43. One man, one wife

In the Christian world, where the interiors of the Church are revealed, and where the Lord is worshipped, and it is known that heaven and the Church are from Him, and that the Church is joined with Him as a wife with her husband; and that there is only one Church, and that there is to be a conjunction of good and truth among those who are of that Church; it is not permitted to marry several wives, for this would be a perversion of the spiritual which is to be, or can be, in marriage. Therefore if a Christian were to marry several wives, it would be as if he had two Churches with him, or as if truth were to draw its essence from two goods, with which marriage is impossible, for good is the being (esse) of truth, and the being (esse) or essence of one truth from two goods is impossible. This is why truly conjugial love cannot possibly exist between one man and several wives. For in this case there would be some lasciviousness which would enter. Moreover love cannot be divided, since it is from one person's affection, which is of the will, agreeing with the other's thought, which is of the understanding; and this unanimity and cohabitation, which makes the essence of conjugial love, is impossible [with several wives]. In short, the Christian Church is not among them; therefore when an angel in heaven so much as thinks about several wives, everything celestial and angelic with him dies, his joy as much as his wisdom, and he falls from heaven.