43. TO ONE MAN ONE WIFE. In the Christian world, where interior things of the church are revealed, and where the Lord is worshiped, and it is known that from Him is heaven and the church, and the church is conjoined with Him, as a wife with a husband, and that there is but one church, and that with those who are of that church there will be the conjunction of good and truth, it is not allowed to take several wives, for this would be to pervert the spiritual which is, or can be in marriage. Wherefore, if a Christian man should take several wives, it would be as if he had with himself two churches; also as if truth should take its essence from two goods, with which marriage is not given; for good is the esse of truth, and the esse or essence of one truth from two goods is not given. Whence it is that love truly conjugial can by no means be given in the case of one man with several wives, for thus it would be lasciviousness that would enter; besides, love cannot be divided, since it is from the affection of one, which is of the will, concordant with the thought of another, which is of the understanding, and this unanimity and cohabitation, which makes the essence of conjugial love, cannot be given (in the case of several wives). In a word, with them there is not the Christian Church, wherefore when an angel in heaven only thinks of several wives, the celestial and angelic perishes, and joy as well as wisdom with him, and he falls from heaven.