THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE (pt. 67-68)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE
for the
NEW JERUSALEM
FROM THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Emanuel Swedenborg
— Doctrinal Series —
(pt. 67-68)
IN PROPORTION AS ANYONE SHUNS MURDERS OF EVERY KIND AS SINS
IN THE SAME PROPORTION HE HAS LOVE TOWARD THE NEIGHBOR.

"Murders of every kind" include enmity, hatred, and revenge of every kind, which breathe murder, for murder lies hidden in them, like fire in wood underneath the ashes.

• Infernal fire is nothing else, and this is the origin of the expressions to "kindle with hatred," and to "burn with revenge." All these are "murders" in the natural sense.

• But in the spiritual sense "murders" mean all methods of killing and destroying the souls of men, which methods are varied and many.

• And in the highest sense "murder" means to hate the Lord.

These three kinds of "murder" form a one, and cleave together, for he who wills the murder of a man's body in this world, after death wills the murder of his soul, and wills the murder of the Lord, for he burns with anger against Him, and desires to blot out His name.

These kinds of murder lie inwardly hidden in man from his birth, but from early childhood he learns to veil them over with the civic and moral behavior that he is bound to show toward men in the world, and in proportion as he loves honors or gains, he guards against their appearance.

This forms his external, while his internal is these kinds of murder. Such is man in himself.

Now as when he dies he lays aside that external together with his body, and retains the internal, it is evident what a devil he would be unless he were reformed.

(LIFE 67-68)