, delights, and beatitudes, from first principles to ultimate effects, which can be conferred on man by the Lord his Creator, Redeemer, and Regenerator.
