466. IV. THAT IT IS WHOREDOM, AND BY IT THE CONJUGIAL WHICH IS THE PRECIOUS TREASURE* OF CHRISTIAN LIFE, IS DESTROYED. That it is a whoredom more opposed to conjugial love than the common whoredom which is called simple adultery, and that it is the deprivation of all ability and inclination for the conjugial life which is within Christians from birth, can be proved by arguments which are valid before the reason of a wise man.
As regards the FIRST point, that simultaneous concubinage or concubinage conjointly with the wife is a whoredom more opposed to conjugial love than the common whoredom which is called simple adultery, this can be seen from the following: Within common whoredom or simple adultery there is no love analogous to conjugial love, it being merely a burning heat of the flesh which cools down directly, and sometimes does not leave behind it any vestige of love for the woman. Therefore, this effervescing lasciviousness, if the act is not committed from purpose or confirmation, and if the adulterer repents of it, detracts only some little from conjugial love. Not so with polygamous whoredom. Within this, unlike the former, is a love analogous to conjugial love; for after the effervescence, it does not cool down, disperse, and pass off into nothing, but remains and renews and establishes itself. To that extent it takes away from love to the wife and induces cold for her in its place; for the man then looks upon the harlot who shares his bed as lovely, doing this because of the freedom of his will in that he can withdraw if he pleases. This freedom is inborn in the natural man, and being pleasing to him, it supports his love. Moreover, unition with a concubine, With all its allurements, is closer than with the wife. On the other hand, he does not look upon his wife as lovely, and this because of the duty of cohabitation with her enjoined by a covenant for life; and his perception of this duty as being forced is the stronger because of his freedom with the other woman. That love for the married partner grows cold, and she herself is held cheap in proportion as love for the one who is a harlot grows warm, and she is prized, is evident.
[2] As regards the SECOND point, that simultaneous concubinage or concubinage conjointly with the wife deprives man of all ability and inclination for that conjugial life which is within Christians from birth, this can be seen from the following: So far as love for the married partner is transcribed into love for the concubine, so far it is torn away, exhausted, and emptied out, as shown just above. That this is effected through the closing of the interior parts of the man's natural mind and the unclosing of the inferior, can be evident from the fact that, With Christians, the seat of the inclination to love one of the sex is in their inmosts, and that while this seat can be shut off, it cannot be extirpated. That the inclination to love one of the sex and also the ability to receive that love is implanted in Christians from birth, is because that love is from the Lord alone and is made a matter of religion; and in Christendom the Divine of the Lord is acknowledged and worshipped, and religion is from His word. Hence is the engrafting of that inclination, and also its transplantation from generation to generation. It was said that by polygamous whoredom this Christian conjugial is destroyed; but what is meant is, that in a Christian polygamist it is closed up and intercepted. Yet it can be resuscitated in his posterity, just as is the case with the likeness of a grandfather or remote ancestor returning in his grandson or great-grandson. Hence it is that this conjugial is called the precious treasure of Christian life, and above (nos. 457, 458), the precious jewel of human life and the repository of the Christian religion. [3] That with a Christian who is in polygamous whoredom this conjugial is thereby destroyed is manifestly evident from the fact that unlike the Mohammedan Polygamist, a Christian cannot love a concubine and a wife equally, but so far as he loves the concubine, that is, grows warm to her, so far he does not love his wife, that is, so far he grows cold to her; and, what is more detestable, in the same degree at heart he acknowledges the Lord as merely a natural man and as the son of Mary, and not at the same time the Son of God. Moreover, in the same degree he makes religion to be of no account. It should be well noted, however, that this is the case with those who add a concubine to the wife and conjoin themselves to both actually. It in no way applies to those who, from causes legitimate, just, and truly weighty, separate and disjoin themselves from the wife as to actual love and take a woman for use. The consideration of this kind of concubinage now follows.
* Cimelium, a latinized form of the Greek = anything stored up as a precious treasure.
