Conjugial Love (Rogers) n. 493

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493. (13) Adulteries committed by such people are the most grave and are imputed to them as purposeful evils, and they become settled in them as culpable offenses. They are the most grave, even more grave than the preceding ones, because in them the will plays the primary role, whereas in the preceding the intellect does; and a person's life is essentially that of his will, and in outward expression that of his intellect. The reason is that the will is inseparable from love, and love is the essence of a person's life; and this expresses itself in the intellect by means of such things as are in harmony with it. Consequently the intellect, viewed in itself, is nothing else than an outward expression of the will. So, too, because love is connected with the will and wisdom with the intellect, therefore wisdom is nothing else than an outward expression of love, even as truth is nothing else than an outward expression of good. That which springs from the very essence of a person's life, thus which springs from his will or love, is in the main called purpose; while that which springs from the outward expression of his life, thus from the intellect and its thought, is called intention. Culpability is also in the main assigned to the will. So people say that the culpability of evil in everyone is due to heredity, while the evil itself is due to the man. It is because of this that these adulteries of the fourth degree are imputed as purposeful evils and become settled in the doers as culpable offenses.


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