497. XVI. THAT THEY DO THIS TO SUCH AN EXTENT THAT AT LAST THE ADULTERERS CAST OFF ALL THINGS OF THE CHURCH AND RELIGION. That adulterers from purpose and confirmation cast off all things of the church and religion, is because the love of marriage and the love of adultery are opposites (no. 425). The love of marriage acts as one with the church and religion (no. 130 and elsewhere throughout the First Part); hence the love of adultery, being the opposite love, acts as one with all that is against the church. That these adulterers cast off all things of the church and its religion is also because the love of marriage and the love of adultery are opposites, just as the marriage of good and truth is opposite to the connubial connection of evil and falsity (nos. 427, 428); and the marriage of good and truth is the church, while the connubial connection of evil and falsity the anti-church. That these adulterers cast off all things of the church and of religion is because the love of marriage and the love of adultery are as opposite as are heaven and hell (no. 429), and in heaven is love of all things of the church, and in hell, hatred against all things of the church. That these adulterers cast off all things of the church and of religion is also because their delights commence from the flesh and are of the flesh even in the spirit (nos. 440, 441), and the flesh is against the spirit, that is, against the spiritual things of the church. Hence the delights of scortatory love are called pleasures of insanity. If you desire demonstrations, pray go to those whom you know to be such adulterers and ask them in private what they think about God, the church, and eternal life, and you will hear. The genuine reason is, because, as conjugial love opens the interiors of the mind and thus elevates them above the sensual things of the body even into the light and heat of heaven, so, on the other hand, the love of adultery shuts off the interiors of the mind; and the mind itself, as regards its will, it thrusts into the body even down to all the desires of its flesh; and the deeper it thrusts it, the farther it draws it away from heaven and increases its distance therefrom.