146. It should be known, however, that conjugial love does not become entirely chaste or pure in people, not even in angels. There is still something not chaste or not pure, which attaches and appends itself to the love. Nevertheless, this element is different in nature from unchasteness. For in the kind of people referred to here [who are becoming spiritual from the Lord], chastity exists above and a lack of chastity below, and between the two qualities the Lord puts a door, so to speak, with a hinge. This door is opened by conscious decision, but the Lord provides that it not stand open so as to allow the one quality to pass through to the other and become mixed together with it. For the natural character of a person is, from birth, contaminated and filled with evil qualities, while his spiritual character is not so, since his spiritual character has its birth from the Lord, this birth being regeneration. And regeneration is a gradual separation from the evil qualities which attach by birth to his inclinations. As seen above in no. 71, no love in people or angels is entirely pure, nor can it become so. But the Lord regards primarily the objective, purpose or intention of the will, and therefore to the extent that a person has the objective, purpose or intention and perseveres in them, to that extent he is introduced into purity and progressively draws nearer to it.