381. To some a likeness of marriage love is granted. Yet unless they
are in the love of good and truth there is no marriage love, but only
a love which from several causes appears like marriage love, namely,
that they may secure good service at home; that they may be free from
care, or at peace, or at ease; that they may be cared for in sickness
or in old age; or that the children whom they love may be attended
to. Some are constrained by fear of the other consort, or by fear of
the loss of reputation, or other evil consequences, and some by a
controlling lust. Moreover, in the two consorts marriage love may
differ, in one there may be more or less of it, in the other little
or none; and because of this difference heaven may be the portion of
one and hell the portion of the other.
382. [a.] In the inmost heaven there is genuine marriage love because
the angels there are in the marriage of good and truth, and also in
innocence. The angels of the lower heavens are also in marriage love,
but only so far as they are in innocence; for marriage love viewed in
itself is a state of innocence; and this is why consorts who are in
the marriage love enjoy heavenly delights together, which appear
before their minds almost like the sports of innocence, as between
little children; for everything delights their minds, since heaven
with its joy flows into every particular of their lives.
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