Part 5 (1/2)
From what has been said above it can be seen that all who are in evils in respect to life, and in the falsities therefrom, are murderers; for they are enemies and haters of good and truth, since evil hates good and falsity hates truth. The evil man does not know he is in such hatred until he becomes a spirit; then hatred is the very delight of his life.
Consequently from h.e.l.l, where all the evil are, there constantly breathes forth a delight in doing evil from hatred; while from heaven, where all the good are, there constantly breathes forth a delight in doing good from love. Therefore two opposite spheres meet each other in the middle region between heaven and h.e.l.l, and engage in reciprocal combat. While man lives in the world he is in this middle region. If he is then in evil and in falsities therefrom he pa.s.ses over to the side of h.e.l.l, and thus comes into a delight in doing evil from hatred. But if he is in good and in truths therefrom, he pa.s.ses over to the side of heaven, and thus comes into a delight in doing good from love.
The delight in doing evil from hatred, which breathes forth from h.e.l.l, is a delight in killing. But as they cannot kill the body they wish to kill the spirit; and to kill the spirit is to take away spiritual life, which is the life of heaven. This makes clear that the commandment, ”Thou shalt not kill,” involves also thou shalt not hate thy neighbor, also thou shalt not hate the good of the church and its truth; for if one hates good and truth he hates the neighbor; and to hate is to wish to kill. This is why the devil, by whom h.e.l.l in the whole complex is meant, is called by the Lord,
”A murderer from the beginning” (John viii, 44).
Since hatred, which is a desire to kill, is the opposite of love to the Lord and also of love toward the neighbor, and since these loves are what make heaven in man, it is evident that hatred, being thus opposite, is what makes h.e.l.l in him. Nor is infernal fire anything else than hatred; and in consequence the h.e.l.ls appear to be in a fire with a dusky glow according to the quality and quant.i.ty of the hatred, and in a fire with a dusky flame according to the quant.i.ty and quality of the revenge from hatred.
Since hatred and love are direct opposites, and since hatred in consequence const.i.tutes h.e.l.l in man, just as love const.i.tutes heaven in him, so the Lord teaches,
”If thou shalt offer thy gift upon the altar, and shalt there remember that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go; first be reconciled to they brother, and then coming offer thy gift. Be well disposed toward thine adversary whiles thou art in the way with him; lest haply the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Verily, I say unto thee, Thou shalt not come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing” (Matt. v. 23-26).
To be delivered to the judge, and by the judge to the officer, and by him to be cast into prison, depicts the state of the man who is in hatred after death from his having been in hatred against his brother in the world, ”prison” meaning h.e.l.l, and ”paying the uttermost farthing”
signifying the punishment that is called the fire everlasting. (A.E., n. 1015.)
Since hatred is infernal fire it is clear that it must be put away before love, which is heavenly fire, can flow in, and by light from itself give life to man; and this infernal fire can in no wise be put away unless man knows whence hatred is and what it is, and afterward turns away from it and shuns it. There is in every man by inheritance a hatred against the neighbor; for every man is born into a love of self and of the world, and in consequence conceives hatred, and from it is inflamed against all who do not make one with him and favor his love, especially against those who oppose his l.u.s.ts. For no one can love himself above all things and love the Lord at the same time; neither can anyone love the world above all things and love the neighbor at the same time; since no one can serve two masters at the same time without despising and hating the one while he honors and loves the other.
Hatred is especially in those who are in a love of ruling over all; with others it is unfriendliness.
It shall be told what hatred is. Hatred has in itself a fire which is an endeavor to kill man. That fire is manifested in anger. There is a seeming hatred and consequent anger in the good against evil; but this is not hatred, but an aversion to evil; neither is it anger, but a zeal for good in which heavenly fire inwardly lies concealed. For the good turn away from what is evil, and are seemingly angry at the neighbor, in order that they may remove the evil; and thus they have regard to the neighbor's good. (A.E., n. 1016.)
When a man abstains from hatred and turns away from it and shuns it as devilish, love, charity, mercy, clemency flow in through heaven from the Lord, and then for the first time the works that he does are works of love and charity; while the works he had done before, however good might be their appearance in the external form, were all works of love of self and of the world, in which hatred lurked whenever they were not rewarded. So long as hatred is not put away so long man is merely natural; and the merely natural man remains in all his inherited evil, nor can he become spiritual until hatred, with its root, which is love of ruling over all, is put away; for the fire of heaven, which is spiritual love, cannot flow in so long as the fire of h.e.l.l, which is hatred, stands in the way and shuts it out. (A.E., n. 1017.)
VIII. The Eighth Commandment
The eighth commandment of the Decalogue, ”Thou shalt not bear false witness,” shall now be explained. ”To bear false witness” signifies in the sense nearest to the letter to lie about the neighbor by accusing him falsely. But in the internal sense it signifies to call what is just unjust, and what is unjust just, and to confirm this by means of falsities; while in the inmost sense it signifies to falsity the truth and good of the Word, and on the other hand to prove a falsity of doctrine to be true by confirming it by means of fallacies, appearances, fabrications, knowledges falsely applied, sophistries, and the like.
The confirmations themselves and the consequent persuasions are false witnesses, for they are false attestations.
From this it can be seen that what is here meant is not only false witness before a judge, but even a judge himself who in perverting right makes what is just unjust, and what is unjust just, for he as well as the witness himself acts the part of a false witness. The same is true of every man who makes what is straight to appear crooked, and what is crooked to appear straight; likewise any ecclesiastical leader who falsifies the truth of the Word and perverts its good. In a word, every falsification of truth, spiritual, moral, and civil, which is done from an evil heart, is false witness. (A.E., n. 1019.)
When a man abstains from false testimonies understood in a moral and spiritual sense, and shuns and turns away from them as sins, a love of truth and a love of justice flow in from the Lord through heaven. And when, in consequence, the man loves truth and loves justice he loves the Lord, for the Lord is truth itself and justice itself. And when a man loves truth and justice it may be said that truth and justice love him, because the Lord loves him; and as a consequence his utterances become utterances of truth, and his works become works of justice. (A.E., n.
1020.)
IX: The Ninth and Tenth Commandments
The ninth commandment, ”Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house,” is now to be treated of. There are two loves from which all l.u.s.ts spring and flow forth perpetually like streams from their fountains. These loves are called love of the world and love of self. l.u.s.t is a love continually desiring, for what a man loves, that he continually longs for. But l.u.s.ts belong to the love of evil, while desires and affections belong to the love of good. Now because love of the world and love of self are the fountains of all l.u.s.ts, and all evil l.u.s.ts are forbidden in these last two commandments, it follows that the ninth commandment forbids the l.u.s.ts that flow from love of the world, and the tenth commandment the l.u.s.ts that flow from love of self. ”Not to covet a neighbor's house” means not to covet his goods, which in general are possessions of wealth, and not to appropriate them to oneself by evil arts. This l.u.s.t belongs to love of the world. (A.E., n. 1021.)
The tenth commandment is ”Thou shalt not covet (or try to get possession of) thy neighbor's wife, his man-servant, or his maid-servant, his ox, or his a.s.s.” These are l.u.s.ts after what is man's own, because the wife, man-servant, maid-servant, ox, and a.s.s, are within his home, and the things within a man's home mean in the spiritual internal sense the things that are his own, that is, the wife means affection for spiritual truth and good, ”man-servant and maid-servant,” affection for rational truth and good serving the spiritual, and ”ox and a.s.s” affection for natural good and truth. These signify in the Word such affections; but because coveting and trying to get possession of these affections means to wish and eagerly desire to subject a man to one's own authority or bidding, it follows that l.u.s.ting after these affections means the l.u.s.ts of the love of self, that is, of the love of ruling, for thus does one make the things belonging to a companion to be his own.
From this it can now be seen that the l.u.s.t of the ninth commandment is a l.u.s.t of the love of the world, and that the l.u.s.ts of the tenth commandment are l.u.s.ts of the love of self. For, as has been said before, all l.u.s.ts are of love, for it is love that covets; and as there are two evil loves to which all l.u.s.ts have reference, namely, love of the world and love of self, it follows that the l.u.s.t of the ninth commandments has reference to love of the world, and the l.u.s.t of this commandment to love of self, especially to the love of ruling. (A.E., n. 1022.)
X. The Commandments in General
The commandments of the Decalogue are called the ten words or ten commandments, because ”ten” signifies all; consequently the ten words mean all things of the Word, and thus all things of the church in brief.
All things of the Word and all things of the church in brief are meant, because there are in each commandment three interior senses, each sense for its own heaven, for there are three heavens. The first sense is the spiritual moral sense; this is for the first or outmost heaven; the second sense is the celestial spiritual sense, which is for the second or middle heaven; and the third sense is the Divine celestial, which is for the third or inmost heaven. There are thus three internal senses in every least particular of the Word. For from the Lord, who is in things highest, the Word has been sent down in succession through the three heavens even to the earth, and thus has been accommodated to each heaven; and therefore the Word is in each heaven and I may say in each angel in its own sense, and is read by them daily; and there are preachings from it, as on the earth.
For the Word is Divine truth itself, thus Divine wisdom, going forth from the Lord as a sun, and appearing in the heavens as light. Divine truth is the Divine that is called the Holy Spirit, for it not only goes forth from the Lord but it also enlightens man and teaches him, as is said of the Holy Spirit. As the Word in its descent from the Lord has been adapted to the three heavens, and the three heavens are joined together as inmosts are with outmosts through intermediates, so, too, are the three senses of the Word; which shows that the Word is given that by it there may be a conjunction of the heavens with each other, and a conjunction of the heavens with the human race, for whom the sense of the letter is given, which is merely natural and thus the basis of the other three senses. That the ten commandments of the Decalogue are all things of the Word in brief can be seen only from the three senses of those commandments, which are as above stated. (A.E., n. 1024).
What these three senses in the commandments of the Decalogue are can be seen from the following summary explanation. The first commandment, ”Thou shalt not wors.h.i.+p other G.o.ds beside Me,” involves in the spiritual moral sense that nothing else nor anyone else is to be wors.h.i.+pped as Divine; nothing else, that is, Nature, by attributing to it something Divine of itself; nor anyone else, that is, any vicar of the Lord or any saint. In the celestial spiritual sense it involves that one G.o.d only is to be acknowledged, and not several according to their qualities, as the ancients did, and as some heathens do at this day, or according to their works, as Christians do at this day, who make out one G.o.d because of creation, another because of redemption, and another because of enlightenment.