Now,
since the beginnings of adulterous love are only the stimulant fires and
itchings of the flesh, it is evident, that these things in the spirit
are filthy allurements, which, as they ascend and descend, and
reciprocate, so they excite and inflame. In general the cupidities of
the flesh are nothing but the accumulated concupiscences of what is evil
and false: hence comes this truth in the church, that the flesh lusts
against the spirit, that is, against the spiritual man; wherefore it
follows, that the delights of the flesh, as to the delights of
adulterous love, are nothing but the effervescences of lusts, which in
the spirit become the ebullitions of immodesty.
441. But the delights of conjugial love have nothing in common with the
filthy delights of adulterous love: the latter indeed are in the spirit
of every man; but they are separated and removed, as the man's spirit is
elevated above the sensual things of the body, and from its elevation
sees their appearances and fallacies beneath: in this case it perceives
fleshly delights, first as apparent and fallacious, afterwards as
libidinous and lascivious, which ought to be shunned, and successively
as damnable and hurtful to the soul, and at length it has a sense of
them as being undelightful, disagreeable, and nauseous; and in the
degree that it thus perceives and is sensible of these delights, in the
same degree also it perceives the delights of conjugial love as innocent
and chaste, and at length as delicious and blessed.
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