A little earlier a brief proof was offered that the nature of conjugial love having regard to its origin, the marriage of good and truth, is as stated; but then only a brief foretaste could be given. The same is true of the proposition that this love gets its nature from its correspondence with the marriage of the Lord and the church. These two marriages, from which conjugial love is derived as an offshoot, are the very height of holiness. If therefore this love is received from its Author, who is the Lord, holiness coming from Him accompanies it, constantly cleansing and purifying it. If a person then possesses in his will a desire and striving after it, this love becomes more clean and pure day by day for ever.

[2] Conjugial love is called celestial and spiritual, because it is possessed by the angels of the heavens. It is celestial among the angels of the highest heaven, because they are called celestial angels; and it is spiritual among the angels below that heaven, because they are called spiritual angels. These angels are so named, because the celestial ones are models of love and the wisdom that comes of it; the spiritual ones are models of wisdom and the love that comes of that. Their conjugial love is similar.

[3] Since conjugial love is present among the angels of both the higher and lower heavens, as was also shown in the earlier chapter on 'Marriages in heaven' [27-41], it is evident that it is holy and pure. The reason why it is, regarded in essence due to the sources from which it is derived, more holy and pure than any other love angels or human beings possess, is that it is, so to speak, the chief of the other loves. Some remarks about its leading position will be made in the next section.