The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. John 6:63. The spiritual [truth] within that law is this: That by polygamous marriage in the Christian world, the marriage of the Lord and the Church is profaned; likewise the marriage of good and truth and, moreover, the Word, and with the Word the Church; and the profanation of these is spiritual adultery. That the profanation of the good and truth of the Church from the Word corresponds to adultery, and hence is spiritual adultery; and that the same is true, though in a lesser degree, of the falsification of good and truth; may be seen confirmed in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED, no. 134. That with Christians, the marriage of the Lord and the Church is profaned by polygamous marriages, is because there is a correspondence between that Divine marriage and the marriages of Christians (concerning which, see above, nos. 83-102); and if wife is added to wife, this correspondence is wholly destroyed, and with this destroyed, the consort is no longer a Christian. [2] That with Christians, the marriage of good and truth is profaned by polygamous marriages is because marriages on earth are derived from this spiritual marriage, and the marriages of Christians differ from the marriages of other nations in this, that as good loves truth and truth good, and the two are a one, so is it with wife and husband. Wherefore, if a Christian should add wife to wife, he would rend asunder that spiritual marriage in himself, and consequently would profane the origin of his marriage and so would commit spiritual adultery. That marriages on earth are derived from the marriage of good and truth may be seen above (nos. 116-31). That a Christian, by polygamous marriage profanes the Word and the Church, is because the Word regarded in itself is the marriage of good and truth, and so likewise the Church so far as this is from the Word; see above (nos. 128-31). [3] Now since a man, a Christian, knows the Lord and has the Word, and since the Church is with him from the Lord by the Word, it is evident that he more than a man not a Christian has the ability to become regenerated and so to become spiritual, and also to attain love truly conjugial, inasmuch as the two cohere together. Since those among Christians who marry more wives than one commit not only natural adultery but also and at the same time spiritual adultery, it follows that after death the damnation of Christian polygamists is more severe than the damnation of those who commit only natural adultery. To a question concerning their state after death, I heard the answer that heaven is wholly closed to them; that in hell they appear as if lying in a bath of hot water; that when seen from a distance, they appear thus even though they are standing on their feet and walking; that this is the case with them by reason of their intestine madness; and that some of them are cast into gulfs which are at the borders of [their] worlds.