by Extracted from the Apocalypse Explained Contents    I. How Spiritual Life is Acquired   II. Goods of Charity  III. Shunning Evils   IV. Cleansing the Inside    V. What Religion Consists In    I. The First Commandment   II. The Second Commandment  III. The Third Commandment   IV. The Fourth Commandment    V. The Fifth Commandment   VI. The Sixth Commandment  VII. The Seventh Commandment VIII. The Eighth Commandment   IX. The Ninth and Tenth Commandments    X. The Commandments in General    I.

I. How Spiritual Life is Acquired Spiritual life is acquired solely by a life according to the commandments in the Word. These commandments are given in summary in the Decalogue, namely, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet the goods of others. These commandments are the commandments that are to be done, for when a man does these his works are good and his life is spiritual, and for the reason that so f

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 himsel

I. Goods and Truths and Their Opposites The Divine good that goes forth from the Lord is united with His Divine truth, as heat from the sun is with light in the time of spring. But angels, who are recipients of the Divine good and Divine truth going forth from the Lord, are distinguished as celestial and spiritual. Those who receive more of the Lord's Divine good than of His Divine truth are called celestial angels; because these constitute the kingdom of the Lord that is called the celestial ki

I. The Holiness of the Word It was said of old that the Word is from God, Divinely inspired, and thus holy; and yet it has not been known heretofore where in the Word the Divine is. For the Word appears in the letter like a common writing in a foreign style, and a style not so sublime or so lucid as appears in the writings of the present ages. For this reason a man who worships nature more than God, or in place of God, and thus thinks from himself and what is his own (proprium), and not from the