and of religion, and afterwards does not lift his face above
nature, but turns himself to her as a deity, who favors his lust, from
whose influx his spirit thenceforward receives animation. The interior
cause of this apostasy will be explained in what follows. That this
concubinage is detestable is not seen by the man himself who is guilty
of it; because after the closing of heaven he becomes a spiritual
insanity: but a chaste wife has a clear view of it, because she is a
conjugial love, and this love nauseates such concubinage; wherefore also
many such wives refuse actual connection with their husbands afterwards,
as that which would defile their chastity by the contagion of lust
adhering to the men from their courtezans.

465. III. IT IS POLYGAMY WHICH HAS BEEN CONDEMNED, AND IS TO BE
CONDEMNED, BY THE CHRISTIAN WORLD. That simultaneous concubinage, or
concubinage conjoined with a wife, is polygamy, although not
acknowledged to be such, because it is not so declared, and thus not so
called by any law, must be evident to every person of common
discernment; for a woman taken into keeping, and made partaker of the
conjugial bed is like a wife. That polygamy has been condemned, and is
to be condemned by the Christian world, has been shewn in the chapter on
polygamy, especially from these articles therein: A Christian is not
allowed to marry more than one wife; n. 338: If a Christian marries
several wives, he commits not only natural, but also spiritual adultery;
n. 339: The Israelitish nation was permitted to marry several wives,
because the Christian church was not with them; n. 349. From these
considerations it is evident, that to adjoin a concubine to a wife, and
to make each a partner of the bed, is filthy polygamy.

466. IV. IT IS AN ADULTERY WHEREBY THE CONJUGIAL PRINCIPLE, WHICH IS THE
MOST PRECIOUS JEWEL OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS DESTROYED. That it is more
opposed to conjugial love than simple adultery; and that it is a
deprivation of every faculty and inclination to conjugial life, which is
implanted in Christians from birth, may be evinced by arguments which
will have great weight with the reason of a wise man. In regard to the
FIRST POSITION,--that simultaneous concubinage, or concubinage conjoined
with a wife, is more opposed to conjugial love than simple adultery, it
may be seen from these considerations: that in simple adultery there is
not a love analogous to conjugial love; for it is only a heat of the
fle