which they have their predications, their charges of blame, and after death their imputations. VI. Adulteries of the first degree are adulteries of ignorance, which are committed by those who cannot as yet, or cannot at all, consult the understanding, and thence check them. VII. In such cases adulteries are mild. VIII. Adulteries of the second degree are adulteries of lust, which are committed by those who indeed are able to consult the understanding, but from accidental causes at the moment are not able. IX. Adulteries committed by such persons are imputatory, according as the understanding afterwards favors them or not. X. Adulteries of the third degree are adulteries of the reason, which are committed by those who with the understanding confirm themselves in the persuasion that they are not evils of sin. XI. The adulteries committed by such persons are grievous, and are imputed to them according to confirmations. XII. Adulteries of the fourth degree are adulteries of the will, which are committed by those who make them lawful and pleasing, and who do not think them of importance enough to consult the understanding respecting them. XIII. The adulteries committed by these persons are exceedingly grievous, and are imputed to them as evils of purpose, and remain with them as guilt. XIV. Adulteries of the third and fourth degrees are evils of sin, according to the quantity and quality of understanding and will in them, whether they are actually committed or not. XV. Adulteries grounded in purpose of the will, and adulteries grounded in confirmation of the understanding render men natural, sensual, and corporeal. XVI. And this to such a degree, that at length they reject from themselves all things of the church and of religion. XVII. Nevertheless they have the powers of human rationality like other men. XVIII. But they use that rationality while they are in externals, but abuse it while in their internals. We proceed to an explanation of each article.
479. I. There are three genera of adulteries,—simple, duplicate, and triplicate. The Creator of the universe has distinguished all the things which he has created into genera, and each genus into species, and has distinguished each species, and each distinction in like manner, and so forth, to the end that an image of what is infinite may exist in a perpetual variety of qualities. Thus the Creator of the universe has distinguished goods and their truths, and in like manner evils and their falses, after they arose. That he has distinguished all things in the spiritual world into genera, species, and differences, and has collected together into heaven all goods and truths, and into hell all evils and falses, and has arranged the latter in an order diametrically opposite to the former, may appear from what is explained in a work concerning Heaven and Hell, published in London in the year 1758. That in the natural world he has also thus distinguished and does distinguish goods and truths, and likewise evils and falses, appertaining to men, and thereby
