Statement concerning divorce
Statement as to the Principle Concerning Divorce
In relation to the law of divorce it is clearly stated in the Word as follows:
The only cause of divorce is confirmed adultery. (C.L.255, 468). That even though there be colds in relation to the Conjugial, and thus separation of minds, nevertheless matrimonies in the world are to continue to the end of life. (C.L. 275, 276).
The Church cannot depart from these clear statements, or from any general law of order of the literal sense of the Word, because if it should depart from them, it would depart from the Word, and thus from the Lord Himself Who is the Word. If the Church or the man of the Church violates the laws of order in respect to marriage, the Conjugial itself, which is the precious jewel of human life and the repository of the Christian Religion, is violated, and thus the Divine Human of the Lord, from which the Conjugial descends, cannot be present in the Church.
From this it is evident that the Church cannot condone any divorce that is not shown to be in accordance with these laws, and cannot accept the idea of such a divorce.
It is an essential of the work of the priesthood to uphold the laws of order in the leading by trues to the good of life. For the preservation of the Conjugial essence of the Church it is therefore necessary to recognize as a principle that any priest who obtains a divorce without manifesting a just cause thereof in accordance with the Word, thereby separates himself from the priesthood.
….
Matthew 5: 31. 32. “It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement; but I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery; and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.”
Matthew 19: 3-11. “The Pharisees also came unto Him, tempting Him, and saying unto Him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And He answered and said unto them, Have you not read, that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto Him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. His disciples say unto Him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. But He said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.”
Mark 10: 11-12. “And He saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.”
Luke 16:18. “Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery; and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.”
Conjugial Love 255. “That adultery is the cause of divorce. For this there are many causes which are in rational light, and yet at this day are hidden, Out of rational light it can be seen that marriages are holy, and that adulteries are profane; and thus that marriages and adulteries are diametrically opposite to each other; and that when opposite acts upon opposite, the one destroys the other, even to the last spark of its life. Thus it is done with Love Conjugial when a wifed man out of what is confirmed, and thus out of set purpose, commits adultery. These things come into the clear light of reason with those who know anything about Heaven and hell. For these know that marriages are in Heaven and from heaven, and that adulteries are in hell and from hell, and that those two things cannot be conjoined, as Heaven cannot be conjoined with hell, and that if they are conjoined with man, immediately Heaven departs, and hell enters. Thence now it is that adultery is the cause of divorce. Wherefore the Lord says, That whosoever sends away the wife, unless on account of scortation, and leads another, commits adultery, Matth. 19:9. He says, If he shall have sent away, and shall have led another, unless on account of scortation, he commits adultery, because the sending away for this cause is the complete separation of minds, which is called divorce; but the remaining sendings away out of their causes, are separations, about which it has now been treated above; after these, if another wife is led, adultery is committed; but not after divorce.”
Conjugial Love 468. “By divorce is meant the abolition of the conjugial covenant, and thence complete separation, and after this the entire liberty of leading another wife. The only cause of this total separation or divorce is scortation, according to the precept of the Lord in Matth. 19:9. To the same cause also refer themselves manifest obscenities, which dissolve shame, and fill and infest the house with infamous allurements, out of which exists scortatory shamelessness in which the whole mind is dissolved. To these accedes malicious desertion, which involves scortation, and makes the wife to commit adultery, and thus to be repudiated, Matth. 5:32. These three causes, because they are the legitimate causes of divorce, the first and third before a public judge, and the middle one before the man as judge, are also the legitimate causes of concubinage, but when the adulterous wife is retained at home. That scortation is the one only cause of divorce, is because it is diametrically opposite to the life of Love Conjugial, and destroys this even to extermination.”
Conjugial Love 274,275, 276.’ “That external affections are those according to which matrimonies are commonly contracted in the world.” (C.L.274, Heading only quoted.) .
“But that if internal affections which conjoin minds are not within them, matrimonies are loosened within the house.” (C.L. 275, Heading only quoted.)
“That nevertheless matrimonies in the world must endure to the end of life. This is brought forward in order that there may be presented more evidently before the reason, the necessity, utility and truth that Love Conjugial, where it is not genuine, is yet to be affected, or that it may appear as if it were genuine. It would be otherwise if marriages entered into were not covenanted even to the end of life, but were dissolvable out of choice, as they were with the Israelitic nation, which arrogated to itself the liberty of sending away wives out of whatsoever cause, as appears from these things in Matthew. (Matthew 19:3-10 here quoted). Since therefore the covenant of marriage is a covenant of life, it follows that appearances of love and friendship between the partners are necessities. That matrimonies contracted are to endure even to the end of life in the world, is out of the Law Divine, and because out of this it is also out of rational law, and thence out of civil law; out of the Law Divine, that it is not allowed to send away the wife and to lead another, unless on account of scortation, аз above; out of rational law, because it is founded upon the spiritual, for the Law Divine and rational law are one law. Out of the latter and the former at the same time, or through the latter out of the former, to a great number can be seen the enormities, the destructions of societies, and the dissolutions of marriages, or the sendings away of wives out of the good pleasure of husbands, before death.”
