has the above
effect, inasmuch as every man is such as he is in his purpose,
intention, or end, and is also such before the Lord and the angels; yea,
he is likewise regarded as such by the wise in the world; for intention
is the soul of all actions, and causes innocence and guilt in the world,
and after death imputation. In regard to the OTHER reason,--that those
who prefer conjugial love to the lust of fornication, separate evil from
good, thus what is unchaste from what is chaste, it has the above
effect, inasmuch as those who separate those two principles by
perception and intention, before they are in good or the chaste
principle, are also separated and purified from the evil of that lust,
when they come into the conjugial state. That this is not the case with
those who in fornication look to adultery, will be seen in the next
article.

453. VIII. THE LUST OF FORNICATION IS GRIEVOUS, SO FAR AS IT LOOKS TO
ADULTERY. In the lust of fornication all those look to adultery who do
not believe adulteries to be sins, and who think similarly of marriage
and of adulteries, only with the distinction of what is allowed and what
is not; these also make one evil out of all evils, and mix them
together, like dirt with eatable food in one dish, and like things vile
and refuse with wine in one cup, and thus eat and drink: in this manner
they act with the love of the sex, fornication and keeping a mistress,
with adultery of a milder sort, of a grievous sort, and of a more
grievous sort, yea with ravishing or defloration: moreover, they not
only mingle all those things, but also mix them in marriages, and defile
the latter with a like notion; but where it is the case, that the latter
are not distinguished from the former, such persons, after their vague
commerce with the sex, are overtaken by colds, loathings, and
nauseousness, at first in regard to a married partner, next in regard to
women in other characters, and lastly in regard to the sex. It is
self-evident that with such persons there is no purpose, intention, or
end, of what is good or chaste, that they may be exculpated, and no
separation of evil from good, or of what is unchaste from what is
chaste, that they may be purified, as in the case of those who from
fornication look to conjugial love, and give the latter the preference,
(concerning whom, see the foregoing article, n. 452). The above
observations I am allowed to confirm by this new information from
heaven: I have me