id not acknowledge Christ or the
Messiah, our Lord, when he came into the world, but also barbarously
took him away out of the world. From these considerations it is evident,
that the Christian church was not, with that nation, as neither is it at
this day; and those with whom the Christian church is not, are natural
men both externally and internally: to such persons polygamy is not
hurtful, since it is inherent in the natural man; for, in regard to love
in marriages, the natural man perceives nothing but what has relation to
lust. This is meant by these words of the Lord, "_That Moses, because of
the HARDNESS OF THEIR HEARTS, suffered them to put away their wives: but
that from the beginning it was not so_," Matt. xix. 8. He says that
Moses permitted it, in order that it may be known that it was not the
Lord (who permitted it). But that the Lord taught the internal spiritual
man, is known from his precepts, and from the abrogation of the rituals
which served only for the use of the natural man; from his precepts
respecting washing, as denoting the purification of the internal man,
Matt. xv. 1, 17-20; chap. xxiii. 25, 26; Mark vii. 14-23; respecting
adultery, as denoting cupidity of the will, Matt. v. 28; respecting the
putting away of wives, as being unlawful, and respecting polygamy, as
not being agreeable to the divine law, Matt. xix. 3-9. These and several
other things relating to the internal principle and the spiritual man,
the Lord taught, because he alone opens the internals of human minds,
and makes them spiritual, and implants these spiritual principles in the
natural, that these also may partake of a spiritual essence: and this
effect takes place if he is approached, and the life is formed according
to his command merits, which in a summary are, to believe on him, and to
shun evils because they are of and from the devil; also to do good
works, because they are of the Lord and from the Lord; and in each case
for the man to act as from himself, and at the same time to believe that
all is done by the Lord through him. The essential reason why the Lord
opens the internal spiritual man, and implants this in the external
natural man, is, because every man thinks and acts naturally, and
therefore could not perceive any thing spiritual, and receives it in his
natural principle, unless the Lord had assumed the human natural, and
had made this also divine. From these considerations now it appears a
truth that the Israel