cause it is committed by two, and on each side the marriage-covenant
is violated; wherefore also it is twofold more grievous than the former.
It was said above, n. 480, that the conjugial love of one man with one
wife, after engagement and covenant, unites their souls, and that such
union is that very love in its origin; and that this origin is closed
and stopped up by adultery, as the source and stream of a fountain. That
the souls of two unite themselves together, when love to the sex is
confined to one of the sex, which is the case when a maiden engages
herself wholly to a youth, and on the other hand a youth engages himself
wholly to a maiden, is clearly manifest from this consideration, that
the lives of both unite themselves, consequently their souls, because
souls are the first principles of life. This union of souls can only
take place in monogamical marriages, or those of one man with one wife,
but not in polygamical marriages, or those of one man with several
wives; because in the latter case the love is divided, in the former it
is united. The reason why conjugial love in its supreme abode is
spiritual, holy, and pure, is because the soul of every man from its
origin is celestial; wherefore it receives influx immediately from the
Lord, for it receives from him the marriage of love and wisdom, or of
good and truth; and this influx makes him a man, and distinguishes him
from the beasts. From this union of souls, conjugial love, which is
there in its spiritual sanctity and purity, flows down into the life of
the whole body, and fills with blessed delights, so long as its channel
remains open; which is the case with those who are made spiritual by the
Lord. That nothing but adultery closes and stops up this abode of
conjugial love, thus its origin or fountain and its channel, is evident
from the Lord's words, that it is not lawful to put away a wife and
marry another, except on account of adultery: Matt. xix. 3-9; and also
from what is said in the same passage, that he that marries her that is
put away commits adultery, verse 9. When therefore, as was said above,
that pure and holy fountain is stopped up, it is clogged about with
filthiness of sundry kinds, as a jewel with ordure, or bread with vomit;
which things are altogether opposite to the purity and sanctity of that
fountain, or of conjugial love: from which opposition comes conjugial
cold, and according to this cold is the lascivious voluptuousness of
adulte