530. 5. Thus is licentious love imputed to a person. It is imputed namely, not in accordance with deeds such as they appear in outward respects before men, but such as they appear in their inner respects before the Lord, and from Him before angels, which depends on the nature of the person's will and understanding in the deeds.

There are various circumstances in the world which mitigate and excuse offenses, and also which aggravate and worsen them. Even so, however, imputations after death are not made in accordance with circumstances that outwardly surround the deed, but in accordance with the internal circumstances of the mind; and these are regarded in everyone in accord with the state of the church in him. So it is, for example, with a person impious in will and intellect, being one who has no fear of God nor any love for the neighbor, and consequently no reverence for any sanctity of the church. After death he is held guilty of all the offenses which he committed in the body, nor is there any remembrance of his good deeds; for his heart, the wellspring from which those offenses poured as from a fountain, was turned away from heaven and turned towards hell, and actions flow from the place where one's heart has its abode.

[2] In order for this to be understood, let me relate a secret. Heaven is distinguished into innumerable societies, and so likewise, in opposition to them, hell; and every person's mind actually dwells in accordance with his will and consequent intellect in one of these societies, intending and thinking along with the inhabitants there in similar ways. If the mind is in some society of heaven, then it intends and thinks in like manner as the inhabitants there. If it is in some society of hell, it does so in like manner as the inhabitants there. However, as long a person lives in the world, he migrates from one society to another in accordance with changes in the affections of his will and so in the thoughts of his mind. But after death his sojournings are brought together, and from these assembled into a single path a place is appointed for him, in hell if he is evil, in heaven if he is good.

[3] Now because all in hell have a will for evil, all are regarded there in accordance with that; and because all in heaven have a will for good, all are regarded there in accordance with it. Consequently imputations after death are made in accordance with the nature of a person's will and understanding.

The same thing happens in cases of licentiousness, whether they be cases of fornication, or of resorting to a courtesan, or of taking a mistress, or of adultery, since these are imputed to a person, not in accordance with the deeds, but in accordance with the state of mind in the deeds. For deeds go with the body into the tomb, whereas the mind rises again.

234. REASONS IN MARRIAGE FOR COLD STATES, SEPARATION AND DIVORCE

In considering in this chapter reasons for cold states in marriage, we take up also at the same time grounds for separation and divorce. We do this because they are interconnected; for separations come about only as a result of cold states progressively developed after marriage, or as a result of factors discovered after marriage which in turn lead to coldness. Divorce, moreover, is impelled by acts of adultery, because these are completely opposed to marriage, and being opposed they induce coldness, if not in both partners, still in the one.

That is why we put reasons for cold states, separation and divorce together into the same chapter. The interconnection between the reasons, however, is more clearly perceived from seeing them in sequence. A sequential arrangement of them is as follows:

1. People experience spiritual warmth and spiritual coldness; and spiritual warmth is love, while spiritual coldness is its absence and loss.

2. Spiritual coldness in marriage is a disunion of souls and disjunction of minds, resulting in indifference, discord, contempt, loathing, and aversion, and leading finally in many cases to separation from the bed, bedroom and house.

3. Reasons for cold states in their gradual progressions are many, some of them internal, some external, and some incidental.

4. Internal reasons for cold states stem from religion.

5. Of these reasons, the first is rejection of religion by both partners.

6. A second is one partner's having religion and not the other.

7. A third is one partner's having one religion and the other partner another.

8. A fourth is ingrained falsity of religion.

9. These are causes of an inward coldness, but in many cases not at the same time of an outward one.

10. External reasons for coldness are also many; and of these, the first is a dissimilarity of dispositions and manners.

11. A second is believing that conjugial love is no different from licentious love, only that the latter is forbidden by law, while the former is allowed.

12. A third is competition between the partners for superiority.

13. A fourth is an absence of focus on any pursuit or business, resulting in promiscuous lust.

14. A fifth is inequality of station and condition in the partners' outward circumstances.

15. There are also several reasons for separation.

16. Of these, the first is an impairment of the mind.

17. A second is an impairment of the body.

18. A third is impotence prior to marriage.

19. Adultery is ground for divorce.

20. Incidental reasons for coldness are also many; and of these, the first is ordinariness from being continually allowed.

21. A second is the sense that living with one's partner is compelled by covenant and law and not free.

22. A third is declaration by the wife of her love and discourse by her about it.

23. A fourth is the man's thinking of his wife day and night that she wants to, and conversely the wife's thinking of her husband that he does not want to.

24. As coldness develops in the mind, so it also develops in the body; and in the measure that this coldness grows, the outward aspects of the body close up as well.

Explanation of these statements now follows.