Spiritual Life and the Word of God

of the Decalogue, as in all things of the Word, two internal senses are involved (besides the highest which is a third), one that is

him; for thus he would injure or kill his reputation and honor, which is the source of his life among his brethren, which is called his civil life, and afterward he would live in s

lty as if he had destroyed the bodily life of his brother. For enmity, hatred, and revenge breathe murder and will it; but they are restrained and curbed by fear of the law, of resistance and

I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable to the judgment; whosoever shall say to his

his life as the instrumental cause serves its principal cause. Moreover, from this spiritual murder moral murder is derived; consequently he who is in the one is also in the other; for he who wills to take away a man's spiritual life is in hatred against him if he cannot take it away, for he hates the

is the essential murderer or the source of essential murder. It is the source of essential murder because man is man from the Lord throug

the Lord, is evident. For everyone while he lives in the world is in externals; and these externals are taught and trained from infancy to counterfeit such things as are honest and decorous, right and equitable, and good an

that burns with a lust for destroying souls. Moreover, it has been ascertained that this delight is not from hatred against those whom they attempt to destroy, but from hatred against the Lord Himself. And since man is a man from the Lord,

life. Consequently from hell, 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 hell, and engage in reciproc

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

the beginning"

s evident that hatred, being thus opposite, is what makes hell in him. Nor is infernal fire anything else than hatred; and in consequence the hells appear to be in a fire

hatred in consequence constitutes hell in man, just

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 th

the man who is in hatred after death from his having been in hatred against his brother in the world, "prison" meaning

heritance 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 lusts. For no one can love himself above all things and love the Lord a

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

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 inher