Fourthly, so far as one shuns adulteries and thus shuns unchaste and filthy thoughts, so far marriage love enters, which is the inmost love of heaven, and in which chastity itself has its seat.

Fifthly, so far as one shuns murders, and thus shuns deadly hatreds and revenges that breathe murder, so far the Lord enters with mercy and love.

Sixthly, so far as one shuns false testimonies, and thus shuns lies and blasphemies, so far truth from the Lord enters.

Seventhly, so far as one shuns a covetousness for the house of others, and thus shuns the love and consequent lusts for possessing the goods of others, so far charity toward the neighbor enters from the Lord.

Eighthly, so far as one shuns a covetousness for the wives of others, their servants, etc., and thus shuns the love and consequent lusts of ruling over others (for the things enumerated in this commandment are what belong to man), so far love to the Lord enters.

These eight commandments include the evils that must be shunned, but the two others, namely, the third and fourth, include certain things that must be done, namely, that the Sabbath must be kept holy, and that parents must be honored.  But how these two commandments should be understood, not by men of the Jewish church but by men of the Christian church, will be told elsewhere. (A.E., n. 949).

Part Second—­THE COMMANDMENTS

I. The First Commandment

“Thou shalt not make to thee other gods” includes not loving self and the world above all things; for that which one loves above all things is his god.  There are two directly opposite loves, love of self and love to God, also love of the world and love of heaven.  He who loves himself loves his own (proprium); and as a man’s own (proprium) is nothing but evil he also loves evil in its whole complex; and he who loves evil hates good, and thus hates God.  He who loves himself above all things sinks his affections and thoughts in the body, and thus in his own (proprium), and from this he cannot be raised up by the Lord; and when one is sunk in the body and in his own (proprium) he is in corporeal ideas and in pleasures that pertain solely to the body, and thus in thick darkness in respect to higher things; while he who is raised up by the Lord is in light.  He who is not in the light of heaven but in thick darkness, since he sees nothing of God, denies God and acknowledges as god either nature or some man, or some idol, and even aspires to be himself worshipped as a god.  From this it follows that he who loves self above all things worships other gods.