That matrimony, when
contracted, must continue till the decease of one of the parties, is
grounded in the divine law, consequently also in rational law, and
thence in civil law: in the divine law, because, as said above, it is
not lawful to put away a wife and marry another, except for whoredom; in
rational law, because it is founded upon spiritual, for divine law and
rational are one law; from both these together, or by the latter from
the former, it may be abundantly seen what enormities and destructions
of societies would result from the dissolving of marriage, or the
putting away of wives, at the good pleasure of the husbands, before
death. Those enormities and destructions of societies may in some
measure be seen in the MEMORABLE RELATION respecting the origin of
conjugial love, discussed by the spirits assembled from the nine
kingdoms, n. 103-115; to which there is no need of adding further
reasons. But these causes do not operate to prevent the permission of
separations grounded in their proper causes, respecting which see above,
n. 252-254; and also of concubinage, respecting which see the second
part of this work.
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