As Matt. vi. 19, 20; xxiv. 42, 43; Obad. ver. 5; Joel ii. 9; Hos. vii. 1.

The reason why this is signified by coming as a thief is, that it is attributed to the Lord that He takes away the knowledges of good and truth, and devastates the church, as a thief takes away wealth, and despoils a house. Also, that the church is then in night and in darkness, that is, in falsities from evil; and the last state of the church is also called night, and the falsities of evil then prevailing are called darkness; a thief comes in the night when it is dark. Hence the comparison of the Advent of the Lord and the Last Judgment with a thief, as may be seen also above (n. 193).

Continuation concerning the Sixth Precept:-

[2] That adultery is hell, and, consequently, abominable, any one may understand from the fact that divers semen is mingled in the womb of one woman. In a man's semen lies the inmost of man's life, and thence the commencement of a new life; it is holy from this fact. To make this common with the inmost initiaments of others, as is done in adulteries, is profane. Hence it is that adultery is hell, and that hell in general is called adultery. Because from such mingling nothing but putridity - also from the spiritual origin - can exist, it follows that adultery is abominable.

[3] Thence in the brothels in hell there appear foul things of every kind; and when light from heaven is let into them, adulteresses with adulterers are beheld like swine, lying in their own filth; and what is wonderful, they, like swine, are in their delights whilst in the midst of filth. But those brothels are kept closed, because when opened, a stench is exhaled that excites vomiting. It is different in chaste marriages. In these the life of the man, by means of the seed, adds itself to the life of the wife, whence comes the intimate union from which they are not two but become one flesh. And according to such union conjugial love increases, and with it every good of heaven.