Conjugial Love (Rogers) n. 139

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139. (1) Chastity and a lack of chastity are terms that apply to states of marriage and things that have to do with marriage. This is because truly conjugial love is the essence of chastity, as shown below. And the love opposite to it, which we call licentious, is the essence of unchasteness. In the measure, therefore, that conjugial love is purified of unchasteness, in the same measure conjugial love is chaste, for in that measure the opposite that destroys it is taken away. It is apparent from this that what we mean by chastity is the purity of conjugial love. There is also conjugial love in which chastity is absent, which is nevertheless not unchaste - such as exists between partners who for various external reasons abstain from outward expressions of lasciviousness even to the point that they do not think about them. Nevertheless, if that love is not purified in their spirits, it is still not chaste. It has an outward form that is chaste, but its inward essence is not chaste.


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