501. The lusts treated of in the four following chapters, are not only
lusts of adultery, but are more grievous than those since they exist
only from adulteries, being taken to after adulteries are become
loathsome; as the lust of defloration, which is first treated of, and
which cannot previously exist with any one; in like manner the lust of
varieties, the lust of violation, and the lust of seducing innocencies,
which are afterwards treated of. They are called lusts, because
according to the quantity and quality of the lust for those things, such
and so great is their appropriation. In reference specifically to the
lust of defloration, its infamous villany shall be made manifest from
the following considerations: I. _The state of a maiden or undeflowered
woman before and after marriage._ II. _Virginity is the crown of
chastity, and the certificate of conjugial love._ III. _Defloration,
without a view to marriage as an end, is the villany of a robber._ IV.
_The lot of those who have confirmed themselves in the persuasion that
the lust of defloration is not an evil of sin, after death is grievous._
We proceed to explain them.
502. I. THE STATE OF A MAIDEN OR UNDEFLOWERED WOMAN BEFORE AND AFTER
MARRIAGE. What is the quality of the state of a maiden, before she has
been instructed concerning the various particulars of the conjugial
torch, has been made known to me by wives in the spiritual world, who
have departed out of the natural world in their infancy, and have been
educated in heaven. They said, that when they arrived at a marriageable
state, from seeing conjugial partners they began to love the conjugial
life, but only for the end that they might be called wives, and might
maintain friendly and confidential society with one man; and also, that
being removed from the house of obedience, they might become their own
mistresses: they also said, that they thought of marriage only from the
blessedness of mutual friendship and confidence with a husband, and not
at all from the delight of any flame; but that their maiden state after
marriage was changed into a new one, of which they previously had not
the least knowledge: and they declared, that this was a state of the
expansion of all things of the life of their body from first principles
to last, to receive the gifts of their husband, and to unite these gifts
to their own life, that thus they might become his love and his wife;
and that this state commenced from the moment of defloration, and that
after this the flame of love burned to the husband alone, and that they
were sensible of the heavenly delights of that expansion; and further,
that as each wife was introduced into this state by her own husband, and
as it is from him, and thereby his in herself, it is altogether
impossible for her to love any other than him alone. From this account
it was made manifest what is the quality of the state of maidens before
and after marriage in heaven. That the state of maidens and wives on
earth, whose first attachments prove successful, is similar to this of
the maidens in heaven, is no secret. What maiden can know that new state
before she is in it? Inquire, and you will hear. The case is different
with those who before marriage catch allurement from being taught.
503. II. VIRGINITY IS THE CROWN OF CHASTITY AND THE CERTIFICATE OF
CONJUGIAL LOVE. Virginity is called the crown of chastity, because it
crowns the chastity of marriage: it is also the badge of chastity;
wherefore the bride at the nuptials wears a crown on her head: it is
also a badge of the sanctity of marriage; for the bride, after the
maiden flower, gives and devotes herself wholly to the bridegroom, at
that time the husband, and the husband in his turn gives and devotes
himself wholly to the bride, at that time the wife. Virginity is also
called the certificate of conjugial love, because a certificate has
relation to a covenant; and the covenant is, that love may unite them
into one man, or into one flesh. The men themselves also before marriage
regard the virginity of the bride as a crown of her chastity, and as a
certificate of conjugial love, and as the very dainty from which the
delights of that love are about to commence and to be perpetuated. From
these and the foregoing considerations, it is manifest, that after the
zone is taken away, and the virginity is sipped, a maiden becomes a
wife, and if not a wife, she becomes a harlot; for the new state into
which she is then introduced, is a state of love for her husband, and if
not for her husband, it is a state of lust.
504. III. DEFLORATION, WITHOUT A VIEW TO MARRIAGE AS AN END, IS THE
VILLANY OF A ROBBER. Some adulterers are impelled by the cupidity of
deflowering maidens, and thence also of deflowering young girls in their
state of innocence: the enticements offered are either persuasions
suggested by pimps, or presents made by the men, or promises of
marriage; and those men after defloration leave them, and continually
seek for others: moreover, they are not delighted with the objects they
have left, but with a continual supply of new ones; and this lust
increases even till it becomes the chief of the delights of their flesh.
They add also to the above this abominable deed, that by various cunning
artifices they entice maidens about to be married or immediately after
marriage, to offer them the first-fruits of marriage, which also they
thus filthily defile. I have heard also, that when that heat with its
potency has failed, they glory in the number of virginities, as in so
many golden fleeces of Jason. This villany, which is that of committing
a rape, since it was begun in an age of strength, and afterwards
confirmed by boastings, remains rooted in, and thereby infixed after
death. What the quality of this villany is, appears from what was said
above, that virginity is the crown of chastity, the certificate of
future conjugial love, and that a maiden devotes her soul and life to
him to whom she devotes it; conjugial friendship and the confidence
thereof are also founded upon it. A woman likewise, deflowered by a man
of the above description, after this door of conjugial love is broken
through, loses all shame, and becomes a harlot, which is likewise to be
imputed to the robber as the cause. Such robbers, if, after having run
through a course of lewdness and profanation of chastity, they apply
their minds (_animus_) to marriage, have no other object in their mind
(_mens_) than the virginity of her who is to be their married partner;
and when they have attained this object, they loathe both bed and
chamber, yea also the whole female sex, except young girls: and whereas
such are violators of marriage, and despisers of the female sex, and
thereby spiritual robbers, it is evident that the divine Nemesis pursues
them.
505. IV. THE LOT OF THOSE WHO HAVE CONFIRMED THEMSELVES IN THE
PERSUASION THAT THE LUST OF DEFLORATION IS NOT AN EVIL OF SIN, AFTER
DEATH IS GRIEVOUS. Their lot is this: after they have passed the first
time of their stay in the spiritual world, which is a time of modesty
and morality, because spent in company with angelic spirits, they are
next, from their externals, led into their internals, and in this case
into the concupiscences with which they had been ensnared in the world,
and the angelic spirits into theirs, to the intent that it may appear in
what degree they had been ensnared; and if a lesser degree, that after
they have been let into them, they may be let out again, and may be
covered with shame. But those who had been principled in this malignant
lust to such a degree as to be made sensible of its eminent delight, and
to make a boast of those thefts as of the choicest spoils, do not suffer
themselves to be drawn away from it; wherefore they are let into their
freedom, and then they instantly wander about, and inquire after
brothels, and also enter them when they are pointed out; (these brothels
are on the sides of hell:) but when they meet with none but prostitutes
there, they go away, and inquire where there are maidens; and then they
are carried to harlots, who by phantasy can assume supereminent beauty,
and a florid girlish complexion, and boast themselves of being maidens;
and on seeing these they burn with desire towards them as they did in
the world: wherefore they bargain with them; but when they are about to
enjoy the bargain, the phantasy induced from heaven is taken away, and
then those pretended maidens appear in their own deformity, monstrous
and dark, to whom nevertheless they are compelled to cleave for a time:
those harlots are called sirens. But if by such fascinations they do not
suffer themselves to be draw away from that wild lust, they are cast
down into the hell lying to the south and west, beneath the hell of the
crafty courtezans, and there they are associated with their companions.
I have also been permitted to see them in that hell, and have been told
that many of noble descent, and the more opulent, are therein; but as
they had been such in the world, all remembrance of their descent and of
the dignity derived from their opulence is taken from them, and a
persuasion is induced on them that they have been vile slaves, and
thence were unworthy of all honor. Among themselves indeed they appear
as men: but when seen by others, who are allowed to look in thither,
they appear as apes, with a stern look instead of a courteous one, and a
horrid countenance instead of one of pleasantry. They walk with their
loins contracted, and thereby bent, the upper part of the body hanging
forward in front, as if they were ready to fall, and they emit a
disagreeable smell. They loathe the sex, and turn away from those they
see; for they have no desire towards them. Such they appear when seen
near at hand; but when viewed from afar, they appear like dogs of
indulgences, or whelps of delight; and there is also heard somewhat like
barking in the tone of their speech.
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