Hence it is clearly manifest, that adulteries which are
actually committed, are grievous according to the quantity and quality
of the understanding of the will in them. That they are in like manner
grievous, if the same are not actually committed, appears from the
Lord's words: _It was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit
adultery; but I say unto you, that if any one hath looked at another's
woman, to lust after her, he hath already committed adultery with her in
heart_; Matt. v. 27, 28: to commit adultery in the heart is to commit it
in the will. There are many reasons which operate to prevent an
adulterer's being an adulterer in act, while he is still so in will and
understanding: for there are some who abstain from adulteries as to act
through fear of the civil law and its penalties; through fear of the
loss of reputation and thence of honor; through fear of disease thence
arising; through fear of quarrels at home on the part of a wife, and the
consequent loss of tranquillity; through fear of revenge on the part of
the husband and the next of kin; thus also through fear of being beaten
by the servants; through poverty or avarice; through imbecility arising
from disease, from abuse, from age, or from impotence, and consequent
shame: if any one restrains himself from actual adulteries, under the
influence of these and like reasons, and yet favors them in his will and
understanding, he is still an adulterer: for he believes nevertheless
that they are not sins, and he does not make them unlawful before God in
his spirit; and thus he commits them in spirit, although not in body
before the world; wherefore after death, when he becomes a spirit, he
speaks openly in favor of them.
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