SERMON IX.
THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT: THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.
"Thou shalt not commit adultery."—Exodus xx. 14.
"This Commandment, in its natural or literal sense," says the New Church Doctrine, "forbids not only the commission of adultery, but also all obscene inclinations and actions, all lascivious thoughts and words. That lust itself is adultery, is plain from these words of the Lord: 'Ye have heard that it was said by those of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery; but I say unto you, that whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery with her already in his heart.' The reason is, lust cherished in the will is the same as the deed: allurement enters only into the understanding, but intention enters into the will: and the intention of lust is the same as the deed itself."[1]
"The evil of adultery," continues the Doctrine of the church, "denies the internals of the mind above every other evil. Who may not know from reason, that unchasteness and lasciviousness are impure and unclean, and thus that nothing more deeply pollutes man and induces in him what is infernal?"[2]
