A DECLARATION 
 
 BY 
 
 The Reason for the Declaration 
 
 A Statement of the Doctrine of Swedenborg 
 
 and the New Church Concerning 
 
 Marriage and the Sins 
 
 Against Marriage 
 
 ISSUED BY THE 
 
 GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE GENERAL CONVENTION OF THE 
 
 NEW JERUSALEM IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 1909
 
 lUSt IRAKY 
 
 A DECLARATION 
 
 BY THE GENERAL CONVENTION OF THE 
 
 NEW JERUSALEM IN THE UNITED 
 
 STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 The Reason for the Declaration' 
 
 A Statement of the Doctrine of Swedenborg 
 
 and the New Church Concerning 
 
 Marriage and the Sins 
 
 Against Marriage 
 
 ISSUED BY THE 
 
 GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE GENERAL CONVENTION OF THE 
 
 NEW JERUSALEM IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 1909
 
 A DECLARATION 
 
 By the General Convention of the New 
 
 Jerusalem in the United States 
 
 of America
 
 A DECLARATION 
 
 By the General Convention of the ''New Jerusalem in the 
 United States of America 
 
 "The necessity has arisen for the New Church to make 
 clear its stand for the sanctity of marriage and purity of 
 life, at this time, because of the teaching put forth in the 
 name of the New Church by the body commonly known 
 as the 'Academy,' with headquarters at Bryn Athyn, Pa., 
 that under certain conditions sexual relations outside of 
 marriage are not evil, nor a violation of the commandment, 
 'Thou shalt not commit adultery.' The body holding these 
 views has organized under the name, 'The General Church 
 of the New Jerusalem,' which so resembles the name, 'The 
 General Convention of the New Jerusalem in the United 
 States of America,' that the unadvised may mistake one for 
 the other. They have also insisted before the public and 
 in a court of law, and in their periodical and other writings, 
 that their teaching is the teaching of Swedenborg, and is 
 the doctrine of the New Church. 
 
 "The General Convention of the New Jerusalem in the 
 United States of America, assembled in its eighty-ninth 
 Annual Session, being its first session since the hearing in 
 the court of law, above referred to, hereby denies and 
 repudiates this teaching, and affirms that the Writings of 
 Swedenborg condemn as evil all sexual relations outside of 
 marriage, as well as all conduct, thought or intention that 
 does not accord therewith, in letter and in spirit; and
 
 further, that the only law of purity for all men is that de- 
 clared by our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew v. 28: 'But I 
 say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust 
 after her hath committed adultery with her already in his 
 heart.' 
 
 "The revelations made by the Lord through the instru- 
 mentality of Emanuel Swedenborg, for the establishment of 
 the New Church spoken of in Revelation xxi. 2, contain 
 many new and wonderful statements regarding the Divine 
 origin, the holiness, the purity, and the spiritual use of 
 marriage. They teach that marriage is the highest, the 
 holiest, the most intimate, and the most enduring relation 
 into which finite beings can enter; that it derives its origin 
 from the Lord, not only because He instituted it in the 
 beginning, but because it is from Him, being derived from 
 the union or marriage of love and wisdom in Him; and that 
 it also represents the union of the Lord and the church, 
 the Lord being called in Scripture the husband, and the 
 church the bride or wife. The sacred use of marriage is 
 also shown not only in the continuance and increase of the 
 human race, but also in the salvation of human souls and 
 the perfecting of character; for the true husband no longer 
 loves himself for his own sake, but for the sake of his wife; 
 and the wife no longer loves her womanly qualities and 
 abilities for her own sake, but for the sake of her husband, 
 the power of self-love being thereby broken, so that a pure 
 and unselfish love can take its place."
 
 The Reason for the Declaration
 
 The Reason for the Declaration 
 
 The teaching of the Academy that under certain condi- 
 tions sexual relations outside of marriage are not evil nor 
 a violation of the commandment, " Thou shalt not commit 
 adultery," may be found in " Laws of Order for the Preser- 
 vation of the Conjugial," by the Rev. C. Th. Odhner, 
 with an introduction by Bishop Pendleton, published by 
 the Academy of the New Church, in 1904. This book was 
 advertised at the time of its issue as presenting "a plain 
 statement of the position of the Academy" on the subject, 
 and at the first General Assembly of the General Church, 
 the general organization of the Academy, following the 
 publication of the book, the stamp of approval was placed 
 upon it by the Academy ministers. The Journal of the 
 Council says, "The ministers stated that they considered 
 the book an able and correct presentation of the position 
 of our body in regard to the subject of which it treats; that 
 its publication was necessary; and that a great use will be 
 performed by it." (New Church Life, October, 1904.) 
 
 In the introduction to this book, after presenting what 
 he calls positive and negative means of preserving the con- 
 jugial, Bishop Pendleton says: 
 
 There are also means of preservation that are neither 
 positive nor negative, but intermediate. We are told that 
 the love of the sex in general is at first an intermediate 
 love, neither good nor evil; but that it becomes good or 
 evil in the degree that it is determined to one of the sex, 
 or becomes roaming lust; and further, while it is still in 
 this intermediate state, it may be ultimated, and yet remain 
 intermediate, as being neither good nor evil, provided the 
 ultimation be limited to one; and that in such cases the 
 conjugial cannot otherwise be preserved, or would be de- 
 filed and jeopardized. (Laws of Order, pp. 19, 20.)
 
 10 
 
 There is no authority for this teaching. The doctrine 
 teaches otherwise. 
 
 Later in the same book the author, although acknowl- 
 edging that in themselves non-conjugial relations are 
 evil (p. 153), nevertheless argues that under certain con- 
 ditions in the practice of them one is "outside the evil of 
 sin, and ascends into a sphere which is intermediate between 
 good and evil" (pp. 164, 165). The author recognizes it 
 as the vital difference between the position of the Academy 
 and the position of the Convention ministers on this subject, 
 as expressed in a formal resolution and report of the min- 
 isters in 1903, that the Convention ministers hold that all 
 sexual relations outside of marriage are forbidden by the 
 Divine commandment, while the Academy holds that 
 under some circumstances they are not so forbidden, and 
 he seeks to justify the Academy position (pp. 126-129, I ^5, 
 166). Appeal to the saving power of the Lord in such temp- 
 tations is treated as inappropriate and ineffectual, and as 
 not protecting Christian men and members of the New 
 Church from the necessity and duty, under certain condi- 
 tions, of holding such relations outside of marriage, (pp. 
 176-179.) 
 
 In the Orphans' Court of Lancaster, Pa., at the audit of 
 the administrator's account in the Kramph Estate in July, 
 1908, the book "Laws of Order for the Preservation of the 
 Conjugial," was placed in evidence by the counsel for the 
 Academy. At the same hearing an officer of the Academy 
 placed in evidence "A declaration concerning the doctrine 
 of fornication and concubinage," prepared by Bishop W. F. 
 Pendleton, and accepted by the Joint Council of the Clergy 
 and of the Executive Committee of the General Church of 
 the New Jerusalem, the Academy bodies, by formal reso- 
 lution, as the expression of its views of the doctrine of forni- 
 cation and concubinage. This declaration after summa- 
 rizing Nos. 444-476 of "Scortatory Love," proceeds:
 
 II 
 
 In respect to the relation of the sexes, the Doctrine of 
 the New Church recognizes three degrees of the same: 
 First, marriage in time for eternity; second, marriage in 
 time for time; third, a relation that is analogous to marriage. 
 
 Marriage for eternity is for youth and early manhood 
 and womanhood, and no other marriage or relation of the 
 sexes is recognized in the Doctrine of the New Church as 
 legitimate and according to order for young men, except 
 as noted in the doctrine given above, and none other what- 
 soever for young women or virgins. 
 
 Marriage in time for time, or marriage to continue only 
 during life in the world, is for widowers and widows, and 
 for unmarried men and women who have reached or passed 
 the period of middle age. Marriage for eternity is, how- 
 ever, not excluded from this period. 
 
 The relation that is analogous to marriage has been pre- 
 sented in full in the foregoing summary of doctrine. It is 
 not to be entered into with any woman except one who has 
 been led astray from the paths of virtue; and during the 
 continuance of this relation, such woman should not have 
 any dealings with other men. But this relation entered 
 into or established with women other than those who have 
 departed from the paths of virtue, would break the bond 
 of society and destroy the order of heaven; it is, therefore, 
 absolutely forbidden in the Doctrines of the New Church, 
 and is not to be admitted into thought or consideration by 
 the members of the Church. 
 
 The uses of this doctrine, as given in the work on " Con- 
 jugial Love," in establishing a condition analogous to 
 marriage, as intermediate between an orderly marriage on 
 the one hand, and adultery and promiscuous whoredom 
 on the other, are, as the doctrine states, in accord with 
 the common perception of mankind and the teaching of 
 experience. 
 
 Among these uses are: the cure of physical disease; the 
 healing or prevention of insanity; the restoration of con- 
 jugial love, thereby bringing back the hope and promise 
 of salvation and eternal life; the lessening of the dangers 
 of seduction and adultery; the diminishing of brothels, 
 and the vile diseases incident to them; and presents what 
 is perhaps the only hope for the reformation of fallen women; 
 to say nothing of the prevention of certain nameless evils.
 
 12 
 
 It is distinctly to be understood that any practice under 
 the above doctrine is justified only where there is imminent 
 danger of injury and destruction to mind and body. It is 
 not justified merely by strong physical desire. 
 
 From the summary of the Doctrine herein given, and 
 the brief considerations presented, it will be seen, there- 
 fore, that if there is immorality anywhere it is in the doctrine 
 itself, for which revelation is responsible. But the General 
 Church of the New Jerusalem rejects this conclusion as 
 enormous, and holds that the doctrine is not immoral, 
 but eminently moral, and is a part of the Heavenly Doctrine, 
 which has been given in mercy to mitigate and heal the 
 miseries of mankind. 
 
 The falsity of the Academy Declaration is the falsity of 
 the whole teaching of the Academy on this subject. It has 
 lost all sense of relation and perspective, and exalts methods 
 of the Lord's government of the evil as laws of spiritual 
 life. In the emphasis it gives to the fact that some forms of 
 evil are less grievous than others because less harmful to 
 marriage love, it loses sight of the vastly more important 
 truth, repeatedly and emphatically declared in the doc- 
 trines, that all sexual connections outside of marriage, and 
 all thoughts of such connections, are evil and are condemned 
 by the Divine commandment. These contentions are the 
 more harmful because put forth under the plea of loyalty to 
 the doctrine of the New Church. We believe in loyalty to 
 the doctrine, to the whole doctrine, but not to an interpre- 
 tation which makes one part of the doctrine contradict other 
 parts and the spirit of the whole. The Academy fails to 
 place the particulars of doctrine under the general, and 
 confusion is the result. Principles which relate to wholly 
 different conditions and which are remote from the needs 
 of Christian men are presented to members of the church 
 and to young men of the church as Divine laws of order 
 and Christian duty, applicable in their discretion to their
 
 '3 
 
 case. The doctrine and the Church are falsified before 
 the world, and holy things are brought into contempt. 
 
 Witnesses produced by the Academy in the Kramph 
 case further declared their belief that the teaching of the 
 Academy on this subject was formerly and is now the 
 teaching of the General Convention, and had been the 
 teaching of the Convention's Theological School. 
 
 It is evident that from the testimony of the Academy in 
 the Kramph case, and their insistance that the teaching of 
 the Academy is the teaching of Swedenborg and of the 
 New Church, the Court was led to the opinion that the 
 doctrines of Swedenborg and the New Church are immoral 
 and repugnant to the law of the land. The decision of the 
 Lancaster Court, and a second decision of the same Court 
 dismissing exceptions, so characterized the teachings of 
 Swedenborg and the New Church, and brought the Con- 
 vention under the same condemnation as the Academy, 
 with the possible exception that the Convention may not 
 teach all the doctrines of Swedenborg. It may be needless 
 to quote the language of the decisions which were sent 
 broadcast over the land, inasmuch as the Supreme Court 
 of Pennsylvania has now (June 22, 1909), announced its de- 
 cision that the decree of the lower Court must be reversed. 
 
 The experience in the Kramph case, however, showed 
 the necessity for the General Convention to make clear the 
 stand of the New Church for the sanctity of marriage and 
 purity of life, and to disclaim the Academy teaching as not 
 the true interpretation of the doctrine. Such a declara- 
 tion is due to the Church and to the public. The fore- 
 going Declaration was therefore adopted by the General 
 Convention, and the General Council recommends that 
 it be adopted also by the several Associations and Societies 
 of the Church.
 
 A Statement of the Doctrine of Sweden- 
 
 borg and the New Church 
 
 Concerning Marriage and 
 
 the Sins Against 
 
 Marriage
 
 MARRIAGE AND THE SINS AGAINST 
 MARRIAGE 
 
 I. 
 
 THE DIVINE ORIGIN AND SPIRITUAL NATURE OF 
 
 MARRIAGE 19 
 
 The protecting power of true marriage 22 
 
 True marriage eternal 23 
 
 II. 
 
 THE DIVINE LAW or PURITY 25 
 
 To think evils allowable is to do them 28 
 
 Ability to keep the commandment 30 
 
 The Lord's perfect victory over evil 31 
 
 Man has power from the Lord to shun evil 32 
 
 Not difficult to live the life of heaven 35 
 
 III. 
 
 MARRIAGE AS A NATURAL AND CIVIL INSTITUTION... 37 
 
 Recognition of the civil law 38 
 
 Coldness and separations 39 
 
 Divorce for one cause only 4 1 
 
 Polygamy is lasciviousness 4 2
 
 i8 
 
 IV. 
 
 "THE PLEASURES OF INSANITY PERTAINING TO SCOR- 
 
 TATORY LOVE" 44 
 
 Quality seen by contrast 44 
 
 Scortatory love the opposite of marriage love 46 
 
 Degrees of evil 49 
 
 The permission of evil 50 
 
 The evil of fornication 52 
 
 " Intermediates " 55 
 
 Our opportunity with the young 59 
 
 The evil of concubinage 60 
 
 The evil of adultery 63 
 
 The Lord the Judge 65 
 
 Soundness of the doctrine 67 
 
 The gospel for the New Church 69
 
 I. 
 
 The Divine Origin and Spiritual Nature of 
 Marriage. 
 
 THE revelations made by the Lord through the instru- 
 mentality of Emanuel Swedenborg, for the establishment of 
 the New Church spoken of in Revelation xxi. 2, contain 
 many new and wonderful statements regarding the Divine 
 origin, the holiness, the purity, and the spiritual use of 
 marriage. These statements are to be found in the work 
 on "Marriage Love," published at Amsterdam in 1768, and 
 in great abundance in other writings of the Church. They 
 teach that marriage is the highest, the holiest, the most 
 intimate, and the most enduring relation into which finite 
 beings can enter; that it derives its origin from the Lord, 
 not only because He instituted it in the beginning, but be- 
 cause it is from Him, being derived from the union or 
 marriage of love and wisdom in Him; and that it also repre- 
 sents the union of the Lord and the church, the Lord being 
 called in Scripture the husband, and the church the bride 
 or wife. The sacred use of marriage is also shown not 
 only in the continuance and increase of the human race, 
 but also in the salvation of human souls and the perfecting 
 of character; for the true husband no longer loves himself 
 for his own sake, but for the sake of his wife; and the wife 
 no longer loves her womanly qualities and abilities for her 
 own sake, but for the sake of her husband, the power of 
 self-love being thereby broken, so that a pure and unselfish 
 love can take its place. 
 
 Being Divine in its origin and spiritual in its nature,
 
 20 
 
 true marriage makes one with genuine religion. The depth 
 and happiness of marriage increase as the married partners 
 grow in spiritual life. Their love for each other and their 
 love for the Lord increase together. On the other hand, 
 no deep marriage is possible in an irreligious life, in which 
 husband and wife live and meet only on the plane of worldly 
 interests; still less when they are actuated by self-love. 
 
 The religious character and the sacredness of true marriage 
 are made clear in the following passage from the early pages 
 of the work on "Marriage Love": 
 
 There is true marriage love; which is so rare at the present 
 day that what it is is not known, and scarcely is it known 
 to exist. . . . 
 
 But none come into this love, or can be in it, except 
 those who go to the Lord and love the truths and do the 
 goods of the church. . . . 
 
 The reason why none can be in true marriage love except 
 those who receive it from the Lord, who are those that 
 go directly to Him and from Him live the life of the church, 
 is that this love, viewed from its origin and its corre- 
 spondence, is celestial, spiritual, holy, pure and clean, be- 
 yond every love that exists among the angels of heaven 
 and among the men of the church, as was shown above at 
 n. 64, and these its attributes can be given to those only 
 who are conjoined with the Lord and are consociated by 
 Him with angels of heaven. For these shun loves outside 
 of marriage, which are conjunctions with others than one's 
 own consort, as they would flee from ruin of the soul and 
 from the lakes of hell; and so far as consorts shun such 
 conjunctions even as to the lusts of the will and intentions 
 therefrom, is the love purified in them, and gradually be- 
 comes spiritual, first while they live on earth, and after- 
 wards in heaven. No love either with men or angels can 
 ever become pure, not even this love. But as the Lord 
 primarily regards the intention, which is of the will, in so 
 far as a man is in this intention and perseveres in it, he is 
 introduced into and gradually progresses in its purity and
 
 21 
 
 holiness. . . . The reason why those who love the truths 
 of the church and do its goods come into this love, and 
 can abide in it is, that such and no others are received by 
 the Lord; for they are in conjunction with Him, and thereby 
 can be kept by Him in this love. (Marriage Love, 57, 71, 
 72.) 
 
 See also this passage from the "Heavenly Arcana": 
 
 Few know what the origin of marriage love is. Those 
 who think from the world believe that it is from nature; 
 but those who think from heaven believe that it is from 
 the Divine in heaven. 
 
 True marriage love is a union of two minds, which is 
 a spiritual union; and all spiritual union descends from 
 heaven, from which it follows that true marriage love is from 
 heaven, and that its first esse is from the marriage of good 
 and truth in heaven. The marriage of good and truth in 
 heaven is from the Lord; therefore in the Word the Lord 
 is called the Bridegroom and Husband, while heaven and 
 the church are called the bride and wife; and also heaven 
 is compared to a marriage. 
 
 From this it is plain that true marriage love is the union 
 of two as to interiors, which pertain to thought and will, 
 and thus to truth and good, truth pertaining to the thought 
 and good to the will. For he who is in true marriage love 
 loves what the other thinks and wills; thus also loves to 
 think and will like the other, consequently to be united 
 to the other and to become as one man. This is what is 
 meant by the Lord's words in Matthew: "And they twain 
 shall be one flesh, therefore they are no more twain, but 
 one flesh." (xix. 4-6; Gen. ii. 24.) 
 
 The enjoyment of true marriage love is internal because 
 it is of minds, and therefrom is also external, or of bodies. 
 But the enjoyment of love not of true marriage is only ex- 
 ternal enjoyment without internal, which is of bodies, not 
 of minds. This latter enjoyment is earthly, mostly like 
 that of animals, and therefore in time perishes; but the 
 former enjoyment is heavenly, as that of men should be, 
 and therefore is permanent.
 
 22 
 
 No one can know what true marriage love is and what 
 its enjoyment, unless he be in the good of love and in the 
 truths of faith from the Lord; since, as just said, true mar- 
 riage love is from heaven and from the marriage of good 
 and truth there. 
 
 From the marriage of good and truth in heaven and the 
 church we may learn what marriages should be on earth, 
 namely, that they should be between two, one husband 
 and one wife, and that true marriage love is impossible 
 when one husband has several wives. 
 
 What is done from true marriage love is done from free- 
 dom on both sides, since all freedom is from love, and both 
 have freedom when one loves what the other thinks and wills. 
 From this it follows that the wish to rule in marriages de- 
 stroys genuine love, for it takes away its freedom, thus also 
 its enjoyment. The enjoyment of ruling, which takes its 
 place, causes disagreement and sets minds at enmity, and 
 causes evils to take root according to the nature of the rule 
 on one part and the nature of the servitude on the other. 
 
 From all this it can be seen that marriages are holy, and 
 that to do violence to them is to do violence to that which 
 is holy; consequently that adulteries are profane; for as 
 the enjoyment of marriage love descends from heaven, so 
 the enjoyment of adultery ascends out of hell. 
 
 They therefore who find enjoyment in adulteries can no 
 longer receive any good and truth from heaven; hence 
 those who have found enjoyment in adulteries, afterward 
 make light of and also in heart deny the things which are 
 of the church and of heaven. The reason of this is that 
 the love of adultery is from the marriage of evil and falsity, 
 which is infernal marriage. (Heavenly Arcana, 10167- 
 10175-) 
 
 THE PROTECTING POWER OF TRUE MARRIAGE. 
 
 Another brief extract opens our eyes to the great holiness 
 and power of true marriage: 
 
 True marriage love is a source of power and protection 
 against the hells, as it is against the evils and falsities that
 
 23 
 
 ascend from the hells, and for the reason that through 
 marriage love man has conjunction with the Lord, and 
 the Lord alone has power over all the hells; also because 
 through marriage love man has heaven and the church; 
 consequently as the Lord unceasingly protects heaven and 
 the church from the evils and falsities that rise up from 
 the hells, so He protects all who are in true marriage love 
 because such and no others have heaven and the church. 
 For heaven and the church are a marriage of good and 
 truth, from which is marriage love, as has been said above. 
 And this is why through marriage love man has peace, 
 which is inmost joy of heart from a complete safety from 
 the hells and a protection from infestations of the evil and 
 falsity therefrom. (Apocalypse Explained, 999.) 
 
 TRUE MARRIAGE is ETERNAL. 
 
 True marriage, Divine in its origin, and spiritual in its 
 nature, is also eternal, for it is a vital part of the eternal 
 nature of each partner, and as they live on in heaven the 
 marriage between them deepens in blessedness forever. 
 This teaching, that true marriage is eternal, Swedenborg 
 shows to be consistent with the Lord's saying to the Sad- 
 ducees, that " in the resurrection they neither marry nor are 
 given in marriage." The Lord was declaring to the Sad- 
 ducees, who denied that there is any resurrection, two things: 
 first, that there is an eternal life beyond the grave; and 
 second, that the conditions of that life are spiritual and very 
 different from their gross suppositions. In the matter of mar- 
 riage, whether you think of that inmost holy marriage, which 
 is each one's relation with the Lord, or whether you think 
 of the marriage of love and wisdom in each one's own soul, 
 or of the spiritual union of husband and wife in the eternal 
 life of heaven, which is a result of this interior union, 
 there is no question, the Lord declares, about any of these; 
 the eternal relation with the Lord and with others is just 
 that for which one's life on earth has prepared him. The
 
 2 4 
 
 essential choice and purpose of one's life, the determination 
 of character, and so of eternal destiny, is the giving in mar- 
 riage which is effected here and not in heaven. This spirit- 
 ual marriage is consummated and fixed in the life on earth; 
 and therefore in this sense there is no marrying or giving in 
 marriage in heaven. The choice belongs to this world, the 
 development of it to the other world. (See Marriage Love,
 
 25 
 
 II. 
 
 The Divine Law of Purity. 
 
 ANOTHER view of the sacredness of marriage as it exists 
 in heaven and as it should exist among men on earth who 
 live as spiritual men in faith in the Lord and in obedience 
 to His law, is gained from the explanations of the command, 
 "Thou shalt not commit adultery," which are given -in 
 several places in the writings. Note first that the laws of 
 the Decalogue are eternal laws and binding upon Christians : 
 
 Let every one take heed to himself, lest he should sup- 
 pose that the laws of life are abrogated, such as. are in the 
 Decalogue, . . . for those laws are confirmed both in the 
 internal and external form, by reason that they cannot 
 be separated. (Heavenly Arcana, 9211. See also 9349.) 
 
 With reference to the command forbidding adultery we 
 quote first from "The Doctrine of Life for the New Jeru- 
 salem, " published five years before the work on " Marriage 
 Love": 
 
 Committing adultery, in the sixth* commandment of the 
 Decalogue, means in the natural sense, not only committing 
 whoredom (scortari), but also acting obscenely, speaking 
 lasciviously, and thinking uncleanly. But in the spiritual 
 sense, committing adultery means to adulterate the goods 
 of the Word, and to falsify its truths. And in the highest 
 sense, to commit adultery means to deny the Divinity of 
 the Lord, and to profane the Word. Such are adulteries 
 of every kind. The natural man may know from rational 
 
 * According to the numbering used by Roman Catholic and 
 Lutheran Churches.
 
 26 
 
 light, that to commit adultery means also to act obscenely, 
 to speak lasciviously, and to think uncleanly; but he does 
 not know, that to commit adultery also means to adulterate 
 the goods of the Word, and to falsify its truths; and still less 
 that it means to deny the Divinity of the Lord, and to pro- 
 fane the Word. Hence he does not know, that adultery 
 is so great an evil that it may be called diabolism itself; for 
 whoever is in natural adultery is also in spiritual adultery, 
 and vice versa. That this is so will be shown in a little 
 special work on " Marriage. " But they who do not regard 
 adulteries as sins, in faith and life, are at once in adulteries 
 of every kind. . . . 
 
 From all this it may be concluded and seen, without a 
 doubt, whether a man is a Christian or not; yea, whether 
 or not he has any religion. He who does not regard adul- 
 teries as sins, in faith and life, is not a Christian; nor has 
 he any religion. But, on the other hand, he who shuns 
 adulteries as sins, especially if on that account he regards 
 them with aversion, and still more he who on that account 
 abominates them, has religion; and if he be in the Christian 
 Church, he is a Christian. But of these things more will 
 be said in the little work on "Marriage." In the mean- 
 time see what is said on the subject in the work on " Heaven 
 and Hell," n. 366-386. (Doctrine of Life, 74, 77.) 
 
 We quote also from "The True Christian Religion, 
 containing the Universal Theology of the New Church," 
 which was published three years after "Marriage Love": 
 
 In the natural sense, this commandment, "Thou shalt 
 not commit adultery, " refers not only to committing adul- 
 tery, but also to willing and doing obscene things, and there- 
 fore to thinking and speaking lascivious things. That 
 merely to lust is to commit adultery, is evident from these 
 words of the Lord: "Ye have heard that it was said by 
 them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery. But 
 I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on another's woman 
 to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already 
 in his heart" (Matt. v. 27, 28). This is because the lust 
 when it enters the will becomes deed; for allurement enters
 
 27 
 
 merely into the understanding, but intention enters into 
 the will, and the intention of lust is a deed. But more 
 may be seen concerning these things in the work " Concern- 
 ing Marriage Love, and concerning Scortatory Love," 
 published at Amsterdam in the year 1768; which treats 
 "On the Opposition of Marriage Love and Scortatory," 
 n. 423-443; "On Fornication," n. 444-460; "On Adul- 
 teries and their Kinds and Degrees," n. 478-499; "On 
 the Lust of Defloration," n. 501-505; "On the Lust for 
 Variety," n. 506-510; "On the Lust of Violation," n. 511, 
 512. ".On the Lust of seducing Innocences," n. 513, 514; 
 "On the Imputation of each Love, Scortatory and Mar- 
 riage," n. 523-531. These all are meant by this com- 
 mandment in the natural sense. 
 
 There are many causes which make a man to seem chaste, 
 not only to others but also to himself, when, in fact, he is 
 wholly unchaste; since he does not know that when a lust 
 occupies the will it is a deed and cannot be removed except 
 by the Lord after repentance. A man is not made chaste 
 by abstaining from doing, but by abstaining from will- 
 ing because it is a sin, when the doing is possible. Just 
 so far as any one abstains from adulteries and whore- 
 doms (scortationibus), solely from fear of the civil law and 
 its penalties; from fear of the loss of reputation and thus 
 of honor; from fear of the diseases arising from them; 
 from fear of the wife's upbraidings at home, and the conse- 
 quent intranquillity of life; from fear of vengeance of the 
 husband and relatives, or of being beaten by their servants; 
 or because of avarice, or any infirmity caused by disease 
 or abuse or age or any other cause of impotence; even 
 if he abstains on account of any natural or moral law, and 
 not at the same time on account of spiritual law; he is 
 nevertheless inwardly an adulterer and a whoremonger. 
 For he none the less believes that adulteries and whoredoms 
 are not sins, and therefore he does not in his spirit make 
 them unlawful before God; and thus in spirit he commits 
 them, even if he does not commit them in the body be- 
 fore the world; and in consequence, when after death he 
 becomes a spirit he speaks openly in favor of them. (True 
 Christian Religion, 313, 316.)
 
 28 
 
 It is the evident purpose of this which was to be Sweden- 
 borg's last message on the subject, to enforce the truth that 
 the commandment forbids not technical adultery only, but 
 impurity of every kind, of act and thought and will, and that 
 impurity in all these forms must be shunned as sin against 
 God. This is the fundamental and constant teaching of 
 the doctrine on this subject, and the law of conduct of the 
 Church. 
 
 pin this final message on the subject, Swedenborg has 
 gathered up the work on "Scortatory Love" by its several 
 titles* and given it its place in the universal theology, as 
 treating of things forbidden by the Divine Commandment, 
 "Thou shalt not commit adultery"; adding, "These all 
 are meant by this commandment in the natural sense." 
 His meaning could not be plainer if he had written this as 
 an inscription upon the treatise on "Scortatory Love," 
 and as a running head on every page. 
 
 To THINK EVILS ALLOWABLE is TO Do THEM. 
 
 The teaching is often and strongly stated in the doctrines 
 of the New Church that to think with intention js to do, 
 and that to will evils or to believe them to be allowable is 
 to do them: 
 
 The man who examines himself in order to do the work 
 of repentance, must examine his thoughts and the inten- 
 tions of his will, and must there examine what he would do 
 if it were permitted him, that is, if he were not afraid of 
 the laws, and of the loss of reputation, honor and gain. 
 In his thoughts and intentions do the evils of man reside, 
 and the evils which he does in the body are all therefrom. 
 They who do not examine the evils of their thought and 
 
 *The title "Concubinage" is omitted from the enumeration. It 
 was apparently unnecessary to include it, since fornication and con- 
 cubinage are in essence one. (Scortatory Love, 462.)
 
 29 
 
 will, cannot do the work of repentance, for they think and 
 will afterwards as they did before, and yet to will evils is 
 to do them. This is self-examination. (The New Jeru- 
 salem and Its Heavenly Doctrine, 164.) 
 
 Again, such evils as a man believes allowable, even 
 though he does not do them, are appropriated to him; 
 since whatever is made allowable in the thought comes 
 from the will, for there is then consent. When, there- 
 fore, a man believes an evil to be allowable, he releases it 
 from internal restraint; and is withheld from doing it only 
 by external restraints, which are fears. And because his 
 spirit then favors that evil, whenever external restraints 
 are removed he does it as allowable, and in the meantime 
 continually does it in spirit. But on this subject see the 
 "Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem," n. 108-113. 
 (Divine Providence, 81.) 
 
 In regard to the evil of adultery it is also expressly said: 
 
 Adulteries close heaven and open hell, and this they do so 
 far as they are believed to be allowable, and are perceived 
 to be more delightful than marriages. (Apocalypse Ex- 
 plained, 982.) 
 
 The Dragon in the Apocalypse xii., and the goats in 
 Matthew xxiv. are those who while they observe all the 
 solemnities of worship 
 
 do not shun evils as sins, and although they do not commit 
 them, they think them allowable, and therefore commit 
 them in spirit, and in body, too, when they can. (Con- 
 tinuation of the Last Judgment, 16.) 
 
 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." 
 (Matt. v. 8.)
 
 3 
 
 ABILITY TO KEEP THE COMMANDMENT. 
 
 All this makes it clear that the teachings of the New 
 Church are in full accord with the searching words of the 
 Lord, "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her 
 hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" 
 (Matt. v. 28). The teaching in regard to man's ability to 
 keep the commandments and to resist evil in the Lord's 
 strength is equally strong and definite. 
 
 Every man is so constituted that he is able to shun evils, 
 as of himself, by the power of the Lord, if he implore it; 
 and what he does after this is good from the Lord. (Doc- 
 trine of Life, 31.) 
 
 All are born men, and from this the image of God is in 
 them. The image of God is in them in their being able to 
 understand truth and to do good. Their ability to under- 
 stand truth is from the Divine Wisdom, and their ability 
 to do good is from the Divine Love; this power is the image 
 of God, which remains in the sane man, and is not eradi- 
 cated. It is from this that he is able to become a civil and 
 moral man; and he who is civil and moral can also become 
 spiritual, for the civil and moral is the receptacle of the 
 spiritual. (Divine Providence, 322.) 
 
 The whole doctrine of the Lord, involving the doctrine 
 of redemption, the central and fundamental doctrine of 
 the New Church, is the confirmation and explanation of 
 this truth so briefly expressed in "The Doctrine of Life," 
 and in "The Divine Providence." The doctrine on this 
 subject is clearly set forth in "The True Christian Re- 
 ligion " :
 
 THE LORD'S PERFECT VICTORY OVER EVIL. 
 
 The Lord came into the world chiefly for these two things, 
 to remove hell from angel and from man, and to glorify 
 His Human. For before the Lord's Advent, hell had 
 grown up so far as to infest the angels of heaven, and also 
 (by interposing between heaven and the world), to cut off 
 the Lord's communication with men on earth, so that 
 no Divine truth and good could pass through from the 
 Lord to men. Consequently total damnation threatened 
 the whole human race; and further, the angels of heaven 
 could not have long continued to exist in their integrity. 
 And therefore, in order that hell might be removed; and 
 this impending damnation thereby taken away, the Lord 
 came into the world, removed hell, subjugated it, and 
 thus opened heaven; so that He could afterward be present 
 with the men of the earth, and save those who should live 
 according to His precepts, consequently regenerate and 
 save them, for those who are regenerated are saved. This 
 is what is meant when it is said, that, because all have 
 been redeemed, all can be regenerated; and, because re- 
 generation and salvation make one, that all can be saved. 
 Therefore, what the church teaches, that without the 
 Lord's Coming no one could have been saved, is to be 
 understood in this way, that without the Lord's Coming 
 no one could have been regenerated. As to the other 
 end for the sake of which the Lord came into the world, 
 namely, to glorify His Human, this was because He thereby 
 became the Redeemer, Regenerator, and Saviour for ever. 
 For it is not to be believed that, subsequent to the Re- 
 demption once wrought in the world, all men have been 
 redeemed by that, but that the Lord is perpetually redeem- 
 ing those who believe in Him and keep His words. But 
 on these points more may be seen in the chapter on Re- 
 demption. 
 
 In the combats or temptations of men the Lord works 
 a particular redemption, as He wrought redemption that 
 embraced the whole when in the world. The Lord in the 
 world, by means of combats and temptations, glorified His 
 Human, that is, made it Divine; in like manner now,
 
 32 
 
 with a man individually, while he is in temptations; in 
 these the Lord fights for him, and conquers the evil spirits 
 who are infesting him; and after temptation glorifies him, 
 that is, renders him spiritual. After His universal redemp- 
 tion, the Lord reduced to order all things in heaven and 
 in hell; with man after temptation He does in like manner, 
 that is to say, He reduces to order all the things that are of 
 heaven and the church with the man. After redemption 
 the Lord established a new church; in like manner also 
 He establishes those things which are of the church with 
 the man, and makes him to be a church in particular. 
 After redemption the Lord gifted those who believed in 
 Him with peace; for He said, "Peace I leave with you, 
 My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give 
 I unto you" (John xiv. 27); so likewise He gives to man 
 after temptation to feel peace, that is, gladness of mind and 
 consolation. From which it is manifest that the Lord 
 is the Redeemer for ever. (True Christian Religion, 579, 
 
 599-) 
 
 We are given an insight into the nature of the Lord's re- 
 deeming work, the completeness of His victories, and the 
 sufficiency of His help, in many tender passages in the 
 "Heavenly Arcana," of which we quote but one: 
 
 The Lord from earliest boyhood even to the last hour 
 of His life in the world, was assaulted by all the hells; 
 against which He continually fought, and subjugated and 
 overcame them; and this solely from love towards the 
 whole human race. And because this love was not human 
 but Divine, and as the love is so is the temptation, it can 
 be seen how grievous the combats were, and how great 
 the ferocity on the part of the hells. That all this was so, 
 I know of a certainty. (Heavenly Arcana, 1690.) 
 
 MAN HAS POWER FROM THE LORD TO SHUN EVIL. 
 
 It remains to learn how fully the Lord's redeeming power 
 is made available to men of their helplessness without 
 Him, but of their ability to shun all evil in His strength.
 
 33 
 
 Man has power against evil and falsity from the Divine 
 omnipotence, and has wisdom concerning good and truth 
 from the Divine omniscience, and is in God from the Divine 
 omnipresence, just to the extent that he lives according to 
 Divine order. 
 
 The reason that man has power against evil and falsity 
 from the Divine omnipotence so far as he lives according 
 to Divine order, is because no one can resist evils and the 
 falsities therefrom but God alone. . . . From this it follows 
 that unless a man lives according to Divine order,. that is, 
 unless he acknowledges God and His omnipotence, and 
 from that omnipotence protection against hell; and, also, 
 unless man on his part fights with the evil in himself (for 
 both of these pertain to the Divine order), he must needs 
 be immersed and overwhelmed in hell. (True Christian 
 Religion, 68.) 
 
 In the previous article the evils that must be shunned 
 were enumerated from the Decalogue. But many, I know, 
 think in their heart that no one can shun these of himself, 
 because man is born in sins and has therefore no power of 
 himself to shun them. But let such know that any one 
 who thinks in his heart that there is a God, that the Lord 
 is the God of heaven and earth, that the Word is from Him 
 and is therefore holy, that there is a heaven and a hell, and 
 that there is a life after death, has the ability to shun these 
 evils. But he who despises these truths and casts them 
 out of his mind, and still more he who denies them, is not 
 able. For how can one who never thinks about God think 
 that anything is a sin against God? And how can one 
 who never thinks about heaven, hell, and the life after death, 
 shun evils as sins? Such a man does not know what sin 
 is. Man is placed in the middle between heaven and hell. 
 Out of heaven goods unceasingly flow in, and out of hell 
 evils unceasingly flow in; and as man is between, he has 
 freedom to think what is good or to think what is evil. 
 This freedom the Lord never takes away from anyone, for 
 it belongs to his life, and is the means of his reformation. 
 So far, therefore, as man from this freedom has the thought 
 and desire to shun evils because they are sins, and prays to 
 the Lord for help, so far does the Lord take them away 
 and give man the ability to refrain from them as if of him- 
 self, and then to shun them. (Apocalypse Explained, 936.)
 
 34 
 
 [When a man by self-examination sees the quality of his 
 will], and knows what sin is, if he implores the Lord's aid, 
 he is able to cease willing it, to shun it, and afterwards to 
 act against it; if not freely, still to coerce it by combat, and 
 at length to hold it in aversion and abominate it; and then, 
 and not before, he perceives and he also feels that evil is 
 evil and that good is good. (Divine Providence, 278.) 
 
 Who that reads the Word and has any religion, does 
 not know that evils are sins? The Word teaches this, 
 from the beginning to the end, and this is the whole of 
 religion. Evils are called sins from the fact that they are 
 contrary to the Word, and contrary to religion. 
 
 Who does not know that no one can shun evils as sins 
 unless as of himself? Who can repent otherwise? Does 
 not a man say within himself, " This I do not will. From 
 doing this I will refrain. Nay, whenever the evil returns 
 I will fight against it and conquer it"? And yet no one 
 speaks thus within himself unless he believes in God. 
 . . . But he who believes in God says also within himself, 
 "Through God I shall conquer it." And he supplicates, 
 and prevails. This is not denied to any one, but is granted; 
 for the Lord is in continual effort, from His Divine Love, 
 to reform and regenerate man, and so to purify him from 
 evils. And when the man also desires and intends it, this 
 perpetual effort of the Lord becomes an act. Thus and 
 no otherwise does a man receive power to resist evils and 
 fight against them. 
 
 Man as to his proprium is nothing but evil, and is born 
 into it from his parents. But means are provided by the 
 Lord that he may not therefore perish. . . . When he 
 shuns evils as sins he fights against them because they are 
 contrary to the Lord, and against His Divine Laws, and 
 then he prays to the Lord for help and for power to resist 
 them which power supplicated is never denied. (Doc- 
 trine of Charity, 143, 144, 146.) 
 
 Many strong passages could be quoted declaring the 
 Divine power to resist evil which is with us in the Holy 
 Word:
 
 35 
 
 In the outmosts of the Word, which constitute the sense 
 of its letter, are all things of Divine truth and of Divine 
 good, even from their firsts. And as all things of Divine 
 truth and Divine good are together in their outmost, which 
 is the sense of the letter of the Word, there evidently is the 
 power of Divine truth, yea, the omnipotence of the Lord 
 in saving man. For when the Lord operates He operates 
 not from first things through mediates into outmosts, but 
 from first things through outmosts and thus into mediates. 
 . . . The power of the Word in the sense of the letter is the 
 power to open heaven, whereby communication and con- 
 junction are effected, and also the power to fight against 
 falsities and evils, thus against the hells. A man who is 
 in genuine truths from the sense of the letter of the' Word 
 can disperse and scatter the whole diabolical crew and their 
 devices in which they place their power, which are in- 
 numerable, and this in a moment, merely by careful thought 
 and an effort of the will. In brief, in the spiritual world 
 nothing can resist genuine truths confirmed from the sense of 
 the letter of the Word. (Apocalypse Explained, 1086.) 
 
 Every evil is forbidden and the door to every heavenly 
 good is opened by the Ten Commandments. If there 
 were an evil not forbidden by a Divine command, no power 
 in the universe could resist it, no power could keep it out 
 of heaven; for the commandments are the gates of heaven. 
 To recognize that an evil is forbidden by a Divine command 
 is to acknowledge it as sin. Then it can be resisted in the 
 Divine strength. 
 
 NOT DIFFICULT TO LIVE THE LIFE OF HEAVEN. 
 
 Add also this practical teaching from "Heaven and 
 Hell": 
 
 That it is not so difficult to live the life of heaven as 
 some believe, is evident now from this, that it is only ne- 
 cessary for man to think, when anything presents itself to 
 him which he knows to be insincere and unjust and to
 
 36 
 
 which he is inclined, that it ought not to be done because 
 it is contrary to the Divine precepts. If man accustoms 
 himself so to think, and from so accustoming himself ac- 
 quires a habit, he then by degrees is conjoined to heaven; 
 and so far as he is conjoined to heaven, the higher regions 
 of his mind are opened; and so far as those are opened, 
 he sees what is insincere and unjust; and so far as he sees 
 these evils, so far they may be shaken off for no evil can 
 be shaken off until it is seen. This is a state into which 
 man may enter from free-will; for who is not able from free- 
 will to think in this manner? But when he has made a 
 beginning, then the Lord quickens all that is good in him, 
 and causes him not only to see evils as evils, but also not 
 to will them, and finally to be averse to them. This is 
 meant by the Lord's words, " My yoke is easy and My bur- 
 den is light" (Matt. xi. 30). It is however to be known 
 that the difficulty of so thinking, and likewise of resisting 
 evils, increases in so far as man from the will commits them; 
 for just so far he accustoms himself to them, until at length 
 he does not see them, and afterward loves them, and from 
 the enjoyment of love excuses them, and by all kinds of 
 fallacies confirms them, saying that they are allowable and 
 good. But this is the case with those who in early youth 
 plunge into evils without restraint, and then at the same 
 time reject Divine things from the heart. (Heaven and 
 Hell, 5330 
 
 The doctrine quoted shows clearly that the Lord came 
 into the world to save His people from their sins. He ac- 
 complished what He came to do, not in such a sense that all 
 men are saved whether they will or no, but in such a sense 
 that if they will examine themselves, know their evils, 
 confess them before the Lord, pray to Him for power to 
 refrain from them, and then actually refrain from them when 
 they recur, the Lord will give them the needed power. To 
 believe this, to know it from experience, is to believe in the 
 Lord in a living sense as our Saviour. To refuse to believe 
 it and to reject His power, is to deny Him.
 
 37 
 
 III. 
 Marriage as a Natural and Civil Institution. 
 
 KNOWLEDGE of the Divine origin and spiritual nature 
 of marriage puts us in the true position from which to con- 
 sider marriage as a natural and civil institution. While 
 marriage is essentially spiritual, a union of souls, it has also 
 its natural side. This is perhaps the appropriate place to 
 notice the often quoted remark of Swedenborg in regard to 
 the book on "Marriage Love and Scortatory Love" in a 
 letter to Dr. Beyer, that it "does not treat of theology, but 
 chiefly of morals" (Letter to Dr. Beyer, Documents, II., 
 p. 306). Swedenborg has himself stated the two principles 
 of his theology to be, "That God is one, and that there is 
 a conjunction of charity and faith " (Intercourse between the 
 Soul and the Body, 20). In other words, theology deals 
 with belief in God, and with a life of shunning evil and doing 
 good from Him. The book on " Marriage Love and Scor- 
 tatory Love" bears out the description, that it "does not 
 treat of theology, but chiefly of morals," in that it in small 
 part deals directly with the nature of God and the spiritual 
 life of repentance and faith, which are so fully treated of in 
 "The True Christian Religion," "The Doctrine of Life," 
 and " The Doctrine of the Lord," in chapters on " The Deca- 
 logue," "Repentance," and "Redemption," and deals 
 largely with moral aspects of the relation of the sexes. 
 Christians and regenerating men will find the help they 
 need in applying the commandments to their lives in the 
 books that treat more fully of the Lord and of shunning evil 
 in His strength; many things in the book on "Marriage
 
 38 
 
 Love and Scortatory Love" are said of those who are with- 
 out real religion or theology. It is plain that when the 
 book discusses conditions and evils which arise through 
 an absence of religion, it is a book of information in regard 
 to things existing in the world and in hell, but is in no sense 
 a rule of conduct for the church. 
 
 RECOGNITION OF THE CIVIL LAW. 
 
 Proceeding to the externalities of marriage, the import- 
 ance of due formality and religious ceremony in the conse- 
 cration of marriages, and of a marriage covenant, is insisted 
 on in the doctrines, 
 
 in order that the statutes and laws of true marriage love 
 may be known, and that the consorts may be mindful of 
 them after the nuptials; also that it may be a restraint, hold- 
 ing their minds together to rightful marriage. For after 
 some beginnings of married life, at times the state before 
 betrothal returns, in which recollection vanishes, and there 
 steals in a forgetfulness of the obligations of the covenant 
 nay, from enticements by things unchaste, to the unchaste 
 there comes about an effacement of it, and if then it is re- 
 called to mind there is censure of it. But, to avert these 
 transgressions, society has taken upon itself the guardian- 
 ship of the covenant, and has enacted penalties against 
 those who break it. In a word the antenuptial covenant 
 makes public the sacred obligations of true marriage love, 
 establishes them, and binds libertines to obedience to them. 
 Add to this, that by the covenant the right to propagate 
 children, and the right of children to inherit the goods of 
 their parents, is made legal. (Marriage Love, 307.) 
 
 Repeatedly in the doctrines of the New Church love of 
 country and service of country and obedience to its laws are 
 presented as a sacred duty. Such love and obedience are 
 meant in an important sense by the command to 16ve our
 
 39 
 
 neighbor, for our country is more our neighbor than an 
 individual. But not only are the civil laws to be obeyed 
 because they are necessary to natural welfare, but because 
 an orderly life of obedience to civil law is the receptacle and 
 foundation of spiritual life. The civil contract of marriage 
 is to be strictly observed because it is essential to society 
 and to the protection of family and home, but the contract 
 is the more sacred because it is the basis of the deepest 
 spiritual development and happiness. (True . Christian 
 Religion, 414; Divine Providence, 322.) 
 
 In its treatment of sexual evils the doctrine refers again 
 to the civil law and the necessity for the strict enforcement 
 of the law in the punishment of crime (Scortatory Love, 
 486, 489). And where human discretion is to be exercised 
 it shows that this belongs rather to the civil law as the larger, 
 calmer human judgment, than to the individual judgment 
 of one under the influence of excited natural desire. (Ad- 
 versaria, 624, on the command, "Thou shalt not commit 
 adultery, " quoted on pp. 66, 67 of this pamphlet.) 
 
 COLDNESS AND SEPARATIONS. 
 
 Already, at the chapter on "The Causes of Coldnesses, 
 Separations, and Divorces," we are descending from the 
 elevated plane of true spiritual marriage, and are beginning 
 the consideration of relations among those with whom the 
 essence of true marriage, namely, true religion, is lacking. 
 "Where there is no religion there is no marriage love: and 
 where this is not, there is coldness" (Marriage Love, 239). 
 From coldnesses come separations (234). The principal 
 causes of coldnesses are shown to be a lack of true religion 
 in one or both partners. Other external causes of coldness 
 are also considered. 
 
 Then follows a brief enumeration of the causes of sep-
 
 40 
 
 aration; and for a fuller enumeration of these we are re- 
 ferred to the chapter on "Concubinage" in the treatise 
 on " Scortatory Love. " By separation is meant separation 
 from the bed or from the house. The causes given in 
 the brief enumeration are, vitiated states of mind (252), 
 and vitiated states of body (253), and impotence known 
 before marriage (254). In the fuller enumeration the 
 causes of separation are classified as "legitimate, just, 
 and truly weighty causes." The just causes coincide 
 with the vitiated states of mind and body in the shorter 
 enumeration which were there called legitimate, with the 
 explanation that "by legitimate causes here are not meant 
 judical causes but legitimate in respect to the other partner" 
 (252). To these just causes the fuller enumeration adds 
 on the one hand, causes of separation which are legitimate 
 in the sense that they are causes which give legal ground 
 for divorce (468, 470); and on the other hand, "truly 
 weighty causes" which are perverse habits of life (471-474). 
 The doctrine is not intended to encourage separation for 
 insignificant reasons. The vitiated states of body which 
 give ground for separation are defined as "diseases by 
 which the whole body is infected to such a degree as may 
 by contagion induce fatal results" (470). In discussing 
 the weighty causes for separation, warning is given against 
 being deceived by causes which only seem weighty but are 
 not really so. In determining causes of separation, the 
 first appeal is to the civil law; but in cases which are not 
 within the jurisdiction of the civil law, the appeal is to the 
 rational judgment and conscience of the parties. 
 
 In these pages on separation we have left the considera- 
 tion of marriage between two who are imbued with a spirit 
 of true religion, and are dealing with marriages in which 
 one or both of the partners view the relation in an external 
 and worldly way. To a merely natural man separation
 
 may seem right, when to a spiritual man, with a truer 
 view of marriage, the same conditions might not lead to 
 the thought of separation. In a spiritual man such condi- 
 tions call forth a deeper tenderness and solicitude for 
 the afflicted partner, and separation cannot be thought of 
 apart from tenderest consideration for the other's good. 
 That we are here on external ground, with those who view 
 marriage in an external, unspiritual way, is further suggested 
 by the association of separation with concubinage, and by the 
 reference to both as things "permitted" (276), a term which 
 we shall presently consider and shall see that it is used in 
 relation to evil things and not to good. We must class, the 
 separations treated in this chapter, at least in part, with 
 that putting away of wives of which the Lord said, " Moses, 
 because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put 
 away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so" 
 (Matt. xix. 8). Commenting upon these words Sweden- 
 borg declares, "It is said that it was permitted by Moses, 
 in order that it may be known it was not permitted by the 
 Lord." (Marriage Love, 340.) 
 
 DIVORCE FOR ONE CAUSE ONLY. 
 
 The sacredness and importance of the marriage covenant 
 are again insisted upon when the subject of divorce is con- 
 sidered. In regard to divorce we read: 
 
 That the matrimonial contract is permanent, to the end 
 of life in the world, is according to Divine law; and because 
 it is so it is also according to rational law; and thence is 
 according to the civil law. It is according to Divine law 
 that a man may not put away his wife and marry another 
 except for fornication, as above [in Matt. xix. 3-10]; it is 
 according to rational law, because this is founded upon the 
 spiritual for Divine law and rational law are one law. 
 From this and that together, or through this from that, may 
 be seen in great measure the enormities, and the destructions
 
 42 
 
 of societies, that would come of dissolutions of marriages 
 or the putting away of wives before death at the pleasure of 
 the husband. (Marriage Love, 276, 468, 255.) 
 
 Here Swedenborg is facing the problem which confronts 
 law-makers of the present day when they attempt to legis- 
 late in regard to marriage and divorce. Many persons will 
 not live up to the highest standards of marriage. What 
 shall be done? Shall sin be legalized by setting the civil 
 standard low, making divorce and re-marriage easy? Or 
 shall the civil standard be kept high in agreement with the 
 Divine standard, even in view of the fact that a strict stand- 
 ard is more liable to be violated? The latter course is 
 shown by Swedenborg to be the right course, because it is 
 required by loyalty to the Divine law, and because it is 
 essential to the integrity of society. At the same time he 
 recognizes that so strict a standard as that of the Scripture 
 will be violated, and shows that such restraints as are possible 
 must be imposed upon the violation. These are considered 
 in their proper place. 
 
 POLYGAMY is LASCIVIOUSNESS. 
 
 A chapter on "Polygamy" shows why polygamy, which 
 was permitted in the Jewish Church and is permitted in the 
 Mahometan Church, is for Christians absolutely condemned. 
 It is because marriage, which is true and spiritual and really 
 blessed, can exist only between two, and only with those 
 who know and acknowledge the Lord and live according to 
 His commandments. Polygamy was permitted with the 
 Jews and with Mahometans, and could be permitted with 
 them without the destructive effect which it would have with 
 Christians, because they were wholly natural, that is, un- 
 spiritual men. Polygamy is absolutely inconsistent with
 
 43 
 
 spiritual life. " A polygamist, so long as he remains a polyg- 
 amist, or what is the same, a natural man so long as he 
 remains natural, cannot become spiritual" (347). The 
 chapter on polygamy has a wider value because of its clear, 
 strong teaching that all divided love is natural and lasciv- 
 ious, and that marriage love alone is chaste. 
 
 That polygamy is lasciviousness is because its love is 
 divided among several, and is love of the sex, and is 
 a love of the external natural man, and so is not marriage 
 love, which alone is chaste. That polygamic love is di- 
 vided among several is known, and divided love is not 
 marriage love, which cannot be severed from the one of the 
 sex. The love is therefore lascivious, and polygamy is lasciv- 
 iousness. That polygamic love is love of the sex is clear, 
 for it only differs from it in being limited to the number 
 that the polygamist is able to take to himself, and in being 
 held to certain regulations established for the public good; 
 also in that it permits the addition of concubines to wives. 
 And being thus love of the sex it is love of lasciviousness. 
 Polygamic love is a love of the external or natural man, 
 because it is inscribed on that man; and whatever the nat- 
 ural man does from himself is evil, out of which he 
 cannot be led except by elevation into the internal spiritual 
 man, which is done by the Lord alone. And the evil look- 
 ing at the sex which inheres in the natural man is whoredom; 
 and because this is destructive of society, in place of whore- 
 dom a similitude of it was introduced which is called polyg- 
 amy. All the evil into which a man is born from his 
 parents is implanted in his natural man, and none in his 
 spiritual man, because into this he is born from the Lord. 
 From the reasons that have been adduced, and from many 
 others also, it may be seen clearly that polygamy is lasciv- 
 iousness. (345.)
 
 44 
 
 IV. 
 
 "The Pleasures of Insanity Pertaining to 
 Scortatory Love." 
 
 WE must next accompany Swedenborg in his considera- 
 tion of sexual evils entirely outside the bonds of legal mar- 
 riage. The reasons for treating this phase of the subject 
 become apparent as we proceed in the consideration. They 
 are first, that true marriage in its sanctity and beauty may 
 be seen more clearly in contrast with its opposites; and, 
 second, that the light of heavenly truth may be made to 
 touch the disorderly conditions existing in this world, 
 showing them in their real hatefulness, at the same time 
 revealing the Lord's mercy towards those in evil, and in- 
 dicating even for the most degraded the possibility of re- 
 pentance and salvation. As at the Lord's first coming He 
 came to the lowest states of human need, saying to one taken 
 in adultery, " Go and sin no more," so in His second coming 
 the new light and helpfulness must extend to the most evil 
 states. A third reason for this treatise upon sexual evils 
 is to rebuke the Pharisaical spirit of security in the appear- 
 ance of virtue, and to lead to a spirit of Christian mercy and 
 helpfulness toward those outwardly in evil. 
 
 QUALITY SEEN BY CONTRAST. 
 
 We are impressed at the outset by the care which has 
 been taken to distinguish true marriage and true marriage 
 love from the impure relations and impure natural loves 
 which are in greater or less degree opposed to marriage. 
 To make this distinction clear and emphatic the book on
 
 45 
 
 marriage is divided into two parts: the first, bearing as a 
 title, and as a running head at the top of the pages, "The 
 Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Marriage Love," and 
 the second part bearing as a title and as a running head at 
 the top of the pages, "Pleasures of Insanity Pertaining to 
 Scortatory Love." The need for such contrast of good 
 with evil to clearness of thought, and also the need for the 
 complete separation of the two is fully stated by Swedenborg 
 in the "Divine Providence" : 
 
 The quality of a good is known only by its relation to 
 what is less good, and by its contrariety to evil. From 
 this comes all that gives perception and sensation, be- 
 cause from this is their quality; for thus everything pleasing 
 is perceived and felt from the less pleasing and by means 
 of the unpleasant; everything beautiful, from the less 
 beautiful and by means of the unbeautiful; and likewise 
 every good which is of love, from the less good and by 
 means of evil; and every truth which is of wisdom, from 
 the less true and by means of falsity. There must be vari- 
 ety in every real thing, from the greatest to the least of it; 
 and when there is the variety in its opposite also, from the 
 least to the greatest, and there comes equilibrium between 
 them, then* a relation is established according to the de- 
 grees on both sides; and the perception of the thing and 
 the sensation increase or diminish. But it is to be known 
 that an opposite may take away or may exalt the percep- 
 tions and sensations; when an opposite commingles itself 
 with its opposite, it takes them away; but when it does not 
 commingle itself, it exalts them; on which account the 
 Lord most carefully separates good and evil in man that 
 they may not be mingled, just as He separates heaven and 
 hell. (Divine Providence, 24.) 
 
 In the present case the distinction between the root of 
 good and the root of evil in sexual relations is strongly 
 presented in the opening chapter of the Second Part of the 
 book, on " The Opposition of Scortatory Love and Marriage
 
 46 
 
 Love." In this chapter it is shown that every good has its 
 opposite, and that the opposite of marriage love is adultery. 
 It is shown that the two are opposed to each other as hell 
 is to heaven, and heaven to hell; that scortatory love is 
 the source of the impurity of hell, and marriage love the 
 source of the purity of heaven; and that even in this world 
 "those who are in the impure and obscene delights of 
 scortatory love join themselves to their like from hell; and 
 those who are in the pure and chaste delights of marriage 
 love are associated by the Lord with similar angels from 
 heaven" (Scortatory Love, 431). This contrast between 
 marriage and its opposite is also strongly drawn in "The 
 Apocalypse Explained," where we read: 
 
 Who at this day can believe that the delight of adultery 
 is hell in man, and the delight of marriage is heaven in 
 man; consequently so far as he is in the one delight he is 
 not in the other, since so far as man is in hell he is not in 
 heaven? Who at this day can believe that the love of 
 adultery is the fundamental of all infernal and diabolical 
 loves, and that the chaste love of marriage is the funda- 
 mental of all heavenly and Divine loves; consequently so 
 far as a man is in the love of adultery he is in every evil, if 
 not in act yet in endeavor; and on the other hand, so far 
 as he is in the chaste love of marriage he is in every good 
 love, if not in act yet in endeavor ? (Apocalypse Explained, 
 981.) 
 
 SCORTATORY LOVE THE OPPOSITE OF MARRIAGE LOVE. 
 
 The distinction between the good and the evil in the 
 relations of the sexes is made sharp and strong by omitting 
 at first the consideration of certain milder forms of evil, 
 not deeply confirmed, and setting in contrast the two loves 
 which are the absolute opposites of each other: 
 
 At this threshold it is to be explained first what is meant 
 by scortatory love in this chapter. The fornicatory love
 
 47 
 
 that precedes marriage is not meant; neither that which 
 follows it after the death of a consort; nor the concubinage 
 which is entered upon for legitimate, just, and weighty 
 reasons; nor are the mild kinds of adultery meant; nor 
 the graver kinds of which a man actually repents. For 
 these do not become opposite, and those are not opposite 
 to marriage love. That they are not opposite will be seen 
 hereafter, when each comes to be treated of. But by the 
 scortatory love opposite to marriage love here, is meant 
 love of adultery when it is such that it is not regarded as 
 a sin, nor as evil, dishonorable, and against reason, but 
 as permissible by reason. This scortatory love not only 
 makes marriage love the same as itself, but also ruins, 
 destroys, and at length holds it in disgust. 
 
 The opposition of this love against marriage love is treated 
 of in this chapter. That it treats of no other should be 
 manifest from the chapters that follow concerning Forni- 
 cation, Concubinage, and the different kinds of Adultery. 
 (Scortatory Love, 423.) 
 
 The evils which are here at first omitted from considera- 
 tion are presently considered in their place and are abund- 
 antly shown to be unchaste, natural, and evil, and are 
 elsewhere classed as scortations: 
 
 Thus it is with scortations, whether they are for- 
 nications, or pellicacies, or concubinages, or adulteries; 
 because they are imputed to every one not according to 
 the deeds, but according to the state of mind in the deeds. 
 (Scortatory Love, 530.) 
 
 Moreover, while these milder forms of evil are not the 
 subject of this chapter, much that is said in the chapter 
 throws light upon them as well as upon the more grievous 
 forms of evil; for the impure natural man, the animal nature, 
 is in general described and contrasted with the spiritual man 
 who alone is in true marriage love.
 
 48 
 
 Scortatory love is opposite to marriage love just as the 
 natural man in himself regarded is opposite to the spirit- 
 ual man. That the natural man and the spiritual man 
 are opposed to each other even to the degree that the 
 one does not will what the other wills, yea, that they fight 
 against each other, is known in the church, but as yet has 
 not been explained. It shall therefore be shown what 
 distinguishes the spiritual and the natural and excites the 
 one against the other. It is the natural man into which 
 every one is first introduced while he is growing up, which 
 introduction is by knowledges, and cognitions, and by 
 rational activity of the understanding; and the spiritual 
 is the man into which he is introduced by the love of per- 
 forming uses, which love is also called charity. So far 
 therefore as any one is in this love he is spiritual, and so 
 far as he is not in this love he is natural even though 
 he be of penetrating genius and of wise judgment. That 
 this man which is called natural, apart from the spiritual, 
 howsoever it may elevate itself into rational light, yet 
 dissolves itself in lusts, and is actuated by them, is made 
 plain by its ruling spirit alone, in that it is destitute of charity; 
 and he who is destitute of this is loosed to all the wanton- 
 nesses of scortatory love. (Scortatory Love, 426.) 
 
 But the delights of marriage love have nothing in common 
 with the feculent delights of scortatory love. These do 
 indeed inhere in the flesh of every man (homo); but, in 
 proportion as the spirit of a man is elevated above the 
 sensuals of the body, and looks down from a height upon 
 their appearances and fallacies, these are separated and 
 removed. He likewise then perceives the fleshly delights 
 first as apparent and fallacious delights; afterwards as 
 lustful and lascivious, which ought to be shunned; and 
 gradually as pernicious and hurtful to the soul; and finally 
 senses them as undelightful, filthy, and nauseating. And 
 in the degree that he thus perceives and senses these delights, 
 in the same degree he perceives the delights of marriage 
 love as harmless and chaste; and finally as exquisite and 
 blessed. (441.) 
 
 The delights of marriage love are the exquisite delights 
 of wisdom because none others than spiritual men are 
 in that love, and the spiritual man is in wisdom, and there-
 
 49 
 
 fore embraces no delights except such as accord with spirit- 
 ual wisdom. (443.) 
 
 The opposition between marriage love and scortatory 
 love having been shown, and in general the distinction be- 
 tween the spiritual and the natural, the pure and the impure, 
 the treatise on " Scortatory Love" proceeds to the considera- 
 tion of these evils in detail. 
 
 DEGREES or EVIL. 
 
 The same systematic order of treatment which in the 
 treatise on "Marriage Love" proceeds from marriage in 
 heaven and the Divine origin and spiritual nature of marriage 
 to unions in which the warmth and life of true marriage are 
 fading, to divorce, and to the external contract and formality 
 of marriage, and even to polygamy, in this second treatise 
 on " Scortatory Love " proceeds from the milder to the most 
 grievous forms of evil outside the bonds of marriage. Near 
 the beginning of the latter treatise the doctrine of degrees 
 of evil is clearly stated, which is the key to the whole treat- 
 ment of the subject. 
 
 There are degrees of the quality of evil, as there are 
 degrees of the quality of good. And therefore every evil is 
 lighter, and more grievous, just as every good is better, 
 and best. It is so with fornication, which because it is 
 lust and of the natural man not yet purified, is an evil. 
 But as every man can be purified, so, in proportion as he 
 advances towards a purified state his evil becomes a lighter 
 evil, for to that degree it is wiped away; and so it is with 
 fornication, in proportion as it advances towards marriage 
 love, which is the love of sex purified. That the evil of 
 fornication is more grievous in proportion as it advances 
 toward the love of adultery, will be shown in the following 
 article. Fornication is light in proportion as the man looks
 
 5 
 
 to marriage love, because he is then looking from the un- 
 chaste state in which he is to a chaste state, and so far 
 as he prefers this he is really in it as to his understanding; 
 and so far as he not only prefers it but loves it more, to that 
 degree he is in it also as to his will, thus as to his internal 
 man. And then the fornication if nevertheless he continues 
 in it, is to him a necessity, for reasons to him convincing. 
 (Scortatory Love, 452.) 
 
 The recognition of these degrees of evil is essential to an 
 understanding of the Lord's providence toward evil, and 
 His effort to lead out those who are in evil a step at a time, 
 if it cannot be done completely and at once. 
 
 Man from his hereditary evil is always panting for the 
 lowest hell, but the Lord by His Providence is continually 
 leading him away and withdrawing him from it, first to a 
 milder hell, then away from hell, and finally to Himself in 
 heaven. This working of the Divine Providence is per- 
 petual. . . . 
 
 The same is done with other evils in which man is by 
 hereditary transmission, as adulteries, frauds, revenge, 
 blasphemy, and others like these; none of which could be 
 removed unless the liberty of thinking and of willing them 
 were left to man, that so he might remove them as from 
 himself; which nevertheless he cannot do unless he ac- 
 knowledges the Divine Providence and implores that the 
 work may be done by it. ... 
 
 The Divine Providence with the evil is a continual per- 
 mission of evil, to the end that there may be a continual 
 withdrawal from it. (Divine Providence, 183, 184, 296. 
 See also Heavenly Arcana, 6489.) 
 
 THE PERMISSION OF EVIL. 
 
 The doctrine of the permission of evil, referred to in the 
 last quotation, is clearly explained by Swedenborg. The 
 Lord permits evil, but it is a permission without sanction.
 
 He suffers evil to exist, because it cannot be wholly prevented 
 without destroying man's freedom of will, which isj^his 
 essential humanity. 
 
 The laws of permission are also laws of the Divine Provi- 
 dence. . . . When God is said to permit, it is not meant that 
 He wills, but that on account of the end, which is salvation, 
 He cannot avert. . . . The Divine Providence is constantly 
 moving in a way diverse from and contrary to man's will, 
 continually intent upon its end; and in consequence, at 
 every instant of its operation or at every step of its progress, 
 where it observes man to be swerving from that end, it guides, 
 bends, and directs him according to its laws, by leadinrg him 
 away from evil and leading him to good. This cannot be 
 done without the permission of evil. (Divine Providence, 
 
 234.) 
 
 The things which are from the Lord are either nearer 
 to, or more remote from Him; and they are said to be of His 
 will (ex voluntate ipsius), of His good pleasure (ex bene- 
 placilo), of His leave (ex venia), and of His permission (ex 
 permissione). The things which are of His will are most 
 immediately from Him; those which are of His good pleas- 
 ure are somewhat more remotely from Him; those which 
 are of His leave still more remotely; and those which are of 
 His permission are most remotely from Him. (Heavenly 
 Arcana, 9940. See also 1755, 2447.) 
 
 Evil things are permitted; good things are provided. 
 The difference is the difference between the government of 
 hell and the government of heaven. What flows from hell 
 is by permission; what flows from heaven is by providence. 
 (See Divine Providence, 251, end.) Sexual evils are "per- 
 mitted" only as all evils are suffered by the Lord to exist, to 
 withhold man or to withdraw him from worse evil, without 
 absolutely destroying the freedom which is essential to his 
 humanity. The same "permission" which has suffered 
 polygamy to exist among the ancient Jews, and to-day in 
 Mahometan countries, and has suffered practices not in
 
 52 
 
 agreement with true marriage to receive social and legal 
 recognition in Europe, we may recognize in our own lax 
 laws of divorce and re-marriage. Deplorable as all these 
 are, they may have stood between mankind and worse evil. 
 This is the meaning of "permission" in relation to the 
 subject. There are degrees of permission, as there are 
 degrees of evil, but they are all permission without sanction. 
 
 THE EVIL or FORNICATION. 
 
 The doctrine of degrees of evil is the key to the treatise 
 on "Scortatory Love." It explains the general arrange- 
 ment of the treatise and the treatment of each particular 
 subject. The principle of degrees which in a passage previ- 
 ously quoted was applied to the evil of fornication, is later 
 applied to the evil of concubinage and to the still deeper 
 evil of adultery. 
 
 Fornication is defined as "the lust of a youth or a man 
 with a woman, a harlot, before marriage" (Scortatory Love, 
 444). This evil is milder or more grievous. Conditions 
 are recited by which marriage may of necessity be long de- 
 layed, and it is said that under such conditions, "with 
 some men the love of the sex cannot without harm be totally 
 withheld from going forth in fornication" (450). In such 
 cases it is better that the lust shall be limited to one, in 
 which case the relation is that of pellicacy, than that it 
 shall be unbridled and wandering. 
 
 Thereby inordinate promiscuous fornications are curbed, 
 and limited, and a state of more restraint induced which is 
 more related to the life of marriage love. . . . 
 
 There is no approximation through pellicacy to the 
 four kinds of lust that are in the highest degree destructive 
 of marriage love, which are the lust of defloration, the 
 lust of varieties, the lust of violation, the lust of seducing 
 the innocent. (459.)
 
 53 
 
 The same number declares that it is indeed most impor- 
 tant that the manly power be reserved for a wife, and adds: 
 
 But these things are not said for those who can control 
 the surging heat of lust; nor for those who can enter into 
 marriage as soon as they are grown to manhood, and can 
 offer and devote the first fruits of their manly power to a 
 wife. 
 
 The chapter closes with the words, " But it is better that 
 the torch of the love of the sex be first lighted with a wife." 
 (460.) 
 
 It will be noted in passing that the statement quoted in 
 regard to the inability of some to exercise self-control (450), 
 and the similar statement in 459, that few can reserve the 
 manly power for a wife, are directly connected with a 
 recital of conditions existing in Sweden and other countries 
 of Europe in Swedenborg's day, where government regula- 
 tions made marriage for many impossible until the entire 
 period of early manhood was passed. No doubt the danger 
 is greatly lessened by normal and wholesome conditions. 
 
 But, what is more important, contrast the inability here 
 mentioned with the ability which every man has from the 
 Lord to keep the commandments and to resist the evil of 
 impurity in act and thought and feeling. 
 
 Every man is so constituted that he is able to shun evils 
 as of himself by the power of the Lord if he implore it. 
 (Doctrine of Life, 31.) 
 
 A man who is in genuine truths from the sense of the letter 
 of the Word can disperse and scatter the whole diabolical 
 crew and their devices in which they place their power, 
 which are innumerable, and this in a moment, merely by 
 careful thought and an effort of the will. (Apocalypse 
 Explained, 1086.) 
 
 Any one who thinks in his heart that there is a God, and
 
 54 
 
 that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, that the Word 
 is from Him and is therefore holy, that there is a heaven and 
 a hell, and that there is a life after death, has the ability to 
 shun these evils [forbidden by the Decalogue]. (Apocalypse 
 Explained, 936.) 
 
 He who believes in God says also within himself, 
 "Through God I shall conquer it." And he supplicates, 
 and prevails. This is not denied to any one, but is granted. 
 (Doctrine of Charity, 144.) 
 
 There is no inability with one who acknowledges the 
 Lord and keeps the commandments in His strength. Omnip- 
 otence to resist evil, the omnipotence of the Lord's redeem- 
 ing power, is with those who acknowledge the Lord and 
 shun evil as sin against Him. It is only necessary that 
 the evil shall be recognized as evil, and shall be shunned as 
 sin, that is, as forbidden by the Divine commandment. 
 That fornication, even in its mildest form, is evil, and to 
 those who know the Divine command of purity is sin, is 
 abundantly clear. As already quoted: 
 
 Fornication because it is lust, and of the natural man not 
 yet purified, is an evil. But as every man can be purified, 
 therefore, in proportion as he advances towards a purified 
 state his evil becomes a lighter evil, for to that degree it is 
 wiped away; and so with fornication, in proportion as he 
 advances towards marriage love, which is the love of sex 
 purified. The evil of fornication is more grievous in pro- 
 portion as it advances toward the love of adultery. (Scor- 
 tatory Love, 452.) 
 
 Fornication is lust, but not the lust of adultery. (448.) 
 The love of pellicacy is an unchaste, natural, and external 
 love, while marriage love is chaste, spiritual, and internal; 
 the love of pellicacy parts the souls of the two, and conjoins 
 only the sensuals of the body; while marriage love unites 
 souls, and from the union of souls unites the sensuals of the 
 body also, even so that the two are made as one, that is, 
 one flesh. (460.)
 
 55 
 
 All fornications are scortations : " Thus it is with scorta- 
 tions, whether they are fornications or pellicacies or con- 
 cubinages or adulteries" (530). They are therefore among 
 the evils which "The True Christian Religion," 316, and 
 "The Doctrine of Life," 74, 77, declare are to be shunned 
 as sins against God. 
 
 Fornications are expressly named among the sins for- 
 bidden by the command, " Thou shalt not commit adultery," 
 in "The True Christian Religion," 313. 
 
 Nothing that is said or can be said of fornications can 
 change this fundamental truth that they are evil; that they 
 are forbidden by the Divine commandment and are- to be 
 shunned as sins; and with every Divine commandment is 
 the Lord's omnipotence to save. 
 
 " INTERMEDIATES." 
 
 A few other passages relating to fornication need to be 
 considered, which speak of the region or state of "inter- 
 mediates," and of the lust for fornication as intermediate 
 between the sphere of scortatory love and the sphere of 
 marriage love: 
 
 The sphere of the lust for fornication as it is in its be- 
 ginning is intermediate between the sphere of scortatory 
 love and the sphere of marriage love, and forms an equi- 
 librium. ... A man can turn himself to whichever sphere 
 he will. . . . That the sphere of the lust for fornication is 
 intermediate between those two spheres, and forms an equi- 
 librium, is from the fact that while one is in that state he is 
 able to turn himself to the sphere of marriage love, that 
 is, to that love, and also to the sphere of the love of adul- 
 tery, which is to that love. (Scortatory Love, 455.) 
 
 The interval that these [the sphere of scortatory love 
 and the sphere of marriage love] form between them is on 
 the one side from evil not of falsity and from falsity not of
 
 56 
 
 evil; and on the other side from good not of truth, and from 
 truth not of good, which two may indeed come in contact 
 with each other but can not conjoin. (436.) 
 
 In other words, the intermediate state is one in which one 
 is able to turn to marriage love or to the love of adultery. 
 The intermediate things which are present in this state are 
 not indifferent things, things neither good nor evil, but good 
 things and evil things not yet chosen and confirmed. Forni- 
 cation in this state is an evil, but not a confirmed evil. It is 
 of fornication in this state, "springing from a certain in- 
 stinct of nature towards marriage, " that we read in the last 
 lines of the following passage from "Apocalypse Explained": 
 
 Thus far adulteries have been considered; and now it 
 shall be told what adultery is. Adulteries are all the whore- 
 doms that destroy marriage love. Whoredom of a husband 
 with the wife of another or with any woman, whether a 
 widow or a virgin or a harlot, is adultery when done from 
 dislike or aversion to marriage; likewise the whoredom 
 of a wife with a married man, or with a single man when 
 done for a like reason. Again, the whoredoms of any un- 
 married man with the wife of another, and of any un- 
 married woman with the husband of another, are adul- 
 teries, because they destroy marriage love by turning the 
 mind away from marriage to adultery. The delights of 
 varieties even with harlots are the delights of adultery, for 
 the delight of variety destroys the delight of marriage. 
 So, too, the delight of debauching virgins when marriage 
 is not the end, is the delight of adultery; for those who are 
 in that delight afterwards desire marriage only for the 
 sake of debauching, and when that is accomplished they 
 loathe marriage. In a word, all whoredom that destroys 
 the marriage principle and extinguishes the love of mar- 
 riage is adultery or pertains to adultery; while that which 
 does not destroy the marriage principle and does not ex- 
 tinguish the love of marriage is fornication, springing from 
 a certain instinct of nature towards marriage, which for 
 various reasons cannot yet be entered into. (Apocalypse 
 Explained, 1010.)
 
 57 
 
 We are given a glimpse also of the lust of fornication in 
 its beginnings, in the explanation of the command, "Thou 
 shalt not commit adultery," in the "Adversaria": 
 
 Thou shalt not commit adultery. To commit adultery 
 in the proximate sense is to have connection with the wife 
 of another, which properly is called adultery; then also 
 with a harlot. . . . 
 
 In an interior sense to commit adultery is merely to 
 lust to get, if many things did not stand in the way, those 
 things which the laws of order in the life of marriage for- 
 bid; for every deed arises from lust, therefore he who while 
 not committing the deed, yet desires in his mind to obtain 
 it, commits adultery. Natural lust itself is not sin, for 
 what enters from the world through the senses, from the 
 blood into the natural mind, from the order and state of 
 one's life, from the instigation of the devil, cannot be sin; 
 but when it passes into consent, that is into the will, and 
 thus goes forth, it is sin; and even if it does not go forth 
 when hindered by the fear of many things, or by impo- 
 tence, and like things, then it is in itself a deed accomplished, 
 for it is of the will. From will a man is examined as from 
 act, for he would do it if hindrances were removed. Com- 
 pare Matt. v. 27. (Adversaria, 618, 621, on the command, 
 "Thou shalt not commit adultery.") 
 
 The importance of the intermediate state, and the duty 
 of a man while in that state in relation to any evil, are shown 
 by the statement already quoted, that while one is in that 
 state he is able to turn himself to marriage love or to adultery. 
 Read the strong numbers of " The True Christian Religion" 
 on self-examination and repentance (509-566), and the 
 very searching numbers of "The Divine Providence" (275- 
 284) on the same subject, and we see that this intermediate 
 state is the proper theatre of this first and fundamental 
 work of Christian life. The doctrine is very clear that with 
 those who from acknowledgment of the Lord have the power
 
 58 
 
 of self-examination, the place where evils should be recog- 
 nized, condemned, and shunned by the Lord's help, is this 
 region of first beginnings. The duty of examination and 
 repentance extends not only to evils actually done or in- 
 tended, but to all the evils of natural inheritance. In that 
 inner region of beginnings where these come first to recog- 
 nition, in the region of intermediates, a man either by 
 thinking them allowable does them in spirit and makes them 
 his own, or by condemning them as sins and fighting against 
 them gains power from the Lord to resist and abominate 
 them. The following is a single brief passage of the doc- 
 trine on this subject: 
 
 Evils cannot be removed unless they appear. This 
 does not mean that man must do evils, in order that they 
 may appear; but he must examine himself; not his deeds 
 alone, but also his thoughts, and what he would do if he 
 did not fear the laws and disgrace; especially what evils 
 he regards in his spirit as allowable, and does not account 
 as sins; for these he still does. . . . [When a man by self- 
 examination sees the quality of his will], and knows what 
 sin is, if he implores the Lord's aid, he is able to cease will- 
 ing it, to shun it, and afterwards to act against it; if not 
 freely, still to coerce it by combat, and at length to hold 
 it in aversion and abominate it; and then, and not before, 
 he perceives and he also feels that evil is evil and that 
 good is good. This then is examining one's self, seeing 
 one's evils, and acknowledging them, confessing them, 
 and \ afterwards refraining from them. . . . There are few 
 who know that this is the Christian Religion itself. (Di- 
 vine Providence, 278.) 
 
 The doctrine of self-examination and repentance shows 
 what tremendous importance attaches to our attitude to- 
 ward evils while still in their intermediate state. To think 
 them allowable is to take them out of the intermediate 
 state and confirm them; to condemn them as evils and shun
 
 59 
 
 them, imploring the Lord's aid, is to conquer them and 
 be delivered from them. 
 
 OUR OPPORTUNITY WITH THE YOUNG. 
 
 One other passage in the chapter on "Fornication" 
 opens a line of thought which we may follow with great 
 profit. After speaking of immoderate and inordinate for- 
 nications which destroy marriage love and the power of 
 perceiving its chaste joys, the chapter says: "Care ought 
 to be taken by parents that this may not be, because a 
 youth greatly excited by lust cannot yet from reason put 
 the curb upon himself" (Scortatory Love, 456). The 
 doctrine points out to parents a responsibility which has 
 been sadly neglected, and the importance of which we 
 are only beginning to realize. There is no more sacred 
 duty which parents owe their children than to protect them 
 from the dangers of this period of life by wise and timely 
 instruction, by wholesome occupation for mind and body, 
 by guarding them from impure association and providing 
 wholesome companionship, and by leading them in these 
 early temptations to find the strength which will sustain them 
 in all temptations. The wise and faithful performance of this 
 duty by parents and those who are in place of parents, 
 strikes the evil at its root, protecting young men and women 
 from needless dangers, and giving them strength to meet the 
 dangers which must come. The responsibility which rests 
 upon parents and teachers by wise guidance of children to 
 protect them from the dangers of opening manhood and 
 womanhood is indicated in the following instruction: 
 
 It is known that faith from love is the essential means 
 of salvation, and thus is the first principle of the doctrine 
 of the church; but since it is important to know how a man 
 can be in such enlightenment as to learn the truths that
 
 6o 
 
 must constitute his faith, and in such affection as to do the 
 goods that must constitute his love, and thus can know 
 whether his faith is a belief in truth and his love a love of 
 good, this shall be told in its proper order, as follows: Let 
 him read the Word every day, one or two chapters, and 
 learn from a master and from preachings the dogmas of 
 his religion; and especially let him learn that God is one, 
 and that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth (John iii. 
 35; xvii. 2; Matt. xi. 27; xxviii. 18), that the Word is holy, 
 that there is a heaven and a hell, and that there is a life 
 after death. Let him learn from the Word, from a master, 
 and from preachings, what works are sins, and that they 
 are especially adulteries, thefts, murders, false witness, 
 and the others mentioned in the Decalogue; likewise that 
 lascivious and obscene thoughts are adulteries, that frauds 
 and illicit gains are thefts, that hatred and revenge are 
 murders, and that lies and blasphemies are false witness; 
 and so on. Let him learn all these things from childhood 
 to youth. When a man begins to think for himself, which 
 is the case after he has grown up, it must be to him the 
 first and chief thing to refrain from doing evils for the 
 reason that they are sins against the Word, thus against 
 God, and for the reason that if he does them he will gain, 
 not life eternal, but hell; and afterwards as he grows up 
 and becomes older he must shun them as damned, and 
 must turn away from them in thought and intention. But 
 in order to so refrain from them and shun and turn away 
 from them, he must pray to the Lord for help. The sins 
 he must refrain from and must shun and turn away from 
 are chiefly adulteries, frauds, illicit gains, hatreds, revenges, 
 lies, blasphemies, and elation of mind. (Apocalypse Ex- 
 plained, 803.) 
 
 THE EVIL OF CONCUBINAGE. 
 
 Concubinage, which is "the conjunction of a married 
 man, stipulated for, with a woman" not his wife, is also 
 said to be one of the intermediates between marriage love 
 and adultery:
 
 6i 
 
 That marriage and adultery are opposites was set forth in 
 a chapter concerning the opposition of them; and to what 
 degree and in what respect they are opposites, can only 
 be gathered from the intermediates that interpose, of which 
 concubinage is one. (Scortatory Love, 462.) 
 
 Two forms of concubinage are recognized and distin- 
 guished. "Concubinage conjointly with the wife is de- 
 testable"; "it is scortation, by which the marriage de- 
 sire, which is the precious jewel of Christian life, is de- 
 stroyed" (466); to one who practises this concubinage 
 " heaven is closed, " and he comes into " spiritual insanity. " 
 
 (464.) 
 
 There is also "concubinage apart from the wife," when 
 by "legitimate, just, and truly weighty causes" a man is 
 separated from his wife (467). What these causes are, we 
 learned when we read of separation. This concubinage 
 apart from the wife, when it is engaged in for legitimate, 
 just and truly weighty causes (these words used in the 
 sense denned), is said to be "not damnable" (indemne, 
 used in opposition to damnabile); it "is not unlawful," 
 or "is not unpermissible " (non sit illicitus) (463, 467). 
 Persons of the class described, who are in such concubinage 
 may be at the same time in marriage love, "meaning that 
 this love may be kept concealed within them, . . . quies- 
 cent, . . . interrupted" (475). The phrase "not damn- 
 able" exactly expresses the thought; for later, in the chapter 
 on "Imputation," it is abundantly shown that no leniency 
 in human judgment nor in the administration of civil law 
 is advised, but that after death the Lord will impute all 
 deeds according to the motive (530). It is but another 
 way of saying that some sins can be forgiven by the Lord 
 who knows all circumstances and the motives of all hearts. 
 It is what John, the beloved Apostle taught, that, while
 
 62 
 
 "all unrighteousness is sin," "there is a sin unto death," 
 "and there is a sin not unto death." (i John v. 16, 17.) 
 
 It should be noted that the phrase "non sit illicitus" 
 quoted above does not refer to civil law and its obligations, 
 but to the government of the Lord's Providence which con- 
 tinually permits evil that it may withdraw man from it 
 (Divine Providence, 296); for this reason the translation 
 "not unpermissible " seems better than "not unlawful." 
 This phrase, and the word "permitted" used of separa- 
 tions and concubinage, in the chapter on divorce (Marriage 
 Love, 276), recall the general doctrine of the permission of 
 evil, which we have considered. In this permission there 
 is no sanction. The Lord suffers an evil to exist when it 
 cannot be prevented without greater harm. 
 
 The teaching that there are degrees of evil in concubin- 
 age, is subordinate to the general truth that all concubinage 
 is evil. It is among the loves outside of marriage, or con- 
 junctions with others than one's own consort, which angels 
 shun " as they would flee from ruin of the soul, and from the 
 lakes .of hell," and which are shunned by those on the earth 
 "who go directly to the Lord and from Him live the life of 
 the church." (Marriage Love, 71.) 
 
 Angels said, that it is impossible for them to think from 
 any intention concerning a wife or woman beyond their 
 own, because this would be to convert heaven into hell; 
 wherefore an angel, whilst he only thinks of such a thing, 
 falls from heaven. (Apocalypse Explained, 1004.) 
 
 Concubinage even in its mildest form is among the un- 
 clean and lascivious things which the Divine command- 
 ment forbids us to do or to desire or to think allowable. 
 Like every other evil which is forbidden by Divine com- 
 mand, it is to be shunned as sin against God, with full 
 confidence in His power to save.
 
 THE EVIL OF ADULTERY. 
 
 Under "Adulteries" also the doctrine of degrees is ap- 
 plied, and four degrees are distinguished, "according to 
 which predications, inculpations, and after death imputa- 
 tions are made respecting them." It is made clear that 
 the degrees are not of outward conduct, which can be seen 
 and recognized by men, but of motive, which is known only 
 to the Lord; and it is shown that even in acts as evil as 
 adulteries there may be in the sight of the Divine Judge 
 much or little guilt. 
 
 Adulteries of the first degree are adulteries of ignorance, 
 committed by those who do not yet or cannot take counsel 
 of the understanding and thereby restrain them. All 
 evils, and consequently adulteries in themselves regarded, 
 are at the same time of the internal and of the external 
 man; the internal man purposes 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 purpose does not appear before men, everyone must 
 be judged in a court by his deeds and spoken words, ac- 
 cording 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 be 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 demented; or even if it be done 
 in insane drunkenness; and so on; it is evident that the 
 internal man, or the mind, is in such case not present 
 in the external scarcely otherwise than as in the case 
 of the irrational. Their adulteries are characterized by 
 a rational man according to the circumstances; and yet,
 
 6 4 
 
 by the same man as judge the doer is inculpated and pun- 
 ished according to the law. But after death their deeds are 
 imputed according to the presence, the condition, and the 
 capacity of understanding in their will. 
 
 Adulteries committed by such are light. This is man- 
 ifest from what has been said above without further con- 
 firmation; for it is known that the character of every 
 deed, of every thing in general, depends upon the circum- 
 stances, and that these mitigate or aggravate. . . . It is so 
 according to the Divine law in Ezekiel xviii. 21, 22, 24, and 
 elsewhere. And yet by man they cannot be exculpated 
 and inculpated, or accounted and judged as light or grievous 
 according to the circumstances, because these do not 
 appear before him, nay, are not within the province of his 
 judgment. Therefore the meaning is, that they are so 
 accounted and imputed after death. . . . 
 
 From these considerations it follows of itself that such 
 deeds are not imputed except as they are afterwards fa- 
 vored, or are not favored. By imputation here is meant 
 attribution, and thence adjudication after death, which is 
 according to the state of the spirit of the man. But incul- 
 pation by man, before a judge, is not meant. This is not 
 pronounced according to the state of the 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. (Scor- 
 tatory Love, 486, 487, 489.) 
 
 Even in acts as evil as adulteries, which the civil law must 
 condemn and which man himself must condemn, the Lord 
 for reasons which are not within the province of man's judg- 
 ment may impute more or less of guilt. This helps us to 
 understand what has been said in regard to the evils of 
 fornication and concubinage, previously considered: a man 
 must always regard them as evil and forbidden; the civil 
 law ought to condemn and punish them; yet the Lord who 
 knows all may impute much or little guilt.
 
 65 
 
 The instruction in "Scortatory Love" next passes to the 
 more grievous degrees of adultery and to forms of impurity 
 most utterly and fatally opposed to marriage and true mar- 
 riage love. The diabolical nature of these evils is also shown 
 in strong terms and in contrast with the holiness and bless- 
 edness of marriage in many places throughout the writings. 
 
 THE LORD THE JUDGE. 
 
 To the analysis of the evils opposed to marriage is added 
 a chapter on " Imputation, " in which it is again expressly 
 shown that the final judgment of guilt or innocence in all 
 transgressions of the perfect law of purity rests with the 
 Lord alone, who alone can read the inmost motives of the 
 heart. These are not revealed until one comes into the 
 spiritual world at death. 
 
 The Lord says: " Judge not, that ye be not condemned" 
 (Matt. vii. i): By which can by no means be meant judg- 
 ment of the civil and moral life of any one in the world, 
 but judgment of his spiritual and celestial life. Who does 
 not see that if one may not judge of the moral life of those 
 that dwell with him in the world, society would perish? 
 What would society be if there were no public judgments? 
 Or if one might not form his judgment of another? But 
 to judge what his interior mind or soul is, thus what is his 
 spiritual state and therefore his lot after death of this one 
 may not judge, for it is known to the Lord only; and the 
 Lord does not reveal it until after death, in order that 
 every one may do what he does in freedom, and that by 
 this fact the good or the evil shall be from him, and thus 
 in him; and thence that he may live his own life and be 
 his own to eternity. That the interiors of the mind, hidden 
 in the world, are revealed after death, is because it is of 
 interest and of advantage to the societies into which man 
 then comes, for there all are spiritual. That they are 
 then revealed is plain from these words of the Lord:
 
 66 
 
 " There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither 
 hidden that shall not be made known. Therefore what- 
 soever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the 
 light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets 
 shall be proclaimed upon the housetops." (Luke xii. 2, 3.) 
 
 A general judgment like this is allowable, " If in internals 
 you are such as you appear in externals you will be saved, 
 or will be condemned." But a particular judgment such 
 as " You are such in internals and therefore will be saved, 
 or will be condemned" is not allowable. 
 
 Judgment of man's spiritual life, or of the internal life 
 of his soul, is meant by the imputation here treated of. 
 Who among men knows which one is a fornicator at heart ? 
 Or which a consort at heart? And yet the thoughts of 
 the heart, which are the purposes of the will, judge every 
 man. (Scortatory Love, 523.) 
 
 Imputations after death are made according to the quality 
 of the will and understanding of every one. Thus it is 
 with scortations, whether they are fornications, or pelli- 
 cacies, or concubinages, or adulteries; because they are 
 imputed to everyone not according to the deeds, but ac- 
 cording to the state of mind in the deeds. Deeds follow 
 the body into the tomb, but the mind rises again. . . . From 
 all this there now follows the final conclusion: That not 
 from the appearances of marriages, nor from the appear- 
 ances of scortations, is it to be determined respecting any 
 one whether he is in marriage love or not. Wherefore 
 "Judge not that ye be not condemned." Matt. vii. i. (530, 
 53I-) 
 
 In judging of the use to be made of this treatise on " Scor- 
 tatory Love," it is well to note Swedenborg's own words 
 of caution in the " Adversaria " : 
 
 Here indeed very many things occur that ought to be 
 said about adultery, which have relation to the institution 
 of every society, then to every state and condition in man. 
 But because many things here occur, they cannot be re- 
 lated, for thus very many would excuse themselves. For to 
 lusts, etc., an excuse is never lacking, or a pretext; nor can
 
 6 7 
 
 everyone weigh whether the excusing reason is legitimate or 
 not; and this is why various laws have been enacted in va- 
 rious places, according to the state of society in general and 
 in particular. (Adversaria, 624, on the command, "Thou 
 shall not commit adultery.") 
 
 SOUNDNESS or THE DOCTRINE. 
 
 The courage which is not content to dismiss the subject 
 of sexual evils merely with a sweeping condemnation, but 
 gives them a calm and discriminating study in the effort to 
 help in their removal, is fully supported by the enlightened 
 judgment of our day. And what Swedenborg has written 
 in regard to these evils will not be misunderstood if the rule 
 is followed which must be followed for the true understand- 
 ing and just estimate of every author if statements are 
 read in their true place and connection, and particular 
 teachings are seen in the light of general and fundamental 
 truths. 
 
 The question of the morality of Swedenborg's teaching 
 is answered when it is shown that he stands on the Divine 
 commandment as interpreted by the Lord in the Sermon on 
 the Mount, and declares it as the law of life, that all im- 
 purity of act and thought and desire is evil and to be shunned 
 as sin; and when it is further seen that this constant and 
 fundamental truth underlies all his consideration of the 
 evils. To recognize degrees of evil is not immoral when 
 they all are condemned as evil. Even if one should differ 
 from Swedenborg in his classification of evils he must 
 acknowledge a teaching to be moral which holds constantly 
 that they all are evils and to be shunned as sins. 
 
 The teaching of Swedenborg uniformly sustains the 
 authority of the civil law. In relation to transgressions 
 of the laws of marriage and purity the civil law itself con- 
 firms the soundness of his position, when it condemns all
 
 68 
 
 such transgressions but penalizes them in lesser and greater 
 degrees. 
 
 The conception of marriage presented in the doctrine 
 of the New Church is the highest and purest that the world 
 has known. As the Lord's teaching in regard to marriage 
 at His first coming was far above the gross conceptions of 
 the Jewish Age, so it should be expected that at His second 
 coming He would reveal still more the inward holiness 
 of the relation which is the type of regeneration and of 
 union with Him. The commandment of the Decalogue 
 is not set aside; it is given a fuller meaning and a more 
 searching application. The teaching regarding the evils 
 of impurity shows their odiousness more clearly in contrast 
 with the blessing of true marriage. It also reveals the 
 Lord's providence toward those in evil, and requires those 
 who have not outwardly committed crime to search their 
 hearts and to have Christian charity toward those who are 
 in evil.
 
 6 9 
 
 THE GOSPEL FOR THE NEW CHURCH. 
 
 It is the glorious mission of the church to raise the standard 
 of the Lord and to lead on to victory in His strength. Every 
 doctrine of the church proves its value in the power that it 
 gives to shun evil and to do good. To no church has the 
 Lord ever revealed as to the New Church the eternal con- 
 sequences of good and evil; to none has He ever revealed 
 as to the New Church the completeness of His victories 
 over evil, the sufficiency of His power to cast out all vileness 
 from our lives and hearts. To no church has He ever 
 shown as to the New Church the fulness of Divine power 
 in His Word, making that power available for our help. 
 This is the Gospel for the New Church to teach her children 
 and young men and women, training them to meet the 
 temptations of impurity in the power of the Divine com- 
 mand, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," showing them 
 in the Word and in the doctrines the promise of victory 
 in the Lord's strength. 
 
 Of the holy city New Jerusalem it is written, "There shall 
 in no wise enter into it anything unclean" (Rev. xxi. 27). 
 "By unclean is signified spiritual whoredom, which is the 
 adulteration of the good and the falsification of the truth of 
 the Word" (Apocalypse Revealed, 924). Outside the holy 
 city "are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and 
 murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh 
 a lie" (Rev. xxii. 15). "By dogs are signified in general 
 those who are in lusts of every kind, and indulge them; but 
 in particular those who are in merely corporeal pleasures, 
 especially those who are in the pleasure of eating, and drink- 
 ing, in which alone they take delight. . . . They shall not 
 be received into the Lord's New Church." (Apocalypse 
 Revealed, 952.)
 
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