The fifth commandment is, "Thou shalt not steal." By "thefts" both open
thefts and those not open are meant, such as unlawful usury and gains,
which are effected by fraud and craft under various pretenses to make
them appear lawful, or so done clandestinely as not to appear at all.
Such gains are commonly made by higher and lower managers of the goods
of others, by merchants, also by judges who sell judgments and thus make
justice purchasable. These and many other things are thefts that must
be abstained from and shunned, and finally renounced as sins against
God, because they are against the Divine laws that are in the Word and
against this law, which is one among the fundamental laws of all
religions in the whole globe. For these ten commandments are
universals, given to the end that in living from these a man may live
from religion, since by a life from religion man is conjoined with
heaven, while a life according to these from obedience to civil and
moral law conjoins man with the world and not with heaven, and to be
conjoined with the world and not with heaven is to conjoined with hell.
(A.E., n. 967.)
Man is so created as to be an image of heaven and an image of the world,
for he is a microcosm. He is born of his parents an image of the world,
and he is born again to be an image of heaven. To be born again is to
be regenerated; and man is regenerated by the Lord by means of truths
from the Word and a life according to them. Man is an image of the
world in respect to his natural mind, and he is an image of heaven in
respect to his spiritual mind. The natural mind, which is the world, is
beneath; and the spiritual mind, which is heaven, is above. The natural
mind is full of all kinds of evil, such as thefts, adulteries, murders,
false witnesses, covetousnesses, and even blasphemies and profanations
respecting God. These evils and many others have their seat in that
mind, for the loves of them are there, and thus the delights of
thinking, willing, and doing them.
These things are inborn in that mind from parents, for man is born and
grows up into the things that are in that mind, and is restrained only
by the bonds of civil law and by the bonds of moral life from doing
them, and from thus manifesting the tendencies of his depraved will.
Who cannot see that the Lord cannot flow in out of heaven into man and
teach him and lead him until these evils have been removed? For they
obstruct, repel, pervert, and suffocate the truths and goods of heaven,
which present themselves from above, press down, and strive to flow in.
For evils are infernal and goods are heavenly, and everything infernal
burns with hatred against everything heavenly.
This makes clear that before the Lord can flow in with heaven out of
heaven and form man to the image of heaven, those evils that lie heaped
up in the natural mind must needs be removed. Moreover, as the removal
of evils must come first before man can be taught and led by the Lord,
the reason is evident why in eight commandments of the Decalogue the
evil works that must not be done are recounted, but not the good works
that must be done. Good does not exist together with evil, nor does it
exist until evils have been removed; for until then there is no way
possible from heaven into man. Man is like a dark sea, the waters of
which must be removed on either side before the Lord in a cloud and in
fire can give a passage to the sons of Israel. The "dark sea" signifies
hell, "Pharaoh with the Egyptians" the natural man, and "the sons of
Israel" the spiritual man. (A.E., n. 969.)
Communication with heaven is not possible until the evils and the
falsities therefrom with which the natural mind is stopped up have been
removed; for these are like black clouds between the sun and the eye, or
like a wall between the light of heaven and the lumen of a candle in a
chamber. For so long as a man is in the lumen of the natural man only he
is like one shut up in a chamber where he sees by a candle. But as soon
as the natural man has been purified from evils and falsities therefrom
he is as if he saw through windows in the wall the things of heaven from
the light of heaven. For as soon as evils have been removed, the higher
mind, which is called the spiritual mind, is opened, and this, viewed in
itself, is a type or image of heaven. Through this mind the Lord flows
in and enables man to see from the light of heaven, and through this He
also reforms and at length regenerates the natural man, and implants in
it truths in the place of falsities and goods in the place of evils.
This the Lord does through spiritual love, which is a love for truth and
good. Man is then placed in the midst between two loves, between the
love of evil and the love of good; and when the love of evil recedes the
love of good takes its place. The love of evil recedes solely through a
life according to the commandments of the Decalogue, that is, through
refraining from evils there enumerated because they are sins, and
finally shunning them as infernal.
In a word, so long as man does not refrain from evils because they are
sins the spiritual mind is shut; but as soon as he refrains from evils
because they are sins the spiritual mind is opened, and with that mind
heaven also. And when heaven is opened man comes into another light in
respect to all things of the church, heaven, and eternal life; although
so long as man lives in this world the difference between this and the
former light is scarcely noticeable, and for the reason that in the
world man thinks naturally even about spiritual things, and until he
passes from the natural into the spiritual world spiritual things are
enclosed in natural ideas; but in the spiritual world spiritual things
are disclosed, perceived, and made evident. (A.E., n. 970.)
So far as man refrains from evils and shuns and turns away from them as
sins, good flows in from the Lord. The good that flows in is an
affection for knowing and understanding truths, and an affection for
willing and doing goods. But man cannot refrain from evils by shunning
and turning away from them of himself, for he himself is in evils from
his birth, and thus from nature; and evils cannot of themselves shun
evils, for this would be like a man's shunning his own nature, which is
impossible; consequently it must be the Lord, who is Divine good and
Divine truth, who causes man to shun them.
Nevertheless, man ought to shun evils as if of himself, for what a man
does as if of himself becomes his and is appropriated to him as his own;
while what he does not as if of himself in no wise becomes his or is
appropriated to him. What comes from the Lord to man must be received by
man; and it cannot be received unless he is conscious of it that is, as
if of himself. This reciprocation is a necessity to reformation.
This is why the ten commandments were given, and why it is commanded in
them that man shall not worship other gods, shall not profane the name
of God, shall not steal, shall not commit adultery, shall not kill,
shall not covet the house, wife, or servants of another, thus that man
shall refrain from doing these things by thinking, when the love of evil
allures and incites, that they must not be done because they are sins
against God, and in themselves are infernal. So far, therefore, as a
man shuns these evils so far the love of truth and good enters from the
Lord; and this love causes man to shun these evils, and at length to
turn away from them as sins. And as the love of truth and good puts
these evils to flight it follows that man shuns them not from himself
but from the Lord, since the love of truth and good is from the Lord.
If a man shuns evils merely from a fear of hell they are withdrawn; but
goods do not take their place; for as soon as the fear departs the evils
return.
To man alone is it granted to think as if of himself about good and
evil, that is, that good must be loved and done because it is Divine and
remains to eternity, and that evil must be hated and not done because it
is devilish and remains to eternity. To think thus is not granted to
any beast. A beast can do good and shun evil, yet not of itself, but
either from instinct or habit or fear, and never from the thought that
such a thing is a good or an evil, thus not of itself. Consequently,
one who would have it believed that man shuns evils or does goods not as
if of himself but from an imperceptible influx, or from the imputation
of the Lord's merit, would also have it believed that man lives like a
beast, without thought of, or perception of, or affection for, truth and
good.
That this is so has been made clear to me from manifold experience in
the spiritual world. Every man after death is there prepared either for
heaven or for hell. From the man who is prepared for heaven evils are
removed, and from the man who is prepared for hell goods are removed;
and all such removals are effected as if by them. Likewise those who do
evils are driven by punishments to reject them as if of themselves; but
if they do not reject them as if of themselves the punishments are of no
avail. By this it was made clear that those who hang down their hands,
waiting for influx or for the imputation of the Lord's merit, continue
in the state of their evil and hang down their hands forever.
To shun evils as sins is to shun the infernal societies that are in
them, and man cannot shun these unless he repels them and turns away
from them; and a man cannot turn away from them with repulsion unless he
loves good and from that love does not will evil. For a man must either
will evil or will good; and so far as he wills good he does not will
evil; and it is granted him to will good when he makes the commandments
of the Decalogue to be of his religion, and lives according to them.
Since man must refrain from evils as sins as if of himself, these ten
commandments were inscribed by the Lord on two tables, and these were
called a covenant; and this covenant was entered into in the same way as
it is usual to enter into covenants between two, that is, one proposes
and the other accepts, and the one who accepts consents. If he does not
consent the covenant is not established. To consent to this covenant is
to think, will, and do as if of oneself. Man's thinking to shun evil
and to do good as if of himself is done not by man, but by the Lord.
This is done by the Lord for the sake of reciprocation and consequent
conjunction; for the Lord's Divine love is such that it wills that what
is its own shall be man's, and as these things cannot be man's, because
they are Divine, it makes them to be as if they were man's. In this way
reciprocal conjunction is effected, that is, that man is in the Lord and
the Lord in man, according to the words of the Lord Himself in John
(xiv. 20); for this would not be possible if there were not in the
conjunction something belonging as it were to man. What man does as if
of himself he does as if of his will, of his affection, of his freedom,
consequently of his life. Unless these were present on man's part as if
they were his there could be no receptivity, because nothing reactive,
thus no covenant and no conjunction; in fact, no ground whatever for the
imputation that man had done evil or good or had believed truth or
falsity, thus that there is from merit a hell for anyone because of evil
works, or from grace a heaven for anyone because of good works. (A.E.,
n. 971.)
He who refrains from thefts, understood in a broad sense, and even shuns
them from any other cause than religion and for the sake of eternal
life, is not cleansed of them; for only by such refraining is heaven
opened. For it is through heaven that the Lord removes evils in man, as
through heaven He removes the hells. For example, there are higher and
lower managers of property, merchants, judges, officers of every kind,
and workmen, who refrain from thefts, that is, from unlawful modes of
gain and usury, and who shun these, but only to secure reputation and
thus honor and gain, and because of civil and moral laws, in a word,
from some natural love or natural fear, thus from merely external
constraints, and not from religion; but the interiors of such are full
of thefts and robberies, and these burst forth when external constraints
are removed from them, as takes place with everyone after death. Their
sincerity and rectitude is nothing but a mask, a disguise, and a deceit.
(A.E., n. 972.)
So far then as the various kinds and species of theft are removed, and
the more they are removed, the kinds and species of goods to which they
by opposition correspond enter and occupy their place; and these have
reference in general to what is sincere, right and just. For when a man
shuns and turns away from unlawful gains through fraud and craft he so
far wills what is sincere, right, and just, and at length begins to love
what is sincere because it is sincere, what is right because it is
right, and what is just because it is just. He begins to love these
things because they are from the Lord, and the love of the Lord is in
them. For to love the Lord is not to love the person, but to love the
things that go forth from the Lord, for these are the Lord in man; thus
it is to love sincerity itself, right itself, and justice itself. And
as these are the Lord, so far as a man loves these, and thus acts from
them, so far he acts from the Lord and so far the Lord removes
insincerity and injustice in respect to the very intentions and
volitions in which they have their roots, and always with less
resistance and struggle, and therefore with less effort than in the
first attempts. Thus it is that man thinks from conscience and acts
from integrity,--not the man of himself but as if of himself; for he
then acknowledges from faith and also from perception that it seems as
if he thought and did these things from himself, and yet he does them
not from himself but from the Lord. (A.E., n. 973.)
When a man begins to shun and turn away from evils because they are sins
all things that he does are good, and may be called good works; with a
difference according to the excellence of the use. For what a man does
before he shuns and turns away from evils as sins are works done by the
man himself; and as the man's own (proprium), which is nothing but evil,
is in these, and they are done for the sake of the world, so they are
evil works. But the works that a man does after he shuns and turns away
from evils as sins are works from the Lord, and because the Lord is in
these and heaven with Him they are good works.
The difference between works done by man and works done by the Lord in
man is not apparent to man's vision, but is clearly evident to the
vision of angels. Works done by man are like sepulchers outwardly
whitened, which within are full of dead men's bones. They are like
platters and cups outwardly clean, but containing unclean things of
every kind. They are like fruits inwardly rotten, but with the outer
skin still shining; or like nuts and almonds eaten by worms within,
while the shell remains untouched; or like a foul harlot with a fair
face. Such are the good works done by man himself, since however good
they appear on the outside, within they are full of impurities of every
kind; for their interiors are infernal, while their exteriors appear
heavenly.
But as soon as man shuns and turns away from evils as sins his works
are good not only outwardly but inwardly also; and the more interior
they are the more they are good, for the more interior they are the
nearer they are to the Lord. Then they are like fruits that have a
fine-flavored pulp, in the center of which are depositories with many
seeds, from which new trees, even to whole gardens, may be produced;
but everything and all things in his natural man are like eggs from
which swarms of flying creatures may be produced, and gradually fill a
great part of heaven. In a word, when man shuns and turns away from
evils as sins the works that he does are living works, while those that
he did before were dead works; for what is from the Lord is living but
what is from man is dead. (A.E., n. 974.)
It has been said that so far as a man shuns and turns away from evils as
sins he does goods, and that the goods that he does are such good works
as are described in the Word, for the reason that they are done in the
Lord; also that these works are good so far as man turns away from the
evils opposed to them, because so far they are done by the Lord and not
by man. Nevertheless, works are more or less good according to the
excellence of the use; for works must be uses. The best are those that
are done for the sake of uses to the church. Next in point of goodness
come those that are done as uses to one's country; and so on, the uses
determining the goodness of the works.
The goodness of works increases in man according to the fullness of
truths from affection for which they are done; since the man who turns
away from evils as sins wishes to know truths because truths teach uses
and the quality of their good. This is why good loves truth and truth
loves good, and they wish to be conjoined. So far, therefore, as such a
man learns truths from an affection for them so far he does goods more
wisely and more fully, more wisely because he knows how to distinguish
uses and to do them with judgment and justice, and more fully because
all truths are present in the performance of uses, and form the
spiritual sphere that the affection for them produces. (A.E., n. 975.)
Take judges for an example: All who make justice venal [purchasable] by
loving the office of judging for the sake of gain from judgments, and
not for the sake of uses to their country, are thieves, and their
judgments are thefts. It is the same if judgments are given according to
friendship or favor, for friendships and favors are also profits and
gains. When these are the end and judgments are the means, all things
that are done are evil, and are what are meant in the Word by "evil
works" and "not doing judgment and justice, perverting the right of the
poor, of the needy, of the fatherless, of the widow, and of the
innocent." And when such do justice, and yet regard profit as the end
while they do a good work, to them it is not good; for justice, which is
Divine, is to them a means, and such gain is the end; and that which is
made the end is everything, while that which is made the means is
nothing except so far as it is serviceable to the end. Consequently,
after death such judges continued to love what is unjust as well as what
is just, and are condemned to hell as thieves. I say this from what I
have seen. These are such as do not abstain from evils because they are
sins, but only because they fear punishments of the civil law and the
loss of reputation, honor, and office, and thus of gain.
It is otherwise with judges who abstain from evils as sins and shun them
because they are contrary to the Divine laws, and thus contrary to God.
Such make justice their end, and they venerate, cherish, and love it as
Divine. In justice they see God, as it were, because everything just,
like everything good and true, is from God. They always join justice
with equity and equity with justice, knowing that justice must be of
equity in order to be justice, and that equity must be of justice in
order to be equity, the same as truth is of good and good is of truth.
As such make justice their end, their giving judgments is doing good
works; yet these works, which are judgments, are to them more or less
good as there is in their judgments more or less of regard for
friendship, favor, or gain; also as there is more or less in them of a
love of what is just for the sake of the public good, which is that
justice may prevail among their fellow citizens, and that those who live
according to the laws may have security. Such judges have eternal life
in a degree that accords with their works; for they are judged as they
themselves have judged. (A.E., n. 976.)
Take as an example managers of the goods of others, higher or lower. If
these secretly by arts or under some pretext by fraud deprive their
kings, their country, or their masters of their goods, they have no
religion and thus no conscience, for they hold the Divine law respecting
theft in contempt and make it of no account. And although they frequent
churches, devoutly listen to preachings, observe the sacrament of the
Supper, pray morning and evening, and talk piously from the Word, yet
nothing from heaven flows in and is present in their worship, piety, or
discourse, since their interiors are full of theft, plundering, robbery,
and injustice; and so long as these are within, the way into them from
heaven is closed; consequently all the works they do are evil works.
But the managers of property who shun unlawful gains and fraudulent
profits because they are contrary to the Divine law respecting theft,
have religion, and thus also conscience; and all the works they do are
good, for they act from sincerity for the sake of sincerity, and from
justice for the sake of justice, and furthermore are content with their
own, and are cheerful in mind and glad in heart whenever it happens that
they have refrained from fraud; and after death they are welcomed by the
angels and received by them as brothers, and are presented with good
things even to abundance. But the opposite is true of evil managers;
these after death are cast out of societies, and afterward seek wages
and finally are sent into the caverns of robbers to labor there. (A.E.,
n. 977.)
Take merchants as an example: All their works are evil works so long as
they do not regard as sins, and thus shun as sins, unlawful gains and
wrongful usury, also fraud and craft; for such works cannot be done from
the Lord, but must be done from man himself. And the more expert they
are in skillfully and artfully contriving devices from within for
overreaching their companions the more evil are their works. And the
more expert they are in bringing such devices into effect under the
pretense of sincerity, justice, and piety, the more evil still are their
works. The more delight a merchant feels in such things the more do his
works have their origin in hell.
But if he acts sincerely and justly in order to acquire reputation, and
wealth through reputation, even so as to seem to act from a love of
sincerity and justice, and yet does not act sincerely and justly from
affection for the Divine law or from obedience to it, he is still
inwardly insincere and unjust, and his works are thefts, for through a
pretense of sincerity and justice he seeks to steal.
That this is so becomes evident after death, when man acts from his
inner will and love, and not from the outer; for then he thinks about
and devises nothing but sharp practices and robberies, and withdraws
himself from those who are sincere, and betakes himself either to
forests or deserts, where he devotes himself to stratagems. In a word,
all such become robbers.
But it is otherwise with merchants who shun as sins thefts of every
kind, especially the more interior and hidden, which are effected by
craft and deceit. All the works of such are good, because they are from
the Lord; for the influx from heaven, that is, through heaven from the
Lord, for accomplishing such works is not intercepted by the evils just
mentioned. To such riches do no harm, because to them riches are means
for uses. Their tradings are the uses by which they serve their country
and their fellow citizens; and through their riches they are in a
condition to perform those uses to which affection for good leads them.
(A.E., n. 978.)
From what has been said above, what is meant in the Word by good works
can now be seen, namely, that they are all works done by man when evils
have been set aside as sins. For the works done after this are done by
man only as if by him; for they are done by the Lord; and all works done
by the Lord are good, and are called goods of life, goods of charity,
and good works; as for instance, all judgments of a judge who has
justice as his end, all who venerates and loves it as Divine, and who
detests as infamous decisions made for the sake of rewards or
friendship, or from favor. Thus he consults the good of his country by
causing justice and judgment to reign therein as in heaven; and thus he
consults the peace of every innocent citizen and protects him from the
violence of evildoers. All these are good works. So all services of
managers and dealings of merchants are good works when they shun
unlawful gains as sins against the Divine laws. When a man shuns evils
as sins he daily learns what a good work is, and an affection for doing
good grows in him, and an affection for knowing truths for the sake of
good; for so far as he knows truths he can perform works more fully and
more wisely, and thus his works become more truly good. Refrain,
therefore, from asking in thyself, "What are the good works that I must
do, or what good must I do to receive eternal life?" Only refrain from
evils as sins and look to the Lord, and the Lord will teach and lead
you. (A.E., n. 979.)