Adulteries in these instances
are predicated by a rational man according to the above circumstances;
nevertheless the perpetrator is charged with blame by the same rational
man as a judge, and is punished by the law; but after death those
adulteries are imputed according to the presence, quality, and faculty
of understanding in the will of the perpetrators.
487. VII. IN SUCH CASES ADULTERIES ARE MILD. This is manifest from what
was said just above, n. 486, without further confirmation; for it is
well known that the quality of every deed and in general the quality of
every thing, depends upon circumstances, and which mitigate or aggravate
it; but adulteries of this degree are mild at the first times of their
commission; and also remain mild so far as the offending party of either
sex, in the future course of life, abstains from them for these
reasons;--because they are evils against God, or against the neighbour,
or against the goods of the state, and because, in consequence of their
being such evils, they are evils against reason; but on the other hand,
if they are not abstained from for one of the abovementioned reasons,
they are reckoned amongst grievous adulteries; thus it is according to
the divine law, Ezek.
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