Part 2 (1/2)
II. The Second Commandment
The second commandment is, ”Thou shalt not profane the name of G.o.d.”
In the first place, what is meant by ”the name of G.o.d” shall be told, and afterward what is meant by ”profaning” it. ”The name of G.o.d” means every quality by which G.o.d is wors.h.i.+pped. For G.o.d is in His own quality, and is His own quality. His essence is Divine love, and His quality is Divine truth therefrom united with Divine good; thus with us on earth it is the Word; consequently it is said in John:
”The Word was with G.o.d, and the Word was G.o.d” (i. 1).
So, too, it is the doctrine of genuine truth and good from the Word; for wors.h.i.+p is according to that.
Now as His quality is manifold, for it comprises all things that are from Him, so He has many names; and each name involves and expresses His quality in general and in particular. He is called ”Jehovah,” ”Jehovah of Hosts,” ”Lord,” ”Lord Jehovah,” ”G.o.d,” ”Messiah (or Christ),”
”Jesus,” ”Saviour,” ”Redeemer,” ”Creator,” ”Former,” ”Maker,” ”King,”
and ”the Holy One of Israel,” ”the Rock” and ”the Stone of Israel,”
”s.h.i.+loh,” ”Almighty,” ”David,” ”Prophet,” ”Son of G.o.d,” and ”Son of Man,” and so on. All these names are names of the one G.o.d, who is the Lord; and yet where they occur in the Word they signify some universal Divine attribute or quality distinct from other Divine attributes or qualities. So, too, where He is called ”Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,”
three are not meant, but one G.o.d; that is, there are not three Divines, but one; and this trine which is one is the Lord.
Since each name signifies some distinct attribute or quality, ”to profane the name of G.o.d” does not mean to profane His name itself but His quality. ”Name” signifies quality for the reason that in heaven everyone is named according to his quality; and the quality of G.o.d or the Lord is everything that is from Him by which He is wors.h.i.+pped. For this reason, since no Divine quality of the Lord is acknowledged in h.e.l.l the Lord cannot be named there; and in the spiritual world His names cannot be uttered by anyone except so far as His Divine is acknowledged; for there all speak from the heart, thus from love and consequent acknowledgment. (A.E., n. 959.)
Since ”the name of G.o.d” means that which is from G.o.d and which is G.o.d, and this is called Divine truth, and with us the Word, this must not be profaned, because it is in itself Divine and most holy; and it is profaned when its holiness is denied, which is done when it is despised, rejected, and treated contemptuously. When this is done heaven is closed and man is left to h.e.l.l. For as the Word is the only medium of conjunction of heaven with the church, so when the Word is cast out of the heart that conjunction is dissolved; and because man is then left to h.e.l.l he no longer acknowledges any truth of the church.
There are two things by which heaven is closed to the men of the church.
One is a denial of the Lord's Divine, and the other is a denial of the holiness of the Word; and for this reason, that the Lord's Divine is the all of heaven; and Divine truth, which is the Word in the spiritual sense, is what makes heaven; which makes clear that he who denies the one or the other denies that which is the all of heaven and from which heaven is and exists, and thus deprives himself of communication and consequent conjunction with heaven. To profane the Word is the same as ”blaspheming the Holy Spirit,” which is not forgiven to anyone, consequently it is said in this commandment that he who profanes the name of G.o.d shall not be left unpunished. (A.E., n. 960.)
As Divine truth or the Word is meant by ”the name of G.o.d,” and the profanation of it means a denial of its holiness, and thus contempt, rejection, and blasphemy, it follows that the name of G.o.d is interiorly profaned by a life contrary to the commandments of the Decalogue. For there can be a profanation that is inner and not outer, and there can be a profanation that is inner and at the same time outer, and there can be also a kind of profanation that is outer and not at the same time inner.
Inner profanation is wrought by the life, outer by the speech. Inner profanation, which is wrought by the life, becomes outer also, or of the speech, after death. For then everyone thinks and wills, and so far as it can be permitted, speaks and acts, according to his life; thus not as he did in the world. In the world man is wont [accustomed], for the world's sake and to gain reputation, to speak and act otherwise than as he thinks and wills from his life. This is why it has been said that there can be a profanation that is inner and not at the same time outer.
That there can be also a kind of profanation that is outer and not at the same time inner is possible from the style of the Word, which is not at all the style of the world, and for this reason it may be to some extent despised from an ignorance of its interior sanct.i.ty. (A.E., n.
962.)
He who abstains from profaning the name of G.o.d, that is, the holiness of the Word, by contempt, rejection, or any blasphemy, has religion; and such as his abstinence is such is his religion. For no one has religion except from revelation, and with us revelation is the Word. Abstinence from profaning the holiness of the Word must be from the heart, and not merely from the mouth. Those who abstain from the heart live from religion; but those who abstain merely from the mouth do not live from religion, for they abstain either for the sake of self or for the sake of the world, in that the Word can be made to serve them as a means of acquiring honor and gain; or they abstain from some fear. But of these many are hypocrites who have no religion. (A.E., n. 963.)
III. The Third Commandment
The third commandment is, to keep the Sabbath holy.
The third and fourth commandments of the Decalogue contain things that must be done, namely, that the Sabbath must be kept holy, and that parents must be honored. The other commandments contain things that are not to be done, namely, that other G.o.ds must not be wors.h.i.+pped; that the name of G.o.d must not be profaned; that one must not steal, must not commit adultery, must not bear false witness, must not covet the goods of others. These two commandments are commandments to be done because the sanctification of the rest of the commandments depends upon these, for the ”Sabbath” signifies the union in the Lord of the Divine itself and the Divine Human, also His conjunction with heaven and the church, and thus the marriage of good and truth in the man who is being regenerated. This being the signification of the Sabbath, it was the chief representative of all things of wors.h.i.+p in the Israelitish Church, as is evident in Jeremiah (xvii. 20-27), and elsewhere. It was the chief representative of all things of wors.h.i.+p, because the first thing in all things of wors.h.i.+p is the acknowledgment of the Divine in the Lord's Human, for without that acknowledgment man can believe and do only from self, and to believe from self is to believe falsities, and to do from self is to do evils, as is also evident from the Lord's words in John:
To those asking, ”What shall we do that we might work the works of G.o.d?”
Jesus said, ”This is the work of G.o.d, that ye believe on Him whom G.o.d hath sent” (vi. 28, 29).
And in the same,
”He that abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for apart from Me ye can do nothing” (xv. 5).
That the Sabbath represented that union and the holy acknowledgment of it, has been fully shown in the Arcana Coelestia, namely, that the ”Sabbath” signified in the highest sense the union of the Divine itself and the Divine Human in the Lord, in the internal sense the conjunction of the Lord's Human with heaven and with the church, in general the conjunction of good and truth, thus the heavenly marriage (n. 8495, 10356, 10730). Therefore the rest on the Sabbath day signified the state of that union, because the Lord then has rest; also through that union there is peace and salvation in the heavens and on the earth. In a relative sense it signified the conjunction of man with the Lord, because man then has peace and salvation (n. 8494, 8510, 10360, 10367, 10370, 10374, 10668, 10730). The six days preceding the Sabbath signified the labors and combats that precede union and conjunction (n.
8510, 8888, 9431, 10360, 10667). The man who is being regenerated is in two states, the first when he is in truths and by means of truths is being led to good and into good, the other when he is in good. When man is in the first state he is in combats or temptations; but when he is in the second state he is in the tranquillity of peace. The former state is signified by the six days of labor that precede the Sabbath; and the latter state is signified by the rest on the Sabbath day (n. 9274, 9431, 10360). The Lord also was in two states: the first when He was Divine truth and from it fought against the h.e.l.ls and subjugated them, the other when He was made Divine good by union with the very Divine in Himself. The former state was signified in the highest sense by the six days of labor, and the latter by the Sabbath (n. 10360). Because such things were represented by the Sabbath, it was the chief representative of wors.h.i.+p, and the holiest of all (n. 10357, 10372). ”To do work on the Sabbath day” signified to be led not by the Lord but by self, thus to be disjoined (n. 7893, 8495, 10360, 10362, 10365). The Sabbath day is not now representative, but is a day of instruction (n. 10360 at the end). (A.E., n. 965.)
IV. The Fourth Commandment
The fourth commandment of the Decalogue is that parents must be honored.
This commandment was given because honor to parents represented and thus signified love to the Lord and love toward the church, for ”father” in the heavenly sense, that is, the Heavenly Father, is the Lord; and ”mother” in the heavenly sense, that is, the heavenly mother, is the church; ”honor” signifies good of love; and ”length of days,” which such will have, signifies the happiness of eternal life. So is this commandment understood in heaven, where no father but the Lord is known, and no mother but the kingdom of the Lord, which is also the church.