ADULTEROUS LOVE AND ITS SINFUL PLEASURES.

ON THE OPPOSITION OF ADULTEROUS LOVE AND CONJUGIAL LOVE.

423.  At the entrance upon our subject, it may be expedient to declare what we mean in this chapter by adulterous love.  By adulterous love we do not mean fornicatory love, which precedes marriage, or which follows it after the death of a married partner; neither do we mean concubinage, which is engaged in from causes legitimate, just, and excusatory; nor do we mean either the mild or the grievous kinds of adultery, whereof a man actually repents; for the latter become not opposite, and the former are not opposite, to conjugial love, as will be seen in the following pages, where each is treated of.  But by adulterous love, opposite to conjugial love, we here mean the love of adultery, so long as it is such as not to be regarded as sin, or as evil, and dishonorable, and contrary to reason, but as allowable with reason.  This adulterous love not only makes conjugial love the same with itself, but also overthrows, destroys, and at length nauseates it.  The opposition of this love to conjugial love is the subject treated of in this chapter.  That no other love is treated of (as being in such opposition), may be evident from what follows concerning fornication, concubinage, and the various kinds of adultery.  But in order that this opposition may be made manifest to the rational sight, it may be expedient to demonstrate it in the following series:  I. It is not known what adulterous love is, unless it be known what conjugial love is. II. Adulterous love is opposed to conjugial love. III. Adulterous love is opposed to conjugial love, as the natural man viewed in himself is opposed to the spiritual man. IV. Adulterous love is opposed to conjugial love, as the connubial connection of what is evil and false is opposed to the marriage of good and truth. V. Hence adulterous love in opposed to conjugial love, as hell is opposed to heaven. VI. The impurity of hell is from adulterous love, and the purity of heaven from conjugial love. VII. The impurity and the purity in the church are similarly circumstanced. VIII. Adulterous love more and more makes a man not a man (homo), and not a man (vir), and conjugial love makes a man more and more a man (homo), and a man (vir). IX. There are a sphere of adulterous love and a sphere of conjugial love. X. The sphere of adulterous love ascends from hell, and the sphere of conjugial love descends from heaven. XI. Those two spheres mutually meet each other in each world; but they do not unite. XII. Between those two spheres there is an equilibrium, and man is in it. XIII. A man is able to turn himself to whichever he pleases; but so far as he turns himself to the one, so far he turns himself from the other. XIV. Each sphere brings with it delights. XV. The delights of adulterous love commence from the flesh and are of the flesh even in the spirit; but the delights of conjugial love commence in the spirit, and are of the spirit even in the flesh. XVI. The delights of adulterous love are the pleasures of insanity; but the delights of conjugial love are the delights of wisdom. We proceed to an explanation of each article.