It is the same with every man born from adultery if he does not himself become an adulterer.  Becoming an adulterer means living in the marriage of evil and falsity by thinking evils and falsities from a delight in them and by doing them from a love for them.  Every man who does this becomes an adulterer.  Moreover, it is from Divine justice that no one suffers punishments on account of the evils of his parents, but only on account of his own; therefore the Lord provides that hereditary evils shall not return after death, but only one’s own evils, and it is only for those that return that a man is then punished. (A.E., n. 989.)

It has been said that the difference between a love of marriage and a love of adultery is like that between heaven and hell.  There is a like difference between the delights of these loves; for delights derive their all from the loves from which they spring.  The delights of the love of adultery derive what they are from the delights of doing evil uses, thus of evil-doing; and the delights of the love of marriage from the delights of doing good uses, thus of well-doing.  Therefore such as the delight of the evil is in doing evil such is the delight of their love of adultery; because a love of adultery descends therefrom.  That it descends from that scarcely anyone can believe; and yet such is its origin.  From this it is evident that the delight of adultery ascends from the lowest hell.  But the delight of the love of marriage, since it is from the love of the conjunction of good and truth and from the love of doing good, is a heavenly delight; and it comes down from the inmost or third heaven, where love to the Lord from the Lord reigns.

From this it can be seen that the difference between these two delights is like that between heaven and hell.  And yet, for a wonder, it is believed that the delight of marriage and the delight of adultery are similar; nevertheless the difference between them is such as has now been described.  But the difference can be discerned and felt only by one who is in the delight of marriage love.  One who is in that delight plainly feels that in the delight of marriage there is nothing impure or unchaste, thus nothing lascivious; and that in the delight of adultery there is nothing but what is impure, unchaste, and lascivious.  He feels that unchastity comes up from beneath, and that chastity comes down from above.  But one who is in the delight of adultery is incapable of feeling this, because he feels what is infernal as his heavenly.

From all this it follows that the love of marriage, even in its outmost act, is purity itself and chastity itself; and that the love of adultery in its acts is impurity itself and unchastity itself.  Since the delights of these two loves are alike in outward appearance, although inwardly they are wholly unlike, because opposites, the Lord provides that the delights of adultery shall not ascend into heaven and that the delight of marriage shall not descend into hell; and yet that there shall be some correspondence of heaven with prolification in adulteries, though none with the delight itself in them. (A.E., n. 990.)