152. X. THAT CHASTITY CANNOT BE PREDICATED OF THOSE WHO DO NOT BELIEVE ADULTERIES TO BE EVILS OF RELIGION, AND STILL LESS OF THOSE WHO DO NOT BELIEVE ADULTERIES TO BE HURTFUL TO SOCIETY. That chastity cannot be predicated of the former is because they do not know what chastity is, nor even that it is; for, as shown in the first article of the present chapter, chastity pertains to marriage, and those who do not believe adulteries to be evils of religion make marriages also unchaste, when yet, with married partners, it is religion that makes their chastity. Thus, to them nothing is chaste, and therefore it is vain to speak to them of chastity. Such men are adulterers from conviction.
As to those who do not believe adulteries to be hurtful to society, these know still less than the former what chastity is, or even that it is; for they are adulterers from purpose. If they say that marriages are less unchaste than adulteries, they say this with the mouth, not from the heart; for with them marriages are cold, and those who, from this cold, speak of chaste heat, can have no idea of chaste heat with respect to conjugial love. Their character and the nature of the ideas of their thoughts and hence of the interiors of their speech, will be seen in Part II respecting the insanities of adulterers.