kes its fruit; in
like manner all that which precedes and proceeds with a bridegroom and
bride, and constitutes their marriage: this is the meaning of influx.
That all those things which precede in minds form series, which collect
together, one next to another, and one after another, and that these
together compose a last or ultimate, is as yet unknown in the world; but
as it is a truth from heaven, it is here adduced for it explains what
influx effects, and what is the quality of the last or ultimate, in
which the above-mentioned series successively formed co-exist. From
these considerations it may be seen that the states of the minds of each
of the parties proceeding in successive order flow into the state of
marriage. But married partners after marriage are altogether ignorant of
the successive things which are insinuated into, and exist in their
minds (_animis_) from things antecedent; nevertheless it is those things
which give form to conjugial love, and constitute the state of their
minds; from which state they act the one with the other. The reason why
one state is formed from one order with such as are spiritual, and from
another with such as are natural, is, because the spiritual proceed in a
just order, and the natural in an unjust order; for the spiritual look
to the Lord, and the Lord provides and leads the order; whereas the
natural look to themselves, and thence proceed in an inverted order;
wherefore with the latter the state of marriage is inwardly full of
unchasteness; and as that unchasteness abounds, so does cold; and as
cold abounds so do the obstructions of the inmost life, whereby its vein
is closed and its fountain dried.

314. XVIII. THERE ARE SUCCESSIVE AND SIMULTANEOUS ORDER, AND THE LATTER
IS FROM THE FORMER AND ACCORDING TO IT. This is adduced as a reason
tending to confirm what goes before. It is well known that there exist
what is successive and what is simultaneous; but it is unknown that
simultaneous order is grounded in successive, and is according to it;
yet how things successive enter into things simultaneous, and what order
they form therein, it is very difficult to present to the perception,
since the learned are not in possession of any ideas that can elucidate
the subject; and as the first idea respecting this arcanum cannot be
suggested in few words, and to treat this subject at large would
withdraw the mind from a more comprehensive view of the subject of
conjugial love, it may s