The nature and quality of such persons, and of the ideas of their
thought, and hence of the interior principles of their conversation,
will be seen in the second part of this work,--ADULTEROUS LOVE AND ITS
SINFUL PLEASURES.
153. XI. CHASTITY CANNOT BE PREDICATED OF THOSE WHO ABSTAIN FROM
ADULTERIES ONLY FOR VARIOUS EXTERNAL REASONS. Many believe that the mere
abstaining from adulteries in the body is chastity; yet this is not
chastity, unless at the same time there is an abstaining in spirit. The
spirit of man (_homo_), by which is here meant his mind as to affections
and thoughts, constitutes the chaste principle and the unchaste, for
hence it flows into the body, the body being in all cases such as the
mind or spirit is. Hence it follows, that those who abstain from
adulteries in the body, without being influenced from the spirit are not
chaste; neither are those chaste who abstain from them in spirit as
influenced from the body. There are many assignable causes which make a
man desist from adulteries in the body, and also in the spirit as
influenced from the body; but still, he that does not desist from them
in the body as influenced from the spirit, is unchaste; for the Lord
says, "_That whosoever looketh upon another's woman, so as to lust after
her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart_," Matt.
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