Conjugial Love · §§ 481–520

481. Again, that it may be known how gross is this age, that it cannot see any sin in adultery, as was brought to light by the angels, related just above at n. 478, I will add the following Relation:-

“There were certain spirits who, from practice in the life of the body, infested me with peculiar skill, and this by an influx rather soft, as it were undulating, such as that of upright spirits is wont to be. But it was perceived that there was cunning and like qualities in them, that they might captivate and deceive. At length I spoke with one of them, who it was told me was general of an army when he lived in the world. And as I perceived there was lasciviousness in the ideas of his thought, I conversed with him in spiritual language with representatives, which fully express the meaning, and many things in a moment. He said that in the life of the body, in the former world, he had accounted adulteries as nothing. But it was given me to tell him that adulteries are heinous, (notwithstanding that they do not appear so before those who are adulterers, from the delight that they take in them and thence a persuasion that they are not so, yea, that they are allowable), which indeed he might know from the fact that marriages are the seminaries of the human race, and thence the seminaries also of the heavenly kingdom, and for that reason are not to be violated, but to be held sacred; and from this also, which he ought to know, because he was now in the spiritual world, and in a state of perception, that conjugial love comes down from the Lord through heaven; and that from this love as from a parent is derived mutual love, which is the foundation of heaven; and from the fact that adulterers when they only come near to the heavenly societies perceive their own offensive smell and precipitate themselves thence towards hell. At the least he might know that to violate marriages is contrary to the Divine laws; contrary to the civil laws of all kingdoms; and against the genuine light of reason; and so against the law of nations, because contrary to order, both Divine and human, besides other considerations. He answered that he had not thought of such things in the former life. And he wished to reason whether they were so. But it was told him, the truth did not admit of reasonings; for they defend the delights of the flesh against the delights of the spirit, of the nature of which he had no knowledge; and that he ought first to reflect upon the things that had been said to him, because they are true; or to think from the principle, well-known in the world, that no one should do to another what he would not be willing that another should do to him; and thus if any one had so beguiled his wife whom he loved, as is the case in the beginning of every marriage, if he then spoke his mind, while in a state of wrath about it, would he not himself also have denounced adulteries? And being a man of ability, would not he beyond others have confirmed himself against them? Would he not have condemned them even to hell? And being the general of an army, and with valiant men about him, would he not either have slain the adulterer, that he might not bring disgrace upon him, or cast the adulteress out of his house?

482. (3) That double adultery is that of a husband with the wife of another, or the converse. This is called double adultery because it is committed by two, and by each of them the marriage covenant is violated; wherefore also it is twofold more grievous than the former. It was said just above at n. 480, that the conjugial love of one man with one wife, after the pact and covenant, unites the souls; and that this union is the love itself in its origin, and that by adultery this is closed and stopped up, like the spring and flow of a fountain. That the souls of two unite themselves when the love of the sex on the part of each is restricted to one of the sex, which takes place when the virgin pledges herself wholly to the young man, and on the other hand the young man pledges himself wholly to the virgin, is very plain from the fact that the lives of both unite themselves; consequently the souls, because these are the beginnings of life. There cannot be this union of souls except in monogamic marriages, or marriages of one man with one wife; but not in polygamic marriages, or of a man with more wives than one, because in these the love is divided, in those it is united. That in this, its highest seat, conjugial love is spiritual, holy, and pure, is from the cause that the soul of every man by virtue of its origin is celestial, and therefore receives influx immediately from the Lord, for it receives from Him the marriage of love and wisdom, or of good and truth, and this influx makes him man, and distinguishes him from beasts. From this union of souls conjugial love, which there is in its spiritual holiness and purity, flows down into the life of the whole body, and fills it with blessed delights so long as its flow remains open, which it does with those who from the Lord become spiritual. That nothing else but adultery closes up and stops this seat and origin, or fountain of conjugial love and its flow, is plain from the Lord’s words in Matthew xix. 4-9 that: “It is not lawful for a man to put away his wife and marry another except for adultery;” and from these words in the same place, that: “Whoso shall marry her that is put away committeth adultery” (ver. 9). When therefore this pure and holy fountain is stopped up as was said before, it is encompassed with foulness, as a gem with excrement, or as bread with vomit, the very opposite to the purity and holiness of that fountain, or of conjugial love; from which opposition comes conjugial cold, and according to this the lascivious pleasure of scortatory love, which spontaneously consumes itself. This is an evil of sin, because what is holy is covered up and its flow into the body thus obstructed, and there succeeds in its place what is profane, and the flow of this into the body is opened. Thence from heavenly, man becomes infernal.

483. To this I will add some things from the spiritual world which are worthy of being related: I heard there, that some married men have a lust for scortation with unmarried women or virgins; some with deflowered women or harlots; some with married women or wives; some with such as are of noble family; and some with such as are of a race not noble. I have been convinced, by many from the various kingdoms of the world, that this is so. While meditating upon the variety of such lusts, I asked whether there are any who take all delight with the wives of others, and none with unmarried women? Therefore, in order that I might know that there are such, several out of a certain kingdom were brought to me, and were constrained to speak according to their libidinous desires. They said their sole pleasure and delight was and is to commit adultery with the wives of others; and that they look out for the beautiful, and hire them for themselves at great cost, according to their wealth; and for the most part they bargain about the price with her alone.

I asked why they did not hire unmarried women? They said that this to them was common, that it was mean in itself, and there was no pleasure in it. I asked again whether the wives afterwards returned to their husbands and lived with them? They answered they either did or did not, or did so coldly, because they had become harlots.

I afterwards asked them, seriously, whether they ever thought or even now think that this is double adultery, because committed while they have wives, and that such adultery lays a man waste of every spiritual good. But the most of those present laughed at this and said:

“What is spiritual good?”

But I insisted, saying, “What is more detestable than to commingle your soul with the soul of a husband in his wife? Do you not know that the soul of a man is in his seed?”

At this they turned away, and muttered, “What harm does it do there?”

At length I said, “Although you have no fear of the Divine laws, have you no dread of the civil laws?” They answered that they had none, “only of certain of the ecclesiastical order; but in their presence we conceal it, and if we cannot we act with them in a friendly manner.”

Afterwards I saw them separated into groups and some of them cast into hell.

484. (4) That triple adultery is with blood relations. This adultery is called triple because it is three-fold more grievous than the two former. What the consanguinities or “remnants of the flesh” are, who shall not be approached, may be seen recounted in Lev. xviii. 6-17. The reasons why such adulteries are three-fold more grievous than the two mentioned above are internal and external. The internal are on account of their correspondence with the violation of spiritual marriage, which is of the Lord and the church, and thence of good and truth; but the external reasons are for guards lest man become a beast. But there is no leisure to proceed to the exposition of those reasons here.

485. (5) That there are four degrees of adultery, according to which the predications, inculpations, and after death the imputations of them are made. These degrees are not kinds, but they enter into each kind and make its differences of more and less evil or good. Here, where an adultery of either kind by reason of the circumstances and contingencies should be accounted milder or more grievous. That circumstances and contingencies do vary everything is known. And yet they are accounted in one way by man from the light of his rational lumen, in another by a judge from the law, and in another by the Lord from the man’s state of mind; and therefore predications, inculpations, and after death, imputations are spoken of. For predications are made by man according to the light (lumen) of his reason; inculpations are made by a judge according to the law; and imputations are made by the Lord according to the man’s state of mind. That these three greatly differ from each other can be seen without exposition; for man, by rational conviction according to circumstances and contingencies, may absolve one whom a judge sitting in judgment according to the law cannot absolve; and also a judge may absolve one who after death is condemned. The reason is that the judge pronounces sentence according to the facts; but after death every one is judged according to the intentions of his will and thence of his understanding, and according to the confirmations of the understanding and thence of the will. Neither of these does the judge see; and yet both judgments are just, one for the good of civil society, the other for the good of heavenly society.

486. (6) That adulteries of the first degree are adulteries of ignorance, committed by those who do not yet or who cannot take counsel of the understanding, and thereby restrain them. All evils, and consequently also adulteries, regarded in themselves are at the same time of the internal and of the external man; the internal man intends them and the external man does them. Such then as the internal man is, in the deeds that are done by the external, such are the deeds regarded in themselves. But, as the internal man with its intention does not appear before man, every one must be judged in a court by his deeds and spoken words, according to the established law and its requirements. The inner sense of the law ought also to be considered by the judge. But let examples illustrate: If perchance adultery be committed by an adolescent boy, who does not yet know that adultery is more evil than fornication: If the same were committed by a man of extreme simplicity: If it be committed by one who by disease is bereft of clear judgment: Or by one who, as is the case with some, is at times delirious, and who is then in the state of those that are actually delirious: Or even if it be done in insane drunkenness; and so on. It is evident that then the internal man, or the mind, is not present in the external, scarcely otherwise than as in an irrational person. Their adulteries are characterized by a rational man according to those circumstances; and yet, by the same man as judge the doer is inculpated and punished from the law. But after death their deeds are imputed according to the presence, the quality, and the faculty of the understanding in their will.

487. (7) That adulteries committed by such are mild. This is manifest from what has been said above in n. 486 without further confirmation; for it is known that the quality of every deed and of every thing in general, depends upon the circumstances, and that these mitigate or aggravate. But adulteries of this degree are mild the first time they are committed; and they also remain mild in so far as he or she in the after course of life abstains from them for the reasons that they are evils against God, or that they are evils against the neighbor, or that they are evils against the good of the state, and because being either of these they are evils against reason. But, on the other hand, if they do not abstain from them for one of the reasons mentioned, these also are numbered among grievous ones. It is so according to the Divine law in Ezek. xviii. 21, 22, 24, and elsewhere. And yet by man they cannot be exculpated and inculpated, or accounted and judged as light or grievous from those circumstances, because these do not appear before him, yea, are not within the province of his judgment. Therefore the meaning is, that they are so accounted and imputed after death.

488. (8) That adulteries of the second degree are adulteries of lust, which are committed by those who although able to consult the understanding, yet for contingent causes at those moments cannot. With the man who from natural is becoming spiritual there are two things that in the beginning contend against each other, which are commonly called the spirit and the flesh. And as the love of marriage is of the spirit and the love of adultery is of the flesh, a contest then is also waged between these. If the love of marriage conquers, it subdues and subjugates the love of adultery, which is done by the expulsion of it. But if it comes to pass that the lust of the flesh is excited to surging heat beyond what the spirit by reason can control, it results that the state is reversed, and the surging heat of lust overwhelms the spirit with incitements, even so that it no longer is master of its reason, nor thence master of itself. This is meant by adulteries of the second degree being committed by those who, although able to consult the understanding, yet for contingent causes at those moments, cannot. But let examples serve for illustration: If a meretricious wife by cunning captivates a man’s mind, enticing him into her bed-chamber, and inflaming him until he loses the mastery of his judgment, and the more if she then threatens him with disgrace if he does not: So, if some meretricious wife is skilled in deceptive arts, or with stimulating potions so excites a man that frenzy of the flesh takes away the freedom of reason from his understanding: Likewise if a man by pleasing allurements leads on the wife of another until her will, being inflamed, is no longer within her control; besides other such cases. That these and like contingencies lighten the gravity of adultery, and give a milder turn to the attribution of blame for it, against the man or the woman seduced, reason favors and admits. Now follows a consideration of the imputations of this degree of adultery.

489. (9) That adulteries committed by these are imputable according as the understanding afterwards favors them, or does not favor them. So far as his understanding favors evils, man appropriates them to himself and makes them his own. Favor is consent, and consent induces in the mind a state of love of them. It is similar with adulteries that in the beginning were committed without the consent of the understanding, and are favored. If they are not favored afterwards the contrary results. The reason is, that evils or adulteries that are committed in blindness of the understanding are done from the lust of the body; in likeness they approach to instincts such as are with beasts. With man, it is true, the understanding is present when they are committed, but with a passive or dead force, and not in active or living force.

From these considerations it follows of itself, that such deeds are not imputed except as they are afterwards favored, or are not favored. By imputation here is meant, accusation, and thence adjudication after death, which takes place according to the state of the spirit of the man. But inculpation by man before a judge is not meant. This is not pronounced according to the state of his spirit, but of the body, in the deed. If these did not differ, they would be absolved after death who are absolved in the world, and they would be condemned who are there condemned; and thus for these there would be no hope of salvation.

490. (10) That adulteries of the third degree are adulteries of the reason, committed by those who by the understanding confirm that they are not evils of sin. Every man knows that there is will and understanding, for in speech he says, “This I will,” and “This I understand.” And yet he does not distinguish them, but makes one the same with the other. The reason is that he only reflects upon the things which are of thought from the understanding, and not upon those which are of the love from the will; for these do not, like those, appear in the light. And yet he who does not distinguish between will and understanding cannot distinguish between things evil and good, and hence can know nothing at all about the blame for sin. But who does not know that good and truth are two distinct things, as love and wisdom are? And who, when he is in rational light, (lumen) cannot thence conclude that there are two faculties in man which distinctly receive and appropriate these to themselves, and that one is the will and the other the understanding, for the reason that what the will receives and reproduces is called good, and what the understanding receives is called truth? For what the will loves and does is called good, and what the understanding perceives and thinks is called true.

Now, as the marriage of good and truth has been treated of in the First Part of this work, and as many things were there adduced respecting the will and the understanding, and respecting the various attributes and predicates of each, which as I think are perceived even by those who had not thought distinctly about the understanding and the will (for human reason is such that it understands truths from the light of them, even though it has not distinguished them before), therefore, in order that the distinctions of the understanding and the will may be more clearly perceived I will here present some truths, to the end that it may be known of what quality adulteries of the reason or the understanding are, and after that of what quality adulteries of the will are. The following may serve for the cognizance of them: (1) That the will does nothing of itself alone, but whatever it does it does by the understanding. (2) And on the other hand the understanding does nothing of itself alone, but that whatever it does it does from the will. (3) That the will in-flows into the understanding, but not the understanding into the will; but that the understanding teaches what is good and evil, and consults the will, in order that of the two it may choose and do what is pleasing to it. (4) That after this a twofold conjunction results, one in which the will acts from within and the understanding from without, another in which the understanding acts from within and the will from without. Thus are the adulteries of the reason, here treated of, distinguished from the adulteries of the will, to be considered hereafter. They are distinguished because one is more grievous than the other; for adultery of the reason is less grievous than adultery of the will, because in adultery of the reason the understanding acts from within and the will from without; while in adultery of the will, the will acts from within and the understanding from without, and the will is the very man, and the understanding is the man from the will, and that which acts from within dominates over that which acts from without.

491. (11) That adulteries committed by these are grievous according to their confirmation. The understanding alone confirms, and when it confirms it makes an ally of the will and stations it round about itself, and so brings it to compliance. Confirmations are effected by reasonings which the mind lays hold of, either from its higher or from its lower region; if from the higher region which communicates with heaven it confirms marriages and condemns adulteries; but if from its lower region which communicates with the world it confirms adulteries and makes light of marriages. Every man is able to confirm evil as well as good; likewise falsity and truth; and the confirmation of evil is perceived as more delightful than the confirmation of good, and the confirmation of falsity appears clearer than the confirmation of truth. The reason is that the confirmation of what is evil and false draws its reasonings from the delights, the pleasures, the appearances, and the fallacies of the bodily senses, while the confirmation of good and truth takes its reasons from a region above the sensuals of the body.

Now, as things evil and false can be confirmed equally with things good and true, and as the confirming understanding draws the will to its side, and the will with the understanding forms the mind, it follows that the form of the human mind is according to confirmations, turned towards heaven if its confirmations are for marriages, but turned towards hell if they are for adulteries. And such as the form of a man’s mind is such is his spirit, that is to say, such is the man. It is manifest now from these considerations that adulteries of this degree are imputed after death according to their confirmations.

492. (12) That adulteries of the fourth degree are adulteries of the will, committed by those who regard them as allowable and pleasing, and not of so much account as to make it worth while to consult the understanding about them. These adulteries are distinguished from the former by their origins. Their origin is from a depraved will connate with man; or from inherited evil which man after he uses his own judgment, obeys blindly, passing no judgment upon it as to whether it be evil or not. For this reason it is said that he does not regard them of so much account as to make it worth while to consult the understanding about them. But the origin of the adulteries which are called adulteries of the reason is from a perverse understanding; and they are committed by those who confirm that they are not evils of sin. In these the understanding takes the lead; in those, the will. These two distinctions appear to no man in the natural world, but they plainly appear to the angels in the spiritual world. In the latter world, in general, all are distinguished according to evils that issue originally from the will, or from the understanding, and are accepted and appropriated. And according to these distinctions they are separated in hell. Those there who are evil from the understanding dwell towards the front and are called satans; but those that are evil from the will dwell behind and are called devils. On account of this universal distinction they are called satans and devils in the Word. With those evil ones, and also with the adulterers who are called satans, the understanding leads; but with those who are called devils the will takes the lead. But it is impossible to explain the difference so that the understanding shall see it, unless the distinction is first known between the will and the understanding; and unless the formation of the mind by the will through the understanding, and its formation by the understanding through the will is first described. An acquaintance with these must send its light before, in order that the above mentioned distinctions may be seen by the reason. But that is the work of a volume.

493. (13) That adulteries committed by these are most grievous, and are imputed to them as evils of purpose; and they are deeply seated in them as guilt. That these are most grievous, and more grievous than the former, is because in them the will takes the leading part, and in the former the understanding, and the life of a man is of his will essentially, and of his understanding formally. The reason is, that the will acts as one with the love, and love is the essence of a man’s life, and this forms itself by such things as are accordant with it in the understanding. The understanding regarded in itself is therefore nothing else than the form of the will. And as love is of the will, and wisdom is of the understanding, therefore wisdom is no other than the form of love. In like manner truth is but the form of good. That which flows out from the very essence of a man’s life, that is, what comes from his will or love, is chiefly called purpose; but what flows from the form of his life, that is, from the understanding and its thought, is called intention. Guilt also is predicated chiefly of the will. Hence it is said that every one has the guilt of evil by inheritance, but evil is from the man. It is for these reasons that adulteries of the fourth degree are imputed as evils of purpose, and are deeply seated as guilt.

494. (14) That adulteries of the third and the fourth degree are evils of sin, according to the measure and the quality of the understanding and the will in them, whether they are committed in act, or not committed in act. That adulteries of the reason or understanding, which are of the third degree, and adulteries of the will, which are of the fourth degree, are grievous and consequently are evils of sin, according to the quality of the understanding and the will in them, may be seen from the comments upon them above in n. 490-493. The reason is that man is man by virtue of the will and understanding; for from these two exist not only all things that take place in the mind, but also all that take place in the body. Who does not know that the body does not act of itself, but the will through the body? And that the mind does not speak of itself, but the thought through the mouth? If therefore the will were taken away action would cease in a moment; and if thought were taken away the speech of the mouth would cease in a moment. Hence it is very evident that adulteries which are committed in act are grievous according to the measure and quality of the understanding and the will in them. That they are alike grievous if the same are not committed in act is plain from these words of the Lord:

It was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery; but verily I say unto you That whosoever looketh on the woman of another to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart (Matt. v. 27, 28).

To commit adultery in the heart is in the will. There are many reasons which effect that one may not be an adulterer in act and yet be an adulterer in will and understanding. For there are those who abstain from adulteries as to the act, for fear of the civil law and its penalties; for fear of the loss of reputation and thence of honor; for fear of diseases from them; for fear of quarrels with the wife at home, and hence intranquillity of life; for fear of vengeance by the husband, or by relations; and for fear also of chastisement by servants; from poverty or from avarice; for weakness, arising from sickness, or from abuse, or from age, or from impotency and thence shame. If for these and like causes any one restrains himself from adulteries in act, and yet favors them in will and understanding, he is still an adulterer; for he nevertheless believes that they are not sins, and in his spirit does not hold them to be unlawful in the sight of God, and thus in spirit he commits them, although not in the body before the world. Therefore after death when he becomes a spirit he speaks openly in favor of them.

495. (15) That adulteries from purpose of the will and adulteries from confirmation of the understanding render men natural, sensual, and corporeal. Man is man, and is distinguished from the beast by the fact that his mind is divided into three regions, into as many as the heavens; and that he can be elevated from the lowest region into the higher, and also from this into the highest, and so become an angel of one heaven, and even of the third heaven. To this end the faculty is given to man of elevating his understanding even thither. But if the love of his will is not elevated at the same time he does not become spiritual but remains natural. Nevertheless he retains the faculty of elevating the understanding. The reason why he retains it is that he may be reformed; for he is reformed by means of the understanding, which is effected by cognitions* of good and of truth, and by rational intuition from them. If he views these cognitions rationally, and lives according to them, then the love of the will is at the same time elevated, and in that degree the human is perfected, and the man becomes more and more man. It otherwise betides if he does not live according to the cognitions of good and truth. Then the love of his will remains natural, and his understanding becomes spiritual by turns; for it elevates itself alternately, like an eagle, and looks down upon what is of his love beneath, and when it sees it it flies down and conjoins itself to it. If therefore the lusts of the flesh are of his love, to these it swoops down from its height, and in conjunction with them satisfies itself with their delights; and then, on the watch for reputation, that it may be deemed wise, it soars again on high, and so up and down by turns, as has just been said.

Adulterers of the third and the fourth degree-who are those that have made themselves adulterers from purpose of the will, and by confirmation of the understanding-evidently are natural; and that they gradually become sensual and corporeal, is because they immerse the love of their will, and at the same time the understanding with it, in the unclean things of scortatory love and take delight in them, like unclean birds and beasts in stinking and excrementitious matters as in dainties and delicacies; for the reeking fumes surging up out of the flesh fill the dwelling-place of their mind with their grossness, and make that the will sensates nothing more dainty and delicate. These are they who after death become corporeal spirits, and from whom stream forth the unclean things of hell, and of the church, of which above at n. 430, 431.

* In the Latin cogitations (thoughts), probably a misprint for cognitiones, cognitions.

496. There are three degrees of the natural man. In the first degree are those who love the world alone, setting their heart upon riches. These properly are meant by the natural. In the second degree are those who love only the delights of the senses, placing their heart in every kind of luxury and pleasure. These properly are meant by the sensual. In the third degree are those that love only themselves, setting their heart upon the attainment of honor. These properly are meant by the corporeal, for the reason that they immerse all things of the will and thence of the understanding, in the body, and looking back from others at themselves, they regard but themselves and love only their own. But the sensual immerse all the things of the will, and thence of the understanding, in the allurements and fallacies of the senses, indulging in them alone. But the natural pour all the activities of the will, and thence of the understanding, into the world, greedily and fraudulently seeking wealth, and looking to no other use in it and from it but that of possession. The adulteries named above turn human beings into these degenerate degrees, one into one kind, another into another, each as suits his pleasure, which constitutes his genius.

497. (16) And this to such a degree that at length they cast away from them all things of the church and of religion. That adulterers from purpose and from confirmation cast away from them all things of the church and of religion, results from the fact that the love of marriage and the love of adultery are opposites (n. 425), and the love of marriage makes one with the church and with religion (see n. 130, and everywhere else in the First Part). Hence the love of adultery, being opposite, makes one with the things that are against the church. That these adulterers cast away from them all things of the church and of its religion, is because the love of marriage and the love of adultery are opposites, just as the marriage of good and truth is opposite to the connubial bond of evil and falsity (n. 427, 428). And the marriage of good and truth is the church, and the connubial bond of the evil and false is opposed to the church. That these adulterers reject from them all things of the church and of religion, is because the love of marriage and the love of adultery are opposite as heaven and hell are (n. 429), and in heaven is the love of all things of the church, and in hell is the hatred against all things of the church. That these adulterers reject from them all things of the church and of religion, is also because their delights begin from the flesh and are of the flesh even in the spirit (n. 440, 441), and the flesh is against the spirit, that is, contrary to the spiritual things of the church; and for that reason also the delights of scortatory love are called pleasures of insanity. If you desire proofs, pray go to those whom you know to be such adulterers, and ask in secret what they think about God, about the church, and about eternal life, and you will hear. The real reason is that as conjugial love opens the interiors of the mind, and thus elevates them above the sensuals of the body even into the light and warmth of heaven, so on the other hand the love of adultery closes up the interiors of the mind, and thrusts the mind itself as to its will down into the body, even into all the concupiscences of its flesh, and the deeper the depth, the more it is drawn away and removed from heaven.

498. (17) That nevertheless they are still possessed of human rationality, like others. That the natural, sensual, and corporeal man is equally rational with the spiritual man as to the understanding, has been shown me from satans and devils rising up by permission out of hell, and conversing with angelic spirits in the world of spirits, respecting which see here and there in the Relations. But as the love of the will makes the man, and draws the understanding into consent, therefore such are not rational except when in a state removed from the love of the will, but when they return again into that love they rave worse than wild beasts. And yet without the faculty of elevating the understanding above the love of the will man would not be man, but a beast, for a beast does not enjoy that faculty, consequently he would not have the power of choosing anything, and of doing from choice what is good and to advantage, and thus could not be reformed, and be led to heaven, and to live to eternity. It is for this that adulterers, from purpose and from confirmation, although merely natural, sensual, and corporeal, have yet like others the gift of understanding and rationality. But when they are in the lust of adultery, and think and speak from that and of that, they do not enjoy that rationality. The reason is that then the flesh acts upon the spirit and not the spirit upon the flesh. But it should be known that after death these at length become stupid. Not that the faculty of becoming wise is taken away from them, but that they will not be wise because wisdom is undelightful to them.

499. (18) But that they use this rationality when they are in externals, but when in their internals they abuse it. They are in externals when they speak in public places and in company; but in their internals when at home and by themselves. Put it to the test if you will. Take any such person, one of the order called Jesuits for example, cause him to speak in company or teach in a temple about God, about the holy things of the church, and about heaven and hell, and you will find him a more rational zealot than any other, perhaps he will even move you to groans and tears for your salvation. But take him to your house, extol him above the other orders, call him a father of wisdom, and make yourself a friend until he opens his heart, and you will hear what he will then declare about God, about the holy things of the church, and about heaven and hell; namely, that they are fantasies and delusions, and thus are bonds invented for souls, wherewith to catch and bind the great and the small, the rich and the poor, and keep them under the yoke of their dominion. This will suffice to illustrate what is meant by saying that natural men, even down to the corporeal, are, like others, possessed of human rationality, but that they use it when they are in externals but abuse it when in their internals. The deduction from it is that one is not to be judged from the wisdom of his mouth, but from the wisdom of his life joined with that.

500. To this I will add the following Relation:

Once in the world of spirits I heard a great tumult. Thousands were congregated, and were crying out, “Punish them! Punish them!”

I went nearer, and asked “What is the matter?”

One who had separated from the great assemblage told me they were in angry wrath against three priests who were wandering about and preaching everywhere against adulterers, saying that with adulterers there is no acknowledgment of God, and that heaven is closed and hell opened to them, and that in hell they are unclean devils, because a long way off they appear like swine wallowing in excrements; and that the angels of heaven abhor them.

I asked, “Where are those priests? And why is there such an outcry on account of it?”

He replied, “The three priests are in the midst of them guarded by attendants; and the assemblage is of those who believe adulteries are not sins, and who declare that there is an acknowledgment of God among adulterers, equally as with those who keep to their wives. They are all from the Christian world. And a visitation was made by angels to see how many there were who believed adulteries to be sins, and there were not found a hundred out of a thousand.”

And he told me that these nine hundred speak in this way about adulteries:

“Who does not know that the delight of adultery is pre-eminent above the delight of marriage? That adulterers are in perpetual heat, and thence in alertness, in industry, and an active life more than those who live with only one woman? On the other hand that love with a married partner grows cold, and sometimes to such a degree that at length scarcely a word of converse and companionship with her is alive? Not so with harlots. That the deadening of life with a wife arising from lack of potency is restored and revived by scortations? Is not that which restores and revives more excellent than that which deadens? What is marriage but licensed scortation? Who knows the distinction? Can love be forced?

And yet love with a wife is forced, by the covenant, and by the laws. Is not love with a wife the love of the sex? And so universal is this love that it exists even among birds and beasts. What is conjugial love but the love of the sex? And the love of the sex is free with every woman. The reason why the civil laws are against adultery is, that the proposers of the laws have believed it would be for the public good; and yet the proposers themselves and sometimes the judges commit adultery, and say among themselves, �He that is without sin let him cast the first stone.’ Only the simple and the religious believe adulteries to be sins; not so the intelligent who, like us, view them from the light of nature. Are not offspring born from adulteries as well as from marriages? Are not those of illegitimate birth just as fit and useful for employments and ministries as the legitimate? And besides, families are provided for the otherwise unfruitful. Is not this a benefit and not an injury? What harm to a wife if she admits several rivals? And what harm to a man? That it is a dishonor to a man is a frivolous notion from fancy. That adultery is contrary to the laws and statutes of the church is from the ecclesiastical order, for the sake of power. But what has the theological and spiritual to do with a merely corporeal and carnal delight? Are there not such presbyters and monks? And can they not for all that acknowledge and worship God? Why then do these three preach that with adulterers there is no acknowledgment of God? We do not tolerate such blasphemies. Let them therefore be judged and punished.”

Then I saw that they called judges, whom they asked to sentence them to punishment. But the judges said:

“That is not within our province, for it concerns the acknowledgment of God and sin, and thus salvation and damnation. Judgment concerning these must be from heaven. But we will give you counsel how you may know whether those three priests have been preaching things that are true. There are three places which we judges know of, where such matters are investigated and revealed in a singular manner. One is where a way stands open for all to heaven; but when they enter heaven they themselves perceive what is their quality with respect to the acknowldgement of God. The second place is where also a way stands plainly open into heaven; but none can enter the way but those who have heaven within them.

The third place is where there is a way to hell; and that way they that love infernal things enter spontaneously, because from delight. We judges send to those places all who demand judgment of us respecting heaven and hell.”

Hearing this the assemblage said: “Let us go to those places.”

And as they were going to the first place, where a way is open to all into heaven, there suddenly arose thick darkness wherefore some lighted torches and carried these before them.

The judges with them said, “This befalls all who go to the first place, but as they draw near, the fire of the torches grows more dim and is extinguished in that place by the light of heaven flowing in, which is a sign that they are there. This is because heaven is first closed and afterwards is opened to them.”

And they came to that place, and the torches having gone out, of themselves, they saw a way tending obliquely upwards into heaven. Those who were in angry wrath against the priests entered it. Among the first were those who were adulterers from purpose; after them those who were adulterers from confirmation. And as they were ascending the first cried out “Come on,” and they that followed cried “Make haste;” and they pressed forward.

After a short hour, when all were within the heavenly society, there appeared a cleft between them and the angels, and the light of heaven flowing in into their eyes over the cleft opened the interiors of their minds, from which they were constrained to speak as they inwardly thought. And then they were questioned by the angels whether they acknowledged that there is a God.

The first, who were adulterers from purpose of the will, answered, “What is God?”

And they looked at each other and said: “Who among you has seen Him?”

The second, who were adulterers from confirmation of the understanding, said: “Are not all things of nature? What is there above her but the sun?”

And then the angel said to them: “Depart from us. Now you yourselves perceive that you have no acknowledgment of God. When you descend, the interiors of your mind will be closed and its exteriors opened, and then you can speak contrary to the interiors, and say that there is a God. Believe, that as soon as a man actually becomes an adulterer, heaven is closed to him, which being closed God is not acknowledged. Listen to the reason: From adulteries comes all the uncleanness of hell, and it stinks in heaven like the rotting mire of streets.”

Hearing this they turned and descended by three ways. And when they were below, the first and second conversing among themselves said, “The priests have conquered there. But we know that we as well as �they can speak of God, and when we say that He is, do we not acknowledge Him? The interiors and exteriors of the mind which the angels told of are inventions. But let us go to the second place designated by the judges, where a way to heaven is opened to those that have heaven within them, that is to those who are about to go to heaven.”

And when they drew near there went forth a voice out of that heaven, “Shut the gates! There are adulterers in the neighborhood.”

And instantly the gates were closed, and guards with staffs in their hands drove them away. And the guards released from custody the three priests against whom they had raised the outcry, and led them into heaven. And the moment the gate was opened for the priests the delight of marriage breathed forth out of heaven upon the rebels, which because it was chaste and pure almost took their breath away. And, therefore, for fear of fainting from suffocation they hurried away to the third place which the judges told them of, from whence there was a way to hell. And then there breathed forth from thence the delight of adultery, by which those who were adulterers from purpose and those who were adulterers from confirmation were so revived that they went down, dancing as it were, and plunged like swine into the unclean things there.

501. ON THE LUST OF DEFLORATION.

The lusts that are treated of in the four chapters following are not only lusts of adultery, but more grievous than they, seeing that they do not exist except from adulteries; for they are seized upon after adulteries are loathed. As the lust of defloration, the first treated of, which cannot begin with any one before; equally so the lust of varieties, the lust of violation, and the lust of seducing innocences,-the consideration of which lusts is to follow. They are called lusts, because according to the measure and the quality of the lust for them, so great and of such quality is the appropriation of them. As regards the lust of defloration, in particular, to make evident the conviction that it is infamous, the subject shall be exhibited under these heads:

(1) From the state of a virgin or undefiled woman before marriage and after marriage.

(2) That virginity is the crown of chastity and the token of conjugial love.

(3) That defloration without the purpose of marriage is the infamous act of a robber.

(4) That the lot after death of those who have confirmed within them that the lust of defloration is not an evil of sin is grievous.

The elucidation of this now follows.

502. (1) On the state of a virgin or undefiled woman before marriage and after marriage. What the state is of a virgin before she is informed respecting the various particulars of the conjugial torch, has been made clear to me by wives in the spiritual world, by those there who departed from the natural world in their infancy and were educated in heaven. They said that when they came to a marriageable state they began to love conjugial life from seeing married partners, but only to the end that they might be called wives, and might have friendly and trustful companionship with one man, and also that, being released from the house of obedience, they might act of their own right. And respecting marriage, they said that they only thought from the blessedness of mutual friendship and confidence in a consort man, and not at all from the delight of any flame. But that after the nuptials their virgin state was changed into a new state, of which they knew nothing at all before. And they said that this was a state of expansion of all things of the life of the body, from the first to the last, for the reception of the gifts of the husband and for the uniting of these to her own life, so that she might become the love of him and a wife; and that this state began from the moment of defloration, and that after this the flame of love burned for the husband alone; and that the delights of that expansion they felt to be heavenly; and that because she was introduced into that state by her husband, and because it was from him and so was his in her, she clearly could not but love him alone. By these revelations it was made plain what is the nature of the state of virgins in heaven before marriage and after marriage. That on earth the state is similar, of virgins and wives who are joined at the first omens* is not unknown. What virgin can know that new state before she is in it? Ask, and you will hear. It is different with those who catch allurement from information before marriage.

* Latin omen. The ancients before marriage offered sacrifices and watched the attendant omens, or signs, to see if they were favorable. The first omens, or the first time these were taken, means no doubt, the first intention or desire of marriage.

503. (2) That virginity is the crown of chastity and the token of conjugial love. Virginity is called the crown of chastity because it crowns the chastity of marriage, and is also the sign of chastity. For that reason the bride at the nuptials bears upon her head a crown. It is also a sign of the holiness of marriage; for the bride after the virgin flower gives and consecrates her whole self to the bridegroom, then her husband; and on the other hand the husband gives and consecrates his whole self to the bride, now his wife. Virginity is also called the token of conjugial love because it is of the covenant, and the covenant is that love shall unite them into one man, or into one flesh. The men themselves also before the nuptials regard the virginity of the bride as the crown of her chastity, and as the token of conjugial love, as the very dainty from which the delights of that love are to begin and to be perennial. From these considerations, and those presented before, it is evident that after the zone is taken away and the virginity tasted, the virgin becomes a wife, and if not a wife she becomes a harlot. For the new state into which she is then inducted is a state of love for her man, and if not for the man it is a state of wantonness.

504. (3) That defloration without the purpose of marriage is the infamous act of a robber. Some adulterers have a passion for deflowering virgins, and thence girls also in their guileless age. They are allured to such abasement either by the persuasions of bawds, and by gifts from the men, or by the promise of marriage; and after defloration those men abandon them and search for others and others. Add to this that they take no pleasure in past victims, but continually from new ones; and that the lust increases until it becomes the head of their carnal delights. And to these they join also this villainy, that by various wiles they decoy virgins about to be married, or immediately after the nuptials, to offer them the firstfruits of marriage, which they actually thus basely defile. I have also heard that when that burning heat with its potency has failed, they glory in the number of virginities as in so many golden fleeces of Jason. This atrocity, which is violation, because it has its beginning in the age of vigor and is confirmed by boastings afterwards, remains inrooted and thus infixed after death. How great the atrocity is, appears from what has been shown above, that virginity is the crown of chastity, the pledge of future conjugial love, and that the virgin gives up her soul and life to him on whom she bestows it. Conjugial friendship and its confidence are also founded upon it. And a woman deflowered by such, after this door of conjugial love has been broken through, loses her modesty and becomes a harlot, and of this also the robber is the cause. These robbers themselves, if after going through these lascivious excesses and profanations of chastity, they apply the mind to marriage, have in mind only the virginity of their future married partner, after they have tasted which they loathe both bed and bed-chamber, yea, they also loathe the whole female sex, except young girls. And because such men are violators of marriage and despisers of the female sex and thus are spiritual robbers, it is plain that the Divine nemesis pursues them.

505. (4) That the lot after death of those who have confirmed with themselves that the lust of defioration is not an evil of sin is grievous. Their lot is this: That when they have passed through the first period in the world of spirits, which is of modesty and morality, because in association with angelic spirits, after they from their externals are let into their internals, and at the same time into the concupiscences by which they had been allured in the world; and they are let into these in order that it may appear in what degree they were, and if in a minor degree, that after they have been let into them they may be released and be suffused with shame. But those who had been in this malignant lust to such a degree that they perceived eminent delight in it, and gloried in these thefts as over the most honorable spoils, do not suffer themselves to be led away from it. They are therefore allowed to go forth in their freedom, and then immediately they wander about and inquire for brothels, and when they are pointed out to them they also go in. These places are at the sides of hell. But when they there meet only with prostitutes they go away and inquire where there are virgins. And then they are taken to harlots who by phantasy are able to assume surpassing beauty, and blooming girlish grace, and to boast that they are virgins, towards whom they burn in like manner as in the world. And therefore they bargain with them; but when about to enjoy their bargain the phantasy induced is dispelled from heaven, and those virgins then appear in their own deformity, monstrous and swarthy, to whom nevertheless they are compelled to cleave for a brief hour. These harlots are called sirens. But if they do not suffer themselves to be led out of their insane lust by such fascinations, they are cast down into a hell which is on the border of the south and west, beneath the hell of the more cunning courtezans, and are associated there with their companions. It was given me to see them in that hell, and I was told that there were many there of noble stock and of the more opulent. But, because they had been of such character in the world, all memory of those things-of their lineage, and of their dignity by virtue of wealth-is taken away, and the persuasion is induced that they are vile slaves and hence unworthy of any honor. Among themselves indeed they appear as men, but as seen by others who are permitted to look in there, they appear like apes, with a savage instead of a kindly face, and horrid features instead of those of pleasantry. They walk drawn together at the loins and thus crooked, the upper part inclined forwards as if about to fall. And they have an offensive smell. They loathe the sex, and turn away from those of them whom they see, for they have no desire. Such do they appear when near, but at a distance like lapdogs or whelps of delights; and something like barking is heard in the sound of their speech.

506. ON THE LUST OF VARIETIES.

By the lust of varieties here treated of is not meant the lust of fornication, which was treated of in its own chapter. This, although wont to be promiscuous and vagrant, yet does not occasion the lust of varieties, except when it exceeds moderation and the fornicator looks to the number and boasts of that from cupidity. This idea initiates this lust, but what it becomes in its progress, cannot be perceived distinctly, unless in some order; which shall be this:

(1) That by the lust of varieties is meant the lust of scortation altogether unrestrained.

(2) That this lust is love of the sex and at the same time a loathing of it.

(3) That this lust altogether annihilates conjugial love with them.

(4) That their lot after death is miserable, since the inmost of life is wanting to them.

The exposition of these heads follows.

507. (1) That by the lust of varieties is meant the lust of scortation altogether unrestrained. This lust insinuates itself with those who in youth have loosed the restraints of modesty, and with whom there have not been wanting plenty of courtesans, especially if there was no lack of means to meet their demands. They implanted and inrooted the lust within themselves by inordinate and unlimited scortations, by shameless thoughts about the love of the female sex, and by confirmations that adulteries are not at all sins. As it goes on, the lust so increases in them that they desire the women of all the world, and would have a troupe, and a new one every day. Since this lust casts itself out from the common love of the sex implanted in every man, and altogether from the love of one of the sex, which is conjugial love, and casts itself into the exteriors of the heart as the delight of a love apart from them and yet of them, therefore it is so inrooted inwardly in the cuticles that it remains in the touch after the bodily powers have become languid. They make nothing of adulteries, and therefore think of the whole female sex as of a common strumpet, and of marriage as common prostitution, and so they mix immodesty with modesty and from the mixture are made insane. From this it is manifest what is meant by saying that the lust of varieties is the lust of scortation altogether dissolute.

508. (2) That this lust is love and at the same time a loathing of the sex. They have a love for the sex because there is variety from the sex, and they have a loathing for the sex because after the first enjoyment they cast the woman off and lust for others. This obscene lust rages with heat towards a new woman, and after the heat, becomes cold to her, and cold is loathing. That this lust is love and at the same time loathing for the sex may be illustrated thus: Place on the left hand a company of those that they have enjoyed, and on the right a company of those whom they have not enjoyed. Would they not look upon these with love and upon those with loathing? And yet each company is of the sex.

509. (3) That this lust altogether annihilates conjugial love with them. This is because that lust is utterly opposed to conjugial love, so opposed in fact that it not merely rends but as it were grinds it to dust and thus annihilates it. For conjugial love is towards one of the sex; but this lust does not stop with one, but after an hour or a day turns as cold towards her as it was hot before, and as cold is aversion, by the cohabitation and brief tarrying together it is increased to loathing, and conjugial love is so completely destroyed that no remnant of it is left.

It may be seen from these considerations that this lust is deadly to conjugial love, and that as conjugial love constitutes the inmost of life with man it is deadly to his life. And that this lust, by successive interceptions and closing of the interiors of the mind, becomes at length cutaneous, and thus merely alluring, the understanding or reasoning faculty nevertheless remaining.

510. (4) That their lot after death is miserable, since the inmost of life is wanting to them. The excellence of the life of every one is according to his conjugial love; for it conjoins itself with the life of the wife and by the conjunction exalts itself. But as with these not the least of conjugial love remains, nor therefore anything of the inmost of life, for that reason their lot after death is wretched. After passing a period of time in their externals, during which they speak rationally and act civilly, they are let into their internals, and then into a similar lust and its delights, in the same degree of it in which they had been in the world. For after death every one is let into the same state of life that he had appropriated to himself, to the end that he may be led out of it; for one cannot be led away from his evil unless he has first been led into it. Otherwise the evil would hide itself and pollute the interiors of the mind, and diffuse itself like a pestilence, and finally burst the barriers, and ruin the externals which are of the body. To this end brothels are opened to them, which are at the side of hell where there are harlots, with whom there is opportunity of varying their lusts; but indulgence is permitted with only one a day, and with more on the same day is prohibited under penalty. Afterwards, when it has been found out by exploring them, that the lust is so implanted that they cannot be led away from it, they are taken to a certain place which is directly over the hell assigned to them, and then they appear to themselves as if falling into a swoon, and to others as if they were sinking down with upturned face; and the ground is actually opened under their backs and they are swallowed up, and sink down into the hell where their like are. They are thus gathered to their own. It was given me to see them there and also to speak with them. Among themselves they appear like men, which is granted them that they may not be a terror to their associates. But at some distance they appear with a face constantly white, as if of cuticle only, and this because there is no spiritual life in them, which every one has according to the conjugial inherent in him. Their speech is dry, parched, and sad. When hungry they wail, and their wailings are heard as a grumbling of peculiar sound They have tattered garments, and the nether garments are drawn up over the belly around the breast, for they have no loins, but the ankles of their feet start from the lowest part of the belly. The reason is that the loins with men correspond to conjugial love, and this they have not. They said that they loathe the sex for the reason that they have no potency. And yet among themselves they can argue about various matters, as if from rationality; but because they are cutaneous, they reason from the fallacies of the senses. Their hell is in the western quarter towards the north. But these same from a long way off do not appear as men, nor as monsters, but as formed of ice. But it should be known that such do they become who are imbued with that lust to such a degree that they have rent in pieces and annihilated the human conjugial with themselves.

511. ON THE LUST OF VIOLATION.

By the lust of violation is not meant the lust of defloration. This lust is for the violation of virginities, but not of virgins when it is done by consent. But the lust of violation here treated of draws back from consent, and is intensified by refusal. In fact it is a passion for violating whatsoever women entirely refuse and violently resist, whether virgins or widows or wives. They are like robbers and pirates who delight in rapine and spoils, and not in gifts or things justly acquired; and like malefactors who are eager for unlawful and forbidden things, and spurn those that are lawful and permitted. These violators are utterly averse to consent, and are impassioned by repugnance, which if they observe not to be internal, the ardor of their lust is instantly quenched, as a fire by water thrown upon it.

It is known that wives do not submit themselves spontaneously to the will of their husbands in respect to the ultimate acts of love; and that from prudence they offer resistance, as if to violations, to the end that they may ward off from their husbands the cold springing from what is common because continually allowable, and springing also from an idea of the lascivious with respect to them.

Yet these repugnancies, although they inflame, are not the cause but only the beginnings of this lust. The reason of it is, that after conjugial love, and also scortatory love, have become spent by practice, they like to be kindled by absolute refusals, that they may recover. The lust thus begun increases afterwards, and as it increases it spurns and breaks all bounds of the love of the sex and exterminates itself, and from a lascivious, corporeal, and fleshly love it becomes cartilaginous and bony; and then, from the periostea which have acute sensibility, it becomes acute. But yet this lust is rare, because it exists only with those who have entered into marriage and then indulged in scortations until they became spent. Besides this natural cause of that lust there is yet a spiritual cause, of which something is to be said in what follows.

512. Their lot after death is of this kind. These violators then, of their own accord, separate themselves from those who are in the limited love of the sex; and altogether from those who are in conjugial love, and thus from heaven. Afterwards they are given up to most crafty strumpets, who, not only by persuasion, but also by perfectly dramatic imitation, are able to feign and represent as if they were chastities themselves. These perceive well who are in that lust; they talk before them about chastity and its preciousness; and when the violator approaches and touches them, they burn with indignation and fly as with terror to their chamber, where there is a couch and a bed, and when they have lightly closed the door after them they lie down. And then by their art they inspire the violator with an unbridled desire to force the door, burst in, and rush to the assault. When he does this, the strumpet rising up begins to fight the violator, tearing his face with her hands and nails, rending his garments, and with frantic voice calling upon her strumpet companions, as upon female attendants, for help, and opening the window calling, “Thief! Robber! Murderer!” And when the violator is ready she wails and weeps, and after the violation casts herself down and cries “Infamous!” And then, in a low tone, she threatens that unless he atones for the violation with a large payment she will compass his ruin. While they are in this theatrical venery, they appear at a distance like cats, which in a manner almost similar fight, run away, and squall, before connection. After some such brothel-contests they are taken away, and removed to a cavern where they are compelled to some work. But because they have a bad odor, from the fact that they have dispersed the conjugial, which is the precious jewel of human life, they are sent away to the utmost limits of the western quarter, where they appear at some distance, emaciated as if consisting of bones covered only with skin, and from afar off like panthers. When it was given me to see them nearer, I was astonished to see that some of them held books in their hands and were reading; and I was told that this is, because in the world they spoke, various things about the spiritual things of the church and yet defiled them by adulteries, even to these, their extremities, and that such is the correspondence of this lust with the violation of the spiritual marriage. But it should be known that they are few who are in this lust.

It is certain that women, because it does not become them to put forth their love, do from time to time resist, and that the resistance invigorates; but yet this is not from any lust of violation.

513. ON THE LUST OF SEDUCING INNOCENCES

The lust of seducing innocences is not the lust of defloration, and not the lust of violation, but is peculiar and singular by itself. It exists especially with the crafty. The women who appear to them as innocences are those who regard the evil of scortation as an enormous sin, and who therefore strive for chastity and at the same time for piety. Towards these they burn. In countries of the Catholic religion there are monastic virgins. As they believe these to be pious innocences before all others, they regard them as the dainties and delicacies of their lust. That they may seduce the ones or the others, being crafty they first devise artifices, and then, after they have imbued their genius with them, without being withdrawn by shame, they practise them as if from nature. Their artifices are chiefly simulations of innocence, of love, of chastity, and of piety. By these and other crafty wiles they enter into their interior friendship and thence into their love; and this, by various persuasions and at the same time insinuations, they turn from spiritual into natural; and after that, by excitations on the corporeal plane into carnal love, and then they, take possession of them at pleasure; having accomplished this, they rejoice in heart, and laugh to scorn those whom they have violated.

514. The lot of these seducers after death is sad, for this seduction is not only impiety but also malignity. After they have passed through the first period, which is in externals, during which they excel many others in elegant manners and pleasant speech, they are brought into another period of their life, which is in internals, in which the lust is set free and begins its play. And then they are first brought to women who had taken the vow of chastity. With these they are explored, as to the quality of the malignity of their concupiscence, to the end that they may not be judged until convicted. When they perceive their chastity their deceit begins to act and to practice its wiles; but as it is in vain they leave them.

Afterwards they are introduced to women of genuine innocence. When they attempt in like manner to beguile these, by a power given these women, they are grievously punished. They occasion a heavy numbness upon their hands and feet, and likewise upon their necks, and finally make them feel as it were a swoon, and while they are suffering these distresses they escape from them. After this a way is opened for them to a certain company of harlots who have learned skilfully to counterfeit innocence. These at first expose them to laughter among themselves; and finally, after various promises, they suffer themselves to be violated. After some such scenes the third period comes upon them, which is that of judgment; and then, having been convicted, they sink down and are gathered to their like in a hell which is in the northern quarter, and they appear there from afar off like weasels. But if they had been filled with deceit they are taken down from this to the hell of the deceitful, which is at a depth below, at the back, in the western quarter. In this hell they appear from afar like serpents of various kinds, and the most deceitful like vipers. But in the hell itself, into which it was given me to look, they appeared lurid, with a chalky face. And as they are mere concupiscences they do not like to speak, and if they speak they only mutter and mumble various things, which are understood by none but the companions at their side. But presently, as they sit or stand, they make themselves inconspicuous; and they flit about in the cavern like specters; for they are then in phantasy and a phantom appears to fly. After the flight they rest, and then, which is surprising, they do not know one another. This is due to the fact that they are in deceit, and deceit does not believe another, and so withdraws itself. When they perceive anything of conjugial love they flee into crypts and hide themselves. They also are without the love of the sex, and are very impotences. They are called infernal genii.

515. ON THE CORRESPONDENCE OF SCORTATIONS WITH THE VIOLATION OF THE SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE.

I might here premise something respecting correspondence, what it is. But it does not belong to this book; a brief summary as to what correspondence is may be seen above at n. 76 and n. 342, and fully in The Apocalypse Revealed, from beginning to end: that it is the relation between the natural sense and the spiritual sense of the Word. That in the Word there is a natural and a spiritual sense, and a correspondence between them, has been shown in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem respecting the Sacred Scripture, in particular, n. 5-26 of that work.

516. By the spiritual marriage is meant the marriage of the Lord and the Church, of which above at n. 116-131; and thence also the marriage of good and truth, of which likewise above at n. 83-102. And as this marriage is of the Lord and the Church, and the marriage of good and truth thence is in all and the single things of the Word, it is the violation of this that is meant here by the violation of the spiritual marriage; for the church is from the Word and the Word is the Lord. The Lord is the Word because He is the Divine good and the Divine truth therein. That the Word is that marriage may be seen fully confirmed in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem respecting the Sacred Scripture, n. 80-90.

517. Since, therefore, the violation of the spiritual marriage is the violation of the Word, it is plain that this violation is the adulteration of good and the falsification of truth; for the spiritual marriage is the marriage of good and truth, as has been said. It follows from this that when the good of the Word is adulterated and the truth of the Word is falsified, that marriage is violated. How that violation is committed, and by whom, will to some degree be evident from what follows.

518. Where the marriage of the Lord and the church was treated of before, n. 116 and the following numbers, and where the marriage of good and truth was treated of, n. 83 and the following, it was shown that that marriage corresponds to marriages on earth. It follows thence that violations of that marriage correspond to scortations and adulteries. That it is so is very plain from the Word itself, in that by scortations and by adulteries there, the falsifications of truth and the adulterations of good are signified, as may be seen in evidence from passages out of the Word cited in abundance in The Apocalypse Revealed, n. 134.

519. Violation of the Word is committed by those in the Christian Church who adulterate its goods and truths; and they do this who separate truth from good and good from truth, as also by those who take and confirm appearances of truth and fallacies for genuine truth; and they also who know truths of doctrine from the Word and live an evil life; and other such. These violations of the Word and of the church. correspond to the prohibited degrees enumerated in Leviticus,

520. Since the natural and the spiritual with every man are closely connected like the soul and the body, for man without the spiritual, which flows in and vivifies the natural, would not be man; it follows thence, that whoever is in spiritual marriage is also in a happy natural marriage, and on the other hand that whoever is in spiritual adultery is also in natural adultery, and vice versa. Now, as all who are in hell are in the intermarriage of the evil and false, and this is spiritual adultery itself, and as all who are in heaven are in the marriage of good and truth, and this is marriage itself, therefore the whole hell is called adultery and the whole heaven is called a marriage.