The ninth commandment, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house," is
now to be treated of. There are two loves from which all lusts spring
and flow forth perpetually like streams from their fountains. These
loves are called love of the world and love of self. Lust is a love
continually desiring, for what a man loves, that he continually longs
for. But lusts 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 lusts, and all evil lusts are forbidden in
these last two commandments, it follows that the ninth commandment
forbids the lusts that flow from love of the world, and the tenth
commandment the lusts 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 lust 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 ass." These are lusts after what is man's own, because the wife,
man-servant, maid-servant, ox, and ass, 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 ass" 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 lusting after these affections means the lusts
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 lust of the ninth commandment is a
lust of the love of the world, and that the lusts of the tenth
commandment are lusts of the love of self. For, as has been said
before, all lusts are of love, for it is love that covets; and as there
are two evil loves to which all lusts have reference, namely, love of
the world and love of self, it follows that the lust of the ninth
commandments has reference to love of the world, and the lust of this
commandment to love of self, especially to the love of ruling. (A.E.,
n. 1022.)