Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/302

206 From the goods enumerated and described which come of chaste marriages, it may be concluded what the evils are which follow from adulteries; for these evils are the opposites of those goods. That is, instead of the spiritual and celestial loves which are in those who live in chaste marriages, there are infernal and diabolical loves with those who are in adulteries; in place of the intelligence and wisdom which they possess who live chastely in marriages, there are insanities and follies with those who are in adulteries; in place of the innocence and peace which they enjoy who live in chaste marriages, there are guile and no peace with those who are in adulteries; in place of the power and the protection against the hells which they possess who live chastely in marriages, asmodean and infernal demons themselves are with those who live in adulteries; and in place of the beauty of those who live chastely in marriages, there is deformity with those who live in adulteries,—which is monstrous according to the quality of their adulteries. The final lot of adulterers is that from extreme impotence to which they at length reduce themselves, they become void of all the fire and light of life, and dwell by themselves in wildernesses, as inert, and weary of their very life. (A. E. n. 1003.)

I have been informed by the angels that when any one commits adultery on earth heaven is instantly closed to him, and that afterwards he lives only in worldly and corporeal things. And that then though he hears about matters of love and faith they do not penetrate to his interiors; and what he himself says about them does not come from his interiors, but only from his memory and his mouth under the impulse of conceit or the love of gain. For the interiors are closed, and cannot be opened but by earnest repentance. (A. C. n. 2750.)

He who abstains from adulteries for any other reason than because they are sins, and against God, is still an adulterer. For example, if one abstains from them for fear of the civil law and its punishment; for fear of the loss of reputation, and thence of honour; for fear of the diseases arising from them; for fear of upbraidings from his wife at home, and thence of intranquillity of life; for fear of chastisements from the servants of the injured husband; on account of poverty, or of avarice; on account of any infirmity arising from abuse, or from age, or from impotence, or from disease. Nay, if he abstain from them on account of any natural or moral law, and does not at the same time abstain from them on account of the Divine law, he is yet inwardly unchaste and an adulterer; for he none the less believes that they are not sins, and in his spirit declares them lawful, and so commits them in spirit though not in the body. Therefore after death when he becomes a spirit, he openly speaks in favour of