A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion/Chapter 34
XXXIV. Marriage.
IT has been already observed, art. 15 and 16, that as every thing in the universe, which exists according to divine order, bears a certain relation to good and truth, and to their union, so every thing in man has relation to his will and understanding, which are the receptacles of good and truth, or of love and wisdom, and to their conjunction in his mind and in his life. This conjunction of good and truth in man is compared in the Word to a marriage, and actually descends from a similar marriage of good and truth in heaven, which again in it's turn descends from the Lord himself, in whom the divine love and divine wisdom are essentially one. But the celestial marriage, while confined to a single individual mind, cannot be completed in all it's fulness and perfection; neither can it in such case be productive of so high and exquisite a sense of blessedness, as when it has 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.